How to create an attractive Home Page for your Club!
Relevant Information
While having nice pictures on your Home Page is nice, you also need to ensure that your Roleplay has all the relevant and important information regarding the roleplay. Here are some suggestions of which you could put into your Home Page:
Roleplay Description
This is the main bulk of the relevant information on your Home Page. You could make it factual, and state the basic information about your Roleplay. Or you can be a bit more descriptive with it, as if you were writing the opening paragraph of a book. Entice Dreamers to come into your world. Make it sound as exciting as possible, without stating anything false. For my Craethiel Kingdom Roleplay, this can easily be achieved. It’s a Medieval Adventure Roleplay which means I can entice Dreamers into my Roleplay with the chance of epic adventures across a dark, and treacherous land:
QuoteThe Craethiel Kingdom is a wild, and untamed land where the monsters and animals of the land rule with an iron fist. Where legends stalk the lands like giants, and myths are the way of the world. A land filled with beauty and wonder, that the unwary traveller would find enchanting and irresistible. A land where the Eldyr’s travelled at will without fear. A land that had seen wars that would strike fear into the sturdiest of souls. It is unwise for an adventurer to strike forth alone for there is little protection beyond the walls of the Great City of Selil, or any of the towns and villagers that dot this harsh and unforgiving land.
To the North, lies the huge, imposing peaks of the Therarr Mountains that tower high into the air, as if striving to touch the very heavens themselves. A perfect symbol for the land of Craethiel. Beautiful. Enchanting. Untamable and traversable by only a few. To the East sits the Dynx desert. A barren land of blistering heat and little water. The desert is nearly uncrossable at times due to rolling sand storms and below freezing temperatures at night. To attempt the feat is almost as possible as climbing to the very tallest of the Therarr peaks. To the South lays the forest of Rosayia, a deep thick curtain of darkness that seems to go on for an eternity. Hidden within its depths, are mysteries beyond comprehension, and creatures that would make your nightmares seem tame. For citizens, and travellers alike, this land is filled with wonder and danger. For some, it seems that there is nowhere safe.
Be wary, dear traveller, of the land that sings its siren song. You might just meet your end...
See how I made it sound exciting, yet kept all the important information there and clearly visible? I was also careful not to make it too wordy, so that it didn’t bore people to read it. Try and keep it to a manageable length. Too short and it might be lacking information. Too long and you’ve watered things down too much. Remember that this is, in effect, a summary description of your roleplay. Try and write it in such a way that makes the reader pause and think to themselves, ‘This sounds interesting. I want to join this.’
Relevant Links
If you decide to have a small area with your relevant links, you could link potential Roleplayers to the most important pieces of information. For example, if you have any Extra Information Threads that detail out any Lore of your Roleplay, then you could link it along with any other related Information topics, such as the Roleplay World. This allows a Roleplayer to enter the playing field, with this knowledge at their fingertips.
If your Roleplay requires a Character ID, then you could link them to the relevant thread, or gallery section of your Club. This in turn should lead them to all the information they need to know about creating and posting a character. A link to this section would also allow a potential roleplayer to read up on already existing characters which could either give them ideas as to what to do with their own character, or give them an idea as to whom they wanted to roleplay with.
Roleplay Rules
Personally, I think that this is a must-have on the Homepage of your Roleplay. Not only that, but it should be clearly visible as well so that Dreamers cannot try and use the excuse that they didn’t see the rules.
If you’re going to be using the suggested Standard Roleplaying Rules, then you could either copy them to your Home Page, or include a link to the Guide. You can use them as a backbone to put your own on top of, ones that are relevant to your Roleplay. For example, for a medieval Roleplay, you could include a rule that no character can have space age guns. Not only does it not fit in with the theme of the roleplay, but it also grants unfair advantages of one character over others.