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So, as I move towards improvements on the discord front... I had a central question/mindset... and its more of a curiosity than anything. How do you guys feel about servers that announce your arrival? As a new member do you find this discouraging when joining a new community? Why? Are you for or against discord servers that practice this? I also have a lot of other discord questions and guides, so a part of me has considered making a coterie for it... but I would instead join one over making one myself. I have been super into improving servers so maybe this would be the place to do that?

Based on a conversation in the Discord server this morning (and y'all should totes join the server if you haven't already), I want to know - tell us about an original or fan character you're proud of, but haven't gotten a chance to use in a while! Maybe you just haven't RPed in that genre in a while, or maybe you're in the middle of a redesign, or maybe they just require a slightly more specific setting and you're not wanting to DM right now, it's doesn't matter! Questions to start with What do you especially like about this character? What kind of setting were they designed for? What was the last campaign/thread you used them in? If you revisited this character, what might you change about them? (You can also brag about alternate universe versions of canon characters, if you want!) I'll start - I made a character for a fantasy RP on Gaia whose plot escapes me... but the gist is that our characters were humans chosen by gods and goddesses to represent them in sort of quest. We made up our own deities that got added to the world's lore. My champion's name was Owen, and his big gimmick was that he was chosen by a very minor goddess: The Forge, the servant of the God of Smithing. The Forge was very bitter about being forgotten all the time, and made it her mission to curse smiths everywhere until they started respecting their tools more. Owen was more concerned about the fact that he not has a magical miniature forge for a chest cavity. His adventuring partners appreciated having a walking campstove. Owen did not appreciate their appreciation. I'm hoping one day I'll find another fantasy thread I can use them in. Barring that, I might start a fantasy RP where all sorts of minor gods go on strike.

DISCUSS AWAY! Maybe this will help people find potential partners! Do you have a wanted ad/plot sitting around that you just haven't been able to find someone to take/work with you? Maybe you have that one character that just cannot find a ship for the life of them. Or maybe you just have a idea that you haven't found the right person to throw it at? What is your white whale of wanteds? Share them, let's talk about them and do everything from figuring out why they haven't been taken, suggesting boards they might work on or even offering to take it or just talking about whether or not you think its a neat idea!

Does anyone as a rule adopt preconceived characters they see on the forums they write on? If so, why and what were the pros and cons of your experience? Reason asking is of all the forums I've been on with adoptable characters available I've never actually seen one picked up. I myself prefer going OC because of my own control issues. Beginning to wonder if its worth the effort of putting up Want Ads for them. Also, apologies in advance if this topic has been done before. I did a quick search but didn't see it.

Wasn't sure what prefix to throw this under... it could fall under either. Can anyone tell if a site will last these days? Its hard to look at a site and know they will be around for years to come when the overall lifespan of new role play forums is generally a few months. What do you look for in a site that makes you think they will be around for a long time? Particularly when a site is under a year old? It always seems to be a gamble when joining and perhaps it always will be. But for sites that have been around for a year or more, what do you think keeps them going? It doesn't appear to matter how much work someone puts into it, I have seen some brilliantly planned sites go down in an excessively fast rate upon opening date. What is something that can kill a site when it seems to have everything going for it?

Happy September! (Yay the start of my favorite month!)... as autumn approaches, and also the 1 year anniversary of my own site, I'm trying to come up with an idea for an event or two to celebrate and involve as many of our characters/writers as possible. I've noticed that our "in character" group threads/events tend to get more participation and completion than our AU events. So while AU is easier to include everyone, it might be a bit more fun to do a few separate in character threads in different locations. We are a LOTR site so any 'medievaly' ideas would work... granted I would also love to hear ideas across the board of what other types/genres are doing 😄 . For us so far, a 'masquarade ball' comes to mind maybe for elves or Dol Amroth... a couple of our locations could do something like that. Maybe some creepy giant spider thread in Mirkwood, or ghost of the Dimholt sighting in Rohan. If we'd had more hobbit characters at the moment I thought it would be funny to do a "clue" style 'who stole the pumpkin' thread... unfortunately, maybe we'll tuck that idea away for next year lol. Then there are those challenges where given a wordlist to use. Maybe an autumny word list. Or a Halloween one? Or both. I don't know, does anyone else have any ideas! I need to get on top of thinking about it so I can announce that something is coming around mid month and get people excited lol. We don't have a points system so I don't know what I'd do for people who participate. Maybe a tiny little badge for their bio? We haven't done anything like yet but I was thinking it could be fun for those people who have been with us since the first couple months to get something like that. But maybe participators could get a little badge too.

so you all probably know that situation when you have a plot you're excited about that falls out, whether because of a partner flaking, life, or something else. I've heard it said here quite often that plots shouldn't rely too heavily on one person especially the site-wide ones, but I'm wondering more about how you tie up the lose ends and move on, especially with the more personal stories you want to tell after you and your partner have gotten so involved that its hard to find an alternative for that other particular character? It could be because of the nature of the relationship being hard to replicate/replace, something unique about the other character, or just the nature of the spot where the plot stopped moving making it hard to get out of with just anyone, just for a few general examples. I often use bridging solo threads to close things, npcing a character that gets mine out, or creating a situation that gives them the time to reconcile the 'lack of availability' of the person they were relying on, but that hasn't worked for every situation. So what do you all do to keep your stories moving in such situations?

I have a Hunger Games site that is currently on hiatus as I get stuff pulled together IRL. As I'm trying to do a few updates in this time, I've also been thinking about the plot. Panem is such a depressing place by nature, but I'm realizing that I don't want to have to roleplay depressing stuff all the time. Like I can have happy plots with my character's family, but the overwhelming shadow of the family member's death is a bit heavy. It's Victor-centered and takes place in the Capitol. What do you guys do or recommend in these sorts of situations? My site is AU and I dont mind breaking canon a bit as long as it's not unrealistic. One thing I don't want to do is make some "happy place" section outside of our current playable area (ie: the Capitol) where characters would be spread out too thinly. I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions, or how you have handled similar situations in the past.

Everyone has different preferences when it comes to how strict the activity rules of a site they'd be interested in joining should have. Personally, I like the 'one IC post per week/two weeks' rules, but that's just me. I consider that my happy medium for not being too strict but it also doesn't leave me waiting a month plus for replies. I know some people do this and enjoy this, but I'd just lose interest/forget what was going on. So what about you guys? I'm curious to read everyone else's preferences & see what might be the most common!

Whether pop culture based, book based or what have you. Are there any style of board you are legitimately surprised you haven't seen around? Or, at least, that there aren't more of? I'm shocked there aren't tons of Wings of Fire rps out there.

Do you like to read the threads of other members, ones that none of your characters are apart of? Or do you like to stick to your own threads and not wander off into the writing depths of the unknown. And why.

The other day, I ran across the idea that there are distinct but subtle warning signs that an RP will fail. That members can intuit something amiss and know the RP is doomed, even before the RP has begun to spiral into failure. I believe it was worded as "people can smell death on a site, and it goes beyond the wording of rules or the skin's aesthetics." While I think the death throes of a failing RP are pretty obvious to any observer, I feel like there are less obvious but still very noticeable red flags of a doomed RP. Lil' details that can reliably warn a prospective player that the RP is not likely to last very long, if at all, even before the RP has fully launched. An' I'mma stress the point that these red flags are present even before the RP has started. That there is something fatally flawed in the most fundamental foundation of the site that members can pick up on. I've definitely "smelled death" on sites before, but I find articulating exactly what I was sniffing out to be surprisingly difficult. I have a small list of forums that I occasionally check in on because I'm curious to see if my intuition was correct, and so far...yeah, they have failed before even getting off the ground. A couple of them are in their second or third incarnations and have never seen more than two members despite advertising. Part of me thinks people like me - the lurkers that are wary of joining a site until it has "proven" itself to be worthwhile, thus potentially depriving the site of the first vital members it needs to get going - are a less-than-insignificant part of the problem, but then I remind myself that these sites failed to entice me to join...so they are already failing on their own merit. What "smells of death" on a site to me, I think, is: A less than enthusiastic tone to the RP's documents. Be that a passive aggressiveness, a weariness, an overly joking tone as if compensating for hidden negativity, or...the type of tone that you can tell the admin is expecting issues. That the admin is overly concerned with stamping out problems before they arise and so you're left with a feeling that the admin will be scrutinizing every interaction on site, potentially creating issues out of non-issues by reading into things too far. The admin has an equally less than enthusiastic approach to their admin duties. Not a lack of expressing enthusiasm, but an abundance of expressing...weariness, annoyance, dislike, whathaveyou. Little makes me think a site is going to be dead in three months, tops, more than a site run by an admin who appears to have no love for their own RP. Especially if that admin is not posting IC... But I think this may be more of a death throe of a failing site than a pre-launch indication that the site won't, or can't, succeed. Although I think any RP can succeed if given lots of love from its creator, regardless of genre or over-saturation of RPs of its type... Something about some sites of very popular genres feel "copy and paste" in the worst way. As if the admin did not put any thought into how the RP should be run, how the rules should be written and what should be included, how to make the setting fresh n' fun, etc...but instead made the site a certain way because that is just what RPs of this genre are. Blindly adhering to tradition without thinking about the hows or whys or if that tradition can be improved upon. A staleness. Or just a...weirdness... ...Like having a play-by section on an animal RP. I have no idea why there needs to be play-by claims on an RP populating solely by wolves, but I've seen it more than once... I can only imagine such an odd detail was included on a muscle-memory impulse of "all RPs have play-bys, they just do." What do you guys think? Do you see red flags that an RP will fail, even before it has attempted to succeed? What are those warning signs?

How do you guys prefer to focus your RPs? Do you love RPs/settings that promote a heavy amount of direct combat between characters (Kind of like all those anime that have plots entirely based on and revolving around fights. Your typical "shounin" sotospeak)? Or do you prefer to stay away from direct combat and develop the plot in a less violent (but still as dastardly) fashion? If it's a mix, what's the kind of split that you typically take to?

Sooo I'm just bored and figured I'd ask a random-ish question, because why not, so my question is going to be, what's you favorite "Archetype" of character to play/write? I mean, do you like to play the criminal looking for redemption, the school kid with big dreams, the master of magic who's seen some s--- and seeks to pass on their knowledge, the amateur who's just beginning to discover the potential of what they can do, the working-class citizen just trying to get through another day, the tragic/dark protagonist/antagonist, the ambitious adventurer, the timid introvert, the sadist, the masochist, the what? I figure, it probably varies on a character-by-character basis, and I don't just mean character plots, I mean, personality, or backstory, or et cetera? Basically, what's your favorite way to make your characters, I guess? Not really sure if it's a good question or not, or even if it's one with a potential for a whole lot of answers, I just figured I'm bored and I'd run my mouth with whatever came to mind.

So we've had a poll on trigger warnings sitting about for a good bit now. So, as a player do you appreciate or despise trigger warnings? What's your reason?

So I saw this post in the unpopular opinions thread. It's an opinion I've seen from time to time, and it got me thinking. When I choose a playby for my character, I'm "casting" them as I would in a TV show or movie. I've never thought this to be at all strange, since I do that subconsciously when I read books as well - Sirius Black will always be Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya to me, sorry Gary Oldman! SO, what about you? Do you "cast" faces for your characters, find people who roughly represent them but may not be ~it, or do you prefer to eschew PBs altogether? Why? Does it vary depending on the board you're on? DISCUSS, MY PRETTIES.

I love statistics! So let's compile some data! How old are you? How long have you been roleplaying? What age range are most of your characters? The poll is (supposed to be) anonymous - no need to actually share your age here, unless you want to! Discussion topics (poll participation not required): Do you think that older players tend to play older characters? Is it strange when adult players prefer playing teenagers or children? In your experience, are certain age groups more common in different genres? Has your RP group aged up with you? In what ways have you witnessed the demographics of RPers and characters alike shift since you joined the hobby?

This is an Avatar Specific Topic Your Graphic Mod here is working on an Avatar dump for the pre-made graphic section. These will be free use for players to use for whatever reason. This is a quick little survey to find out what kind of things people would like to have available here. Things like signatures and site banners etc will be included eventually as well. What character type depictions are you interested in (i.e. human, dragon, mermaids etc)? Do you prefer complex or simple images? Colorful or black/white? Any playby recommendations? Any images you would like to suggest?

We all have things we suck at. What do you suck at? What do you want to get better at? Did you once suck at something and see it here? Share how you improved! I really want to get better at writing more, especially for some of my quieter characters.

How do you feel about people sitting in your cbox (or whatever) and chatting before they have a character? Not asking questions, just participating in the ooc communication.

Do you like word counts? How many is too many words to expect someone to write? How many is too few? What do you feel is a good middle ground? What's your best/worst experience with/without word counts?

What matters more to you? The activity of the site, their atmosphere and community, or is it both? I have found that we have completely revamped, and we still struggle to get people to join in. Given, yes, it's multi-genre and that's a bit harder, but we also narrowed it down and changed our rules and followed a bunch of advice from you awesome people here! The issue is, people wanna join a huge site with activity, but sites can't get that activity if people don't join. Our current staff and members can only do so much but they all have lives too. So, I guess my question is: Why do people say they like joining smaller sites, to help grow with them as a community, but no one ever takes the plunge to register? Or, those who only join big active sites, how do you expect those sites to gain that activity if no one bothers joining? What else can we do to attract people? We hold events and contests monthly, but as stated before we only have a few members who can/will be able to participate. We have a ton of threads open, 1x1 and groups, and those are coming along as well. I bought a custom skin and background art to make it look way more crisp, but we only get guests. Any advice and insight would be appreciated. Thank you all for your continued support and awesomeness. ❤️

How do you feel about character limits? Do you like having them? Do you like UNLIMITED cosmic power freedom? Are you okay with earning/buying additional slots? Or do you prefer the free for all? FEED ME YOUR OPINIONS

Hey all! While being in this field of writing now more than 15 years, I have come to notice for the last couple of years that recruitment is getting more and more difficult. While my writing group is Star Trek, I made it even more unique that it is only a Cardassian character play by (specific species in Star Trek). While I get praised for trying it, the recruitment for it is quite difficult. Now the most common thing I noticed is that players simply reflect my website as "Oh it's not active, the last story posted was a few days ago", while behind the screens (when you need to log in) there are a few stories being written. Now my website is Nova based, but I bet this problem also occurs on forums and blog software sites. What is your approach to tackling this problem?

Obviously not every character can work on every site (not that this stops some from trying!) But many of them can be tweaked and made to fit. Sometimes, a new canvas is better! It's all personal preference! Do you prefer rolling entirely new characters for a new site? Or do you have a handful that you reroll for every board you join?