Finding roleplay

Arkandel

Finding a scene to join is a fundamental part of playing games online and yet it's either one the easiest or hardest things to actually do. I'm wondering if we can't share our methods here and maybe figure out a better way of doing so, or see if our current metholodogy is a reason players are sometimes considered cliquish or unfriendly to outsiders.

So you log on your MU* of choice and want to find RP... What do you do? What are your go-to ways - for example, do you scourge the who/where list? Go to Skype and tug on your friends' sleeves? Call out on channels? Use the in-game RP-seek code if it exists?

Share your secrets.

EmmahSue

In order (with steps skipped if someone I don't want to play with happens to register early) and with the caveat that sometimes I get tired of it before I complete the full set:

Do I have something scheduled?
Do I have any ongoing plots to continue?
Do I see a buddy I've wanted to play with who isn't already busy?
** Is this buddy someone I can ask to scene-set? Sometimes I'm not in the mood to do the heavy-lifting, but I'm only comfortable asking a friend to do it in my stead. I don't know strangers well enough to ask them for support.
Is there a 'want RP' function on the game? If so, is anyone using it?
Group channel requests at large
Public channel requests at large
OOC Room requests at large

Usually this is when I'd call it a night and go away to read a book instead. If I'm truly jonesing for the RP, I'll add in:

Random +where scan, page someone who isn't idle to ask: "You look cool, I pretend to be cool, how about we RP?" Then I scene-set because I'm the imposition.

ES

Ninjakitten

Well, let's see. Currently I'm on two games. One tends to use the public channel and the other uses the OOC Lounge so I'm going to refer to 'the OOC venue' to cover them both.

So, how I go about it tends to go:

if I have a paused scene, I check with whoever else was involved if they're around.
if there's something in particular my character needs/wants from someone, or something I know someone else needs/wants from mine, I check with them if they're around.
if one of my closest friends is online, I usually check if they're up for RP.
3a) if so, are they up for more people or just one on one? If the former, go to step 4; otherwise just play.
I check +who to see if anything's going on in public.
4a) if so, I ask someone what's up and/or if there's room for more people.
if there isn't or it's full/not appropriate for some other reason, I ask in the OOC venue whether anyone's up for RP.
if no one is, I either go do something else, put my character somewhere public IC in case someone decides to show up, or both (if it's a 'something else' that still lets me see if someone comes in or pages).

Arkandel

My methodology isn't too detailed.

Scheduled scenes, roleplay requests and +events are served first.
If I'm part of group (coterie etc) they get first shot for scenes. +watch/who helps, too (ES hates it).
At this point I might say 'hi' on channels if I'm feeling like opening it up; if I get RP requests from that I'll go.
It's +where stalking time; is there a scene already going I like the looks of? If so I'll ask if I could join in.
If all else fails I might toss a PrP or discuss scheduling one. It's a good way to meet new people.

As for setting the scene I rarely mind doing so especially if that helps get the ball rolling. However, unless folks explicitly give me constraints about their characters or are courteous about raising objections after the fact, it has at times irked me when I set and they get butthurt because whatever would their character be doing at a park/smokehouse ("I'm a vegan!")/etc. If you wanna set, set, else just roll with it dammit.

Derp

Mine isn't really that detailed, but here we go:

Is there something I absolutely have to do?
Is there someone on that I really want to RP with? Friends, strangers, whatever. I will wikistalk and page folks that look interesting, and I do so unashamedly. If your character seems interesting, I will ask you for RP. It's how I roll. It's also how I make most of my friends.*
Is there a scene going on that looks interest?
Sphere channel chatter.
Pub chatter / want RP chatter.
OOC Room chatter.**

*Also, I generally tend to avoid temp RP Rooms in favor of actual grid locations. I've made many a friend by random passthrough, or because they showed up with another friend at a real place. But temproom scenes tend to be running a bit heavy lately, because of pre-planned stuff. I need to remedy this.

**Sometimes 5 and 6 are interchanged. Depends on my mood. Though I admit to having a preference for OOC room as opposed to LFG, because I can see how people tend to act for a bit when they -aren't- hurting for RP.

The_Supremes

@EmmahSue's and @Ninjakitten's checklists are very close to my own method. If/when those fail me, I will also go troll the site's wiki, checking out people's 'hooks' field and looking for ways that my character can ping those hooks, reaching out to such people with pages. Yes, it's the MUSH equivalent of cold-calling, but it works surprisingly often, people like it when you read the things they wrote and approach them on the terms they laid out.

As RP Staff, I also appreciate people who create jobs. Jobs give me an automatic list of: here's a bunch of people who have specific RP needs. If anyone's online who created a job, I start poking them in order of oldest, actionable job.

tragedyjones

I ask about on pub, maybe say I am available, then log off to play Xbox.

3543thrh67

@tragedyjones That is similar to my method. I ask for RP or set the things that ask for RP then promptly load a game from steam and play. Though, to be a little fair I do wait a small bit before playing my game.

SG

I usually start with a +where and see if anybody's on grid. I'll usually not try with the OOC loungers who chat on pub and idle all day long, I've only rarely had success coaxing that crowd into RP, and I've found they tend to be more demanding and usually provide less effort.

If I find someone on grid who isn't idling in a private room, I'll poke them to see if they're into a scene and then swing by to RP.

If nobody's about, I'll go work on my playthrough of Mass Effect.

Arkandel

So is it fair to say from this (admittedly small) sample relatively few people are perusing the wiki for this? Only two seem to have mentioned checking there at all.

Or is it that using the wiki for that is a more mid/long term thing as opposed to simply logging on to look for scenes?

lordbelh

@Arkandel I use wikis in conjunction with +where/+who. To see if there's any people looking active whom my character has a good reason to interact with.

EmmahSue

I don't bother with wiki until I'm about to play with someone. We can make a scene happen no matter who or what we respectively-are. The wiki helps with the what, not the whether.

ES

somasatori

Yeah, I usually don't look at wikis until I'm mid-scene, especially if someone's @desc is like "He is a tall man with eyes and a face" so they could get approved.

My normal RP thing is to throw myself into every possible plot I can, then usually find the people I met in those plots and see if they're available, and make use of my clan/covenant/court/sphere channels as a last resort.

Arkandel

Hmm. What about in-game tools, has anyone here had significant success using those? I'm referring to things like RP-find flags (which show you with a red marker on who, announce your name to other seekers etc)... how much luck have you had with such hard-coded methods?

Please note I'm looking more for actual, tangible results here than whether something looks like it might work on paper.

And oh - if you don't use such commands, how come?

Kanye Qwest

Wikis seem to be a much bigger deal in WoD games - but then, I've only ever played Firan and a couple of WoD games. I much, much preferred Firan's grid because it had no ooc lounge room for people to just hang out in, and public places were public places. There were RP hubs that moved around every couple of weeks, where people could get a bonus XP or other perk rolled on a timer for hanging out there.

Usually when I am online roleplaying it's because someone said "want to rp?". However I do, on occasion, check out new communities.

From there it's asking on public or the equivalent how people usually go about finding RP, and then doing that, if I feel the urge. If it's commands, I can use the commands. If it's 'hang out in the OOC area until people 'know' you so they will tell you the actual way people find RP", I probably don't do that.

I'm a bit at a loss on those games, as my usual MO when joining a new RP community is to come up with an easy way to interact with strangers, then park myself in a public place and do so. It's foolproof if people roam the grid IC. It's useless if they don't.

Arkandel

@Kanye-Qwest said in Finding roleplay:

Wikis seem to be a much bigger deal in WoD games - but then, I've only ever played Firan and a couple of WoD games. I much, much preferred Firan's grid because it had no ooc lounge room for people to just hang out in, and public places were public places.

If you ask me, hanging out in the OOC room is too high a price to pay for finding RP. No matter how great the RP ends up being.

ThatOneDude

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

@Kanye-Qwest said in Finding roleplay:

Wikis seem to be a much bigger deal in WoD games - but then, I've only ever played Firan and a couple of WoD games. I much, much preferred Firan's grid because it had no ooc lounge room for people to just hang out in, and public places were public places.

If you ask me, hanging out in the OOC room is too high a price to pay for finding RP. No matter how great the RP ends up being.

Same with hanging out on the pub channel.

Arkandel

@ThatOneDude That's easier, I can trap it in a spawn window of its own. I can't do that with OOC room stuff.

ThatOneDude

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

@ThatOneDude That's easier, I can trap it in a spawn window of its own. I can't do that with OOC room stuff.

For me its more about associating the OOC stuff with a PC I have yet to meet or already met.

mietze

Sometimes I'll ask on pub if it's a place where that's a good way to get a scene. Though I think in recent memory the only place that has been relatively easy to do that with has been BITN, especially if you're a new PC--most of the time people get crickets, not because people don't want to play with them personally I don't think, but just because who is on doesn't mean RPable and they may not see it while they're idling or they're unsure when the ask happened.

So what I do when I'm looking or pickup RP is to reach out to others who are looking for scenes, even if it's been awhile since they asked. On pub/smaller channels, whatever. If I have an established PCs i'll ping friends too, probably first. Or I put myself in a public location and broadcast I'm doing so with an open invite to anyone who wants to stop by, as long as I'm in there, is welcome to join me at any time. I've actually found /that/ gets more shy nibbles/show ups than asking on chan. I'm not sure why. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

Also, if I've got research or plot tidbits to share, I disclose that too. I think it helps that usually I have social or flexible PCs.

I don't count prearranged stuff as finding RP necessarily because that's already found me.