Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[Lorsh]

hmmm

i guess my rp unpopular opinion for this week is that i don’t really get why “gritty” rps have become so popular lately.

are you talking about 1x1 interest checks where they just mention "gritty", or actual RPs that are running?

 

[Cealen]

are you talking about 1x1 interest checks where they just mention "gritty", or actual RPs that are running?

hmm, i’m sorta just talking in general, so your answer is... yes? xD. but really, i was kinda referring to both. both are usually getting the “girtty” label attached to plots, anyways, even if it’s just an interest check for a plot or an actual plot getting rped.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

Gritty is kind of a general descriptor though. Lotta things that can count as that; most cyberpunk for example and quite a bit of fantasy especially if it's urban.

 

[Cealen]

Gritty is kind of a general descriptor though. Lotta things that can count as that; most cyberpunk for example and quite a bit of fantasy especially if it's urban.

oh, i agree with you! hence my “quotes” around “girtty”. i can’t describe it particularly in specifics because it comes in all various shapes and sizes, like you pointed out. i mean more like people who care about the “edginess” factor before all else in a rp. so while a cyberpunk rp is most likely definitely going to be “gritty”, it’s literally baked into it with that “-punk” label lol, but that shouldn’t be the only interesting thing it has going for it, i’d say. if your cyberpunk rp is only interesting because of how DARRRKKKK it is, i just feel ?? at it . hopefully made myself a bit more clear. it’s hard to talk about these things since they are very general terms like you said :^).

 

[Murdergurl]

hmmm

i guess my rp unpopular opinion for this week is that i don’t really get why “gritty” rps have become so popular lately. it seems like everyone and their mother wants to do a “dark”, “gritty” rp nowadays that’s all ~mature~. i have always been ok with dark themes in my rps, but i’m talking about people making it the main *focus* of the rp that IT’S DARK.....! it feels almost like a childish portrayal of what is “mature” honestly, usually featuring characters Doing The Drugs (TM) which is strangely glamorized half the time even if people are trying not to because they wanna show off how ~broken~ and ~troubled~ their character is.

I've seen what people consider "gritty" and "dark", and I can honestly say it's shrug-worthy. As you said, it's like a childish take on mature themes.
It's like, "OH, trigger warnings, you guys! There will be drugs and abuse and suicidal references..."

And I'm like, "So? That's your standard late night television programming. Big whoop."

At the risk of coming off as haughty, I just gotta say, most dark and gritty RP themes I've read are weaksauce as fuck.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

I think if you consciously attempt to be grimdark, people can see through it. Everything feels so clearly manipulated to be a certain flavour of edgy; the kind whose edges are dulled and not as cutting as one thinks from over-use and slicing into the same dull material over and over again.

All this means is that it's better to be gritty as a byproduct of a deeper artistic vision than merely attempting to fulfill an atmosphere or vibe for its own sake.

 

[Murdergurl]

I think if you consciously attempt to be grimdark, people can see through it. Everything feels so clearly manipulated to be a certain flavour of edgy; the kind whose edges are dulled and not as cutting as one thinks from over-use and slicing into the same dull material over and over again.

All this means is that it's better to be gritty as a byproduct of a deeper artistic vision than merely attempting to fulfill an atmosphere or vibe for its own sake.

I like there to be violence in my RPs, personally. But I don't paint it up to be anything more than a preference.
Assuming that your narrative is dark and hardcore comes off as really pretentious. Like, you just take for granted that your content is going to be shocking or something. Edgelord territory for sure.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

I like there to be violence in my RPs, personally. But I don't paint it up to be anything more than a preference.
Assuming that your narrative is dark and hardcore comes off as really pretentious. Like, you just take for granted that your content is going to be shocking or something. Edgelord territory for sure.

I think part of it is that it's easier to tell when someone is trying very hard to impress others. I don't think that's a bad thing per se; it's not wrong to push yourself and try to improve to be at a level you feel is beyond your compatriots. At the same time, I think some degree of absurd ambition, dissatisfaction, and genuine honesty usually reults in at the very least, a kind of gusto and honesty in execution you don't often see. A lot of great art was born from dissatisfaction with norms and striving to go further regardless of it being in good taste or not.

 

[Cealen]

I like there to be violence in my RPs, personally. But I don't paint it up to be anything more than a preference.
Assuming that your narrative is dark and hardcore comes off as really pretentious. Like, you just take for granted that your content is going to be shocking or something. Edgelord territory for sure.

you put what i was thinking into words :^). i just don’t like it when i see like “THIS RP IS MATURE ONLYYYY!! THE FAINT HEARTED CANNOT TOLERATE THIS RP!!!” preface to something it’s like. huh. what. and i just see a lot of people searching for this kinda content more and more, or sometimes i open up a rp thread and get hit with “warning: dark themes!!!” what does that even mean even lol. can you just say what it is exactly, because if you can’t... and you’re just saying it’s “dark!!!”... it’s a bit odd to me.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

you put what i was thinking into words :^). i just don’t like it when i see like “THIS RP IS MATURE ONLYYYY!! THE FAINT HEARTED CANNOT TOLERATE THIS RP!!!” preface to something it’s like. huh. what. and i just see a lot of people searching for this kinda content more and more, or sometimes i open up a rp thread and get hit with “warning: dark themes!!!” what does that even mean even lol. can you just say what it is exactly, because if you can’t... and you’re just saying it’s “dark!!!”... it’s a bit odd to me.

To be fair I think some subject matter kind of just comes with that as a built in feature like as we said earlier. I am running an RP that does touch on certain political ideas that could be interpreted as pretty touchy (much of it is inspired by Cold War era power games and even certain modern geopolitical conflicts along with both of their ideological underpinnings). At the same time, at that point it's a matter of who you end up with; some people get the gist of how these things work beyond the initial shock factor and honestly, some don't. In that sense, I guess it's not wrong to aim yourself towards a more "mature" crowd less so in the sense of being jaded and apathetic as much as I suppose being more well read and understanding of some of the real world basis for an RP's ideas.

 

[Murdergurl]

ChasmOfOrganicMatter
Oh, I'm not arguing over pushing the envelope. I just find it kind of annoying when people prop themselves up with their own accolades of how grim their own stuff is going to be. I prefer things be stated simply. To work off my previous example: stating that there will be drugs, abuse and suicide elements is fine. You just told me what it's about. Great. No problem.
But going on to tell people it is dark and shocking and triggering is like telling me what my own opinion should be. I know it might seem a bit petty, but it just sets me up to expect one thing and get something else that didn't live up to the hype.

 

[Murdergurl]

you put what i was thinking into words :^). i just don’t like it when i see like “THIS RP IS MATURE ONLYYYY!! THE FAINT HEARTED CANNOT TOLERATE THIS RP!!!” preface to something it’s like. huh. what. and i just see a lot of people searching for this kinda content more and more, or sometimes i open up a rp thread and get hit with “warning: dark themes!!!” what does that even mean even lol. can you just say what it is exactly, because if you can’t... and you’re just saying it’s “dark!!!”... it’s a bit odd to me.

exactly

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

ChasmOfOrganicMatter
Oh, I'm not arguing over pushing the envelope. I just find it kind of annoying when people prop themselves up with their own accolades of how grim their own stuff is going to be. I prefer things be stated simply. To work off my previous example: stating that there will be drugs, abuse and suicide elements is fine. You just told me what it's about. Great. No problem.
But going on to tell people it is dark and shocking and triggering is like telling me what my own opinion should be. I know it might seem a bit petty, but it just sets me up to expect one thing and get something else that didn't live up to the hype.

I think these people either learn fast to bring more to the table than just what's now very ordinary and mundane or they don't learn at all. There's not a lot of wiggle room between two extremes.

 

[Murdergurl]

I think these people either learn fast to bring more to the table than just what's now very ordinary and mundane or they don't learn at all. There's not a lot of wiggle room between two extremes.

taboos and shock culture are on a time limit. Elvis and the Beatles used to be controversial in the height of their time. Then we had Marilyn Manson come out in a corset on live TV in the 90's. And by nowadays standards, even that isn't a big deal anymore. My point being, is that what is shocking today, will be mundane tomorrow.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

taboos and shock culture are on a time limit. Elvis and the Beatles used to be controversial in the height of their time. Then we had Marilyn Manson come out in a corset in the 90's on live TV. And by nowadays standards, even that isn't a big deal anymore. My point being, is that what is shocking today, will be mundane tomorrow.

Exactly. It's my general belief that all shock tactics are doomed to failure 9/10 times because they simply become about the shock. Any kind of message, perspective, or anything to give it some spine and lasting power fades once the childish glee of surprising the adults in the rooms becomes simply drawing maybe a slight narrowing of their eyebrows at best.

 

[Murdergurl]

ChasmOfOrganicMatter
I guess to wrap up my contribution to this convo (before we digress too far from unpopular opinions), I will say that in order to shock me personally with your writing, you would have to be on another site. As the RPN TOS pretty much put a cap on any kind of subject matter, or subject extremity, that you'd need in order to accomplish that. And after enough of that "dark" stuff, I'd eventually get desensitized to it as well.

 

[Jannah]

I've seen what people consider "gritty" and "dark", and I can honestly say it's shrug-worthy. As you said, it's like a childish take on mature themes.
It's like, "OH, trigger warnings, you guys! There will be drugs and abuse and suicidal references..."

And I'm like, "So? That's your standard late night television programming. Big whoop."

At the risk of coming off as haughty, I just gotta say, most dark and gritty RP themes I've read are weaksauce as fuck.

I think different people just have different ideas about what is considered dark and gritty. Personally I do a lot of historical RP, often based around themes like war and genocide. Lots of political themes as well like revolution. I'd say that's where my ideas of dark and gritty lie.

 

[Murdergurl]

I think different people just have different ideas about what is considered dark and gritty. Personally I do a lot of historical RP, often based around themes like war and genocide. Lots of political themes as well like revolution. I'd say that's where my ideas of dark and gritty lie.

genocide is definitely a pretty heavy topic. And just about any backdrop of war basically guarantees some kind of bloodshed

 

[Jannah]

genocide is definitely a pretty heavy topic. And just about any backdrop of war basically guarantees some kind of bloodshed

Genocide doesn't come up often, but when it does...

 

[Daisie]

Yo! Let's try and stay on-topic

Unpopular RP opinions... hmmm...
Dunno how unpopular this is particularly, but I think it's fine to stay within your RP comfort zone, just so long as you're RPing with someone with that same preference. If you're comfortable with text speech and emojis in your roleplay, then go for it. If you only want to play a certain type of character, you do that. If you want to avoid buzzword topics like religion, politics, gender, sexuality, ect, then feel free to make whatever world you like.

A desire to improve, diversify, and experiment is generally considered a good thing, but if that's not your jam, it's all cool. It's only a hobby, and all that matters is that you and your partner are having fun.

 

[natsukashii]

Not sure if it's unpopular, but we'll see.

Personally, I'm a fan of the mindset that "no topic is off-limits". As writers, even if it's uncomfortable to talk about or highly triggering, I feel we should be able to address it in our writing. Of course, put warnings as needed. And of course, don't half-ass anything. If you're going to write about something, regardless if it's controversial, highly-sensitive, do your research. But at the same time -- and especially in modern settings where characters are more likely to encounter themes such as depression and all the implied thoughts and traumas that stem from it -- it's okay to mention such and such. I won't get specific here for obvious reasons.

But bottom line is that I don't like to skip over stuff that could tell a great story and/or that will give me a fantastic scene. Shows like Skins UK and Euphoria contain such scenes that I'm referencing. I am a lover of controversial topics. I feel writing these things out, while to most it might seem like it's counterproductive because you're writing out things about a character who is going through the same traumas you are or were going through at one point in time, can be cathartic. You're getting it all out there in a healthy way that doesn't cause harm to yourself -- only the characters you create because obviously we writers are kinda evil to our characters.

So, yeah. Like I prefaced at the start, I'm not sure if this is unpopular but I know it certainly isn't popular on any RP forum I've been a member of.

 

[Murdergurl]

Not sure if it's unpopular, but we'll see.

Personally, I'm a fan of the mindset that "no topic is off-limits". As writers, even if it's uncomfortable to talk about or highly triggering, I feel we should be able to address it in our writing. Of course, put warnings as needed. And of course, don't half-ass anything. If you're going to write about something, regardless if it's controversial, highly-sensitive, do your research. But at the same time -- and especially in modern settings where characters are more likely to encounter themes such as depression and all the implied thoughts and traumas that stem from it -- it's okay to mention such and such. I won't get specific here for obvious reasons.

But bottom line is that I don't like to skip over stuff that could tell a great story and/or that will give me a fantastic scene. Shows like Skins UK and Euphoria contain such scenes that I'm referencing. I am a lover of controversial topics. I feel writing these things out, while to most it might seem like it's counterproductive because you're writing out things about a character who is going through the same traumas you are or were going through at one point in time, can be cathartic. You're getting it all out there in a healthy way that doesn't cause harm to yourself -- only the characters you create because obviously we writers are kinda evil to our characters.

So, yeah. Like I prefaced at the start, I'm not sure if this is unpopular but I know it certainly isn't popular on any RP forum I've been a member of.

I second this notion. But for various legal reasons, most RP forums have SOME kind of limit on certain topics. Even the Adult sites usually have limits.

 

[Jannah]

Not sure if it's unpopular, but we'll see.

Personally, I'm a fan of the mindset that "no topic is off-limits". As writers, even if it's uncomfortable to talk about or highly triggering, I feel we should be able to address it in our writing. Of course, put warnings as needed. And of course, don't half-ass anything. If you're going to write about something, regardless if it's controversial, highly-sensitive, do your research. But at the same time -- and especially in modern settings where characters are more likely to encounter themes such as depression and all the implied thoughts and traumas that stem from it -- it's okay to mention such and such. I won't get specific here for obvious reasons.

But bottom line is that I don't like to skip over stuff that could tell a great story and/or that will give me a fantastic scene. Shows like Skins UK and Euphoria contain such scenes that I'm referencing. I am a lover of controversial topics. I feel writing these things out, while to most it might seem like it's counterproductive because you're writing out things about a character who is going through the same traumas you are or were going through at one point in time, can be cathartic. You're getting it all out there in a healthy way that doesn't cause harm to yourself -- only the characters you create because obviously we writers are kinda evil to our characters.

So, yeah. Like I prefaced at the start, I'm not sure if this is unpopular but I know it certainly isn't popular on any RP forum I've been a member of.

100% agreed. I deal with topics like this quite a bit in my writing and I make it pretty clear in my interest checks typically that I'm okay with these heavier themes.

 

[natsukashii]

I second this notion. But for various legal reasons, most RP forums have SOME kind of limit on certain topics. Even the Adult sites usually have limits.

Oh yeah. I'm not saying do certain things in vivid detail. But the implication of it can go a long way into other things. Even if just in the character's upbringing.

100% agreed. I deal with topics like this quite a bit in my writing and I make it pretty clear in my interest checks typically that I'm okay with these heavier themes.

I do always provide trigger warnings whenever I attempt themes. Having gone through some bad stuff in my life, I know the feeling when something comes at you without warning and it does stuff to you. Knowing beforehand goes a long way.

 

[Melpomene]

Honestly, in all my years of roleplaying, I've never personally seen anyone get "attacked" for playing another gender or minority group unless their portrayal was offensive and someone pointed that out. My unpopular opinion about that is that for a lot of people, it's a bit of a cop out. "The wokes will eat me if I do this wrong, so I won't even try!" The fact is, just like you ideally do a bit of research if you're roleplaying 15th-century nobility (at least, I do), you should be able to do enough research to portray other races without making them walking caricatures. There are entire blogs dedicated to walking you through what not to do, and POC aren't waiting in the wings to jump you for making a non-white character as a white person. And if you do make a POC character that's an offensive caricature because you didn't care enough to not be racist, you fully deserve to be called out for it. Sorry, not sorry.

Play other races. Play other genders. Don't make them caricatures. It isn't particularly hard. Nobody has to do it and people should absolutely play what they're comfortable with, but honestly, every time somebody goes 'I mean I can't play a Black or gay character because I have no idea what that's like" I'm just like . . . but do you see them as people though? Because most people are roughly the same and feel things roughly the same way, and would react similarly if tossed into a space AU.

The fact is, some people lack the sensitivity and empathy to play characters of color. A lot of them are the same people who won't even entertain the thought because they can't imagine POC being as multidimensional as their white characters. That's how you end up creating characters of color who are only their race, or LGBTQ characters who are only their sexuality.

If you don't play POC or LGBT characters because you'd rather not, then say that. But some people really act like the biggest obstacle to them playing characters who aren't just like them is people needlessly jumping down their throats about it, and like . . . in ten years of roleplay, I have never seen that happen. So somebody's lying. Say you only want to play white characters and go. It's not a big deal. But stop painting POC as irrational hall monitors who hand out virtual demerits for you not knowing everything about being a POC.

100% this. As a POC who has been RPing for a long while, I have never seen someone called out for making a POC. For that matter, I have not seen it happen with an LGBT character either. I don't care if you don't want to play POC, but just say that instead of jumping through all these hoops to justify not doing it. Like... is it fear of misrepresentation? Because unless they are just a conglomeration of stereotypes, I don't think misrepresentation is going to be a problem.

Tbh, the excuse I hate the most is the: "The story doesn't CALL for a POC" excuse, because like... So... what about it makes it specifically call for a white character? It has become kind of a popular excuse for some people to make. The same excuse is often used with LGBT characters. And like... once again, if you just want to roleplay someone who was straight and white... fine, that is completely fine. It is an RP site, you do you. But like... these are near dangerous mindsets to have because it treats POCs and LGBT characters as being not normal and like they don't deserve to be represented unless the narrative is specifically about their struggles.