Arcadia's Declassified GM Survival Guide: Being Social

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Arcadia

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Greetings everyone! I am Arcadia, a Content Moderator for Iwaku! Today's lesson is how to be a successful GM in regards to the aspect of being social with your playerbase. Here are a few how to tips in order to become the best GM possible!

1] TAGGING: Making sure to tag your players is essential. How are they supposed to find the thread if they aren't tagged? (Unless they have the thread link, but we shall assume they don't) Tagging allows your players to get an instant notification and be able to see your thread as soon as you post it, meaning they get to creating activity within your threads as soon as you post them!

2]INVOLVEMENT: This is both essential AND common sense. If you want to be a good GM, you have to talk to your players. About OOC stuff, and IC stuff, make sure to connect with each and every one of them in order to make them feel like they themselves are involved in your roleplay, and also make friendships with the roleplay's other players! A good GM will frequently mingle with their players.

3]KICK THOSE LURKERS OUT: Inactive players and lurkers are dead weight to your roleplay, and can end up annoying all the players you're trying to inspire. You want your players to be interested in your roleplay, and if a player is completely unresponsive to your attempts to include them in your roleplay, then they should not be in the roleplay, if they don't have an excuse.

4]LARGE GROUP? MAKE A CHATROOM!: Communication is essential within roleplaying, and if you have a large group, you'll need somewhere good to commune where important questions don't get lost amongst throngs of jokes and off-topic nonsense. That's why Skype groups are great! You can be easily contacted by individual players, as well as keeping order within the OOC chat itself!

5]NEW BLOOD IS BEST BLOOD: Don't ever be afraid to recruit. Recruiting helps you get out of player slumps when you're waiting endlessly for players to post, or you need to replace those who are inactive. Recruiting allows fresh blood to be part of the roleplay, and can inspire creativity co-dependently!

6]INTERACTION IS THE BEST ACTION: Interaction between a GM and their players is essential. How are players supposed to know what to do if the GM gives them no guidance? However, player interaction is key also. Make sure to talk to your fellow players. Get character interactions going. Create collaborative posts.

These are examples of all the things you can do to be the most involved GM you can be, and I hope you found this useful!