Other Roleplay Pet peeves

[faaye]

putting so much effort in a character and being super excited to show it to your roleplay partner, only to get "they look good. i like them" back as feedback. pls give me MORE. i want to hear your thoughts and opinions on them. is there anything that piqued your interest ? something that surprised you ? or perhaps something you were expecting ? do you have any questions or is there anything i need to clarify ?? i find feedback so important. :")

 

[overitandie]

when people can't accept the "I don't think our rp styles and preferences match", and get upset about that.

also, when minors who are months away from turning 18 become pushy because they're "basically 18" or ask for you to wait.... no. nope.

 

[Keeperoftheghosts]

When people just spring romance on you out of nowhere. I have no problem with playing your OC's love interest, that doesn't mean I want a love interest for mine. Especially in the Creepypasta Fandom. Or MHA. I put so much effort into my go to OCs and have often tines been working on them for years. Don't reduce them down to a relationship that you want that you didn't even mention to me OOC, especially when said character either cannot or does not want romance.

Similarly saying how my character feels about something your character did.

Bringing OP characters into a setting that has a major theme of a.) Struggling under dogs and b.) Any sort of power has major drawbacks. OP characters in general but especially in those.

Metagaming.

 

[Corrosion]

Idk why, but using real people as face claims, especially gifs, makes me irrationally angry.

 

[Kaiju Cat]

Idk why, but using real people as face claims, especially gifs, makes me irrationally angry.

Oh yeah I hate it too it’s weird I hate it because it doesn’t fit what I have in mind for my characters.

 

[meowchirp]

I think my pet peeve is when people make a character too nice, even when they shouldn't be. It's one thing if they've built the character in that way, like said in the personality "They're way too nice and get taken advantage of" but if there's nothing like that, I don't get it. I guess it's probably out of fear of not wanting to upset the player of the other character, but as someone who plays evil characters sometimes I really don't mind dealing with the IC consequences and in fact I want to see them be defeated or otherwise fail. I understand not everyone likes RPing big conflicts and IC drama, but sometimes it feels unrealistic like bro that guy just burned down ur house and you forgive him that quickly? xD

I don't mind stories about forgiveness at all and think they can be really engaging and interesting. But I think part of what makes them so engaging is when the forgiveness is actually earned.

 

[nerdy tangents]

I think my pet peeve is when people make a character too nice, even when they shouldn't be. It's one thing if they've built the character in that way, like said in the personality "They're way too nice and get taken advantage of" but if there's nothing like that, I don't get it. I guess it's probably out of fear of not wanting to upset the player of the other character, but as someone who plays evil characters sometimes I really don't mind dealing with the IC consequences and in fact I want to see them be defeated or otherwise fail. I understand not everyone likes RPing big conflicts and IC drama, but sometimes it feels unrealistic like bro that guy just burned down ur house and you forgive him that quickly? xD

I don't mind stories about forgiveness at all and think they can be really engaging and interesting. But I think part of what makes them so engaging is when the forgiveness is actually earned.

Unfortunately that’s actually pretty realistic. My mom is nice to a fault, and I do mean that literally.

She is nice to the point of getting taken advantage of because she has a hard time saying no to people.

The thing is she is fully unaware of that, you can explicitly say it to her face using examples and she still won’t get it.

So I think a lot of times this boils down to people who are too nice in real life writing characters with their own value systems.

For that matter people IRL forgive others for doing evil shit to them all the time. It’s not in any way a good thing but it is perfectly in character for this particular personality type.

So I would say this is more a case of art imitating life in a way that your really not going to be able to change.

If they haven’t figured out there should be a limit to niceness on their own, roleplay is unlikely to be the place where they learn that lesson.

---

To be clear this is not me taking a dig at people like this. I do understand that some people have a hard time with boundaries and that’s totally fine.

Just wanted to give some insight into WHY people make characters like this.

Although I will say I do get the frustration meowchirp . It really can be an annoying personality trait. Even if the other person doesn’t intend it to be.

 

[PrecisGirl]

Pet peeves of mine:

1. The need for face claims. I don't care if you have one, but I really hate having to go find one for myself.

2. Submitting a writing sample to prove that I'm good enough. I see why it can be important, but I play best off of someone else, and submitting a writing sample of an RP with someone else feels to me like an invasion of privacy. As such, my samples are going to be fairly bad, or at least uninspired.

3. Reading through some of the comments in a lot of threads really makes me self conscious and causes me to lose motivation and confidence. I feel self conscious enough when it's just us, but the idea of seeing something I did that someone else wants to complain about to the general public really bothers me. (May need to get rid of this one, since it's not directly related to RP)

4. Person problem here, I'm not a big fan of fandoms unless we're just playing in the general world. I don't like trying to force myself into a character that's not mine. I don't feel that I have the necessary chops to play someone else's predetermined character.

 

[Ploegy]

When you write up a reply for someone and they end up ignoring 99% of it and making a vague interaction with what you wrote, sometimes completely ignoring an important interaction you implied in your own post

Or another thing I've had happen recently, my character suddenly being moved to a spot which doesn't make sense despite me clearly writing where they are, but my partner deciding that was not the location where they were. Like it's one thing if it's naturally done or a skip to a new location was agreed upon in OOC talk, but don't just decide where my character "needs" to be

 

[Cogwork]

Slightly hot take but it annoys me when people ban others from using AI generated face claims due to ethical concerns while still allowing (or even encouraging) straight up stealing other people's art and or photos.

Not that I'm saying that AI art isn't unethical, but the alternative isn't much better.

 

[kawaiiyote]

Slightly hot take but it annoys me when people ban others from using AI generated face claims due to ethical concerns while still allowing (or even encouraging) straight up stealing other people's art and or photos.

Not that I'm saying that AI art isn't unethical, but the alternative isn't much better.

searing hot take: if i had purchased (i have, actually) or created art of my character, i wouldn't like others using that art to represent their characters. ai art is absolutely controversial and for very good reason, but i'm in agreement: the alternative isn't better. i think it's worse.

 

[blackravenbird]

When you see someone online but they don’t reply to you or give you a reason as to why they are ignoring you!

 

[GrumpySwallow]

Players desiring character interactions, but neither making an effort nor offering ideas of their own to set up the scene, or if the interaction does happen it is completely one-sided toward their own character and gives nothing in return to the other PCs.

For example, years ago while RPing in a MMORPG another player wanted an interaction with my PC. The scene ended up being the other character annoying my PC, destroying their stuff, and refusing to leave their house. They avoided every attempt by my PC to get them to stop bothering them. They kept pestering me for more RP scenes together, but this was all they wanted to do. What do I get out of this? How does my character develop from this? It's just the other person's character being oh-so-quirky while I am annoyed OOCly and ICly. This may have been fun for the other person, but it wasn't fun for me.

What is also incredibly annoying and makes me not want to plan scenes with folks in the future is when the player is being offered the interaction they want through an IC post, but they have their character leave the scene rather than engage in it.

I know that most of the time this isn't done out of malice, just ignorance, but it doesn't make it any less of a problem. Always be mindful that RP is a collaborative effort and that no one is rooting for your character more than yourself. No one is more excited about talking about your character than yourself. Before posting a response to a RP, reread it as though you are another player. Does your post involve other PCs in the scene and is there a "hook" they can latch onto to make a proper response, or is it entirely focused on your own PC? If it's the latter, you may need to revise your post. If you want an interaction, you have to be considerate of the other players, it can't just be about you and your own PC.

I'm not saying one can never put a ton of focus on their own PCs in RP and in OOC, but it's much harder for other players to engage with you if you're too hyper-fixated on your own characters.

 

[ButterflyBlueLady]

Taking turns in posting, you still need to communicate what you want. This also doesn't mean you can just do what you want, your partner must also be comfortable with it. Then trying to force a schedule on me and turning RP into nothing but a chore, it's fun and casual.

Being treated like a virtual NSFW doll. Seriously, if you need it that bad go use an AI, I aint it.

Not compromising and blaming the other person because you lack self awareness.

Punishing the partner because you can't get your way because I am uncomfortable doing something.

Trying to change my OC because they either don't feel like the design is hot enough or just really don't like the character is slightly stronger than their canon character.(I've only experienced this issue with male RPers.)

Telling me my OC is OP when you make a loaded OC, with offensive, defensive, healing, and can even bring itself back from the dead. And trying to excuse that OP OC with, "It's not OP, just strong. And I added a weakness to him." (I didn't actually have a problem with it, it wasn't a big deal to me but it's the way they made a big deal out of my character when their own was far more loaded and they saw no issue.)

Saying you'll stay in character, but then inferred things about the characters that are so OOC they would literally never do to begin with. Let alone to help your ship get together.

Telling me my character concept makes no sense and is overly complicated. (It's fairly basic imo.) Then proceed to essentially deliver a 12 page fanfic idea for what you want to do with your favorite ship, then have an actual tantrum when I want to cut the NSFW piece.

Claiming your post needs to be NSFW for a deeper meaning and connection to develop. Also, claiming it will lengthen your interaction. Bro, if you can't do any of these things without making it NSFW, that really says a lot about you.

 

[Mysha]

Trying to slide in kinks/fetishes into SFW RPs without asking/explaining to your partner that these are indeed kinks, and treating it as just a normal part of the plot in hopes the other person won't notice. I believe this is called fetish-mining, and an adult man did it repeatedly to me at my very first RP board where he KNEW was a minor. I picked up that he worked this very specific thing into threads over and over and treated it as a good, enjoyable thing instead of horrific like it would realistically be, but I didn't understand til years later that this is a kink, and a pretty large one. I threaded with him a lot because even though I found this annoying, he was still one of the best writers there (which, in retrospect, is not saying much) and it makes me so angry that he took advantage of my naivete to keep getting his rocks off. IDK if people think this is ok with fetishes that are technically not really sexual at all unless you're into it and wouldn't register as such to most folks, but it's NOT. Informed consent, people!! And again, this ADULT old enough to be my dad at the time knew full well that I was a teen and that he was at an all-ages board. Absolutely disgusting and I still get angry thinking about it even though I'm twice the age now that I was then.

Some more things I've run into:

- People trying use science/magic/etc in RP to "fix" things like disability or being trans. Happened a lot with my first trans character. Like, I'm glad that she's so compelling and well-liked everyone wants to change her into a cis girl because it would make her happy, but if I wanted her to be a cis character I'd have made her one in the first place.

- Thread "starters" in places that it would be difficult or even impossible for another character to be. For instance, in one server set at a college, someone made an "open" of their character going home and walking in. No one played any of his relatives, we all wrote other students and professors at the college, so I'm baffled as to how he expected anyone to respond. Why would they be in his house???

- When people expect grumpy or cantankerous characters to just suddenly melt for their character. Look, not every brooding stoic nasty jerk is hiding a ray of sunshine inside, and even if they are, it's NOT going to come out IMMEDIATELY just because your character was nice to them in the first post or two. Bonus points if they get all whiny OOC about it. Um, I never told you that my guy was anything BUT an evil old curmudgeon, and he certainly does NOT have a softer side, and it's not my fault you decided he did just because you want it.

- People assuming that two characters being gay or bi means they'll be into each other. Yes, my dude is bi, but your dude is not his type physically at all. Yes, my lady here is a lesbian, but everything about your lady's personality and behavior is repulsive to her. They're not gonna hook up, please stop trying to force it on me when I've said as much OOC already.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Honestly I always get skeeved out when people try to make roleplays sexual. Like I just don’t get the appeal of writing smut with another person.

I can see writing smutty fanfic or whatever but why would you want to bring another person into the process?

Idk maybe it’s my asexual brain just not computing something that allosexuals get but to me it just reads as creepy.

 

[ButterflyBlueLady]

Oh I almost forgot this one

Wanting to restart EVERYTHING because you're not getting your way, and then going back to delete your responses in an active post to force your way. That's not only controlling as hell but super immature.

Then blaming me when I drop you as a partner. No honey, you got dropped because you can't RP with other's and need to be writing by yourself.

 

[ButterflyBlueLady]

And I've got another!

Creating starter's or responses in general that your partner cannot reply to.

Example: This happened a lot with my first partner, the worst incident in which I can remember was when we had discussed getting two characters together. We even discussed setting and how it would happen. He created this MASSIVE starter that broke the discord word count. It was multiple of his characters fighting each other, basically a fanfic. When he ended the starter, it was with his two characters staring each other down. It wasn't even the two characters we had agreed would be interacting with my character. My character was in a dungeon waiting to play a game in which two of his would have to race to get to the finish line. She wasn't ever going to leave the dungeon till claimed. (It's kind of like a video where you unlock a new companion at the end of the dungeon. We'd done it before, and he knew who the dungeon worked.)

I ended up pulling an ass response and completely cut and ignored if not everything he'd written in order to get back to what we had actually agreed on it, in some form of attempt to make it so that I could respond. I responded with the dungeon magically dragging in the two characters we discussed. My partner had not liked that and said I completely ignored everything he'd written. I told him he didn't even leave me a way to reply in the first place.

This would often happen, his characters would fight each other very often, and I think I was just meant to watch??? I did find great ways to commentate on the battles and keep my characters entertained with each other. But if felt like he was writing his fanfic, and I was being forced to write my own until our characters would interact with each other again. It was annoying.

 

[Kaiju Cat]

They made the entire group role play about their oc. I won’t have had a problem if their character wasn’t so stupid or clearly just there to be shipped by the character who is canon to be asexual. Nothing the OC did made much sense.

 

[GrumpySwallow]

“The wizard attacks by putting a hex on the paladin.”

And that’s it.

What is anyone supposed to do with this? What was the hex that the wizard cast onto the paladin? Did the pally turn into a frog? Did he sprout a second head? Did he get a really bad case of acne? Please explain, player! Explain!

 

[Kaiju Cat]

Lifting a scene from an anime about magic girls but poorly incorporate it into another that has no magic but heavy science is just laughable.

 

[ButterflyBlueLady]

And another, damn I got a lot

Characters not asking questions about one another because you yourself read the info and don't feel it's necessary to ask.

Not using our characters to ask one another questions lessens the interactions, they just met, they should get to know one another, please. I also don't like being the only one to prompt questions. Even IRL when you talk to someone, don't you ask questions about the person you want to get to know? Apply that to your characters instead of just looking at my character's info.

Another issue, blaming your partner for the post going the wrong direction when you were overly vague and then said nothing to me when you saw it going in the wrong direction. I am not a mind reader, and no my brain does not think to go, "hey is this alright?" with EVERY reply, especially when we are actively talking in PMs. If you have a problem, say something, speak up. Your partners are not mind readers!

 

[Kaiju Cat]

Using a canon character to basically be a mouth piece for your fave ship is just.. wild and very ooc.

 

[Nu Epiq]

“The wizard attacks by putting a hex on the paladin.”

And that’s it.

What is anyone supposed to do with this? What was the hex that the wizard cast onto the paladin? Did the pally turn into a frog? Did he sprout a second head? Did he get a really bad case of acne? Please explain, player! Explain!

Is this a response you received?

 

[Kaiju Cat]

I dislike having to carry scenes on my own I wouldn’t mind for one post it became quite clear they aren’t going to contribute after three posts.