Viewpoint Type of Roleplays: Tired of Seeing? Want to see more of?

[Chimney Swift]

Alright I'll throw my takes into the ring. Warning: stupid opinions ahead.

I need less:
-Explicitly slice of life roleplays. Look, there's nothing wrong with this idea by itself, but it's not enough to sustain a full roleplay group in my humble opinion. It needs to be augmented with something to be really neat. For example, take like a military outpost slice-of-life: for the most part, there's gonna be a lot of downtime in between assignments so there's moments where slice of life elements can be worked in. That being said, there's still the "hours of boredom, minutes of terror" mentality where when something goes down, it goes down. I'm not against the genre, again, but I wanna see some shakeup. The Great Ganbatte (a group I'm in right now) is a good example of mixing slice of life with some actual entertaining showmanship. Good times.
-Romance. I did romance almost exclusively romance for like 2 years a while ago. It's done. I'm done. It has been done for a while. There's only so many ways that you can twist romance, and it's even more boring when it happens instantly. Still, to each their own.
-Overly fantastical fantasy magic settings. OK, this isn't gonna sit well with everybody, but personally I think "magic" as we like to think of it is kinda basic as hell. It's just boring. There's no stakes, there's artificial drama, and everybody has relatively unfair abilities that they leverage to Mary Sue themselves into awesomehood. Not a fan, though I may be biased from bad experiences.

What I want more of:
-SPACE SHIT! The universe is massive! Let's put stuff in it! Please! I always wanted to continue the TV show Firefly, but these groups never seem to last long. That or I'm just salty that my Interest Check dried up almost immediately. I'm still sad ;-;
-Grounded characters. By this I mean characters that are aware of their limitations. A while ago I was in some group and no matter how many times we gave this kid an opportunity, he always found some way to rules lawyer his way out of any character development. Being underpowered can be really interesting and fun! Give it a shot.
-Actual antagonists. I'm trying to take on this beast myself actually! Assuming "Of Seas and Sovereigns" comes back into form I will finally be the BBEG I always wanted to be! Give me motivations, actually solid logic, not-so-tragic backstories, wanting to watch the world burn, just someone interesting! I always feel sad when the villain has all the personality of a brick.

Au contraire, some of the longest-running and most active RPs on this site have been Slice Of Life.

Perhaps it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for those of us who enjoy it, it's definitely "enough".

 

[Serenata]

Less.
Any type of school roleplays. The whole teacher/student pairing and bonus ick if romance is involved.

Fandoms involving the usual MHA, Bleach, Naruto, Harry Potter, etc. Canons too.

Toxic romance.

More.
Original Ideas.

 

[SimplyNene]

Less: Teacher x Student,Slave x Master,Stalker x Victim(IM SORRY WHAT-???),Murderer x Victim(..........um so.....i dont want to know how it goes...),Abuser x Victim(ofc these exist.......), Peasent x God/King/Queen/Goddess or whateves (i just dont personally like them),Nurse x Patient........
Harry Potter(i love harry potter but cmon)
Popular Anime Rps(yall already know low key all i see in anime is mha,naruto, their good but like......theres more other animes..(IM A TRUE ANIME FAN but it does get annoying sometimes)
Rps set in Japan(Japan has a cool culture like honestly i love japan i'm black half asian i love learning abt asian culture but i feel like it should set in other countries too...or atleast not focus on anime and focus on idk japanese culture or urban legends i do anime rps a lot but the reason i do them is because my other rps dont get interest- and if i do a anime rp i get interest-(ive never done a group rp only 1 x 1 like none of my posts get interest but then we got "my hero academia fight (WHO CAN EAT A GLIZZY FASTER BAKUGO OR DEKU) literally i feel like if youre doing an anime rp you can try to include japanese culture (im currently working on making a roleplay that has both anime elements and both japanese folklore elements with some historic japan thrown in it (thank you geography class)
wholesome family rps

idk what to add

 

[Serenata]

Less: Teacher x Student,Slave x Master,Stalker x Victim(IM SORRY WHAT-???),Murderer x Victim(..........um so.....i dont want to know how it goes...),Abuser x Victim(ofc these exist.......), Peasent x God/King/Queen/Goddess or whateves (i just dont personally like them),Nurse x Patient........
Harry Potter(i love harry potter but cmon)
Popular Anime Rps(yall already know low key all i see in anime is mha,naruto, their good but like......theres more other animes..(IM A TRUE ANIME FAN but it does get annoying sometimes)


More:
wholesome family rps

idk what to add

Stalker x Victim. That's a first for me. That will go over real well in a story....

 

[SimplyNene]

Stalker x Victim. That's a first for me. That will go over real well in a story....

literally any rps that have "x Victim" is a no- i dont even know why people actually like murderer x victim....by victim does it mean the person the murderer killed like how will they fall in love-??????? like i feel like i need to rethink my life and wonder if humanity is okay.......

 

[Serenata]

literally any rps that have "x Victim" is a no- i dont even know why people actually like murderer x victim....by victim does it mean the person the murderer killed like how will they fall in love-??????? like i feel like i need to rethink my life and wonder if humanity is okay.......

I.....am deeply concerned if there's roleplays about a murderer x victim with romance involved.

 

[SimplyNene]

I.....am deeply concerned if there's roleplays about a murderer x victim with romance involved.

yep there is i honestly dont know why they're way worse than those yandere rps (anime girl is obsessed with an anime boy hahaha kawaii she murder girls to get his love so kawaii they fall in love).......i dont even know why murdering for love is thought as quirky.........only in anime...

 

[RitualDeadlyf]

I.....am deeply concerned if there's roleplays about a murderer x victim with romance involved.

I've actually seen a few of those with the stalkerxvictim. Not only is it just bad for the community but it sends red flags about the poster.

I suspect there is deep trauma involved, mental health issues, or ulterior motives (or all the above).

Obviously, people can create what they want but.... I kind of feel like mods should crack down on some of these things. Boundaries here, and safety could be an issue. But, that's just my opinion.

 

[xpstitch]

I'd like to see more people immediately bailing on an rp they don't want to do. The catch is that they do it and say it outright immediately instead of letting someone get invested at all and growing to hate their own cool ideas due to constantly getting ghosted.

 

[gator]

Warning!!

The following information is 100% subjective opinion. Viewer discretion is advised.

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(For the sake of my sanity I'm gonna stick to a "top 3" for each)

Need 'Fewer'

1. Isekai RP's
   
   - Isekai as a genre and an RP focus had what I consider their "hay day" back in the mid 2010's and have only dropped further and further in their appeal for me as the years have gone on. Getting me to join an Isekai RP today would require the GM to craft an actually original (gasp!) plot and storyline, not to mention the GM themselves would have to have a unique and non-generic or tropey character I could get behind the idea of supporting. These days every Isekai interest check looks and feels exactly like the next.​
2. School Slice Of Life
   
   - This is largely the same as Isekai RP's. The concept of a school slice of life is kinda fun for anime from time to time. Especially if it's a well-done comedy. If romance is there, it's usually best kept light and fun rather than a central plot point. But otherwise, this concept/genre really is tired and just needs time to remain out of the spotlight for a while so interest can be rekindled later if/when something that's actually unique and intriguing comes along.​
3. 'Angst' RP's
   
   - The basic definition of 'angst' is "a feeling of deep anxiety or dread." And although I don't mind a bit of angst here and there as a narrative tool, I've seen A LOT of RP's where "angst" seems to be considered a genre all its own, and is the sole focus of the RP itself. Sadly, basically every single RP I've ever lurked on that was "angst" focused (with maybe one exception many years ago) boiled down to the GM not understanding how to use it as a narrative tool and instead just relied on spamming "traumatic event" after traumatic event at the characters and players. Every single one of them eventually died because the other participants picked up on the fact that the GM had no actual plan for a story and got bored with having their characters go through the same crap over and over again just for the sake of "emotional turmoil."
   
   Lesson of the day: If you don't understand angst as a narrative tool and how to best utilize it for helping characters in their journey of development, I advise not trying to use it, or at least don't make it sole reason for your RP's existence.​

Need 'More'

1. Original Idea RP's
   
   - A lot of the golden age of roleplaying, at least to my memory as someone who started pre-2010, came from original RP ideas that were at best loosely based on the foundational concept(s) of a pre-existing piece of work rather than taking the bulk of the RP's design and plot/story from said work.
   
   For example, I remember an RP I joined in (I think) 2012 that was loosely inspired by Assassin's Creed. The foundational concept of "assassins vs templars" was taken as inspiration, and the GM created a story focused instead on the idea of Samurai vs Mongols in a "what if" scenario where the Samurai were in the position of the assassins as the freedom fighter faction, and the Mongols were in the position of the Templars as the world domination faction. The hidden blade was replaced by the "pocket Katana," which was basically a miniaturized Katana blade hidden either on the thigh beneath a flap of extra padding or armor which could be quick-drawn for clean kills at close range.
   
   That RP lasted about 1 year and reached almost 600 posts before it finally succumbed to the sands of time and life getting in the way. And while I can't remember what it was called, I never forgot the concept.
   
   I'd like to see more of this kind of thing happen where new and original ideas born off the foundational concepts of a piece of work are more common than copy-paste RP's which basically are just new paint jobs with a "create your own character" option attached to them.
   
   
2. Kaiju RP's
   
   - What? Why are you looking at me like that?... Okay, listen. I know a chibi Godzilla is my avatar. And I know how this looks. But in all seriousness I WISH I saw more Kaiju focused roleplays. It's a niche genre, to be sure. But I love it all the same and I really just wish there were more people out there willing to entertain the idea of Kaiju as a focal point of an RP.
   
   An idea I've had for a long time and tried many times (unsuccessfully) to find interest for was a post-apocalyptic RP where the Kaiju had driven humanity to the brink of extinction with maybe 100-200 people (at max) living in any given major city around the world who now eek out a meager existence in the shadow of these creatures which are now the top of the food chain. A new ecosystem has evolved in their shadow as well providing further dangers to evade/combat.
   
   
3. RP's with deep worldbuilding
   
   - Call me old fashioned. But I actually like RP's with deeper worldbuilding. Worlds where there's dozens of details about culture, language, tracking the passage of time, agriculture, architecture, politics, the whole shebang. Details like these, while time consuming for the GM to come up with and sometimes difficult for those who join to understand right away, really bring an extra sense of immersion and realism to the world itself which, for someone like me, is like falling into a little slice of heaven. When I know that I can dive into the world and explore all of those elements throughout the journey, I'm gonna stick around for the long haul. I'll be the last one to leave the RP and say "goodbye" to the GM when all's said and done.
   
   I just don't see this anymore, which makes me sad.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

- GojiBean

Do you prefer being the Kaiju, or fighting against / alongside them? Either way, if you're okay with dice, I'll run a game for you.