Hey everyone. I'm new here. I go by Rathenix or Rath and I've been playing RPG's for about 15 years. I play a lot of D&D 3.5 and GURPS 4e as well as Star Wars d20, Fantasy Flight Star Wars (EotE, AoR, FaD), and all kinds of homebrew/freeform. I've been trying to organize some in-person games for so long, but I always end up needing to GM when I want to play, and we usually only get through a session or two before the other players' interests start to wane and the whole game falls apart. At this point, I'm looking for alternatives because I just can't handle not playing RPG's and organizing weekly meetups is becoming increasingly impossible. This would be my first official foray into the play-by-post format. I've tried it with friends before via IM or in a facebook group, but again, it never seems to last. So basically, I'm looking for some assistance getting started. I want to play with some more experienced PBP players so that they can sort of lead me along, but at the same time I don't want to slow down somebody's game. I'd also love to try out some different systems, but I would also need handholding in that department until I learn all the rules and such.

So what is the best way to get started? I can't seem to find any games that don't look like they're already in progress. Can anyone fill me in on the various kinds of etiquette that is used around here or how people differentiate between in character, out of character, questions for GM, descriptive text, actual quotes, rolls, rules, thoughts, emotions, literally everything? I would really appreciate the help. I've been browsing games with a low number of posts, but I cant find any that actually describe the game. Is this normal? Do I need to reach out to the GM for more information? I'm looking forward to trying a freeform game or one in a system I am familiar with to start. Thank you all in advance.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:01, Wed 28 Oct 2015.

Welcome to RPOL.  You will find that most GMs are willing to help out a new player.  So are most current players.  Even if a game as being going for a while it never hurts to ask about joining. Many of the games have players come and go regularly.

The conventions I use for what the character says vs other posting is to put the speech in color.  Check FAQs in the upper right corner of the screen for a lot of useful information.

Rath, there are lots of different conventions - each GM decides on conventions like s/he decides on rules.

Here, like anywhere, lots of games fail early on. Joining a long-standing game could be a way to ensure it won't evaporate under you. Some GMs don't mind new players joining in and asking questions - again, it's all down to the individual GM.

Often a game info description is included in the tabs near the top of the page, or a description might be found in the notice posts. Usually, games have an OOC thread where players discuss things amongst themselves. GMs vary about how strict they are regarding OOC comments in IC threads.

Often, you can't see much of the game until you join it. Some threads are publicly viewable, but some are visible only to accepted players. To see these, you need to send the GM a Request To Join (RTJ). This is particularly so with Adult rated games where the content must be unavailable to casual browsing.

Some GMs are happy to join you as a Lurker, allowing you read-only access. Others don't like lurkers and will only let you in as a player.

Probably, all you can do is pick a couple of games that look interesting, send your RTJs, and chat with the GMs to see what preferences you have in common.

Hope that helps.