FemaleWriter:
My question is...
Is there any advice you would give to new members that you wish you had known when you first joined?
A few points--
--Games go through cycles. Even games that last have their ups and downs. When you're in a down cycle, it's tempting to try and fill up your free time with more games...but that can backfire on you if you suddenly find that all of your games hit an up cycle at the same time. Pace yourself...
--If you're reading through the RTJ for a game and you find yourself questioning if the game will be worth the effort, or you feel like the GM's style just doesn't jive well with yours, TRUST YOUR GUT. I have had a lot of bad experiences where there was a game setting I REALLY wanted to play in, and I found a game accepting players, but the RTJ process had me feeling like something was a little off. It never got any better after that, each of those games left me thinking, "Okay, I'm never doing THAT again..."
If you don't feel like your style will jive well with the GM, don't put yourself through the agony of finding out just how badly your styles do not mesh. There's a pretty constant stream of games looking for players...you can afford to skip one or two questionable ones to stay freed up for something that suits you well.
--A lot of GMs will post something about not wanting one-liner responses in posts. Treat that as a guideline, not a rule. Sometimes, one line is all it takes (rarely, but occasionally). Write as much as needs to be written. Sometimes that may be a wall-of-text epistle, sometimes it may be a couple of brief paragraphs...and sometimes it may only be a line or two. But earn those one-liners.
--Figure out what you're looking for in a game. My own preference is games with an intriguing setting, and if I can't find any of those that really fire my imagination, then I look for games with a rules system that I'm familiar with. If the setting intrigues me enough, I'll labor through learning new rules. Some people love their system-based games, others love freeform or near-freeform, and there are a few with no hard-and-fast preference of one or the other. But figure out what really 'scratches the itch' for you, gaming-wise, and look for games that will fulfill that need. (That's assuming that you have other, Real-World obligations and have to shoehorn your RP experience into whatever times are left open beyond that. If you have all the time in the world for gaming, feel free to experiment.)
--Realize that a really good game is a weird alchemical blend of setting, rules, GM, other players, and your own state of mind. You can try playing a game that you really enjoy, and find that either the GM or the other players are throwing you off. You may find that a game that you've enjoyed for months suddenly seems laborious and joyless for you because of changes in your own life. You can be playing a game you've enjoyed for years, with the same GM and group of players, but someone suggests trying a different set of rules and it just sucks the life right out of the game (that happened to a tabletop Star Wars game I was in for a little over a decade...I'm still a little bitter towards the Saga Edition rules for that...) Knowing and really understanding that can help you manage your own expectations for any games you get into.