What do you look for in a forum RPG?

A friendly community with a decent amount of activity. I try to find places where a lot of plot is player driven with little admin influence on the overall story. I also like sites where everyone follows the rules. I've been on a few sites where either the admins see themselves above the rules, or the rules on constantly changed to meet admins needs. that drives me nuts. (short trip, but still).

 

I like a board that is easy to navigate for one who is not computer savvy. Any emphasis whatsoever on 'skins', font size, color or the need for a specific play-by who is most likely nowhere near the age of the character is a major turn-off for me. As I like to play in canon universes, albeit with some bending of canon, I am not especially interested in playing in canon universes in which not a single canon character ever appears. That said, I like to see active and influential originals in that canon universe. I like a good solid story that is consistent and well-written. I like realism within the role-play universe, whatever it may be.

 

Well it truly depends on what I feel the need for at the time. Mostly I look for active places with a few established and nice members. I remember I used to only play on B2G sites and the thing that switched me to Forums was stumbling across a fandom of a show I watch and literally being like welcomed in so nicely and everyone offering me all the help I needed. If it hadn't been for them I would still be wary!

 

First thing I always look at is if I can handle the forums skin. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, but I need to be able to look at the screen for a while without my eyes starting to hurt. I've seen waaaaay too many sites where it's something like bright green on black. Just... can't do it. I'd only get one post in before having to log off for the day.

Other than that, I always say hi in the cbox and see what sort of response I get. If they seem more interested in talking to one another over welcoming a new potential member than it probably isn't worth joining. It's most often means they have deep plots going and really there isn't much room for another, unknown character.

 

I agree with a lot of things that have already been touched on in this thread, like simple/readable designs, friendly community, etc. There is only one thing that I feel like hasn't been covered, and that is a need for admins/mods to have professional attitudes. It's nice for admins to be friendly, but it is also important for them to know how to handle any given situation with the appropriate amount of authority. I've seen far too many boards fall apart because of those that are supposed to be leaders forming cliques and openly bullying others outside of said cliques. If I go onto a board and I feel like the admins are childish or too controlling/power thirsty, then I will walk away without a second thought.

 

I always post in the cbox and if they're welcoming I'll consider joining. If I get ignored I will go on my way. Simple as that.

 

Interesting theme, friendly community - and a decent activity level, since it's frustrating how many sites die out too soon.

 

A community that is welcoming of newcomers.

 

When joining an established RP board, I'll look for an interesting theme/setting, a decent standard of writing from the existing players, and characters who are active for long enough to form coherent plots with. A site that's full of people who turn up, make a couple of posts and then vanish without trace... that tends to really put me off, especially if the writing is crappy.

When joining a brand new site, I look for an interesting theme and a person in charge who is clearly enthusiastic about the world they're building. I also find original worlds much more interesting than fandoms, but that's just my preference. To each their own.

 

Outside of an interesting plot/setting, I have to admit the look of the board is big factor for me. Not just in the sense that it's pleasing to the eye but more 'is it laid out well? Are the essential information posts filled out enough? Can I read this?' After that I usually look through a couple of threads to see if the way I write would compatible with the posting style of the other players.

Funny enough, after reading responses to this post I realized I don't really pay much attention to cbox unless there's something glaringly off about the conversation there or someone calls out to the guests while I'm looking over a site. Guess I'm kind of odd in that sense. I usually don't bother with the cbox until I'm a member.

 

I hate being shallow, but honestly, aesthetic design draws me in first. I do judge a book by its cover with roleplays, and if the site is poorly coded, I won't give it a shot. Has to appear beautiful, has to have admirable writing, has to be a non-toxic community, and has to have a sense of realism in the lore and world itself.

 

I look at the appearance of the board and the activity of the members first. I understand new sites work a little differently. Then I start looking at the plot and setting. I do not like an overwhelming active board because I feel like getting lost is easy. I do lean to sticking with fantasy and supernatural boards. I like a little more freedom than real world boards allow.

 

Well, if a site looks like GeoCities primetime, with tons of animations, a silly cursor and painful to look at colors (or lots of red text on black background for maximum edgy) i'll move on without a second thought. If i'm going to do a thing there that mostly involves my eyes and mostly features reading, the place shouldn't assault my eyes and be tough to read.

Beyond that, mostly the setup of the rules, some sites are over-complex with tons of rules that are never relevant, or the most spongy definitions for things that people like to abuse (or rules that have been introduced after certain people, usually staffers, profited from those rules not existing). And the Next factor is the people there. A CB is usually a good indicator to me, recently i stumbled on a place i was gonna be at, but sadly, the Chat was basically the whitest wannabe ghetto ever. Tons of people calling each other N-words to be cool and bragging about player killing (by abusing glaring holes in the rules). And i noped right back out of there.
Same would go for communities where there is basically one decent player with lots of ideas and doing lots of stuff and everyone else more or less sucks up to them, hoping any bread crumbs fall off the proverbial table.

 

It's hard to say what I'm looking for, but I can tell you what DETERS me from joining a site.... If there seems to be a self-obsessed mod filling up the cbox with crap about her real life, then I'm out. Or if the rules come across as mean, like, let's be friends, yeah?

 

For me the first thing I look at is if the site is aesthetically pleasing. Then I go for more relaxed paced sites. No word counts or over the top activity checks, that sort of thing.

A welcoming community is always a plus, but I feel I get out of roleplay what I put into it. So if I take initiative on posts and starting threads that's usually good enough to get people playing with me. On my current site we have a buddy system where we offer incentives for older members to help bring in the newer members into the fold. So far it's been going well but we'll see how it fares with time.

There's also writing prompts for character development which is really nice way for members to get busy with something while they wait for things. Gets other members interested in their characters too when they see you're actually actively working on your character.

Hope this helps ♥

 

I can't agree with this more.

While a nice, legible skin and pretty bells and whistles might draw me in at first, if the staff are a bunch of children, I'll look elsewhere. Good staff can make a site, and bad staff can break it.