KWD: Interest Checks

[Rina]

Hello and welcome to another week of Kirra's Weekly Discussion. Before we get started, instead of writing out some random little tidbit up here each week as I am doing so now, do you know what would be awesome? If I had a little banner or something here. Sure, I can scribble something with crayons and take a picture and call it a banner but I think a snazzy little banner up here would be even better. If you are wanting to and think you can make a banner better than my failed attempts feel free to PM me and I'd love to hear your ideas and see what you can do!

Without a further ado, here's the second KWD!

Rules:

Read Them

If you've read the Fundamental Rules of the Guild, you should know what this means. No Fonz, Know Mods will be the our key rule here. If you are not acting Fonz-cool here you will get to know the mods and depending on the severity of things it can be anything from a warning chat, posts being deleted, the banhammer and if needed (which I hope won't be the case) closing the thread.

Besides that there are only a few other things I'd like to mention before getting this show on the road:

-Please keep things on topic
Discussion is good! New discussion elsewhere is very good! Taking the discussion away from the focus is a no-no. If you are going down a rabbit trail that is far away from the topic, please take it to another thread, the PMs or anywhere else that is applicable.

-Feel free to bring up your own on-topic questions
I can only come up with so much content about a topic and as things are discussed, more ideas and questions will be raised so please bring more things to the table

-Please give me ideas!
If I'm going to keep this on a weekly basis, I'm going to run out of good things to discuss eventually. If you like to help out with the weekly discussions or have an idea about roleplaying you'd like me make into a discussion, feel free to PM.

Usually one of the first few steps when trying to find a roleplay, interest checks can be a great way to find something interesting to join. I've seen interest checks with only a short paragraph turn into a success while other times a detailed interest check can bring together reliable companions. Every GM has their own way of formatting their roleplays and as a roleplayer there is always something you are looking for to catch your eye. Whether you've made fifty interest check or you are trying to figure out your first one, sharing your knowledge and learning a few new tricks is always a plus.

Just like last time, here are a few questions to start up the discussion to get things rolling:

As a roleplayer, what do you look for in an interest check? What is a turn on for you and what makes you hit the back button as quick as you can (remember, let's keep things civil)? Is there different things you look for or different ways you present things if you are a GM depending on what section the interest check is in? As a GM, how do you set your interest check up for the best success? Is there a big difference on how you format an interest check compared to your OOC? Have you made a mistake in the past that might be good for others to hear so that they avoid the same pitfall? Do you have any advice or other GMs or people who are debating on becoming a GM?

[Tydosius]

Well, since I don't actually role-play here, my opinion on the matter is effectively worthless. I still read interest checks from time to time though.
Generally, whether I'm interested in an interest check depends on the tropes present and the reasons why the GM is using those tropes.

[MissCapnCrunch]

Don't mind my rambling!

As a roleplayer, what do you look for in an interest check?

Well, first things first I like an informative title to draw me in! It can either be a narrative or summarized of what type of roleplay it is. For example my roleplay I'm running right now interest's check was along the lines of: "Your class reunion..what could go wrong?" though the other interest check I posted for it was titled "Horror/Escape/Drama" Either of these types of titles draw me in; though the second ones tend to have me click because the first type can often be misleading to what the role play is really about. AFTER I click the interest check; I like to see that someone has taken the time to make it look nice; even if it's just a small thing- some imagery and nice spacing goes a long way with me.

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What is a turn on for you and what makes you hit the back button as quick as you can (remember, let's keep things civil)?

TEXT WALLS. If your interest check consists of one large block of text I get scared and exit it out as quickly as I clicked. On the other end of the spectrum; if you only have a sentence or two I get a little nervous as well.

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Is there different things you look for or different ways you present things if you are a GM depending on what section the interest check is in?

No matter what section I am in I expect and provide the same aspects of a good interest check.

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As a GM, how do you set your interest check up for the best success? Is there a big difference on how you format an interest check compared to your OOC?

I think the best way to answer these is to show my own work.
My interest checks and my ooc are usually close to the same thing- but the OOC usually contains rules/cs/other information.

My Interest Check
My OOC

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Have you made a mistake in the past that might be good for others to hear so that they avoid the same pitfall? Do you have any advice or other GMs or people who are debating on becoming a GM?

Something that I've made the mistake of is accepting people too fast- possibly because I'm too nice and just want to accept everyone; but I have to learn to give a little background check on people and really think if their characters are good for the roleplay.

DONT. EVER. GIVE UP. Your going to have roleplays that don't make it out of the gates and you're going to have roleplays that grab your heart strings and play double dutch with them; you just gotta keep trying. It doesn't hurt to try and don't be hard on yourself when people drop out or leave unexpectedly- THAT IS THEM. THEY ARE SCUM. You are a creative butterfly and you should flap your wings straight to fleeksvile.

Anyway, that is my several cents. :D Thanks for the thread Kirra!

[Ellri]

Now that was an answer to the discussion that gives us sparkies...

When it comes to what attracts us in an IntCk, it can be a lot. No single structural element must be there, but there are certain elements we feel should be there. Its the sum of them all that decides whether it attracts us. The one, rather indeterminate element we think should be there is the elusive "quality". But that can't simply be added, for it is a sum of the parts, so we'll cover our views of those.

First of all, there's the theme. For natural reasons, this is essential and probably the most fluctuating part of them all. For us, its generally fantasy, sci-fi or somesuch that is preferred, but again, that varies a lot. And of course that varies even more if you start comparing everyone on the guild. You'll have at least a thousand different interests in theme, many of them overlapping. One guide to picking such is to look into what is common then and there. Then, once you figure that out, you have to decide whether you want to go with the flow and take the same or a similar theme, or if you want to be the boulder resisting the flow and take a completely different theme. The effect of this choice can vary a lot.

The second thing we look for, or maybe in part the first, is the title. Sometimes we want a title that is informative, other times we want one that invites curiosity. Early on in an RP, the former might help, whereas later it'll often be a bit of a hindrance. But of course (at least now) you can't change a thread title, so you'll have to stick with one of the options all the way.

The third thing we look for is whether the first impression of the initial post (OP) still attracts us. Is it flashy? does it have a lot of text? almost no text? Is there a fitting image? Is it written as an encyclopedia or as an engaging story? There are countless other factors involved here for us, but that's what we first look for.

Only after that do we start reading anything (which happens to be step 4). If the RP is still interesting after that, we'll go on to steps five through seven.

The fifth step is looking further down in the thread (if applicable) and looking at the people there (if the thread is empty of posts, see step six).
I. Do we know any of the people present?
a) No
b) Yes
If a: We check their post(s) (and possibly post history) to determine whether they seem like decent folks.
If b, move on to II.

II. we check our memory banks to determine the reason we know them.
a) Is it because we enjoyed playing with them?
b) Did they play poorly in the past? (bad CSs, using OoC knowledge, text walls, etc)
If a: We consider the RP worthy of further participation and move on to step six.
If b, move on to III.

III. We check the rest of the possible players to determine count of bad apples.
a) One, continue on to step six.
b) Many, discard RP as a loss.

Step six. This is where we check the GM.
I. Do we know him/her?
a) Yes. (s)he's a good one?
b) Yes. We've had bad experiences.
c) No.

If I. Was a, move on to considering RP.
If I. Was b, discard RP from consideration.
If I. Was c, check GM history to determine quality.

Step seven. If we've not discarded RP by now, we start looking through our heads for character concepts we'd like to try out. If we can find one, we'll post.
If we can't, we'll give it some time and see again. We might post tentative interest.
If we can't find anything after the wait, we'll move on to other pastures.