Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[Crayons]

I can't stand space roleplays without aliens. What's the point of space exploration if there's nothing to find but rocks.

Not all space stories are about exploration.

 

[SP3CT3R]

Not all space stories are about exploration.

Then what are they supposed to be about?

 

[Ayama]

Then what are they supposed to be about?

Could be anything. War, romance, commerce, some kind of horror scenario...
Space is just a setting, but what happens in that setting is up to the GM and players ^^ ​

 

[SP3CT3R]

Could be anything. War, romance, commerce, some kind of horror scenario...
Space is just a setting, but what happens in that setting is up to the GM and players ^^ ​

But... If you don't want aliens just set it on Earth.

 

[Ayama]

But... If you don't want aliens just set it on Earth.

Aliens can appear on Earth too xD
Again, it's making the distinction between RP setting and RP content/themes. ​

 

[Trektek]

There are plenty of stories that are set in space without involving aliens at all

 

[Crayons]

But... If you don't want aliens just set it on Earth.

Why? You can have stories about colonisation, politics, families, setting up life in a hostile scenario. You can have "closed room" mysteries or sitcoms set aboard spaceships. Slice of life stories when everyone has been born and raised on generation ships and has never seen life planetside. Stories about people living in a completely constructed environment relying on AI that goes wrong. People having the effects of time dilation and aging faster/slower than their relatives. I mean damn, there are SO MANY good reasons to have a space story without aliens.

 

[SP3CT3R]

Why? You can have stories about colonisation, politics, families, setting up life in a hostile scenario. You can have "closed room" mysteries or sitcoms set aboard spaceships. Slice of life stories when everyone has been born and raised on generation ships and has never seen life planetside. Stories about people living in a completely constructed environment relying on AI that goes wrong. People having the effects of time dilation and aging faster/slower than their relatives. I mean damn, there are SO MANY good reasons to have a space story without aliens.

Those don't sound like much fun, but suit yourself.

 

[BlackoutThieving]

Those don't sound like much fun, but suit yourself.

Well, you truly fit this thread.

 

[SP3CT3R]

Well, you truly fit this thread.

I posted it here so that people wouldn't pick fights with me over it.

 

[Grey]

Thoughtful, concise posts between 500 and 1000 words >>> 5k word rambles that involve the savage murder of at least one thesaurus.

Treating RP posts with the same seriousness as writing a novel to the detriment of pacing, fun, and uncertainty sucks.

Content is vastly more important than the wrapping of elaborate code.

Dice systems are good, actually.

 

[Jannah]

Thoughtful, concise posts between 500 and 1000 words >>> 5k word rambles that involve the savage murder of at least one thesaurus.

Omg, this. If I have to open up a dictionary constantly just to understand your post then it probably doesn't fit in a RP.

 

[Crayons]

Omg, this. If I have to open up a dictionary constantly just to understand your post then it probably doesn't fit in a RP.

Or worse, if your post is literally nonsense because you murdered the thesaurus with it, and I know it's nonsense, but you are convinced it's dead clever. XD

 

[Jannah]

I will use a thesaurus when I write RP posts, but only if I've used a word too many times already and need to find a suitable alternative.

 

[Sunbather]

Thoughtful, concise posts between 500 and 1000 words >>> 5k word rambles that involve the savage murder of at least one thesaurus.

Treating RP posts with the same seriousness as writing a novel to the detriment of pacing, fun, and uncertainty sucks.

Content is vastly more important than the wrapping of elaborate code.

Dice systems are good, actually.

C O N C I S E

 

[Grey]

C O N C I S E

E L E G A N T

 

[Lorsh]

playing a military character in a zombie setting makes you lame

 

[Jannah]

playing a military character in a zombie setting makes you lame

It feels like the easy way out too because it's like "oh look, my dude can fight the hoards of zombies easily because he was in the military!" Personally, I like to do fish out of water type characters for those. Ones that have very little or no combat experience. Usually scientist types whose knowledge could come in handy in other ways besides killing the zombies.

 

[Lorsh]

It feels like the easy way out too because it's like "oh look, my dude can fight the hoards of zombies easily because he was in the military!" Personally, I like to do fish out of water type characters for those. Ones that have very little or no combat experience. Usually scientist types whose knowledge could come in handy in other ways besides killing the zombies.

It's especially bad with special ops backgrounds. Your character is pretty much automatically bad in my eyes if they're special forces (unless that's what the RP is about, then again those RPs are usually bad too). I just wish people were more tame when it came to military backgrounds, like a National Guard clerk or member of the state militia.

 

[Jannah]

I thought of another unpopular opinion I have: realistic modern settings bore me. If I'm doing a RP set in the present day in our world then there needs to be some kind of fantasy or sci-fi element to keep me engaged.

 

[Grey]

I thought of another unpopular opinion I have: realistic modern settings bore me. If I'm doing a RP set in the present day in our world then there needs to be some kind of fantasy or sci-fi element to keep me engaged.

Same, I only use modern day settings for horror games.

 

[Jannah]

Same, I only use modern day settings for horror games.

The only time I'll generally use realistic settings is if I'm doing a historical RP. I can stomach it in those because I love history and exploring those settings.

 

[Jannah]

1x1 romance/ slice of life nonsense - I came here for a rousing adventure, not to play IRL online, if you're into that sorta thing may I point you to the hallmark channel? where your cheese romances are all already written, and fully realized with as much flaccid disappointment as you'd expect.

SO MUCH THIS.

I utterly refuse to do modern slice of life plots. If I'm doing RP's set in a realistic modern setting then there needs to be some kind of fantasy or sci-fi element to keep me interested. Magic, deities, ghosts, anything. Just give me something besides essentially living out real life through writing. I live real life and it sucks so why would I want to write about it too?

sexuality - This is less to do with the concept itself and more how it's betrayed in writing, I'll leave my opinions politically out of the matter altogether, but when it comes to writing I notice of the more queer and furry, you find characters who have listed sexual preferences and passions in place of characterization or pathos. I'll leave it at that. not an absolute, and I've seen it done decently ( and I've taken my stab at it,) but still, people who advertise their sexuality as a personality trait tend to earn my ire quickly, it's a compliment or aspect of a character, not an informate of them.

This is honestly one of my biggest pet peeves in any media. Fine, make your character queer but make them have an actual personality and backstory too. I don't care about how gay they are, just give me an actual story.

Horror is not graphic - this is something even good writers struggle with, Horror is not a bunch of grizzle scenes slapped together, while a gorey messy scene can punctuate a threat or conflict in the story, it is not the point, I've enjoyed horror stories that are pretty tame and child frienly, more because they are good at building suspense and build up.

Ngl, I enjoy some of the gory stuff from time to time. However, you're absolutely correct in it being difficult to write without coming across as gratuitous or outright cheesy. I find that it works best in military RP's. War is gory so it's not exactly out of place to describe someone having their head blown off and your character being completely horrified by it. In fact, witnessing something like that during their first battle can make for some interesting character growth; they are afraid because dude next to them just died a gruesome death and now they have to face the very same weapon/opponent.

"Waaagh OP characters" - some of the most interesting stories have been built on character's who might as well be God, it's very dismissive and uncreative to think you can't work with someone who has a broken character, Watchmen had one of the most broken characters in it, and the story, in fact, hinges on that fact, All-star superman, (an amazing comic) plays with the idea of a God with cancer, he can do and beat anything but has a bucket list to complete before keeling over, very potent conflicts and narrative themes can be made on God-like characters, good, evil or indifferent.

I disagree with you for the most part here, although overpowered characters can work in certain context. I've seen it done successfully. In a RP I did years ago, Hunger Games, there was one really over-powered NPC Tribute essentially micromanaging the arena(her backstory explained it). At first it seemed like a case of "oshitweregonnadie", but said Tribute never intended to win the games. In reality she was choosing someone she deemed worthy to come out the Victor, someone genuine who wouldn't just suck up to the Capitol elites. It ended up being an interesting story too. It was actually almost tragic when this character simply surrendered herself to the last Tribute and demanded to be killed so she wouldn't have to be a pawn in her parent's and the Capitol's game anymore.

introverted characters - I'm fine with characters who are introverted, but introverted isn't an excuse to have no character or a character with no motives, or no drive to their motives because they are a shy butterfly, you can explore the idea of a character crippled by social awkwardness or issues, but that still implies character, most people write introverted characters as more apathetic losers or bystandard characters, I understand the merit of making a character who is apathetic and a loser, but not the main character or one I'm supposed to relate to.

I write many introverted characters myself. It can work if the writer actually intends to have them, you know, interact. It can actually be a source of conflict and development for them to be forced into social situations they wouldn't ordinarily take part in. This is especially true in survival scenarios where interacting with others can be a matter of life or death. Like, I doubt too many people, save for maybe the highest ranking special ops(and I HAAAAAAATE special ops characters in post-apocalyptic RP's), could successfully take on a hoard of zombies alone.

"waaah soft magic" - Tolkien had a soft magic system, and he's a better writer than you'll ever be! (yeah I said it!) sure soft undefined magic can ruin a plot, but I find it's harder to botch it up than make an actually good hard magic system, though this is more opinion, still I notice a lot whine about soft magic, which might be a loud minority speaking and I have the presumption it's a common opinion. but idk.

Magic is very dependent on the universe around it. I'm honestly fine with either soft or hard. I've written stories with both and they're both enjoyable in their own way and bring their own challenges.

 

[Zeev]

SO MUCH THIS.

I utterly refuse to do modern slice of life plots. If I'm doing RP's set in a realistic modern setting then there needs to be some kind of fantasy or sci-fi element to keep me interested. Magic, deities, ghosts, anything. Just give me something besides essentially living out real life through writing. I live real life and it sucks so why would I want to write about it too?



This is honestly one of my biggest pet peeves in any media. Fine, make your character queer but make them have an actual personality and backstory too. I don't care about how gay they are, just give me an actual story.



Ngl, I enjoy some of the gory stuff from time to time. However, you're absolutely correct in it being difficult to write without coming across as gratuitous or outright cheesy. I find that it works best in military RP's. War is gory so it's not exactly out of place to describe someone having their head blown off and your character being completely horrified by it. In fact, witnessing something like that during their first battle can make for some interesting character growth; they are afraid because dude next to them just died a gruesome death and now they have to face the very same weapon/opponent.



I disagree with you for the most part here, although overpowered characters can work in certain context. I've seen it done successfully. In a RP I did years ago, Hunger Games, there was one really over-powered NPC Tribute essentially micromanaging the arena(her backstory explained it). At first it seemed like a case of "oshitweregonnadie", but said Tribute never intended to win the games. In reality she was choosing someone she deemed worthy to come out the Victor, someone genuine who wouldn't just suck up to the Capitol elites. It ended up being an interesting story too. It was actually almost tragic when this character simply surrendered herself to the last Tribute and demanded to be killed so she wouldn't have to be a pawn in her parent's and the Capitol's game anymore.



I write many introverted characters myself. It can work if the writer actually intends to have them, you know, interact. It can actually be a source of conflict and development for them to be forced into social situations they wouldn't ordinarily take part in. This is especially true in survival scenarios where interacting with others can be a matter of life or death. Like, I doubt too many people, save for maybe the highest ranking special ops(and I HAAAAAAATE special ops characters in post-apocalyptic RP's), could successfully take on a hoard of zombies alone.



Magic is very dependent on the universe around it. I'm honestly fine with either soft or hard. I've written stories with both and they're both enjoyable in their own way and bring their own challenges.

Interesting what you choose to agree with and what not, I deleted my post for the sexuality part as I suspected it would spure pointless arguments of me being a bigot or something.

I think your disagreement on OP characters was more my point, they are powerful, in that relation of their power to who they are which is interesting, superman is a creature who can hit planets so hard he can put them off their axis, but he's also a humble boy from Kansas who simply wants to do right thing the conflicts don't come from if he can win or lose, his villains attack his moral code and ethics as much as they try and cave his skull In. The battles are more personal when the stakes are less about their mortality. OP characters can work in many contexts. If they have character that is.

 

[Jannah]

Interesting what you choose to agree with and what not, I deleted my post for the sexuality part as I suspected it would spure pointless arguments of me being a bigot or something.

I think your disagreement on OP characters was more my point, they are powerful, in that relation of their power to who they are which is interesting, superman is a creature who can hit planets so hard he can put them off their axis, but he's also a humble boy from Kansas who simply wants to do right thing the conflicts don't come from if he can win or lose, his villains attack his moral code and ethics as much as they right and cave his skull In. OP characters can work in many contexts. If they have character that is.

There's nothing bigoted about wanting characters in stories to be more than just who they're sexually attracted to. Good characters, of any sexual orientation, HAVE PERSONALITY.

As for OP characters, in the context of RP it definitely takes a degree of trust. There's very few people I've ever RPed with whom I could trust to actually be able to pull off an overpowered character successfully. It worked in the example I described because the RP was with someone I had been RPing with for years. We knew each other's writing styles and goals.