As I am reworking my 1-on-1 interest check for the umpteenth time, I find myself wondering, Odin, how will you make your 1x1 thread more needlessly complex than the last time? Will you insert a code that needs to be cracked before the other player finds the secret key to be allowed to roleplay with you? And this got me thinking as to what the best "tips and tricks" are for an interest check.
Mind, I am fully aware that this is a totally subjective question, and everyone will prefer different things. But, I am wanting to collect multiple opinions so that I can see what the standard is or should be.
I am particularly interested in the following:
Sections. What sections should be included and which should definitely not? Think about rules, information about self/ideal partner, etc.
Imagery and 'dress up' of the thread. How much is too much and how much is too little? What types of aesthetic design choices make you more attracted towards RPing with a partner, and which ones make you want to run away?
Build up. What is the best and most logical build up of your thread section-by-section?
Organization. What's the best way to organize a thread, organize the suggested plots, and so forth?
I like a 1x1 check to skip the decoration and get straight to the point. Who you are (age, time zone, sex if you think that should be included) what your posting habits are, and then get right into what you're looking for and what you have to offer. I'm talking barebones bullet lists here, just lay it out in plain English. That way it's easy for people to click, see if you're compatible, and go.
I'm not one who likes decoration- there is beauty in simplicity. That being said, I'm not really fond of bare minimum interest checks myself, and especially those that are bullet points which include pairings of this x that. That's actually my biggest turn off. Second to that would probably be when people wish to write with only a specific gender, like a male asking for a female- that honestly makes me very uncomfortable.
I like to see actual plots and ideas, and if those are barebone, I'm fine with that. I just wish to know that the person has put some effort and is not solely relying on me to come up with the story and eventually lead it.
Interest checks are basically watered down and cannibalized sections of my OOC that I post after my OOC is already up. It has flavour text that has a hook, a summary about what the game and story are about, and the standards and explanations that don't fit into a summary.
I just format it like my OOC, use graphics and colour the headers and boom, you have a functional interest check that primes people into the gist of the RP itself.
Most definitely! I love my romance, reading and writing it, but it's never the main dish, it's like the fries to my RP burger. When I see a list of pairings, my mind automatically assumes that the author wishes romance to be the main plot point. Nothing wrong with that, but it's just not for me.
Character Sheets: Any sheet that includes the sexual orientation section can pound sand. If your character's orientation isn't useful or made apparent in their history or personality -- two parts of the character sheet that exist to answer questions about their experiences, views, lifestyle, etc. -- then it feels sort of tacked-on. I was never a fan of the mandatory image rule, either, as I find it begets itself to lazy descriptions beefed up with arbitrary scars that are never to be heard of again.
Formatting: I have never opened a centered [youtube] song on Roleplayerguild.com and thought to myself "Gee, this song is both musically pleasing and fitting, I sure am glad they put this here." I also never dug GMs who put flavor text all over their interest checks and OOCs. A hackneyed philosophical quote by your header is okay, but anything more than that crosses the line for me.
Build-Up: You can sort of gauge the skill of a GM based on whether or not their interest check sounds like a blurb or a tutorial. If I have to get four paragraphs in to start understanding the interstellar feudal monarchy of the kingdom of Hoopajoop where the story takes place, you lost me. I think the reason for this is that people who base their writing on books they have read use the interest check to act as a blurb -- a literal standard of advertising -- whereas people who base their writing on video games and tv shows are used to media that doesn't need to advertise the meat of their stories, and thus, sounds a little flimsy when presented in this format. When you want to write a story that's ostensibly Halo, the interest check has to build the entire world from the top-down, starting with the fun Master Chief space marines you're trying to sell and ending with the historical reasons for alien military expansion or whatever Halo was supposed to be about.
Formatting: I have never opened a centered [youtube] song on Roleplayerguild.com and thought to myself "Gee, this song is both musically pleasing and fitting, I sure am glad they put this here." I also never dug GMs who put flavor text all over their interest checks and OOCs. A hackneyed philosophical quote by your header is okay, but anything more than that crosses the line for me.
This one makes me salty. Everybody using the same damn modern Pop renditions of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and the same damn generic-ass Two Steps From Hell "epic" scores as their theme songs and thinking it makes their characters more unique
Put some effort into your brainless trend-following for God's sake
sections -- personally, a long list of rules is a little off-putting to me. Of course, this begs the topic of weeding out the masses and addresses compatibility, but I prefer that be left to the discussion process, give and take on ideas and collaborate upon prompts. This process is often telling into how you might get along with someone and if your writing styles mesh. I don't really care to read "do's and do not's" that are often common courtesy, requirements of gender -- age I understand -- and so and so forth. To me, that could easily be covered in a "getting to know the writer" blurb, or as I've done, a small disclaimer. More or less a brief introduction that's telling enough about you in regards to availability and what to expect. Including plots, and prompts, is something else I like to see. I don't care for sectioned-bulleted "pairings" but often I regard these as potential cues rather than out-right requests to a romance requirement. Take what is given, and build upon that.
imagery -- I'm beyond guilty of this. I've dressed up threads obnoxiously so, but I enjoy the process, and I'm not likely to change that. Now given the former, I've done such in a "minimalist" fashion; calming colours of grey, silver, black and white -- I find bright and lurid to be searing to the eye against the background of the guild -- and I'm fond of smaller text. Simple images, a small header cradled by a title, introduce a quote or so -- if you want -- and you're good to go. You want things that reflect and borrow from one another and go well in hand. Complex photographs pair better with basic texts rather than cursive and vice versa with simple images paired better with flowing scripts. Use one large header or smaller ones in a "power of three" format.
build-up & organization-- a primary title followed by your selected image -- if at all, for even text can be manipulated in presentation, using header formats on top of smaller, accentuated texts -- or an image set upon a title. Images are telling but not wholly important, but if you build upon what is given, this shouldn't be an issue. People are rather lazy, so sometimes it's best to get straight to the point -- I've had to tell myself this -- and come down to a brief section about yourself and any specifics you might have and feel crucial to include. Follow up on prompts, plots, starting from most desirable and leading from there, indicate a preference if needed. I write my plot sections with key terms and themes and hide the rest away in a hider so as not to clutter the layout of my thread. Close it out with something brief and that doesn't distract away from what has already been written, miscellaneous information maybe that won't fit anywhere else.
Formatting: I have never opened a centered youtube song on Roleplayerguild.com and thought to myself "Gee, this song is both musically pleasing and fitting, I sure am glad they put this here." I also never dug GMs who put flavor text all over their interest checks and OOCs. A hackneyed philosophical quote by your header is okay, but anything more than that crosses the line for me.
Yeah, I never understood the youtube links either. First and foremost because music actually doesn't inspire me a great deal beyond being interesting background music or fitting music for when I've already decided on a theme (i.e. I'd listen to a Western song if I was already writing in a western world, but I'd never listen to a western song and go 'I wanna RP this specific song').
Build-Up: You can sort of gauge the skill of a GM based on whether or not their interest check sounds like a blurb or a tutorial. If I have to get four paragraphs in to start understanding the interstellar feudal monarchy of the kingdom of Hoopajoop where the story takes place, you lost me. I think the reason for this is that people who base their writing on books they have read use the interest check to act as a blurb -- a literal standard of advertising
Well yes, but,
people who base their writing on video games and tv shows are used to media that doesn't need to advertise the meat of their stories, and thus, sounds a little flimsy when presented in this format. When you want to write a story that's ostensibly Halo, the interest check has to build the entire world from the top-down, starting with the fun Master Chief space marines you're trying to sell and ending with the historical reasons for alien military expansion or whatever Halo was supposed to be about.
I could understand a 'gamey' explanation and tutorial style ordeal if the game was, you know, actually meant to be a game with rules, mechanics and so forth. Ex. a DND thread might need explanations and tutorials on how to calculate stat x and y. Other than that specific case, I think that 'story' RP's that enter into 'gamey' explanations are not really that appealing no.
<Snipped quote by Moss>
This one makes me salty. Everybody using the same damn modern Pop renditions of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and the same damn generic-ass Two Steps From Hell "epic" scores as their theme songs and thinking it makes their characters more unique
Put some effort into your brainless trend-following for God's sake
Two Steps from Hell is the great example of this one, yeah. I feel the same way about people who use character images that are a dime a dozen and that everyone uses.
build-up & organization-- a primary title followed by your selected image -- if at all, for even text can be manipulated in presentation, using header formats on top of smaller, accentuated texts -- or an image set upon a title. Images are telling but not wholly important, but if you build upon what is given, this shouldn't be an issue. People are rather lazy, so sometimes it's best to get straight to the point -- I've had to tell myself this -- and come down to a brief section about yourself and any specifics you might have and feel crucial to include. Follow up on prompts, plots, starting from most desirable and leading from there, indicate a preference if needed. I write my plot sections with key terms and themes and hide the rest away in a hider so as not to clutter the layout of my thread. Close it out with something brief and that doesn't distract away from what has already been written, miscellaneous information maybe that won't fit anywhere else.
So, would you say that it is best to organize a story prompt like so (as this is the image I get when reading your description but I'm a slow person so I might be misunderstanding):
Title of the RP: The RP of RPington [insert image] dark | gritty | bad writing | racing cars | also dogs
I think for me, an interest check has to be, first and foremost, digestible. Keep it short and simple. Set up the base plot, what kind of story it'll be, what sort of posting schedule will be expected, and anything else important, but keep it short and simple.
Also, don't fall into the trap of writing the interest check as it if were "in-universe". Keep an outside perspective talk about your RP, don't show me a slice of the world you want people to play in and have them dig through that to find whatever it is you want them to find.
"This Rp will be in a fantasy world where people have fish for hands. Figure that's a fun setting. Will have some more info in the OOC." Not "GHeihewhfh, has a deep history, and within it, countless wars have been fought between the countless races, in the end, the FHOOHFEH won, killing all other..." Or, at very least, if you have the "in-universe" stuff, do not put it in focus, and do not expect people to read it, so if it is essential for your rp, re-post it in the OOC.
Finally, I think what truly interests me in an interest check, is the DM. If the DM seems like a fun person to play with, I might be very interested in joining an RP I'd normally skip over, while if the DM seems a pain to work with, I'll skip the RP, even if it's the best damn idea I ever saw.
So, would you say that it is best to organize a story prompt like so (as this is the image I get when reading your description but I'm a slow person so I might be misunderstanding):
Title of the RP: The RP of RPington [insert image] dark | gritty | bad writing | racing cars | also dogs
And then the actual 'explanation' goes here?
It's one I'd recommend and use for myself. It's easier to scroll through if you have a large number of prompts, ideas, plots or suggested material. An image may not be necessary unless it's scaled-down enough and applies to the narrative. But you've pretty much got it down. This is how I use it:
title. -- sub-title if applicable or a summarization that fits into a sentence or less.
themes ◆ subjects ◆ terms ◆ possible restrictions◆ etc.
Now some of this is obviously rooted in subjectivity as I have my own personal valuations of different bits of information that not everyone shares. Nonetheless, this is the basis by which I design my threads. I wrote parts of this with second-person pronouns but these are undirected pronouns not intended to reference any one specific individual (though I can think of specific examples in the 1x1 checks section for every single one of these).
The Turn-Offs:
Excess Personal Info
While it may sound callous, I don't care who you are, what's between your legs, or how long you've survived on this planet. You are merely a screen name to me and I don't need your life story. I don't even care for commentary about one's literacy level, as I find "show" much more revealing than "tell". I will click off a thread immediately if I see multiple paragraphs going on about personal details.
Pairing/Fandom/Genre Lists
Okay great, you have the most bare minimum idea for what you want to play. I've been burned in the past with people not willing to put in the worldbuilding work and instead only care about shoehorning their pairing idea at any cost. I firmly believe the worldbuilding comes first, the character building comes second, basic plot structure comes third, any any pairings are relegated to quaternary importance. These always get scrolled past in a search for actual, fleshed-out ideas.
Big Rules Section up Front
I get that rules and limitations matter, but I've come to consider this part of the negotiating process with prospective partners. Thus, I find it in poor taste to lay all of it on someone up front before you've even pitched any ideas. Now I can understand if there's one or two things that are absolute deal-breakers (or content warnings) that must go up front, but I vastly prefer if the bulk of it to come after you've got me interested in an idea or two.
The Turn-Ons:
Straight to the Meat
If I see a check with a scant six lines of text before its throwing plots/settings/characters at me, that's a good sign in my book. That's what I came here to see and getting straight to it lets me judge very early whether or not there are any ideas being presented that I am interested in pursuing. If there are I can read on and if there are not I can leave without wasting any time sifting through irrelevant content.
Detailed Pitches
I describe the showcases of plots/characters/settings/etc. as "pitches" because in an interest check you are pitching them to prospective partners (or group members in those cases). This is where I go to judge whether or not someone is putting in the writing effort to carry their share of the weight, and also to get an idea of what they're after and if that's something I would enjoy pursuing with them. I want to understand the premise, initial plot direction, world, themes, and apparent character motivations of both who I'm playing against and what I'm playing myself. I'm not looking for more than ~200 words here, but I've never once complained that a pitch was too long. Getting these right is the single most important section in my opinion as this is where my foremost judgement of you as a prospect comes from.
Clear & Concise Formatting
I despise the frequent usage of hider tags. I vastly prefer to see threads organized with headers with catchy titles to highlight each pitch. Colors can be good here for added visual distinction but that is up to personal preference. I personally favor a very quick introduction that provides a general overview of any common themes (my checks often tend to be collations of ideas with certain common themes) and any important ground rules/content warnings that absolutely must go up front. I immediately follow that with centered H3 headers titling each pitch section. I also like to separate the collection of pitches from the non-plot content with horizontal lines. I conclude with mentions of important rules/limits, an explanation of preferred contact protocol, and then thanks and salutations.
Also, don't fall into the trap of writing the interest check as it if were "in-universe". Keep an outside perspective talk about your RP, don't show me a slice of the world you want people to play in and have them dig through that to find whatever it is you want them to find.
"This Rp will be in a fantasy world where people have fish for hands. Figure that's a fun setting. Will have some more info in the OOC." Not "GHeihewhfh, has a deep history, and within it, countless wars have been fought between the countless races, in the end, the FHOOHFEH won, killing all other..." Or, at very least, if you have the "in-universe" stuff, do not put it in focus, and do not expect people to read it, so if it is essential for your rp, re-post it in the OOC.
This is an interesting one! I never even thought about this. I suppose that the key is that the 'in universe' intro is best saved for, well, the IC?
@Sierra all good points to consider that I don't really have an answer for at the moment (you went pretty in depth). Thus fair, going 'straight to the meat' is something I'm hearing a lot which is something I'll have to consider for myself, since I generally do not do that (mostly out of a belief that going straight to the meat also invites strangers into my PM's who are, perhaps, not up to the standard I set for myself). Time to reconsider that I suppose.
@Odin I am of the belief that dealing with people who have not read, or do not care about, your standards/limits/wants/etc., is (unfortunately) inevitable irrespective of how you write the thread. My personal policy for that is to not even grace it with a response (since it's clear they did not put in the effort to fully read that to which they were responding).
@Sierra I mean, my current thread was, beyond me flexing my aesthetic muscle, also an attempt to get those people to not write me by just acting like an asshole. It definitely didn't work, but I also didn't grace them with replies. Unfortunately, they seemed to be the only people not responding, probably because all the people that did put in the effort probably realized I was being a massive douche.
I am no representation of what the community wants, but like any good spambot, I will babble on anyways.
Most fundamental? Balance. Depth to your pitch, but not excessive. All the basic information that would typically come up in the usual back and forth, but not going on beyond that. Decent layout, but not to the point where your effort on formatting in any way outstrips your effort producing the shit that people came to see. And miss me with that black-on-guild-background bollocks, it just strikes me as a waste of time and legibility. I would think on a site like this people should at least attempt to sell their talents with words, not with hard to read edgy art. Now that I've lost the OP, lets see, what else.
Sections
How exactly they're laid out isn't too concerning for me, but my system boils down to this. Critically I want the partner's expectations, standards, whatnot. This would be things like the posting rate they want, an emphasis on communication (or noting they aren't very fond of OOC chatter much), and beyond the 'duh' items, whatever they in particular want that wouldn't be implied. Nothing like approaching someone and finding they in fact have 20 different things they need you to know. Just get it out. This can blend into rules, but I am not so formal as to bind partners to rules. Merely express what I expect and would have them expect from me.
I don't need your life story. A few tidbits are fine.
I do want evidence that the partner in question has something they want to do. "I crave GoT" only tells me that you are going to flake in two weeks no matter what. This is not to say "drop a lore dump". Just give insight into what sort of things you want to explore, perhaps what concepts you want to realize, whatever. Give a solid reason for your roleplaying. This goes beyond the interest check, but before even posting it, consider if it's going to be a part of your time for any length or if it's just a whim. If you know it's short term 'I want to do this', indicate that, otherwise the implication is something longer term, and for that you're doing everyone a favor by establishing you're not giving in to a passing fad.
An OOC gist of what you want from the roleplay 'relationship', and the content you want to explore. Everything else is up to interpretation, including how it's arranged, as long as the important content remains clear.
Imagery and 'dress up' of the thread
Frankly, I don't give a shit about this, as long as the writing of the post doesn't leave me with doubts about their ability to write in-character. Conveying what you can do and that you're a person I can work with far more important to me than your mastery of this bricked-up BBCode system.
What is the best and most logical build up of your thread section-by-section?
Present you. Present your OOC shit. Present what you want. If you want to provide more beyond important tidbits, neatly tuck them into the structure. Hiders or something. I don't think there's a universal answer to this, but I do think you can get close if you look at your interest check and use those roleplaying skills of yours to put yourself (referring to rp-seekers in general) in the position of someone wandering in wanting to find something. This answer is applicable to the organization part as well.
Pairings lists get a lot of flak. I don't exactly mind them as they give me an idea of what someone is looking for (and indeed, pairings are a good method of elimination for me), but without anything else I do agree that they're rather sloppy and run contrary to my point above where people should indicate what they want to do. Still, I'm not going to think down on someone for just sticking with that. I'm just not going to be doing it myself.
If someone wants to be really thorough in my eyes - plot propositions for things you have a basic idea of, pairings list for extremely rough concepts you want to bounce ideas for. As long as you're established as thinking for yourself in a two-person situation, pairings lists can be a good base to start from, provided it's not a front for an unspoken desire for what passes as 'romance' around here.
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I often struggle with the 'music' and even the 'image' part of character sheets. My system is to draw inspiration from a variety of things, and if they don't already have an image or already a piece of music at the core, then it is nearly impossible for me to find something truly fitting. I'll stick to good old descriptions as appropriate. The only way I do well with finding images is if I've built the character from the image.
I derive inspiration from music, but not to the point where I can simply say 'yep, that's my character's theme song'. It's fickle. Only my alias can say otherwise.
But, this is all as someone who's found the whole 'looking for stranger to fit my tastes' thing to be unappealing over the past few years, in favor of seeking out good conversation with people and then easing into a position of familiarity that allows a good, longer term roleplay dynamic to form. I've also ended up with very acquired tastes in plots (including my own content) and extremely harsh elimination metrics for the Guild. So, eh.
An interest check, 1x1 or group, should have the same goal: to convey necessary information to all interested parties. The information that is necessary differs a bit however. In a group RP, I want to know what kind of adventure we're going on so that I can make my character. with 1x1, I want to know if the topic creator and I are going to be a good fit. Sadly, that's a difficult thing to really advertise, so I end up looking for reasonable people who share some of my interests.
I don't have a very strong opinion about most of what's been said, But I would like to talk about topic tiles. It's the first thing you see and determines if someone clicks on your thread. There's nothing wrong with naming your thread "TrumpetGirl5345's box of wonders" or "Desperato's adventure search" or even "M looking for F (18+)" But you look like the other 98% of interest checks when you do this. If you have a common theme with all of your plot ideas, put that in your title. I'd be more likely to click on "Adventures in the wild west," "Lookin' to start a rock band," or even "Lesbian Zombie Hooker Nightmare" than the see of generic titles.
