Why do Some RPGs get interest an others don't?

I'm curious both on my own behalf and in general. Is it that some kinds, like those based on known sources, like videogames and anime have the familiarity factor going for them? What kind of genres have the most appeal? What pitches work? Is more detail in your initial pitch better or is less? Feel free to kick in with your own experiences.

edited 6th Feb '14 1:09:05 PM by tricksterson

It's luck, to an extent, I think. For me, the games I've spent weeks thinking up in my spare time have pretty much all died in days, while the ones I made on a whim are the only ones that have lasted.

Though going off of that, I've found that most games that have giant signup threads tend to die really fast, while ones that are less wordy, while still being able to convey their story, work out well. This is most likely because it's a roleplaying game, and if people get the tone that it's just going to be a railroaded script that you follow and the GM happens to mention your characters every now and then in their posts, then it takes a lot of the steam out of things.

Another thing is that I've seen is that the presence of GMPC's exacerbate those sorts of problems, by tending to be in the spotlight more often, which is why I refuse to ever make anything more than temporary NPCs or recurring bit-part NPCs whenever I run a game.

But this is all for prose-format non-crossover RPs. What works and doesn't is a whole 'nother beast when dealing with those. Also, things like a signup being being totally misspelled or poorly-worded affects things as well.

I'd wondered if my putting a lot of detail into the worlds I created had something to do with it.

I also think some GMs around here have reputations, both positive and negative that precede them. If I were to take the example of myself, I would call myself "ambitious but rubbish" in that I have fun ideas, but I'm pretty bad at actually executing them and I think people around here know that by now, which detracts from whatever RP I may well try and GM.

edited 6th Feb '14 2:33:29 PM by Plumbum

Likewise, for me it's that I don't think I've ever actually stuck through an RP from beginning to end. So why should someone join one I set up myself...

Some ideas just don't attract a lot of interest because they're not conveyed perfectly. I don't think anyone here is or should be a master salesman, by the way, I just think some have a way of selling ideas better than others.

edited 6th Feb '14 6:40:07 PM by Stratofarius

I'm a more infrequent player around here, so I'm probably out of touch with how a lot of other people figure their way through issues like this, but here's how I go about it (or at least step one for me, because I'm already taking up space with that one as it is):

One important aspect, I believe, is presentation, or making a (good) first impression. What makes me actually click on a link to a potential RP in the first place is seeing a nice, interesting title (or possibly a short, straight-to-the-point statement about the concept you wish to attempt). It's the very first thing anyone will be seeing when looking for a new RP—especially one that's being run by an unknown/new face in the community—so if you can't get my attention or something about the presentation makes me wanna back-peddle a good twenty feet away from it (e.x., the titles have really poor grammar, spelling errors, generally looks uninteresting or long-winded, etc.), you've missed out on your chance to pique my interest, and you'll probably never see me have any desire to even click the link to the sign-up. If you do manage to not screw up on that, though, it's pretty much up to chance afterwards on how many people will openly show interest in your ideas. (Genre preferences, for instance, would definitely affect what kind—and potentially the number—of people that would reply to you.)

Everything else after that is pretty much up in the air, but I think that as long as you can continue to properly communicate what your idea is and make sure that you know what you're doing as a GM, you should be okay.

edited 7th Feb '14 6:01:28 PM by naomihansen

I can concur with most of the statements made here. There's a couple things I can add.

By my personal experience, RPs that follow strict, set-in-stone rules, at least for combat, (Like an RP that uses the DnD system or something.) tend to do poorer than other RPs that just use free-form on this site. Granted, I tend to avoid said RPs myself, so this is again just by my personal experience.

Another thing I'll add, is that by my experience, you have to expect people to end up leaving. Both of the RPs I'm running stand at around 1/4th the number of currently participating players than the number that actually signed up and were accepted. It seems to be a particular problem of TV Tropes RPs in general, as you get people who signed up only to realize after a week or so that the RP wasn't what they were expecting, and end up leaving; usually without saying anything. If you feel your RP needs, say, four players at minimum in order for you to keep the story moving, you need to accept more people than that before you start up the RP.

This has also taught me to try and minimize the importance of any single Player Character. This is good practice anyway, as one person stealing the spotlight is usually no fun for everyone else in the RP, but with the above lesson in mind, you also need to be wary of the possibility that the player who has their character holding the important Macguffin might suddenly leave and stop posting in the middle of a battle, without warning or even mentioning that they're gone. You need to know when the right time to step in and either take over the character's actions yourself or have their participation suddenly not matter as much, obviously depending on the situation. I personally feel that a week minimum is good courtesy, in case the player in question just lost power or internet for a couple days.

edited 16th Feb '14 4:16:19 AM by FirockFinion