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<blockquote data-quote="perrinmiller" data-source="post: 5985058" data-attributes="member: 88649"><p><strong>Note #12: Screening Recruits at the Beginning</strong></p><p></p><p><strong><u><span style="font-size: 18px">Screening Recruits at the Beginning</span></u></strong></p><p></p><p>Most DMs are looking to find those players they can rely on to stick around and who will make the game enjoyable with their writing and interaction with others. Often it is the player, not their character concept, that is more important. Any player you meet for the first time can be one of those that will enjoy role-playing with you for years, or they could disappear after a few weeks. Sadly, statistics have most new people disappearing within 1-3 months, maybe 10% or less last more than 6 months.</p><p></p><p>So in getting started, what can you do to get people interested while waiting for the game to really start and find out who will stick around?</p><p></p><p>You can designate a pre-game IC thread for the applicants to strut their abilities and actually prove themselves. Combined with a some other character generation requirements like descriptions/appearances, personalities, backgrounds, strengths/weaknesses, etc... each applicant will have to invest thought and creativity way beyond making a character sheet.</p><p></p><p>You designate the Location as a DM-free Sandbox. You might even provide the layout and various locations with the area of the sandbox. Or, if the boundaries are well defined, let the players run with it and make it all up.</p><p></p><p>You give them the basic guidance and initial setting information to let them move their characters around and interact with the other players they encounter. Then you, as DM, just sit back and read. If anyone needs an NPC, they treat them as props, but they should be focused on interacting with each other instead.</p><p></p><p>The advantages for are great:</p><p>1. You get to see how players will work together.</p><p>2. You get to see how frequently they post.</p><p>3. You get to see if they can write and format their posts.</p><p>4. You get to see which players can write a decent application, but cannot actually role-play</p><p>5. Those players that flake out on you generally do so in the beginning. Now that will happen before the game starts</p><p>6. If you let those applicants who don't make it continue the free role-playing after selections, you have a replacement pool of players/characters available as well.</p><p>7. The players get to test drive their character and enjoy themselves while the wait.</p><p></p><p>This does mean you will have a lot more to read than just applications. But, in the end, you will still have to sit down and decide the players you want and in this process your job might be easier than you think.</p><p></p><p>You will also get more players to tryout even after the initial push for recruiting, realizing they have a chance since applications without role-playing are not going to be considered. </p><p></p><p>There are a few downsides to a pre-game IC thread:</p><p>1. More players means more chaos, and even some decent players cannot handle it.</p><p>2. In two weeks you could get 200-300 posts on a big site.</p><p>3. Without good structure or defined space, some people are just lost on what to do.</p><p>4. On a small site, the exercise is not going to screen people out if you don't get more applicants than the number of players you are looking for.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="perrinmiller, post: 5985058, member: 88649"] [b]Note #12: Screening Recruits at the Beginning[/b] [b][u][SIZE=5]Screening Recruits at the Beginning[/SIZE][/u][/b] Most DMs are looking to find those players they can rely on to stick around and who will make the game enjoyable with their writing and interaction with others. Often it is the player, not their character concept, that is more important. Any player you meet for the first time can be one of those that will enjoy role-playing with you for years, or they could disappear after a few weeks. Sadly, statistics have most new people disappearing within 1-3 months, maybe 10% or less last more than 6 months. So in getting started, what can you do to get people interested while waiting for the game to really start and find out who will stick around? You can designate a pre-game IC thread for the applicants to strut their abilities and actually prove themselves. Combined with a some other character generation requirements like descriptions/appearances, personalities, backgrounds, strengths/weaknesses, etc... each applicant will have to invest thought and creativity way beyond making a character sheet. You designate the Location as a DM-free Sandbox. You might even provide the layout and various locations with the area of the sandbox. Or, if the boundaries are well defined, let the players run with it and make it all up. You give them the basic guidance and initial setting information to let them move their characters around and interact with the other players they encounter. Then you, as DM, just sit back and read. If anyone needs an NPC, they treat them as props, but they should be focused on interacting with each other instead. The advantages for are great: 1. You get to see how players will work together. 2. You get to see how frequently they post. 3. You get to see if they can write and format their posts. 4. You get to see which players can write a decent application, but cannot actually role-play 5. Those players that flake out on you generally do so in the beginning. Now that will happen before the game starts 6. If you let those applicants who don't make it continue the free role-playing after selections, you have a replacement pool of players/characters available as well. 7. The players get to test drive their character and enjoy themselves while the wait. This does mean you will have a lot more to read than just applications. But, in the end, you will still have to sit down and decide the players you want and in this process your job might be easier than you think. You will also get more players to tryout even after the initial push for recruiting, realizing they have a chance since applications without role-playing are not going to be considered. There are a few downsides to a pre-game IC thread: 1. More players means more chaos, and even some decent players cannot handle it. 2. In two weeks you could get 200-300 posts on a big site. 3. Without good structure or defined space, some people are just lost on what to do. 4. On a small site, the exercise is not going to screen people out if you don't get more applicants than the number of players you are looking for. [/QUOTE]
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