Roleplay Pet Peeves

[Upton O Goode]

@Merkurial The real problem I have is that I don't feel entirely okay with posting my own roleplay or taking part in one, I'm not the best at making a story or making the best character and threads like these make me feel insecure about what people think I am, I mean, do people think I'm a troll or a normal roleplayer when I make a bad character, or a post that doesn't make sense? However, this might be just me putting pressure on myself and probably has nothing to do with anything, but this has been on my chest for a long time.

I think the simplest solution would be to just to preface anything you're unsure of by mentioning that you're new and you might make mistakes. A lot of bad players won't even admit when they've done something wrong, even if it's the most blatantly bad thing they could do. If you ask people to have some patience with you, chances are they will. And if they won't, or just leap down your throat for any mistakes you make, they were probably not the nicest people anyway.


I really can't guarantee you'll never be treated badly for making a mistake, however. That's just life.

 

[Umbrie]

Godmodding, godmodding, godmodding, godmodding.


Godmodding is something that sends me into an absolute rage. I ran an RP forum for about 4-5 years and my coadminstrator was a godawful godmodder and powerplayer. All of his characters were stronger than everyone else's. He always sprang things on us without any sort of warning or consent. He could always find a way around whatever conflict was being set up.


It was a Pokemon-based form so we had the token evil team (Team Phantom was its name). They were rendered completely pointless due to how stupidly powerful his complete butchery of the character of Kratos Aurion was. All members eventually ended up defecting because they couldn't do anything without Kratos showing up and beating them into the dirt.


Tying into this is RP partners are too insistent on you replying too quickly. If I didn't reply for ten minutes, there was a message in the Cbox: "Hey Kiki, why haven't you replied yet?" Hello, I have like twelve other threads to reply to! Plus I'm human, not a machine; I ned breaks! To this day, because of him, I freak out badly if I don't reply in a timely manner.

A blatant copy of an existing character from an official media with none of their redeeming qualities is my favourite thing to see in an rp. It brings so much to the table, ain't that right, folks?

Funny thing with Kratos from Tales of Symphonia. he starts off powerful because he is Versatile, but he eventually fails to keep up with the specialists over time. 90% of the characters you get will eventually outclass him by levels 30-50, depending on the character. Kratos is even a Standard Crutch Character and even dies, because he is little more than that crutch to tide you for the early portion of the game and ween yourself off of long before you finish the midgame. Kratos literally exists to help you get a foothold in the game than never be used again past level 30ish. he has absolutely no worthwhile midgame or lategame artes due to being stuck with the same Artes he had in the beginning.


if you want to Steal Kratos, at least remember his weaknesses in the game. and any redeeming facets. his main weakness, is clearly his lack of worthwhile Artes. because he only has entry level Artes and never picks up better ones.

 

[Umbrie]

B. psychic abilities. I just cannot handle these in any roleplay where they are not a specific plot point ( i.e. oracles saving the planet from extinction or whatever ). I can not handle telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, any ability to manipulate people/objects/time/reality with your mind. 


I can not. I will flat out refuse to allow such abilities in my roleplays except for one very specific exception who is someone I've roleplayed with for a long time and I know very well.


Otherwise I will just flatly refuse to allow such powers in my roleplay. Is that unfair? Probably. But it's a dealbreaker for me. And the reason for that is I spent one to many days screaming myself hoarse at my computer screen because some asshole decided to railroad my characters/the story I worked hard to make because their special telepathic/psychic/whatever was essentially god and playing with reality like a kid playing with silly putty.


It to this day makes me mad enough that I will flat out walk away from my computer. It like physically pisses me off to the point where it ruins a roleplay for me. Without fail.


In this case me saying no is not an attack on my partner. I will even say this to the people I'm roleplaying with. This is not personal. I am not saying anything about you as a person. I am saying that for myself. This ruins the experience for me. I can't do it. 


So in this case it becomes an issue of compromise.


Like nearly every one of the pet peeves I've listed in this thread with the exception of those two - if you do them I'm not going to scream bloody murder at you and tear you down as an individual. Chances are I'll


A. just give you a light tag to say - yo I think you might have made a mistake here.


B. ignore it because it's not worth breaking the flow of a roleplay to bring up a minor Annoyance

what about Illusions? Illusions are a Psychic Ability that are literally a staple of Rogue, Assassin and Thief type characters in most high magic fantasy settings. i mean, they are a difficult ability to use correctly. but i would rather deal with an illusionist than a Telepath or Seer. Illusionists focus on decieving senses or decieving perception. generally any sense except touch, and powers like invisibility, silence, or self disguise are clearly illusion based.

 

[Elephantom]

Immortality shouldn't condemn anyone to a life of eternal solitude, I just think teenage girls aren't ideal. I think my principal issue with the vampire-human books I've read (and there have been quite a few, I'm a sucker for YA) is that I just can't suspend my disbelief long enough to stop rolling my eyes every few pages. Is it angsty, then fluffy, sometimes interesting, and apparently here to stay? Yes. Is it believable? Not to me. Which kind of makes sense, considering it involves, ya know, vampires, but in hindsight, a lot of it was wayyy unbelievable. 


I just can't really go for a centuries-old person suddenly deciding, after a month or two of knowing them, that Random Teenage Girl n°6478 is the person they've been waiting for. The person they're willing to kill and die for. They've lived for centuries, and they haven't matured a day past whatever age they were turned at? If not physically, then at least mentally or emotionally. I don't believe that you could be eighteen for three hundred years and still be an average eighteen-year-old, if a bit broodier and lonelier. Time has to have changed them somehow, and then there is that entire "I feed on blood and am immortal" aspect. Vampires were human. They are no longer entirely human. Call me old-fashioned, but when I think vampire, I still think "creature that can-- and generally wants to, if only on a biological level-- drain you dry". There are subtypes (I've made up quite a few myself, as I've written), but that's still the general idea. It isn't just an age difference, although over-fifty-year age differences are a problem of mine in and of themselves.


And they always love so intensely. It's all or nothing in the books I've read. Everyone falls so fast and so hard and so forever and I'm just like . . . . . Why.


I dunno. I wouldn't agree with a sixty-year-old dating a seventeen-year-old, so I wouldn't agree to a person who's lived sixty years dating an actual teenager. Unless said vampire literally hadn't matured much since being turned, and even then . . . If he has matured, then he's an adult in every way that counts, on top of being able to literally eat you, and I'm just not on board with that kind of power imbalance. Maybe because I'm a teenager and if a vampire suddenly decided I was The OneTM, I would be weirded tf out. 


So, in short: vampires who literally haven't aged a day, mentally as well as physically, dating teenagers . . . Kind of common and not super-creepy. Still wouldn't roleplay it, myself. Vampires who have matured over the decades, as humans and ex-humans tend to do, falling suddenly and madly in love with teenagers . . . Not here for it. I, myself, wouldn't roleplay it. 


That said, if anyone has any vampire-human romances that they enjoyed reading and would recommend, tIm all ears. 

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!


[SIZE= 12px]Vampires aren't even supposed to feel love or empathy. They're bloodthirsty creatures who're hellbent on drinking the tasty blood of LIVING HUMANS. I believe, it was that vile Stephanie Meyer who turned nosferatu-esque traditional vampires into tools for abysmal sexual quasi-romantic fantasies for equally abysmal millennials. They should have their tasty blood siphoned off from their veins.[/SIZE]

 

[Elephantom]

what about Illusions? Illusions are a Psychic Ability that are literally a staple of Rogue, Assassin and Thief type characters in most high magic fantasy settings. i mean, they are a difficult ability to use correctly. but i would rather deal with an illusionist than a Telepath or Seer. Illusionists focus on decieving senses or decieving perception. generally any sense except touch, and powers like invisibility, silence, or self disguise are clearly illusion based.

Unfortunately, it's a basket case.

 

[Umbrie]

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!


[SIZE= 12px]Vampires aren't even supposed to feel love or empathy. They're bloodthirsty creatures who're hellbent on drinking the tasty blood of LIVING HUMANS. I believe, it was that vile Stephanie Meyer who turned nosferatu-esque traditional vampires into tools for abysmal sexual quasi-romantic fantasies for equally abysmal millennials. They should have their tasty blood siphoned off from their veins.[/SIZE]

Vampires have been romanticized since Bram Stoker at the very least. the original Dracula was portrayed in a very human light, he was able to feel stimulation in both directions, whether positive or negative,whether the pleasure of inflicting pain upon others or the fear for his own safety. if Dracula was capable of feeling those, he is definitely capable of feeling love or empathy. for you need to be capable of feeling love or empathy to derive pleasure from torturing others. and if you can feel pleasure, you can feel pain and you can also feel fear.

 

[call me rae]

what about Illusions? Illusions are a Psychic Ability that are literally a staple of Rogue, Assassin and Thief type characters in most high magic fantasy settings. i mean, they are a difficult ability to use correctly. but i would rather deal with an illusionist than a Telepath or Seer. Illusionists focus on decieving senses or decieving perception. generally any sense except touch, and powers like invisibility, silence, or self disguise are clearly illusion based.

It depends on the person or the plot really - like even telepathy if it fits the world or the plot I'll let it go. I have like two fantasy races off the top of my head that communicate primarily through the mind.


I'm talking more like general urban fantasy or superhero roleplays ( which are where I roleplay primarily ). I won't say a flat out no to illusions but I'm going to be very picky with how you wield them. Because much like the rest of psionic branch of powers they can be used to essentially alter reality if you don't put the right qualifiers on them. 

 

[Umbrie]

It depends on the person or the plot really - like even telepathy if it fits the world or the plot I'll let it go. I have like two fantasy races off the top of my head that communicate primarily through the mind.


I'm talking more like general urban fantasy or superhero roleplays ( which are where I roleplay primarily ). I won't say a flat out no to illusions but I'm going to be very picky with how you wield them. Because much like the rest of psionic branch of powers they can be used to essentially alter reality if you don't put the right qualifiers on them. 

would you be fine with an illusionist whose illusions are restricted to things that would assist themselves in stealth? like making themselves invisible, silencing their own sounds, masking their own scent, softening or masking the vibrations they make by moving to make themselves come across as having the impression of being physically lighter weight, changing the appearance of their own colorations or features to simulate disguise, changing the pitch and tone of the sounds they personally make,and stuff like that?

 

[Vudukudu]

Not sure if this has been explored yet (I love this thread, but its also 40 pages, so I didn't go through all of it) but to rag on telepaths just a bit more ---


I find more often than not they're an excuse for weak writers to pull dumb tricks. It gives people an excuse to metagame OOC information, learn information they otherwise would never ascertain (and thus skip over what would otherwise be fun plot/character development) or bully other characters by dredging up whatever crap they might want. 


I've never seen a telepath played well in my seven years of roleplaying, except for a single time when they were limited by requiring the other person's permission to read their thoughts. People rarely embrace the downsides of mind reading (pretty much everyone who knows you're a telepath hates you for being a walking privacy violation, you might have believed you were schizophrenic as a child/teenager/before you realized you had powers, never being able to silence the ambient mental noise around you, turbo empathy, all that stuff) and it turns into a character who's sort of a sociopath walking around prodding everyone.


The worst thing about them is that, generally speaking, instead of utilizing mind reading to react to a character's previous post (my writing states my character is sad) they tend to just assume things and do their best to goad characters into a response, then declare with their mind reading that they achieved their desired response. Its manipulative and a form of controlling other characters at the end of the day. 

 

[Umbrie]

Not sure if this has been explored yet (I love this thread, but its also 40 pages, so I didn't go through all of it) but to rag on telepaths just a bit more ---


I find more often than not they're an excuse for weak writers to pull dumb tricks. It gives people an excuse to metagame OOC information, learn information they otherwise would never ascertain (and thus skip over what would otherwise be fun plot/character development) or bully other characters by dredging up whatever crap they might want. 


I've never seen a telepath played well in my seven years of roleplaying, except for a single time when they were limited by requiring the other person's permission to read their thoughts. People rarely embrace the downsides of mind reading (pretty much everyone who knows you're a telepath hates you for being a walking privacy violation, you might have believed you were schizophrenic as a child/teenager/before you realized you had powers, never being able to silence the ambient mental noise around you, turbo empathy, all that stuff) and it turns into a character who's sort of a sociopath walking around prodding everyone.


The worst thing about them is that, generally speaking, instead of utilizing mind reading to react to a character's previous post (my writing states my character is sad) they tend to just assume things and do their best to goad characters into a response, then declare with their mind reading that they achieved their desired response. Its manipulative and a form of controlling other characters at the end of the day. 

Truesies. Telepaths suck in that regard. they are often used to metagame or to control other player's characters. and nobody wants to deal with the consequences of playing one, and even Marvel, which had multiple telepathic characters, didn't really do a full effort to detail the issues a Telepath deals with. they are literally walking privacy invasions.


i don't intend to belittle a real issue by coming up with a logical comparison, but to the person whose mind is being forcefully penetrated, i would imagine that it feels just as bad, if not, potentially worse, than if their body had been forcefully penetrated. it would likely feel rather personal, you would feel unclean after the telepath aggressively forced themselves inside your head, and no amount of personal hygeine would ever remove the unclean feeling,

 

[Vudukudu]

Truesies. Telepaths suck in that regard. they are often used to metagame or to control other player's characters. and nobody wants to deal with the consequences of playing one, and even Marvel, which had multiple telepathic characters, didn't really do a full effort to detail the issues a Telepath deals with. they are literally walking privacy invasions.


i don't intend to belittle a real issue by coming up with a logical comparison, but to the person whose mind is being forcefully penetrated, i would imagine that it feels just as bad, if not, potentially worse, than if their body had been forcefully penetrated. it would likely feel rather personal, you would feel unclean after the telepath aggressively forced themselves inside your head, and no amount of personal hygeine would ever remove the unclean feeling,

That's usually how I treat it in RPs where I have to deal with a telepath. After the first encounter, I have my character make it painfully, explicitly clear that if they ever dive into my head like like that again, they will be introduced to whatever equivalent hellish experience I can come up with on the spot. 

 

[duegxybus]

That's usually how I treat it in RPs where I have to deal with a telepath. After the first encounter, I have my character make it painfully, explicitly clear that if they ever dive into my head like like that again, they will be introduced to whatever equivalent hellish experience I can come up with on the spot. 

And then their character says "It doesn't affect my character because mine experienced far worse anyways. *Shrug*"


+3 bonus points for being edgy and unfazed

 

[Vudukudu]

And then their character says "It doesn't affect my character because mine experienced far worse anyways. *Shrug*"


+3 bonus points for being edgy and unfazed

Oh no, not "showing you an experience". 


One time, after they broke the rule, I drugged them into unconsciousness, crucified them, and scalded them with boiling water until their character was a crippled, crying mess. Willpower only does so much for you.

(This was a tabletop scenario. The rules on brutality were much more lax, and everything was decided by die roll, so they couldn't argue it.)

 

[Elephantom]

Vampires have been romanticized since Bram Stoker at the very least. the original Dracula was portrayed in a very human light, he was able to feel stimulation in both directions, whether positive or negative,whether the pleasure of inflicting pain upon others or the fear for his own safety. if Dracula was capable of feeling those, he is definitely capable of feeling love or empathy. for you need to be capable of feeling love or empathy to derive pleasure from torturing others. and if you can feel pleasure, you can feel pain and you can also feel fear.

I'm talking about count Orlok, otherwise known as Nosferatu, or the one vampire which popularized vampires. He was EVYL. 

 

[Elephantom]

[SIZE= 12px]Eat TASTY blood, Telepaths![/SIZE]

 

[Umbrie]

I'm talking about count Orlok, otherwise known as Nosferatu, or the one vampire which popularized vampires. He was EVYL. 

i didn't know about him. but based on his age, i can tell he doesn't sparkle

That's usually how I treat it in RPs where I have to deal with a telepath. After the first encounter, I have my character make it painfully, explicitly clear that if they ever dive into my head like like that again, they will be introduced to whatever equivalent hellish experience I can come up with on the spot. 

And then their character says "It doesn't affect my character because mine experienced far worse anyways. *Shrug*"


+3 bonus points for being edgy and unfazed

Oh no, not "showing you an experience". 


One time, after they broke the rule, I drugged them into unconsciousness, crucified them, and scalded them with boiling water until their character was a crippled, crying mess. Willpower only does so much for you.

(This was a tabletop scenario. The rules on brutality were much more lax, and everything was decided by die roll, so they couldn't argue it.)

reminds me of the Time i put a Telepath Through a Gory Scenario comparable to the SAW movies. i will not explain the scenario because the content is so gory it violates the PG-13 guidelines. but i will say afterwards, the character had a perpetual limp, was literally afraid of faeries, was afraid of children by association, and couldn't process information the same way ever again. and you know what the final adventure was for that guy? stealing an Artifact from Prince Oberon, because if he didn't. Queen Titania was going to put him through even worse punishment.

 

[call me rae]

would you be fine with an illusionist whose illusions are restricted to things that would assist themselves in stealth? like making themselves invisible, silencing their own sounds, masking their own scent, softening or masking the vibrations they make by moving to make themselves come across as having the impression of being physically lighter weight, changing the appearance of their own colorations or features to simulate disguise, changing the pitch and tone of the sounds they personally make,and stuff like that?

As a said it depends on the person and the plot. I can't say yes or no without actually seeing then in a roleplay or the person playing them.


As most of preventing OP headaches is trusting your partner to keep to the established world lore and that they aren't an aas hole deliberately out to ruin things.


I also don't do tabletop or dice games so I imagine any answer I give would be irrelevant to you as I said I don't do those genres and thus I can't speak or have an opinion on the archetypes found within


To further clarify I don't care if you have psychic characters. I don't care if my partner has them either. As I said this isn't me being a butch and dogging people on how they make their characters.


You do you.


It's more of a matter of respecting boundaries. for instance when my partner tells me they don't roleplay himosexuality for religious reasons I'm not gonna argue with them about it. I'll just be cool no gay folks it's all good.


To me the psionic. issue is the same. the whole reason  I say no is because I'm exhausted by just this kind of scenario. me saying no and my partner poking and prodding  and whining until I give in.


Now obviously that's not your intention and I don't mind clarifying in this thread but the issue I have is really this scenario exactly with my partner not respecting my boundaries.


It happen enough times and enough severity that I pretty much refuse to do those kind of characters unless the power set is worked into the world ( which presumably is how your examples work ) or I have been roleplaying with the person long enough to be a good friend to them.

 

[Inner Power]

I don't mind people looking at my profile or anything they need to do in order to see if we match up as partners. What I do mind is being sent a PM with demands on how I should roleplay. 


No. Move on.

 

[adrian_]

People who can write as fast as this:





While I'm left in the dust.

 

[Blaire Wisteria]

Here's a new one for me. When someone has over three characters and decides to have the responses for every character all in one long ass post that takes up so much space.

 

[JujuBee]

I don't mind people looking at my profile or anything they need to do in order to see if we match up as partners. What I do mind is being sent a PM with demands on how I should roleplay. 


No. Move on.

People do this??? Oh my goodness.

Here's a new one for me. When someone has over three characters and decides to have the responses for every character all in one long ass post that takes up so much space.

I am guilty of this!! Though I usually keep it to only two characters lol. One long ass post gets annoying after a while.

 

[duegxybus]

Here's a new one for me. When someone has over three characters and decides to have the responses for every character all in one long ass post that takes up so much space.

O_O


*takes me and my 30+ characters in some RPs and walks away from this negativity*

 

[Inner Power]

People do this??? Oh my goodness.


I am guilty of this!! Though I usually keep it to only two characters lol. One long ass post gets annoying after a while.

Yeah. It happened on here, today actually. I don't respond to demands very well.

 

[Lord Pug]

I did a "magic fantasy high school" type of crap RP because I was tired of no one being interested in my RPs, and for the edgy peeps I threw in some species "shadow people" and guess what I get for all the character sheets? This:


Powers: Mind control


Personality: (name) is totally quiet and like totally evil and stuff and secretly plots everyone's death and he's like way more powerful than everyone but no one knows cuz he hides it lel


Even though I specifically said that evil "shadow people" don't go to the school....


Eventually, there were so many characters with "mind control" as a power that I said no one could have the mind control power.

 

[Reith]

When people ask you what you want to roleplay in a thread full of things you roleplay.
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When people ask if you're still looking for a roleplay when you're bumping your thread.
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Overly cutesy characters or overly brooding types you can't even approach.
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People who want incredibly super special snowflake characters with every mental illness under the sun. 
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When people play follow the leader and make no moves to advance the story.
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Constant damsel in distress syndrome. 
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Characters who know what other characters are doing when they're not even anywhere near the events happening, but they have 'gut feelings'.
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Forcing things to happen that don't even make sense to the situation.
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People demanding 10 paragraphs a reply, minimum. 
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