Other Roleplay Pet peeves

[Miaow]

When you're eagerly awaiting a reply, get a notification, and it's the RPN newsletter djskjds

 

[Perpetual Zen]

mostly my own pet peeve is like when I feel like I have something put together I'm so distracted to invest more more more and like zach in the try guys my cake ends up looking like a disco but tasting like a poor after party's dish soap

 

[Goonfire]

I've been seeing a lot of thread titles lately that are absolutely illegible. Normally, people simply use the universal Arial or whatever the default is on RPN... but it seems to be growing in popularity to use one's phone keyboard to get cursive or other styles of lettering that would take a decoder sheet to read.

To be perfectly honest, this is irritating. As someone who has been trained to write in cursive, I can tell when it doesn't look right. Certain lowercase letters in this jank phone cursive do not link to any other letter and end up being the size of a capital letter and having a different slant, further harming legibility. It may simply be the way it reads on my phone or on my PC, but in my opinion, it doesn't matter. When you are trying to attract people to your roleplays, you should strive for legibility and clarity for all users. Nothing takes away from user experience like being unable to even read the title.

 

[StuartAnderson]

I put up an advert that is clearly a MxM platonic friendship rp. throughout the advert, it was clear.

Someone messaged me

"Cant the 2 main characters be romantic?
Like M/F"

No, because that's clearly not the point of the roleplay. Why don't you reply to someone who's actually doing an MxF romance roleplay?

 

[nerdy tangents]

Also when people don’t even list that they want M/F romance in the first place. They just assume it’s implied.

Like if you do not directly tell me this is A.) romantic and B.) the type of romance you want I’m not gonna read your mind.

 

[StuartAnderson]

When people frame things in roleplay so you have to create all the story and they don't actually contribute anything
For example
"And they sat quietly and watched what would happen"
"They waited to hear what they would say"
"They listened in"

 

[Nu Epiq]

I guess not having my character be able to decide if they are in love/love another character. Like the other person doesn't really give me a choice in the matter. They've made a character for what seems like the sole purpose of having said character be in a romantic relationship whether I want it or not. Or their character does everything in their power to try to get the attention of my character. Kind of annoying.

 

[Perpetual Zen]

So, I don't generally have any pet peeves when it comes to role playing or the people I role play with. I've been rather blessed with the people I surround myself with. Although, again, I really value my time and integrity. So, my only pet peeve is, why are people so accepting of obnoxious behavior weighing you down when it comes to writing? My hugest pet peeve is people feeling obligated to continue their suffering to benefit a stranger. When in reality, how much does this person really impact, other than really validating some awesome creative feelings your having in the moment. Which really it's an awesome feeling but a human being has so much more value than that. I just wished people saw the value in themselves. I just wish people didn't have the need to like power play each other? You know? I do not tolerate bullies of any sort. I just don't. I also, can handle people swiftly and not feel guilty about it. In fact, still be on good terms with people, even after a disagreement. Air it out in the open. Be communicative. It's so easy! I mean I used to think it was soooo hard. But make it easier on yourselves everyone!

My hugest pet peeve. Are those who sincerely believe they are so superior to everyone around them it's embarrassing. I just really can't stand someone who can not humble themselves.
And my biggest pain is seeing people torture themselves, sincerely

That's my rant for the day

You are worth it and your creativity has value!

 

[nerdy tangents]

Perpetual Zen welcome to the wonderful world of anxiety.

That is why people put up with bad behavior. They are conflict avoidant due to anxiety.

I myself have generalized anxiety. I cannot handle conflict face to face, hell I can barely manage to talk to people on the phone. It feels awkward and uncomfortable even when the other person is just making small talk

Now I’m lucky in that written words don’t inspire the same sense of anxiety in me. So I can text, email, or roleplay without feeling uncomfortable or overly anxious about how other people are taking my words.

But that’s just me personally and I am well aware that anxiety is entirely irrational. So some people might find written words incredibly stressful but be fine talking face to face.


Now to circle back to pet peeves I do hate when people rag on others for ghosting. I get that it’s frustrating to have someone leave abruptly. It happens to me all the time.

I just think that making other people feel bad about it isn’t the way to fix the problem. You arent gonna make people more comfortable with talking to you by raising a stink about them not talking to you.

It makes the whole situation more stressful than it has to be for both parties.

 

[Steve Jobs]

When people have a a bunch of different symbols in their 1x1 request thread to denote interest level, plots, for a particular subjects/media. It's far more efficient to only show topics you're actually craving!

Also please tag threads appropriately. It's only common courtesy.

 

[gator]

When you're eagerly awaiting a reply, get a notification, and it's the RPN newsletter djskjds

"at everyone" #announcements energy

(Apologies to that user, I forgot about the @ system here. Pretty ironic given what we're talking about lel)

So I finally found a concrete example of something that's been bugging me for a while but I struggle to put into words. I call it "writing beyond your means". It's not exactly when you use words you don't know the meaning of, although that's a subset of it. It's more like, using words you're not completely familiar / comfortable with, or a word whose definition you only sort of half-understand - maybe you read it in a book once, didn't really get it, and never looked it up, because it didn't affect your understanding of the story that much. Don't worry, this example doesn't come from RPN. In fact, this isn't even from a roleplay, it's from a meta discussion about roleplaying and was being used as an example, so it's not even anyone's roleplay writing in particular.

I hold up my rod and I cast Divine Bolts! The electricity cooks his faculties in an instant, he is smitten into a smoldering corpse.

Why use the word "faculties", which is nonsensical here, instead of any other much simpler, more common word or words that would more effectively convey your meaning?

 

[Daisie]

Everyone #announcements energy

That poor user is never gonna stop being tagged

 

[gator]

I'm so dumb lol

 

[Daisie]

I'm so dumb lol

It's not just you, I've seen them literally be tagged on and off for the past 8 years

 

[gator]

We should send them a fruit basket

 

[Caroline1539]

I hold up my rod and I cast Divine Bolts! The electricity cooks his faculties in an instant, he is smitten into a smoldering corpse.

Why use the word "faculties", which is nonsensical here, instead of any other much simpler, more common word or words that would more effectively convey your meaning?

"Faculties" could make some sense, if the player was referring to like, the nervous system of the unfortunate soul specifically. What confuses me more is "smitten". Isn't that another word for feeling affection for another person? How does it make sense here? XD

 

[gator]

"Faculties" could make some sense, if the player was referring to like, the nervous system of the unfortunate soul specifically. What confuses me more is "smitten". Isn't that another word for feeling affection for another person? How does it make sense here? XD

I don't know enough about the tenses of "to smite" to know if it's right or wrong lol. WHICH IS WHY I WOULDN'T USE IT IN A SENTENCE

(you can smite someone and that would make sense here, but I don't know if the past tense would be smited, smote, or smitten)

 

[Daisie]

As someone who frequently utilizes convoluted phrasing in an offhanded manner

my feel-feels r hurt

 

[Aquanette]

People who play fandom that are sticklers for the canon except when it comes to their character specifically then all manner of things can be changed.

 

[webhead.]

I've played a lot of male characters recently, and while I've always been aware of this trope as a fandom doubler, it's only become so abundantly in my face as of late: the spineless heroine. She doesn't really have any personality outside of being "submissive" or whatever, and it shows in literally. Every. Aspect. These characters always have to be sooo petite and smol, the youngest in any given setting, can never have any dislikes or complicated fears or anything that offers any substance and complexity beyond being compliant and nice. That's all she ever is: nice. The rare instance where she's not, or does the impossible task of speaking the fuck up? Toothlessly defiant at most, and it's always, always, always "sticking up for her friends because she's such a good and selfless person" because God forbid she be a human being for once and have an ounce of selfishness in her body, God forbid she do anything remotely controversial, God forbid she causes any real conflict that isn't "people walk all over her because she's too nice and will only stick up for her friends, so her big tuff 6'8" 46 year old love interest has to come in and beat the shit out of them" 💀💀💀💀 God forbid she be a person. I don't think there's even anything wrong with a character who just is a nice person, but why do they have to be the most boring worm alive? Why can't they have any genuine desires, flaws and motivations? Even the fears are so generic. "She's scared of being murdered, kidnapped or sexually assaulted," yeah no shit, I think everyone is. Groundbreaking stuff, truly. And of course there's not going to be deeper reason for these that might make them the slightest bit unique or give us a reason to why these were specified.
I see this trope less commonly with men, I think the one I encounter most with them is the wannabe badass. Yeah, dude, it's really cool how you don't have any interests or reactions or desire to be around anyone at all, what the fuck are you here for? Go home then. There's never a reason for them to stay around, they just want you to chase their mysterious little loner because he's so fuckin' cool, allegedly.

The problem is only partially in these tropes, because it's what I've encountered the most lately, and it's so extremely lazy, but the root lies in lack of character depth. It can apply to any trope at all, either of these ones can be executed well if people would just put an extra few neurons in to... generate... an idea??? Please. I could train an AI with every one of "BookTok's" romance recommendation and get the exact same results.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Feels like wish fulfillment, like I had someone years ago actually ask me about this.

They essentially wanted my character to do everything so that their character could be pampered and not have to think. I was like look if you want that in real life more power to you.

But roleplaying is not the medium to explore that because your essentially asking your partner to take on all your emotional labor. Which again in real life in an actual relationship is fine.

Over the internet with a stranger is honestly kind of weird.

Like I’m not here to be your unpaid therapist or your psuedo romantic partner. I’m here to write a story.

Which means I would like you to pull your weight and also contribute to the story please.

 

[webhead.]

Yeah, it’s pretty clearly that. It’s worse that most of these people [who are trying to play these characters against mine] want borderline abusive scenarios, if not straight up domestic abuse. The most recent was where she kept heavily implying that my character was supposed to be misogynistic toward hers, and hate her solely on the basis that she was a woman in the military… literally why would you ever want this 💀 so I’m like, nah, his mom was actually a highly decorated Commander in the military, he’s got tons of respect for woman soldiers. He doesn’t like yours because she’s incompetent and weak-willed.

That’s another thing, when people have “plot ideas” but it’s clear that I’m just filling a strongly determined role. Am I playing your OC now? Why are you telling me my character’s motivations?

 

[nerdy tangents]

Yeah I just want to tell those types of people : there is a massive genre of books you can read for this.

You don’t have to make a stranger on the internet write your fantasy for free. You can just go to your local library, browse through the romance and erotica section and pick your poison.

Honestly you would probably be happier that way because then you get exactly the story you want without having to worry other people wanting to flesh out their own character independent of your fantasy.

 

[comfortable]

Being completely ghosted by a GM, after I put hard work into an application. At the very least tell me I'm rejected, I don't need an explanation nor will I ask you for one.

 

[lurantis]

hate when i have so many ideas and want to write but then when it's ACTUALLY time to write, i struggle with stringing more than 2 words together... it's so annoying