Roleplay Pet Peeves

[Jannah]

Okay, I know I've answered this before, but I have a new one.

Group role plays where every character is a closet gay despite it not being a mxm focused role play.

Let me set the premise. A dysfunctional family role play, where a bunch of people play the siblings/parent, and others play the friends and neighbours of the family. Simple enough, right?

All the male characters are gay, all five of them. Which has left me and the other person playing a female character (who is my characters sister, so no chance of romance between them even if they weren't both straight) confused, as how are we meant to find a partner for our character if every male character is gay?

It was made clear that they wanted a mix of male and female characters with the idea that they could pair up and date, as they are all of high school age. That's not to say there couldn't be gay characters, but all of them? Really?

Also, we are allowed two characters each. If you want to have a gay main fine, but after seeing the four other gay characters and the two straight female ones, wouldn't it make sense to at least make a secondary character that had a chance of being paired with one of the two?

I know what this is like. On the site I came from nearly every character is Non-hetero in some way. Makes it extremely hard for the people like me who have mostly straight characters.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Okay, I know I've answered this before, but I have a new one.

Group role plays where every character is a closet gay despite it not being a mxm focused role play.

Let me set the premise. A dysfunctional family role play, where a bunch of people play the siblings/parent, and others play the friends and neighbours of the family. Simple enough, right?

All the male characters are gay, all five of them. Which has left me and the other person playing a female character (who is my characters sister, so no chance of romance between them even if they weren't both straight) confused, as how are we meant to find a partner for our character if every male character is gay?

It was made clear that they wanted a mix of male and female characters with the idea that they could pair up and date, as they are all of high school age. That's not to say there couldn't be gay characters, but all of them? Really?

Also, we are allowed two characters each. If you want to have a gay main fine, but after seeing the four other gay characters and the two straight female ones, wouldn't it make sense to at least make a secondary character that had a chance of being paired with one of the two?

That seems like a GM problem honestly. If you are making a pairing based roleplay than you need to have people apply with the intention of pairing up with an existing character.

Now the first two to three characters could be whatever. But after that anyone that wants to join has to list one of the existing characters as a potential partner.

Whether they actually get together is up to game play but at least starting with. - my characters crush will be character X - would nip this in the bud.

 

[rae2nerdy]

That said I always hated pairing based groups for similar reasons. It always devolved into basically a handful of 1x1s. The players would only talk to their friends OOC and they would basically just focus on their two characters getting together.

The worst example of this was a zoo roleplay where a mad scientist experimented on animals to turn them human.

We had a pairing that would literally do ERP in the middle of the group action. Like we’re all trying to do the standard character meet and greet and they have theirs having sex in the middle of a field.

And they only ever interacted with each other no one else. Like dude just make your own spin off roleplay and stop grossing everyone else out.

 

[PhoenixMire]

That said I always hated pairing based groups for similar reasons. It always devolved into basically a handful of 1x1s. The players would only talk to their friends OOC and they would basically just focus on their two characters getting together.

The worst example of this was a zoo roleplay where a mad scientist experimented on animals to turn them human.

We had a pairing that would literally do ERP in the middle of the group action. Like we’re all trying to do the standard character meet and greet and they have theirs having sex in the middle of a field.

And they only ever interacted with each other no one else. Like dude just make your own spin off roleplay and stop grossing everyone else out.

......Excuse me?
That... sounds awful in every feasible way. And nobody ever told them to go mind their own business? The GM never stepped in??

 

[rae2nerdy]

......Excuse me?
That... sounds awful in every feasible way. And nobody ever told them to go mind their own business? The GM never stepped in??

No I think they were like co-mods or at the very least friends of the GM so no one ever said anything about it. There wouldn't have been any point to it.

 

[PhoenixMire]

No I think they were like co-mods or at the very least friends of the GM so no one ever said anything about it. There wouldn't have been any point to it.

That's pretty depressing. I hate it when stuff like that happens in group RPs. That, along with a lot of other stuff, is why I gave up on groups.

 

[rae2nerdy]

That's pretty depressing. I hate it when stuff like that happens in group RPs. That, along with a lot of other stuff, is why I gave up on groups.

Same, I mean the idea was interesting but it's like all the drama killed it for me. Add to that the groups tend to move waaay too fast for me to keep up with and I just gave up. I am happy to keep roaming through the 1x1 section.

 

[Neidhardt]

When some people try to force a ship on you and even force details they came up with about your own character down your throat. I had this happen once with some vampire RP. Some students were vampires some were humans, that kind of thing. I was Rping a human and somebody who was RPing a vampire wanted to RP as my character's "long lost brother" and I was like, "Okay sure dude". They tried to force my character to join their vampire posse and they kept on begging my character to let them turn him into a vampire.

My character kept on refusing and got into many dangerous situations caused by his brother trying to "put him into danger so he'll change." Not only that but they were suddenly coming up with details about my guy's backstory without confirming it with me. I found out at this point that the other player was trying to get my character to join them in a three way m/m/m Rp with their character's boyfriend. Ignoring the fact my character was making human friends and was even starting a budding romance with a human female. So yeah he wasn't eager to change, and the RP devolved into my character's brother stalking him.

 

[rae2nerdy]

So something that has popped up recently is when people leave a planning conversation after like a single response. Now I don't mind if you ditch in the middle of a roleplay. Sometimes real life pops up and you don't want to offend someone. But if all we have said is "You wanna roleplay?" "Sure, here's my idea." Than it's not like I have any investment in the roleplay. But I would like a heads up that you're not interested just so I don't have PMs cluttering my inbox that aren't going anywhere.

 

[Bakuyoshi]

So a lot of these issues have been something I have noticed with RPs in general. This is an issue I have seen on here, in D&D and in a Stellaris based RP I do on Discord.


I've noticed there seems to be a lot more focus on pure combat in most things I have been in. D&D it has improved (though that is a system not fully meant for RP exclusively so I can at least give it a minor pass.)

But my issues came from these RPs where at first it came from the idea of the little people living in a world with gods that roam the world in the like. These people had no combat experience for the most part. And as the premise said it was not meant for there to be OP characters. But this one person did not get the memo and slowly started making the RP more and more combat oriented introducing a character named Demigoddess sharyn. Had a beast that she sicked on people and no matter what you could not touch it or her due to spacial magic, you are hitting her? Nah you just stabbed yourself. You complain about this whole deal as this character has killed off like a good amount of the playable characters. "Well make a character to fight her, not that you can."

And this sucks because I myself suck at RPing combat. When I am writing a story on my own it is fine. But once another person who's playing another character is when issues start popping up. For me I like the slower stuff (Again D&D is a huge exception to this) and it feels like slowly people just love combat to even care about character development. Just make an OP character and give them a cruddy personality and slowly have them dominate the RP.

 

[BackSet]

Whenever combat shows up my rps tend to die for some reason.

I don't known why.

 

[holli]

Whenever combat shows up my rps tend to die for some reason.

I don't known why.

i think a LOT of people either don’t like or don’t know HOW to write combat? i’m still friends with people that i wrote with when we were preteens, and none of us like writing combat any more than we did then. it is a necessary evil sometimes, which is why i DO write it regardless of if i like it if it’s for story progression purposes, but i’m sure there are people who just... do not want to, and WON’T. now, if they get into an rp where it’s plainly obvious, even stated, that there WILL be combat, esp a group rp... buddy idk what to tell ‘em that was their first mistake LMFAO

 

[BackSet]

i think a LOT of people either don’t like or don’t know HOW to write combat? i’m still friends with people that i wrote with when we were preteens, and none of us like writing combat any more than we did then. it is a necessary evil sometimes, which is why i DO write it regardless of if i like it if it’s for story progression purposes, but i’m sure there are people who just... do not want to, and WON’T. now, if they get into an rp where it’s plainly obvious, even stated, that there WILL be combat, esp a group rp... buddy idk what to tell ‘em that was their first mistake LMFAO

Makes sense. I, myself, hate writing combat, which is why I like animated shows and scripts as a medium and writing method. You can honestly just say "epic fight ensues" and let the animators have fun.

Ignoring that, I'll try my best at writing combat if I have to.

 

[Bakuyoshi]

I can write combat, but only if it is for a story I am writing. I am talented when I am alone in the fight scene. But on RPs when it involves other people... yeah I start sucking.

 

[AceQueen011502]

Oh, where do I even begin?
1. Too many white, straight, cis characters: I live for diversity amongst my OC’s and I expect that to be incorporated into the RP because news flash, not everyone in the world is straight and cis
2. Poor Grammar: Pretty self explanatory
3. Poor character development/ execution: Characters from the LGBTQ+ community but are misrepresented Ex. Character is Ace but the admin says they are sexually attracted to either or both genders
4. Perfect relationships: Relationships where everything is smooth sailing and everyone is happy all the time. Real relationships are not like that so don’t treat them as such
There’s many more but these are the biggest ones for me

 

[BackSet]

1. Too many white, straight, cis characters: I live for diversity amongst my OC’s and I expect that to be incorporated into the RP because news flash, not everyone in the world is straight and cis

That's askng for too much, as much as I hate to admit it. Try just aiming for skin color diversity first. Also, Straight Cis people make up a vast majority of the population. Most of those people are gonna play straight cis people if they're roleplaying and if they wanna do it, let them do it. It isn't that big of a problem really. It's the same trap as "I onky play female and I need you to play male" but instead it's "someone or everyone here needs to play a character who isn't straight/cis/white".

 

[Brea The Brave]

1. Too many white, straight, cis characters: I live for diversity amongst my OC’s and I expect that to be incorporated into the RP because news flash, not everyone in the world is straight and cis

I have to agree with BackSet , to be honest, it kind if sounds...a bit discriminatory.

 

[AceQueen011502]

Yes, the vast majority of humanity is white, straight, and cis but it never hurts to move away from that cookie cutter when creating a character. It’s good to have diversity in rps so not every single character in the rp are all of those things. Just recently I began exploring gender identity amongst my characters with the help of my trans male friend and to be frank, it isn’t that difficult to comprehend. (Seeing as I now have a Genderfluid character as well as a MTF character)
Also, it’s not discriminating against white, straight cis people
I have a few straight characters myself
I’m just saying that it’s fun to bring diversity into an RP

 

[Jannah]

Oh, where do I even begin?
1. Too many white, straight, cis characters: I live for diversity amongst my OC’s and I expect that to be incorporated into the RP because news flash, not everyone in the world is straight and cis

This is no different from casting a non-white person or vice versa in a show even though they don't fit the role simply to fill some invisible quota. Let people play whatever sorts of characters they want.

 

[Jannah]

Yes, the vast majority of humanity is white, straight, and cis but it never hurts to move away from that cookie cutter when creating a character. It’s good to have diversity in rps so not every single character in the rp are all of those things. Just recently I began exploring gender identity amongst my characters with the help of my trans male friend and to be frank, it isn’t that difficult to comprehend. (Seeing as I now have a Genderfluid character as well as a MTF character)
Also, it’s not discriminating against white, straight cis people
I have a few straight characters myself
I’m just saying that it’s fun to bring diversity into an RP

Problem with this kind of thinking is that eventually the RP's have no white cis characters. Trust me, it's that way on another site I'm on. It's actually nearly impossible to find relationships for my characters because most of mine are straight while all the others are gay.

 

[DapperCat]

Oh, where do I even begin?
1. Too many white, straight, cis characters: I live for diversity amongst my OC’s and I expect that to be incorporated into the RP because news flash, not everyone in the world is straight and cis
2. Poor Grammar: Pretty self explanatory

Problem with this kind of thinking is that eventually the RP's have no white cis characters. Trust me, it's that way on another site I'm on. It's actually nearly impossible to find relationships for my characters because most of mine are straight while all the others are gay.

I think I can agree to some degree with both sides, though I can't say I agree with expecting people to incorporate something like that. It's nice if there's diversity, but that's it. Personally I have characters of different skin colors / ethnicities / backgrounds, and their sexuality does differ. But I don't really focus on it. I like the diversity because I'm just OCD like that, but not really for another reason.

I can't really agree with thinking there's too much 'straight white' on this site. I've seen so many characters of so many types!

As for the side of the coin with everyone being gay? Man. Been there. And usually it was because it was women playing men or men playing women. Not always, but sheesh, usually the people focusing on that are my pet peeve, haha.


!!!! NOT people playing the other gender lol. Just people focusing on same sex relations just for 'amg hot.'

 

[Bakuyoshi]

Then the issue there is being comfortable with playing that. Me for example. I have played both male and female characters. But either way they had a preference towards women. I am uncomfortable playing a guy attracted to a guy. Why? It's a matter of the fact I myself cannot relate to it. And because of that I feel uncomfortable being asked to try a MxM type of relationship because I cannot see eye to eye with my own character. Which is a must for me to roleplay.

 

[Brea The Brave]

Yes, the vast majority of humanity is white, straight, and cis but it never hurts to move away from that cookie cutter when creating a character. It’s good to have diversity in rps so not every single character in the rp are all of those things. Just recently I began exploring gender identity amongst my characters with the help of my trans male friend and to be frank, it isn’t that difficult to comprehend. (Seeing as I now have a Genderfluid character as well as a MTF character)
Also, it’s not discriminating against white, straight cis people
I have a few straight characters myself
I’m just saying that it’s fun to bring diversity into an RP

Well, I never said you were but it kind of comes off that way especially when you use the term cookie cutter to describe them. You don't have to be a different gender or skin color to be interesting and quite honestly I don't really like the idea of gender and sexuality being used as a crutch to try a make your characters interesting (not saying that you are) but characters are much more than their gender and sexuality. I can play a guy every now and then. I can play a bisexual character and I have even played trans, but more times than not she's going to be a black cis female.

 

[BackSet]

I’m just saying that it’s fun to bring diversity into an RP

Fun for you, buddy. Fun for you.

Fun is sadly subjective.

 

[holli]

yeah, to be honest, i'm sort of inclined to agree. for context going forward, i am a lesbian in an interracial relationship. most every character i use for rp is bisexual in the interest of having super open options for who they might mesh with. otherwise, whatever else they might be varies. race, gender, religious beliefs, all of that can go in any direction. ultimately, those preferences are whatever; if you don't want to rp with straight/white/cis characters, that's your choice as someone dictating your own experience! but i don't think it has any type of reflection on someone's true intentions or worldview. i have a diverse arrangement of OCs, for the purpose of rp and otherwise, but i didn't make them that way so i could go down a list and check off different identities for diversity points. that just seems a little dehumanizing.