Thread 96798379

Everywhere I've looked people only want to run asynchronous play-by-post. Games advertised as live text get a dearth of responses compared to PbP and voice. Players even feel entitled to tell you they've lost interest because it's not one of those formats.

Was there some revolution I slept on? Years ago you used to be able to find something. Now an entire summer went by without a single game showing up.

God damn it feels like this whole hobby died out of nowhere.

Do you have examples of these games? I’m interested

>>96798399
pretty sure OP means people get online at the same time and text it out.

in other words... a discord rp

>>96798379 (OP)
Live text games have always been a minority. People really love their beer and pretzels voice slop.

But games are down all around these days.

>>96798379 (OP)
I still run text games, but my online game group evolved out of IRC players years ago, back during the Adeptus Evangelion days.
I'm running a text game on discord on Sundays. I think the problem is that the sort of people who play games in this way are not only rarer, but gated communities like discords are naturally where we ended up because thats just the platform that makes sense for us, which isn't exactly easy for a rando to just kind of waltz their way in to.

>>96798399
>examples
You write it out and actually think about your character's actions. It's pretty simple.

>>96798410
>discord rp
Discord LFGs are chock full of ads for play by post. You'd think they'd be all for live sessions but they hate it the most.

>>96798439
It was always the minority but it's gone from 10% of games to 0%, and play-by-post went from 0 to 90 fast. Voicetards were always a problem but now it feels like PbP hovered up the crowd that would've existed for live.

>>96798439
Holy shit original Patchouli

Depends on the system, but they still exist in Discord for example. The problem with discord is that is active but the quality of RP is abysmal. Filled with dumb zoomer who don't know how to do it and retarded older people who don't care about teaching or enforcing some standards on them.

>>96798464
Even when you try to recruit players for live sessions nobody shows up anymore.
>>96798488
>Depends on the system
Which ones don't feel like panhandling for a single player to respond to your ad?

>>96798503
>Even when you try to recruit players for live sessions nobody shows up anymore.
Nah they swarm like locusts.

>>96798536
Are you confusing PbP for live sessions like I've seen some people do? Because my own games, and people I've seen trying to recruit for live, got nothing.

>>96798543
I'm not confusing them. Where are you trying to recruit?

>>96798550
Various discords for lfgs, the same places I've seen PbP and Voice games get dozens of responses. Where are you pulling from?

>>96798584
The actual game community discord.

I mean, I guess I’d be interested in it. Long as it doesn’t get too weird.

>>96798591
>The actual game community discord.
As in per system? Because I literally never see text games advertised there.

>>96798634
Obviously not. I'm talking about when you're recruiting for one.

>>96798379 (OP)
I've been running text games for a decade on roll20 and then foundry. Highly recommend!

>>96799739
Roll20 has absolutely no listings for text only anymore.

>>96799758
Oh, I never advertised there, just used the platform. I coordinated out of session through a discord I made for anons from /mlp/

>>96798503
DnD is the most popular system so there will always be retards willing to respond to anything no matter how shit it is.

However, systems focused on social aspects like WoD are better for this because it allows to actually focus on the social part of post-by-post RP instead of crunch bullshit. CoC is another one that can help you.

Also, I wonder why can't we just play shit on /tg/? I mean, what's the purpose of this whole fucking board if not to play fucking TRPGs? It should be fairly easy to set up a GM and players.

>>96799764
Then why did you bother posting...?

>>96799768
I'm still left without any idea of where to find these people. I've seen listings for those systems end up barren because they were live text.
>>96798640
What do you actually mean when you say the actual game community discord?

Our discord group has three pure text games and two games with OOC voice and IC text. A fourth text game is in the preparation stage.
But it's a community that's formed by pure luck and it's gated, we're not inviting randoms.
I assume that's the case for other groups.

>>96798379 (OP)
Reminds me of years ago, when I stumbled upon a text-based online (mmo)rpg. Legit the only thing you had to orient yourself was a "map" made out of basic letters and symbols and you had to type stuff like "Head north", "Head south", etc. at minimum to move around in the first place and each area gave you basic description of what's there. I wandered for a bit this way and then stumbled upon a real other player. The guy wrote entire novel-tier paragraphs and it somehow ended up with him showing me the path to his organization's secret hideout, where I was surprised that I could keep up at all, because it was legitimately following the descriptions in the flow text on the side, through streets, alleyways, up and down stairs until you end up in front what was described like just any other random wall. And when he wrote doing some very specific stuff, the wall opened up into another path. That part was legitimately kinda cool, but the whole thing really wasn't for me.

>>96799783
isnt that just quest and cyoa?

>>96798379 (OP)
Basically everyone who does play-by-text became friends and don't need to advertise. The games exist, they're just not needing new players for the most part. PbP games die every other week and voice games grate on people so they split up eventually. With a text-based game, there's a certain level of quality required by all participants.

For example, my group has been going on for 10 years strong.

>>96800095
>OOC voice
So voice is necessary.
>>96800280
Games that have no active community to access are effectively dead for anyone else.

>>96800199
What RPGs do quest play?

>>96800280
Meanwhile I'm 10 years strong without a group. Would you say I've put enough effort into trying tabletop and it's time to call it quits?

>>96800540
>necessary
Dunno, I don't play in those specific groups, only watched as a spectator once or twice. There was one player whom I didn't hear but saw typing.

>>96800566
>those specific groups
But wasn't it only one group?

>>96800557
I would say you've put in no effort. The hard part is keeping a group through schedules and life. Finding a group is easy. Starting one is easier. All you need to do is prune the people you hate or cultivate the people who you like into better roleplayers.

>>96800540
You live, don't you? Games didn't have "active communities" before the internet, yet still got played. Games rarely had "active communities" unless they were the big dogs before Discord and covid. Make your own group, retard.

>>96800571
Sorry, let me clarify.
The server was made for a group of 4chan anons for another reason, but once one member proposed running a game, it spread and now within that group there are multiple games ran by different GMs. And it so happens that each of them shares at least one player with another so it's all somewhat connected which is why I described it as a one group.
But the specific campaigns are run differently and with different subsets of players. The ones I play in are all text based, so I don't know exactly how much voice is needed for the other subgroups.

>>96800647
>Finding a group is easy
Are you just pretending to be retarded or did you learn that from being in a steady group for a decade?

Everyone else who would've been in a group is already in one. You didn't even read the post I replied to.

>>96798379 (OP)
The problem with text games is that the speed is atrocious. Even a basic two floor dungeon takes weeks to go through, compared to an afternoon at a table, max.

>>96800771
So the "solution" is to join random 4chan discords completely unrelated to /tg/ and hope someone feels like running someday?

>>96800788
Live text games only take roughly twice as long as voiced games, having done both. You sound like you've only experienced play by post.

>>96800546
I have no clue

>>96800775
Who's pretending? My point is "Everyone else who would've been in a group is already in one" is a defeatist fallacy. There are new players. There are veteran players who have lost groups due to scheduling. Fat nerds get sick and die. Life happens, so there will always be people looking.

>>96800840
>Who's pretending?
You're the one that wrote this post, not me >>96800280

It matches up with my experience.
>There are new players. There are veteran players who have lost groups due to scheduling.
There are demonstrably not when it comes to live text games. You can have ads up on multiple servers and have non-existent interest because the format turns everyone off.

>>96798379 (OP)
>Way of play mostly associated with IRC and chatrooms
>In 2012+13
Nigga, were you hibernated for past decade or something?

>>96800790
I do recognise how lucky I got.

>>96800880
Ads don't work. Engagement does.

I've had ads up for my IRL game before and a month passed by with zero takers. Meanwhile me mentioning the game, despite the ads up on the local discord, as well as physical ads in the FLGS in plain sight were not seen. People don't seek things out, you have to bring it to them. A lot of the time this means you have to be the GM.

And yes, I know you specified "live text games", the same applies. I've seen two ads for live text games in the circles I frequent in the past month. You just need to look and keep your ear to the ground, it might take time and effort.

>>96800948
Hey retard, are you or are you not the guy I was replying to? Why did you jump in as if you knew anything about the culture of live text game groups? There are so few players left you need to coddle the few that still exist and are available.

>>96800908
Thanks for recognizing that. From your spelling I'm already fucked, it seems I should've been a brit to boot.

>>96800898
Heaven forbid someone be interested in roleplay instead of beer & pretzels.

>>96799811
>I'm still left without any idea of where to find these people.
For Discord, use Disboard.
https://disboard.org/
Use tags. RP is an obvious one, but if you have a specific idea in mind like vtm or wod, you can use that. Read the descriptions, join and forage the style of play and see if you like the ambient. Like I said discords are pretty active, the problem are the retarded summers. A tag for purely RPG text-RPG is westmarch or westmarches. You can also try searching directly for active forums who RP this, these are harder to find but they exist and there are still people posting in them. Especially if they're related to anime, vampires or urban fantasy. I will post the ones I know but they aren't in English.

There are 100% people still invested in playing by text, they're just hard to find. Check their webrings and don't leave everything to google

>>96800647
why would you enter in a thread about finding online communities to RP to brag about your shitty clique of homosexuals closed to other people? do you need the attention your mother never gave you or something?

>>96801396
I can see why you're nogames

>>96801410
don't enter a thread you don't care about disruptive moron

>>96798379 (OP)
I will take this thread as a sign that I have to make amends.

>>96801493
Nah. You just need to go where the people are (unfortunately Discord). /tg/ used to have gamefinder threads all the time, but then faggots like >>96801410 and >>96801453 showed up to shit on everything.

What >>96801376 said is about right. Find Discord servers with your interests and poke around there.

>>96798379 (OP)
You are going to have to come to terms with the fact that your specific preference isn't very common, so if you want to organize a game with multiple other people, you're going to have to compromise on it
>b-b-but my tastes are objectively superior
Try talking to yourself then, something about this thread tells me that you're used to it

>>96801376
>use Disboard
There are nicer ways to tell anon to kill himself.

>All these socially inept autists too afraid to speak to other people
This hobby is not for you.

>>96798379 (OP)
The people you used to play with in real time were 15 years old. They grew up and have jobs now.

>>96800788
my play by post games get way more shit done in the same time as my voice games

>>96801187
faggot

>>96801187
... and that statement relates to the post you are replying to... how, exactly?

>>96801187
Also, if you want roleplay, then chat-posting is the lousiest way to get that, go for actual PBP, baiter... oh, right, you don't play and you don't care

>>96801396
Obviously to make anons seduce me into letting them in.

>>96802983
>>96803027
>>96803035
Malding beer and pretzels voicenigger.

>>96802005
yeah, no socially awkward person has ever played Dungeons and Goddamn Dragons

>>96798379 (OP)
The reason is that people have grown substantially more illiterate (example: this thread)

>>96798379 (OP)
Critical Role set the trend, new people coming into the hobby can't imagine playing games any other way.

>>96803332
Well? How did it relate?

>>96798379 (OP)
Idk i prefer having voice; just makes it all quicker to handle for me. Also nice to see that someone else remembers one of my favorite anime

>>96802950
I had a job then and yet I found time.

>>96807737
>Idk
Voicefags not beating the lack of RP allegations

>>96798379 (OP)
It's because you're not running any games.

>>96816880
>Games advertised as live text get a dearth of responses compared to PbP and voice
Reading's not your strong suit, huh?

>>96817443
I don't acknowledge falsehoods.

>>96817450
>falsehoods
But it did happen. Tried advertising in multiple servers and got zero bites.

>>96817474
Works on my machine.

>>96817483
Of course, you don't run text games.

>>96817474
Try here.

>>96817610
I have in the past to no avail.

>>96818430
Ok I see what you're doing now. Kill yourself.

>>96818435
>I see what you're doing now
If you're trying to imply I'm bumpfag, no, kill yourself for thinking that. It's simply the case that I've tried advertising on /tg/ before and on discord servers.

>>96798379 (OP)
I am running a "live text" game every week over Discord and Foundry VTT, with people that I have played several such games with before. We met in an AdEva game, and some players said they preferred text and disliked voice, so we decided to be text-primary. And then stayed that way.

I kind of hate it. I much prefer voice, with text as a side-channel. It is fine as a player, but quite stressful when I'm the GM and need to be responding to multiple people, as well as juggling notes, VTT interactions, and adjudicating rolls and rules.

But yes, text games still exist, they just became more private, less likely to be openly advertised.

>>96819831
But what happened to all the text players?

>>96798469
>Discord LFGs are chock full of ads for play by post. You'd think they'd be all for live sessions but they hate it the most
I think this is a matter of where you are looking. Big servers like that are going to have a wide range of quality, and I'd dare say it would trend towards "poor" overall. So what I suspect happens is that a few of the better players find other like-minded souls, and then they all abandon the big server for a more private one.
For example, my text group formed five years ago, and we have made no effort to advertise or recruit ever since. If anything, we let the worse players drift away, and instead invited the best roleplayers from my voice groups to try their hand at text.
Also, I'm not too surprised that lots of people prefer PbP. Scheduling is the ultimate bane of RPGs, and PbP removes a huge hurdle (even if it introduces a bunch more...)

Oh! But what sort of games are you looking for? That makes a difference, too.

>>96820303
Holy attention whore batman!

>>96820303
But this isn't a question of better vs worse players, this is a question of 1 vs 0.

>>96798379 (OP)
Run Nechronica.
Absolutely nobody is willing to play a small girl doing horrible body horror shit and cutesy friendship stuff over the same 2 minute timeframe over voice. It's built for real time text, even if you ordinarily have a voiced table.

To get players? Get friends. Hang out in online places and find people you gel with incidentally.

As to why they're gone? They're inherently insular. I've been running text (and voice) games for like half a decade now, maybe more, because a friend of mine was a mute. Never, ever needed to advertise, just picked up people over the years as others dropped off. I think developing some kind of hybrid version of running games where combat and stuff is done over text but exploration and social interaction are done by text might up the pacing, even if it gets a write-up after the fact.
Remember to pre-write your descriptions, kids.

>>96807737
>thick eastern European accent
If I joined a game with voice I would be the equivalent of the incomprehensible jeet.

Even when i did play games where I had to mic up i would still shitpost in the text channels. I run a live text dnd 13e game on sundays. I get alot of forigeners and mmo chatbar enjoyers. Live text filters alot of people who are there for attention and socialization instead of the game and pbp is timeslot agnostic. I keep my players in a voice channel, we all mute mic and play dungeon synth archives beacuse at one point I had to stop 2 zoomers from being in a voice call during the game lol.

Sometimes we pregame and postgame in voice. I enjoy gaming with people before when I know a bit about them, where they from and their real name that kind of thing. This filters some people out but our group is stronger for it.

>>96822923
holy glowie

>>96820171
They found a game and they aren’t looking to invest in another.

>>96827146
Then why talk to me about text games that exist when nobody recruits or joins the ones recruiting?

Is there a big discord server you can join to with other fa/tg/uys?
I joined a game, wasn't advertised as VC and suddenly they go "oh btw let's do VC" everyone agrees and I gotta excuse myself because what the fuck.
VC shouldn't be the fucking default, you can't just expect a rando to be ready to roleplay their character by voice.

>>96798379 (OP)
I have been thinking about starting one myself. Used to do and few and one of my friends wanted to do a Pokemon Forum/Discord RP again and thinking about making one since I used to do that shit as a kid and all when word/forum rp were bigger. Though good luck find anyone real. The people who still up for it gatekeep cause many that are too open let woke fag divas who get in quickly try to main character themselves and piss everyone off where it can kill the flow of a game even if you purge them. (Often enough they let in by someone else who tends to leave too.)

Would suggest making a Discord for your RP yourself and get people you feel that would be up for PBP. However gatekeep hard, though it's not to hard to do it if add these rules in.
Deny anyone with pronouns in the bio/or pride flags or woke symbols

Don't let romance be a thing. Make it PG maybe PG-13 only.

Limit what new player can do till they prove themselves. A classic thing many people like to do is make a "starter" then ask to make a friend character who is a mentor/family/etc that is stronger then retired the old one rather then work on their starter. So if you're doing DND and someone has to start with a level one character. Don't let the make a mentor at like 10 then just play as the level 10 and make the level 1 a minion to their new character.

The TL;DR rules are.
Screen the pronoun and pride flag people in bio out.
Keep romance out of RP
And don't let people their NPC/Mentor character their new main.

>>96798379 (OP)
you are lone on this OP. What the fuck

>>96800189
Ah yes, MUDs. The culprit behind my 20s going nowhere fast.

>>96798379 (OP)
Live text-based is difficult to run.
PBP is unfortunately much easier to manage and find people for, regardless of its extreme downsides.

>>96798379 (OP)
Doesn't rollgate have live games?
IRC might still have some.

>>96832382
Don't worry nobody who does VC expects to roleplay anyway

>>96836200
>Would suggest making a Discord for your RP yourself and get people you feel that would be up for PBP.
PBP is not live text, it's its own separate thing that like you said is more like forum RP.
>gatekeep hard
It's not hard to gatekeep when nobody shows up in the first place.
>>96837516
That's all nice but as the GM I'm unable to find text players. You can put up a LFG and the moment you say it's live text you get tumbleweeds.

>>96838480
It might be because of the LFG itself. Low effort LFGs don't get responses for text games. Text takes a lot of effort, so the standard is raised for the average text RPer. Don't spend time applying to a game where the GM can't write, don't take applicants that can't write more than a single literate paragraph

>>96838636
>don't take applicants that can't write more than a single literate paragraph
But I'm telling you that this isn't a question of applicants that can write that much, I'm telling you that even the barely literate applicants can be counted on my fingers. It's an intense filter on its own.

>>96838647
It's always been that way :( Text games are few and far between.
Best bet is to seek gooners for lewd games, a lot more of those people do text rp

>>96838663
Those guys basically only do PBP as a rule, anyone who does live text only wants freeform.

>>96822810
>Run Nechronica
>Get friends
These two statements are mutually incompatible.
>combat and stuff is done over text
>but exploration and social interaction are done by text
Let me guess, a voicefag who meant to say that you don't do pure text.

there used to be live games run here but those got shunted off to /qst/ to die. People used to call them skirmishes or something, all homebrew rulesets.

‘live’ being a turn every hour or two, anyway.

>>96798379 (OP)
They're very popular among the ERP TTG community.

>>96839961
Funny joke, but maybe you should double check to make sure someone else didn't say it in the same thread.
>>96838731

>>96839058
>voicefag who doesn't do pure text
I still do plenty of pure text, anon. I just also do irl games and the pacing's different. Figure maybe there's a happy medium, but haven't had a chance to find out yet - y'know on account of not wanting to push my pure text games to have a voiced component, because they're important to me and the people I do 'em with. I'd much rather get a group with voice to use text sometimes.

>Nech and friends are mutually exclusive
You just gotta have normie friends and explain why you like it in a way that drops the 'by the way everyone's children in an anime setting don't worry about it' only after they're already invested. Works wonders.