Roleplay Pet Peeves

[Melpomene]

I also hate female character who think that they're strong because they're tough and kick ass and look down on anything traditionally feminine.

I agree. By doing this, it is almost like they're saying it is wrong to be, or to have a character that is that traditional feminine. That just ain't right.

 

[SandraDeelightful]

I agree. By doing this, it is almost like they're saying it is wrong to be, or to have a character that is that traditional feminine. That just ain't right.

I was once doing a roleplay where my character was more traditionally feminine than another, someone, who was a tough, edge female, said that it was insulting.

 

[StrawberryJaime]

I was once doing a roleplay where my character was more traditionally feminine than another, someone, who was a tough, edge female, said that it was insulting.

That’s like the opposite of feminism ? bashing another woman just because she likes girly or traditionally feminine things lmao I can’t handle people who say that’s not okay

 

[SandraDeelightful]

That’s like the opposite of feminism ? bashing another woman just because she likes girly or traditionally feminine things lmao I can’t handle people who say that’s not okay

I know. It's incredibly stupid. And there's really no other personality traits to these character other than strong.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I know. It's incredibly stupid. And there's really no other personality traits to these character other than strong.

How very dare you. Obviously they have two traits

gender-bent male

You know Because these are written to be “traditionally male” characters only with boobs.

Which says a lot about how male characters are written as well.

Like really if your characters primary personality trait is a physical description ( I.e. handsome, pretty, strong, weak, etc. ) than you have a problem

 

[cosowarrior]

Oof. I have A LOT of pet peeves. I'm sure lots of these have already been said before, but I'mma go for it anyway.

• Illegible writing styles, like when a person's posts are a series of run-ons and comma splices.
• When people write in present tense, or in anything other than third person, especially when a past-tense/third-person has already been established in previous posts.
• Fickle RP partners. The kind who will do things that really don't make sense, or who will change something that has been pre-established, on a whim, just for the sake of drama. They also like to write something completely out of character, as long as it entertains them for the time being.
• When people RP like it's an anime.
• #2edgy4me characters (especially in combination with the point above).
• When partners not-so-subtly insert fandom into a non-random RP (and try to play it off like original content).
• Insta-romance. I don't mind if the characters supposedly knew each other beforehand, or if characters are simply attracted to one another from the start. That's all fine and not too unrealistic, in my opinion. What I can't stand is when a character supposedly dislikes another to start, but one page later is madly in love with them. Or if the character is indifferent at first, but totally skips over the 'blossoming crush' stage or whatever, without anything happening to cause it.
• When characters become utterly useless and pathetic after entering a relationship. I don't like when characters lose themselves to a relationship.
• When writers state a character is one way, but RPs them another. They are extreme violators of the 'Show, don't tell' rule.
• When a partner introduces multiple characters, but they all have pretty much the same personality.
• When an RPer constantly gives their characters unfair advantages and can't stand to see their characters lose. For example, they somehow inexplicably escape whenever captured, every time. I was once guilty of something like this. I try to be more clever than that these days.
• When people cram too much dialogue in a single post. This is something I mostly see with newbie RPers with poor literacy. For instance, I once had some encounters with a newbie who, when interacting with other characters, would rattle off a long string of questions and comments in a single sitting. Their posts were a sequence of non sequiturs, making it impossible to respond to with any sense of cohesion.
• When a partner demands super long posts, but they only accomplish their own standards by constantly repeating themselves. They also never give anything to respond to, no matter how long their own posts are. This only happened to me once. I eventually got so peeves that I stopped using that site.
• When a partner decides to basically RP with themself, offering only minor interactions as I try to pry my way into what is apparently their own personal project.

I'm sure I can dig up more, but I should stop now...

 

[SandraDeelightful]

How very dare you. Obviously they have two traits

gender-bent male

You know Because these are written to be “traditionally male” characters only with boobs.

Which says a lot about how male characters are written as well.

Like really if your characters primary personality trait is a physical description ( I.e. handsome, pretty, strong, weak, etc. ) than you have a problem

Yeah, flat, one-dimensional characters in general are just awful and boing.

 

[CaptainMcNoob]

I also hate female character who think that they're strong because they're tough and kick ass and look down on anything traditionally feminine.

Meh, depends on the character. If a female character was raised in a culture or society that believed strength and more.. utilitarian things were the correct path, such a character disliking a 'traditionally feminine' character and considering them weak seems well in-line with their personality. I would think them going, "You know what, you're soft and I was raised in a culture that hated all things soft, but you're a pretty cool person who is just as valuable and worthy as me!' upon first meeting them would be what is truly bad writing.

Now, their opinion changing over the course of said RP is one thing, but a 'strong' female character who dislikes 'traditional feminine' characters is just fine depending on the character, their personality and their beliefs. I don't see this as any different then the rough veteran soldier hating the posh nobles for being soft.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

I agree with most of them, but isn't tense just a preference, as well as whether you use first person or third person? I agree that it's annoying when someone changes tense if you haven't already established it's allowed, but if you really don't want people to roleplay in the present tense, just warn them.

 

[cosowarrior]

I agree with most of them, but isn't tense just a preference, as well as whether you use first person or third person? I agree that it's annoying when someone changes tense if you haven't already established it's allowed, but if you really don't want people to roleplay in the present tense, just warn them.

Tense is a preference. Pet peeves aren't hard rules, after all.

I do feel, however, that third person is more of a convention in RPing.

 

[SandraDeelightful]

Meh, depends on the character. If a female character was raised in a culture or society that believed strength and more.. utilitarian things were the correct path, such a character disliking a 'traditionally feminine' character and considering them weak seems well in-line with their personality. I would think them going, "You know what, you're soft and I was raised in a culture that hated all things soft, but you're a pretty cool person who is just as valuable and worthy as me!' upon first meeting them would be what is truly bad writing.

Now, their opinion changing over the course of said RP is one thing, but a 'strong' female character who dislikes 'traditional feminine' characters is just fine depending on the character, their personality and their beliefs. I don't see this as any different then the rough veteran soldier hating the posh nobles for being soft.

Yeah, that's a fair point.

 

[Wendy Darling]

The term, 'literate'. We're all literate, whether some of us can't form difficult synonyms or spell basic words we're all literate roleplayers. Toss that term away.

 

[Tove]

The term, 'literate'. We're all literate, whether some of us can't form difficult synonyms or spell basic words we're all literate roleplayers. Toss that term away.

Absolutely.

 

[rae2nerdy]

The term, 'literate'. We're all literate, whether some of us can't form difficult synonyms or spell basic words we're all literate roleplayers. Toss that term away.

It’s another term for detailed. Which in itself just means a person who likes going into details in roleplays. A literate roleplayer writes typically three + paragraphs, contributes to world building, writes in third person, etc.

Think of it like using casual. What does THAT mean? It doesn’t have any writing connotation. It does however have a definition on this site.

I can’t find it but casual means someone who wants to improve their roleplays. You can post about a paragraph, are working on world building and character development, etc.

That has nothing to do with the definition of the word but it used to be a part of the vocabulary here.

 

[cosowarrior]

It’s another term for detailed. Which in itself just means a person who likes going into details in roleplays. A literate roleplayer writes typically three + paragraphs, contributes to world building, writes in third person, etc.

Think of it like using casual. What does THAT mean? It doesn’t have any writing connotation. It does however have a definition on this site.

I can’t find it but casual means someone who wants to improve their roleplays. You can post about a paragraph, are working on world building and character development, etc.

That has nothing to do with the definition of the word but it used to be a part of the vocabulary here.

I mostly agree. I've heard the "we're all literate" argument before, but I find it a bit pedantic.

Where I learned to RP, literate was used not to denote skill as a partner, but writing style. If you knew and obeyed all the grammar rules, wrote clearly, didn't have issues mixing up words like there/their/they're, you're semi-lit/lit. Illiterate roleplayers are those who don't follow proper grammar rules. Being able to write a proper sentence is an issue of literacy, even by non-RP definitions.

We called people who write multiple paragraphs, follow typical RP conventions, give thoughtful interactions, and contribute to the plot semi-advanced/advanced. I guess you have a slightly different vernacular here?

 

[Draco]

Closed- ended posts. Meaning post where the writer doesn't leave much for you to respond to

 

[Lord Aphrodite]

I’ll start off my complaint with a little bit of exposition so y’all can see what I mean.

So the RP was about a famous male explorer and a wealthy female noble, both from Britain. The two are on a cruise of sorts, and the boat shipwrecks on a island, leaving them to be the only two survivors.

This RP was set in the early 1880’s by the way.

In Britain at the time, men were manly and proper, but they were also bigoted, racist and sexist. It was normal and commonplace. Women were tame, polite, and submissive.

So I’m writing my character, going along in the RP, playing a bigoted, racist, and sexist British man from the 1880’s. I wasn’t doing it too much, y’know, just enough to get my character right.

My character said the following while he was lifting a 150+ pound cedar chest by himself off the ship. I got a complaint OOC for this.

“Let me get this, it’s much too heavy for a delicate woman like you.”

What part of that is out of character? I don’t know. Is it rude and demeaning? Yes. But is it out of character for the time period? No. That is something that a character would say in that time period.

What I’m trying to say, is that my pet peeve is when people complain about my characters being accurate for the RP that we’re in, because they’re unwilling to do the necessary research for the role play.

I ended up leaving that RP, which is a shame, because I liked that RP and my character.

 

[FlyingDemon]

The term, 'literate'. We're all literate, whether some of us can't form difficult synonyms or spell basic words we're all literate roleplayers. Toss that term away.

I agree, besides, many of us can write and read, so.. i don't see the point of that word, it's pretentious..

also a thing i can't stand, is when someone, just because i'm french, play with lots of stereotypes, i'm okay if it's fictionnal, but it's not funny at all, it's stupid and uneasy to do continue.. i don't live in the "hunchback of notre-dame" fantasy, it's more complicated than that.

 

[Tove]

I’ll start off my complaint with a little bit of exposition so y’all can see what I mean.

So the RP was about a famous male explorer and a wealthy female noble, both from Britain. The two are on a cruise of sorts, and the boat shipwrecks on a island, leaving them to be the only two survivors.

This RP was set in the early 1880’s by the way.

In Britain at the time, men were manly and proper, but they were also bigoted, racist and sexist. It was normal and commonplace. Women were tame, polite, and submissive.

So I’m writing my character, going along in the RP, playing a bigoted, racist, and sexist British man from the 1880’s. I wasn’t doing it too much, y’know, just enough to get my character right.

My character said the following while he was lifting a 150+ pound cedar chest by himself off the ship. I got a complaint OOC for this.

“Let me get this, it’s much too heavy for a delicate woman like you.”

What part of that is out of character? I don’t know. Is it rude and demeaning? Yes. But is it out of character for the time period? No. That is something that a character would say in that time period.

What I’m trying to say, is that my pet peeve is when people complain about my characters being accurate for the RP that we’re in, because they’re unwilling to do the necessary research for the role play.

I ended up leaving that RP, which is a shame, because I liked that RP and my character.

Sounds like the person took it too personally rather than go with the flow. I wouldn't have made a complaint at all of course in spite of the time period my character wouldn't just remain there all quiet and submissive. She probably would have told him to go ahead, lift it, it'll be a shame in your moment of manhood if you slipped and broke your back.

 

[SandraDeelightful]

The term, 'literate'. We're all literate, whether some of us can't form difficult synonyms or spell basic words we're all literate roleplayers. Toss that term away.

That's another one of my biggest pet peeves. None of us would be here if we weren't literate.

 

[Lord Aphrodite]

Sounds like the person took it too personally rather than go with the flow. I wouldn't have made a complaint at all of course in spite of the time period my character wouldn't just remain there all quiet and submissive. She probably would have told him to go ahead, lift it, it'll be a shame in your moment of manhood if you slipped and broke your back.

And I didn’t mean anything by it, personally. I was completely in character.

If it was real life, I would never say anything like that to a woman.

 

[SandraDeelightful]

I’ll start off my complaint with a little bit of exposition so y’all can see what I mean.

So the RP was about a famous male explorer and a wealthy female noble, both from Britain. The two are on a cruise of sorts, and the boat shipwrecks on a island, leaving them to be the only two survivors.

This RP was set in the early 1880’s by the way.

In Britain at the time, men were manly and proper, but they were also bigoted, racist and sexist. It was normal and commonplace. Women were tame, polite, and submissive.

So I’m writing my character, going along in the RP, playing a bigoted, racist, and sexist British man from the 1880’s. I wasn’t doing it too much, y’know, just enough to get my character right.

My character said the following while he was lifting a 150+ pound cedar chest by himself off the ship. I got a complaint OOC for this.

“Let me get this, it’s much too heavy for a delicate woman like you.”

What part of that is out of character? I don’t know. Is it rude and demeaning? Yes. But is it out of character for the time period? No. That is something that a character would say in that time period.

What I’m trying to say, is that my pet peeve is when people complain about my characters being accurate for the RP that we’re in, because they’re unwilling to do the necessary research for the role play.

I ended up leaving that RP, which is a shame, because I liked that RP and my character.

I partake in a lot of historical roleplays. I tend to make my characters accurate to the time period. Maybe a little ahead of their time, but still acting how ladies in the time acted. That doesn't mean that I approve of those things. Making a sexist character doesn't mean that you yourself are sexist.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I mostly agree. I've heard the "we're all literate" argument before, but I find it a bit pedantic.

Where I learned to RP, literate was used not to denote skill as a partner, but writing style. If you knew and obeyed all the grammar rules, wrote clearly, didn't have issues mixing up words like there/their/they're, you're semi-lit/lit. Illiterate roleplayers are those who don't follow proper grammar rules. Being able to write a proper sentence is an issue of literacy, even by non-RP definitions.

We called people who write multiple paragraphs, follow typical RP conventions, give thoughtful interactions, and contribute to the plot semi-advanced/advanced. I guess you have a slightly different vernacular here?

Yep here it's broken into

Simple : your most easy going roleplays where no one much fusses over grammar, post length, character creation, etc. i suppose the equivalent of illiterate
Casual : you have progressed beyond simple but aren't at detailed yet. you can write about a paragraph, have a decent grasp of grammar but still make mistakes, you've started working on world building, plot, etc. i suppose semi-lit to lit?
Detailed : You can write at least three paragraphs ( although that length varies ), you have a good grasp of grammar, you are good at world building, plot creation, character creation, etc.

Simple no one uses anymore. Casual can vary slightly on definition but is mostly ( well written not detailed ) and detailed is pretty consistently defined as above.

 

[Tove]

And I didn’t mean anything by it, personally. I was completely in character.

If it was real life, I would never say anything like that to a woman.

Unfortunately some take it personally instead of in stride because it is a roleplay not real life.

 

[Lord Aphrodite]

Making a sexist character doesn't mean that you yourself are sexist.

Exactly my point.