Viewpoint What are some common RP traits that you don't understand the appeal of?

[gator]

Well, I've been playing for decades and I've never had a problem with people imagining different things. If there's confusion, you can just clarify. With words.

 

[Daisie]

Well, I've been playing for decades and I've never had a problem with people imagining different things. If there's confusion, you can just clarify. With words.

To me, pictures are just a lot more efficient Just seems like a smarter way to get a point across, if you can.
And if you're really attached to your descriptions, you can describe the image, too. It's not like they're mutually exclusive. A picture just means faster, clearer communication. And like you said, "we should be writing to communicate" so...

 

[Jet]

To me, pictures are just a lot more efficient Just seems like a smarter way to get a point across, if you can.
And if you're really attached to your descriptions, you can describe the image, too. It's not like they're mutually exclusive. A picture just means faster, clearer communication. And like you said, "we should be writing to communicate" so...

Huge second on this. I'm running a RP with 25 or so characters, a dozen writers in 7 different locations, and each location often has multiple subdivisions meaning that at any one time, I'm liable to be running a dozen scenes, with a dozen NPCs and my normal characters on top of that. I'd rather have everyone on the same page instead of dealing with so many possible continuity errors.

I mean hell, even if I spend hours on every description in every scene, some people will skim or misread something. It's simply better to use art when I find something that works, and then descriptions if no art exists. I'm a purist in many ways, especially with coding and fonts. I'll take standard writing & high quality any day, but sometimes practicality is the death of purism.

gator

That strains credulity imo. There are always continuity errors even in the best written 1x1s, let alone group RPs with a dozen writers attempting to coordinate. No those continuity errors aren't fatal and can be corrected, but why choose the path of most resistance? Are you trying to prove something? Honest question because there's no salt here, but at least for me, my concern is keeping members happy. That means reducing continuity errors and making it easier to post.

I've found that continuity errors become annoying and burdensome over the long run. The constant edits and corrections make posting a pain in the ass, and create resentment between people. I've seen errors lead to accusations of skimming and arguments over what's canon, all because two people read something differently, and nobody wants to edit their content over and over again. Using art is an easy way to remove half those potential issues.

It also makes posting easier, as referencing an image takes less time than referencing 400 words. Why not make posting easier for people?

 

[Daisie]

I love seeing everyone's opinions on this lol
And I stand by what I said earlier about efficiency in communication, but yeahhh...
The more I think about it, the more I feel like it just comes down to "I really like pictures. That's a cool picture. I'm gonna use that picture... Ah wow yeah that looks real cool."
At least, for most folks.

Anything beyond that is probably overthinking just a little bit. No offense to the well thought-out paragraphs ofc XD I love learning from all these neat perspectives. Wildly varying investment in the topic.
In the end, people are just gonna do what's fun, yo. And that is so cool. I adore this hobby.

Edit: I gotta say I do appreciate maps though. Those really rock. Way different than face-claims though so that's way off topic lol.

 

[Megatron2024]

i hated and still hate double roleplay. I also hate triple roleplay.
take Catdog for example. it takes two people to play one character. people loved to roleplay catdog back in the day but it takes to people to play one character.......
triple roleplaying as one character was hard to follow.....
take monster zero in Godzilla roleplaying. it takes three people to play as one character.......
or clash of the titans; some of the animals requires two people to play on character.
in halo it takes two people to play the monitor 343, because someone has to be guilty sparks and someone else plays his flying drones. its crazy and often confusing.....

yes celebrity roleplay was popular on aol forums. alot of people would roleplay Nic. Cage and reprent to be his friends. I thought it was silly. I guess it was because of his movies. people would pretend to be him, mostly girls; because i guess they thought he was hot. Nic. Cage just did a movie about this very thing; a movie of him making fun of himself and they face everyone roleplays as him, 'massive tallent' or whatever it is?? the phenomenon comes and goes.

as for your number two; people still do that. its called pokemon roleplay. if pokemon players would just play like normal players; it would be better. but the pokemon roleplaying community tends to do this and go overboard with it. they do this, and then god mode right after. its annoying and the very reason i do not play in pokemon roleplay community. Now not all pokemon forums are like this; but most of them sadly are. they also fight alot internaly about the skills and fighting of each pokemon. Psy-duck talks to bushes and cars and clouds; its so silly.

Whats? AOL roleplay? You had to pay money to have AOL. wtf?

 

[Megatron2024]

I love seeing everyone's opinions on this lol
And I stand by what I said earlier about efficiency in communication, but yeahhh...
The more I think about it, the more I feel like it just comes down to "I really like pictures. That's a cool picture. I'm gonna use that picture... Ah wow yeah that looks real cool."
At least, for most folks.

Anything beyond that is probably overthinking just a little bit. No offense to the well thought-out paragraphs ofc XD I love learning from all these neat perspectives. Wildly varying investment in the topic.
In the end, people are just gonna do what's fun, yo. And that is so cool. I adore this hobby.

Edit: I gotta say I do appreciate maps though. Those really rock. Way different than face-claims though so that's way off topic lol.

Good points! Now more and more people are starting to use AI pictures for character sheets.

 

[black-summer]

• romance-focused plots but that's just because i don't understand romance irl either, lol. i find the idea of roleplaying it a little scary to be honest.
• playing canon characters at all isn't very appealing to me, i feel like part of the fun of roleplaying is making up a guy yourself and releasing it onto the world, you know? i think the closest i've got to it myself was playing the last dragonborn in a multifandom rp and even then it wasn't anywhere close to the default one (bethesda's male nord vs my female pahmar khajiit). it's likely no different than re-using a pre-existing oc but i don't think i'll ever get it.
• voice claims - when it's a famous person's voice, it breaks my immersion, when it isn't, i usually forget them. i prefer describing my characters' voices through text and even then i don't think it's a particularly relevant trait so i just skip it.

no shade to anyone who does any of these (especially since they're so widespread in the rp community at large) but i dunno, i just find them strange.

 

[Nine.]

Might be a hot take, but I don't see the appeal of writing loner characters. There are some exceptions to this that are well-done (old grizzled guys and gals who have seen the worse that humanity has to offer, for example), but I remember seeing this archetype often in sandbox Roleplays when I still wrote group concepts. Often, I'd see these characters walk around and just wait for someone else to interact with them instead of taking the reigns.

Just felt like a bit of a waste to me.

 

[Aarix]

• Face claims. I find real people ones to be distracting most of the time... I'm the kind of person who hates recognising actors in movies because I'll just be thinking "ah yeah, that's [insert actor name here]" the whole time. Meanwhile, I find stolen anime fcs impossible to take seriously. The only kinda fcs I like are ones that people drew /commissioned themselves explicitly for the purpose of depicting that one character, and even then, they're only secondary to the contents of the writing itself.
• Preplanned/compulsory romance. Feeling obliged to write someone's perfect match is a loathsome thing. I also hate it when someone's so sold on romance that nothing my character does turns them off. When it happens, it always feels like the other person's character is desperate to the point of delusion... which could be an interesting dynamic to write, if only it was on purpose.
• Doubling... I'm not even sure I understand the concept at all it's that alien to me. Like, people actually make themselves write a character they don't really want to write as part of a transaction to get someone else to write a (likewise forced) partner for the oc they do want to write???? I'm glad it works for some people, but to me it sounds like medieval torture.
• Pre-planned scenes/plots/character arcs in general. For me, the whole point of roleplaying is to find out what's gonna happen. If I'm forced to stay on a rail the whole time, my motivation always withers quickly. I can plan as far as the initial set up (it's fun to not even plan *this* far with roleplay partners I already have chemistry with—I love improv), but anything further is just not for me. Similarly, I prefer the majority of world building to occur on-the-fly as opposed to the seemingly-more-common approach of pre-planning.

 

[nerdy tangents]

For doubling I’m convinced it doesn’t actually work at all. What does work is finding someone who genuinely wants to write two characters and allowing them to pick their own characters.

I think the folks that propose doubling fall into two categories :

1. People who like to be the center of attention and the whole doubling facade is just a way to trap people who they know are more passive into doing their bidding.

2. People who genuinely want to play two characters and just happened to be focused on romance.

The second group are way more willing to negotiate with their partners and actually meet a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The first group disappear the second they meet someone who is willing to advocate for themselves rather than be a doormat for their whims.

 

[Sagey]

• Doubling. If an NPC needs to be made for a scene, I'll make it on the spot, but my main focus are my main characters. If an NPC comes back into play, I will play it still but unlikely it'll more than required.
• Romance. I do romance in my own RPs if it works, but the characters can't just immediately be in a relationship. You need build up, you need to get to know people. You're going to absolutely not like or something about someone and then have to decide if it's worth pursuing or if you really just have to compromise because they probably don't like something about you either.
• Face Claims. I've found a few that match close enough to what I want but otherwise I don't care to use 'em. You shouldn't need them as a writer. Someone mentioned not being able to properly imagine it through writing here so adjust when that is something that comes up. Otherwise your face claims, real or anime are unnecessary. Fun, but unnecessary.
• Word Count. It would be easier to just say paragraphs, stop requiring word counts, it's like you're requiring an essay. Also for those who claim to write novella, I gotta ask/wonder if most of it is just purple prose because I absolutely pass on anything that turns into purple prose.

 

[BuggaBoo]

When GMs say "No AI art!" and proceed to allow art in from sources not the RPers own without credit... and their own PFP is definitely art from some uncredited artist.

Like I'm not innocent in misusing art but i don't understand the AI restriction only. If anything shouldn't it be restriction of any art without credit?

Also I just visited my photographer friend. So like she say if you use a realistic FC you should actually be crediting the photographer not just the likeness. Yeah I'm bad too lol

 

[Edythir]

Maybe people have already said playing as canon characters and I'd like to throw in my two cents about what I don't understand or get about it.

Art is iterative. It builds on what came before, iterates and makes offshoots. Like with Music, each band builds on what came before. Without Lead Belly there would have been no Nirvana. Without Sister Rosetta Tharpe there would have been no Elvis. (Though how much was 'inspiration' and how much was... you know what, politics for another thread). Even Eragon is just medieval fantasy star wars. Fifty Shades of Gray started out as a fanfiction for Twilight before becoming it's own thing.

"But what if" is in my opinion, the single most powerful question in all creative mediums. "But what if Country was more like blues?" "But what if Star Wars was medieval fantasy and had dragons".

I don't mean to seem gatekeepy and make Roleplaying off to be this high class sophisticated thing, but I see fandom RPs a lot like how presschooler or younger school age kids play. "You get to play as Raven now but i want next time!".

You have the power in your hands to shape the universe, to mold ideas to your liking, to shape thought and to create worlds. And you choose to settle with what someone else had made.

You can even do this with fandoms you like. "But what if Bungou Stray Dogs was about western 20th century horror authors and their abilities were triggered by prose".

Iterate. Evolve. Combine. Reduce. The world is your oyster!

When you can do anything, settling for someone else's creation feels like the death of creativity.

 

[Jannah]

Maybe people have already said playing as canon characters and I'd like to throw in my two cents about what I don't understand or get about it.

Art is iterative. It builds on what came before, iterates and makes offshoots. Like with Music, each band builds on what came before. Without Lead Belly there would have been no Nirvana. Without Sister Rosetta Tharpe there would have been no Elvis. (Though how much was 'inspiration' and how much was... you know what, politics for another thread). Even Eragon is just medieval fantasy star wars. Fifty Shades of Gray started out as a fanfiction for Twilight before becoming it's own thing.

"But what if" is in my opinion, the single most powerful question in all creative mediums. "But what if Country was more like blues?" "But what if Star Wars was medieval fantasy and had dragons".

I don't mean to seem gatekeepy and make Roleplaying off to be this high class sophisticated thing, but I see fandom RPs a lot like how presschooler or younger school age kids play. "You get to play as Raven now but i want next time!".

You have the power in your hands to shape the universe, to mold ideas to your liking, to shape thought and to create worlds. And you choose to settle with what someone else had made.

You can even do this with fandoms you like. "But what if Bungou Stray Dogs was about western 20th century horror authors and their abilities were triggered by prose".

Iterate. Evolve. Combine. Reduce. The world is your oyster!

When you can do anything, settling for someone else's creation feels like the death of creativity.

I don't entirely disagree with you here as I refuse to write canon characters. However, I do believe there's still creative potential in exploring these already established universes. Like, most of them have extensive lore outside of the published media that is barely even touched upon within the published media. That leaves open space to explore so many "what if?" questions on its own. It also leaves plenty of space to create new original characters in order to explore said "what if?" questions. It's often preferable to creating new original universes, in my opinion, because at least if the RP dies you don't have to feel bad about seemingly doing all that worldbuilding for nothing.

 

[cuzn]

Maybe people have already said playing as canon characters and I'd like to throw in my two cents about what I don't understand or get about it.

Art is iterative. It builds on what came before, iterates and makes offshoots. Like with Music, each band builds on what came before. Without Lead Belly there would have been no Nirvana. Without Sister Rosetta Tharpe there would have been no Elvis. (Though how much was 'inspiration' and how much was... you know what, politics for another thread). Even Eragon is just medieval fantasy star wars. Fifty Shades of Gray started out as a fanfiction for Twilight before becoming it's own thing.

"But what if" is in my opinion, the single most powerful question in all creative mediums. "But what if Country was more like blues?" "But what if Star Wars was medieval fantasy and had dragons".

I don't mean to seem gatekeepy and make Roleplaying off to be this high class sophisticated thing, but I see fandom RPs a lot like how presschooler or younger school age kids play. "You get to play as Raven now but i want next time!".

You have the power in your hands to shape the universe, to mold ideas to your liking, to shape thought and to create worlds. And you choose to settle with what someone else had made.

You can even do this with fandoms you like. "But what if Bungou Stray Dogs was about western 20th century horror authors and their abilities were triggered by prose".

Iterate. Evolve. Combine. Reduce. The world is your oyster!

When you can do anything, settling for someone else's creation feels like the death of creativity.

I see what you're saying, but writing canon characters involves its own skillset and types of creativity. A majority of the most iconic characters in the world have been written by multiple different people (All Marvel and DC characters who had multiple runs, every character in Arcane, in Star Wars, etc. etc.), and when you take on writing a canon character, it forces you out of whatever archetypes and comfort zones you've fallen into with your OCs. Playing a canon character well means being able to analyze someone else's work and understand the core aspects of a character just from a bit of study, and I've seen many people play the same canon character, all of them having their own style and understanding of the character's personality. That's what I really find interesting about it.

OCs take a lot less work to play, since you don't have to worry about the fact that other people may know your OC better than you do, and there is no conversation on what types of portrayals are respectful to the original creator when you are the creator. I don't normally play canon characters at all, but of the few I do play, I always adore the experience, since I get to have fun expressing their emotions and exploring how they would respond to different situations while also having an existing framework to look back on.

Also, a blank page can oftentimes give you less ideas than a blank page and the instruction to draw a house. Complete creative freedom is difficult for a lot of people, and almost everyone here (if not every single person here) has archetypes, roles, age ranges, genders, species, etc. that they limit themselves to, anyway. People who only use anime faceclaims, people who only play male characters, limiting yourself creatively is a natural part of all artistic studies. It's what defines your style, for one, so saying that playing canon characters is somehow less creative than playing the fiftieth anime faceclaim oc or your hundredth female oc doesn't seem all that accurate to me.

It certainly isn't the death of creativity; it invites a new aspect of creativity that you just may not be accustomed to.