Ugh. Yes. Communication is
huge. @_@ Soooo often, players are afraid of telling me that they're dropping out, and I
understand why they're intimidated, but it's just, so,
annoying. >.< It makes it so much harder to manage a roleplay when you don't know who's in and who's out...
But it isn't just limited to dropping out, either.
Any situation is worth mentioning to me. I try to be understanding with my players. Even something as small as "I'm really out of it tonight and just can't post, I'll try tomorrow" is
fine, and helpful, even. I'm not going to call you lazy because of that -- it's totally understandable. Hell, even if you use that excuse
repeatedly, I'm not going to call you out on it and accuse you of anything. Yes, I will probably suspect that there's a bigger reason for you not posting -- but I'm not going to chew you out for lying. I'll just ask if something's up, ask if they still want to be in the RP (in case they want to drop out but they've been too shy to say anything), and then, if they still want to be in the RP but there's something preventing them from posting regularly, I'll
ask if there's anything I can do to help. A lot of times, players dig themselves into a hole where I can only assume that they want to drop out but are being shy about it -- when, really, they still want to be in the RP, but they just have writer's block that they can't get over.
It's ok to say something if you're having writer's block. If anything, I'll try to help you get over it. I find that a good plotting session between player and GM does a lot to spark inspiration and clear up writer's block, so you can get back to a fun RP. And if you want to RP and have the inspiration to RP, but there's real-life stuff keeping you away, then that's fine, too! I won't penalize you for it. It's still very likely that I'll temporarily take your character(s) out of the RP so that you won't hold anyone else up in your absence, but I won't kick you out of the RP forever just because you need to take a bit of time off. It's fine. I try to be very understanding of my players, and if you need to take a break and deal with life stuff then that's fine -- I'll hold your characters till you get back.
...Unless you don't
tell me that you need to take a break to deal with real life and just silently vanish. Because then, for practicality's sake, I have to assume that you intend to drop-out permanently, and, well, yeah. Can't guarantee what shape your characters will be in if you ever try to return.
Also, plotting. I touched on this before, but, yeah, I
love discussing plans with players and seeing them get hyped up about what they plan to do with their characters. And if you
don't have ideas and you feel stuck, then
tell me, because I'd be glad to try to help get you started, and/or help you decide whether or not you want to stay if you're feeling on-the-fence about it. So, basically, don't be afraid to come to me about plot ideas that you want to make work. I
encourage it. This serves several other purposes in addition to maintaining interest, actually:
- It makes sure I know what's going on as a GM, and make sure that your idea is something that I can approve, and perhaps I can even add suggestions to make it work even better or tie it in with some other plot thread.
- It shows me that you understand the roleplay. If you have a plot idea that's built around a misunderstanding of some fundamental aspect of the RP, and you don't mention it to me when it's in the early planning stages, then I can't catch that mistake until after you've already put so much planning into it and started to set it up in the IC, which is messy to deal with. Plus, as a GM, it's nice just to see verification that you understand everything you need to know. If players are silent, I kind of just have to hope that they know what they're doing. And, often times, they don't. And this brings me to my next point:
There is nothing wrong with asking questions. In fact, I would encourage it. I would
sooo encourage it. Please, please, ask all the questions you could possibly have. I don't even care if it's a question that you could find the answer to in the OP. Yes, it would be preferable that you do read the OP first if you're confused, but, if you read the OP and you
still don't understand something, then
ask. This isn't an English test -- I'm not here to test your reading comprehension, especially since the OP of my roleplay is
not a test that is specifically designed to test that sort of thing and, therefore, it's entirely possible that
I did a poor job of explaining something! But I would never know if no one asked any questions!! @_@ Not only do I want you to ask questions if you're confused just because
I don't want you to be confused, but, it also helps
me figure out what is and isn't clear to my players. There have been plenty of examples of players asking the same sort of question multiple times, thus prompting me to add something to the OP to help clarify things, especially when I can very clearly see where confusion would've arisen from the limited information I had already provided. I'm not perfect, and I'm not going to bark at you for not understanding something in the OP, or for asking a question that someone else already asked (I certainly don't expect you to read the whole OOC to check for that sort of thing). I'm more than willing to meet you halfway, and if that means explaining something further, then that's
fine, I'm happy to do so.
Also, asking questions can help spark inspiration for myself and other players, as well. There have been plenty of times in which someone asked a question that
I had never considered, thus giving me something to think about so that I can further develop the RP in figuring out an answer. In fact, during the interest check stage of an RP is when I most strongly encourage questions, because they're great at helping me flesh out an idea that's only partially-planned. Sometimes, players bring up really good questions that open up all sorts of doors and really get the creative possibilities flowing. Obviously, this sort of scenario is a bit less common in an already-running RP than one that only has an intchk, but, it does still happen sometimes, even if it's with more minute aspects to the world and story. And, I honestly love it when players ask a question that I can't immediately answer, because it gets me thinking of
so many possibilities... Not only that, but publicly asking a question in the OOC often turns it into more of a discussion than a quick question/answer (especially questions that I have to think about), therefore helping other players drum up some ideas, too. It's just a great way to keep creativity flowing all around -- which really helps build motivation and dedication to an RP.
So, yeah, pretty much
all of these things fall under the wider umbrella category of "communicate", but, I just wanted to emphasize that such a statement is most certainly
not merely limited to saying that you want to drop out. Being open with the GM is great
in general, for so many reasons.
A few other things that I like to see from players:
Socialize with the other players. Become part of the group. This is, weirdly, one of the biggest and most accurate predictors of whether a player is going to last in one of my RP's as opposed to quickly dropping out. I know that not all GM's are like this, but, I often turn my OOC's into somewhat of a lounge. Obviously, it's great to see discussion about the actual RP, as that
is it's primary purpose, but I take no issue with off-topic discussion about damn near anything, because I like to see players socializing with each other. I do strongly believe that active OOC chattyness really does contribute to having a motivated player base and a long-lived RP. And, recently, I'm starting to notice that being comfortable in the OOC is perhaps even more important than I thought it was.
When I see players who never talk in the OOC, I get worried. And I don't mean engaging in OOC chat all the time -- it's fine if you really don't want to contribute to such a thing -- but, often times, I get players who pretty much never talk in the OOC, only communicating with me via profile messages and PM's, and not even holding a conversation with other players
when the conversation is RP-related. And, weirdly enough, despite trying my absolute hardest to ease these players into the RP and making it as easy as I possibly can for them to get into it, these players, in my experience, have
at least a 90% chance of dropping out before making a significant contribution to the RP. It feels like this happens almost every time. And it's the reason why I
so strongly encourage players to talk in the OOC and get acquainted with other players. There's nothing
wrong with profile posts and PM's, but, when people
exclusively use these methods to contact me with questions, not even discussing RP-related matters in the OOC or responding to OOC posts that I tagged them in, then I'm worried. Because these are the players who
almost always seem to never get any further than making a couple IC posts (usually IC posts that I have to ask them to edit because they didn't understand something), and, often times, not even as far as that. Players that immediately make themselves comfortable in the OOC, on the other hand? They almost always get the hang of things quickly and then become dedicated players that I'm not the least bit worried about. I don't know
why this is such a strong predictor of drop-outs, but, it is.
Oh, and the players that drop-out after giving these kinds of warning signs? They're also much more likely to not say anything and be a silent drop-out, probably because they're not as comfortable talking to me, which is... great.
Similar to this is the issue of, what I call, "all business" RPers. Look, I understand taking your RPing seriously -- I take my own roleplays pretty seriously, too, and I put a lot of thought and effort into them -- but, at the end of the day, the point of all these roleplays is that they're supposed to be
fun. So, it bothers me a bit to see RPers approach my RP from such a business-like perspective, telling me it's wrong that people are allowed to chat about in the OOC and acting as if the only thing I'm supposed to do is answer questions, approve their CS, and make sure everyone follows the rules. You're allowed to relax a little, and we're all allowed to have a little fun. I assure you, I
do take my RP seriously, but I also want people to have a good time with it. And that philosophy is the same reason why I emphasize how understanding I am about reasons for not posting or being confused about things, because I don't want you to feel intimidated by me -- and I don't want you to feel like this is a job or a part of school. You're not being graded on anything. And if it
does ever feel like I'm punishing you (which it takes a lot to make me do -- and is
usually fueled by lack of communication, which does not help your cause at all), it's probably just for the sake of everyone else in the RP. The only reason I have to wrangle in problematic players is so that
the rest of the players can enjoy the game. Because, you know, at the end of the day, that's the point to all this --
fun. Oh, and, these "all business" RPers? They also tend to go hand-in-hand with the never-use-the-OOC types, and are also very likely to drop out very quickly, and usually without telling me.
Lastly,
it is ok to criticize me. As you probably noticed by most of what I wrote here, I highly value open communication between player and GM. Not only do I want players to be open with me, but I also think it's important to be open with your players, if the situation demands it. I never want to feel like my rules are arbitrary or don't make any sense -- it's the reason why I'll often have a massive paragraph under a single bullet point for my rules list, because I don't want to just post a rule, I want to make sure you understand
why that rule exists, especially if it's a less-common rule that I'd expect more criticism for if I didn't explain it. Usually, I try to include at least a brief explanation of my reasoning behind the actions I take as GM. Sometimes I don't bother, if it's for tiny things that I don't expect anyone to object to and therefore doubt that they
care what my reasoning was, but, if you
do care, or disagree with a decision I've made, don't be afraid to speak up. I want us to have a mutual understanding of each other's concerns. The only catch is: I'm still in charge. I'll give your argument a fair hearing, and, who knows, you might even make me change my mind -- but, if I
don't change my mind, even after I've already clearly explained myself and argued against all your concerns, then, that's the end of that. You can't
force me to change any of my decisions and throwing a fit isn't going to help you at all. But, if you do have concerns, then I encourage you to speak up so that we can work all this out. Usually what happens when players criticize a rule of mine is that they just walk away with a more clearer understanding of why that rule exists in the first place, but, regardless of the outcome, I do still value people's opinions, and I don't want you to suffer in silence if you think that one of my rules is actually a bad idea and negatively impacting your RP experience. So long as we can all act civil about our disagreements, and we all understand that I
am the one with the final say when all is said and done, then I am totally alright with criticism. You don't have to be afraid to question me.
Soooo... yeah. Tl;dr -- don't be afraid of me, I'm here to help, be totally open with all your questions and comments,
tell me if you're dropping out, or have any other reason for not posting, don't be afraid of the rest of the player-base, don't be "all business"... yeah, I think that's the gist of it. Just be open with me and remember that I'm understanding and want to run the RP the best I can for the benefit of all my players. That's the basic philosophy behind most of it, I think.
Calling other people on BS when I'm not around and resolving the problem before I as the GM have to do something. Never experianced this as a GM, but I've experianced it as a player, and that's a back in Nam war story.
Hah, this one was already on top of the list. What's the problem with players resolving a problem before you get to see it, though? I mean unless a fight breaks loose in the mean time, that's actually a really good thing if you ask me ;p
Aye, I actually agree more with Kestrel on this.
But, I think the fine line that makes a huge difference is that any player-resolved disputes
must happen with the understanding that
no one there is the GM and that
I can have my own take on the subject when I come online to see it. Common sense should dictate when this is and when it isn't an issue.
Small things are usually
fine when player-resolved, and a bit of a time-saver for me. For example, say a player made a mistake in an IC post by not acknowledging some important detail that they must have missed. If another player points out the mistake, and everyone's in agreement on what happened, once the first player sees what they missed the first time, then everything's resolved, and I take no issue with it -- because that's something that any player could've pointed out, and they don't need to be the GM to do so. But, say that one player brought up something that
seemed to be an issue with another player's IC post, but then you have other players jumping in on that discussion as it becomes clear that some sort of misunderstanding is going on about what actually happened in the IC. At that point, as no one is GM, no one can really
definitively say how to solve this problem, though they
can offer suggestions and try to work out the confusion the best they can before I come online and settle things properly. Often times, though, seeing that sort of discussion before-hand can help make my decision easier, as it's easier to see where everyone stands in regards to the issue and therefore
I don't have to spend as much time trying to understand what the problem even is.
So, player-resolved disputes are fine when those problems are small and easy to quickly resolve. But, when it's clear that there's no real solution without the GM's input, then it's fine for people to at least
discuss the issue, so long as no one's calling the shots like a GM would. And, yeah, no fights breaking out would be nice -- though that's usually prevented by players saying "ok, we'll let the GM handle this" when it's clear that there's no definitive answer. If no one's calling shots, then there's nothing to fight about, really -- there's just a
possible issue that the GM can probably resolve more smoothly than the player base can, once they get online and see it.