Game Requesting Etiquette

[Archpaladin Zousha]

What is the polite way to ask for a play-by-post game on the Finding Players board if you do not intend to GM the game yourself? It just seems arrogant and rude to demand a total stranger run a game for you instead of running the game yourself if you want it so bad.

[Roland St. Jude]

You just ask. You can't demand that anyone run the game any more than you can demand that people play in the game. Just spell out that you're looking to start a game, and you are looking for a DM and other players interested in X kind of game.

It helps to put [Seeking DM] in the title so that people know what to expect. It also helps to spell out in the OP in detail what your desired parameters are for the game. What things are requirements and what things are just preferences?

Also, realize that once you get a DM, you give over some control of the game. If, suddenly, the DM wants to allow X and you don't want to allow X, a power struggle is likely to ensue, and the DM usually gets to make those calls. (We'll actually, those kind of disputes tend to explode games, often before they get started.)

[Archpaladin Zousha]

You just ask. You can't demand that anyone run the game any more than you can demand that people play in the game. Just spell out that you're looking to start a game, and you are looking for a DM and other players interested in X kind of game.

It helps to put [Seeking DM] in the title so that people know what to expect. It also helps to spell out in the OP in detail what your desired parameters are for the game. What things are requirements and what things are just preferences?

Also, realize that once you get a DM, you give over some control of the game. If, suddenly, the DM wants to allow X and you don't want to allow X, a power struggle is likely to ensue, and the DM usually gets to make those calls. (We'll actually, those kind of disputes tend to explode games, often before they get started.)
Thank you. I understand the need to hand over control to the GM. The GM's the one who runs the game after all. Though to be fair, the kind of game I'm asking for is a Pathfinder Adventure Path, so basically everything I myself want for the game is already in the books. Thanks again. I just didn't want to make a post that sounded rude or offensive to anybody.

[Kislath]

If you read through several of the threads in that section, you'll notice that quite a number of them are people looking for GM's as well as players. It's not unusual at all.
As a DM, the only thing that bugs me is when the player winds up wanting to play something utterly ridiculous and overpowered in the extreme. That's not always so bad if I'm expecting it, but I've had players wind up taking 5 days to make their characters, and those characters winding up the most outlandishly optimized, munchkinized, cheesiest unstoppable adventure machines imaginable. I usually just bail out of such games, but sometimes I've actually run them through the normal adventures I had planned, just to punish the player with the intense boredom that being able to one-shot every foe always brings.

[Vladislav]

Or, you could just state "I expect medium/low optimization" and stick to it.

As a player, few things bug me more than a DM being vague about his character requirements, and then punishing players in-game for not being telepathic and not guessing what his requirements were. Not cool. DMing license need to be revoked.

[NineThePuma]

And this sort of discussion could probably go somewhere else, but I thought I'd throw my two pp into the circle.

I do believe there's a DM registry in the Recruitment section; check one of he latest posters and tap them a PM so you can discuss the idea you have and see if they're interested. Maybe they can't, but often times, if your idea is cool (or not labor intensive; this doesn't seem labor intensive) they'll sign on to DM.