Hello all! I'm looking to get as much feedback as I can on this issue. It tends to happen a lot, no matter what role play I'm in.
How long should you wait for someone to respond to your role play post?
For example:
Sam
Sam stood up, ready for action. He was unable to stop this threat himself, but maybe Jim could help.
"Jim," Sam said, "do you have a spell or ability that could help defeat this monster?"
What if the player who controls Jim doesn't respond for six days? Ten days? Two weeks?
This is happening all the time in a role play I've been a part of for about five years now. It's a long running role play, and the players are dedicated to it, but (in my opinion) slow to respond. It's common for the role play to go ten days without a response from a key player.
We're all adults with jobs, and most of us go to college, so I understand to a degree, but at the same time... Every time a monster attacks, (or any scenario requiring a reaction), it takes ten days average for a response, sometimes two weeks and beyond.
Opinions? - How long should a character wait for a response from another character?
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:45 am
This is a huge thing for me and I absolutely understand where you're coming from. It is frustrating beyond all measure to leave characters mid-swing in a charge or about to fall from a building, but they are awaiting a response from their teammate (or opponent).
It's been a huge reason why I don't RP as much as I used to, because I check my threads on my phone roughly every few hours, just to see if there's a new post. In the past it absolutely infuriated me that I saw some of my fellow players, logging in (confirmed by their profile's "Last Logged In: XX/XX/XX") and being online for an extended period of time (an hour at least) then refusing to post.
Anyway, in direct response to your question, I would say it always depends on the group and the people with which you role play. I try to tell my fellow players that they should post once every 1-3 days minimum. It doesn't usually work, but it helps direct folks properly. If it were up to me, it should be a minimum of once per day.
You say you've been with them for roughly five years, that's impressive in and of itself. I think the longest I managed to keep a group together was one and a half.
That being said, I would suggest talking with them individually, or as a group, discuss the situation over a medium other than posting, such as voice chat or group chat. If others feel the current setup is fine, then it's just the way it is. If they feel the same as you, then you may be able to set up specific times of the week that they are more active than others and thus you can get a steady flow of posts going instead of staggered as it has.
TLbiggrinR - Talk with your friends and experiment.
Hello all! I'm looking to get as much feedback as I can on this issue. It tends to happen a lot, no matter what role play I'm in.
How long should you wait for someone to respond to your role play post?
For example:
Sam
Sam stood up, ready for action. He was unable to stop this threat himself, but maybe Jim could help.
"Jim," Sam said, "do you have a spell or ability that could help defeat this monster?"
What if the player who controls Jim doesn't respond for six days? Ten days? Two weeks?
This is happening all the time in a role play I've been a part of for about five years now. It's a long running role play, and the players are dedicated to it, but (in my opinion) slow to respond. It's common for the role play to go ten days without a response from a key player.
We're all adults with jobs, and most of us go to college, so I understand to a degree, but at the same time... Every time a monster attacks, (or any scenario requiring a reaction), it takes ten days average for a response, sometimes two weeks and beyond.
Opinions? - How long should a character wait for a response from another character?
I don't do too well with groups; there's always one person (whether it's myself or another player) that always lags behind, which is why I prefer one-on-ones--and I already have a good RP relationship with someone, so far.
Anywho:
As Tonash Drahow said, it really depends on a number of factors (and it could be anything, really). One of those factors is whether or not there's a rule about how frequent you expect you and your fellow players to post. Is it one or two posts a week, every two weeks, and so on. For my roleplay, I have a requirement of one or two posts every two weeks (because some of our real lives are so hectic); one being the bare minimum. I also require that players must give the group a heads up if they'll be unable to post (for whatever reason: work, school, vacation,etc). If two weeks pass and there still isn't a post, I post/pm a friendly reminder that we're waiting on them. Whether there's a posting order (Jack>Jill>Jane>John) or if its casual, if it's been a month since their last post and they haven't given prior forewarning, something may be up. Then I'd make the hard decision of rallying everyone with an announcement, asking if the RPG is still something they're interested in pursuing; if the horse is dead, I have no interest in kicking it.
But, yes, talk with the group, gather their thoughts, find out what's happening. Communication is key. I can't tell you how many times I've seen RP's die because players want to be polite by idling waiting for the next post.
The short of it: 1) Always make sure you have clear requirements/rules about posting frequency and hiatuses.
2) Send friendly reminders out.
3)If that doesn't work communicate with the group, ask them if they're still interested in the roleplay. If they are, figure out ways to get that RP moving again; if not--and this will be hard--get moving without them or end it.
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:29 pm
I agree with the above. Experimentation and communication is key.
In general though there is indeed a too long for post time. The issue with taking a long time to get a post up is that by the time the post is actually up, the people waiting on it could have lost interest, and in turn also take a long time to respond. It is a vicious cycle.
What you can do about it depends on what your role in the equation is, though. It's not very clear in your opening post. Are you a GM/moderator, or are you a regular player?
GM-wise, I agree with what's been said about having rules. In an RP I run, we post in turn order; person A posts, then person B, then person C and then it's back to person A. The existing rule is to give everyone four days since it was their turn to post. If person A posts, person B gets four days to respond. If person B does not post within four days, then action is taken and arrangements made. Sometimes it is asking C if they don't mind waiting, other times person B is skipped and they are free to post for their character whenever they are ready. Sometimes more than four days pass before I notice that no one's responded in one of the RP's subgroups, but as soon as I notice it I try to figure out what is going on. I've been GMing that RP for almost five years. It does require some effort from the GM to make sure everyone is posting and everything is running smoothly, but that's the GM's responsibility.
Granted, at some point if roundabout everyone is taking a week or more to get a post out after their turn has started, then it's time to figure out what is going on. There is no way that 75% of the roleplayers will drop off the face of the RP for no good reason. Maybe as a GM you just need to bring up the matter to show them that you care, or maybe it is the case that no one is actually really interested any more. In the latter case, you as a GM needs to take responsibility for doing something to help rejuvenate the story. This could be from making a plot event to just demanding posts from people.
On the other hand, as a regular roleplayer, first you need to make sure that you are keeping on top of your posts. Be the change you want to see. After that, if your roleplay has an OOC thread, make a polite and unassuming mention of your situation, something like 'I am waiting for a post from Jim'. Sometimes people just don't know it is their turn. Third, discuss your issue with the GM of the roleplay. If it is just one person who's taking a long time to reply and they are holding you up, tell them that you find that you're always waiting a while for that person to respond and you're wondering if something is up with their situation. Maybe the GM will know something that is going on with the person you're waiting on, and even if they don't, at the very least they can go investigate.
If everyone is taking a while to respond, you should still talk to your GM about it, but at that point it would be a matter of sharing your concerns. Express that you sometimes find you're waiting a long long time to be able to post and that you sometimes lose interest by the time it is your turn to post (or whatever issue it is that you feel you have with waiting a long while; this one is just one of the more common ones I've encountered).
I'm a player in the role play I'm in, not the GM. I was one of the GMs, (there are about three at any given time), but that was several years ago. I create my own RPs occasionally so it's useful to hear from both perspectives.
The rule is one post per week.
I'm often reluctant to talk to people about their inactivity. I feel in a large part it's not really my place. When I was one of the GMs I would, but I'm not anymore, and with three GMs in place I would hope that someone is on top of it. In reality, only one GM ever does anything, and the other GMs don't even post unless he reminds them. It's like the title of GM is just honorary, really; I don't know why there's more than one.
I recently asked one of the players if I could GM her character, (as I was waiting on her), and that went well. Because I had her permission, I just controlled her character until I put her in a place where she wasn't restricting my character anymore. I could have kept controlling her character until she came back, but if I did that it would essentially be me role playing with myself. That's something I'd rather avoid.
I think a big part of it is because the group is so large. I could remind people to post, but that's a lot of reminders. There's about fifteen to twenty characters all in one place. I should really look into one on one role plays. It sounds like they're what I've been looking for. It's been so long since I was able to post once a day, I can't even remember what it feels like. Heck, I used to post dozens of times a day in a super old Sailor Moon RP. Literate posts, too. Man, that place was crazy active.
In the last RP I ran, I would give players three strikes before I kicked them out, and I stuck to it. If they didn't post in time, that was strike one. I was kind of ruthless, haha. That RP lasted about three months. I realize now it's probably best not to be ruthless; as the GM, it's more of my job to remind people, find out why they're not posting, and move their character along if they're in the way of someone else. 3nodding
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:45 am
The longest I've waited is 1-3 months, and as soon as they've been gone a month I feel it is fine to check up on them with a message, and if they don't respond end the roleplay.
As others have said, setting a schedule of some sort helps. Mine is making sure I post within 1-3 days tops, and expecting the other person to post a couple of times a week or once every couple of weeks, as I have become used to slow paced RPs.
I find that 1x1s are easier to work with as activity in a group really does depend on whose in it and how often they post in that particular RP. Also, there's nothing wrong with being a little ruthless as in running a large group it can often be needed, but I agree with knowing where to limit that ruthlessness. 3nodding
