RP gripes!

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@Thought Manifest

I guess that's where we differ. When I see someone who is 99 years old and still "pubescent" or "still a child" within the society, still does not take away the fact that 99 years is a long time. Lots of experience ESPECIALLY if the character is out going.

@Dervish
Your hear the new sensation sweeping the nation? Hot beef injection infection.
 
I hate it when people alter how their character behaves from situation to situation in order to do what they, as the player, think would be the best approach to whatever is happening. Rash hotheads should remain so even in tenuous and dangerous situations where acting without thinking might cause problems, meek pacifists should remain so even when decisive boldness is what is needed to save the day. Some fluctuations in extreme circumstances can be fine, but when they're altering their character for every freaking thing in order to increase their chances of success it's just bullshit.

People who play characters with mental illnesses and portray them horrendously incorrectly, particularly playing Hollywood style "psychopaths." If you're going to pick a mental illness to be part of your character, at least do the bare minimum of like reading the Wikipedia page on it to understand how it actually affects people and how debilitating it tends to be. I've seen far too many people make a "severely bipolar" character and then just have them switch between moderately happy and sad moods randomly, often multiple times in the space of a couple minutes. It makes me want to find a way to throw a physical copy of the DSM at their face through the internet.

Super hardcore edgy angsty brooding loner characters. Seriously, why the fuck are you joining a roleplay, a collaborative writing game that is mainly about player interaction, if you want to have a character that refuses to actually interact with the others? If you want to write stuff along the lines of "omg my life is so dark i am the embodiment of angst and nobody can understand me" you should go write poetry like the other emo kids. Quiet and not-super-sociable characters can be fine if played well, but the ones who refuse to interact and just brood about things piss me off.

One of my minor peeves is when people quote a bunch of stuff from previous IC posts in their own. Doing it with just dialogue is tolerable as long as they don't go overboard with it, but I've seen some people literally quote full paragraphs out of other people's posts, including internal monologue stuff. Ugh.

Another minor one is people who use pictures of well known celebrities for their character appearance. I know there's really nothing wrong with it, but it bugs me.

Oh, also, shitty writing in general. Mechanically speaking, I mean. I can forgive people being bad with plot and character development and stuff, but being bad at the basic mechanics of the English language? Eh. I can be pretty hardcore elitist about it in my own head, but I never really comment on it unless the person outright asks for opinions on their writing.
 
Another minor one is people who use pictures of well known celebrities for their character appearance. I know there's really nothing wrong with it, but it bugs me.

Further:
Simply using the photos of real people at all is a peeve of mine. Something about puppeteering someone who actually exists comes off as... well... unnerving. Possibly even disturbing. I wouldn't like to imagine my own photo I've uploaded online being used by another person to serve as their character's appearance. Though it "isn't me", the idea of my appearance walking about and doing things/being controlled by some person on the internet is neither flattering nor comforting.
 
@WitchChild, I meant more along the lines of biological development and not simply a societal norm. For instance, our human brains don't even finish development until our mid-twenties while an elf that could live to be 5,000+ years probably wouldn't finish brain development until after they've been around for a century or more. Without a fully developed brain and without the hormonal balance that begins to happen in true adulthood, it would make sense that they may not have the kind of maturity that a middle-aged human might have even with their advanced age. And to be fair, even adults who are well into their middle aged range aren't always mature.

It's not just environmental experience that determines maturity. You also have to take into account hormones and the way our brains fire off. There are a plethora of mental disorders, and intellect isn't something that you just acquire over time. I can tell you that some people are gifted with more intellect and more potential to learn than others. My father, for instance, isn't a very smart man. He doesn't really have much by way of academic intellect or common sense. The man still acts like a teenager or at least someone in their early twenties. I'm guessing he just wasn't gifted with the same capacity to learn and grow that other people get.

Of course, this kind of logic only applies to creatures who are born to live a long time. I don't get the deal with vampires and the like that were once human but become immortal later (unless their transformation also arrested their brain and hormonal development; then I could kinda see it, maybe). I also find it really offputting that so many centuries-old formerly-mortal-but-now-immortal creatures want to get it on with teenagers. That makes zero sense to me. I'm only twenty-five, and I can't see teens as physically anything more than children, so I don't know how a person living so long couldn't see them as practically babies. :: shudders ::


@Asuras, I don't see a problem with using a celebrity photo as long as it's either from a screen cap of one of their works or if it's from a professional shoot. However, using photos of celebrities that are selfies or the like seems weird to me. I also think it's really weird to use photos of random people who aren't famous for the reasons you stated. I wouldn't want someone using my selfies for their characters just because it kind of weirds me out that something I took specifically for me and not for the masses ended up being used on a character I may or may not really want to be associated with... I don't know... I think at that point, if you really want to use another person's personal photo badly enough, you need to ask the person in the photo for permission. Otherwise, it's a no-go.
 
Having to find a picture to represent my char = several hours of boredom/annoyance.
I usually go for describing my char but if it's an outright rule for a RP I really wanna join then I'll go through that trouble of finding a picture. I like thinking about how my char looks, what clothes they prefer and so on. I might not be good at describing my chars appearance-wise yet but looking for a representative picture isn't gonna help me get any better at descriptions and actually adding them to my writing.
I really wanna get better.
 
Adding one more. It's not in RP but more a case out around it. If you're around, posting everywhere then why not in the RP where people are waiting for your reply!

If someone has to be away for a while or is simply stuck: Let us others know so we move on! It's really annoying how, with no notification at all, there's suddenly no replies. You don't have to write an essay detailing why you're stuck/away. Just a line will do.
I will admit to doing this now, but considering I'm using my phone to do most of my posting that's why. But when I do have my computer sometimes my motivation to certain stories is lacking, so I'll wait until it's back. I usually tell my partners, but sometimes I forget.
 
@Thought Manifest
say what you will. My peeve is just in general when a whole species is long lived. The youth and what not is just crap to me. Give me a man in his 50's that has seen shit that will make me go white instead of a 80 year old child.

That also really does not make any sense to me. That a race, a species, doesn´t evolve, magical or other wise, to face the threats of the world. Still being basically a 12 year old kid for decades while someone has reached that in two, that long lived race will be the least capable of survival unless they were being coddled.

Vamps I don't like in general as a player race. My rule of thumb, don't be over 200. If this race is long lived like thousands at least make the character 200. 200, if mature, should be enough to still have learned a crap ton yet still room to grow, relatively speaking.

That is me and that is how I roll. Hell, I make most elves in my settings not live past 1000 at max but on average I just let them die naturally around 200 and NOT look like baby faced. There are ugly individuals among them there. Fat elves, wrinkles. etc.
 
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I found myself nodding at not a few things here and there reading over the gripes, but one thing I don't think anyone mentioned that makes me absolutely insane: people with characters who are, in essence, attention whores. These are usually female characters [unfortunately] who must constantly be saved from this, that or the other thing; are in possession of the most overwrought emotions conceivable because every little thing touches their exquisitely delicate souls or - worse yet - live to be the most beautiful, shining and impossibly perfect epitome of femininity ever, and expect their chosen male 'love interests' to react to this all the time, even in the middle of a group RP where this disrupts everything everyone else might be trying to do. This just makes me nuts...
 
I actually haven't run into this all too much.
 
Wait? People actually play the damsels? Really? I've never run into one (luckily) but the type is really annoying to even try playing.
 
I hate when people automatically assume their position in a group RP. Like, you can't just automatically assume that you're the wisest and strongest character when only two people have signed up and we haven't even started the IC yet.
I know that's not about the actual RP, but still, it's part of the actual thing...

I also hate it when someone has a character that doesn't interact with any of the other members. I am a very passive RPer, so I can understand how newbies may be uncomfortable and nervous about trying to lead who their characters interacts with, but that is no excuse to just have your character go away from the group and not do anything. For example, on a different website I was doing a stranded island RP and one of the characters was very antisocial. At first I was fine with it, but then once we started the IC, his character just went off doing his own thing. We were three months into the RP and his character still didn't have any interaction with the other characters, despite us warning him multiple times. The RP died soon after, but still, his character was useless. I don't care how antisocial your character is, they don't have their own special one-person roleplay.
 
I hate when people automatically assume their position in a group RP. Like, you can't just automatically assume that you're the wisest and strongest character when only two people have signed up and we haven't even started the IC yet.
I find a lot of this is just more the player not understanding how powerful a word becomes when you add "est" at the end. More of a language barrier than intended consequence. Communication errors are often problematic.
 
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I also hate it when someone has a character that doesn't interact with any of the other members. I am a very passive RPer, so I can understand how newbies may be uncomfortable and nervous about trying to lead who their characters interacts with, but that is no excuse to just have your character go away from the group and not do anything. For example, on a different website I was doing a stranded island RP and one of the characters was very antisocial. At first I was fine with it, but then once we started the IC, his character just went off doing his own thing. We were three months into the RP and his character still didn't have any interaction with the other characters, despite us warning him multiple times. The RP died soon after, but still, his character was useless. I don't care how antisocial your character is, they don't have their own special one-person roleplay.
I cannot tell you how many times I've encountered this and then listened to them whine OOC about how no one is interacting with them! They want someone to come and draw their wonderful-unique-nuanced-special-snowflake character out! It drives me batty!
 
I cannot tell you how many times I've encountered this and then listened to them whine OOC about how no one is interacting with them! They want someone to come and draw their wonderful-unique-nuanced-special-snowflake character out! It drives me batty!

Amen, sister...
 
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I've got a few:

I absolutely hate it when someone derives a plot for an RP and then I end up being the sole person "running" the roleplay.

I hate it when someone has been giving me a certain quality of posts and then all of a sudden drops down to one line. (I'm not against one liners, but if you are giving me paragraphs and then drop to nothing for no reason I'm going to get peeved.)

And lastly, people who disappear for days without stating that it will happen.

Hell I am a busy person full-time work and full-time school I understand busy but I still manage to throw down at least one or two posts per day per RP.
 
One big gripe for me is that really awkward scenario where someone technically meets the required level of ability for the RP, but still pales compared to everyone else. You can't kick them, because what they're doing/their writing is entirely reasonable, but it completely kills the flow when you're trying to immerse yourself and read through the RP. You have a bunch of fantastic writers and one who's... good. Nothing they're doing is inadequate, but...
If everyone were a 'fantastic' writer, everyone would be average. Personally, I like to surround myself with writers that I consider on a higher level than me so that I may observe their writing styles; hopefully, it'll help me write better dialogue, describe superior environmental scenes and design three-dimensional characters that progress through the RP's universe in as realistic a manner as possible.
 
If everyone were a 'fantastic' writer, everyone would be average. Personally, I like to surround myself with writers that I consider on a higher level than me so that I may observe their writing styles; hopefully, it'll help me write better dialogue, describe superior environmental scenes and design three-dimensional characters that progress through the RP's universe in as realistic a manner as possible.
Extension: As a GM, I welcome players that manage to meet the minimum requirements and seek to improve.
#1: The more players improve, the better the obstacles I can throw in their way.
#2: The more kindness and patience I show towards them, the more I'll be rewarded with loyalty.

It's worked so far, I see no need to change.
 
The word petité

YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO USE IT, EVERYONE USES IT FOR ANYTHING FEMALE. STOP IT. SWEAR TO GOD I WILL MURDER THE NEXT PETITE CHARACTER IN ONE MY RPS.
You have no idea how much I agree to that.

I hate when I put in a good lengthy reply onto something, and my partner replies with: "She smiled." or something super short WTF I HAVE NOTHING TO GO ON WITH THAT SUPER SHORT POST HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO REPLY TO THIS?!!! And then gets upset when I don't reply. Like, I'm not going to even bother with a role play if you arent going to even try. That is incredibly lazy and it's the fastest way to make me drop a role play.
 
Wait? People actually play the damsels? Really? I've never run into one (luckily) but the type is really annoying to even try playing.

I was thinking the same thing. The whole damsel/attention where character is something I've been lucky not to run into.

I hate when people ignore a character because they're not a member of the opposite sex! I used to run into that a lot in the past, but fortunately not so much recently. I hated having a male character who would get swamped with attention for doing nothing at all. It used to annoy the hell out of me.
 
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