#rpg guide

Hey anon — if anyone knows the answer to this I’d love to know too! My friend runs the fabulous @syfyhq​ and it’s been difficult to keep members, that might be because RPGs based around “bad Sci-Fi movies” is a niche market but despite promoting it loads it’s still a struggle to get people interested and maintain that interest. Everyone has their preferences though so some RPG genres are definitely more active than others and doesn’t reflect on the often hardworking and great admins. 

I have some tips though that as someone who joins groups!

1) Accessibility! This normally goes without saying but please make sure your main theme and navigation are all easy to read  — good contrast between text and background, big and clear font, and easy to read information! 

2) Events and tasks! Set a designated day every week or month depending on what you prefer to post something to inspire your members, this can be anything from getting your members to make a moodboard or playlist for their muse(s) to announcing an event. This can be important to the plot or just something fun! Depending on your RPG a few that are really common are carnivals, masquerade balls, camping, and drive-in movies. Here are some event masterlists too — one (based on dark rpgs) two, three (masterlist of event and task masterlists)!

3) Keep the main active! Even if it’s posting promos. Although it’s everyone's responsibility in a roleplay group to keep things active (that’s right, the admins can’t force all you demons to be active!) it’s always nice when the main is updated and running. Make sure your inactivity checks and posts are consistent. 

4) Encourage communication between members! I want to mention a few things here. To start with many roleplay groups have a separate place for people to talk out of character, sometimes this is done via a sideblog and other times it’s commonly Discord and I think that’s a really cool way to get everyone mingling and starting plots together. Another is to urge people to make starters and reply to other peoples starters, if a character is being left out make an extra effort to try and include them in to things. Memes! Memes are another great way to get people interacting so make sure to reblog a bunch of them.

5) Diversity! I don’t know about anybody else but if I look at an RPG and all their characters are white, cis and skinny it’s a big turn off for me. Something that makes me join RPGs too are the faceclaims and I urge your most wanted character suggestions and/or open biographies depending on your RPG to be diverse — please consider including disabled faceclaims, plus size faceclaims, non-cis faceclaims, age diverse faceclaims and faceclaims of colour! If you need suggestions there are loads of masterlists over at @tasksweekly​, check out our ‘poc, body diversity, age diversity, gif pack, rp icons’ tags, we have a directory of people with resources here, trans faceclaim masterlist here, body diverse masterlist here, lgbtqia+ directory here, and a South Asian directory here!

Some more guides:

How to Market Tour RPG Efficiently by maewine

How to Decline an Application by maewine

How Do You Manage to Keep and Rp Running so Long? by mcthsman

That’s all I can really think of for now though so I hope this helps anon! If anyone has anything else to add to this please send me a message and I’ll update this post. If you do get around to opening your roleplay group you’re welcome to sling me the link and I’ll promote it, I only have two rules that are 1) no problematic faceclaims and 2) make it diverse!

Take care anon.

LITTLE DETAILS ABOUT CHICAGO AND WHERE IS CHICAGO:

Chicago is located in the state of Illinois in the Midwest, and is the third most populous city in the United States.  Our neighboring states are Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky, and sometimes even considered Michigan if you don’t count Lake Michigan getting in the way. Also, this might be a surprise to most people, but Chicago is not the capital of Illinois! I repeat, Chicago is not the capital of Illinois. Springfield is the capital of Illinois. 

In addition, here is how to properly pronounce the state Illinois. It’s Illinoi. Literally, do not pronounce the ‘S’ at the end or you will get the stink face. Or say it like this, EL-IN-NOY or Ill-uh-noy. Just... The ‘S’ is silent, okay? Remember that?

Also, don’t ever call Chicago Chiraq. It’s horrible. It’s stupid. It’s insulting to Chicago. And if I hear that word one more time I am going to knock someone in the nose. 

REGIONS:

Chicago is a huge city! Here are some regions, which in the US we call counties of the surroundings of Chicago.

Chicago-Aurora-Joliet, IL Metropolitan Division

Cook County (Where I live yay!)

DeKalb County 

DuPage County 

Grundy County 

Kane County 

Kendall County

McHenry County 

Will County 

Here are some towns that are located where in Chicago. This would be very handy if you’re traveling outside from the Loop in Downtown. The Loop in downtown is pretty much where everything is at. All the public transportation, stores, food places, and close to a lot of sight seeing stuff. I’ll get to that part soon.

North Side:

Lincoln Park

North Center

Lincoln Square

Edgewater

West Side:

Edison Park

Logan Square 

West Town

Portage Park

South Side:

Beverly

Hyde Park

Bridgeport

Near-South Side

COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES:

We have many different types of colleges and universities here in Chicago. From liberal art schools, medical schools, and more! Now there’s colleges located right in downtown, and then there’s some located and scattered in the North, West, and South side of Chicago. I’ll be labeling them for you.

Downtown:

Roosevelt University

Colombia College 

Kendall College Chicago

Harold Washington College

Westwood College

Robert Morris College

The Illinois Institute of Art - Chicago

Illinois Technical College

DePaul University Loop Campus 

Loyola University of Chicago

University of Chicago

University of Illinois at Chicago

Other colleges/universities located in the Chicagoland area:

North Park University

Northwestern University

DePaul University

Chicago State University

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Northeastern Illinois University

Saint Xavier University

PLACES TO GO IN CHICAGO:

Navy Pier

Art Institute of Chicago

Willis Tower (but everyone still calls it the Sears Tower)

Shedd Aquarium

Field Museum of Natural History

Museum of Science and Industry

Grant Park

Lincoln Park Zoo

Adler Planetarium

Wrigley Field (Cubs Stadium -- Northside baseball team)

Buckingham Fountain

Chicago Theatre

Soldier Field

Brookfield Zoo (the zoo that isn’t free so beware hella expensive)

Chicago Riverwalk

Tribune Tower

Michigan Avenue Bridge

Loyola University Museum of Art

The Hideout

RESTAURANTS: 

Girl & the Goat

Alinea

Frontera Grill

The Purple Pig

Quartino Ristorante

The Publican

Bavette's Bar and Boeuf

Eddie V's

Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse

The Capital Grille

Antique Taco

Gale Street Inn

The Pasta Bowl

Shaw's Crab House

Smoque BBQ

Les Nomades

Yolk

TRANSPORTATION:

In Chicago, no one has a car. And if they do, they’re considered almost like a God by their friends and family. But, driving in Chicago isn’t great. Gotta deal with one way streets, clustered streets with bikers and walkers all over the place. Not only do you have to watch out on the road for yourself, but almost for those around you. You have skateboarders all over the place, BMxers, bikers taking sharp turns without having any traffic bike lights on them. (Biggest assholes of the entire street I must say). No one enjoys driving in the city. So, people take the public transportation which is called the CTA. 

What is the CTA?: Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. (via Wikipedia)

CTA Trains: There’s several different coloured train signs that takes you to different places in the Chicagoland area. There is blue, green, brown, pink, red, purple, orange, and yellow! Knowing what train colour you are on is very important because if you’re on the brown line, and trying to get on the green line train, you’re screwed. So make sure you get on the right train and know where you are going because the train system is very confusing! If you want to know what time the train starts and ends for any colour line train, click here.

CTA Buses: Buses only goes on main streets. You will never see them on side streets of houses. They also go one way, unless there’s something going on that street which makes the buses reroute which is every public transportation traveler's life a living hell. The buses though are much more simple than the trains since you can easily get on and off of these. While trains are used for longer rides, buses are used for shorter rides. 

CULTURE OF CHICAGO:

Now, everyone has their own experience in Chicago. Everyone does their own things because there’s literally so much things you can do in Chicago. But from my own experience and what I’ve seen, this is how I see as the culture of Chicago.

We Chicagoans loves to eat.We are known for our deep-dish pizza, the Chicago-style hot dog and the Italian beef sandwich. Just thinking about these food just make my mouth all watery. Not only that, but we’re huge into brewing. Like tea and coffee. Mainly coffee. Also, Chicago is a very well diverse city! We have African-American, Asian-American, European, Hispanic, and Native American citizens and much more! All amazing worldwide cultures are gathering here in one city and expanding their traditions into Chicago. Most areas in Chicago is known to have a certain cultural background regions like Little Italy, Paseo Boricua, and China Town! 

Also, Chicago is very artsy. We have many amazing and talented artists out there that origins from Chicago ranging from genres of the Chicago blues, Chicago soul, Jazz, Gospel, indie rock, indie folk, hip hop, industrial music, and punk rock. Prominent figures from Chicago blues include Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Syl Johnson, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and Bo Diddley! 

WEATHER:

The weather is Chicago is very unpredictable. In the morning it will be so cold, but by early afternoon it will be so hot. And by evening it will get cold again. Never is it the same temperature, always rocking around back and fourth. Since Chicago is located in the Midwest, yes Chicago does in fact get snow. And I mean we really get a lot of snow. Looking for a good heavy duty winter boots to help keep you warm while waiting for any CTA? I am sorry, but UGGS will not cut out. Yes, the snow can be quite pretty. Except for when it starts turning all grey and black from the car’s tires. Also, do not eat the yellow snow. I repeat, do not eat the yellow snow! I mean -- you can, but that’s just plain nasty. 

CHICAGO SLANG AND ALSO HOW WE SOUND LIKE:

When I am out of town, I always get called out for speaking too fast or that my words sounds like they’re together. Here is a video that I actually found a while ago that I giggled to a little bit. Oddly, a lot of the phrases here is in fact true. But these people in the video are indeed not Chicagoans. They look like some college students from some other state or suburb. So whatever. Anyways, it’s Shit Chicagoans Say, Despite that they’re not true Chicagoans and I can tell this, they do have a good aspect of how Chicagoans are.

Here are some slang words that we say that comes to mind:

Bogus (ex. that’s like ‘so unfair’)

Square (ex.meaning we’re even now)

Shit on Fire (ex. like good as food. that shit is on fire)

PO (police)

Heated (ex. pissed off another ex. a lot of cops in one area)

FuFu (honestly idk but i say it with anything so it’s cool)

Hella (Freaking, fucking, idk you use you when you’re freaking out. ex. “That’s hella crazy!” or “that’s hella bogus”

Let’s start with the BASICS.

Your theme: is it clean? Is the background image/sidebar image warped or stretched? Does it adapt to varying screen dimensions nicely? Do the colours all match? Is any of it hard on the eyes? (RPH blogs are a great resource for themes! Don’t settle for one in Tumblr’s theme garden.)

Your plot: have you double checked for grammatical/spelling errors? (Run your plots and bios past friends so they can tell you if anything doesn’t make sense/gets lost in translation! Sometimes we spend so long writing them we miss the mistakes.) Is it clear and concise? (Read: concise =/= brief. Cut excess anything. Keep only the essentials.) Are their details and twists that make your plot/story/concept special and unique? What makes it different than every other roleplay? You want rpers reading your plot to choose YOURS over everyone else’s. Try to break out of stereotypes. ( I will write more on this in another guide on day )

Your characters: (Ignore if you are an OC rp) Are you a bio RP, or a skeleton RP? Either way, your characters are CRUCIAL. Rpers might come to your roleplay and love your plot/concept, but if they don’t find unique, interesting characters, they won’t bother applying. Take a archetype or stereotype and flip it on it’s head. Pregnant cheerleader? Maybe she got pregnant on purpose to make money off of the adoption to pay off a parent’s debts. Bad boy? Maybe he’s a theatre major doing some in character research for a TV role he’s desperate for, and the leather is all an act. Explore the unique, not the easy!

Okay, AESTHETICS.

We all like to pretend that your graphics and theme don’t matter - that your writing is all that counts, but that’s a lie. Yes, writing is most important. But your graphics (character, promo, theme, etc.) are your FIRST IMPRESSION - and you only get to make one. People will come to your roleplay for your graphics, and hopefully stay for your writing. So this IS important. 

You DO NOT have to be a photoshop wiz to have great graphics - you don’t need anything FANCY. If you can’t come up with anything at all, there are lots of talented, generous RPHs who take commissions & make graphics for roleplays if you check their rules and ask politely. 

Your graphics need to be eye catching, but not overwhelming. Following graphic trends in the rp community can be a great starting point - but you also want to stand out from the crowd. When you scroll through the tags, what do you see? Lots of cityscapes and beaches, lots of popular FCs. Make sure yours will pop out to rpers scrolling through the tags!

Use a common PSD or colour scheme in all your graphics. Your character, promo, theme, and other graphics should all match and look like a set.

Use HIGH QUALITY photos for your graphics. Anything that you have to stretch or make blurry when enlarging to fit will look unpleasing to the eye and likely set people off from looking much further. Roleplays with high quality photos in their graphics exude a more professional tone.

Looking PROFESSIONAL & MATURE.

Read: professional & mature =/= elitist and unapproachable. In fact, you as an admin should exude friendliness and inclusiveness. Hopefully rpers feel comfortable approaching you with questions and applications. But there is something to be said for admins who are professional and mature in the way they handle themselves/questions/their members. 

Using gifs to reply to asks/in general posts looks unprofessional and tacky, sorry. Unless you’ve gone out of your way to make a set of gifs that are all coloured/sized the same to be your trademark, this looks sort of childish and will put a great deal of rpers off your roleplay.

Do NOT make posts asking/begging for auditions and interest in your RP. It looks desperate! If you have some characters you’d really love filled - make them a promo graphic featuring that character’s FC and a sneak peek of their bio in the text! Make a section in your character page for “most wanted characters” if you like. Anything but begging.

Avoid excessive irl posts. Posts like “I’m hopping in the shower, be back in a bit!” or “I’m off to school now! Leave us some apps while I’m gone?” look unprofessional and just clog up the dash and your main page. Everything on the main blog should be essential. Bios, FAQs, answers to questions, and any sort of important messages or extra world-building posts ( ie. playlists, challenges, events, etc.).

And finally, actually PROMOTING YOUR RP.

Make a sideblog for your promotions. Clogging your main blog with your promotions is a bad idea. If you make your sideblog automatically redirect to your main blog - even better! People will for sure get to your roleplay to see what all the great fuss is about.

Tag your promos properly. Remember, only your first 5 tags will show up in the tag feeds. These are the only tags that count when it comes to exposure. General tags come first usually ( ie. bio rp, skeleton rp, etc. ), and then more specific ( ie. mermaid rp, supernatural rp, college rp. ) Choose the most important/relevant 5 tags. Use a variety of tags on each promo to reach as many tags as possible!

Have a couple/a few different promo graphics. Variety is great, and keeps things fresh.

Are you using cool, interesting ways to promote your RP? Not all promotions have to be photo graphics! Make a gifset, or a trailer, or an 8tracks playlist & corresponding graphics/post. This extra time and effort will be NOTICED by roleplayers and show that you care about what you’re doing & put in the time and care to make things great.

Find RPH/Cs who accept promotion submissions. ( NOTE: DO NOT JUST SUBMIT YOUR PROMOS TO EVERY RPH/C YOU FIND. PLEASE READ THEIR RULES AND POLICY ON PROMOTIONS. Some RPH/Cs only promote their favourite roleplays, their own roleplays, or none at all & that’s perfectly okay. ) This will get you more exposure!

1. Declining a great app for a role that went to someone else:

So, this is hard. The app was great, but the other was better. I know how tough this is, and there are things you can do to make it easier.

Decline politely, but let them know that their app did not go unnoticed and without thought. Did you like it? What did you like about it? Tell them. When being declined from an RP or 1x1, honest compliments make it easier, and encourages rpers to keep trying in their endeavors.

Were they what you were looking for in your RP? Encourage them to try again for a different role. You don’t have to lose them just because there was someone else who wrote the character better.

>> Examples of good declining messages:

Thank you (OOC NAME) for your lovely audition for (CHARACTER NAME), I/we really enjoyed reading it! Unfortunately, we’ve decided to select another player for the role. We encourage you to reapply for another character as we/I’d love to have you in the RP with us!

Hello (OOC NAME)! I/We’d like to thank you for your audition for (CHARACTER NAME), but sadly we’ve decided to go with another audition for the character. I/We wish you the best of luck with your future RPing, and we/I’d like to commend you on your obvious talent.

2. Declining an app that isn’t great, and there are no other apps for the character:

Okay, so this app is average. Just average. The understanding of the character and potential is not up the the bar you’ve set for your RP, but you can’t use the excuse of choosing someone else simply because there hasn’t been anyone else. Don’t fret!

The tip is to just thank them for auditioning and remain professional. The more precise and respectful you are, honestly the more the RPer can focus on that and less on the pain of being rejected.

>> Examples of good declining messages:

Thank you so much for your audition for (CHARACTER NAME), we/I really appreciate the time put into this application. Unfortunately, we/I’ve decided after much consideration that you are not a great fit for this RP. We/I wish you the best of luck in the future. Happy RPing!

3. Declining an app that simply just sucks:

So this can sometimes be the worst kind of app to decline, simply because it’s awful. It’s hard! You don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Choose between two options: 1) Be brief and polite and wish them well, or 2) Be polite and offer them tips on how to improve. This can help them in their RP future when applying elsewhere! We want to be supportive, and encourage them to keep working!

>> Examples of good declining messages:

Thank you for your audition for (CHARACTER NAME), though we’ve/I’ve decided that we do not think you’re not the right fit for this RP, we/I with you the best of luck with your future endeavors, happy RPing!

Thank you for your audition for (CHARACTER NAME)! Unfortunately, we’ve/I’ve decided that we do not think you’re not the right fit for this RP. We/I think if you work on your (ONE SMALL CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ie: grammar, syntax, vocabulary, punctuation.), you’ll be on your well on your way! Happy RPing!