Signing up, and then?

How laid out should a starting point for an RP be? Roleplaying can be very confusing to get into, and especially the first post can be hard. While the overall goal of a narrative may be clear, it can be difficult to figure out what your character should do at the start of a story. A GM can give strong directions, or leave it more open, but it all comes down to player preference in the end. How do you prefer to have an RP start?

I think that it really depends on the roleplay and the GM, and more importantly the style of roleplay. For example I think that an open world adventure roleplay would have it work better to leave the intro up to the roleplayers. As a GM I would give them a general guide saying "Have all the characters meet at the tavern", but leave how they get to the tavern or what they were doing before hand up to the individual player.

Then you also have the very structured style of intro. For example in a roleplay I just started I gave the characters very specific instructions. You arrive at A, pass out, wake up at B, go to C and introduce yourself. Probably could have done things more creatively, but then again its a very structured roleplay.

I enjoy posts that take even the constraints of a very strict GM and make them entertaining, creative, and enjoyable. Whether the start of a roleplay is strict or open, its up to the creativity of the player to make the post entertaining to everyone else. I personally enjoy more open posts to start with, it gives you an impression of the people you are playing with and how they think.

Now I better understand neighbor roleplay style on this game. If you do not provide an explanation of roleplay style here, we may experience confusion to play this game

I really like to establish a little bit of my character's history, and their personality. I think personality is really important to get across as early as you can, through gimmicks, quirks and conversations and reactions. Outside of that I like to give them direction and a plot rather quickly, because otherwise the character and story will quickly become very boring and plain. I also like to try and make them unique. In Pokémon RPs we often see trainers wanting to "challenge the league" or "explore the region" but more original ideas are less seen, and I try to extract a more original plot from my SU and drive it home. Zakk in Begin Again is a good example, but I didn't have the drive to keep the story going, and neither did I have the connection to the RPers that I do now <3

When I am a player in a RP, I want to feel like I have a purpose and a mission at the start. I don't want to just be let out into a world with the words "have fun!"

However, I also really don't want to get overly detailed instructions that leave almost no freedom at all. Like, I've been in journey pokémon RPs that have a set list of instructions on what they must do in order to progress. What if it wouldn't make sense for my character to take those actions or make those choices?

In Crossroads, I experimented with a new way of giving players enough purpose to post, but not restricting them too much. I forced them to JP, in order to make sure that we build some relations between characters. I forced them to pick situations from a list in every chapter, sort of like quests in a RPG video game. I realized after a while that it might be too restricting to tell them how to solve the quests though. Rather, just being given a situation and a person to JP with, worked really well. I will likely re-use this system at some point c:

I like to have a clear goal or even an event to start an RP off with, as opposed to "here, fly free my pretties and try to make the best of it that you can".

Moreso than that, though, I think it's important to understand the setting of the RP before going in: particularly if it's set in a specific location. Sometimes an RP will tell you to go to Town A, without ever describing what Town A is like, and you end up having to sort of guess at how to describe your surroundings or inferring from other players; some of whom may describe the surroundings in a contradictory way.

And if we're expected to interact with an NPC (likely a professor or something) in our opening post then I really want to know what that NPC is like, even in vague or cliche terms. Otherwise it gets a bit frustrating to have to guess at too many things. In a way, it limits the ways your character can interact with the actual world and in my own opinion restricts creativity rather than encourages it.

Basically: I like having a detailed setting/world laid out for me and maybe some kind of goal, so I can play around but also have something to work towards.

Fire said:

When I am a player in a RP, I want to feel like I have a purpose and a mission at the start. I don't want to just be let out into a world with the words "have fun!"

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Sweet Dreams said:

I like to have a clear goal or even an event to start an RP off with, as opposed to "here, fly free my pretties and try to make the best of it that you can".

Moreso than that, though, I think it's important to understand the setting of the RP before going in: particularly if it's set in a specific location. Sometimes an RP will tell you to go to Town A, without ever describing what Town A is like, and you end up having to sort of guess at how to describe your surroundings or inferring from other players; some of whom may describe the surroundings in a contradictory way.
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I think these two statements sum up my thoughts on the matter. I like having a clear mission/plot to start off with, lets me know I'm not let out on my own, I can plan with other people easier, and it makes it easier for me to come up with a post and not take a week to do it. Then if it turns more sandbox-y, I'm okay with that because I already have a bit of a start on my own.

I think, regardless of the roleplay, the beginning should be pretty well laid out, much like the tutorial of a game. Players can generally carry things on their own afterwards (unless it's a chaptered story where only so much info is given for each area), but the start can often be the largest obstacle. Allowing players to start however they want typically results in everyone sitting around all confused for a while, until one or two people decide to test the waters (if anyone decides to at all), and then everyone else follows suit. The latter doesn't tend to work all that nicely.

I prefer to start an rp with a gm example post. either their own character doing something or them showing through npcs how you should be getting started. It wouldn't be definite, but a general idea of something. it makes it easier to get your ideal post image across as a gm and makes it easier for your players to jump in after.

I am a firm believer the the OP/first mission of a RP should be the most detailed, guided and intricate part of RP, especially if it's a sandbox RP. It basically gives the players the little start-up 'push' that allows them to make their own plots and storylines. After the first mission/scene, people usually have made a clear direction for their characters and don't need the GM's help as much, making detail a loss less important in subsequent missions.

I've clearly fallen victim to the burden of overwhelming information at the beginning of an RP. /me cries over Ascent.

But at the same time that experience taught me alot. It's possible to incorporate a lot of the lore you have planned a little later into designing your RP. I think it's best to catch peoples attention with a well structured, interesting OP that has just the right amount of content to get people invested in the story you can create together.

Once you have those people on board, revealing more lore you have cooked up periodically, won't overwhelm people... and might even get them further hyped for the RP to come.

So from past experience to the present date, I really feel like the answer is simple. Start off with what you need and a little extra, if the interest is there then introduce some new concepts periodically, maybe even use them to keep people entertained.

Ice said:

How laid out should a starting point for an RP be? Roleplaying can be very confusing to get into, and especially the first post can be hard. While the overall goal of a narrative may be clear, it can be difficult to figure out what your character should do at the start of a story. A GM can give strong directions, or leave it more open, but it all comes down to player preference in the end. How do you prefer to have an RP start?

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I think it depends on how the GM wants to handle the story. When it comes down to preference, I want a more pseudosandbox type wherein the GM sets the story, several goals to complete the chapter and move the story forward but there's this whole other option to just not do this goals and create your own story inside the RP.