For big events held at private houses, I find asking if there's side-rooms available for overflow is usually a good bet - as is attending with a friend, so there's no mistake that you're sat in silence because you're AFK (as opposed to being shy/overwhelmed).
Smaller tavern nights, watching for plots to get involved in, creating scenarios over IC linkshells that 1-2 characters can respond to... aaand talking OOCly over tumblr or twitter about "what would be cool for our characters to do", and then doing it... are how I've made most of my RP contacts.
ExAtomos' linkshell is a good btw.
In general though, I think my core piece of advice is this: be eager to initiate. Both in IC and OOC.
Most people don't have the time or energy to repeatedly reach out to strangers and try to draw them out of themselves. If you're present and active and giving "hooks" for people to join in with in the form of "idle-emotes" (like... your character is just standing there in-game, but they're not doing the same thing IC, right? They're looking around nervously, or smoking a cigar, or fiddling with a linkpearl, or something; emote that out loud.), then it's more others will be meeting you half-way. It's easier on them - and therefore more likely to result in something for you.
The same goes for OOC conversations in linkshells - bring up topics, suggest activities, offer help, ask if you can add people to your friends list for future contact, and just generally be chatty.
I get that this isn't always easy, and TBH I need to take a break for a day or two soon because I'm getting frazzled; need to nip that in the bud before it turns into burnout. But that's how I made the RP connections I have now, anyway!
Smaller tavern nights, watching for plots to get involved in, creating scenarios over IC linkshells that 1-2 characters can respond to... aaand talking OOCly over tumblr or twitter about "what would be cool for our characters to do", and then doing it... are how I've made most of my RP contacts.
ExAtomos' linkshell is a good btw.
In general though, I think my core piece of advice is this: be eager to initiate. Both in IC and OOC.
Most people don't have the time or energy to repeatedly reach out to strangers and try to draw them out of themselves. If you're present and active and giving "hooks" for people to join in with in the form of "idle-emotes" (like... your character is just standing there in-game, but they're not doing the same thing IC, right? They're looking around nervously, or smoking a cigar, or fiddling with a linkpearl, or something; emote that out loud.), then it's more others will be meeting you half-way. It's easier on them - and therefore more likely to result in something for you.
The same goes for OOC conversations in linkshells - bring up topics, suggest activities, offer help, ask if you can add people to your friends list for future contact, and just generally be chatty.
I get that this isn't always easy, and TBH I need to take a break for a day or two soon because I'm getting frazzled; need to nip that in the bud before it turns into burnout. But that's how I made the RP connections I have now, anyway!
![[Image: tUzrT.png]](https://puu.sh/tUzrT.png)
