Jarodemo:
There are no solid rules, but many GMs ask some of these questions:
- Experience playing the game system and/or game world.
- RP experience in general.
- RP experience on RPoL or similar sites.
- Writing sample (brief or long, sometimes general or sometimes with a specific theme, often to include dialogue) to get an idea of your style and/or language skills.
Yup, those are all things I'd use as a GM. The last one (language skills) is very important to me as a GM
and as a Player. If the prospective individual (Player or GM) displays poor writing skills in the RTJ (or RTJ request from a GM), then they cannot clearly communicate in a game that
requires writing. That isn't just a "red flag" or "checkmark", that's a no go for me.
If this is important to me I'll flag the game Adult to weed out the children and teens, otherwise I don't care if you just turned 18 or approaching one-hundred-eleventy-five. But the only reason for that would be if wanted complete freedom to get
descriptive, and generally I think the Mature tag would suffice for my tastes.
quote:
- Player location / timezone.
- Info about the character you want to play (race/class etc., physical description, background...)
I don't care about this as a GM. Okay, sure if I'm running a game with niche/role protection, then I'll require that request be put in their RTJ, but the rest of the info isn't required. And as a Player if I'm expected to show up to the RTJ with a
fully made character and
completely fleshed out background, I'm going to bounce without submitting. I'm not doing all that work before I even know I'm in.
As both GM and Player, I'm a firm believer that Character Creation is part of the interview process, you can be dropped or bounce for no reason at any time during the process (though I'll always give a reason, and none of that "you're just not a good fit" blather either, I'll be specific about why I'm booting someone or bouncing from the game - and sometimes I've even let a Player stay on once they knew what they were 'doing wrong'. I'm not an "infallible god", I do miscue my share of things).
quote:
- Some GMs will include a hidden RTJ question or request in their game info to make sure you have actually read what they spent time crafting (for example, include the word Potato in your RTJ).
This I don't care about so much. It does occasionally annoy me when I see it in an already overly complicated RTJ, but rarely such that I'd avoid submitting if the elevator pitch had already managed to draw me in. It would be a red flag though.
quote:
... often if the game is likely to be very popular (such as a D&D5e game) then GMs can afford to be more picky...
I'm of the opinion that a GM/Player should
always be picky. I'd rather end up running/playing a solo game than a game that has one good Player/GM than a game with a GM< or bunch of other Players that run the gamut from "completely terrible" to "barely there".*
* A few exceptions not withstanding. Almost all the games I'm in have fallen into the "update once a week" status, which I'm honestly fine with as my job has become very busy and doesn't afford as much "free interwebbing time" during work hours (and I work 10 hours a day, so... yeah, that's when I tend to post in the games I'm playing in and why I'm not running a game).
facemaker329:
... I learned the hard way that a bad fit with the GM is a problem, no matter how much you love the setting...and a good fit with the GM is great, even if you're taking on unfamiliar rules and a totally foreign setting.
This is truth. I've jumped into so many good games on RPoL I'd not likely have bothered with (because I'd never even read the system prior), except the pitch sounded good and the GM came across well.
This message was last edited by the user at 19:35, Mon 21 Mar 2022.