I've always wondered the true Pros/cons from these three. Try to put as many things as you can.
(Aargh my English >_<)

Free:

+Simple
+Don't have to write so much(I'm going to get a lot of hate from this)

-Can sometimes go too fast
-Many rps die
-High skill difference between the players

Advanced:

+High character development
+Good storylines
+Turns are controlled(?)

-Umm... You need to write a lot

Note: I only have played free thus far, so I don't know everything about Advanced and Casual

Big problem I see with free is while you don't write as much, it's still a huge time commitment given how fast I see some of those games move. You don't spend hours online keeping up, you fall behind those who do. Obviously not all games are like that, but when you get dozens of posts a night, if not an hour in extreme cases, it's nuts. I also kind of get the impression Freebis mostly the younger crowd and usually there isn't much in the way of plots, creativity, or planning. It's very pick up and go without formality.

Casual is actually probably the best fit for most people on the forum, this is where character sheets really start to come into play and some GMs get stricter about rules and expectations. There's the most players here, which means the most games and likelihood of finding something that interests you. However, with that comes a wide range of expectations and player skill/aims. You get anything from players who write at a free level who think there's a stigma for being in Free (which is unfair to think; it's what some people enjoy) while others write a constant couple of paragraphs or more and end up meeting Advanced requirements without either realizing it thinking it fits there. This leads to problems where you can have people in the same game with vastly different skill levels and expectations and conflict can stem from that. This is why there's that whole High-Casual tag to ensure consistency in player writing.

Advanced isn't nearly as daunting as it sounds. If you can write two or three solid paragraphs you're fine. It's more geared towards story telling and character development and it can often read like a collaborative novel. Posting tends to be slower and it can be hard finding people to join your games given the relatively small player population, but a good, dedicated group can make a game last for years. It's the best fit for people who like being descriptive and have a hard time writing short posts because they have a lot they want to say or do within a post. Main problem with Advanced is it can move dreadfully slow at times, where players may disappear for a while because they don't have time to write or the will to do so because of the general length they write at can lead to writer's block, which can happen at any level, but when you have several paragraphs it can seem daunting.

Either way, there's something for everyone and no "better" level. If you like it, go nuts.

Yea the problem you mentioned in Free has happened for me. I just went to sleep, and when I woke up, there were 5 PAGES of mostly one-liner turns. Then I dropped out. But I'ts best to have people from a timezone near as yours, that's how you can at least prepare for something :D

Try giving Casual a go, and look for RPs that have a "no speed posting" rule. That usually means there's a loose turn order and it will stop that scenario from happening again. There's really not that much more requirements, if you can write a small paragraph or two you're totally fine.

I had to leave the RP section on my first forum years ago because it went from what's Casual standards here to speed posting Free. I couldn't keep up with like 100 plus posts a night, I didn't have time or interest in doing so.

The worst part is, usually a night's worth of speed posting ends up moving the plot along less than a decent Advanced collab and have barely any of the details that make it interesting to read while being way more time demanding.

Much of what dervish says is pretty agreeable.

I prefer advanced mainly since I find the slow pace a good thing; an irony with forum RPs I've noticed is the more "advanced" they get, the less time you actually need to spend roleplaying which is good for me since I need the time to study or improve on other skills like drawing or coding.

You only need to post once or twice a week, as opposed to casual RPs where you should post once or twice a day. Or like in free RPs where you need to post multiple times a hour or else like in the OP's case, completely fall out of the loop.

I post usually once or twice in a Free roleplay I'm in.

Still, I can agree with Dervish. Seriously, who even tries to keep up in the pace if only one night gets the rp full of one-liner turns??
But yea, I think I should try out some Casual some day. But I'm not really good T_T

Kiriyama said
I post usually once or twice in a Free roleplay I'm in.Still, I can agree with Dervish. Seriously, who even tries to keep up in the pace if only one night gets the rp full of one-liner turns?? But yea, I think I should try out some Casual some day. But I'm not really good T_T

My friend, you know how to spell and write a paragraph or two. You'll be fine! Don't be afraid to try; you'll never know until you do!

MissCapnCrunch said
^ Always listen to Dervish, he knows things.

So can he read minds too?

Kiriyama said
So can he read minds too?

I can also see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Dervish said
I can also see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I've never tasted that.

I don't play a lot of free, or well, any at all, so I can't go very in-depth there. As far as casual and advanced go;

Casual's main strengths are having a huge audience, easily excitable players who are ready to jump in. You can also work in a lot of different things and ideas because players can switch and adapt quite easily, provided your ideas are interesting.

Casual's main weaknesses are that because there are so many alternatives players drop more easily and so everyone tends to be less committed. Also don't attempt too complicated engines or plot-lines, because casual players just want to pick up and play.

Advanced's main strength is that when a game gets off, it offers the best potential for depth and complexity, due to the slower pace and patience of the players. It's also the section where you don't have to worry about skipping a week of posting and can go at it quite relaxed.

Advanced's main weakness is that between the slower post frequency and... Frankly a lot of people writing more words than content, the pacing can be horrible. Some of the hardest to read posts on the forum can be found in advanced, as well as some of the longest intervals between posts. While players won't switch gears as quickly as in casual, this is no less deadly for your game because every so often people will think your game is dead while one post would've saved it. ie, as a GM ALWAYS have IC important elements to reply to for everyone. Also learn to use your OOC far more than your IC.

Kestrel said
Also learn to use your OOC far more than your IC.

This point is super important. I always worry about the health of a Casual-Advanced game with far more IC posts than OOC. Getting to know other players is a great way to keep happy and invested.

I think I agree with pretty much everything that has been said so far, but I spend most of my time in High Casual-Advanced so can't really speak for Free. I do find that getting players in Casual is typically easier, likely due to the fact that there's just more people who frequent that section. Oftentimes that makes it tricky when I want to play out an in-depth story, but can't find anybody to play it with.

What we feel about the differences between the three categories has more or less been stated by others already.

The most important thing we have to say is that people should not be scared to try a level above where they think they are comfortable. Casual might seem scary at first, but if you avoid the wrong RPs, you'll find that the plot is well worth it, without having the quite-so-impossibly-fast pace of some free RPs.

As advanced goes, this category is probably the one the greatest number of people are scared of. Which is kind of silly. At least where our advanced RP is concerned, the only real requirements are that you can follow the RP's lore, write with decent lingual quality and have fun. Some may write near essay-length, but others can achieve just as much in 3-4 paragraphs. The longest advanced posts typically have multiple authors, and its a well-known fact that a collab can easily get far longer than what most people write alone.

If your English is of relatively good quality (doesn't have to be flawless), don't be scared to try advanced. If it doesn't work out the first time, don't run. Just leave that RP.
Either wait a while, or just jump into another RP, perhaps with a different GM/player group. Perhaps try a different type of character for yourself. Not all characters work for everyone.
If advanced RPs don't work for you after five or more attempts, only then might it be worth considering that advanced really isn't something for you. Not before. There are so many different GM styles that trying any less will not give you anywhere near any idea of what is available out there.

The gist of the above: Don't be afraid to try more than you're initially comfortable with. Most RPers here don't bite. Much.

I fancy myself as a Casual player, although several friends from the old guild back then pointed out to me that I should be able to play in Advanced as well.

I admit, I simply don't have the courage to try on Advanced. ^^;; I can write down about 1-2 paragraphs, and maybe more if I'm trying to describe something, and that kind of writing should be placed in Casual (or maybe High-Casual) instead of Advanced, IMO.
I take a look at Advanced and sometimes it feels like I'm reading a whole story on its own within a post. I know that not ALL of Advanced is like that, but it sure seem that way for me.

Another thing is, I'm the kind of player who tried to pay attention to details to avoid inconsistencies. What was my friend(s)' character doing? Did they do anything related to my char or in a completely different scene that has nothing to do with my char at the moment? Did they interact with my char? Or do something that could affect my char? Things like that.
I tried to pay attention to those things so I can write my char's responses or reactions accordingly, something like if like 2-3 other characters were trying to talk to my char, I could have my char responded either to all of them one by one, or like focused on one and ignored the others (I'll write down that my char was pointedly ignored the others or didn't hear the others' question)

In Advanced, there are a LOT of details being thrown within every single post, and I can already feel my mind approaching its boiling point just by trying to taking in all the details. @__@ I have no idea how to keep up, so I'm sticking in Casual, well, 1x1 Casual for the moment.

"Advanced roleplaying should focus on developing interesting and complex characters that become part of plot-lines which catch the imagination and inspire the writer behind them to exercise creativity. It is mature, humorous, imaginative, tragic, terrifying, passionate, and rife with descriptive language and characters with real personality and relatable cares. Quality posting is far better than needless novels, yet one should never neglect detail when one feels the need. However, while word and paragraph requirements ought to be unnecessary, single paragraphs cannot contain enough detail to suffice."

This is one of the definitions I stand by when I plan or join an advanced roleplay, I don't think every roleplay in advanced should adhere to what Gaiaonline called "literate" roleplays (which was a condescending way to segregate roleplays, imo) where we are looking at 4,000 words per post with streaming paragraphs. It surely depends on the feel of the roleplay, I think. I mean look at the Ultimate Comics games (all-star marvel, ultimate dc, one universe, independent comics universe); as roleplays they aren't highly detailed with every post by every user but rather goes by the definition that they are advanced because of the scale, scope, and size of the roleplay as they are alternate universe sandboxes that create concurrent stories. Sort of realized cooperative fanfiction in a way.

I admit, I simply don't have the courage to try on Advanced.

When I joined RPG a year ago, I felt the same, but a game that I wanted to write in (the then Master Bruce-led Ultimate DC) inspired me to try when I saw other people of the casual "distinction" joining as well and not being pushed aside and being told they were not good enough. Perhaps the comradeship helped, but I'm not sure. But I will say that a lot of us as writers need to stop being afraid of advanced simply because some roleplays in the category read like a book. Though I feel I'm echoing Ellri with this statement.

I've been in both categories since 2008, so I'll put it as plainly as I can, whilst still retaining every detail I think is relevant.

Casual is a section dedicated to a more games-like atmosphere. Language comprehension varies from basic to post-secondary though tends to average out around junior high level. Its main strength is the versatility it can bring to the table: You can see anime RP's, fandoms, original content, fantasies, sci-fi, tabletop-inspired, and so on, all playing out side by side, with few to no conflicts whatsoever. Its greatest weakness though is its versatility: It often doesn't know what it exactly is between the wide range of tastes and literacy levels, and ergo, you see Balkanization terminology pop up from time to time. ex: High Casual, High Free, Low Advanced, etc. (I've seen all three used.) It can be isolating to new people and create unnecessary divisions.

tl;dr
+Fantastic variety.
+Wide range of literacy levels...
+Widely accepting of many kinds of players.
+Moderate pacing.
+Low barrier to entry makes it easily accessible for both the new and the old alike.
...
-Doesn't understand itself more often than not.
-...Wide range of literacy levels...
-Can suffer systemic voluntary Balkanization.
-Moderate pacing is not well suited towards those with busy lives.
-Low barrier to entry often means both GM's and role players have only rudimentary literary knowledge.

Advanced is a section dedicated to a more literary-like atmosphere. Language comprehension tends to fluctuate between junior high to senior high levels. (7th-12th grade), and averages out around high school level. Post-secondary level is surprisingly about as common here as it is in casual from my personal observations. Posts are long and extremely descriptive, which is both a positive and a negative, depending on what you're looking for. There isn't as much variety here as in casual, but it tends to understand itself better: You don't see the Balkanization terminology here in general. Its greatest strength is its connection to having larger posts which are more descriptive, more can be fit into them, which can be a breeding ground for more complex characters and rich dialogue interspersed between metaphor, ideologue, perspective, and emotions. Its greatest weakness is its larger posts: It can drone on about things that ultimately are red herrings, unfired checkhov's guns, or worse still, nothing at all.

tl;dr
+Greater literary comprehension...
+Characters and plots tend to have greater depth with longer posts...
+Larger posts allow for more content at a slower pace, making it easier for people who have restricted posting schedules to keep up...
+I roleplay here more often than anywhere else because I'm an advanced author!...
+Fewer regulars here than in casual means that people tend to quickly gain their own "crew" to stick with them, which increases survival odds.

-...That is still only in the high school range, but often thinks itself greater.
-...Or, sometimes, they're just writing meaningless tripe that is the equivalent of textual masturbation.
-...At the price of making the barrier to entry higher than in casual, sometimes to the point of scaring people away who would otherwise fit in just fine.
-...A perfect example of the elitism that sometimes still wreaks sufficiently to drop role plays dead straight away in advanced!
-...Can also mean that if you don't like what's currently popular, it may take upwards of months before you'll see something you would want to play in as a player.

That's 'bout it really.

Oh, wait, one last thing! For people who are scared of advanced!

Casual asks for one paragraph or more, advanced asks for two or more, both ask for basic to intermediate levels of language comprehension. The difference in "skill level" is one paragraph more, so if you're scared to give advanced a try, don't be. Just remember that the atmosphere of casual is more games-like, whilst advanced is more literary-like. This means that casual's characterization tends to be based in action while advanced's characterization tends to be based in dialogue and biography.

It's the difference between an actor and a screen writer. The actor is remembered for what he physically does. The screen writer is remembered for the storyline he wrote, the metaphors, the emotions, the thoughts, and the dialogue. (Though the two do cross realms sometimes. tl;dr: It's complicated but nothing you really need to worry about, it's pretty easy to pick up on without knowing much. )

I guess I'll step up to bat and give this a swing...

Free Pros:



Free Cons:



Casual Pros:



Casual Cons:



Advance Pros:



Advance Cons:



Those are just some of the general impressions I get from all the forums. I won't say that they're accurate or true, but that's just what I get from them. Maybe you might understand, maybe I'm just a weirdo. Hopefully it helps somehow.