Experiences Qs for the long-time RPers

[hEMbo]

So I've been RPing for like, more than 7 years . . . I think . . . I'm 18 now and I'm pretty sure I started before GOT started so that must have been more than 7 years . . . and I just want to know other RPers stories and tell mine. I also want to know if any of you vets think that RP has changed a ton. I think it has, and I feel like maybe it's dying. Am I the only one who feels that way??

So anyway I started -as embarrassing as this is- on Omegle! Back then, it wasn't gross and dirty like it is now, and you'd put in like "Rp" to the interest bar or something like that, you'd have written a "starter," which is like a paragraph that kinda sets the stage, and you and the person would just start writing as two different characters. It was sssuuper informal and all of us were terrible writers. Then I found out people did this on forum websites and you could save your writing! My very first RP that I wrote was like, a mermaid RP I think? Back then, there was no code, posts were two sentences long, and there was no character sheets, but the first time I ever had to do one they called it a "skelly." Anyway EVENTUALLY I found this place and I have been on and off writing here for (what I think is) a long time. I've been on other RP sites (Iwaku, namely) and I've had a ton of different RPn accounts just because of either being harassed on one or being gone so long that I just wanted a fresh start. So how about you? Also: do people still call them skellys? DID ANYONE ELSE START ON OMEGLE BECAUSE THAT HAS SERIOUSLY HAUNTED AND EMBARRASSED ME FOREVER.

Also if you're not a vet or whatever, I want to know how everybody heard about Rping because this community is just so like . . . idk we're so secluded on the internet and you have to like, search to find these communities.

 

[Auricula]

I've rped for almost a decade now (would be a decade if not for a year's break). I started on crunchyroll then moved on to various other sites. Crunchyroll is my dark days... I was godawful then. And yes, I do still call them skellys haha.

I feel as though forum rping has changed a lot. For me personally, it used to be a lot more open ended and arcs happened every so often. Now it seems like there has to be something (arcs/action) happening every time to keep interest in a rp instead of allowing for lackadaisical interactions. I'm not sure about it dying but there definitely is far more emphasis placed on the look of a rp, I feel. With the two rp groups I've been rping with over the years, our activity has slowed down a lot because we're older now and have more commitments to keep. So maybe that's one reason for why it feels rp is dying?

As for skellys, I used to just fill them in badly xD. Now I format them prettily. I don't use skellys with one of my rp groups though. We just keep an excel sheet for the most basic of information (name/occupation/other remarks). I prefer that haha.

 

[Bealocwealm]

Something like 15 or 16 years for me so... I didn't start on omegle. Started on a Neopets forum, where people did para/multi-para RP, but nothing crazy long. RPed there for a while, then started Furcadia. The vast majority of my RP experience has been on Furcadia, and it's really coloured my preferences. I like posts around one paragraph, and chat-style environments where the time between posts is measured in minutes, not hours or days. It's great for keeping momentum going and interest high.

But... I'm afraid I have to agree about RP dying. It's definitely dying on furc. There's only a few active places on Furc nowadays, and if you don't find what you're looking for and try to make your own, you're pretty much screwed and shouldn't have bothered, as no one there explores the maps to find new places anymore.

I'm old enough of an RPer that I'm kind of going "WHAT IS THIS NEWFANGLED CRAP" with my cane on my lawn. I know there's theoretically RP on tumblr, but I legitimately don't understand it, as it seems to revolve around finding gifs of celebrities and has very little actual RP.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I started out on chickensmoothie waaay back in the day. Which I was like definitely not the target demographic of ten years old but whatever. I created a pixel adoptable shop and one of my workers got me into roleplaying as a way to expand the shop's lore ( which looking back was both more creative and less original than i thought but again meh )

So my first roleplay was meant to be a series of "tours" of a fictional island chain where my little pixel creatures lived. From there I joined the roleplay community.

Eventually they became a little censor-y so I moseyed on over to Gaia and I learned the joys of actual forum based roleplaying and also the horrors of rampant wide spread elitism and mean girl roleplay tactics.

Not counting my many hiatus due to time or just being a thousand percent done with people's pettiness probably seven-ish years or so.

I actually don't think roleplaying is dying. But then I came from what I think were fairly structured roleplay sites. Chickensmoothie eventually had their own sub-forum for roleplays and they got into a more story-telling format with that although I am fairly sure my waay early ones had some kind of story or thing you were moving toward. Gaia definitely specialized in story based roleplays although they also had slice - of - life which was more free form. Here's a setting do whatever you want kind of things.

As for roleplay dying. Nope. As far as I can see it's evolving. It's changing in tone and userbase but it isn't dying. That's just sort of to be expected as some of the users grow older and new users with different ideas join up.

 

[hEMbo]

I've rped for almost a decade now (would be a decade if not for a year's break). I started on crunchyroll then moved on to various other sites. Crunchyroll is my dark days... I was godawful then. And yes, I do still call them skellys haha.

I have /never/ heard of cruncyroll. Makes me hungry...

I'm not sure about it dying but there definitely is far more emphasis placed on the look of a rp, I feel.

I know that I am guilty of this. I once tried to start a southern gothic rp where all the characters were trying to solve a series of abductions and they all came onto the situation with secrets and clues and I think I scared a lot of people off with all my code and ~~**Aesthetic~*~** which is stupid because I suck at code and I had to get somebody else to do my code.

Started on a Neopets forum, where people did para/multi-para RP, but nothing crazy long

Oh my god Neopets!!! Neopets was like, the first place I went to when my family first got a computer and the internet.

But... I'm afraid I have to agree about RP dying. It's definitely dying on furc. There's only a few active places on Furc nowadays, and if you don't find what you're looking for and try to make your own, you're pretty much screwed and shouldn't have bothered, as no one there explores the maps to find new places anymore.

I feel like on rpn it's dying because it's like, the only rps are the same recycled ideas over and over again (academy, summer bucket list trip, space pirateship, etc) and because none of the rps make it past posting CSs. If they do, it lasts maybe 2 pages and everyone loses interest. It just seems like, really really stale. Like you can't start an rp anymore it never works for long enough to be worth it.

I'm old enough of an RPer that I'm kind of going "WHAT IS THIS NEWFANGLED CRAP" with my cane on my lawn. I know there's theoretically RP on tumblr, but I legitimately don't understand it, as it seems to revolve around finding gifs of celebrities and has very little actual RP.

I actually once found this Harry Potter rp on Tumblr and they said they were accepting so I sent them a message about it and told them I was new to the format and they were so.fucking.rude. so I just gave up on Tumblr rps.

So my first roleplay was meant to be a series of "tours" of a fictional island chain where my little pixel creatures lived. From there I joined the roleplay community.

Did it help sell your adoptables? I think it's a really cute idea

As for roleplay dying. Nope. As far as I can see it's evolving. It's changing in tone and userbase but it isn't dying. That's just sort of to be expected as some of the users grow older and new users with different ideas join up.

Oh my dear lord these youngin's bringing their new ideas and tones.
But okay: I would be fine with new ideas and tone and stuff if it felt like rps were still getting off the ground and happing. Or maybe I've just got the cheese touch because Everytime I find a cool looking rp and I go to a lot of work to do all the fucking code and shit, the RP just fails quicker than the time it took to get it started!

 

[JulesX]

I started out on chickensmoothie waaay back in the day. Which I was like definitely not the target demographic of ten years old but whatever. I created a pixel adoptable shop and one of my workers got me into roleplaying as a way to expand the shop's lore ( which looking back was both more creative and less original than i thought but again meh )

So my first roleplay was meant to be a series of "tours" of a fictional island chain where my little pixel creatures lived. From there I joined the roleplay community.

Eventually they became a little censor-y so I moseyed on over to Gaia and I learned the joys of actual forum based roleplaying and also the horrors of rampant wide spread elitism and mean girl roleplay tactics.

Not counting my many hiatus due to time or just being a thousand percent done with people's pettiness probably seven-ish years or so.

I actually don't think roleplaying is dying. But then I came from what I think were fairly structured roleplay sites. Chickensmoothie eventually had their own sub-forum for roleplays and they got into a more story-telling format with that although I am fairly sure my waay early ones had some kind of story or thing you were moving toward. Gaia definitely specialized in story based roleplays although they also had slice - of - life which was more free form. Here's a setting do whatever you want kind of things.

As for roleplay dying. Nope. As far as I can see it's evolving. It's changing in tone and userbase but it isn't dying. That's just sort of to be expected as some of the users grow older and new users with different ideas join up.

OMG chickensmoothie. Personally didn't start RPing there but spent 4 years there LOL.

I started eight years ago on a site called Quizilla (which has been down for almost three years at this point). Had my edgy teenage years there before handpicking a few partners and moving to email. I still have two partners from there, which is pretty fantastic.

After that I slowly moved out of fandoms (but not completely) and created original characters for a story I hope to one day write in it's entirety.

As for the topic of RPing, I do believe it's simply changing, not dying. I've seen less of the type that I started with (Fandom Character x OC) and more of completely fandom or completely original. Sadly, I've seen young roleplayers get bashed on for their OCs being 'Mary-Sues'. Even if they are Mary-Sues, it's probably still fun for them. I'm pretty sure most of us (including myself) has had AT LEAST one Mary-Sue character when we were first starting out.

 

[Beckoncall]

The problem is screening for flaky people who quit and making conventions in the roleplay that minimize/remove the negative effects of people falling off -- because some people can't commit and for other people life can still get in the way.

My RP is 28 pages IC and almost 80 pages OOC. RP is definitely not dying -- you just need to cultivate a good player base and build something beautiful.

 

[rae2nerdy]

This is a common complaint I see - roleplays are dying quicker and it wasn't like that in the old days - to which I'm always like - but dude where the heck where you roleplaying?

Because I mean in all the places I ever roleplayed in between 50% - 90% of the roleplays all died before the first post was made. And the site with the best longetivity also had the strongest censorship. Like you could only do one interest check per 24 hour period, you could use one picture for your character, you couldn't mention hitting people or kissing or anything. As a site for 10 - 13 year olds it was probably really good as it would keep a lot of the toxicity out but once your out of that demographic it does get kind of stiffling.


But Gaia - I mean maybe 10% of the roleplays got off the ground, 20% if you include the ones without any kind of storyline that where basically two players going back and forth about how much their characters wanted to get nekkie with one another.

 

[hEMbo]

The problem is screening for flaky people who quit and making conventions in the roleplay that minimize/remove the negative effects of people falling off -- because some people can't commit and for other people life can still get in the way.

My RP is 28 pages IC and almost 80 pages OOC. RP is definitely not dying -- you just need to cultivate a good player base and build something beautiful.

Oh my god clap it out for beckoncall

 

[rae2nerdy]

The time thing is also related to the changing demographic a lot of the older base is growing up which means their free time is much more limited , whether because they're in college, have jobs, have kids they need to take care of, or some combination of the three.

So a lot of the people with more free time are more inexperienced ( not all of them but a majority ) which means they're just starting out trying to learn about what is going on. And so they see a landscape where a lot of roleplays drop due to real life considerations so they ( having more free time ) keep making roleplays in the hopes that one kicks off. Usually due to a combination of lack of understanding on why roleplays die, lack of understanding on how to make a roleplay last, and impatience.

They want a roleplay to work so they take the - let's throw everything at the kitchen sink approach until one works.

Not to say there isn't roleplays that last long term but they are harder to find

 

[JulesX]

Yeah, it's SUPER hard to keep up roleplays as I grow up. I haven't RPd much on forums, always been kind of a PM girl, but I really wanna try them out. MY biggest issue with the RP community is how toxic people are (as most internet communities are) and how little patience we have for teaching people who are new how to act/write. If I had more time I would love to take up a newbie and teach them how to write/character build!

 

[rae2nerdy]

Yeah, it's SUPER hard to keep up roleplays as I grow up. I haven't RPd much on forums, always been kind of a PM girl, but I really wanna try them out. MY biggest issue with the RP community is how toxic people are (as most internet communities are) and how little patience we have for teaching people who are new how to act/write. If I had more time I would love to take up a newbie and teach them how to write/character build!

I've tried that when i had more free time - a kind of tutor service where experienced people could sign up to teach newbies about different things. But surprisingly few people signed up to be tutored. I think it's a fear of being talked down ( especially as people get more vocal at tearing newbies down ) and also well you don't know what you don't know.

Like sometimes you're not aware you have a problem until you unfortunately run into some rude jerk who tears you down. I was fortunate in that when I started like legit forum based ( multi-paragraph , detailed character ) roleplays one of the more experienced people in my group would help me out but not everyone is that lucky.

 

[JulesX]

I've tried that when i had more free time - a kind of tutor service where experienced people could sign up to teach newbies about different things. But surprisingly few people signed up to be tutored. I think it's a fear of being talked down ( especially as people get more vocal at tearing newbies down ) and also well you don't know what you don't know.

Like sometimes you're not aware you have a problem until you unfortunately run into some rude jerk who tears you down. I was fortunate in that when I started like legit forum based ( multi-paragraph , detailed character ) roleplays one of the more experienced people in my group would help me out but not everyone is that lucky.

Ohhh, interesting. Yeah, I was incredibly lucky, too. Because I started with PMs (and still use them), I had good luck in people just not saying anything because they were just as inexperienced as me. The worst that's happened to me is people just 'ghosting' me. On Quizilla there were certain 'taboos' to avoid in PMs, too. These included 'one-liners, focusing on your OC too much, etc. They helped a lot, actually, because I never learned how to give a lackluster reply because I always wrote more to include details. Luckily, I realized how much work I needed but I also developed more complicated characters as I got older.

I wish I could make a definitive guide of RP but it's changing so much that it's hard to do that.

Another thing that I've noticed recently is how NORMAL it is to be into a fandom now compared to when I first started. Like back then I could say 'Oh yeah I'm really into [random interest that wasn't Harry Potter]' and people would be like 'WTF is wrong with you'. Nowadays, even cosplaying has exploded. I welcome this change tbh.

 

[Beckoncall]

Oh my god clap it out for beckoncall

Roleplay isn't dying -- Together we can do it!!!.

 

[hEMbo]

Roleplay isn't dying -- with an attitude like that It's clearly avoiding you.

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic! I was actually trying to compliment you.... Sorry if it came off that way

 

[Beckoncall]

I think you just made a finer point -- a lot of room for misinterpretation without body language -- maybe misunderstandings lead to a lot of RP complexities.

You humble me. I apologize and celebrate you.

 

[Feyre]

I know there's theoretically RP on tumblr, but I legitimately don't understand it, as it seems to revolve around finding gifs of celebrities and has very little actual RP.

I just had to pop in to add my two cents about whether or not RP is dying--starting with this statement (and this is speaking to everyone in general not an attack on you, Bealocwealm). While tumblr definitely has its group of people that just respond with gifs and write one-liners, a VERY sizable portion of it participates in RP that is far more literate. I was part of several RP communities on tumblr for years both as an independent blogger (not affiliated with a group) and as part of a group (tumblr's equivalent of threads with multiple people). 98% of the RP is fandom-based and a good number of people look down on OCs but if you could write a canon character and write them well, you could easily earn hundreds of followers and get very popular.

That being said, because tumblr is first and foremost a blogging website its format does take some getting used to. And searches like the search threads we have here don't really exist. You just follow + respond to people or straight up write a starter and tag the person it is meant for. In that regard it is different from forum RP but only in that regard. That's my opinion anyway.

In general I don't think RP is dying. Like a few others have said, I just think it is changing so some "veterans" are leaving and new people are joining with a different perspective as to what RP should be. If anything, I think RP is likely to become more popular as there has definitely been a revival in TTRPGs thanks to Critical Role and The Adventure Zone (among other DnD shows). Not everyone has time to meet IRL which leads them to Dungeons and Dragons play-by-post which can serve as a gateway to forum/tumblr/skype/discord/etc RP.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

Also if you're not a vet or whatever, I want to know how everybody heard about Rping because this community is just so like . . . idk we're so secluded on the internet and you have to like, search to find these communities.

I had an interest on a now taken down naruto forum and just searched for roleplaying in general, in google. Two years ago rpn was the top result and bam, here I am in 2k17.

 

[k a l l i s t o]

I've begun role-playing when I was around.. 7? I started on this online game called Habbo. Everything I did was with [*] because everyone else was doing it, so I wanted to too. I used to lie about my age and say I was 12 even though I wasn't, but it didn't matter because I was really slow at typing and people figured it out even though I told them it wasn't true. xD

When I turned eleven I started to look at Anime and I would role-play on Chatango because that was what was connected to this Anime website that I used to go on. I role-played on there for four years before I began to branch out towards Habbo Retros, Websites, Apps, and Kik Groups for role-playing. I even continued to role-play on paper (in my middle school days) with my best friend and that got us hooked on the idea that we should start writing stories.

Right now I am 19 and will be 20 sometime soon; I'm still role-playing and it feels great. I do believe that sometimes the RP community is withering away, but at the same time I do not think so. I believe that everyone we're looking for in regards to RPing are also Vets who know what they're doing. So, because we have high expectations from our community, we think that it is dying in a way.

 

[thumbelinaaa]

I started in Gaiaonline and deviantart pretty much around the same time. All of my characters were kind of self insert types that weren't tooo bad. But it was obviously me in all of them, looking back now. Even though I was aware of the whole self insert Mary Sue phenomenon that I tried to avoid, I still fell in the trap.

Reading my old stuff I actually think that sometimes my writing was pretty good? Like my grammar and spelling were cool but I actually did write with some style. So like yay! Go 13 year old me.

Looks like I've been RPing for only a measly 5 years. Buts it's been a fun five years.

I am used to RPs dying, but I used to make up for it by joining a ton. Especially romance ones. But with a boyfrieno now I'm less interested in RPing romance, and more interested in romancing him, lol.

I think I'm going to start joining a lot of RPs again. But I must say I am NOT a fan of fancy posts and the like. I just like to plop the character picture and basic characters facts down and call it a day

 

[adrian_]

I sort of eased into it on games like Arma and DayZ, but those are already one big roleplay, I still roleplay on Arma 2 and 3, rather frequently to, and I must say that if you are able to, you should check out the multiplayer on Arma it really is... an experience. It can suck, or be really fun.

 

[OliTamale]

I first started roleplaying on an app called Virtual Space, i did start out using '-' but now i am alot more literate.

 

[Abyss]

I think the first time I learned what RPing was on the computer game Wolfquest back when I was about 11-12 years old. It was extremely informal and a little awkward considering that the game had really strict spelling (you had to type a word correctly otherwise it would turn into question marks) and we were all pretty young (So lots of cliches and mistakes were made ^^). Character sheets didn't really exist either so you'd be asked to 'describe' your character each time you entered a server, and for each time someone new joined (there was a 5 person maximum limit).

It was a little easier when I started playing Feralheart, which allowed you to store a description of your character within a pop-up box and most RPs had seperate maps and websites you could join. Because both of these games had wolf or feline avatars most the RPs revolved around animals and fandoms such as Warrior Cats. Nothing that happened on the server was saved so you had to either remember what happened IC, and hope that you arrived when other people were online, which was really annoying and caused a lot of groups to die out.

The first place I encountered RPing on a forum was Dragoncave. This is still a really good website for long running Role Plays since in order to create an official RP it has to be approved by the admins. I think that because of all the work people put into starting them up, they're able to stay alive for longer. Of course this also makes it so that there's a very small selection of them to choose from and you might not find something that you like. I only really used it for one RP, but occasionally I check to see if anything new has popped up.

I don't remember exactly how I came to RPN, but it's certainly my favourite website for role playing so far! I started off with another account but made this one after I disappeared for too long. I'm not a perfect role-player by any means and I know there's still a lot I have to learn; physically interacting with other characters in fights is one area that I don't have a lot of experience with at all. Same goes for building realistic relationships. Unfortunately I also find that a lot of RPs tend to stall at the early stages and that I have a hard time keeping up when everyone makes multiple posts in a day. It can be really intimidating to try and jump back in when it feels like everyone moved on without you!

 

[Abyss]

I started in Gaiaonline and deviantart pretty much around the same time. All of my characters were kind of self insert types that weren't tooo bad. But it was obviously me in all of them, looking back now. Even though I was aware of the whole self insert Mary Sue phenomenon that I tried to avoid, I still fell in the trap.

Reading my old stuff I actually think that sometimes my writing was pretty good? Like my grammar and spelling were cool but I actually did write with some style. So like yay! Go 13 year old me.

Looks like I've been RPing for only a measly 5 years. Buts it's been a fun five years.

I am used to RPs dying, but I used to make up for it by joining a ton. Especially romance ones. But with a boyfrieno now I'm less interested in RPing romance, and more interested in romancing him, lol.

I think I'm going to start joining a lot of RPs again. But I must say I am NOT a fan of fancy posts and the like. I just like to plop the character picture and basic characters facts down and call it a day

I get the writing with style thing. My first forum posts back when I was around that age were a lot more poetic in nature than the way I write now, and I used to get compliments for my 'writing style.'

Then it all just... disappeared. I have no clue what caused the changed. O_O

 

[Voissed]

I actually started RPing offline, unlike most people. I was 14 or 15yo at the time, and had a group of friends that used to RP anime D&D style, like, OC characters in a specific anime setting (namely Bleach and Naruto). That's when I got into J-Pop and started roleplaying that, and then K-Pop, which's what I've roleplayed the most. I never went back to fandom RP.

I've RPed on Livejournal, InsaneJournal and Dreamwidth. Those are still big RP platforms, but unfortunately J and K-Pop rp is pretty much dead on those. Everybody seems to have migrated to Tumblr and Twitter and it's just not the same. Also, the quality RPers seem to have as well, so we're left with either flakes, self-inserts or people who cannot string a paragraph together. It's sad.