Hrmmm. Well, normally, the first thing I tell people who need help gaining players is to really
advertise — think about how you'll
market your RP to potential players, you know? But uh… looking at the RP now, I think another large obstacle in your way is that a lot of things seem to be very…
unconventional. o.o I'm not saying your style of RP is
wrong, necessarily, or that you need to change it — it's just that it'll be harder to gain players this way, as a lot of people will probably be turned off by the unfamiliarity of it. o_o
I know you said you were new to forum RPing, so, I'm not sure if the setup you have here is part of your
style, or if you're just not familiar with how things are typically done on this site… if it's more-so the latter, and if these things you have in place aren't
super-important to you, then I have some suggestions (although this will probably be better for future reference than for this particular RP…)
The first thing that stands out to me is the way that you're expecting players to email or Skype you, even just to submit a character sheet. @_@ Many players might just be turned off by the extra amount of effort or even simply the strangeness of it. Normally, it's expected that players can just post CS's and ask questions right on the forum. o.o
Also, what is this?
Are you saying that players have to Skype/email you just to know what the
rules of the RP are? o_o Because that's… odd. I imagine many players will want to be able to see the rules up front before joining.
Not to mention, the whole thing reads like some sort of… legal disclaimer. @_@ Again, I'm not saying that's
bad, but, it certainly feels… strange. And I know I for one will typically turn my nose up at an RP just from seeing that the GM's style feels weird, even if the setup is something I might've enjoyed — and I'm probably not alone in that regard. Just saying that you might want to make things sound a bit more… friendly? And also a bit more "mainstream" in terms of how things are normally done on Iwaku.
Sorry if I sound like I'm tearing your RP apart — I'm not trying to say that your way of running things is
bad, just… unusual, in some areas. So I'm bringing it up in order to A) explain why you'll have a harder time attracting players than the average RP, and B) suggest ways to change things, if you don't mind making some tweaks.
Additionally, your CS skeleton looks
veeery complex… Not a lot of players (myself included) enjoy RP's that are so stat-heavy. But, some players do!! This just means that you really need to focus on advertising to those niche players. We'll talk more on that later.
Next, a few points on presentation:
Your information is
all over the place. Players like being able to look to a single post for everything they need, and they don't like needing to scavenge around a bunch of different posts to find things. Additionally, people also tend to be scared off by blocks of text or badly-organized information.
Instead of splitting up the info into separate posts, I would recommend keeping it all together in a single post. If you didn't have time to post everything in one sitting, then I recommend either A) editing new info onto the OP, instead of making new posts, or B) draft everything out in a Word document to begin with, and then copy it all onto the site once you're finished. At this point, it might be possible to ask a mod to merge the posts together for you.
Next, organization! I can see at least
some organization here, based on the headings you're using for different sections, but I would suggest cleaning it up even more — especially to avoid the long-blocks-of-text look. A great way to organize your OP and make everything look cleaner is to use tabs of some kind — whether it's simply the tab code or spoiler tabs of some kind, both are great ways to condense chunks of text and make it easy for players to find what they need by clicking on relavent headings. (Let me know if you need help using these codes.) The "basic knowledge you should be aware of" section in particular seems like it would benefit a lot from tabs of some kind, as the small text seems… not ideal. It's tiny and hard to read, which is
not good for essential information. O_O Reference info should be easy to read and easy to access. If you made it small to avoid taking up space, then, again, I recommend tabs of some kind.
I know that a lot of what I'm doing here seems unrelated to the task of gathering players, but the visual layout of your OP can be a huge turnoff to potential players if it's done wrong. If people find your OP too difficult to dig through to get the info you need, they might decide it's not worth the effort. If an OP seems badly organized, it might give off the impression that you're being lazy about it, and people are less likely to want to join an RP with a lazy GM. And if an OP just feels…
different than what an RPer is used to, then they might shy away simply out of
~fear of the unknown~. Making your OP well-presented, easy to get info out of, and just friendly and approachable in general is key to attracting players.
Lastly, there's
this post… Is this… is this supposed to be a tutorial on how to write a roleplay post…? I would get rid of it. At best, it comes across as…
strange. And, at worst, it feels almost condescending. o_o We're all RPers here. We don't need to be told how to write RP posts, especially if you're not even telling your RPers about any specific style you're going for (at least I don't think you are?), and basically just saying "write in 3rd person past tense".
Not only that, but even if your players
did need to be taught how to write an RP post, or how to write a post in a particular style, this way of presenting it just… isn't going to get your point across very well. If you need your players to know something essential, there's no need to hide it within a paragraph of fluff. Just be straightforward and say "write in 3rd person past tense". Otherwise, the meaning of what you're trying to say can get muddled — and you
certainly don't want that when you're trying to teach your players something essential. o_o Even I had a hard time figuring out what this was supposed to be at first.
Now then, I think that's enough about the presentation of the RP itself. Onto the RP ad!
Ok, so, it's very… info-heavy. Giving players lots of information is good, but I would save it for the actual RP thread if I were you. If it's an ad, you're trying to get the attention of players who are browsing a bunch of different RP's to find something they might like.
First impressions are everything. Having lots of extra info is
good… for players who are already interested. If someone's reading all the way to the bottom of your ad post, odds are they're already hooked — or, at the very least, seriously considering joining. At that point, you've already succeeded in attracting those players. You want to focus on what RPers will read
first, as that will determine whether or not they want to keep reading. And
that means that you have to place your RP's strengths and selling points up front.
As for bits like this:
Save that for the OP of your actual RP thread. To someone seriously thinking about joining, that's important information. To someone who's just skimming over your ad to see if they might be interested, it's just unnecessary. Keep in all the
good bits — give RPers an exciting preview that'll really draw them in!
Looking back on it, your intro isn't bad — but, yeah, if you want to spruce the whole ad up, I'd just reiterate my previous advice: differentiate between info that is essential to players who want to join, and info that's supposed to draw in new RPers. If it's the sort of info that's just there so that already-joining players know what they're doing, then save it for the signups thread. If it's something that's supposed to pull people in, put it in the ad. Just imagine what you would say to a friend if you wanted them to consider joining your RP. What would you tell them about the RP in order to entice them into taking a look? You would probably say "Clymer is a world of magic and spiritual arts, and home to three factions", and then you'd probably give a
brief explanation of each faction. You probably wouldn't go super in-depth with everything, because that's what your friend will be reading once you've already convinced them to take a look. :P
Additionally, remember when I said that your stat-heavy setup makes your RP more of a niche thing, but that just means you have to advertise to niche players? Yeah, mention that sort of thing up-front!! Tell people "this is a stat-based fantasy RP" — right to the point. I know I get frustrated if an RP doesn't tell me right off the bat what an RP's even fundamentally about, and I have to skim past paragraphs upon paragraphs of fancy opening text in an attempt to find it, only to not see a single indicator of anything. @_@ So, not being clear about what your RP is comes with too dangers: annoying people who were at first interested in your RP, and turning them off to it,
and, more importantly: people who would've otherwise been really interested in some aspect of your RP
won't know that it's a thing at all. To go back to the "telling a friend about the RP" example — if you knew that your friend was a big fan of stat-heavy RP's, you would be sure to mention that your RP is stat-heavy, wouldn't you? Because leaving out that information means that they're less likely to be interested, right? Well, this is the same way — make sure that anyone who's just skimming RP ads knows that it's a stat-heavy game. This way, the people who are interested in those sorts of games will notice such a thing and have a reason to keep reading! Without this, people might assume that your RP
isn't heavily stat-based (especially since there seems to be no clear indication of that until you scroll
aaaaall the way down to the CS template o.o ), and so, people who are really interested in that sort of thing might not even give your RP a chance, because they won't know that it's the sort of thing they're looking for!
Also, speaking of the "tell your friends" example…
actually tell your friends!! I know you're new here which means you probably don't have a ton of friends yet, but, you had to have been invited here, right? Ask the person who invited you if they'd like to join your RP! :P People who already know you are much more likely to be receptive of your offer than some stranger that you're sending a random invite to, so you have a better chance of persuading them to take a look. The RP might not really match their tastes once they
do look, but, hey, you convinced someone to take a look in the first place, and that's an important first step as far as advertising is concerned!
And if your friends aren't interested, then, well… ask them to tell
their friends! Or, ask the members of another RP that you're in (if you are in another RP) if they'd like to join yours!
(Although, depending on the RP crowd, you might want to ask the GM if it's ok to advertise first.) Advertising your RP doesn't just mean passively tossing out a line and hoping for a bite. In my experience, the most effective advertising is the
aggressive kind — really going out there and looking for people who might be interested! Directly asking people to come take a look! Like I said, this strategy might be a bit difficult for a new member like yourself, but, hopefully, when you've been here for longer and you have a wider circle of friends, you can really take advantage of this!
Oh! And don't forget about the
seeking group invites forum! This forum's great because all the threads are people
literally asking to be invited to RP's, which means it's probably the most receptive audience you could possibly have. XD (There are usually more threads than this, though…) Anyway! It's always good to go down the list and see how many people's RP specifications match what you're offering. Looks like a lot of people are looking for fantasy RP's right now — looks like a good place to advertise!
Oh, and signature links are, uh…
meh. Yes, I currently have a signature link for my RP, but only because it doesn't hurt to have it. Overall, though, it's not a very effective strategy (it's extremely passive and doesn't really do anything to pull people in), which is why I discourage people from relying on it as I don't want people to think that it'll draw in more numbers than it likely will. That said, if you're already putting most of your effort into better strategies then, well…
it doesn't hurt to have it, you know? XD
Aaand that's about all I've got for now! Hopefully this was helpful to you. Feel free to comment if you have questions or want some more specialized advice!
