Neil, hi! Admin question for you: What are some suggestion you have for dealing with bubble roleplaying in a group? It's a huge problem in my group and I'm at a loss for what to do about it when it's the same people doing it and I've talked to them several times.
A couple of things I would suggest:
Blind thread match-up. Assign each character a character to do a thread with, with whom they have not yet interacted.
Events are definitely a good way to get a lot of new threads and starters up, so if it’s been a while since your group has had an event, that may give your players opportunity to start RPing with other people.
Enforce a requirement that if someone replies to an open starter, the person who posted the starter must go through with the thread. I’ve seen in roleplays before, someone posts a starter, five characters reply to it, but somehow the person who posted the starter only actually replies back to two of them; that is a great way to ensure bubble RPing happens.
Message the players who are bubble roleplaying and let them know which characters they have not yet interacted with; especially point out if any of these characters have posted a recent starter.
Ensure that there are actual consequences for bubble RPing. This may seem harsh, but the thing is, people have no motivation to follow rules if there are no consequences to breaking them. Let the players know what said consequence will be; perhaps they’re not allowed to pick up any new characters or request a major plot until they have stopped bubble RPing.
