What do you want to avoid during a RP?

Theres not really anything that makes me uncomfortable in rps
Uhmm really??? lol

What if others tried to control your characters and made them do unbelievably out-of-character things?
What if it takes forever to defeat your roleplay partner in a battle?
 
One, definitely taking control of my characters without a, discussing it with me first (say if a GM wishes to set up a series of events to advance the story and needs someone to set it off) and b, making certain that what takes place fits my character's personality and actions. It breaks the writing style I have in mind for my characters in most cases, and if things start to fall apart in the characterization, then my momentum and drive to keep writing that character dries up.

Two, people not having goals/ambitions/reasons for their characters that fit well with their background/characterization - I want to know why your character is taking part in the action of the story, because why they're taking part helps explain why they're making certain choices in pursuit of their desires. Additionally, goals and such give your character something to work towards throughout the story, so that if nothing seems to be going on at the moment, guess what, you can jump back into writing by having your character work towards said goals in their free time or in their activity with other characters.
 
This is a problem that all of us have succumbed to.

Believing that, fundamentally, you are the center of the roleplay. After trying out many different formats of roleplay, all of my most fondest moments were with interactions with other players. As much as I admit having pride in some well-executed posts in the past, none of what I does matter if there is not an audience or other characters to interact with that. At the end of the day, roleplay is a collaborative effort. If you believe otherwise, you are better off just writing independently.
 
• I used to do this all the time, but now it's a massive pet peeve of mine...

• Listing. No, not the standard character forum format of listing. Rather, listing personality traits, hobbies and other things. Just typing up "Personality: Funny, Rash, Fast, and Confident" sounds wayy worse than "Personality: [x] is a very funny person. They move quickly and are very confident. However, [x] often reacts to things rashly." Much better than just listing off traits.
 
- Uncommited players. You might know who I'm talking about, you can tell who is uncommited just by reviewing his/her/it's character sheet. The kind of players who would bail when things don't go as they want. "Oh, i can't have a character who wears a power armor in a Russian civil war setting that can fire with pin-point accuracy miles away? I'm out, your rp sucks anyway!!" Yeah, that indeed happened once, i thought it was like an early april fool's joke, guess not.
But i always try to give people a chance to participate in my RPs regardless, wouldn't be fair if would be too picky and strict.

- Players who quit without warning. I don't mind when people choose to quit the roleplay, afterall, people have family, work, responsabilities, drag queen nights. But i hate it when they bail without telling me or the RP host about it, like come on. "I don't know if you will be back or not, so i don't know if i should replace you or not with another player".

I don't know, perhaps I'm being rather harsh about this, what do ya'll think?
 
- Uncommited players. You might know who I'm talking about, you can tell who is uncommited just by reviewing his/her/it's character sheet. The kind of players who would bail when things don't go as they want. "Oh, i can't have a character who wears a power armor in a Russian civil war setting that can fire with pin-point accuracy miles away? I'm out, your rp sucks anyway!!" Yeah, that indeed happened once, i thought it was like an early april fool's joke, guess not.
But i always try to give people a chance to participate in my RPs regardless, wouldn't be fair if would be too picky and strict.

- Players who quit without warning. I don't mind when people choose to quit the roleplay, afterall, people have family, work, responsabilities, drag queen nights. But i hate it when they bail without telling me or the RP host about it, like come on. "I don't know if you will be back or not, so i don't know if i should replace you or not with another player".

I don't know, perhaps I'm being rather harsh about this, what do ya'll think?
Nah man, I agree with you on both. There's one person I know of on another site who constantly joins forums, gets really involved, then the next week she leaves without telling anyone. Everyone forum I've seen her on, even her own forums, she gets really into it, then suddenly gets bored and leaves and acts like nothing happened.
 
Nah man, I agree with you on both. There's one person I know of on another site who constantly joins forums, gets really involved, then the next week she leaves without telling anyone. Everyone forum I've seen her on, even her own forums, she gets really into it, then suddenly gets bored and leaves and acts like nothing happened.

That's pretty bizzare, she must have alot of time on her hands, lemme tell ya! Did you talk to her, to figure out what's her deal?
 
I tried to once when we first met each other and I first began noticing that habit of hers.

She said I didn't know her enough and blew it off, getting defensive. Then when she joined a forum of mine this year, I told her I will be watching her for when she sporadically leaves. She promised me she wouldn't, that it was 'her old days.'

Left by the end of the week without saying a thing.
 
I tried to once when we first met each other and I first began noticing that habit of hers.

She said I didn't know her enough and blew it off, getting defensive. Then when she joined a forum of mine this year, I told her I will be watching her for when she sporadically leaves. She promised me she wouldn't, that it was 'her old days.'

Left by the end of the week without saying a thing.

What's the longest time she spent on a roleplay before bailing?
 
I have never enjoyed seeing her around any forum I'm on.

It's not that she's bad, she's a really good RP'er, but joining and leaving a lot really erodes trust that you'll still be around to keep this RP alive.

I myself believe that even with a mundane plot, the players can evolve it into something spectacular, it all rests on the players shoulders, not to mention their combined creativity!
 
And if you're not willing to stay with it, the plot or story will fail to gain traction.

Stay with what? The RP? Well, some people might want to rush the RP to the part where it's exciting, thing is, once it's rushed, it loses novelty! That's how i see it personally. Everything should have balance, aswell as taking the reader by supprise.
 
I like you. Lol.

I've mainly RP'd on FanFiction, since I find their forums are easier to navigate. However, there are also a lot of RP'ers I don't consider good enough to RP with. The snob in me I suppose.
 
You do? :D Must be my long gergeous mane that attracts the boys to the yard :]

I would choose to be more into realistic RPs, since that's kind of my territory! Fantasy wasn't really my cup of tea, all that magic and elf stuff, can't exactly envision the whole story unfolding, cause when it comes to fantasy, it's a total free-for-all in regards to imagination.

I infact joined this site to try out my most recent plot I've been brewing in my mind, aswell as a rather long one i've always felt ambitious about! The recent one being set during the reign of the Roman empire BC. Where players take the roles of slaves, working at the farm or a mine, they have to escape early-on. They will have to survive in a harsh society, deep in Roman territory, their goal is to evade the slave catchers and seek refuge. Something i was meaning to cover once i get my account approved.

Hypothetically, would you yourself be interested in something like that? Or does that sound rather boring?
 
Nah mate, it's your Vietnam cat smokin' a cig. No idea why, just like the way you wear them shades.

I myself have tried a multitude of different storylines and worlds. Mainly sci-fi, as I also prefer that over fantasy. One was a cold war like plot where earth colonies and Earth don't like each other because my Marx/Lenin character jolted a revolution, and 30 years later, them earth colonies are now Olvania, the free colony worlds that aren't like Soviet Russia in the 1950s, promise!

The other is the universe ending. Literally, a billion years into the future where all the stars are dying off and any species still alive is struggling to live. Dark Souls meets Mass Effect.

For your Roman RP, I would certainly enjoy doing that. I'm a history buff, so I wouldn't mind doing that at all. I joined though because I wanted to start a multi crossover plot I did on another website, involves robots wanting to make their own universe and do so by pinning other universes against each other, and while they all kill themselves, they steal planets, entire populations, suns, whatever they can. My own idea of what a crossover plot of that size should be like, because with that kind of setting, I wanna explore how things would radically change for each universe.

The side plots for it are the funnest to make for it.
 
Hmm... I have mixed feelings on some of the things on this thread. I suppose to each his own, though, right? We all have our preferences and whatnot, hence why not everyone works well together. But I suppose I'll put in my two cents anyway and share my opinions on a few of the biggies for me. This isn't an exhaustive list for me- just what I'm thinking about at the moment.

One Liners
I couldn't miss noticing that there's been a lot of debate over this on the thread. When I was younger I was in a lot of RPs that were pretty much all one-liners, and it was perfectly fine for me. There always stories and situations in which it will fit. However, those situations and stories are no longer the ones I prefer to write in. I myself am guilty of (and unapologetic about it) something else people have called out here- writing pretty long posts. I've written up to 10 paragraph posts. But this is usually at the beginning of a story when I'm bringing in introductory material and background information. My average is probably around three paragraphs. But the main thing I ask is at least one paragraph. And I even count that as the minimum 3 sentences I was taught when I first learned what a paragraph was. I understand that some people like one-liners, but if my partner can't stretch their posts to at least three sentences, it won't hold my interest. That's just part of who I am.

God Modding and Mary Sues
Another popular one on here. I don't mind people asking me if my character can do something they want them to. In fact, unless it clearly goes against their personality, I'll probably do it. But doing it without my permission is not okay. And perfect characters annoy me too. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far. We write about things that don't exist in real life- fantasy worlds, fantasy creatures, sci-fi elements, etc. But characters should still be believable in the context of the world you're writing in. No one in any setting is ever going to be perfect. They can't do everything, and they do have negative traits, etc. If your character is too perfect, or too flat (only one defining characteristic) I'm not going to like them.

Uninformative Request Threads
If I open a request thread for an idea that says: "Hey I want to write a war story in a medieval setting message me if you're interested," I'm going to click out of the thread immediately. Why? Is there something wrong with that suggestion? No. I don't mind if you have a vague starting point that you'd like to develop a plot from. If fact, that's sort of how I do things too. I want my partner and I to work together on the idea to flesh out a plot. But I want to know more about you, the writer. How long is your typical post? Are you interested in Romance? If so, what gender would you like to write as? What gender to you prefer your partner to write as? What do you not like in a partner (ie- I'd like the sort of things people list on this thread to be in their request threads.) This gives me an idea as to whether or not we would work well together. I don't want to spend a week plotting an idea together, just to learn that you write exclusively in one-liners, while I don't like one-line posts. I'd rather just take the time to read your thread, see you write in one-liners, and decide not to message you, because I know we wouldn't work well together. That saves both of us a lot of time.

All About The Ratios
This is talking about during the actual RPs. There are, as far as I'm concerned, four main parts of a roleplay. First of all, obviously, is the action. This is straight up verbs- what your character physically does. The second part is dialogue. What your character says out loud. Third is inner thoughts, motivation, decision-making factors. In other words, not what your character does, but why they do it (to help build up their character- I want to feel they're almost like they're a real person, and that I feel like I understand them.) And finally, the setting. What everything looks, sounds, hears, tastes, and feels like. Just like inner thoughts and motivations make characters feel real, these details make the setting feel real.

Each of these parts are important in a story, and thus, there should, in my opinion, be a relatively balanced ratio of them. If a post/story is all action, or all dialogue, or all thoughts, or all a description of the setting, I'm going to get bored. I need the story to have all four of these.

Time Specifications on Posts
This one is a huge thing for me. How often I post will vary drastically. I have a highly changeable work schedule, other responsibilities, etc. I may go from working a 20 hour week to a 60 hour week at the drop of a hat, depending on how many/large our orders for the week are. And I don't always know. I may not have time to get on to post, but I think oh, I'll get on tomorrow and respond. But then I'm busy the next day and can't post, but again, I think I'll get on tomorrow for sure. And the next thing I know I realize it's been two to three weeks since I last got on. That's how busy I can get. But at the same time, when I'm not busy, I may post four or five times a day. But again, that will also depend on my post length. So I won't write with anyone who insists their partner post within a certain length of time.

Communication, Communication, Communication
In case you couldn't guess from the title of this section, communication is very important to me. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect my partner to message me out of character every day just to chat, or to run every little idea by me before they write it. That would be insane. What I mean with this is that if I do/say something that bothers you, or you want my character to behave in a specific way, or you have a concrete idea of something you want to happen down the road, tell me! I want to know what you think about the story.

One of reasons this is the biggie is a specific event that happened to me on a different site (no names will be mentioned...) I was in a group RP with a GM and like seven other people (not including myself.) It was specified from the beginning that my character and one of the other writer's characters were in a relationship in the past (specified by the GM, that is, because she had certain "roles" that the characters were supposed to fit into, which included past relationships between the characters). Well, because we knew they'd been in a relationship, we made it so it made sense for them to be. Which meant they clicked very well, and it progressed in a way that we felt like they were naturally heading toward being in a romantic relationship again. And when the GM realized they were about to get together again, she flipped out on me and the other writer that we didn't consult her about them getting back together, because she wanted my character to be in a romantic relationship with hers. But she never told us she specifically wanted that relationship. And our characters didn't click at all. It wouldn't have made any sense for them to be together. And yet, when I wouldn't smash our characters together just because she wanted me to, she threw a huge hissy fit and ended the entire group RP because one thing didn't go her way...

And that's exactly what I'm talking about when I say communication is important. I can't read your mind. So if you don't tell me what you want, don't get angry if I don't magically do that. As soon as someone gets upset with me for not doing something they didn't tell me they wanted, I end the discussion and RP right there and then. You can say that was what you wanted and ask if I can go back and change it. But don't get mad at me for it. It isn't my fault you didn't communicate, now is it?



Ahem. That's probably more information than any of you wanted, but there it is. I'll Just go ahead and cut it off here...
 
KIDNAPPING.

So, okay, sometimes a kidnapping arc in a RP can be fun. I did one where my character was kidnapped by a syndicate who's main goal was to take down the evil, dark carnival, fantasy organization that my character was part of. Then, all of the other characters had to work to get her back, and we'd switch from what was happening with her, to what was happening with the characters trying to save her, and it was a lot of fun. We took many of our other antagonists and, surprise, they had all been working for the syndicate and had been gathering information.

But that isn't the kind of kidnapping I'm talking about. My partner's character, Beatrice, was kidnapped every day for about a week. It always happened in the same way. Some creepy man would see her, pick her up, and begin running away with her. That was it. Then my characters would run in, knock down the baddie, rescue Beatrice, and then spend the next hour or two calming her down. Something I never thought I'd have to tell my partner is, "Please stop having your character be kidnapped."

It became such a problem that now when I start a new RP I have a soft "No kidnapping rule."
 
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