eyflfla
Junior Member
I recently posted this: Other - Open Letter of Disgruntlement
People's suggestions and my burning need for good roleplay have caused me to post the thread you're reading now. It's a slightly (very slightly) cleaned up cut and paste I wrote to a prospective 1x1 partner. It's a rambling, mostly stream-of-consciousness, word-vomiting of what I look for in roleplay.
Lots of people post rules, and I guess they serve a purpose. I'll call mine criteria:
- Be active. For Serious. If this is your hobby try to post on a daily basis more often than not (51% minimum)
-Proofread. It is painfully obvious which of you out there do not even read your post over once before posting.
The rest is style, and we'll just have to see how they mesh. More notes contained below.
My usual schedule of activity: A post in the early morning, maybe. A post when I first get home, probably. A check in before I go to bed, and maybe time for a full post then. So 3 chances/day for a post, most weekdays. Weekends .. who knows, but at least the same amount, unless it's not. I'd be more than satisfied with 1 reply a day though. I really do get that other things come up.
Someone interested in 1x1 once posted that they just want to chat in character. At times I have felt that was an apt description of what I like about RP. My background is in chat venue RP and perhaps that's one reason I can type posts around people. I really dug the coffee-shopping in between the action scenes. I played Scion in chat rooms and eventually STed as a means to get more interaction with players.
I'd like to think my characters have depth. The head ST once praised my NPCs as being more developed than half the venue's characters. My characters really react to the things that happen to them. In a real world setting they won't go, 'oh cool! ghosts exist." Lalala. Nope. Ghosts existing has serious ramifications in how we look at the world, how we think about things. It raises a million questions and most of my characters will get entirely meta about it. If someone is subject to unbelievable stresses and paranormal experiences, they will have a panic attack or some other cathartic release at some point. They don't take things in passing.
I tend to make more female characters than male. I think it's because they're the protagonist I'd rather watch. I dunno, it tends to be a thing.
I like word play. My sentences tend to be tightly compressed and I choose the words carefully most of the time. Any hidden meaning you can read into them is likely intentional. My characters tend to be quick on the uptake and I leave subtle ques in their reactions. Sometimes I make up words. The most recent was Vagueries, a combination of Vagueness and Vagaries.
Here are my 3 main character archetypes. I've got loads of others but these are my go tos that I'll use given the chance. There are variations of these as well, lesser, or different versions.
Mary: Mary is the nastiest, most vicious most mean hearted s.o.b. you'll ever meet. She's a homeless street urchin who'll cut your throat on a moment's notice. She has a face that ought to have scars. She's peculiarly straight laced about sexual mores and she doesn't do drugs, though she usually peddles them. She makes some friends, but is loathe to admit it. She holds strong grudges and has a vengeful streak a mile wide. She's concerned that other people are fat and soft because they have it easy. She is arrogant to a fault. I love playing her very much. She is at her best when she is pissed off.
Anna: Hard headed hippie girl pacifist. She's into organic vegan hippie crap but treated with a good dose of rational science. Homeopathy, auras, 'toxins', spirits etc.. can go die in a lake. She's a healer, full of grit and determination. Give her any sort of magic powers and she'll break physics to exploit it and make the world a better place.
Naomi/Synthya/others: Girl with a fractured personality. She embodies the concept of the villian that wants to get caught. She most often has multiple personality disorder of one form or another. The darker side usually killing things unmercifully. Very smart, very intellectual. It's interesting to see her stalk herself. Her higher intelligence creates a lot of self doubt and over analysis.
I can play tons of characters at once. It's not an impediment to me at all.
Plots
I'm gonna try to describe, in the most general terms possible, the kind of stories I've liked participating in.
I really like origin stories. The first little bit where people are discovering new abilities has always been the most interesting thing to me.
Playing a pacifist in a "Lets Kickass!" Scion setting was really difficult, but very interesting.
I like the poor and homeless. I like questions of morality and what it means to truly help someone.
I haven't done a lot of romancing. The one that did develop was interesting and rather fun. They were both reserved, almost shy, and the relationship matured very slowly and ended up being full of uncertainties and awkwardness, all while we were each just being true to character. They were both very subtle with each other. They had a strong bond forming, it was being tested when the venue fell apart. I don't think they ever kissed.
I like fantasy settings, but I have an aversion to learning new lore every week. One real life role play group I was with wanted to change games every few weeks so one week I learned Scion, then I learned Warhammer, then I learned Mage with a minor in Vampire, then I learned eclipse phase, then I learned Star Wars: something or other, then I learned... If we do a fantasy setting I say we just start on the local average person level and let the world get filled in as we go. We don't need a great over-arcing 1500 year history if all we're doing at first is robbing a noble. I once almost got involved in an RP where we were going to play a group of bandits. There was a major war going on and each had their own reason for turning outlaw. That would be a good place to start.
I tried to start an RP based on the lyrics of Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts by Bob Dylan. It would be a short little exercise where everyone took turns expanding the lines of the song into a few paragraphs. If you search the forums for the song title you can read details. I would not be averse to doing this with other songs.
I like characters over coming tragic things. I like to explore the aftermath of tragic events. I like wounded warriors and broken personalities. I like characters that are almost caricatures, but then making them real, finding out what could cause a person to be so.
I prefer some sort of fantastic element in my stories. I have a hard time reading fiction that is set in the boring old regular world--unless something extraordinary occurs.
I'm a fan of HPMOR and will likely have the sort of 'meta' questions/thoughts Harry has, if the setting calls for it.
I'm all for OOC chat. If we end up posting twice as much OOC as IC because that's what is needed, that's ok!
So yeah. I didn't put alot of effort in this post. But I did read it over once or twice. I've been putting a lot of effort in without much return and I'm about done. The onus is on you.
People's suggestions and my burning need for good roleplay have caused me to post the thread you're reading now. It's a slightly (very slightly) cleaned up cut and paste I wrote to a prospective 1x1 partner. It's a rambling, mostly stream-of-consciousness, word-vomiting of what I look for in roleplay.
Lots of people post rules, and I guess they serve a purpose. I'll call mine criteria:
- Be active. For Serious. If this is your hobby try to post on a daily basis more often than not (51% minimum)
-Proofread. It is painfully obvious which of you out there do not even read your post over once before posting.
The rest is style, and we'll just have to see how they mesh. More notes contained below.
My usual schedule of activity: A post in the early morning, maybe. A post when I first get home, probably. A check in before I go to bed, and maybe time for a full post then. So 3 chances/day for a post, most weekdays. Weekends .. who knows, but at least the same amount, unless it's not. I'd be more than satisfied with 1 reply a day though. I really do get that other things come up.
Someone interested in 1x1 once posted that they just want to chat in character. At times I have felt that was an apt description of what I like about RP. My background is in chat venue RP and perhaps that's one reason I can type posts around people. I really dug the coffee-shopping in between the action scenes. I played Scion in chat rooms and eventually STed as a means to get more interaction with players.
I'd like to think my characters have depth. The head ST once praised my NPCs as being more developed than half the venue's characters. My characters really react to the things that happen to them. In a real world setting they won't go, 'oh cool! ghosts exist." Lalala. Nope. Ghosts existing has serious ramifications in how we look at the world, how we think about things. It raises a million questions and most of my characters will get entirely meta about it. If someone is subject to unbelievable stresses and paranormal experiences, they will have a panic attack or some other cathartic release at some point. They don't take things in passing.
I tend to make more female characters than male. I think it's because they're the protagonist I'd rather watch. I dunno, it tends to be a thing.
I like word play. My sentences tend to be tightly compressed and I choose the words carefully most of the time. Any hidden meaning you can read into them is likely intentional. My characters tend to be quick on the uptake and I leave subtle ques in their reactions. Sometimes I make up words. The most recent was Vagueries, a combination of Vagueness and Vagaries.
Here are my 3 main character archetypes. I've got loads of others but these are my go tos that I'll use given the chance. There are variations of these as well, lesser, or different versions.
Mary: Mary is the nastiest, most vicious most mean hearted s.o.b. you'll ever meet. She's a homeless street urchin who'll cut your throat on a moment's notice. She has a face that ought to have scars. She's peculiarly straight laced about sexual mores and she doesn't do drugs, though she usually peddles them. She makes some friends, but is loathe to admit it. She holds strong grudges and has a vengeful streak a mile wide. She's concerned that other people are fat and soft because they have it easy. She is arrogant to a fault. I love playing her very much. She is at her best when she is pissed off.
Anna: Hard headed hippie girl pacifist. She's into organic vegan hippie crap but treated with a good dose of rational science. Homeopathy, auras, 'toxins', spirits etc.. can go die in a lake. She's a healer, full of grit and determination. Give her any sort of magic powers and she'll break physics to exploit it and make the world a better place.
Naomi/Synthya/others: Girl with a fractured personality. She embodies the concept of the villian that wants to get caught. She most often has multiple personality disorder of one form or another. The darker side usually killing things unmercifully. Very smart, very intellectual. It's interesting to see her stalk herself. Her higher intelligence creates a lot of self doubt and over analysis.
I can play tons of characters at once. It's not an impediment to me at all.
Plots
I'm gonna try to describe, in the most general terms possible, the kind of stories I've liked participating in.
I really like origin stories. The first little bit where people are discovering new abilities has always been the most interesting thing to me.
Playing a pacifist in a "Lets Kickass!" Scion setting was really difficult, but very interesting.
I like the poor and homeless. I like questions of morality and what it means to truly help someone.
I haven't done a lot of romancing. The one that did develop was interesting and rather fun. They were both reserved, almost shy, and the relationship matured very slowly and ended up being full of uncertainties and awkwardness, all while we were each just being true to character. They were both very subtle with each other. They had a strong bond forming, it was being tested when the venue fell apart. I don't think they ever kissed.
I like fantasy settings, but I have an aversion to learning new lore every week. One real life role play group I was with wanted to change games every few weeks so one week I learned Scion, then I learned Warhammer, then I learned Mage with a minor in Vampire, then I learned eclipse phase, then I learned Star Wars: something or other, then I learned... If we do a fantasy setting I say we just start on the local average person level and let the world get filled in as we go. We don't need a great over-arcing 1500 year history if all we're doing at first is robbing a noble. I once almost got involved in an RP where we were going to play a group of bandits. There was a major war going on and each had their own reason for turning outlaw. That would be a good place to start.
I tried to start an RP based on the lyrics of Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts by Bob Dylan. It would be a short little exercise where everyone took turns expanding the lines of the song into a few paragraphs. If you search the forums for the song title you can read details. I would not be averse to doing this with other songs.
I like characters over coming tragic things. I like to explore the aftermath of tragic events. I like wounded warriors and broken personalities. I like characters that are almost caricatures, but then making them real, finding out what could cause a person to be so.
I prefer some sort of fantastic element in my stories. I have a hard time reading fiction that is set in the boring old regular world--unless something extraordinary occurs.
I'm a fan of HPMOR and will likely have the sort of 'meta' questions/thoughts Harry has, if the setting calls for it.
I'm all for OOC chat. If we end up posting twice as much OOC as IC because that's what is needed, that's ok!
So yeah. I didn't put alot of effort in this post. But I did read it over once or twice. I've been putting a lot of effort in without much return and I'm about done. The onus is on you.
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