Some tips in no particular order:

The thing people don't brag about when they celebrate their RPs' 1, 2, 3+ year anniversaries are the 95%+ of their other RPs that died in the first month. It's a death-heavy hobby, if you can't cope with that then you might be better off writing solo. I've been at this for over 7 years and do you know how many of the RPs I've been in lasted a year or more? Three. And of those, only one ever got an actual ending. We're in this because it's fun while it lasts, not because we think every RP will last forever.

Reputation is e x t r e m e l y important. If you're new and don't have much posting history for people to look at (or if you mainly RP in PMs), write up some writing samples (or some previous RP posts you're particularly proud of) in a Gallery thread for potential partners or GMs to peruse. If you have a history of making an ass of yourself in the OOC, you'll have a hard time. Et cetera.

Honestly evaluate your skill level and write at that level. Not everyone is cut out for Advanced or even High Casual, and that's okay. Write with people of a similar skill level (no shame in dipping into Free if that's where you fit), be receptive to criticism and take an interest in improving your writing and you WILL get better, and in turn you'll have more options open to you. Because yes, the quality of your writing often DOES matter to potential partners/GMs. You might not like it, but it's true; and luckily, it's entirely within your control to change.

Most of all, be willing to put in the work. Focus on making every post better than your last and over time you will get results. Better yet, your partners and group members will recognize the effort you put in, and hopefully appreciate you for it. What WON'T get you results, though, is giving up because you think you're doomed or that nobody "understands." Life isn't fair, nothing worth doing is easy, you don't always get rewarded for your efforts, and the only good way to cope with it is to keep trying anyway.

If we're gonna take this thread seriously for a moment;

I've been in the GM's seat give or take 4 times now, to varying degrees of success. I've always gotten past the interest check phase but beyond that I've had quite... varied results.

I've found that in order to have a good interest check, you need to have at least some elements (but not all) of the following (and I definitely have left some gaps but oh well):

• Being able to clearly articulate your idea. You may have the best ideas in the world, but if you can't properly explain what it's about then you're not going to get anywhere.
• Doing something that people are both asking for, and others aren't providing. This one's a bit more abstract, but what it comes down to is this: Interest for a generic fantasy adventure is always high, but if your adventure is too generic, and there's 3 other RPs already on the market dealing with the same thing, people are going to be playing in those instead.
• Knowing what you want. This isn't the same as having a detailed idea, mind. I've gotten away with posting an interest check titled "let's brainstorm a yugioh roleplay together" and I sure did draw a crowd from it (even if, when it got time to actual writing, it all fell apart). Thing is, even in that brainstorm thread I still laid out a few fundamental things I was looking for. Close to the anime, none o' dat meta shit, a lot of freedom in how duels unfolded (so no simulators). The details of the actual plot was for everyone interested to figure out together. This, too, was made clear. Set your boundaries and stick to them.
• Putting effort into presentation. I'm not saying "use colours, tables, images and gifs like your life depends on it" since, really, I don't do that either. But do try to format your text in a clearly readable, easily accessible manner. Organizing your thread to have a clear beginning-middle-end structure and making sure it has at least some logical chronology to it goes a loooong way.

That being said, what I just wrote only really applies to specifically group RPs. I've not much interest nor experience in 1x1's, though I did, somehow, get a few hits on my rather poor attempt at a 1x1 check (can find it in my profile if curious). None of which went anywhere, mind, since I had no real chemistry with anyone who approached me, but it's an interesting footnote nonetheless. Wouldn't recommend taking it as a good example of how2intcheck though.

You could also use the Discord, it has one or two channels related to finding and starting RPs.

Personally, I try to take a very relaxed approach to the hobby as a whole. Unless I'm really trying to get into some coolsy-cool stuff and write collaborative fiction at a high level, I use it more as a way to blow off steam and work out the kinks in my writing style, as well as help buff up my word choice and try different themes and voice for characters and worlds alike. It's a hobby, and in my opinion, it's a hobby ancillary to compelling narrative writing as a whole. Dealing with differences both in terms of creativity and skill level can be difficult, but sometimes you just have to breathe and remind yourself "hey, you know, they've got their vibe and I've got mine." Sometimes you can make your patterns and styles tessellate, but it's rare to click perfectly with someone.

If you're having trouble with roleplays dying over and over and over again, it might be time to look at what your standards of writing are, or if the side hobby is even something for you at the moment. It's not like sports where you could get injured and be out of it for the rest of your life. You can take breaks from it and focus on things that make you happy, rather than letting it absorb all of your attention and time.

But, in a similarly personal vein, I find the best way to get yourself out there is to put yourself out there. Show off the best of what you've got. Write pretty words, try original settings that other people just aren't doing--take advantage of the fact that you can just pull a concept from the ether and put it on a page. Hell, coming up with a new plotline and world wireframe every day or every few days or so is a great creative writing exercise. Work on what you're doing and ensure your demeanor is pleasant and casual, and I'm sure the posters will come.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but hey, Minecraft lets you do some pretty cool shit in a pretty short amount of time. Don't look for your Rome. Look for your sweet gamer Minecraft house for gamers. ...That metaphor got away from me.

Honestly I'm loving how everyone is coming together to create a guide to role playing! :)

I'm sure that this has been reiterated multiple times at this point, but: RPs die. That's just how it goes.

After a certain point you want to sit back and look at several things:

1. What are people currently interested in? What are some popular RPs that are alive right now, and what do they focus on? Do they line up with anything I'm interested in?

2. If the RPs themselves don't interest you, but some of their themes do, utilize those themes in your next thread!

3. If you don't have partners or friends who can/want to join your thread, post an interest check and let people engage with the idea there.

Realistically, you should also try and join threads if you want to make them. Joining other RPs allows you to meet people, and make friends who then might be interested when you start up a thread of your own.

You must first recognise that play by post roleplaying on a forum such as this and many others such as RPNation and Iwaku are inherently mercurial and chaotic in nature. Posters are not electronic robots that you encounter on the wild wastes of the internet. They are people. We have made this grave for ourselves whereby we value some abstract concept of literary quality as the marker of a good RP. There are multiple factors that make a good RP and focusing inherently on one single factor does nothing good for you.

Blaming them for the failure of your RP is about as useful as blaming water for being wet. It’s redundant at best.

Ultimately, I would encourage everyone that the best way to get more out of this hobby is to learn and adapt. Staying stagnant with one single routine and one single fandom and trying to get people to fit within a mold that you have crafted isn’t the best approach. Join other RPs. Learn from other successful posters. Try to have fun. Learn from your failures. Failure is a teacher whose lessons are not always obvious at first but it’s up to you whether or not to take those lessons to heart.

I always feel there's a bit of a case of exaggerated expectations for RPing (and creative pursuits in general).

You have to ask yourself, "what does success mean for me as a GM/RPer"?

And realistically, if success for you is a several year long RP that runs perfectly, you will always be disappointed. Even expecting more than two people to post their interest or even commit to an RP is a pretty lofty goal.

RPing is like any form of writing (although I don't really think it's exactly the same as novel writing) in that it takes a lot of work, practice, and failure to learn. And like life, it's doomed to die. You can never beat death. Your RP no matter how great, no matter how fun, no matter how much effort you put into it will die (but you should embrace that and it be a motivating factor).

Reasonable goals when you start (or as you learn) are things like "I want to get 1-3 posts in before this RP dies" (as a player or GM). Looking at all the RPs posted on this forum, if you manage to make one post as a player or get one player post in your RP, then congrats, you've now reached the elite of the elite in terms of RPs, players, and GMs.

Eventually you might find groups or individual players you jam with. This however rare, this is special, and it isn't something you should expect to find regularly (e.g., if you are going into RPing expecting to find your creative soul mate or best friends for life, then you are setting yourself up for failure). If you do find people that you mesh with, then at that point just enjoy it for however long it lasts (there are no assurances of time in RPing or life).

RPing is a fun, ethereal hobby you should engage in purely for your own amusement, chasing success (outside of your own fun and the fun of other people) or "popularity" is massive waste of time in a medium that amounts to "I put on my wizard hat".

Well Raven, I can appreciate the words that you have said with getting that frustration feeling as to me it feels like no one does and was alone in that aspect. I feel like I can't accept it as ghosting is dishonorable in my eyes, what the person has done was hype up interest only to bail and it makes me feel used in a sense of their twisted enjoyment.

It's hard to have like confidence in my work. I haven't asked if my post was either good enough or okay though in the back of my mind I have wondered about it, and it is coming off those dead RP's I have talked about and also seeing people are not interested in my stuff just causes doubts if anyone liked my stuff from the start considering what I have been through.

I feel like why continue to put myself out there when experience and interest hasn't shown me much in the scope of things? Also from the first site I was at [which you can't search for no one now, you can be ghosted, ignored or even blocked for asking] it just puts me on frustration from this experience and the feeling of unrelation for me is going to be there. I feel I have to take RP's seriously because of this and I don't have time of anyone dishonorable that ghosts or would remove someone for doing so.

And in terms of like showing off the best at what I got, it is like why do that when interest isn't big or even there? I feel like I have to be guarded and with my info and interests because of the little interest I have gotten despite being as varied as possible. It is just tiring to see my efforts not panning out over and over as it just chips away at my muse.

[Had to step away for moment due to a problem so trying to catch up and post what i feel.]

That's a really damn good question @Rapid Reader

"what does success mean for me as a GM/RPer"

"what does success mean for me as a GM/RPer"

when i'm not in it

@rebornfan320 Well, I mean, 'dishonorable' is a really weird way of looking at things. Remember when I said 'taking a laid back approach?' Honor is a moral concept, which means it's inherently subjective. It's up to you how much credence you put into things like honor and being ghosted, and how you let that affect you. You talk about how 'experience and interest haven't shown you much,' well--that's everybody, bud. It's not about experience and interest, it's about the art of enjoying. Enjoying what you're doing, having fun putting it out there. It's not some latchkey point where you hit a certain number of posts and then suddenly you're successful.

You state that you 'feel like you have to be guarded.' Obviously, that hasn't been working for you, and if it's killing your muse, then maybe you should try something new for a while. It's not some great surrender, it's not some ongoing war. It's just a game that we all play, and enjoy the playing thereof. Losing partners and players is a part of that game. Perhaps you should look for partners, look for people who are interested in doing something even a little bit interesting to you, or--honestly--are just interesting people you'd like to get to know. Roleplaying is an inherently interactive experience. If people aren't getting what they want out of it, and they bounce, that's not... That's not 'dishonor,' that's just 'moving on.' It sucks that they did just disappear, but you have to take a grain of salt in with you whenever you do just about anything that requires more than one creative.

Que sera sera. Just gotta plug away and enjoy the writing and the doing.

Wanting to second that, what CorrosiveCherry said, I came here from another RP forum and haven't been in an RP with any of the people I knew there in years. Shout out to my Bethesda Fallout Forum Friendos. They were good writing partners, I've got nothing against any of them, I just grew tired of writing in the same setting and found other settings to explore. I've seen some of them on from time to time and say Hey from time to time, others I just haven't seen. It's all good. There aren't any hard feelings either way, far as I know at least. That's just life.

@CorrosiveCherri

Well 'dishonorable' isn't weird to me when I look at it. I look at it and your word as someone has said it, you should be more than capable to back it up also. My viewpoint would disagree with 'everybody' having a lack of interest on their part or even to the levels of my bad RP luck.

Well I have to be guarded because whenever I have done put myself out there before there was little or even no interest for it and I have kept trying before but it felt like a waste of energy and effort as at my max in terms of effort I wasn't seeing the payout I expected for myself. I feel it is a war against those who are dedicated and in their way are dishonorable ghosters. I don't see their actions as 'moving on' at all. I can't justify someone doing that to another person.

Relationships and interacting aren't transactional, buckaroo. You gots to do some soul searching and find your zen. It just sounds to me like you're looking for... Payouts and wins in the game of fun and sins. I think that's about as far as my advice can go, or at least as far as you'd be willing to hear.

@rebornfan320 Have you joined any other threads recently? Responded to other people's interest checks? That might help you make like-minded friends for when you eventually make a new thread.

How could someone say something so controversial yet so brave?

Well 'dishonorable' isn't weird to me when I look at it. I look at it and your word as someone has said it, you should be more than capable to back it up also.

It might not be weird to you, but other people think it's a strange way to put it. At the very least the more common terminology would be "being a dick" or just, y'know, "ghosting" as it is. Ghosting isn't a good thing, it's inherently negative. Stacking "dishonorable" on top of it sounds like you're talking about how someone violated the samurai code. Corrosive said it best: Honor is a personal thing. It's a value each of us has to weigh for ourselves individually, and you can't force your sense of "honor" onto somebody else. To another person it is meaningless, and they are under no obligation to feel the same way as you.

My viewpoint would disagree with 'everybody' having a lack of interest on their part or even to the levels of my bad RP luck.

Everyone has slumps. I've posted in threads before that didn't get interest or died because of too little. Here's one that got very few hits and thus the GM didn't feel it worth to start it up. It happens.

Well I have to be guarded because whenever I have done put myself out there before there was little or even no interest for it and I have kept trying before but it felt like a waste of energy and effort

Being guarded gets you nowhere. This is a social hobby and if you can't be open to the other person you're never going to get anywhere. That being said, I'm reading you being defensive rather than guarded, which is equally bad for a different reason. If you can't take pushback from what someone else tells you, you are never going to find a partner, as people will disagree with you. If you bite back in an overly defensive manner, instead of being humble about the critique you're given, people will be put off by your attitude and won't want to RP with you. This has bitten me in the ass quite a few times (idk if ambra even remembers it but I sure do remember a scuffle with her at some point).

as at my max in terms of effort I wasn't seeing the payout I expected for myself.

Don't expect anything for yourself. You are not owed a single thing by anyone else; the only thing you can do is up your game and try again. If that fails, try something different. If you're not going to try something different, then expect the same results unless you get lucky at some point.

I feel it is a war against those who are dedicated and in their way are dishonorable ghosters. I don't see their actions as 'moving on' at all. I can't justify someone doing that to another person.

Lastly, this "me vs. them" mentality isn't going to get you anywhere. People ghost for three primary reasons:

1: Something in real life came up that makes them not want to deal with the stress of RPing so they vanish without a trace.
2: The plot you've laid out with them isn't interesting them no more and thus they leave
3: You've gotten bad blood with the other person and so they leave because they don't want to be around you as an individual.

The ghoster is not without fault, as they will fail to express any single one of these, naturally. The second one can even be entirely their whims, however, 1,5 of these reasons have you as a personal involvement. If RPs keep failing with you, specifically, and others are finding success, then I'm sorry to say this but you're going to need to change something about your approach or the way you talk to people. I have learned to keep my mouth firmly shut in 90% of cases where I have an issue with someone else's character or post, unless the group has made explicitly clear they're okay with me doing so or the problem is too big to ignore. In case of the latter, I have parted ways with multiple groups because the issues compounded too harshly for me to stay.

Take a look at the advice given in this thread. Compare to what you are doing. Don't go "Everyone else is the problem" since a repeated pattern of failure means a flaw in the process. Something is going to need to change on your end, whether you accept that or not. Failing to change also means failing to see any results beyond what you've been seeing.

Whether it's your personality, reputation, interest checks, quality of writing or any combination of such... something's gotta give.

@CorrosiveCherri I am looking for the same thing as everyone else has been able to find where else I feel like I have to struggle and work MUCH harder to even catch up to their successes where I have gotten nothing but failure and ghosters along with little interest.

In terms of @Celaira and her words, I have commented on other chests before but it didn't lead to anything long-term or to my liking or like before it was dead at the planning phase where I started with the conversation and no reply after.

Oh, something else to keep in mind when it comes to taking constructive criticism is that trying a piece of advice once and it failing does not constitute the advice being wrong or responsible for the failure. It just means you tried it once and that time didn't work. Try again.

Don't drop a piece of advice just because it fails once, twice, or three times. If you've tried to make RPs/threads X amount of times and have gotten failure (resulting in a perception of a pattern of failures/bad luck) then why not try a given piece of advice (or more than one) just as many times to see if that method has the same rate of failure.

That or just...give up, find some other hobby as others have mentioned.