Embarassment of riches? No, just embarassed.

[DannyK]

Aargh.  I screwed up.  I was all ready to finally try my hand at running Sorcerer after lots of big ideas, and I throw out a recruiting post in the PbP forums at RPG.net... but I made a big mistake. Instead of recruiting based on a "one-sheet" description of the game, I kept things very generic to attract as many players as possible... what a mess.  Trying to hash out setting and theme and what Demons are on an online forum was a drag.  It didn't attract much interest (I think *because* it was so generic) and never built any sense of momentum or consensus, and finally I realized that I had lost all interest in running the game.  So, back to square one.  

Maybe I'll try recruiting again with a specific game idea, some time.

[Ron Edwards]

No big deal, Danny. Sorcerer seems to be a learning ground.

But yeah, one-sheets are definitely the way to go.

Best,
Ron

[Sean]

And not just the one-sheet. Get everyone firmly on board with a shared understanding of Humanity from square one.

I recently ran one of my worst face to face games since junior high school using Sorcerer - the players just completely lost interest in the whole thing in only a few sessions. Several things conspired to produce my flop, but lack of a shared vision of and concern with Humanity from the get-go was a big part of it.

Nothing to do but get back up off the mat and try again, when you're ready!

[DannyK]

I've gotten lazy, I think, from years of playing games that do much of the agenda-setting work for you: Sabbat Vampire games, Technocracy Mage games, Buffy set in my own hometown.  It doesn't take too much mental work to figure out what the likely agenda is for each of those games, does it?

So when I set out to set the agenda myself, it was surprising how much work it was.

[Nev the Deranged]

So does that mean the Sorcerer game on RPG.net is cancelled? *sigh* I was looking forward to that one.

But I know what you mean about prep-burnout, I've suffered the same many times.

If you change your mind or want to give it another shot at some point, don't hesitate to tap me on the shoulder, I'm still up for it.

You should post there that you're cancelling tho, not just here. If I hadn't run across this post I'd still be over there waiting.

[DannyK]

Quite right.  I'll do so today... although I think it's on hiatus, not dead.

[sirogit]

My general advice on "getting people in the same boat.":

References to similar fiction is a great way to set something's tone. Unfortunately me, alot of my one-sheet ideas are so out of my expiereince with fiction that I can't come up with something significantly similar, but it works out great when I can.

Espiciially usefull is reference to a media type. Comic book, tv show, movie, book.

Images can be a great way to express ideas powerfully but subtly. Is the game sort've silly? Poignant? Dark-but-not-gothic? Gothic-but-not-dark? Taking a small nod from silver-age superheroes? Focused-on-ass-kicking heroes who irrefutably stand out from their environment? All of that can be extremely well represented by images, which I usually grab from Google.com or Elfwood*

* Elfwood, I find only adequate for my purposes. Most of the art there isn't geared to the stuff I'm into, but there's the rare jem that hits it on the spot. If there's a better fantasy image database that isn't you know, 90% babe-n-monster porno I'm all ears.