It’s past midnight, and your ad has been up for a day. It took an hour to write: the premise, the line about third person past tense, a reply pace you can actually keep. Two people have answered. One wrote “hi”. The other wants a completely different story. Meanwhile, the Discord partner-search channel where you also posted it has buried it under a few hundred newer messages.
There are plenty of places to find a roleplay partner, and most of them were built for something else: Reddit for threads, Discord for chat, Tumblr for blogs. In the past twelve months, one of the biggest closed for good and another started checking ages. Here’s what each place does well in 2026, where it falls short, and how to combine them so the right person actually reads your idea. Toward the end, we’ll show you FictionCore, the app we built specifically for finding roleplay partners.
Where to find a roleplay partner: the short answer
- For an app built specifically for finding roleplay partners and groups: FictionCore. Post length, reply pace, genres and a writing sample show before the first message, and ads never go stale: each one stays up for 24 hours at most unless its writer reposts it. For adults (18+), available on Google Play for Android.
- For the most readers on a one-on-one (1x1) ad: r/Roleplay and r/RoleplayPartnerSearch on Reddit. Read their rules first; they’re strict.
- For group roleplay: r/RoleplayGroups, and the Discord partner-search hubs listed on Disboard and Roleplay Index.
- For a world that lasts months or years: a roleplay forum, often one hosted on Jcink.
Many writers end up using two places: one to be found, another to write. FictionCore works the same way: you meet in the app and roleplay wherever suits you both.
What changed in the past year
Amino closed. The app went dark in early December 2025, and its support later gave 19 December as the end date; our Amino article has the timeline. Its roleplay communities, character profiles and chats went with it, and there was no way to export them. Ten months later, r/amino (about 18,000 subscribers) is still swapping ideas about where to go.
Discord sorts accounts by age. In September 2026, Discord began placing every account in an adult, teen or unconfirmed group. Age-restricted servers and channels need the adult group. Discord says more than 90% of users won’t be asked to confirm their age, and adults placed in the wrong group can fix it in User Settings → Account Status. That matters for 18+ roleplay hubs that mark their servers or channels as age-restricted.
The pattern: the place where you meet someone isn’t always the place where you keep them. Keep your profile, your characters and a way to reach your partners somewhere you control.
How to compare places to find a partner
Before you post, ask four questions about any place:
- Who will see my ad? Reach decides how many replies you get.
- What can people learn before they message me? A writing sample, usual post length, reply pace and limits spare you both a conversation that was never going to work.
- Will the ad still be true tomorrow? Ads from people who found a partner weeks ago waste everyone’s evening.
- Who’s allowed in? Age limits and SFW or NSFW rules decide who you’ll meet.
None of the usual places wins on all four. Reddit wins on reach and forums on depth, and stale ads are everyone’s problem. We built FictionCore around these four questions; more on that below.
Eight places to find a roleplay partner, compared
| Place | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Reddit, one-on-one | One-on-one ads with the most readers | Strict rules, fast feeds, no links in posts |
| Reddit, groups | Recruiting for a group, or finding one | You still have to vet each server or forum |
| Discord hubs | Quick replies, fandom hubs, group play | Ads scroll away; each hub sets its own age limit |
| Tumblr and Carrd | Showing your writing in one place | Discovery depends on tags and reblogs |
| Forums | Long-running worlds and long posts | Applications and a slower pace |
| Kyodo and other circle apps | Amino-style communities with chats | Small communities; new apps come and go |
| X and TikTok | Meeting people through fandom and personality | Noisy, and much of it short-form or adult |
| FictionCore | Length, pace and a sample up front; fresh ads; 18+ | Android only; a new board starting out |
Reddit: the biggest noticeboard
Reddit has the most readers for a one-on-one ad, and three communities do most of the work. Subscriber counts are Reddit’s own figures from October 2026; subreddit pages now show weekly visitors instead.
- r/Roleplay has about 154,000 subscribers and is for one-on-one text roleplay only: SFW, in English, with no group or Discord server ads. Posts need at least 300 characters, you get one every 24 hours, and your account must be at least 48 hours old. Its rules ban AI outright, from AI roleplay ads to AI-written posts.
- r/RoleplayPartnerSearch, about 86,000 subscribers, describes itself as one-on-one and SFW-based. Posts need more than 225 words, and you get one every 24 hours, removed posts included. Accounts must be at least 30 days old with 5 karma. Mature themes have to be marked NSFW and come with a detailed plot; smut-focused posts are removed.
- r/RoleplayGroups, about 13,000 subscribers, is for group roleplays on any platform. Posts are flaired by venue, such as Discord or Forum.
Best for: reach, and a shared format. Most one-on-one ads open with a pairing tag such as [F4A], so skimming is fast.
Watch out for: feeds that move quickly, waiting periods and rules enforced to the letter: a post under the length limit is simply removed. Neither one-on-one board allows links or contact details in posts, so no Carrd page and no Google Doc: your ad is your only writing sample. Give it the care you’d give a first post.
Discord: where many roleplays happen
Discord is where many roleplays end up, especially group ones. In our sample of recent Reddit ads (more on it below), 48 of 62 group ads named Discord.
To find a partner there, join a partner-search hub. On Disboard, search tags such as “1x1”, “rp-finder” or “roleplay-partner”, or browse the Discord section of Roleplay Index, a directory of partner and group search communities. Disboard lists the most recently bumped servers first, so the order changes all the time.
Best for: fast back-and-forth, fandom-specific hubs and group play with bots such as Tupperbox, which post messages as your characters.
Watch out for: ads that scroll out of sight in busy channels, and rules that change from server to server. Age limits in directory listings run from 13+ to 25+, so check before you join; age-restricted spaces also need Discord’s adult age group.
Tumblr and Carrd: a portfolio people can read
Roleplay Index sums it up: “Tumblr is a bit of a catch-all with roleplay.” Writers use their blogs to advertise roleplays elsewhere, and some games happen on Tumblr itself. Most partner ads, though, go through ad blogs that publish readers’ submissions in the blog’s own template. Of the 851 writers whose one-on-one ads we read on Tumblr, posted between 1 August and 20 October 2026, two in three used such a blog at least once. Since the templates ask for it, 96% of them stated an age floor, and 47% asked readers to answer with a like or a reblog rather than a message. A Tumblr ad works like a calling card: the typical one ran to about 760 characters, and 64% of writers named Discord as the place to play.
Carrd, a free one-page site builder, is where many roleplayers keep the “about me” behind their one-on-one ads: preferences, limits and a writing excerpt behind one link.
Best for: being found by people who like your style, because your history is right there.
Watch out for: discovery that depends on tags and reblogs, a slower pace overall, and a feed where most ads are adult: our SFW rules set aside 57% of the 4,573 Tumblr posts we read, against 11–14% on Reddit. Reddit’s one-on-one boards won’t let you link that Carrd, so it works best for ads on Tumblr, X and Discord. If you’d rather skip the adult feed, FictionCore’s boards are SFW and for adults only, and contacts there are shared by choice, not through likes and reblogs.
Roleplay forums: for worlds that last
Forums are the slow, deep end of roleplay. Many independent forums run on Jcink, which Roleplay Index calls “the premier host for forum roleplays”. Among larger communities, The Hive Index listed RPNation at about 72,000 members and Roleplayer Guild at about 95,000 in July 2026. Blue Moon Roleplaying is for adults, and The RP Repository pairs public forums with tools for organising characters and worlds.
Best for: persistent settings, long posts and an archive of everything you’ve written.
Watch out for: applications and a slower pace. Activity varies a lot, so check the dates of recent posts before you commit a character. To find forums that are recruiting, look for the Forum flair on r/RoleplayGroups.
After Amino: Kyodo and circle apps
When Amino closed, its communities scattered. In r/amino threads, people point each other to Discord hubs, Tumblr, Reddit’s partner-search boards and apps that rebuild Amino’s circles and chats. Kyodo, where anyone can start a circle, is the most discussed of these apps, and opinions there are mixed.
Best for: the familiar format: a community for one fandom, with profiles and chats.
Watch out for: small communities that can feel quiet, and the look-alike apps that appeared after the shutdown. Before you move a whole community, check who runs an app and how long it’s been around.
The bigger lesson of Amino is about where your work lives: if your profile, characters and partners existed only inside one app, they could vanish overnight. We traced where Amino’s roleplayers went in a separate article.
X and TikTok: finding people rather than ads
On X, the standing ad is the pinned post of a roleplay account, often one account per character, with tag-style lines like “Literate • DMs open to plot” and a Carrd link. We read 576 public posts about text roleplay with human partners from 1 August to 19 October 2026, and about three in ten were ads. Of the 48 writers with a pinned ad, 19 listed their experience, 17 how to reach them, 16 their writing level or length, 11 a shipping policy, 10 their age and 10 their pronouns. Only one gave a time zone. On TikTok, partner-search videos and their comment sections work as informal boards.
Best for: getting a sense of someone’s personality and fandom before you talk.
Watch out for: noise. Search results on X mix text roleplay with game roleplay, GTA RP servers, AI ads and adult posts: in one two-week slice of our searches, only about a third of what X returned was about writing with people. Likes and replies won’t tell you which ads work either. The typical pinned ad got one public reply and the typical “looking for” post none, because answers go to DMs. Neither platform can filter by post length or reply pace, and messages from strangers arrive unsorted. On FictionCore, filters for genre, post length, reply pace and timezone do that sorting for you.
FictionCore: an app built for finding roleplay partners
FictionCore is our app for text roleplay, and we built it around the problems above: ads sink fast, length and pace take a round of messages to find out, and plenty of the ads in a feed belong to people who found a partner long ago. We designed its Find boards around hundreds of real partner and group ads, so FictionCore shows up front what roleplayers usually ask in their first messages.
It handles everything before the roleplay starts. You build characters and worlds in Worldbuilding and draft story ideas in Plots, and nothing goes public until you publish it. You browse or post ads on two Find boards, one for partners and one for groups, writing yours with guided prompts or pasting one you already have. When you find your person, you share a contact. The roleplay itself happens wherever the two of you agree: Discord, Telegram or a shared document.
Here’s how FictionCore answers the four questions:
- What can people learn first? Ads have fields for who you are and who you’re looking for, post length, reply pace, timezone, point of view, long-term or one-shot, and original characters or canon. An ad can point to a writing sample on your profile, and more than a dozen filters hide the ads that don’t fit.
- Is the ad still true? Ads run for up to 24 hours. If you’re still looking, repost with one tap; once you’ve found someone, close the ad. The board shows who is looking now, and a saved search notifies you when a matching ad appears.
- Who’s allowed in? Only people aged 18 and over. An ad can state your age range and the youngest partner you’ll write with: 18+, 21+, 25+ or 30+. Content follows SFW rules, and every account passes the Community Quiz on those rules before it can post or comment.
- Who sees your contacts? You choose whether your contacts are visible, revealed with a tap or hidden. Opening someone else’s contact doesn’t reveal yours.
Profiles show how someone writes: writing samples, style, formatting conventions and the languages they write in. Group ads can also attach one of your worlds and list which characters are still open and which are taken.
Best for: seeing what matters about a partner before the first message, on a board of fresh ads in an app for adults only. The core features are free.
Watch out for: FictionCore is Android-only for now, and as a new board it has fewer ads than Reddit. There’s no built-in chat, by design: you keep writing wherever you already do. And because it’s SFW, it isn’t the place for explicit roleplay. How FictionCore works has the full tour.
What 292 recent roleplay ads tell us
For this article, we took a one-month slice of real ads: 292 SFW ads posted between 13 June and 13 July 2026 on r/RoleplayPartnerSearch, r/Roleplay, r/RoleplayGroups and r/roleplaying, 230 of them one-on-one and 62 for groups. We counted what appeared in each ad’s flair and first 400 characters, title included, so treat the numbers as minimums.
- Long-term far outnumbers one-shots. 65 of the 230 one-on-one ads (28%) mentioned a long-term roleplay in their first lines. Only 2 mentioned a one-shot or a short-term story. If that’s what you want, put it in the title: you’ll be one of very few.
- Pairing tags are the norm. 81% of one-on-one ads carried one. [F4A] was the most common (54 ads), followed by [M4F] (40), [A4A] (27), [F4M] (21) and [M4A] (18). Tags mean different things in different communities, so read the ad itself; the Guide’s answer on shorthand explains how FictionCore uses them.
- “Literate” is shown, not said. Only 14% of one-on-one ads used the word in their first lines. Most let the writing in the ad make the case, which is one more reason to treat your ad as a sample. We looked at what the length labels really mean separately.
- Groups gather on Discord. 48 of the 62 group ads named Discord; 10 were recruiting for forums. A larger October sample of 294 group ads shows what they usually leave out.
- Pace and time zone are the gap. A larger autumn sample, 2,698 one-on-one ads from 1,229 writers between August and October 2026 and counted by writer, shows where ads stay quiet. The typical ad ran to about 1,800 characters, yet only 31% of writers named a reply pace and 29% a time zone. Among writers whose ads stayed under 600 characters, 1% and 2% did. On FictionCore, both have fields of their own and filters.
How to combine them
You don’t have to choose one place. Split the job instead:
- Be visible where people look. Match the board to the game: Reddit for one-on-one reach, r/RoleplayGroups or a Discord hub for groups, a forum for long campaigns. On FictionCore, filters bring your ad to the people whose genres, length and pace match yours. Our roleplay partner ad template shows what to put in the ad itself.
- Keep one profile that shows your work. A writing sample, your usual post length and pace, and your limits, in one place you control: a FictionCore profile, a Carrd page or a forum profile.
- Agree on where to write with each partner. One partner prefers Discord threads; another, a shared document. Share the contact you’re comfortable with, not your whole online life.
- Keep copies of your characters and worlds. Communities close, and your characters shouldn’t close with them. Here’s where to keep them.
When you’re reading someone else’s ad, the Guide lesson Find a roleplay partner covers what to check before you reply, and our count of roleplay red flags shows what partners most often rule out. If the shorthand in ads is new to you, our glossary of roleplay terms decodes it, and our plot ideas can seed your own ad.
Questions roleplayers ask
Where can I find a roleplay partner for free?
Everywhere on this list. FictionCore’s core features are free: your profile, Worldbuilding, the Find boards and contact sharing. Reddit, Discord, Tumblr and most forums cost nothing to use either.
How do I find a literate roleplay partner?
Look for places where writing is visible before the first message. On Reddit, the ad is your sample, so write it well. On forums and Tumblr, your post history shows your style. On FictionCore, you can attach a writing sample from your profile to your ad and filter other ads by post length. Ask about length, pace and point of view directly instead of relying on the word “literate”.
Is there an app for finding roleplay partners?
Yes. FictionCore is built for exactly that: two ad boards, one for roleplay partners and one for groups, filters for genre, post length, reply pace and timezone, and profiles with writing samples. It’s for adults (18+) and available on Google Play for Android. Beyond it, Discord hosts many partner-search hubs, and Kyodo recreates Amino-style communities.
How do I find a roleplay group?
Look where groups recruit: r/RoleplayGroups, Discord server directories and partner-search hubs. FictionCore has a separate Groups board whose ads have fields for the platform, GM style, play mode, how to join and a minimum age, and you can filter by each. Our study of 294 group ads covers what to ask before you join.
How do I find a roleplay partner on Discord?
Join a partner-search hub: on Disboard, search tags such as “1x1”, “rp-finder” or “roleplay-partner”, or browse the Discord section of Roleplay Index. Read the hub’s rules and age limit before you post, and expect ads to scroll away quickly in busy channels. On FictionCore, people find your ad through filters for post length and reply pace instead of scrolling, and you can still move to Discord once you’ve agreed to write together.
Where can I roleplay with real people instead of AI?
Find a partner where people post ads for people: Reddit’s partner-search boards, Discord hubs, forums or FictionCore, which has no AI roleplay partners and is for adults only. Our guide to switching from chatbots to human partners covers what changes. Our comparison of roleplay apps with real people goes through the options one by one.
What happened to Amino’s roleplay communities?
Amino went offline in December 2025, with no way to export accounts or posts. Its roleplayers spread out across Discord hubs, Tumblr, Reddit’s partner-search boards and Amino-style apps such as Kyodo.
Is it safe to roleplay with strangers online?
It can be, with a few habits. Pick spaces with clear age rules and active moderation. Share one contact, not your phone number or legal name. Agree on themes and limits before you start, and block or report anyone who ignores them. The Guide’s page on FictionCore’s rules and contact sharing explains how this works in the app.
What is FictionCore?
A mobile app for text roleplay. Adult roleplayers use its Find boards to look for partners and groups, show how they write on their profiles, share plots and build characters and worlds in Worldbuilding. It’s for adults (18+) with SFW rules, works in English and Russian, and is available on Google Play for Android. How FictionCore works has the full tour.
Is FictionCore an AI roleplay app?
No. FictionCore helps you find people to write with. You prepare characters and worlds, find a partner or a group, and roleplay together on the platform you choose.
FictionCore is now on Google Play, so you can post your first ad there today. The places above still have the most people, and nothing stops you from using both. Good luck with tonight’s ad.