Constructive criticism for a lot of people trying to find a game. If your LFG post is merely a three-sentence short paragraph, it usually... sucks. A LFG post or application, whether on https://www.reddit.com/r/lfg, https://roll20.net/, or elsewhere should be treated with the same care and attention to detail as a job interview, or a job application.
You need to stand out. You need to prove yourself to be a high-quality and fun person to play with. When I offered to start DMing a game, I flat out ignored the people who sent me a one or two sentence private message, in favor of those that sent a few paragraphs and actually answered the questions I asked in my application post. When I have joined IRL games from reddit that did not cull the weeds at all and accepted any incoming applications, I have had much worse experiences. The games were less fun for me.
Go read the top twenty posts on the LFG new queue, https://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/new. You will see what I mean, how the applications start to blend together, and how the low-effort and high-quality ones differ. Use proper grammar, proper use of paragraphs, sentence breaks, bullet points where appropriate. (How to use reddit's markdown formatting - https://www.reddit.com/wiki/commenting. Reddit Enhancement Suite is also useful, found at https://www.reddit.com/r/enhancement)
Off the top of my head, here are the kinds of things you want to put in a successful LFG post or application:
- Online vs Offline
- Time zone and any key availability. (US West coast / US east coast / Europe; not available weekends / not available weeknights; available during the day; etc)
- Experience level with rpg game systems (5e, 3.5, 4e, PF, Shadowrun, Paranoia, Star Wars, Exalted, Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, total newbie, etc.)
- Alternatively, the specific game system you are looking to play.
- Looking to join a game as a DM, looking to join a game as a player, looking to start a game as a DM, looking to start a game as a Player, etc.
- What type of game are you looking for? Hack-and-slash diablo style dungeon crawl, mystery and intrigue, high fantasy, horror, theatre and immersive roleplay, Bobo-the-Clown DND where everything is 100% ridiculous and hilarious and random, steampunk, gritty high-danger realism...?
- Why are you awesome? Why do I, reading your post, want to invite YOU to MY game, over the dozens or hundreds of other randoms on the internet? Keep this part brief, but it is important. Show some personality!
Et cetera. Stuff like that. If you are offering to DM, you need to post a little more information to go with the above:
- Information about your world. ONE PARAGRAPH MAXIMUM. Indicate if it is homebrew, an established setting, a published module, etc.
- Questions for your potential players to answer. (This will weed out low-effort versus high-quality applications). Here is an example questionaire I have used to great success - https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/37js39/i_frequently_run_games_for_players_with_no/
- Any basic homebrew rules and restrictions you might be using. EX: No Drow, no Evil characters, minimum cursing allowed in my game because it intended to be PG-friendly, etc.
- What source books are allowed, how open are you to homebrew or customizing races/classes/etc.
I hope all this helps, I hope you find a game! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment