What do YOU think makes a good Interest Check?

[Nannyhap]

This is something that's been on my mind since I took the first steps to starting up my first RP here on RPG. We know the mods' opinions on the matter, but what do you, the casual everyday user, find the most appealing about a good Interest Check thread? Besides the concept, of course. Or is there something that could sell you on a concept you wouldn't ordinarily go for?

For me, it's the personality of the poster first and foremost, I think. I have a hard time roleplaying with people who just want me to fill a role, rather than bringing my own creative flair to the game, and I find that you can tell fairly often just who those people are going to be. Not to bash on those folks at all--they have their roleplays set up the way they'd like them to work, and that's great! But I just can't do it.

Following that, do they have an interesting writing style? Do they have a cool idea? Are they putting a lot of thought into it even before they run it?

But I realize not everyone is me, myself, and I, so I figured I'd ask around, because I'm curious. It'll also be good to keep in mind before I fire up my next interest check, whenever that may be.

[LawOfTheLand]

This is actually a fairly good topic for discussion, so something tells me that you already have some idea of how to attract people into discussion of your vision--hence, you can write a decent interest check.

Myself, I hate people who can't think of a title more hooking than "partner wanted" or "ideas inside". If you have 10-15 things you want to play, that gives me the impression that you don't have ideas for any of them. (Okay, I can think of ONE idea you probably have in mind for them...) The title of your thread is the first chance you have to draw people in! Take advantage of this!

Next, I want to see good spelling and grammar. While I personally know a few otherwise intelligent people that don't believe in the necessity for this sort of thing as long as they manage to communicate their ideas, I maintain relationships with them because I got to know them before I got to know about their writing. Over the internet, I don't normally get this opportunity. There exists software to correct the majority of mistakes you'll make in your writing career, and if you don't want to go to the effort of using it to make yourself look like a better writer, that tells me a lot about the amount of effort you're willing to put into your roleplaying.

Finally, I want an actual, concrete plot with a beginning, middle and end, not just "three girls fall for the same guy, what will happen?!" This sounds like an easy thing to do, but a brief overview of existing interest checks will most likely put the lie to that. I want to know what my character is supposed to do from the first post--it must be noted, however, that this is very easily taken too far. I don't want a GM to tell me who my character is supposed to fall for and why. Not that there isn't precedent for this sort of behavior--screenwriters and tabletop GMs that distribute pre-made character sheets do much the same thing, and in the latter case it's a great way to introduce a player to an unfamiliar system. I just think it has no place in this medium.

[Wudgeous]

Also, pictures.


No, really, I'm a sucker for graphics, and I've noticed that a crowd is very easily hook'd, line'd, sinker'd if the hooker, liner, sinker rp check/tab has pretty pictures in it from the get-go. One image can convey the desired mood of a roleplay much more quickly than two hundred words (catering to the impressive attention span of our generation), though the effectiveness of either method depends on the GM.
Good html formatting helps a lot, too; ex, I rrrreally hate scrolling over a big fat 1000x800 image to read the paragraph talking about subject of said image, then have to scroll back up to look at the image again, back down to get to the next paragraph... blech. And blocks of texts are a general no-no during the player-nabbing phase.

I think you already know these but hey, they're important.

[Nannyhap]

Title, grammar, plot...That sounds pretty logical. How much plot summary would you say was too much plot summary, though, qb? Or is it alright to set up a premise and an objective (World is ending, fix it! Only in more detail than that)?

Oooh, images. I hadn't actually thought of that, Wudge, which makes me feel like a silly Nannerbutt. I guess that's me off to find some images for the check thread I'm working on! Hmmm...and "blocks of text"...does that refer to any large amount of text in general, or just text that's poorly spaced? For example, if your interest check is running at about 700 words, but is easy to read and provides a lot of info without being too taxing on the prospective players, is that acceptable or still too much?

[Wudgeous]

Spacing, bby. xD Someone probably could even make it fifty thousand words if they know how to divide the chunks so they don't look like fifty thousand, and if they have a magnetic enough writing style--it's not like I'm gonna sit and count every word I read, ahahaha. Seven hundred sounds like a healthy amount to me though.


And intruding on your convo with Qb here but I'm not sure there's too much plot summary for me, personally. Unless maybe the GM is outright going "THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL DO, AND THIS IS HOW YOU WILL FEEL--HWAAAHGG HOW DARE YOUR OC NOT BE SHOCKED AND AWED" or something...? And that is wholly unrelated to the actual, concrete length of a plot summary--like Qb's three girls one guy example. I've seen ones like that that are like, two sentences long.
Still, I guess there ought to be an undertone of mystery; stuff left for the players to find out via actual rp, for the characters to discover while they're ambling along.

[Kestrel]

Like any sales pitch, the salesman is half it's worth. If the GM sells their game as fun and exciting and their selves as fun and excited people, you already got half of it. Something that actually turns me off is people showcasing negative emotions to scare off potential rulebreakers or trying to intimidate through authority before a game even started. You can showcase you're capable without resorting to scare tactics.

As for the concept, I want to know what it's about and I'm going to do as soon as possible. I don't, repeat, don't, want to read three pages of backstory before we get to the meat of the interest check. Make it clear why I should join your RP. What are your MAIN points of interest. If you have to, elaborate on it afterwards, just don't make that dime-a-dozen mistake.

Then, trade-secret; give potential players something to do other than posting "Hi, I'm interested."

[ViceVersus]

Depending on the stage that the user is at, I want to get a sense of who they are, and what the story is that they want to tell - even if all they know that they want to work with is a particular genre.

Starting with characters, and starting with flaws does it for me. I can't tell you how many times a really neat sandbox-style world has been created, but then the pieces that are proposed to fill up this world, this plot, are just boring and offer no sort of conflict.

Draw us in. Make us feel like we need to be a part of this story, or else. Using a lot of the second person in text can be helpful, to draw the reader in. I mean, you only get one post in that forum to make your pitch, essentially.

And I know it's been mentioned earlier, but titling your topic something other than "HI LOL I WOULD LIKE TO RP" certainly gets my attention. I've seen some good "Spells & Swords Wanted, Inquire Within" titles that really drive me to check out what's happening. From the top down, it should be all about grabbing, and holding peoples' attentions. :P