Experiences At what point in an RP did you think; "I could've done better."

[SkyHawk MK IV]

A strange experience, yes, however it's happened to me recently in which I felt like I was more of a hinderence to the advancement of the plot.

For example:
- Pulling another character into a 1x1 conversation for too long.
- Dropping a post to resolve confict instead of asking the GM for their input about it.
- Adding to or rewriting your characters backstory throughout the RP.

I hope this makes some sort of sense, because I can't be the only one out here thinking "Ah, I've screwed up here."

 

[Idea]

Yep, all the time. Well, I generally don’t allow people to do things like rewrite their characters mid-RP in mine so I wouldn’t do it in other people’s, but there have been plenty of instances where midway through something I realized “oh crap I shouldn’t have done that should I?”.

That said, my general approach is “what can I do to make the best out of the current situation andwhat can I learn from it in the future?”. Generally speaking trying to ‘fix’ the situation leads to contrived writing and doesn’t really help the mood. From what experience taught me the best to do is to move on and run with what happened most of the time.

Beyond that matter, and when it comes to learning from the experience, there is something very important to consider: Could you even have known better? Because sometimes the “oh crap” moment happens when you learn something you couldn’t possibly have known, let alone accounted for before.

 

[Crayons]

When we did a war arc where the result was pre-planned (for OOC reasons) and everybody started getting bored, like we had to trudge through to the end, and it didn't even feel like a triumph when we won, just a relief that it was over. Probably much like a real war come to think of it. Anyway I think I definitely could have handled that better... like maybe timeskipping the whole thing and just doing character focused arcs.

Most of the time I'm not really perfectionist in about rp so as long as everyone is having fun it's all good. But when no one is having fun any more and it feels like a job .... that's when there's a problem.

 

[Onmyoji]

At the point of pressing 'Post reply' button.

Sometimes there are scenes that I feel I could have done better if I took more time to think about them, or had better ideas for development. Sometimes it feels like I drag them out too much.

 

[Pokeking]

The two main instances that I can readily recall are storylines I participated in years ago. Does that count?

The first was with the first storyline I participated in which was in 2002. I only had one character and if I had a second chance and had the roster of characters I have today, I would have role-played as another.

The second instance where my character was fighting against his boyfriend who had been bewitched by a malevolent life form. If given a second chance, I would have changed the life form's origins and the fight and the sequence that happened before would have played out slightly differently even if the outcome would have been the same.

 

[AnnJam]

A roleplay I did for 3 years straight (no other RP in between) ended because I fucked up. I thought 6 months seemed much to quick for a star system takeover, ooc I mentioned thinking it should take 2 years. The problem was the characters, the entire cast, would be tortured for 2 years. So after some vague talk where no one commits to anything the other is saying we start the new scene. My partner is still under the impression we're doing it in 6 months, I think we're doing it in 2 years; except the one thing we sort of settled on is that realistically 6 months better fit the tone and pace of the story so.

But oh, here I am thinking we're going for a slight tone shift for the finale of the first arc of the RP, we're going to inject some dark into the story as the empire succeeds in their multi star system take over. Setup the second arc to be much darker, grim . . . So I'm trying to write a horrific, character breaking torture montage of sorts. Aiming to get each character fucked up, give them a scene in between to bond or break in the cell with at least 1 other crewmate. THEN have them be broken out, but the damage is done, and now we have something to work with during the second arc of the roleplay. A story about coping, trauma, watching the fall of the systems to the empire . . . DID I MENTION THIS WAS A SPACE OPERA!

Anyway, we were on entirely different pages with what we wanted to do with this scene set . . . and we sort of both wrote tonally opposing posts and ended up in such an award place we sloppily ended the scene in a muddled, nonsense escape plot. Then went "yeah these two character who were not captured . . . they umm are over there crash landing on the planet with their new baby . . . oh nooo stranded" (they were there for a reason that makes sense, but the lead up was so boring and unimaginative).

And after that absolute bungle we just never continued the rp and it died SO FUCKING HARD.

 

[Daisie]

I used to just not really grasp RP and how it should be treated MUCH differently from all other storytelling methods. I often approached it like writing a script for a screenplay rather than a collaborative experience that only ever moves forward (Little to no edits! Scary!). I wound up being far too restrictive, and was a bit of a control freak Those tendencies still show themselves once in awhile, but now I try to be aware of this weak spot of mine. Luckily a friend of mine called me out on it, and even though that dented my pride, I (eventually) accepted it and was much more cautious thereafter.

Other than that, mostly just the usual. "Ahh this was a bit too unrealistic." "This seems really out-of-character." "I might have hammed this up too much." "Whoops, too much filler and now I'm bored." And who could forget the most infamous one? "I've written myself into a corner, SOS."

 

[SkyHawk MK IV]

At the point of pressing 'Post reply' button.

Sometimes there are scenes that I feel I could have done better if I took more time to think about them, or had better ideas for development. Sometimes it feels like I drag them out too much.

The two main instances that I can readily recall are storylines I participated in years ago. Does that count?

The first was with the first storyline I participated in which was in 2002. I only had one character and if I had a second chance and had the roster of characters I have today, I would have role-played as another.

The second instance where my character was fighting against his boyfriend who had been bewitched by a malevolent life form. If given a second chance, I would have changed the life form's origins and the fight and the sequence that happened before would have played out slightly differently even if the outcome would have been the same.

This sort of feeling to me is what worries me to no end. I honestly feel like I'm not good enough at this sort of thing and somewhat believe that my fellow roleplayers are judging me, which isn't a healthu thing to think about. But yeah, I totally get where you're coming from with these experiences.

 

[CrystalDisc]

For me, it's always in the realtimes. During slower, longform RPs, I have plenty of time to think things over, but when it comes to the speedy, 1-post-every-30-minutes-stuff? There's so many things I could've done better if I just sat back and thought about it more.

 

[akamatsu]

When I was doing a Roleplay on another site that went on for 6 months. I look back at the posts I made back then and the posts I make now and I think about how I could’ve done better. I could’ve made my posts longer and written more detail. It was basically a post every 20-40 minutes so obviously I had time to come up with a reply but my posts seemed to be a little lacking in good detail. I look back and think “I could’ve done better.”

 

[Crow]

Usually the halfway point.

 

[Kylesar1]

My biggest weakness is not knowing when to drop a conversation or when to end a plot point in order to advance the RP at large

I'm pretty damn conscious about that now.

 

[CheshireMitsu]

at what point? literally at the start

 

[GojiBean]

There was an RP I was in a couple years ago, my own, btw, in which I discovered about 8 months in that I had completely lost perspective on my own world's lore and the extent to which my own characters were involved. Or, rather, how much they should be involved.

It was a heartbreaking moment. And it hit me really hard. So much so I'll openly admit that it caused the RP to come to a screeching halt and I had to step away from role-playing entirely for a few months to gather my thoughts and recover from the shock of the realization.

The RP itself was based on a story I'd been working on (and am still refining to this day before I someday manage to publish the damn thing), and I was so attached to the world and characters as they were when the RP began that when it came to light how badly I'd screwed them up I just collapsed, emotionally and mentally.

So yeah. It wasn't a nice time.

But I'm nothing if not resilient! And I came back with a vengeance later after some time to think, reflect, and grow from the experience. And honestly, I know my writing has improved the most in the short time since that RP last ended.

 

[Walliver]

A long time ago, on a roleplay site far far away, this did happen to me. I was pushing out paragraph-length responses, having fun, writing side stories on my own. Then I got busier. And busier, and busier. The work was piling on, and I could only bring myself to write a maximum of two sentences. After a while, my partner just left. I was crushed. I tried to contact them, tried to edit my responses so they could have something to work with. At that point, I did think I could have done better. That I should have done more.