Roleplaying Pet Peeves

Do you have a roleplaying pet peeve?


  • Total voters
    78
Status
Not open for further replies.
These have happened several times:

As a GM, when a player takes over your RP. Let's say you have plans for something. Huge plans, like a Big Bad, or a guy watching your every move. Then all of a sudden, a player takes over, and removes the tension completely. How am I to work with this? Like seriously!

As a Player, when you use common sense and logic, and get punished for it.

Yes, this happened.
This works in two directions. I wholly agree - it's incredibly rude when they bogart your thread. On the other hand, like Brovo said, when they come in and literally just sit in monologue all day... Don't ALTER my plot - create and add to one for your character, play organically. Nobody does that anymore... Well, I don't think many did. If you're just going through the motions, not advancing something with at least a majority of your posts, then you're pushing the roleplay back. It's a balance. :p A difficult one for a lot of people, myself included.
 
People who send you multiple messages and then the ideas never work out.

People who clearly don't read that it says for you to pm them, but they don't.


very picky people who send you one large plot with no details on the characters.


did I mention ditching...yes ditching.
 
Oh my god, @CyPuPoPrincess I know what you mean... I hate when people are like "Yeah, let's roleplay!" And then they don't give you ANYTHING to work with. If I wanted to build a world alone, I'd write a book. If I wanted an unenthusiastic partner who was going to drop the instant we got done planning, I'd have not made an interest check. If I wanted to do all the work and give the credit to somebody else, I'd have requested James Patterson...

Okay, that's mean. I don't know the man and actually I like some of his work. But it's kind of a running joke where I work that all of his co-author books mean that he kind of sticks his name on it so it sells (because ,seriously, EVERYBODY will read his newest book and I'm just sitting there like "David Mitchell, pls? :c ")
 
My pet Peeve is the overly edgey and or energetic type of character. They aren't normal and I do my best to make my characters as close to a real person as possible.
 
By the gods, I could go on forever about these things but I'll try to reign myself in.

When someone doesn't pay attention to details and then completely writes over it. Now I will say that sometimes I miss details myself but when they're major major major details and are blatantly ignored, prepare for me to flip my shit.

When someone expects our characters to mesh quickly. Some of my characters are assholes, they're not meant to fall in love if they're trying to fucking kill you. On that note, had a guy argue with me once because I couldn't guarantee sex between our characters. Dude, we're in a post apocalyptic setting with zombies. The last thing my character is thinking about is getting in your pants. AND! When people determine character pairings before a roleplay even starts, especially in a group. "Oh, my character is totally going to be all over yours 'cause they're hot." Like... wat?

In groups (previous website experience), when people join a roleplay and then just disappear after posting their characters or their introductory post. Thanks for you interest and also absolutely no word on your disappearance. Incredibly aggravating if these people are still highly active in other roleplays or around the forum. Said people also never responded when asked about the roleplay they disappeared from. Be respectful, you biscuit.

Also! When people just disappear from a roleplay without a single word about what's going on. I understand if you're bored with it and not interested anymore, but please just tell me. I'm not going to bite your head off but I will lose respect for you if you can't grow the balls to tell me you don't want to roleplay anymore. Granted I have just disappeared sometimes if the situation is too ridiculous. Reference previous argument about sex between characters.

My top pet peeve when it comes to roleplaying is a clear lack of effort in a post. Sometimes I get lazy but I always do my best to write at least 3 paragraphs and a lot more. I take the time to add details, describe what my character is thinking, what the hell is going on around them. If you can't give me more than one run on sentence about how we were walking through a park then are suddenly on your motorcycle with absolutely no transition, then pack your shit and get the hell out of my thread.

Controlling my characters and assuming how my character would feel about a situation are major no-nos. Bitch don't touch my stuff. I will decide what my character does and how they work in their perfectly fucked up mind. If the roleplay really calls for controlling my character (and there are some situations where this acceptable) then so be it. But don't do it just to do it.

A complete lack of communication or ignorance to what was discussed before the roleplay. Just tell me what you want and expect out of me as a partner. I will do the same.

When someone suddenly drops a bomb on you in the middle of the roleplay. Example: changing limits. I want to know before hand what your limits are so I know to avoid those topics/situations. Don't lie to me. Had a girl once say that she had no limits but when it came down to it she wanted to avoid the topic of rape completely. This would have been nice to know before hand when I asked you this in the first place. This is where it's nice to say "Not that I know of but if something comes up I will tell you," you know... so I'm a little more prepared for a sudden change.

Alright... I'm done |:
 
  • Thank You
Reactions: Izurich
People who don't read my rules and conditions and things. I don't have many and I don't write them in Cyrillic, so it's not like you have an excuse. If you can't take the time to do a little reading before you mash your keyboard and send me a message, then nine times out of ten, you're not going to put any effort into your posts.

Communicate with me. If the RP's getting stale, tell me. If you have an idea, tell me. If your character identifies as a jar of mayonnaise, TELL ME. I can't help make our RP work if you won't work with me.

Do you know who controls my character? Me. I do. Not you. If I wanted you to control them, then I would let you. I have no problem handing over control for a little bit if it's to move things along, or if you can provide a convincing argument. If it's because you're a controlling fucknut with a sense of entitlement three times the size of a blimp, we're going to have a bit of a problem.
 
One of my pet peeves that I haven't seen mentioned here yet is an unwillingness to plot outside of the roleplay. I saw an interest check where the GM actively (and sometimes quite rudely) discouraged any form of plotting or coming up with events for the story. "Just let it happen" roleplayers are a big peeve of mine because those always seem to quickly become directionless, repetitive, and stale. Even just big-sketch stuff is better than nothing. I hate it when I'm trying to plot with someone and they give me the most bland, milquetoast replies because they don't know their character well enough to answer any of them. As part of that, people who don't put any thought whatsoever into their characters. They play with all the purposefulness of of a bird shitting on a car.

Although I see it more in mature/libertine RPs, I hate it when characters are bottoms and that is not only how they are in the bedroom, but outside of it as well. Characters who are submissive in every aspect of live and must cling to their dominants like they're a liferaft. God forbid someone be a normal, capable, assertive adult who happens to like being told what to do in certain contexts. Double barf bonus if their subby-ness causes everyone in their life to somehow magically turn into abusive assholes at the stroke of midnight so their dommie-poo can swoop in and save them over and over and over and...
 
Hmph, people who give little to no detail about what's going on with there character, a simple line of dialogue and then nothing else but random words doesn't make a quality post.

-edit-
people who don't know what the word "no" means.
 
*groans inwardly*.

I've been around this thread more times then I can wrap my head around, which is probably the reason, I'm moody and or cranky all the time, but here is my stuff.
  1. one liners
  2. dialogue and nothing but dialogue
  3. people who start a roleplay with giving me any details on a plot or any idea what the heck they wanted me to do.
  4. people who believe that I'm willing to do every single roleplay the same way one of there other partners do it.
  5. quoting me in the forums when the rules say for them to PM ME!
  6. having me backtrack through all our messages because the person wanted me to change something
  7. Let me blunt. I don't really care for going over every single little details, sometimes during the planning process I can seem uninterested. I'm interested..I just don't like going over too many things. I at least suspect my partners to read my resume and then look over my pairings and at least have a plot thought up.
  8. character sheets, (there pointless in my opnion)
  9. activeness (coming on once and not replying is my idea of a deal breaker)
  10. pming me to come look at your thread.
 
Mine is normally No One gives to Craps to even look at my RP's most of them can be pretty bad T.T
Sometimes I come up with raitings gold.

I am more of a fan of 'Build it and they will come' :3
 
  • Nice Execution!
Reactions: Hellis and Darog
This particular pet peeve saddens me more than actually being annoying.

Partners who dropped out from my 1x1 RPs with them without any warning whatsoever, just straight up... poofy doofy. :( From this, the event usually progresses to either these variations:

1. The player is suddenly not active anymore on the forums for whatever reason. This I can understand, life can be a bitch or they're not interested in RP-ing anymore, I wish them luck in whatever difficulties they might have, still... a warning beforehand or farewells would've been nice.

2. The player stopped replying to my thread with them, but is still active on their other threads and forums, I usually understand if they are having a writer's block for our plot and wanted to take their time while replying to other threads, but when it goes on and on and on for a month or two, then I will start raising eyebrows. Of course, I don't want to assume so I ask them questions regarding our RP. Sometimes, they told me they are not interested anymore but afraid to tell me because it might offend me. Some other time, they genuinely forgot about the thread because they didn't watch/subscribe the thread. We usually work this out, no one is perfect, you and I both, I very much understand this. However...

3. This happens rarely, but they do happen. When they dropped off from the RP, still active on other threads, and straight up ignoring me when I politely ask them for concerns or feedback, then I will start frowning as my heart cracks. Still, I usually try again to get them to talk since I care about the thread we're working together, I respect our efforts in the plot and I don't want to see it rot. A few times, those people kept ignoring me... oh well, alright, I'd have to move on, but there's this one time when an RP-er told me they are offended and hate me, me as in the guy behind the computer, the writer, for something my fictional character did to their character. Dude.... what the ef? Come on... :(

To make matters even more perplexing, I was playing a female teen with psychic powers and that guy was playing a young adult boxer, the latter tried to rape (IC-ly of course) the former, and you wonder why my character ended up despising and wanting to kill yours??? Dude, YC tried to rape MC, of course MC would hate you will all her being and being someone with power to actually fight back (in this case, telekinesis), obviously she'll do exactly that. What do you expect? That she'll end up not harboring any grudge, even falling in love with him? Shiiieeet, Stockholm Syndrome doesn't work that fast.

I wasn't angered, nor furious, I was... sad. In every single one of my RP, what is most important to me is mutual enjoyment of both myself and my partners, if I can't achieve that, then I won't bother RP-ing at all. It saddens me everytime to drop an RP, but well, life goes on. It is something I must deal with, but please... please don't do this to me.

There, thank you, Iwaku for providing me with a place to vent.
 
Last edited:
When someone can't accept loosing/defeat. Like if your character is going to loose, then guess what? They are going to loose- You wouldn't believe how many times I had to make my character loose (When they wouldn't) just to get things to get a move on.

When someone randomly keeps adding their characters random powers (that are awfully convenient for the situation >.>)- This one relates to the above too, I've had fun with it just ONCE when the added bullshit was just for fun and laughs. But most the time, its to make their character better than yours, and/or to get rid of someone they don't like. Now there is a difference between powers you don't know about and revealing later, but it gets to the point where it becomes obvious that they are making stuff up on the spot.

When it gets to a point I may as well have my characters sit down and watch- In one of my very first RP's the person made his characters so OP that I decided to have fun with it. During a massive battle, I had my 2 characters just sit down and watch (Which led to victory quickly... My point in doing that went right over his head too DX)

When a GM makes an RP about team work... And then doesn't implement any team work activities/themes- If you're gonna make an RP with a theme of sorts, at least TRY to stick with that theme, or AT LEAST give reason to why the theme can't be a thing anymore.


And there's more, but I forgot them as I was writing the 4 above DX I'm super flexible and chill when it comes to RP's so I don't really have many pet peeves. But the above ones are major ones that just irk me and I feel takes away from the experience I feel.


Earlier I read a pet peeve that said "People that use anime drawings for their character looks"
I am sooooooo sorry o.o But I am that guy XD It's not entirely my fault though, it's just that anime creators are the closest things I can find that match my characters look/ideal look.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Izurich
Another from me: sudden grimdark subplots in an otherwise bright and light-hearted RP. I'm generally not fond of dark in general, but it's especially annoying when it comes up in something that's not, and it can make me question the integrity of both the GM for letting it happen and the subplot's executor for coming up with it in the first place.
 
1. People who absolutely must be the most powerful, most tragic, most right person in the entire RP. I'm tired of people saying that their character's tragic backstory is a flaw, but then only giving them a few nightmares here or there to emphasize how ~sexy and messed up~ their character is. PTSD is a serious, life-altering illness, not some truck for angst where every problem your character has is clean, still makes your character look good, and comes with no repurcussions.

2. In that vein, mental illness being portrayed in the least-educated way possible. RPs based in asylums or centered on people with mental illnesses are my absolute most despised, in part because people take real-life illnesses and romanticize them to the point of wishing they had them, but also because said illnesses are treated as excuses for why a character is homicidal, sadistic, other what-have-you bullshit. Brovo, as usual, can and has been more eloquent with this specific pet peeve, so those are just a few points. Read goddamn Girl, Interrupted or Ellen Hopkins' works at the very, very, very least, if detached research isn't enough.

3. People who ignore any standardized format for an RP, mainly people who post in a different tense or POV.

4. People whose only concerns in an RP are how quickly their characters could get laid or find romance. In certain libertine or romantic RPs, this isn't necessarily the case, but if the world is blowing up and all Jimmy the Paladin wants to do is put his Blade of Truth into Becky the Robot's toaster oven, then the next demon or undead horde down the road is in for a crunchy snack.

5. Characters whose entire designs are totally incongruous with the IC world. Superhero RPs tend to be the worst offenders, depending upon its focus. If the entire RP is kitchen-sink, X-men/Hellboy/Avengers/Fantastic Four/Batman/Green Lantern/Runaways/GotG, then whatever, put a half-demon dude in with the robot samurai and the Superman clone. But if the RP is a space adventure, a magic goth girl whose powers are based on a generic grasp of Earth wiccanism would never feel right.

6. Really simple characters. I have nothing against archetypal characters, as they can serve as amazing exercises in subversion (Just look at Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mort, Pulp Fiction or a myriad of other excellent works). It's when a character is so consistently generic that the PC maintains no responsibility over keeping them in-character or giving them growth. It's lazy, they might as well just play an NPC.

That's all the whining I can handle today. I might add to this later.
 
When people overuse one word over, and over, and over and....

When people are more concerned with moving the plot along (usually too fast) rather than providing good, solid detail in their posts to make them.more intriguing.

People who play the damsel in distress and only want attention and to be rescued rather than give their character dimension.

When people take things my character does as a hit on them personally.

One liners.

When people center their posts. Ugggh whhhy??? It pokes and prods at my OCD -bad-.
 
Minor gripe: when every paragraph opens with a character's name.
 
When people take role play too seriously.

I have a bunch more but I'm lazy.
 
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: 1 person
Roleplay banners that feature a gaggle of characters with miss-matched art styles/ haphazard layouts / fonts that blend in with the background / ask you a rhetorical question (e.g. WILL YOU SURVIVE OR WILL YOU FALL? CLICK HURR BEEYOTCH!).
 
Roleplay banners that feature a gaggle of characters with miss-matched art styles/ haphazard layouts / fonts that blend in with the background / ask you a rhetorical question (e.g. WILL YOU SURVIVE OR WILL YOU FALL? CLICK HURR BEEYOTCH!).
Adding to that: horribly stretched out images.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.