facemaker329:
I don't know if I'm in the minority, or if it's the mostly-silent majority...but I rarely (pretty much never) look at a GM's track record when I'm deciding whether or not I want to try and join a game.
I didn't used to. But after I had the fifth GM bail on a game within two months of them starting it (and I mean putting out a Player's Wanted ad, the game sometimes hadn't even gotten out of chargen) and I noticed these GMs all had a long string of deleted or "dormant" games with under 500 posts... I started paying attention.
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--Is this a system with which I'm familiar?
I'm a bit of the opposite, but... While I have gotten into more new systems on this site than I've gotten into in real life in the last 20 twenty years, it's because the premise sounded good. But agreed, I'm sooner to get into a tepid sounding GURPS game than a good sounding 'any other game' (but a very good sounding premise to a gaem I've yet to play where the systems has interesting sounding things going on? I'll look deeper past the pitch).
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--Does the setting and premise of the game intrigue me?
I think everyone has their preferred settings and follows the same general guideline.
I'm stricter on that than you are. If I find "too many" spelling, grammar, and formatting mistakes in the RTJ, the Game Rules, Chargen, etc threads I bail before even submitting the RTJ.
How many is too many? Eh, it's a "density of errors" kinda thing, I know when it trips my 'strike one', 'two', or 'three' markers, btu there isn't a set amount. I'm far, far, far more forgiving of formatting mistakes than punctuation or grammar, and far more forgiving of grammar or punctuation than spelling.
And while spelling is a deal breaker, I'll also 'put up with' a fair amount as long as the GM's
intentions and communication is fairly clear.
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--How many hoops do I have to jump through?
I often disagree with "less is more" so if the GM is barely requiring anything, I'm likely to move along. I feel there needs to be a few hoops, though the more the GM demands the stricter I'm going to be on things like spelling/grammar/formatting, and the more extensive their chargen thread, setting, rules, and etc need to be.
Agreed. But for me this also involves fun. There is so very little interplay in a PbP (compared to Real Life). I still need to be
enjoying the game. If I can identify why the game has ceased to be enjoyable, I'll discuss things with the GM, see if something can be done to revive my interest. But if I can't identify the problems, then the problems are probably so widespread (even if they're so minor as to not individually rise to the level of "check mark/red flag") it's 'a little bit of everything' and it's time to walk.
I'll admit, I've only been in one game where I felt like a name on the roster, and agreed, I walked (over other issues, but that was part of the parcel).
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Now, granted...it's been a LONG time since I've looked for a new game.
I rarely "go looking" but if an interesting title for a game flashes by in the Players Wanted forum, I'll check it out. I'm not very likely to jump in on a long running game unless it checks off a lot of good boxes, and 99% of the games here are in genres or systems I actively dislike, so those get passed by right there. But if it's a system I'm interested in (which for me includes ones I've never tried but I've heard interesting things about), and the genre is good, and the premise is intriguing, and the GM doesn't trip any 'red flags'... I'll RTJ.
I'm in several good games, but they've all suffered from the "RPoL Syndrome" over the years and have slowed to a crawl, so I almost always have time for a few more games in my day.