How Does a New GM Properly Select Players for the Campaign?

[KoolKobold]

Hello all. I’ll be planning to host a RotRL campaign on the forums, but this being my first PbP campaign I run, I’m naturally unsure of how I can go about selecting players. Especially when I joined recruitment for a RotRL campaign and there were so many submissions, it spawned three total campaigns.

So, those who GM in the forums, how do you all go about selecting the submitted players in recruitment for your campaign?

[Matthew Downie]

I've only recruited locally, and the number of applicants is usually about right. If I had too many, then I guess I'd be filtering based on: (a) scheduling / commitment issues, (b) ability to follow instructions and (c) ability to write good prose.

[Azothath]

The PFS guys do this all the time.

Online you can use Warhorn to post a sign up for your game and a link to your game using a first come - first served method. The website lets you post a Game name, level, GM, number of open seats and overflow seats. Players submit player names class & levels and PFS#. The owner of the game can curate the list of players. Warhorn lets players change the PC. It is a tad more complex than using forum posts but a lot easier in the long run.

You can find players on the PFS discord group or PF Forums(not as successful). The PF PBP Forums are a different beast and likely more monitored by players. Just post your game there and a link to warhorn.{your game}. PFS Forums have forms so I'd use those.

A GM with time should always review the character sheet and last chronicle before the game starts. It's good to ask if anyone has any questionable combos or feats so you can address that up front rather than trying to do it once started.
If your super worried about it, run a preview start up chat or posting group and watch the dynamics. PBP runs slower than Tabletop.

Personally I always suggest GMs use PF1 PFS rules as a baseline to limit the crazy. All the docs are online and downloadable, Archive of Nethys has everything legal marked with an open road icon.

Organizing in Real Life is messier. Players usually shout out their class & level in the hall looking for a suitable match.

On writing skills... LoL...
Just ask that players use reasonable english(?) and stick to a few standard forms for basic actions in the Game.

[KoolKobold]

Yeah I definitely want to figure out who would stick to a campaign the most. It would be my first time hosting a campaign, so maybe that would narrow down the choices if I say I don’t have that much experience.

What I would allow is the following:

Point buy: 20. min 8, max 18 after modifiers. Max hp at 1st level, roll afterwards
Races: All core, plus aasimar, tengu and tiefling (with the rule being that aasimars and tieflings have their appearance based on the other races, using the races age and height/weight modifiers, and allowing for Small aasimars and tieflings)
Classes: All except the following: gunslinger, summoner (both versions), ninja/samurai, occult classes. cavaliers can be selected but only for Small races (due to RotRL being largely a dungeon crawling that limits the use of a large mount)
Gold: Max for class at 1st level
Skills: Any class that has 2 ranks + Int per level instead have 4 ranks + Int per level
Feats, Spells, Items: Can’t select any from Occult Adventures, or utilize psychic magic.
Traits: 3, with one being campaign
Alignment: Any good preferred, but lawful neutral and true neutral can be allowed. No chaotic neutral or evil alignment
Using Elephant in the Room rules

The campaign itself would be slightly more RP focused than usual, so there would be recommendations to create a character you would not only want to play playstyle wise, but character wise as well.

So I think I’ll run with what Matthew said and look for people who commit the most to campaigns. Though that is precisely how I would have trouble figuring out.

[Ju-Mo.]

The groundrules sound simple and fair.
Just one question: Aasimar are quit strong for some classes, because they have no +2/+2 and nothing negative and a few really nice to have race abilies. Why allow them, but not the other races they are in the same section as them (like tengu and dhampir etc)?

KoolKobald wrote:

So I think I’ll run with what Matthew said and look for people who commit the most to campaigns. Though that is precisely how I would have trouble figuring out.

To be honest, its so hard to figure out and there is no guidline for it.

It always depens on the people, how they interact with each other and how they interact with you.
I have had good friends in RL, who after a short time of gaming had a falling out, i had good friends of mine catching feelings for another player, which were rejected and they than had excuses to go early, come late or even missing session and after a while they quit with the excus "work is to much atm"
I had people who where: ".. i dont like A so much, but its only a game so it wont rly matter" and they than become very close friends after a while.

Even the workload of people (60h/week) or (20h/week) doenst change that. I had one player with 20h/week quit because he had to much hobbys, got a girlfriend and had to drop a few hobbys (he played in 4 PF rounds, two as a GM, he first quit the two where he wasnt the GM and than even one where he was the GM).
Another player is a doctor with (60+h/week) and a wife. He playes nearly every session now for 3 years (a few misses because of emergencies, but thats not something anybody can to anything about).

So all i can say, go with your guts. You can be lucky or unlucky.
There may be "red flags" in some players, but they mostly depend on table and group and people change over the course of 2-3 years.

[KoolKobold]

Ju-Mo. wrote:

The groundrules sound simple and fair.

Just one question: Aasimar are quit strong for some classes, because they have no +2/+2 and nothing negative and a few really nice to have race abilies. Why allow them, but not the other races they are in the same section as them (like tengu and dhampir etc)?

Tengu are allowed, it’s just I’m limiting the selection for playable races outside of core to make it a little easier on myself (with it being my first PbP campaign).

As for the thing with aasimar, I would definitely add a -2 racial stat penalty, but I wouldn’t know which one to choose. I know everyone goes for Constitution for the penalty so I think that would be my main bet.

[Azothath]

Just remember it is a social game.

and again, review PFS Guidelines so you can see what they've done.