Deal Breakers. What makes you "walk" away?

[Shagranoz]

Unfortunately, I've had to drop a couple of roleplays recently because of what I call "incompetent GMing." What do I mean, you ask? Simple. GMs who can't budget their time properly and blatantly lie about when things are going to be done IRL. When you say "we're starting tomorrow" and haven't started a week later, maybe you should just admit you don't have the time to run it, and either give it over to a co-gm or tell the rest of us it's dead so you stop making us waste our time.

 

[Disco]

Anytime someone mistreats the gender of the character.

I've seen countless times where a Male/Female player RPs the opposite gender just to make them a sex object.

I always get mad suspicious whenever two male players happen to make Lesbian/Bi-Curious females who hook up. Or whenever a female player makes some studly fabio SoB who has rippling abs to compliment his perfect blend of personality traits.

I'm fine with players making RP characters of the opposite gender. You can even make them conventionally attractive! But you still should treat the character like a person. They should still have flaws, insecurities, mishaps and failures. Just like I'd expect out of your usual characters.

 

[Sunstone]

One liners, asterisks to seperate action from dialogue, making a post with no commas, or on the other side of the coin, too many commas and no periods.

 

[Sunstone]

Oh, and also people being out of character

 

[Chimney Swift]

1: When people have no concept of a normal human height-to-weight ratio.
For some reason everyone seems to be in an arms race to have their character be the skinniest, even when it borders on very unhealthy.
Like, no 5'8 woman who is supposedly "curvy" is gonna weigh 90 pounds. She'd be emaciated.
The worst case i saw was a male character who supposedly was 6 feet tall and weighed 60 pounds. I'm sorry, that man is straight-up dead.
For reference, i'm afab, almost 5'7 and weigh about 125 pounds. I'm still about 5 pounds underweight for my height.

2: When people say their character is "poor" or "financially struggling", but they have a fresh dye job in their hair all the time, a big lovely house, pets (including horses), thousands of dollars worth of piercings and tattoos, and sometimes even a car. It just reeks of privelege. Like, I can't have those things and i don't even think of myself as being particularly destitute because at least i can eat and have fresh water and heating in the winter.

 

[Umbrie]

a muscular and physically fit woman with a small but lean and also well sculpted tomboyish frame at 5'1" is going to weigh about 133 pounds. a healthy weight at 5 feet is 120 pounds, and 100 pounds at that height is skin and bones. said woman is anything but curvy, lacking curves, in favor of a muscular figure and the strength, coordination and stamina for athletic extracurricular activities.

 

[Necromantic]

saying i cant curse. if my boss will let me curse in front of him, i think i should be able to have my character say 'fuck' when he stubs his goddamn toe. i found rpnation because i couldnt curse of chickensmoothie and it felt overly restrictive, im not joining a roleplay that places those same restrictions on me no matter how interesting the plot.

restrictions on the gender/sexuality/race of my character. i get it with magical girl roleplays and wont complain about restrictions to the gender on there, but is it really that important that im playing a cis het person in a school roleplay?

neko slaves. oh my god- you really thing cats are subservient like that? have you ever met a fucking cat? unless theres a good reason, thats an instant no from me.

similarly, slave pokemon gijinkas will probably be a no unless theres a good reason. oh, look, something superior to humans in every way, with human (or higher) intelligence, gotta be a slave because they have cute ears and tails, right? ugh, they arent dogs.

"bad boy x good girl" in a 1x1. this isnt so much disgust, but its just so over done and boring. i know theres apparently an anime that my brother really likes about this exact thing, and im not touching it with a 39 1/2ft long pole. give me a bad girl and a good boy and well talk.

mpreg. nuff said. unless they trans men, they aint havin babies.

the absurd notion that my character cant date every character in the roleplay. jk. ill try, but it wont break my heart if my character cant hook up with 100% of the characters.

 

[marshmarrow]

When the roleplay has a "main" character.

It no longer is an RP, it is unpaid labor to write a story for the benefit of only one person. Similarly, I detest the GM making individual characters have more influence over the plot than others.

 

[Chimney Swift]

When you join an RP thinking that it sounds super fun, but as soon as it starts the whole premise goes out the window and it's all about Rich Beautiful White Teens being So Depressed and In Love.

I get that there's an escspism aspect to RP, so i don't usually rag on every character looking like a supermodel, but there is NO excuse for a 50's-style Gang RP to entirely consist of waifish white women who never do anything but drink and make out.

 

[Tove]

When I put a lot of effort in a post only to get less than that back in return. Not even less really.

 

[Corrupt-Canine]

The "I can do whatever I want in the RP without punishment because I'm overpowered" guy.

Also the glory hoggers. The ones who go immediately hero and take in ALL of the attention to the point where the plot revolves around them. Especially if in their backstory that they never lose.

 

[Tove]

I am patient, real life is number one over any roleplay. I will give you the time that you need to post because I would want the same courtesy but when it becomes clear that a person is posting constantly for another thread other than the roleplay we are in that tells me they don't want to write together. I know some roleplays might be harder to write to than others but I'll still give my attention to all of my roleplays regardless.

 

[my tummy hurts]

When characters in group roleplays are already in predetermined pairings.
When people automatically assume I will play one thing or another for them.
When people don't help move the role play plot along.
When it's an absolute requirement to post a certain amount per reply.

 

[Chimney Swift]

• When someone's character starts acting very creepy and obsessive towards your character. And this is supposed to be seen as cute and romantic. Then, when your character gets fed up and tries to get away or call the cops, they get mad at you OOC for "being an antisocial downer".

• When child characters "tawk wike dis *giggles adorably*". It's nauseatingly obnoxious.

 

[YarnDrawcia]

• When child characters "tawk wike dis *giggles adorably*". It's nauseatingly obnoxious.

You've just described Pookies from the old days of Club Penguin. I haven't played it since I was 12, except to be there for its final hours, but that kind of roleplaying was annoying from what I recalled.

 

[Imaginiaria]

• When someone's character starts acting very creepy and obsessive towards your character. And this is supposed to be seen as cute and romantic. Then, when your character gets fed up and tries to get away or call the cops, they get mad at you OOC for "being an antisocial downer".

This happened to me on my very first rp on this site. What was supossed to be a normal pokemon adventure through our own made up region turned into a series of me running away from a creeper...

Anyway, my deal breaker is post requirements and being the only one pushing the story along. I'm gonna run of ideas eventually...

 

[Shugoki]

Those "every post must move the plot forward" rules.

 

[Umbrie]

When child characters "tawk wike dis *giggles adorably*". It's nauseatingly obnoxious.

this is why my small figured women are usually between 13 and 29 years old, so i can get away with actually using appropriate speech and so i don't have to "Tawk Wike Dis" because i find it annoying too.

 

[Chimney Swift]

this is why my small figured women are usually between 13 and 29 years old, so i can get away with actually using appropriate speech and so i don't have to "Tawk Wike Dis" because i find it annoying too.

I've played characters as young as 9 on occasion. Really, most kids over 6 or 7 have outgrown their speech impediment, which makes it even more obnoxious when applied to older kids.

 

[Whisker]

When the entire plot seems to revolve around my character being tricked into being an asshole so that my partner's character can spend the whole time being dramatically depressed as well as being in the right in every scenario that comes up. As ridiculous as this sounds, I've had this happen more than once with different partners. I've nothing against playing assholes and even enjoy it to a certain extent. However, I really don't appreciate it when partners turn every argument, fight, or choice into a 'woe is me' situation that they spend the rest of the time griping about.

When I get a reply post with jack shit effort being put into it.

99.99999999% of roleplays that feature characters with Anime powers and physics will see me gone faster than the speed of light.

 

[Hige]

New one: When the person will post, and then while I am writing adds two paragraphs, so when I finish posting they have just posted, and wants me to modify my post. No, take your time and post correctly the first time, or tell me you're not done so I don't waste my time.

 

[Chimney Swift]

New one: When the person will post, and then while I am writing adds two paragraphs, so when I finish posting they have just posted, and wants me to modify my post. No, take your time and post correctly the first time, or tell me you're not done so I don't waste my time.

That isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me, but it is super annoying.


More Deal Breakers:

• Needlessly long character sheets that require pointless flavor content like astrological signs, MBTI results, "aura colors" and "theme songs". Those things tell you nothing about the character and just wastes everyone's time.

 

[Tove]

When every character is strong, has powers to destroy planets, etc from the very beginning of the story. Ah no. What happened to character development? Taking time out to develop powers? There's no fun in that at all at least for me.

 

[Sizniche]

It really doesn't take a lot to make me walk away. If I see that I have no group chemistry, if a roleplay is constantly being railroaded (or worse, goes off the rails in the most boring direction possible), if the roleplay has clearly and unmistakably jumped the shark (or if the roleplay had no future or no direction to begin with), if the group is insular and afraid of conversation between characters despite that being the point, if characters refuse to develop, or if something simply bores me, I'll back out.

 

[Sizniche]

That isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me, but it is super annoying.


More Deal Breakers:

• Needlessly long character sheets that require pointless flavor content like astrological signs, MBTI results, "aura colors" and "theme songs". Those things tell you nothing about the character and just wastes everyone's time.

I agree with everything in that statement except the MBTI bit. While I think it to be ridiculous that someone would require you to have that, having a Myer Briggs Type for your character can actually be kind of helpful to keep your character consistent. The first letter can give you a rough idea of how they interact with people, and the last three letters give a pretty accurate description of how your character reasons or what their thought process for many given situations would be. Obviously, like you said, this wastes people's time on a character sheet (and anyone with any sense could probably just figure it out on their own through dialogue), but the types themselves at least help somewhat in terms of insight on that character and can be a useful tool to use on your own.