The Dark City roleplay recruitment guide!

Welcome to the TDC Roleplay recruitment thread! If you are making your own RP thread here on The Dark City and are having some trouble thinking of what to include in your recruitment you can get some ideas by consulting this convenient guide!

If you are reading this do not feel compelled or forced to use the template as it is only meant to provide some helpful tips and inspiration. Some of the points can also help with the members that will be taking part in the Roleplay.

Game Introduction:

In the introduction it would be good to include a brief description of what the game is going to be about. It would be good to include the goals of the mission being carried out, where it takes place, the faction or factions involved and what it is based around.

This could be anything from a few paragraphs to just a couple of lines, but as long as it is captivating and interesting it will certainly be doing its job!

The introduction should ideally not give away any key points in the plot and can be as long or as short as you wish. It can be rich in information or it can hold back, revealing only the atmosphere in an attempt to draw people in.

It can help to include more, as the members wishing to join can post back stories for their characters that are more appropriate and easier to tie into the tale being spun.

It is also very useful to add an example post to your introduction to set the atmosphere for the rest of the RP and help the members settle in better to the game. For this introduction a couple of paragraphs will suffice. Even though you do not want to go off on a tangent it would not be too good to use only a couple of sentences. Quality over quantity, however!

If you have one paragraph that is extraordinarily well written it is far more likely to appeal than five paragraphs of an ill-conceived plot. A single paragraph that is well written and captivating will also be much better than a single sentence that explains the plot in a simple fashion:

In the deepest black, in the coldest night, where even the shadows fear to tread, the maniacal machinations of Kherazh’ra Tre’yth scream and howl where only the doomed may lurk unscathed.

In these endless halls a gang known as the Corrosive Corvid has been summoned, only speculating of what it is they must retrieve. (Personally, I would choose this over the second option. Even though it is barely a paragraph it is immersive and explains the basic plot in a more appropriate style).

A Haemonculus recruits the Corrosive Corvid gang to go on a quest to retrieve an item. (Even though this may give an accurate description I do not feel that it is dramatic enough to be the full description. If you have a lot of writing for the introduction this may prove useful as a summary, however).

Don’t be afraid to include too much detail, though. If you have too little detail attention may be lost and that will have disastrous results!


Rules of the RP:

Establishing the rules of the RP is probably the most important part of the template. Without rules there is no order, and without order there is only chaos! What is chaos? Chaos is the enemy of any organised Game Master!

Would you give in to the Great Enemy?

A good thing to state in the rules is what time basis you wish to be posting in. It would be good to set aside a day to post on, whether this is once every one or two weeks. You could, however, just update it whenever everybody else is ready, making it fair and less pressured. This can lead to laxity occasionally, and as real life gets in the way we can all be susceptible to this (myself included).
Also post what you expect from the members, so what length you would like the posts and how they interpret your descriptions. (i.e, can they only mention things mentioned by the GM or can they be a bit more creative?)


Character development:

Once the introduction and rules have been established you can get down to business. The number of characters that you should ideally be looking for is anywhere between four and eight to begin with, although you can have whatever number you desire. (Bear in mind that a one man RP is the loneliest RP). You can be as specific or as vague as you like for the qualities that you request for the characters, although it is nice to provide a template sheet that can be filled out.

Here you need to ask yourself what the essential information is, what could be useful for the RP and what could be used to help flesh out the character and his/her/it’s background and personality.

If you include too much it can be daunting or tiresome to fill out, so be slightly vague and let the players come flocking.

Some good questions to ask are:

Username: (The player’s name for convenience).

Character name: (The name of the character being played).

Age: (The given age of the character. This in itself can bring up personality. If your character is far older than the others taking part they could be wiser and well travelled. They could be more susceptible to soul lust, though.)

Equipment: (The equipment being carried by the Character. It would be useful if the GM could provide a list of what can be taken and specify any limitations on what can be carried.)

Origin: (The basic background of the character. This helps to establish a nice story that can be referred to in the RP to make it more believable).

Personality: (Does the character get on with others, is the character a team player or is the character vain and arrogant?)

Appearance: (A brief description of the Character’s appearance is very useful as it adds more detail to the story and my aid visualisation).

Other: (This is used for other relevant information).

After all of this has been established along with anything else that you feel is necessary, get recruiting and enjoy exploring every aspect of Ynneas Eldarith life in your RP!