Roleplay Pet Peeves

[Seikomatsumoto]

• That one guy who just makes Joke characters on the CS
  
• Inactivity(As A RP leader this is very annoying though I understand about people having lives)
  
• Signing up but not posting at all
  
• Everyone I meet living in the United States while I live in East Asia making interaction near impossible.
  

 

[Trust]

• That one guy who just makes Joke characters on the CS
  
• Inactivity(As A RP leader this is very annoying though I understand about people having lives)
  
• Signing up but not posting at all
  
• Everyone I meet living in the United States while I live in East Asia making interaction near impossible.
  

I kind of get how you feel on the last one... Everyone is only active at 1:00 am for me ;-:

 

[Seikomatsumoto]

I kind of get how you feel on the last one... Everyone is only active at 1:00 am for me ;-:

I presume you live in Japan or Australia?


RPN Life is not easy in these timezones.

 

[Trust]

Ireland actually, just everyone is active later rather than earlier.

 

[jinkx]

Ireland actually, just everyone is active later rather than earlier.

i dig you, everybody in the usa doesn't come on until evening over there. 

 

[Seikomatsumoto]

i dig you, everybody in the usa doesn't come on until evening over there. 

Meanwhile in East Asia, I have to stay up late at night to roleplay or wake up very early in the morning. I hope I get to live in America someday

 

[call me rae]

Well speaking as an American living in the same country doesn't really exclude the timezone issue. None of my partners are on the same timezone as me. So we're usually just meeting up at random points throughout the day when I send 'em a pm or a skype message and they respond whenever they can.


Then again I am a very laidback poster and regularly wait like months to weeks for replies. Sooo if your wanting quicker or more instant responses than I imagine that's a bigger issue.


Timezone doesn't bother me so much as lack of schedule does. You don't got to send me a response two minutes after I post it but if your regularly gonna be gone for days at a time doing whatever I'd kind of like a heads up. Just so I know you haven't like gotten into a car crash, quit the roleplay, forgotten about it, etc. 

 

[KhazTheGiraffe]

Idk... A ton of people are like "when people disappear for long periods of time without telling anyone. I don't care if you leave, just say something." 


I think you guys need to realize that it isn't always possible to get a post up, no matter how brief it is. I had a severe concussion, and for three months I could only use electronics or any intense focusing activities like reading for one hour a day, not to mention the first three weeks I couldn't use them at all. I used my time to study and read for school rather than post on the site. I wasn't about to use my very small, precious amount of time to come on here and post I wasn't going to be on for a while so it would be convenient for everyone else. When I came back I ended up getting hated on pretty bad because I had been gone and gave no warning even after I explained to them that I physically could not go on my computer and its not like I could predict the future. Basically I ended up leaving and told them all that I was sorry I valued the very complex healing process of the brain and my future in athletics and education more than the rp. 


Moral of the story, this site is definitely not the most important thing in the world and you have no idea what anyone else is going through in real life so maybe ease up a bit and give these people the benefit of the doubt. 

 

[call me rae]

Idk... A ton of people are like "when people disappear for long periods of time without telling anyone. I don't care if you leave, just say something." 


I think you guys need to realize that it isn't always possible to get a post up, no matter how brief it is. I had a severe concussion, and for three months I could only use electronics or any intense focusing activities like reading for one hour a day, not to mention the first three weeks I couldn't use them at all. I used my time to study and read for school rather than post on the site. I wasn't about to use my very small, precious amount of time to come on here and post I wasn't going to be on for a while so it would be convenient for everyone else. When I came back I ended up getting hated on pretty bad because I had been gone and gave no warning even after I explained to them that I physically could not go on my computer and its not like I could predict the future. Basically I ended up leaving and told them all that I was sorry I valued the very complex healing process of the brain and my future in athletics and education more than the rp. 


Moral of the story, this site is definitely not the most important thing in the world and you have no idea what anyone else is going through in real life so maybe ease up a bit and give these people the benefit of the doubt. 

I think your misunderstanding our points. We're not saying 


"omg if you don't respond to me all the time right away as soon as i post your satan and i hate you and you should die"


No I'm saying if you know your gonna be busy or if you don't want to roleplay anymore than just tell me. I honestly won't care but I'd like to know so I'm not waiting around for a response that is never gonna come.


Now I realize that sometimes things happen that you can't control - maybe your in a car crash , maybe your computer dies, maybe you get the ability to go on a last minute trip to vegas, idk and idc.


All I ask is that whenever possible you give me the courtesy of a heads up so I'm not waiting around without a response when I could be looking for another partner.


If you can't respond that's also fine - I usually wait about two weeks to a month then count the roleplay as a lost cause and move on anyway. I might message you a few times just to see if everything is okay ( as I have had people quit for serious medical issues and that's totally okay )


But don't be sitting there leaving me hanging when I can clearly see your still posting on this site. OR don't come back after two months of dead silence and start posting again like I was just suppose to wait around for you like some kind of idiot.


No - if you were sick than fine I understand that. hell if your computer died and you just recently got it fixed that's also fine.


But if you give me no explanation and just start posting again as if it was totally fine for you to ignore me until it was convient for you to come back - yeah I'm gonna get mad cuz it's rude as hell.

 

[Seikomatsumoto]

I'm usually on when RPN is a desolate wasteland because timezone problems. Like right now as I have been jumping from threads to see no one but me browsing.


It's boring like hell.

 

[JokerValentine]

I think your misunderstanding our points. We're not saying 


"omg if you don't respond to me all the time right away as soon as i post your satan and i hate you and you should die"


No I'm saying if you know your gonna be busy or if you don't want to roleplay anymore than just tell me. I honestly won't care but I'd like to know so I'm not waiting around for a response that is never gonna come.


Now I realize that sometimes things happen that you can't control - maybe your in a car crash , maybe your computer dies, maybe you get the ability to go on a last minute trip to vegas, idk and idc.


All I ask is that whenever possible you give me the courtesy of a heads up so I'm not waiting around without a response when I could be looking for another partner.


If you can't respond that's also fine - I usually wait about two weeks to a month then count the roleplay as a lost cause and move on anyway. I might message you a few times just to see if everything is okay ( as I have had people quit for serious medical issues and that's totally okay )


But don't be sitting there leaving me hanging when I can clearly see your still posting on this site. OR don't come back after two months of dead silence and start posting again like I was just suppose to wait around for you like some kind of idiot.


No - if you were sick than fine I understand that. hell if your computer died and you just recently got it fixed that's also fine.


But if you give me no explanation and just start posting again as if it was totally fine for you to ignore me until it was convient for you to come back - yeah I'm gonna get mad cuz it's rude as hell.

It's also important to distinguish lack of replies on the site in general versus lack of replies to a single RP. 

 

[sakigamis]

Oooh, I've got a new one born of me stalking the 1x1 search board.


"Must be at least 18!"


Listen, we're not doing smut because a) it's against site rules and b) even if it wasn't, I'm not a fan and would ask to skip ahead if it got to that point. So then, why? You think a teenager can't handle dark themes, or...? It's a real pain for me (about 11 months short of the cutoff ;A; ) because I don't wanna argue the terms with people but like 99% of the people I find that look fun to RP with have this listed.

 

[ApfelSeine]

I've recently discovered that a pet peeve of mine is when someone mimics a specific element of my (or to a lesser extent, someone else's) character sheet. If it can be reasonably assumed that the character sheets were being created at the same time, and one person just happened to finish faster, then that doesn't usually bother me since I give people the benefit of the doubt. But if a character sheet has been up for a day or more, there's not much excuse. Best case scenario is that the person didn't read the other character sheets (which is another frustrating thing for me). In general though, I've found that it's likely that people read the character sheets, took something interesting and then ramped it up to make it look more impressive.


For instance:


Me: Character A was born into a family of entertainers in Germany, who pushed him into show business. He appreciated the pressure though, since singing has always been a passion of his and his parents' connections helped him get his start. He worked hard as a singer and managed to reach the top of the charts in his country on several occasions.


Other rper: Character B was an entertainer since he was little, and audiences around the world love his amazing voice, so he easily made it to number one in the world. He doesn't really care much about singing though, so sometimes he does other things like acting or modelling, which he's also popular for.


That's made up for the purposes of being non-specific, but it is based upon an experience I had. It really grinds my gears when a character's occupation is closely mimicked (and more so when it's portrayed as easy, possibly for the sake of making their character superior). I don't know, is that an overreaction on my part? Similarities between characters isn't really that big a deal, especially if it's something such as their likes and dislikes or what weapon they use or whatever. Still, it bothers me when a background is mimicked or a superpower is copied, and more so when it's portrayed as more significant than the character who was written first. I interpret that as being the same as saying "oh yeah, my character can also do that, only better since they're amazing". It feels both lazy and inconsiderate, but I may be taking it too personally.


Aside from that, another thing I've recently found irritating is when people make their characters "the best" at something. I don't mean when they imply that they're amazing and super powerful or intelligent or whatever. I mean when they straight up say "this character is better than all the other characters at X". I've only experienced this once, but I'm rather appalled by it. First of all, being the best at something needs to be earned. Even if it's a battle between impossibly powerful mary sues, at least they're working for it. To state in the character sheet that someone is the smartest/strongest/fastest/kindest/whatever else, is presumptuous. Particularly if the other characters are all written to be fairly good or very good at the same skill.


For instance, if an rper states "Character C is a super genius and so other people converse on a level that she can easily predict. She finds this boring, and so she never befriended any of the other characters since she always knew what they were going to say". I mean, first off, even a highly intelligent character (while potentially able to manipulate a conversation to their advantage or potentially able to guess the direction of a conversation) is not a mind reader. It's too much to say that they'd be able to do something like that in every circumstance. It's also excessive to imply that the general rule of "Character C is one of the smartest people" automatically translates to "Character C is going to be smarter than every other character in the roleplay". If character C is going to be the smartest character, it should be a title that is earned, not assigned to the character without consulting any of the others (or even waiting to see what all of the other characters' personalities and skills are).


Overall, it comes down to unearned prestige. If a character is to be strongest/smartest/best at something, they need to establish this over the course of the rp by having their actions written in a way that can convey their level of skill. This gives players a chance to concede, or to up the ante and show off their character's level of skill. This does have the potential to dissolve into the typical cliches of poor battle writing skills, but if both players can actually portray a strong or intelligent character well, it could also be very interesting. But if the battle is declared won before it's fought, well that's simply impudent. Other people's right to create a character who is evenly matched with your own should be something every player considers.

 

[dragonsfire]

(Lol, I wanted to be illiterate, my apologies.)


Somehow, this always seems to bother me more than any thing related to Rp, why are you going to put a one on one or fandom in fantasy/realistic/futuristic...whyyy, it shows you didn't have the patience or were (noobish) idiotic enough not to read the tutorial. Or at least you just come from another form site, in which everything is grouped together, not that that's erroneous(looked up a random synonym ) but you cant even take a glance over the site.


2.The whole theme thing, people often use a light yellow/tan font or forget to use remove formatting, TX, giving theme a white background because then I have to switch themes, or deal with someone being angry at me for asking them to remove format and then just replace the colored text or make it centered.

Now I realize that sometimes things happen that you can't control - maybe your in a car crash , maybe your computer dies, maybe you get the ability to go on a last minute trip to Vegas, idk and idc.


All I ask is that whenever possible you give me the courtesy of a heads up so I'm not waiting around without a response when I could be looking for another partner.


But don't be sitting there leaving me hanging when I can clearly see your still posting on this site. OR don't come back after two months of dead silence and start posting again like I was just suppose to wait around for you like some kind of idiot.

I would not take that trip to Vegas, also I have been guilty of this twice, however both times I definitely didn't expect those in the Rp to be completely ok with replying to me again, even if they ignored me it would've been fine, leaving an rp for no apparent reason is no excuse...so oops. Luckily I was accepted back in, but your point is understood.

 

[D i d o]

When someone doesn't read what I've written carefully then completely makes up what my character did and refuses to edit their post to accommodate what actually happened!


UGH! Gets me angry just thinking about it... >>

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

When someone doesn't read what I've written carefully then completely makes up what my character did and refuses to edit their post to accommodate what actually happened!

Even better is when they act like you didn't post at all and change several elements of the setting you established, as well as completely ignoring that your character is in the same room. The record I have is four people posted, and each person changed how the room looked, so it appeared that we were all telling different stories (in a detailed RP no less).


Another thing I had recently was a GM who forgot to add his character sheet before the RP started. So, when the roleplay started and he said a character was doing something, I assumed it was an NPC (because there was no character sheet for the character) and said the character moved into a building. His next post practically zeroed out my last post, and simply underlined a statement that reinforced that the character was still outside. No apology for forgetting to post the CS and no mentioning when he did add the CS. I backed out of that RP within ten minutes.

 

[D i d o]

Even better is when they act like you didn't post at all and change several elements of the setting you established, as well as completely ignoring that your character is in the same room. The record I have is four people posted, and each person changed how the room looked, so it appeared that we were all telling different stories (in a detailed RP no less).


Another thing I had recently was a GM who forgot to add his character sheet before the RP started. So, when the roleplay started and he said a character was doing something, I assumed it was an NPC (because there was no character sheet for the character) and said the character moved into a building. His next post practically zeroed out my last post, and simply underlined a statement that reinforced that the character was still outside. No apology for forgetting to post the CS and no mentioning when he did add the CS. I backed out of that RP within ten minutes.

O_O... 4 people?! One, okay. Sure, there's always one. But four?! 


WHAT LEVEL OF HELL IS THIS!?


As for your second woe, I feel your pain. You did well to run. There's no point in trying to work with someone who is so blatantly disrespectful. 

 

[plotsaresexy]

This may sound snobby but I don't like when people try to use hand drawn pictures for their roleplay character. Unless it's really good and has a lot of detail

 

[call me rae]

This may sound snobby but I don't like when people try to use hand drawn pictures for their roleplay character. Unless it's really good and has a lot of detail

If it's snobby than we shall be snobby biscuits together. As that's a huge turn off for me. Like sorry not sorry I'm shallow.

 

[Gilzar]

GM's who show no respect for their players, or players who show no respect for that matter.


By this I mean ones that are usually outrageously straightforward, meaning there's really no 'cap' on their critique and it sometimes can be taken as offensive. Critique is always good, but there's a respectful way to apply it. It's too often that I see the occasional user/GM claim they're critiquing someone when it could easily be taken as an insult. This is one of the main reasons why I feel new users can be intimidated to join roleplays, but that's a different rant for a different time.

 

[Blaire Wisteria]

I have a good couple things that just really irk me.


1. When someone use the same exact character for every RP they've ever been in. I mean I can understand using the same character for maybe twwo RPs in case one of them flops, but using the same character you've been using for four years just seems weirdly uncreative to me. It's esecially bad to me whenthey refuse to acually tailor the character around the RP , but instead try to force them in and somehow make it work out and then get angry when the GM asks them to change it. I'm sorry your omnipotent werewolf character wouldn't fit in a powerless vigilante RP.


2. People who play canon characters and then ruin them. You can play as a canon character all you like, just as long as you actually stay true o the character. I don't want to see Superman flying around ripping burglars in half or a dumb asss Batman.


3. Realisic inconsistancies. OK, when I go into an RP that says that it's going to be extremely realistic, I would hope that it'd actually be realistic. It's the worst when you go and say something along the lines about how something that the GM or another player happens to be doing or trying to do to the GM, they just respond with, "Well it's not that realistic." and make you out to be the bad guy. I'm sorry, but if something says it's realistic, I expect it to actually be realistic.

 

[literally]

^ @Bhlow that GM was sort of overrated, but I did apply for her other one with an apology, then I realized "Why the fuc* am I apologizing." Then she accepted me into the rp when she specifically said she wanted NO ONE from her other rp. What did I find? I found Physiic, and like two others from that one. (oh ps I'm not saying I'm annoyed about physiic. he's great actually.)

 

[Trust]

I have a good couple things that just really irk me.



1. When someone use the same exact character for every RP they've ever been in. I mean I can understand using the same character for maybe twwo RPs in case one of them flops, but using the same character you've been using for four years just seems weirdly uncreative to me. It's esecially bad to me whenthey refuse to acually tailor the character around the RP , but instead try to force them in and somehow make it work out and then get angry when the GM asks them to change it. I'm sorry your omnipotent werewolf character wouldn't fit in a powerless vigilante RP.



2. People who play canon characters and then ruin them. You can play as a canon character all you like, just as long as you actually stay true o the character. I don't want to see Superman flying around ripping burglars in half or a dumb asss Batman.



3. Realisic inconsistancies. OK, when I go into an RP that says that it's going to be extremely realistic, I would hope that it'd actually be realistic. It's the worst when you go and say something along the lines about how something that the GM or another player happens to be doing or trying to do to the GM, they just respond with, "Well it's not that realistic." and make you out to be the bad guy. I'm sorry, but if something says it's realistic, I expect it to actually be realistic.

Refer to my previous posts.


FUCKIN' HITTING BULLETS WITH A SWORD IS "REALISTIC" NOW

 

[Trust]

I've recently discovered that a pet peeve of mine is when someone mimics a specific element of my (or to a lesser extent, someone else's) character sheet. If it can be reasonably assumed that the character sheets were being created at the same time, and one person just happened to finish faster, then that doesn't usually bother me since I give people the benefit of the doubt. But if a character sheet has been up for a day or more, there's not much excuse. Best case scenario is that the person didn't read the other character sheets (which is another frustrating thing for me). In general though, I've found that it's likely that people read the character sheets, took something interesting and then ramped it up to make it look more impressive.


For instance:


Me: Character A was born into a family of entertainers in Germany, who pushed him into show business. He appreciated the pressure though, since singing has always been a passion of his and his parents' connections helped him get his start. He worked hard as a singer and managed to reach the top of the charts in his country on several occasions.


Other rper: Character B was an entertainer since he was little, and audiences around the world love his amazing voice, so he easily made it to number one in the world. He doesn't really care much about singing though, so sometimes he does other things like acting or modelling, which he's also popular for.


That's made up for the purposes of being non-specific, but it is based upon an experience I had. It really grinds my gears when a character's occupation is closely mimicked (and more so when it's portrayed as easy, possibly for the sake of making their character superior). I don't know, is that an overreaction on my part? Similarities between characters isn't really that big a deal, especially if it's something such as their likes and dislikes or what weapon they use or whatever. Still, it bothers me when a background is mimicked or a superpower is copied, and more so when it's portrayed as more significant than the character who was written first. I interpret that as being the same as saying "oh yeah, my character can also do that, only better since they're amazing". It feels both lazy and inconsiderate, but I may be taking it too personally.


Aside from that, another thing I've recently found irritating is when people make their characters "the best" at something. I don't mean when they imply that they're amazing and super powerful or intelligent or whatever. I mean when they straight up say "this character is better than all the other characters at X". I've only experienced this once, but I'm rather appalled by it. First of all, being the best at something needs to be earned. Even if it's a battle between impossibly powerful mary sues, at least they're working for it. To state in the character sheet that someone is the smartest/strongest/fastest/kindest/whatever else, is presumptuous. Particularly if the other characters are all written to be fairly good or very good at the same skill.


For instance, if an rper states "Character C is a super genius and so other people converse on a level that she can easily predict. She finds this boring, and so she never befriended any of the other characters since she always knew what they were going to say". I mean, first off, even a highly intelligent character (while potentially able to manipulate a conversation to their advantage or potentially able to guess the direction of a conversation) is not a mind reader. It's too much to say that they'd be able to do something like that in every circumstance. It's also excessive to imply that the general rule of "Character C is one of the smartest people" automatically translates to "Character C is going to be smarter than every other character in the roleplay". If character C is going to be the smartest character, it should be a title that is earned, not assigned to the character without consulting any of the others (or even waiting to see what all of the other characters' personalities and skills are).


Overall, it comes down to unearned prestige. If a character is to be strongest/smartest/best at something, they need to establish this over the course of the rp by having their actions written in a way that can convey their level of skill. This gives players a chance to concede, or to up the ante and show off their character's level of skill. This does have the potential to dissolve into the typical cliches of poor battle writing skills, but if both players can actually portray a strong or intelligent character well, it could also be very interesting. But if the battle is declared won before it's fought, well that's simply impudent. Other people's right to create a character who is evenly matched with your own should be something every player considers.

First one would really piss me off


second one... It's honestly impossible to be "the best" at anything when you think about it. It all comes down to luck.


Heck, Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive, but even he lost races.

 

[Count Gensokyo]

Lack of action in RPs. Sometimes it seems it can't get slower.

Any tips for remedying this? 


@Raven Linwood (Please tag me if you answer this. Don't have notifications on.)