Ever Just Derailed an RP?

[nyther]

I posted something similar to this question before, about both partners not being on the same page, but this is a slightly different question. Have you ever had an RP going and everything is fine and you're clicking with the writing then, suddenly, you just take it to a weird place? And it kept going?

I guess the most basic example would be a romance RP, where the whole story your characters are getting to know each other and share experiences and start falling for each other. Then, when the big moment came where your character are supposed to profess their love, your character goes ape shit and says he hates the other character, or something similar?

Because I'll have moments where I just have an idea to write some off the wall crazy shit, but I don't, because it would end the story and ruin everything, but it's funny to me for a few seconds to think about it.

 

[Razilin]

Can't say that I have

When I GM a forum rp, plots tend to be a collaborative effort, so a lot of individual ideas get worked in and everyone has a good time

Derailment occurs in the ooc, gets tweaked, and ends up getting incorporated into the story

In tabletop rpgs, we derail all the time. It's funny and awesome to see how the GM works with, around, or against us when derailing happens. The bad GMs rage quit. The good GMS work with it.

 

[daird]

I was once involved in a bizarre tabletop campaign where the description was "the plot starts off derailed and you have to rerail it." That was a blast.

 

[Razilin]

I was once involved in a bizarre tabletop campaign where the description was "the plot starts off derailed and you have to rerail it." That was a blast.

this? this is what i mean - derailing is awesome

 

[K3l]

I have a few times, but they were random as fuck like when I was in a slice of life romance RP. I got bored and for whatever reason made demons pop from the ground. The RP then became save the world from demons instead of get these characters to the point that they'd fuck so the RP will eventually die out from there. Told you it was random as fuck.

And my partner just went along with it, what a sport!

 

[ASTA]

I have a few times, but they were random as fuck like when I was in a slice of life romance RP. I got bored and for whatever reason made demons pop from the ground. The RP then became save the world from demons instead of get these characters to the point that they'd fuck so the RP will eventually die out from there. Told you it was random as fuck.

And my partner just went along with it, what a sport!

It sounds like you saved the RP from an untimely death.

 

[Brovo]

Can't say I've ever derailed a plot. I've taken stories in unexpected directions, but that's about it. If you're just going to intentionally troll other people, go play a game and spawn camp someone. At least then you aren't potentially wasting several hours of labour someone else invested just to fuck them over.

 

[K3l]

It sounds like you saved the RP from an untimely death.

Haha, hopefully.

 

[nyther]

Can't say I've ever derailed a plot. I've taken stories in unexpected directions, but that's about it. If you're just going to intentionally troll other people, go play a game and spawn camp someone. At least then you aren't potentially wasting several hours of labour someone else invested just to fuck them over.

 

[Jorick]

Not intentionally, but I've done it before. It comes from playing my characters as they would react to situations, rather than how I as a player would do things. One time I turned a fun sandbox adventure into a grim quest for vengeance because my stubborn warrior lady chose to charge into a big pack of baddies that were holding innocents hostage. Everyone else wanted to try to work out a deal or follow them to their hideout to rescue the people after the bad guys chucked them in a cell somewhere, but nope, my character wouldn't stand for that bullshit and ran headlong into dozens of enemies. She died pointlessly, but the other characters swore to get vengeance on all of the bad guys so that became the foundation for a plot where before there was just an "okay, have fun and explore!" thing going on.

 

[Kestrel]

One of the RP's I GM'd, a guy killed the guy that was meant to step up to major antagonist later. I had the plot do a total 180, but nobody knew of all the alterations I made to my plans until we finished the game.

It was awesome.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Not intentionally, but I've done it before. It comes from playing my characters as they would react to situations, rather than how I as a player would do things. One time I turned a fun sandbox adventure into a grim quest for vengeance because my stubborn warrior lady chose to charge into a big pack of baddies that were holding innocents hostage. Everyone else wanted to try to work out a deal or follow them to their hideout to rescue the people after the bad guys chucked them in a cell somewhere, but nope, my character wouldn't stand for that bullshit and ran headlong into dozens of enemies. She died pointlessly, but the other characters swore to get vengeance on all of the bad guys so that became the foundation for a plot where before there was just an "okay, have fun and explore!" thing going on.

This. So much this.

I'm not a fan of big collaboration, mostly because of the collaboration!! I don't mind the plot being talked about, with our characters being described, so on and so forth.

But once the RP starts? That's a run-away train, baby! We shouldn't be trying to tug it this way and that. It should flow of it's own, obviously with things dictated by the world around it, but also by the characters themselves. It wouldn't make sense for some characters to do some things, so why should they be pigeon-holed and forced to, Just For Reasons? We hate it when it happens in movies and stories we are audience to, so why continue doing it ourselves?

:P

 

[Windsong]

Not intentionally, but I've done it before. It comes from playing my characters as they would react to situations, rather than how I as a player would do things. One time I turned a fun sandbox adventure into a grim quest for vengeance because my stubborn warrior lady chose to charge into a big pack of baddies that were holding innocents hostage. Everyone else wanted to try to work out a deal or follow them to their hideout to rescue the people after the bad guys chucked them in a cell somewhere, but nope, my character wouldn't stand for that bullshit and ran headlong into dozens of enemies. She died pointlessly, but the other characters swore to get vengeance on all of the bad guys so that became the foundation for a plot where before there was just an "okay, have fun and explore!" thing going on.

Seems some people get mad when you stick to your character really well and don't 'bend them' a bit to fit the situation. That shit drives me nuts.

As for the topic: Ork freebooter on a rogue trader thought "oi! Dats a nice bit o' flash dat gits got on his dakka!"
He then proceeded to orbital drop onto a ship and murder his way through only to find out the shiny thing was just a radar dish.

His mek turned it into a really nice death ray in the end though.

Half the plot was getting him off the dead planet he'd crashed the ship into. Who knew diving into the cockpit in low orbit would cause it to slowly degrade and fall into atmo?

 

[Minibit]

Derailed? Never, and I never would, it's inconsiderate to other players who were invested in the original direction.

Sudden, big, unexpected plot twists, hells yes.

 

[Lea]

Well I couldn't say that I derailed an actual Rp(At least intentionally) but I sure did derail a couple RPB's back in the day. My reasons were mostly simple ones like I had Op chars and used them to the fullest, or my competitor was unrealistically dodging everything I threw at him when I was trying to be serious. And when I start to feel as though my efforts are being taken for as a joke, then I either drop out right then and there or I make the RPB into a joke. Why? Because I want to covey my pissy mood onto my competitors.

 

[KeatonWorshipper]

I kind of did that by every once in a while, having my character say something slightly different than expected, and continue to do so until a Zelda RP that was pretty much normal, aside from the plot and a few OCs, had them trying to kill the hero, ignoring that a Zelda even exists, and other such things. Yep. It was normal, until I showed up. Also, I didn't really cause it all, but it more or less happened when I showed up, so I'm taking Credit for it.

 

[Unsun]

This reminds me of the time when a roleplay I did back then (which generally had no main plot drive, just some ideas here and there), where only a few pages in me and my buddy's characters were already near the peak of sexual tension haha! I swear, it was all lovey dovey this and lovey dovey that. That was a good time... Hell, it's still on the internet! I can totally go find it and show it off haha! xD

 

[Gossamer]

The premise of the roleplay was to make a common character with no advantages whatsoever (i.e. his character can't have combat experience, her character can't be as athletic as an olympian etc. etc.)

It was easy to sort of null the characters out because the setting was more or less in olden times. All of our characters would be equal in terms of physical capability and what-not, so most of our effort and creativity would be poured into our characters personality and background.

I decided to make a sixteen or so year old boy who was a tailor in a small town in pretty much the middle of nowhere. Since everyone had more or less the same background, I wanted to throw in a big twist in my characters personality.

So, uh, Long story short, he's a psychopath who literally dreams of murdering quite literally everyone he knows to the point where it is an obsession, and at the same time he hates himself for it.

All of my posts contained my characters inner thoughts regarding his obsession with murder, which was just pure chaos and more than sadistic. Yet when it came to character interaction and dialogue, he was calm and completely composed on the outside. Totally psycho man. Even though I made my characters thoughts and obsession more than obvious to everyone else, nobody in the roleplay had any reason to have their characters suspect my char for anything, because he hadn't done anything, nor could he.

There's something pretty juicy about participating in a roleplay when you're fully aware someones character wants to violently murder everyone else's character, but can't.

I say that because I guess around 100 posts into the roleplay everyone noticed how much fun I was having playing a psychotic teenager, the GM himself stated that setting up scenes and settings for my character was a blast. Next thing you know, one by one, everyone and I mean everyones characters suddenly began developing their own sadistic obsessions.

The story quite literally turned upside down. It went from an adventurous trek through forests and kingdoms to a band of five or so fucked up human beings moving from town to town satisfying their deranged infatuations. Everyone was havin a good time man. The GM was more than happy to assist us in our fucked up quest and the RP ended with all of our chars storming a city and being killed in the street by guards.

Good times.

 

[The Ghost Note]

I did it a few times.

One time was because the GM was functionally retarded and left everyone to their own devices (I.E. stand around with a thumb up their ass). So yeah, I took the helm from here.

Another time was because the GM was a dick. lol

 

[Diana]

Never in my one on ones because we tend to chat and plot and things go all kinds of fun places. O__O

But, there have been MANY MANY moments in chat roleplays where I'll get bored/tired for whatever reason and the plot is fucked anyway, so out comes my bag of tricks and I take everyone for a ride. >>