Roleplays we can't let go....

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

So I had a roleplay almost a year back....I loved it. I would literally squeal whenever I got a response, and you couldn't pry me away from my computer until I was finished with my reply. It survived the RPG crash, and continued on through email, and then sadly, my partner vanished without a trace. I went through my mourning period, and moved on, but for a while, and even now I still get an urge to have that roleplay back.

I loved that roleplay, it was by far one of my favorites, and try as I might to find a way to bring it back to life I just can't find a partner who can make it work the way it was. The chemistry between the characters is wrong, or I can't quite move the story in the direction that it was going. Either way, it's DOA pretty much every time I try to revive it.

My question is, what do you do when you get a roleplay like that? Do you shrug it off, forget it, and move onto the next one? Do you try to find someone who can make it work with you? Or, my current state, do you sit and bash your head against the keyboard wishing you could give it up?

 

[Diana]

I have a few plots like that. O__O Ones where the roleplay went unfinished for whatever reason, and I have been continuously trying to recreate the magic for years. FOR YEEEAAARRRS.

I just can't let it go. c____c I know that one day I'll run the plot again or play that character and then the magic will be there. As long as I keep trying there is always chance!

 

[Razilin]

i'm in one right now

 

[Alexa Ray]

I try to find someone who can work it out with me.

 

[LogicfromLogic]

1885: Heroes and Villains. That roleplay that Fluffbutt and I did was amazing, I miss it.

 

[Adelaide]

For me it's less plots I can't get out of my system than partners who have vanished into RL with whom I've had amazing chemistry.

Though one plot which was my favorite in the infancy of my RP career was terminated when my partner vanished because of some issues IRL. Years later I found an interest check/partner request that was similar, but not the same and out of nostalgia I responded. It was wonderful, even better than the first time around. Only then I started noticing some very familiar turns of phrases and sentence structure from my new partner. With my Spidey senses tingling I outright asked my new, wonderful partner if he'd ever gone by another screen name. He fessed up, he'd been that first partner and had been too scared to admit it. We had a great RP and a few more which were even better and they all made it into my top ten list of favorite RPs and then he vanished again.

Maybe someday I'll stumble into him again, one can hope.

 

[Asmodeus]

Don't get me started.

 

[redblood]

I've had one like that, but I let go looooong ago :)
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@The Returner I'LL NEVER GIVE UP ON YOU! You know you want to revive it! The vampires are calling. Come back to the dark side. No one can replace you! Let's torture them together, forever. *Tries hypnotizing*

*cough* As I said, I have completely mastered the art of letting go ^^ WHY DID YOU LEAVE THE SITE TOWEROFPIMPS????... ... No I promise, I totally know how to let it go. Why dwell in the past? NOT YOU TOO DREAM SPIRIT! IT WAS GOING SO WELL!! I've never had any problem letting go of my past roleplays ^^

What do you mean I'm sending mixed signals? I'M NOT IN DENIAL D:

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

For me it's less plots I can't get out of my system than partners who have vanished into RL with whom I've had amazing chemistry.

Though one plot which was my favorite in the infancy of my RP career was terminated when my partner vanished because of some issues IRL. Years later I found an interest check/partner request that was similar, but not the same and out of nostalgia I responded. It was wonderful, even better than the first time around. Only then I started noticing some very familiar turns of phrases and sentence structure from my new partner. With my Spidey senses tingling I outright asked my new, wonderful partner if he'd ever gone by another screen name. He fessed up, he'd been that first partner and had been too scared to admit it. We had a great RP and a few more which were even better and they all made it into my top ten list of favorite RPs and then he vanished again.

Maybe someday I'll stumble into him again, one can hope.

I actually have a similar story, although mine doesn't exactly have the happy ending. I started an rp with someone from their interest check, and everything was going well, they vanished, and life went on. Soon I went on to start my own interest check with the same type of roleplay with the plot fleshed out a bit more, and they accepted the opposite role. It wasn't until they accidentally slipped in the names of the first roleplay that I realized that it was my previous partner who disappeared. Sadly, this very same partner and roleplay is the one that I'm stuck on. Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson the first time. @_@

 

[Adelaide]

I actually have a similar story, although mine doesn't exactly have the happy ending. I started an rp with someone from their interest check, and everything was going well, they vanished, and life went on. Soon I went on to start my own interest check with the same type of roleplay with the plot fleshed out a bit more, and they accepted the opposite role. It wasn't until they accidentally slipped in the names of the first roleplay that I realized that it was my previous partner who disappeared. Sadly, this very same partner and roleplay is the one that I'm stuck on. Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson the first time. @_@

Aww, I feel you. I know full well that if he stumbles back into my RP world I'd take him in a heartbeat knowing he's going to vanish again. There are a couple of partners I've had like that. They are just worth the trouble.

 

[The Returner]

@The Returner I'LL NEVER GIVE UP ON YOU! You know you want to revive it! The vampires are calling. Come back to the dark side. No one can replace you! Let's torture them together, forever. *Tries hypnotizing*

Curse you! Curse you thousand times! You have to do this to me when I am trying to limit any contact with English. Curse you redblood! *evil look* ;D

 

[Aine]

Just so you know, @The Returner, I'm also not letting you go. We've got... unfinished business together. *cracks her knuckles in a threatening manner* :D

 

[Asena]

What do you do when it's not even your RPG?!

My ex-friend started an RPG that we LOOOVED. Of course, eventually, people stopped posting. and it died off, and then the forum went bye-bye... But I LOVED my characters and the plot and the people I was playing with. I've considered just using the characters that are mine in a similar story, but I get so nervous because I'm like toeing the line of stealing someone else's ideas. Plus, my characters' chemistry with other characters is part of what made it so wonderful. So I still doodle around with the characters, writing little vignettes and such, being depressed.

In a way it's good though. Whenever I get writers block, I go back to them, and it always pumps me up a little creatively.

 

[redblood]

What do you do when it's not even your RPG?!

My ex-friend started an RPG that we LOOOVED. Of course, eventually, people stopped posting. and it died off, and then the forum went bye-bye... But I LOVED my characters and the plot and the people I was playing with. I've considered just using the characters that are mine in a similar story, but I get so nervous because I'm like toeing the line of stealing someone else's ideas. Plus, my characters' chemistry with other characters is part of what made it so wonderful. So I still doodle around with the characters, writing little vignettes and such, being depressed.

In a way it's good though. Whenever I get writers block, I go back to them, and it always pumps me up a little creatively.

If you know the idea is identical to another persons idea, and you really want to do that idea, then just write that the idea wasn't originally yours. As long as you tell people that the idea wasn't yours (and preferably tell them who you got it from) it's usually fine. Just don't promote the idea as if you were the one that came up with it if you know that isn't true. If you are unsure what the person that made the idea will think about you re-doing it, then just message them and ask if they are fine with it. If they no longer are on the site, and you don't know how to find them, they will probably not care.

Most stories made are just variations of already existing stories, thus everyone are to some extent copying other peoples work, often without even knowing it. I can't think of one single rp I've been in that doesn't have a few movies/series/books with the same premise or quite a few elements in common. Just because they have the same basic idea doesn't mean that the rp in itself will go in the same direction. Ten ideas can have the exact same starting point, but branch out into ten completely different stories.

Don't be afraid to use other peoples work, but remember to give credit whenever credit is deserved. ;)

 

[Yuuki_Tatsunohi]

How I feel for this one rp I was in that was. just. so. amazing but it died cause the gm had irl stuff to deal with summarized in one gif

 

[Brovo]

All the time. This might be a bit long so apologies in advance if it is, but this involves passion and love, so one has a hard time summarizing that, non?

I'm a GM at heart. I like to make worlds for people. Entire, humongous worlds, filled with societies, cultures, people of all shapes, sizes, and colours. Princesses, thieves, knights, assassins, barbarians. The idealistic, pessimistic, realistic, cautious, excitable, romantic, sorrowful, lethargic, beautiful, and ugly. I don't just create a plot and say "go", I create the kingdoms involved, their cities and towns, the actors, histories, relationships, and religions. Every world is lovingly crafted from scratch, by hand, taking weeks, sometimes months, to fully complete a project world. Even then, when players participate in these worlds, they evolve and grow as a result of both outside events and decisions made by the players. Expanding, contracting, good and evil, factions rise and fall over the timeline, over a series of events that leads to the culmination of one story and the beginning of another.

I love my worlds. I put my heart and soul into them. I'll stay up night after night into the wee hours of the morning brainstorming and crafting new NPC's and scenarios within these worlds. I'll carry them on for years. I end up dreaming about them, pulling out my phone on a crowded city bus just to type a few notes down about the next chapter. For years it was one of the few things I could consistently depend on my creations to be of my own design, a fantasy I could dive into so I could escape the abuses and pain of my adolescence. There were nights I can recall where through teary eyes that blurred the monitor I just kept typing. I focused on it for dear life, with everything I had, because sometimes it was all I had. Me, a keyboard, and the endless grassy fields of Renalta, or the crystal clear lake of Arian village, or the "magical minefield mountains".

Maybe I can let go of a non-functioning plot that doesn't make any sense in hindsight. I can retcon events from my past when I wrote them in the middle of a mad frenzy to escape depression to make more sense in the present. The worlds though? They stay forever. Though one might hibernate for a couple years, it'll always come back, in one way or another, until it sticks.

EDIT

tl;dr: My role plays will work no matter how many attempts it takes because I refuse to let the dreams die. Believe it!

 

[Sarre]

Not quite the same thing, but I am sort of in one right now. One of my partners is extremely busy IRL. She shows up about once a week, and every time she vanishes, I'm terrified that she might not come back.

 

[Isho13]

I really miss an rp I had with some friends IRL, a tabletop rpg. We finished the story in under a week, roleplaying all day, all night. But I got soooo attached to our characters ;A; I cope using my character, sometimes as a main character, sometimes as a secondary one, for other rps. Sometimes I even include the other characters that took part in the story.

 

[Aqacia]

I had a runaway roleplay in the past on a different site, we had 4 characters in it as the main cast she enjoyed juggling a number of characters so she often picked up my male character which i had no problem with and used him every now and then.

It was amazing it had a love story going on or at least starting it had great chemistry with the characters and i just loved it.


When unfortunate events happen and the roleplay no longer lives and i love it too much then i write it all out as a kind of book, rewriting all the roleplay went thought and then writing the future while being in character and so on. It's not the same but it's the closest you'll ever get to the real thing.

 

[Asena]

Not quite the same thing, but I am sort of in one right now. One of my partners is extremely busy IRL. She shows up about once a week, and every time she vanishes, I'm terrified that she might not come back.

I know EXACTLY how you feel! I had an RP partner once who was hands down one of the best writers I'd ever met. Her characters were always brilliantly thought out, she was great at coming up for ideas to advance story, and she was inspiring. But she would RP with us for a few months, then vanish for a month or two, then come back, be sporadic about posting, then disappear, then come back, etc. Then one day, she was gone forever. T_______T

Samui if you're out there I miss you!!