Joining Heavily In Progress RPs

[Rax Rosetta]

To be completely honest with myself, this tends to be a rather bad habit of mine. But I tend to see RP's that, while they have (in my opinion) amazing ideas or plots and I would, under normal circumstances, join in on in a heartbeat. But then this bad habit of seeing it's already well into five, six, or more pages of responses, and for some reason this just has this habit of turning me away. I feel this need to read through each post, in case something important is in there, and it can bog me down, even after getting through it all. So, is this really just me or anyone out there got any tips or ideas on how to either deal with this or otherwise work around it?

And I think its mostly because posting after only reading the original post, maybe the first few afterwords, seems almost disrespectful to me, especially if questions I might ask were answered in page, say, two or three. Seems kind of a silly thing to ask, in retrospect, for as long as I've been roleplaying, but any feedback is indeed appreciated in advance.

 

[Moogle-Girl]

I'm the same way. Honestly I don't even look at RPs that already have more than a page of posts so I don't get drawn into them. I subscribe to all the forums I'm interested in so it's not like I don't have a steady flow of new RPs to look at.

 

[Minibit]

Ask the GM for help!

Ask for a synopsis of what's happened so far (remember, you only need to know what your character would know!)

Ask for help making an entrance! Describe the kind of character you'd like to play (be flexible) and ask how you can fit them into the story

Communication, kids, communication.

 

[Rax Rosetta]

Appreciate the feedback, both of ya, I'll have to try having whole forums watched instead of just checking in on them every now and again. I'll try the communication side of things more as well, much obliged Minibit, honestly didn't think much of messaging the GM for a synopsis.

 

[Kagayours]

Ok, when you say "five or six pages", are we talking IC or OOC?

If it's IC, then ask a GM! Five or six pages is still fairly "young" by my standards just because I've been in so many long-lasting RP's, but it's still a decent chunk of content. And, as someone currently GMing a long-lasting RP, I never expect any new players to read through all of it! I provide summaries, instead. ^^ If you see an in-progress RP that you'd like to join, just ask the GM if they can help you out. Generally what I find is that either A) they're not currently accepting new players anyway, or B) they are accepting new players and so they'll totally help you join! ^^

And if we're talking OOC, then... damn, five or six pages is nothing. @_@ Odds are a lot of it is just chatter! Or at least, that's the case in a lot of my RP's, anyway. ^^" The RP's practically just started at that point, most likely! If you're still unsure, you can ask a GM, but I'd say you're more than alright to just jump right in. ^^

 

[Moogle-Girl]

If it's IC, then ask a GM! Five or six pages is still fairly "young" by my standards just because I've been in so many long-lasting RP's, but it's still a decent chunk of content.

Haha, damn, really? Anything I'm in that hits five or six pages is a huge success; it almost never happens. Why do yours last so long, do you think?

 

[Kagayours]

Haha, damn, really? Anything I'm in that hits five or six pages is a huge success; it almost never happens. Why do yours last so long, do you think?

I'm very confident in my abilities as a GM. I hardly worry about RP's dying anymore -- everything's just so... stable that it really isn't an issue. My biggest worry as a GM is just things getting stuck and slowing down, but that's really only an annoyance at best. Worst thing that happens is that I have to cancel some side-plots early. I'm never actually worried about my RP's dying anymore -- and I'm pretty sure I won't need to worry unless I start hearing news about worldwide internet outtages that could threaten to take away all my players. XD

I have many strategies I use as a GM -- I'm honestly not even sure where to start in talking about them. XD I'd say I'm still improving, but, I've reached the point where the new things I learn just help my RP's move more smoothly -- I feel like they'd all still survive pretty well even if I hadn't improved over the past year or so.

That being said!! Whether or not "five or six pages" is really a long amount of time depends on the speed of the RP, now that I think about it. If it's a fast-paced RP with short posts, then it really won't take any time at all to get that many pages. If it's a slower-paced RP with longer posts then, yeah, it would definitely take a while longer.

Thing is, though, I'm used to the early stages of an RP having the fastest bursts of activity -- so that could be another reason why I see 5-6 pages as "young" even though, thinking about it now, going back 5-6 pages in, say, Fandomstuck would probably lead me to posts that are already months old. XD

And I guess it also depends on whether you're a group or 1x1 RPer. I don't really do 1x1's anymore and I never really had much success with them, but I'd assume that a 1x1 would take longer to reach that length -- after all, it's not like you have a ton of new and eager players all jumping in right at the beginning. XD

 

[Rax Rosetta]

Well, for reference, I'm used to slower stuff, with longer posts, so reaching four or five pages can start passing the novel stages of things, depending on the story we're talking about. I've had next to zero luck with 1x1, so I pretty much don't touch that anymore. And with OOC chatter, I get this paranoid thought process of "Well, what if the GM posted something important in the midst of all the chatter and pictures?" thing going and I end up reading through an entire thread of OOC chat that, while perfectly fine, had nothing readily applicable to the main IC, for the most part xD

But believe it or not, Kaga-kun, it was actually seeing the Massive High Fantasy thing you're rolling out finally prompted me to post this up and see what kind of ideas folks had on the matter, since it seemed like a really awesome idea from what I had read of the main post. And yeah, I'm used to stuff that rolls at a slower, steadier pace overall, instead of high bursts at the beginning or at, to an outside view, almost random intervals.

 

[Kagayours]

And with OOC chatter, I get this paranoid thought process of "Well, what if the GM posted something important in the midst of all the chatter and pictures?" thing going and I end up reading through an entire thread of OOC chat that, while perfectly fine, had nothing readily applicable to the main IC, for the most part xD

Whenever I have an important announcement that all players actually need to see, I make sure to tag all the RP's members. That way, it doesn't get lost, and no one has to feel the need to read a bunch of irrelevant chatter just to not miss anything important. :P

But believe it or not, Kaga-kun, it was actually seeing the Massive High Fantasy thing you're rolling out finally prompted me to post this up and see what kind of ideas folks had on the matter, since it seemed like a really awesome idea from what I had read of the main post. And yeah, I'm used to stuff that rolls at a slower, steadier pace overall, instead of high bursts at the beginning or at, to an outside view, almost random intervals.

Oh, well my high fantasy RP is only in the interest check stage so far! It literally hasn't even begun yet! Of course you can join! XD Hell, as you may have noticed, I've even been updating the OP of the interest check specifically for any newcomers who are just now joining -- getting them up-to-speed on what the current game plan is, and providing links to the blog posts which have been serving as periodic info dumps leading up to the OOC. I'd love to have you around!

And my RP's are usually a bit steadier, too -- it's just normal for RP's to start out at a slightly faster pace as you have a ton of new and excited players, and it's sort of expected that a good chunk of your first wave of players will drop out before the action starts. Things tend to stabilize after that point. I imagine that RP's with smaller numbers of players will be pretty stable from the get go, since they're less likely to go through that sort of thing.

 

[Rax Rosetta]

Well, guess I will just have to pop on over there after all, take another read of the original post and see what's what now then, eh? And I dont mind the initial burst of high speed, high energy stuff, I just usually get sidetracked (Not badly, but I am a gamer as much as a roleplayer haha), and end up missing the occasional burst of chatter. I've just had incidents where, I go to game for a bit, come back on the same day and missed several pages with important stuff hidden in there, and had to go sifting through it, not fun Dx But doesn't sound like that'll be a problem, not in this case at least, so it sounds good to me.

 

[Kagayours]

Well, guess I will just have to pop on over there after all, take another read of the original post and see what's what now then, eh? And I dont mind the initial burst of high speed, high energy stuff, I just usually get sidetracked (Not badly, but I am a gamer as much as a roleplayer haha), and end up missing the occasional burst of chatter. I've just had incidents where, I go to game for a bit, come back on the same day and missed several pages with important stuff hidden in there, and had to go sifting through it, not fun Dx But doesn't sound like that'll be a problem, not in this case at least, so it sounds good to me.

I'm glad I found this thread then, lol. XD Feel free to give me a poke if you have any other questions or concerns about things! ^^

 

[Rax Rosetta]

I'm glad I found this thread then, lol. XD Feel free to give me a poke if you have any other questions or concerns about things! ^^

Likewise, and don't worry, I've got plans with magic. Having read through the blogs so far, I think I could cause some waves (of a good sort of course) especially when it comes to making lesser of two evils arguments. I'll have to drop ya a line once I've got some more solid ideas in that regard.

 

[Kagayours]

Likewise, and don't worry, I've got plans with magic. Having read through the blogs so far, I think I could cause some waves (of a good sort of course) especially when it comes to making lesser of two evils arguments. I'll have to drop ya a line once I've got some more solid ideas in that regard.

Looking forward to it. ^^