JokerValentine
We Out
Character has a tragic / dramatic backstory
"I'm a loner"
fandom-inspired OCs
"I'm a loner"
fandom-inspired OCs
RP clichés?
- Thread starter DemetrioMachete
- Start date
Idea
The Pun Tyrant
you mean as in practically copy-pasted, right?JokerValentine said:
JokerValentine
We Out
Yeah. And when it isn't in a Fandom-based RP.Idea said:
Kylesar1
This is my loudest bork
The lone survivor or the Dead Loved ones cliche. And I'm not talking about 1 or 2. I'm talking every person in their family or in their village/city dead, and somehow the cosmos left that one person alive. This is typically in Fantasy and some fandoms
I remember being in a RP where my character's wife died from a curse. His parents were alive (though not mentioned) and his 2 kids were alive, and that's really what helped him get over his dead wife. As a result, it didn't really affect his personality that much in the end, as he showed heavy protectiveness and love for the kids, as a father should.
Most others had advanced loneliness, depression or PTSD as ALL of them (and I literally mean all in this certain RP) had all their loved ones killed. Like damn, is family overrated nowadays? Is everyone just emo now? Is a normal life or relatively normal life too much to ask? Does your entire family have to die so they can have a reason to fight? My character fought for money so the kids can learn magic from good tutors
This isn't some superiority rant, and I did this a few times myself, but then I saw how a lot of others did the same. It's just weird to me now.
I remember being in a RP where my character's wife died from a curse. His parents were alive (though not mentioned) and his 2 kids were alive, and that's really what helped him get over his dead wife. As a result, it didn't really affect his personality that much in the end, as he showed heavy protectiveness and love for the kids, as a father should.
Most others had advanced loneliness, depression or PTSD as ALL of them (and I literally mean all in this certain RP) had all their loved ones killed. Like damn, is family overrated nowadays? Is everyone just emo now? Is a normal life or relatively normal life too much to ask? Does your entire family have to die so they can have a reason to fight? My character fought for money so the kids can learn magic from good tutors
This isn't some superiority rant, and I did this a few times myself, but then I saw how a lot of others did the same. It's just weird to me now.
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Kylesar1
This is my loudest bork
Let me do another one
The weak guards cliche- For some reason, the guards who have to protect the KING, thus implied to have SOME level of physical and magic training..........probably the best, are enemies in Dynasty Warriors. I mean, a group of 3 or 4 get through the entire castle unscathed
The weak guards cliche- For some reason, the guards who have to protect the KING, thus implied to have SOME level of physical and magic training..........probably the best, are enemies in Dynasty Warriors. I mean, a group of 3 or 4 get through the entire castle unscathed
Aldrich
#%
Loners. What's the point of doing collaborative writing if your character is a loner? Write a book instead.
Myxyzptlk
In hoc, signo vinces
I believe someone stated something similar to this, I adore roleplaying as villains but I end up having to deal with an array of other heros, I normally try to take them on individually but when they gang up it leads to me getting Ex-Machina'd out of being able to do anything. Take for example I'm going to drive a dagger in a heros heart and kill him off in an empty desert, He then out of nowhere is saved by one of the other fifty heros who wasn't there in the firstplace.
Idea
The Pun Tyrant
The character being a loner isn´t that big of a deal, though I agree it is a cliché. I mean, just cause the character may be a loner by nature doesn´t mean there won´t be interaction or that there shouldn´t. A loner character can have soft spots or be forced into given situations where they have to interact, be that enemies, being stuck with the same problem to solve or having a character that acts as an intermediary and/or forces an interaction with said loner.Aldrich said:
SecretRock
The Leader of the Pantheon
I think they might have meant loner characters that try to get out of interaction, which I see a surprising amount of considering that this is a site where you have to interact to play. A lot of people I see with 'loner' characters end up being a hassle to play with because they make you chase their character around if you want to play with them.Idea said:
Idea
The Pun Tyrant
I know, hence me saying that I agree that it is a cliché. Just clarifying that just because a character is a loner that doesn´t automatically make them bad or unusable in RPs, even if the general case definitely shows that it is something you should only try to handle once you have honed your skills a little.SecretRock said:
Blaire Wisteria
Forever DM
1. People whose number one goal is to get into either you or your character's pants. This is a problem, and it is quite an irritating one, and it's one I've seen crop up in regards to friends as often as I have encountered it personally. It is creepy and suggests an unhealthiness that I would certainly prefer to avoid. Making less than subtle comments about one's character's womanly features to near-complete strangers is an action in poor taste and worse judgement; playing up the role of a annoyingly helpless damsel is not going to win any favors, either.
2. Characters that don't do anything. I hold in my heart a fondness for simple characters with complex psychologies--there are plenty of interesting people in this world that are mere humans, and don't rely on weird cross-species heritage or unusual powers to be deep and fascinating, since, of course, those things do not really exist. However, there are some folks that try so hard to subvert the trends that their characters are completely bland and boring, and do absolutely nothing to contribute to scenes. They are the polar opposite of the characters that attempt to do everything, and they are just as frustrating. This is, of course, sometimes simply a result of poor roleplaying skill, when a player wishes for all the fun to come to them rather than contributing to it themselves.
3. The "clichés are bad" assumption. I will admit that I often sigh and pass on by whenever I see another werewolf or vampire, but I firmly believe that any cliché can be done well, and that some of the best characters in the world are based on old concepts with which we are familiar. A cliché is often a wonderful base for a character and helps readers to get familiar with some aspect of them right away, instantly providing expectations that you are then free to weave, twist, subvert and play with in surprising manners that enrich their experience and further your own. I have found that characters that make an effort to be 'too unique' often come across as unorganized, clumsy and aimless. There is no shame in starting with a good cliché and making something new and exciting out of it!
4. Badly done magic-users. This is very specific to me, but I am sure others have similar feelings about other character archetypes. I cannot help but be extraordinarily disappointed when I encounter characters whose magical abilities have no effects on their minds or bodies, or who can do everything, or otherwise operate as though the magical ability was only tacked on. Magic is a wonderful and incredibly complicated, deep aspect of writing that positively brims with potential, and seeing it treated as an afterthought on so many characters makes me shed sad wizard tears. :'(
5. Petty limitations and arrogant rules. If someone has these on their character's profile, odds are that I won't want to roleplay with them, even if I 'qualify'. Certainly, it is easy enough to avoid these types of folks, but it still irks me, just a little, when I click on a profile and find lines upon lines of ugly snark, often baseless and unnecessary and seemingly put there just to make the player look "badass".
6. All mighty GM characters. I seriously hate it when the GM of a roleplay will have their character be the last of a super powerful god-like race that can't get hurt or die, while they try so hard to get the other PCs to get hurt or killed because they know they have their own race they made up to get saved by stupid plot-line bullshit.
7. The static characters who never learn and improve themselves (usually because the player thinks it's charming or cute to continually screw up), and also the putty characters who are suddenly EXACTLY whatever the player needs to unlock a problem one day and go back to not knowing anything about whatever they were an expert at yesterday. I feel characters should be written to travel along a smoothly rolling path, as affected by their story. The sub-category for this same problem will be people who play very old characters who have absolutely no skills. If your character is a bard, she's probably still had to heat up soup at some point. The man who has been at war for the past thousand years probably knows how to darn a sock. It takes about 20 years to get really good at something - just as it's annoying to find 15 year old Experts In Everything, it's annoying to find immortal demigods who don't know ANYthing.
2. Characters that don't do anything. I hold in my heart a fondness for simple characters with complex psychologies--there are plenty of interesting people in this world that are mere humans, and don't rely on weird cross-species heritage or unusual powers to be deep and fascinating, since, of course, those things do not really exist. However, there are some folks that try so hard to subvert the trends that their characters are completely bland and boring, and do absolutely nothing to contribute to scenes. They are the polar opposite of the characters that attempt to do everything, and they are just as frustrating. This is, of course, sometimes simply a result of poor roleplaying skill, when a player wishes for all the fun to come to them rather than contributing to it themselves.
3. The "clichés are bad" assumption. I will admit that I often sigh and pass on by whenever I see another werewolf or vampire, but I firmly believe that any cliché can be done well, and that some of the best characters in the world are based on old concepts with which we are familiar. A cliché is often a wonderful base for a character and helps readers to get familiar with some aspect of them right away, instantly providing expectations that you are then free to weave, twist, subvert and play with in surprising manners that enrich their experience and further your own. I have found that characters that make an effort to be 'too unique' often come across as unorganized, clumsy and aimless. There is no shame in starting with a good cliché and making something new and exciting out of it!
4. Badly done magic-users. This is very specific to me, but I am sure others have similar feelings about other character archetypes. I cannot help but be extraordinarily disappointed when I encounter characters whose magical abilities have no effects on their minds or bodies, or who can do everything, or otherwise operate as though the magical ability was only tacked on. Magic is a wonderful and incredibly complicated, deep aspect of writing that positively brims with potential, and seeing it treated as an afterthought on so many characters makes me shed sad wizard tears. :'(
5. Petty limitations and arrogant rules. If someone has these on their character's profile, odds are that I won't want to roleplay with them, even if I 'qualify'. Certainly, it is easy enough to avoid these types of folks, but it still irks me, just a little, when I click on a profile and find lines upon lines of ugly snark, often baseless and unnecessary and seemingly put there just to make the player look "badass".
6. All mighty GM characters. I seriously hate it when the GM of a roleplay will have their character be the last of a super powerful god-like race that can't get hurt or die, while they try so hard to get the other PCs to get hurt or killed because they know they have their own race they made up to get saved by stupid plot-line bullshit.
7. The static characters who never learn and improve themselves (usually because the player thinks it's charming or cute to continually screw up), and also the putty characters who are suddenly EXACTLY whatever the player needs to unlock a problem one day and go back to not knowing anything about whatever they were an expert at yesterday. I feel characters should be written to travel along a smoothly rolling path, as affected by their story. The sub-category for this same problem will be people who play very old characters who have absolutely no skills. If your character is a bard, she's probably still had to heat up soup at some point. The man who has been at war for the past thousand years probably knows how to darn a sock. It takes about 20 years to get really good at something - just as it's annoying to find 15 year old Experts In Everything, it's annoying to find immortal demigods who don't know ANYthing.
Myxyzptlk
In hoc, signo vinces
[QUOTE="The Endergod]1. People whose number one goal is to get into either you or your character's pants. This is a problem, and it is quite an irritating one, and it's one I've seen crop up in regards to friends as often as I have encountered it personally. It is creepy and suggests an unhealthiness that I would certainly prefer to avoid. Making less than subtle comments about one's character's womanly features to near-complete strangers is an action in poor taste and worse judgement; playing up the role of a annoyingly helpless damsel is not going to win any favors, either.
2. Characters that don't do anything. I hold in my heart a fondness for simple characters with complex psychologies--there are plenty of interesting people in this world that are mere humans, and don't rely on weird cross-species heritage or unusual powers to be deep and fascinating, since, of course, those things do not really exist. However, there are some folks that try so hard to subvert the trends that their characters are completely bland and boring, and do absolutely nothing to contribute to scenes. They are the polar opposite of the characters that attempt to do everything, and they are just as frustrating. This is, of course, sometimes simply a result of poor roleplaying skill, when a player wishes for all the fun to come to them rather than contributing to it themselves.
3. The "clichés are bad" assumption. I will admit that I often sigh and pass on by whenever I see another werewolf or vampire, but I firmly believe that any cliché can be done well, and that some of the best characters in the world are based on old concepts with which we are familiar. A cliché is often a wonderful base for a character and helps readers to get familiar with some aspect of them right away, instantly providing expectations that you are then free to weave, twist, subvert and play with in surprising manners that enrich their experience and further your own. I have found that characters that make an effort to be 'too unique' often come across as unorganized, clumsy and aimless. There is no shame in starting with a good cliché and making something new and exciting out of it!
4. Badly done magic-users. This is very specific to me, but I am sure others have similar feelings about other character archetypes. I cannot help but be extraordinarily disappointed when I encounter characters whose magical abilities have no effects on their minds or bodies, or who can do everything, or otherwise operate as though the magical ability was only tacked on. Magic is a wonderful and incredibly complicated, deep aspect of writing that positively brims with potential, and seeing it treated as an afterthought on so many characters makes me shed sad wizard tears. :'(
5. Petty limitations and arrogant rules. If someone has these on their character's profile, odds are that I won't want to roleplay with them, even if I 'qualify'. Certainly, it is easy enough to avoid these types of folks, but it still irks me, just a little, when I click on a profile and find lines upon lines of ugly snark, often baseless and unnecessary and seemingly put there just to make the player look "badass".
6. All mighty GM characters. I seriously hate it when the GM of a roleplay will have their character be the last of a super powerful god-like race that can't get hurt or die, while they try so hard to get the other PCs to get hurt or killed because they know they have their own race they made up to get saved by stupid plot-line bullshit.
7. The static characters who never learn and improve themselves (usually because the player thinks it's charming or cute to continually screw up), and also the putty characters who are suddenly EXACTLY whatever the player needs to unlock a problem one day and go back to not knowing anything about whatever they were an expert at yesterday. I feel characters should be written to travel along a smoothly rolling path, as affected by their story. The sub-category for this same problem will be people who play very old characters who have absolutely no skills. If your character is a bard, she's probably still had to heat up soup at some point. The man who has been at war for the past thousand years probably knows how to darn a sock. It takes about 20 years to get really good at something - just as it's annoying to find 15 year old Experts In Everything, it's annoying to find immortal demigods who don't know ANYthing.
[/QUOTE]
I never knew people had the nerve to do the first thing, How could someone willing to type in something in relation to something sexual or willing to do sexual acts to another persons character even allowed in a roleplay?
2. Characters that don't do anything. I hold in my heart a fondness for simple characters with complex psychologies--there are plenty of interesting people in this world that are mere humans, and don't rely on weird cross-species heritage or unusual powers to be deep and fascinating, since, of course, those things do not really exist. However, there are some folks that try so hard to subvert the trends that their characters are completely bland and boring, and do absolutely nothing to contribute to scenes. They are the polar opposite of the characters that attempt to do everything, and they are just as frustrating. This is, of course, sometimes simply a result of poor roleplaying skill, when a player wishes for all the fun to come to them rather than contributing to it themselves.
3. The "clichés are bad" assumption. I will admit that I often sigh and pass on by whenever I see another werewolf or vampire, but I firmly believe that any cliché can be done well, and that some of the best characters in the world are based on old concepts with which we are familiar. A cliché is often a wonderful base for a character and helps readers to get familiar with some aspect of them right away, instantly providing expectations that you are then free to weave, twist, subvert and play with in surprising manners that enrich their experience and further your own. I have found that characters that make an effort to be 'too unique' often come across as unorganized, clumsy and aimless. There is no shame in starting with a good cliché and making something new and exciting out of it!
4. Badly done magic-users. This is very specific to me, but I am sure others have similar feelings about other character archetypes. I cannot help but be extraordinarily disappointed when I encounter characters whose magical abilities have no effects on their minds or bodies, or who can do everything, or otherwise operate as though the magical ability was only tacked on. Magic is a wonderful and incredibly complicated, deep aspect of writing that positively brims with potential, and seeing it treated as an afterthought on so many characters makes me shed sad wizard tears. :'(
5. Petty limitations and arrogant rules. If someone has these on their character's profile, odds are that I won't want to roleplay with them, even if I 'qualify'. Certainly, it is easy enough to avoid these types of folks, but it still irks me, just a little, when I click on a profile and find lines upon lines of ugly snark, often baseless and unnecessary and seemingly put there just to make the player look "badass".
6. All mighty GM characters. I seriously hate it when the GM of a roleplay will have their character be the last of a super powerful god-like race that can't get hurt or die, while they try so hard to get the other PCs to get hurt or killed because they know they have their own race they made up to get saved by stupid plot-line bullshit.
7. The static characters who never learn and improve themselves (usually because the player thinks it's charming or cute to continually screw up), and also the putty characters who are suddenly EXACTLY whatever the player needs to unlock a problem one day and go back to not knowing anything about whatever they were an expert at yesterday. I feel characters should be written to travel along a smoothly rolling path, as affected by their story. The sub-category for this same problem will be people who play very old characters who have absolutely no skills. If your character is a bard, she's probably still had to heat up soup at some point. The man who has been at war for the past thousand years probably knows how to darn a sock. It takes about 20 years to get really good at something - just as it's annoying to find 15 year old Experts In Everything, it's annoying to find immortal demigods who don't know ANYthing.
[/QUOTE]
I never knew people had the nerve to do the first thing, How could someone willing to type in something in relation to something sexual or willing to do sexual acts to another persons character even allowed in a roleplay?
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Idea
The Pun Tyrant
[QUOTE="The Endergod]3. The "clichés are bad" assumption. I will admit that I often sigh and pass on by whenever I see another werewolf or vampire, but I firmly believe that any cliché can be done well, and that some of the best characters in the world are based on old concepts with which we are familiar. A cliché is often a wonderful base for a character and helps readers to get familiar with some aspect of them right away, instantly providing expectations that you are then free to weave, twist, subvert and play with in surprising manners that enrich their experience and further your own. I have found that characters that make an effort to be 'too unique' often come across as unorganized, clumsy and aimless. There is no shame in starting with a good cliché and making something new and exciting out of it!
[/QUOTE]
I must say, this is very, very wrong. If used well, it´s not a cliché, by definition. You are confusing the notions of cliché and trope. The cliché is something that is so overused that it looses meaning. Given anything which is used well is not devoid of meaning, it is not a cliché, at that instance at least. The assumption that tropes are bad is wrong, in that I agree with you, however clichés being bad is a FACT, not an assumption.
[/QUOTE]
I must say, this is very, very wrong. If used well, it´s not a cliché, by definition. You are confusing the notions of cliché and trope. The cliché is something that is so overused that it looses meaning. Given anything which is used well is not devoid of meaning, it is not a cliché, at that instance at least. The assumption that tropes are bad is wrong, in that I agree with you, however clichés being bad is a FACT, not an assumption.
SecretRock
The Leader of the Pantheon
'a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.'Idea said:
^Dictionary definition of cliche. It just means that it's not original, but just because something isn't original doesn't mean that it can't be good.
Blaire Wisteria
Forever DM
It hasn't happened much at all on this site, but on an old site I used to go on, it could happen right out of nowhere and it would leave me speechless every time.Reznor said:
Ah yes, I seem to mix those up quite a lot.Idea said:
Idea
The Pun Tyrant
I don´t know what dictionary you got that from, cause I have three right here with me, and none of those says that. Besides, logically that couldn´t be the definition of cliché that we´re talking about here, since the things we´re discussing as being or not clichés are neither phrases nor opinions.SecretRock said:
Myxyzptlk
In hoc, signo vinces
[QUOTE="The Endergod]It hasn't happened much at all on this site, but on an old site I used to go on, it could happen right out of nowhere and it would leave me speechless every time.
Ah yes, I seem to mix those up quite a lot.
[/QUOTE]
I was about to say, the people on this site look like relatively good people.
Ah yes, I seem to mix those up quite a lot.
[/QUOTE]
I was about to say, the people on this site look like relatively good people.
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Blaire Wisteria
Forever DM
Oh yeah, everyone here is great, well except for those who are really young and inexperienced. Like there was once this 12 year old kid who didn't understand why the GM wouldn't let him use his half demon furry OC that was barely 5 sentences long and hidden away in his user profile on a detailed Sci-fi RP so he just cussed them out and berated them until everyone told him the F right off. But other than that one guy, everyone I've met here has been amazing, which is why I'm happy I found this site.Reznor said:
Myxyzptlk
In hoc, signo vinces
[QUOTE="The Endergod]Oh yeah, everyone here is great, well except for those who are really young and inexperienced. Like there was once this 12 year old kid who didn't understand why the GM wouldn't let him use his half demon furry OC that was barely 5 sentences long and hidden away in his user profile on a detailed Sci-fi RP so he just cussed them out and berated them until everyone told him the F right off. But other than that one guy, everyone I've met here has been amazing, which is why I'm happy I found this site.
[/QUOTE]
Ha! When was this?
[/QUOTE]
Ha! When was this?
JokerValentine
We Out
Honestly, my old community was probably the nastiest. It was common to "claim" that someone "stole" an RP idea. In a roleplay, one person "claimed" that her character was the only one that could have horns! Bullying was common too. I knew at least seven people who had been bullied off of the community. No mods either.Reznor said:
Blaire Wisteria
Forever DM
Not even a month ago, like it was an experience. He's still active on this site too. He's Fuzziestudios, I don't want to tag him and bring his tiny rage here.Reznor said:
Myxyzptlk
In hoc, signo vinces
I haven't been in a bad community before, I don't know what 4chan and Reddit are like either but I haven't been in many other forums.JokerValentine said:
JokerValentine
We Out
Surprisingly, it was Instagram. We all gotta start elsewhere.Reznor said:
Myxyzptlk
In hoc, signo vinces
[QUOTE="The Endergod]Not even a month ago, like it was an experience. He's still active on this site too. He's Fuzziestudios, I don't want to tag him and bring his tiny rage here.
[/QUOTE]
Could you message me the link to the thread?
[/QUOTE]
Could you message me the link to the thread?
JokerValentine
We Out
[QUOTE="The Endergod]Not even a month ago, like it was an experience. He's still active on this site too. He's Fuzziestudios, I don't want to tag him and bring his tiny rage here.
[/QUOTE]
I wouldn't hold stuff against him. I say we move on from discussing other site users. We all have our differences.
[/QUOTE]
I wouldn't hold stuff against him. I say we move on from discussing other site users. We all have our differences.
