RP gripes!

[Halo]

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.

I agree. I recognise that it's a necessary evil, and I've reaped the benefits of that myself over the years. I was 13 when I started RPing; I was utterly awful, and other people put up with my terrible writing and allowed me to improve. But that's exactly what they did - put up with it. The fact that it can be beneficial doesn't stop it being a frustrating situation, whether it's me or another person whose writing is comparatively inferior.

 

[KageKaioh]

Oh! People who use the same character for multiple rps at the same time! This gets on my nerves soooo bad! I'm fine when it's the same character for the same rp, but they only have one going on. People get attached to characters for certain plots, I know I'm guilty of it. But if I have two of the same plot going on, I will make a different character for one of the stories.

When I see someone using one character in several rps though.... Ugh! That drives me nuts. I love making characters and developing them, which is probably why it drives me nuts when I see the same character being used over and over again at the same time. How are you supposed to develop that character if they're going through two totally different situations at the same time? Maybe I am missing something, but it drives me nuts.

I am very guilty of reusing my favourite characters, sometimes in more than one RP simultaneously. I do not think I have ever run the same character in two similar plots/settings at the same time. That would be hard to do and rather boring, to be honest. Anyway, the thing is, each time, the details are different, their story is different, and everything they come across is new. I have developed these characters for years- decades for some of them, and putting them into so many different roles and settings helps pull together parts of them I never would have thought of otherwise. Sometimes these new ideas are meshed into them for their next role, as others are pushed out or changed. Sometimes I just use the same archetype/appearance/name-basis/abilities and completely start anew; oft times, this is necessary for the character to work in the RP. Mostly, I enjoy the challenge of playing them in as many different stories as I can and seeing where it takes them. I have villains that became heroes, and heroes that became villains; Humans that became monsters, monsters that became mortal; A coward became a saviour, a saviour lost all hope and became craven. None of these things would change had I not thrown them into a new story.

I do still love making new characters, and I do so often, but I cannot help the desire to relive my favourites and if the right RP comes along... well, why not?. I am not saying your pet peeve is unfounded or anything, I just figured I would give my point of view on the topic.

 

[LeVen]

Going into a sign up sheet thread and the characters are in as mental hospital. Cut terribly researched mental illnesses and generally gonna have a bad time. (Sadly I was guilty of this back when I first started. I am ashamed)
Then you have the person that is making sure things are realistic, and calls out another user on it, but then they proceed to day that they have this and they know what they're doing. Which is fine until they use words like "dear" "sweetheart" ext. Then you just sound like you're condescending and rude

 

[Brovo]

Going into a sign up sheet thread and the characters are in as mental hospital. Cut terribly researched mental illnesses and generally gonna have a bad time. (Sadly I was guilty of this back when I first started. I am ashamed)
Then you have the person that is making sure things are realistic, and calls out another user on it, but then they proceed to day that they have this and they know what they're doing. Which is fine until they use words like "dear" "sweetheart" ext. Then you just sound like you're condescending and rude

The whole subject of mental disorders in role plays is like an inescapable minefield of horrifying death. You always have...

#1: The people who get overly sensitive about it, either because it impacts them or because they think people who have them are all thin skinned and need protecting.
#2: The people who use it purely to justify shitty actions and drama for utterly no reason.
#3: The people who sincerely cannot tell the difference between unstable and insane.

I just try to avoid the whole thing altogether in a role play. If I see anything to do with mental disorders in a character skeleton, or in the plot, or otherwise, my answer is always...

That being said I'll always be willing to give a player in one of my role plays a shot at it if they think they can do it. Though it should be noted at this point if someone goes "my character has X mental disorder" my usual answer is to roll my eyes, approve it, and then take bets on how long until they die.

 

[Diana]

I TOO HATE ALL OF THESE THINGS PEOPLE MENTIONED. ;_;

Except people's problems with pictures! As long as players ALSO provide a written description of the character, I dun care if they have a picture, if it's a celebrity, model, random stranger, anime, etc. I don't find the use of pictures a problem at all. I always require a written description no matter what, though. >> Pictures are nice for the reference, but that written description gives added details that could be very important. (Height, build, weight, etc. You never know when you can use one of those in a scene!)


No wait... I do have some picture problems. ><

I hate when pictures are -required- by the GM. I love using pictures, but if I am using a picture, it's one that fits my mental image of my character -perfectly- as a reference both for me and my partners. Sometimes no such picture exists. >< Getting custom art of a charrie is not always doable. Like someone mentioned earlier how hard it is to find anime pics of a black character! Unless you're playing a hot white female in her teens/20s it can be really freaking hard to find good pictures that fit your vision. :(


I also hate when a picture is not age/personality/setting appropriate or accurate for the character and roleplay. o__o Anime art is really bad for this. People with 20+ year old characters but their picture looks 13. If you're going to insist your seasoned adult assassin looks 13 with a flat chest and a child's face, I'm gonna use that in the roleplay and you probably won't like it.

Or when they use a modern model in a modern pose for a fantasy roleplay. It's one thing if you're posting a punch of pics and saying "The hair style from this one. The outfit from this. The model in this one." for a reference but if you're just posting the one picture of a hot guy on his motorcycle and he's supposed to be a Knight for the king's guard.... it's just silly.

 

[dragonesper]

I seriously laughed at that @Brovo. I've met someone who thought aspergers syndrome was being an insensitive jerkass. -.-
Yeah... Thanks for that. Supposedly a mental condition gives you certain negative traits...

 

[ASTA]

Main gripe: Diana always yelling.

OT: The overabundance of model-like characters in roleplays; the endless sea of flawless visages, perfect skin tones, pristine breasts, toned backsides, and ripped abs.

I'm not denying the existence of physically attractive people, but I seriously wonder if most roleplayers realize how much effort, time and determination one must put forward and sacrifice in order to look like a high-grade model.

It's worse when people port these types of characters into post-apocalyptic RPs. How are you going to have time to work out for six hours a day when you need to sleep, scavenge, hunt, and defend yourself from the masses of marauding bandits that want your stuff?

Mind you, I'm not discouraging the use of model characters, but people need to realize that most meatbags on this planet fall into the 'slightly above average', 'average' or 'below average' category when it comes to looks. It becomes rage-inducing when an entire player cast has decided to run Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, David Gandy, and Sean O'Pry as epic-level survivalists.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I also hate when a picture is not age/personality/setting appropriate or accurate for the character and roleplay. o__o Anime art is really bad for this. People with 20+ year old characters but their picture looks 13. If you're going to insist your seasoned adult assassin looks 13 with a flat chest and a child's face, I'm gonna use that in the roleplay and you probably won't like it.

Or when they use a modern model in a modern pose for a fantasy roleplay. It's one thing if you're posting a punch of pics and saying "The hair style from this one. The outfit from this. The model in this one." for a reference but if you're just posting the one picture of a hot guy on his motorcycle and he's supposed to be a Knight for the king's guard.... it's just silly.

Agreed!

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I seriously laughed at that @Brovo. I've met someone who thought aspergers syndrome was being an insensitive jerkass. -.-
Yeah... Thanks for that. Supposedly a mental condition gives you certain negative traits...

My mom's best friend's son has aspergers. They are socially awkward, and quite often the things that they can can be misconstrued as being insensitive, but that's because they have a difficult time understanding other people's emotions and sensitivities. I remember when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter and my mother was forcing my husband and I to get married, he made a comment about my husband knocking me up that Dustin (My hubby) didn't like. I literally had to drag him out of the house before he cussed the poor kid out.

 

[dragonesper]

Ouch... ^^'''
I've had some similar episodes growing up too. A more recent one (about 1-2 years ago) was when I called my younger brother a sociopath. Everyone was mad at me for that (understandably since it wasn't the most accurate description of him as a person)
You get a bit prone to giving comments like that and it isn't always easy to say "the right things" either when you have to watch out for everything you apparently can do wrong in the span of five minutes.

Kinda why I like RPing, people don't expect you to be a mind reader who can anticipate everything and read every tiny clue they supposedly give.

 

[LeVen]

You know when you join a role play and there is an obvious hierarchy? Like in pirate rps or royal rps the GM almost always reserves the highest position for themselves. It's a little frustrating. I can understand if no one wants to take that position (though those positions in rps get filled in really fast), or if everyone agrees that the GM should take the highest position in order to help the plot flow a little better. But automatically reserving the pirate captain or empress before anyone even has a chance to read the plot is a little annoying.

 

[Hellis]

You know when you join a role play and there is an obvious hierarchy? Like in pirate rps or royal rps the GM almost always reserves the highest position for themselves. It's a little frustrating. I can understand if no one wants to take that position (though those positions in rps get filled in really fast), or if everyone agrees that the GM should take the highest position in order to help the plot flow a little better. But automatically reserving the pirate captain or empress before anyone even has a chance to read the plot is a little annoying.

I used to do tihs when I was younger. These days I hardly make a charachter as a GM anymore. I am busy throwing plot and obstacles and NPC's at my players!

 

[Thought Manifest]

You know when you join a role play and there is an obvious hierarchy? Like in pirate rps or royal rps the GM almost always reserves the highest position for themselves. It's a little frustrating. I can understand if no one wants to take that position (though those positions in rps get filled in really fast), or if everyone agrees that the GM should take the highest position in order to help the plot flow a little better. But automatically reserving the pirate captain or empress before anyone even has a chance to read the plot is a little annoying.

In my opinion, it's pretty much a GM's duty to take both the OoC and IC leads unless the RP is an equal construction of everyone's collective ideas, in which case the GM wouldn't really be the GM so much as just the person who made and edits the main post of each thread. If the GM has a set idea, and their character isn't the "leader," I've found that the RP stagnates pretty badly, and the GM has a harder time directing the game. Any time I've considered allowing someone else's to be at the top of the IC hierarchy in games I envisioned, I've noticed they just don't know what to do with the position, and/or they try to steer the plot in a way that just doesn't work. I can understand making the IC leader an NPC, but if they're playable, I kinda feel like the game isn't going to go in the right direction if the GM isn't the one controlling the lead, and that's not just in games that I'm GMing. It also applies to games I've been in where the GM isn't the leader character.

The only exception I can think of is when the GM is playing the passive role of the narrative deity, but I tend to avoid those games anyway. Nothin' wrong with them. Just not my cup of tea.

 

[#goinawayforawhile]

Bland writing. I mean, I understand that everyone has different writing styles but lack of vivid sensory details and varied sentence structure is something that I can't stand.

 

[Big Goblin Bastard]

Too much free roam + Too many characters.

Obviously not every rp is like this and people are able to keep track of it but that is not me.

I don't like it when the RP has little direction so it has alot of free roam and there are a ton of characters off to do their own thing.
For me, at least, it is really hard to keep track of what is going on when there are 5 different things happening, big and small, and it involves like 15 characters doing different things.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

When people can't understand the simple concept of quantity over quality, but still fail to deliver on both! I'd rather have a short post with details and movement, than a long post with trash any day....but damn it. It's not hard to throw in a little...in thoughts of the character, something that gives me an idea that your character isn't a freaking cardboard cutout that's simply moving through the story!

 

[Windsong]

Drawn out sex scenes. When it's just taking too long..

Yes, sex is fun and feels amazing. Sure is fun writing "grunts, groans, or moans" eight or nine times before I can let my character finish and we can move back into the story. Maybe I'm a bit low on being able to label the sounds of passion but those three are the worst words I find myself using over and over.

That character you know someone's going to have sex with. You know the one.. Pouty lips, emphasis on their bust or butt.

Ya' know someone is gonna bang that. Yes sex appeal sells and it's not a bad trait. But there's always one in a group that I browse through. The latest offender is a succupire. Yup. It is what you think it is.

Really really really long posts.

They just feel drug out to read, then on top of that I have to figure out how my character reacts or interacts without making sure anything in the post changes. Good for the beginning of stories, bad for the middle.

 

[RareSecret]

I'm still a newbie so I don't really have much. I put up with other people's stuff because I want them to put up with mine so I can learn from them. That and I probably just do them too so it doesn't bother me. (Most likely the 2nd​ one. Sorry >.<)

Either way, one thing really just rubs me wrong, even though I won't confront you about it. It's the " X is intelligent, kind, and considerate, but X can be mean/evil/angry/ect. when they want to" when creating characters. I admit I was guilty of this. Go ahead lock me up, but after I stopped doing this I realized how crappy it was. It's just a sorry excuse for a flaw, and it doesn't make sense. Anyone can be mean when they want to. The sweetest person on Earth can kick puppies, just like the evilest person on Earth can giving to the charity saving puppies from being kicked. What I want to know is what ticks them off and when. What makes the sweetest person on Earth kick puppies. Not just that they can be mean, anyone can.

That concludes the pet peeve from a beginner.

*By the way, thanks for sharing it helps me improve.*

 

[Brovo]

That concludes the pet peeve from a beginner.

Really? You think you're a beginner and yet you understand that conflicting personality traits as a weakness make little sense?

I like you, that's actually really humble. If you want another piece of advice, look at your character's skill set for weaknesses. You shouldn't need an arbitrary weakness if you build their skill set correctly. For example: Someone who is good with a sword and shield might still struggle against a crossbowman who can pierce their armour, who in turn struggles against someone on horseback who can close the gap after evading a long range shot to kill them, who in turn struggles against a spearman that can shiskabob him when he tries to run down his friends, who in turn struggles against the sword & shield guy who can knock the spear aside and impale him... Or a guy who is really good at fighting in closed quarters, like a hallway, but struggle out on an open battlefield where he can simply be sniped out at a range.

The ones that irritate me (to get back on pet peeves) are the Jack of all Trades types. You know, the ones that excel at everything. "I am a fireball wizard rogue magician lothario swordsman over nine thousand power level Goku Superman. I AM ALSO EXTREMELY PRETTY!" I mean, really? Either you're going to be useless because you distributed your abilities over too large an array of skills, or you're going to be overpowered because you can do literally everything. C'mon.

 

[RareSecret]

Thanks for the tip. I'm more of a modern/fandom roleplayer, so fighting rarely comes up. I usually avoid the roles that usually is associated with extensive fighting until I figure fighting out and how I want to do it. I've been looking at fantasy for a while so I'll use that tip.