Looking for groups to play with is the first step you will have to take to be a part of any game. This “guide” is my own opinion, formed from experience, on the best way to go about posting your advertisement for a group. I call it an advertisement because that is ultimately what it is, you are either advertising your game for others to play or you are advertising yourself as a potential player. This “guide” will be broken into two parts. First section will be focused on players advertising themselves, and second will be GM’s advertising their games.
1. The Player Looking for a Group:
The first thing to remember when posting your advertisement is that this is not a personal add in a newspaper, you are NOT paying per word. Feel free to actually use words to get your information out there. You don’t need to write a book on yourself but two sentence posts are easy to forget and loose in the crowed. Also keep in mind that this is a hobby about creativity and role playing, if you are unwilling to use your words to make a good advertisement for yourself then why should we believe you are willing to use your words to role play in a game.
First thing you need to have is a title of your post. This should say either “LFG” or “Player LFG” so it is easier to spot as a player looking for group over the other game posts. You will also want to put your name or some other tag line that is relevant to you as a player such as “Ready to Hack and Slash Goblins” or “Ready to Learn Any System” or “Plenty of Experience”.
Now onto you’re post. Before you say anything else you need to introduce yourself. I know that your screen name is floating off to the left side of your post, but repetition makes people remember things, and you want people to remember your name when inviting people to their game. Along with this introduction give us some info about yourself. Keep this information relevant to the hobby though. You could have just had a great trip to the beach but we simply don’t care at this point, that is the stuff you talk about once in a group. This information should, at the MINIMUM, be what games you have played and are comfortable with the rules, what games you have been really wanting to try out, and your willingness to try other games or if you just want to stick to the ones you have already listed. Remember this is your advertisement so things like: “I really love playing higher level epic fantasy games” or “Will not play Shadowrun”, are all good and valid things to put here, it lets GM’s looking for players have a better idea of you and how well you will fit in their group.
Next thing that you MUST have is the times you are available to play and what time zone you are in. The more detailed you can make this the better. Do not put “I can play pretty much any day from 3-11pm Eastern Time Zone” when you can actually only play on Thursdays at that time. Saying you can play more often than you actually can play will not get you in more games, it will just get more people mad at you because they now have to either find a new player or reschedule the game because you gave out incorrect info. If you really are flexible then it is perfectly fine to say that, I would also suggest that if there are a few hard times that you most likely wouldn’t be able to play than you at least put that down while saying everything else is flexible. (A quick note on time zones: If you are in the USA it is probably best for you to put your time zone in both notations: EST, CDT, PST; and in GMT).
At the end you can put some more personal information about yourself that you are comfortable giving out. This could be specifics like your age or where you work. This info can be useful to again let GMs get a better feel for you to decide if they want to invite you to their game. If you have things like a Deviantart account, Posts in a play by post forum that you thought were particularly good, Short stories you have written or anything else that is creative, and some what related to the hobby, and would show your prowess as a players or general creativity, then this is the place to put those links. Tell what your links are obviously.
Again always keep in mind that this is your advertisement, no one ever HAS to respond to it or ask you to join his or her game. There are a lot of other players out there that would be willing to play. If your post is easy to read, gives all of the information the GM needs to make a decision without asking you for more info, and conveys what you are like as a player than you will be in much higher demand. This will also lead to more agreeable matching of GMs to players.
1. The Player Looking for a Group:
The first thing to remember when posting your advertisement is that this is not a personal add in a newspaper, you are NOT paying per word. Feel free to actually use words to get your information out there. You don’t need to write a book on yourself but two sentence posts are easy to forget and loose in the crowed. Also keep in mind that this is a hobby about creativity and role playing, if you are unwilling to use your words to make a good advertisement for yourself then why should we believe you are willing to use your words to role play in a game.
First thing you need to have is a title of your post. This should say either “LFG” or “Player LFG” so it is easier to spot as a player looking for group over the other game posts. You will also want to put your name or some other tag line that is relevant to you as a player such as “Ready to Hack and Slash Goblins” or “Ready to Learn Any System” or “Plenty of Experience”.
Now onto you’re post. Before you say anything else you need to introduce yourself. I know that your screen name is floating off to the left side of your post, but repetition makes people remember things, and you want people to remember your name when inviting people to their game. Along with this introduction give us some info about yourself. Keep this information relevant to the hobby though. You could have just had a great trip to the beach but we simply don’t care at this point, that is the stuff you talk about once in a group. This information should, at the MINIMUM, be what games you have played and are comfortable with the rules, what games you have been really wanting to try out, and your willingness to try other games or if you just want to stick to the ones you have already listed. Remember this is your advertisement so things like: “I really love playing higher level epic fantasy games” or “Will not play Shadowrun”, are all good and valid things to put here, it lets GM’s looking for players have a better idea of you and how well you will fit in their group.
Next thing that you MUST have is the times you are available to play and what time zone you are in. The more detailed you can make this the better. Do not put “I can play pretty much any day from 3-11pm Eastern Time Zone” when you can actually only play on Thursdays at that time. Saying you can play more often than you actually can play will not get you in more games, it will just get more people mad at you because they now have to either find a new player or reschedule the game because you gave out incorrect info. If you really are flexible then it is perfectly fine to say that, I would also suggest that if there are a few hard times that you most likely wouldn’t be able to play than you at least put that down while saying everything else is flexible. (A quick note on time zones: If you are in the USA it is probably best for you to put your time zone in both notations: EST, CDT, PST; and in GMT).
At the end you can put some more personal information about yourself that you are comfortable giving out. This could be specifics like your age or where you work. This info can be useful to again let GMs get a better feel for you to decide if they want to invite you to their game. If you have things like a Deviantart account, Posts in a play by post forum that you thought were particularly good, Short stories you have written or anything else that is creative, and some what related to the hobby, and would show your prowess as a players or general creativity, then this is the place to put those links. Tell what your links are obviously.
Again always keep in mind that this is your advertisement, no one ever HAS to respond to it or ask you to join his or her game. There are a lot of other players out there that would be willing to play. If your post is easy to read, gives all of the information the GM needs to make a decision without asking you for more info, and conveys what you are like as a player than you will be in much higher demand. This will also lead to more agreeable matching of GMs to players.