How to find non-spergs on Roll20?

My group of longtime gamer mates on Roll20 is going to be picking up a new player for our next campaign as one of the old guard has too much life shit going on at the moment. As I am the DM for this campaign ,it falls to me to find the new player.

Does anyone have any tricks that would filter out the That Guys with minimal effort on my behalf?
How do you get players to structure their applications?
What are some red flags?
We are playing 5e since we are all semi-normies. Is it worth allowing UA, on the provision I can veto it? Or way too much trouble to be worth it?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=3EjFK9N-FEA,
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

>with minimal effort on my behalf?
Impossible. You have to wade through a sea of shit to find even one half decent player.

Step one: Play an unpopular system, like GURPS or something.

I'll play if my schedule allows it, what's your schedule?
It is worth allowing the UA, it allows for some fun options and you can always make it clear you'll veto any options you don't want.

Talk to them.
>Hey we are playing (system), with a focus on (stuff). We prefer (this) to (that).
>Does this sound like something you'd enjoy?
>What would you play?

Seconded.
People who are invested enough to want a very specific game that isnt most popular entry tier shittery usually will not want to spoil the thing they seek puropsefully and are conscious enough to not do this ignoranly.

Basically you want to steer clear from 3.pf, 5e and wod wod might not be THAT popular but its still a shitter magnet

Just read their apps. Seriously if someone's a "That Guy" level sperg you'll be able to tell from the paragraph or two they post for the app.

I recently ran a WoD campaign and I can confirm.

WoD can attract some of the most fucking retarded, edgy, and try hard faggots to have ever graced the internet. Or at least from what I've seen.

I've gotten applications from players who wanted to play characters with some long and faggy backstory about succubus clearly looking to ERP, to dark and edgy self inserts youtube.com/watch?v=3EjFK9N-FEA, to people who didn't even read the fucking campaign information.

I do interviews. Make it clear your not adding anyone until you've had a live conversation with all applicants, ask them questions, get them to ask you questions. You'll get an ok amount of information about them.

Now make them put some work in to get the interview (detailed character sheet and story already made-up, have them describe one of their favorite characters from another campaign they've played in. etc. etc.) and you'll be golden

The more work someone is willing to do to join your game, the more likely they are to not be absolute trash. This isn't always true and you should't be scared to kick them out if things aren't looking good, and don't go too totalitarian with your demands, but as long as you let them know they might be kicked if their not a good fit you'll be fine.

>minimal effort on my behalf
oh... um... do none of that work and keep trying people out till you find mr.right. Its the 'easiest' way to do it, if not the best.

>most fucking retarded, edgy, and try hard faggots

It's wod though, what were you expecting?

>any tricks that would filter out the That Guys with minimal effort
Not really.

>How do you get players to structure their applications?
A bullet point thing is fine. You want to ask for specific pieces of information. Their age, their gaming experience in general and with the system, if they are consistently available at the day and time of the game. I have also seen people ask questions like "Describe your character", "describe your ideal game", "what was the most fun thing that happened to you in a rpg". Those are good, too. It isn't only their answers, but how they answer, and also whether they are able to answer all the questions and actually give you the information you want, that you are looking for.

>What are some red flags?
If they are under 23 or so, and you are over that age, don't bother.

If their responses are rambling, filled with spelling and grammar errors, off topic, don't answer the actual questions, are weirdly short, go on forever, or are full of "lols" and "omgs", stay away. This sort of thing means they either don't pay attention to instructions, can't communicate clearly with other people, have limited attention spans, don't give a shit about your game, or all of the above.

If they start off asking you to change systems, game time, house rules, or setting, don't bother.

If they are heavily referencing anime, no. Unless you are also really into anime, I guess, in which case have at it, I suppose.

Then you will need to actually talk to people before you consider playing with them. Asking questions about the game, their characters, their expectations, and their views on various issues like alignment or whatever is important to your game is important. But equally important is just engaging them in conversation and getting to know them a bit. Usually, you can tell after ten minutes of talking to someone if you are going to just fucking hate them or if you will probably get along.

I'm curious about that last part, can you give some more details?

12pm AEST is game start every second week.

12pm AEST on Sundays. Derp. It's late.

Put this into UCT like a sane person

Basically this.

Some people ask why people under 23 years are a problem but that's mostly because they think adulthood begins at 18 or 21. It doesn't. There is no set age for it, it only starts once you realize your responsibilities for your actions and that the world isn't that black/white and set in stone.

Players under that age (or under 25) are prone to meta-gaming, being stuck in their heads, not taking risks, not communicating anything, rage-quitting and blaming others. It doesn't always happen, but I had such a group. I really feel for teacher who have to deal with that every day or even to deal with me when I was like that.

In addition to that: When they already talk about their min-maxed multiclassed character with no personality or attention to the campaign setting.

Have you considered not using roll20?

I think the only reason to use it is to fuel a good green text. I still fondly remember the 4E player who insisted on playing a ten year old girl cleric...

I've been running a 5e campaign for a year on roll20, people have been dropping out for real life reasons from time to time and so on so I had to recruit replacements.

Around 20-30 players played at least one session so far, and there were tons of applications which is always the case for roll20. And I must admit: I've never run into any shitlord. The only problem we've ever had was if the player wouldn't show up.
I don't know if we were just this good at selecting best applications, maybe it were the ironclad rules in the game description (no homebrew, precise list of what is allowed, new character must fit into the party) that scared off spergs, or perhaps it is just sheer improbable luck. I've had shitty players join my roll20 games before, but not this campaign.

We have had very, very different experiences with players. I've had the best groups in the 17-25 band, with almost all the raging, metagaming "That Guy"s falling in the teen range, although there are some 27+ turbospergs on Roll20. That's always fun to encounter.

Here's the best way to find out if they're terrible.

Are they on Roll20?

If so, then you know they're shit.

“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”