Viewpoint What is your unbreakable rule?

[Psychonaut]

Nice soap bubble you're throwing stones at us from.

Have I made a typo yet? Please, feel free to point it out to me. I'd be happy to learn of a mistake.

ashwynne - I have every right I can claim to objectively measure an individual's personal expenditure. If you refuse to spend a minute on spell checking, that's your problem, not mine.

 

[ashwynne]

Psychonaut
Mmmm.... no, lol. You can decide what you believe is objective, but by definition that makes it subjective. One person's objective truth is not necessarily another's and cannot be applied across the board. You judge personal expenditure by virtue of typos, I do it by engagement with the material. And, again, if that's the metric you use to size up writing partners that's perfectly fine... until you start trying to act like it's anything other than your personal preference.

And I mean, if a typo is the thing that you refuse to accept in a writing partner it's literally your problem. It's bothering you, not the person who made it, ergo not their problem but yours.

 

[Psychonaut]

ashwynne - Feel free to continue being wrong - I can't stop you. A typo is definitively bad: an unquestionable misrepresentation of the English language. It's not a matter of opinion. I do enjoy watching you apply yourself in the direction opposite truth, though - don't harry yourself in pursuit of that. This is fun. Keep up the "good work."

 

[ashwynne]

Psychonaut , no need to twist my argument to suit your purposes. I'm not saying that typos aren't bad. I'm saying that calling anyone who ever makes a typo on a roleplaying site (read: a site for people to write for fun) "lazy" or "half assed" is the problem. And, again, if a single typo is not something you're willing to accept in your own RP's then that's perfectly fine. The problem comes when you try and make sweeping generalizations about the quality of RP writers as a whole based on your own opinion of what is and is not acceptable.

Not everyone takes issue with typos when it comes to hobby writing. Not everyone has access to software like Word that permits for easy proof-reading. Not everyone speaks English as a first language. That doesn't make any of them objectively poor writers or poor partners--they're just not your type of partner.

Well anyways, you certainly do know how to be abrasive lol. I feel I've gotten my point across well enough, whether you agree or not is your problem. I'm not here to change anyone's mind, just share my opinion as you did initially. I think it's a bit silly to carry on an argument when neither side is going to change their mind, so I'm going to leave it here. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day c:

 

[Crayons]

RP being hobby time and fun is a good point, but let's not overlook this: Professional authors make typos and spelling mistakes all the time, that's why publishing houses have a team of proof-readers and editors. Even then, typos appear in mainstream published books all the time. ALL the time. When I worked in libraries, we had one reader who would go through the books and mark all the typos in pencil. Sometimes he was wrong.

Your standards are ridiculously high, and frankly this is a really bad choice of a hill to die on. But you do you.

 

[Gowi]

There's a limit to writing expectations. Singular typos are well beyond that.

Moving back to the topic, I'm not quite sure what my "unbreakable rule" is. I've been in groups with antagonistic but well-intentioned people and I've been with a lot of people who pull my triggers in general. I try to be pretty patient and flexible, so this is a really challenging question to answer.

Detesting powerplaying and godmodding are pretty old and universal things, so I don't find them unique to me. But I think ultimately it comes down to presentation for me, which isn't too far from our current subject in relation to Psychonaut's point. If I'm a prospective player and I see presentation that either I can't read, writing effort in that presentation is lacking, or pre-accepted characters with sheets that are poor in quality, I'm probably going to pass. I don't mean poor quality as in "lol hehe they arent at my level", but rather in terms of weak characterization and rushed unthoughtful design. Characters who lack nuanced angst or hold contradicting character traits. As someone who RPs in fantasy, anime, and slice-of-life genres pretty evenly I know it when I see it and I run away pretty fast.

As a GM, I'm not sure what a no-cross-line is because I can typically boot someone I find problematic or manipulative or not allow them access into the story to begin with.

 

[Tove]

Feel free to continue being wrong - I can't stop you. A typo is definitively bad: an unquestionable misrepresentation of the English language. It's not a matter of opinion. I do enjoy watching you apply yourself in the direction opposite truth, though - don't harry yourself in pursuit of that. This is fun. Keep up the "good work."

Don't harry yourself?

 

[Abendrot]

Don't harry yourself?

Delusions of Eloquence - TV Tropes

Delusions of Eloquence occur when a person tries too hard to sound "educated" by using Big Words or carefully chosen phrases, but gets it wrong, filling their dialogue with malapropisms, mispronunciations, and mangled grammar. The result is that …

tvtropes.org

 

[SP3CT3R]

Have I made a typo yet? Please, feel free to point it out to me. I'd be happy to learn of a mistake.

ashwynne - Feel free to continue being wrong - I can't stop you. A typo is definitively bad: an unquestionable misrepresentation of the English language. It's not a matter of opinion. I do enjoy watching you apply yourself in the direction opposite truth, though - don't harry yourself in pursuit of that. This is fun. Keep up the "good work."

I'm not saying you've made a typo in this thread. If you did, people with faster response times than me would've torn you to shreds.

But I'm willing to bet that you've made at least one typo since you've adopted this zero-tolerance policy. Typos are an inevitability, like death or taxes. Microsoft Word isn't infallible, differences between english dialects exist, and some people might have disabilities that make spell-checking difficult. Sure, typos are incorrect and should be avoided when possible, but normal people are capable of tolerating a certain number of flaws in whatever they consume as long as those flaws don't lessen the experience. You, on the other hand, are acting like the hammiest of anime villains. You've built your own natural order based on what you think is your own best quality, and are using it as an excuse to look down on everyone else.

 

[Psychonaut]

 

[zippy]

ayo. my unbreakable rule is “have fun”. no i’m not joking.

when people stop having fun, there is no reason for me to continue the roleplay. as gm i feel like i’m holding a gun to their heads and telling them “dance, monkey, dance!”. as player RPN becomes a homework assignment when i stop having fun.

if i’m not enjoying it, tf am i doing it for?

 

[calypso]

r/iamverysmart

 

[BakaTheIdiot]

Think this topic may have gotten a biiiiiiiiiit out of hand... and I apologize for that. Didn't know that simple grammar errors were such a heated and loaded topic. Even so, I'm not closing down the thread or anything, because I'm excited to see where it goes next.

 

[Sludge]

This thread gets more action than the rps I'm in.

I will sign up for the typo faction. Our fingers may be crooked, but our intentions are good and our writing stromg.

 

[Gowi]

This thread gets more action than the rps I'm in.

Same... sadly.

 

[Classix]

Wait... This guy was actually being serious?

Think they've made up their mind on the subject despite public opinion. No point in kicking a dead horse.


I'd say mine is the "Have Fun" rule as well. This isn't my job, this is for pleasure.
If i'm not enjoying it, why should I continue to do something unenjoyable?


I have quit a RP before because of 2 many bad dice rolls before (all my posts)...
But that might have been on part due to the GM and I not seeing eye to eye.
They gave me a rigged freebie but at that point I was already done and left the site.

 

[Idea]

Well, I don't have one "unbreakable rule". I don't have one because I have five instead, five rules which broken lead me to leave the roleplay.

This is assuming
A) That we're talking about an RP one already joined, not joining a new RP
B) That we're talking about things that definitely and immediately make one leave the roleplay, rather than just those which might or gradually do.
C) That this is mostly talking about group RPs.

With those assumptions out of the way, let's see what my rules are:

1.The RP Needs to Engage With Me

The first and foremost thing, the most important aspect I feel for any RP I'm participating in, it needs to engage with me. I need to feel like I'm more than a replaceable pawn in the RP. Fortunately, this is about as simple as it gets, I just need to (1) not get ignored and (2) get something personal to my character. I do engage with the plot, but I only do thing or am the only one doing the heavy lifting regarding interacting with people, that can get pretty boring quickly...but even that is tolerable if at least their responses are responses to my character, if I get to contribute to the RP in a way that is unique to my character and not just a job that a plank of wood could fill just as well.

2.I Need to Be Able to Trust You

I think this is kind of a given, but not something that's thought about much, however, I need to be able to trust the GM (and to a lesser, but still important extent, the players) I'm working with. I need to be able to trust that you won't pull the rug from under me for no good reason, or that you will not let your whims be the downfall of the things I put so much work and passion into.

For instance, if a GM just seems to make up unwritten rules on the fly, restrictions born not from interaction with IC elements or some conflict with the actual rules, but just the GM not particularly liking a direction or bit of work I made, then I can't trust that GM to not continue to do that and just ruin my fun time and time again by making up new rules I could never have accounted for because they were never written. If a GM keeps changing things retroactively something very similar happens.

Another example is when a GM just rejects my character concept outright for no good reason, but they refuse to work with me in keeping the core of my idea and tweaking things out to fix the problem. Again, the GM's whims are blocking me from doing my thing, and again there was no way for me to either know to avoid, or have recourse to not get my work smashed like someone just pressed a big red button attached to it. If this stuff can happen during the character creation process, then it can happen at any time during the RP.

Lastly, we've all seen this thing where the GM is just unreliable in general. Letting characters pass without even looking, never seeming to actually move their own story, or even vanishing from their own RP soon after they started it or a big important plot point. What am I supposed to make of that? How can I trust a GM that is so clearly utterly irresponsible? And if I can't trust the GM, then staying in the RP is a waste of my time.

3.The RP's Style Needs To Accept and Somewhat Match Mine

I often say that I'm a heavy-detail RPer on the simple-casual-detailed spectrum. I do what for a general standard seems to be very large posts as a basis, but those are not just the kinds of posts I like to make, but also the kinds of posts I like to receive. Short posts just feel incredibly bland to me, as they tend to lack the juicy descriptions, emotional exploration and thoughts I like in a post. Cut and dry includes the "dry", and I like my posts and my partner's posts to be big and juicy. As such, whether I'm in a group or 1x1, I need the RP to be at a level of detail and length that can reliably satisfy me.

Now, for groups I do give a lot of leeway on this subject, and can be found playing in groups with considerably shorter posts than what I would tolerate in 1x1s. I feel like this has to do with the multiple posts compensating for one another, as well as me being more tolerant of a project I'm only participating in than one I'm running have these things that don't match what I would approve. I'm willing to do more concessions in other words, but only to a certain extent.

That said, in no group will I make the concession of being forced to play myself out of my style. Be it in detail, or having to roleplay outside of a thread or having to roleplay in third person rather than first. This is not to say I absolutely won't ever do any of these, the last being the one I actually do not do sometimes, but the important thing here is having my style respected, in other words, having the freedom to choose to do my roleplaying the way I like it.

4.There Needs to Be A Welcoming Atmosphere OOC

Simply put, this segment is about the players being themselves engaged with the roleplay, and being friendly. The best would be if they were really active and cooperative, but I can take that not being the case for a while at least, but if the players are *ssh*l*s, or seem to have cliques going on that leave me left out, or if they all seem less than interested in the roleplay, again there doesn't seem to much of a reason for me to stay. If I wouldn't want to hang out with you OOC, odds are the experience of actually roleplaying with you are slim. Not impossible as I know from experience, but very slim indeed.

There's another aspect to a welcoming atmosphere though, and that is a state of civility and peace. When there is a massive fight OOC or an argument over-escalates to the point of things having trouble going back to normal, this can become really awkward and often the RP is doomed then. This is not to stay RPs don't bounce back from such fights, but sometimes the feeling of awkwardness is just so great it halts the roleplaying and the chatting altogether. Even if it isn't that great, a personal enough matter for me has caused me to leave roleplays over it before. I can withstand an argument very well, but when things start getting personal it can hit me hard at times.

5.I Need to Have My Own Niche In the Group

This one is something I learned more recently about myself, I really need to have my own little niche in the RP in order to be able to operate within it. Any little gimmick, my own role in group, just something character-defining that is unique to me/my character. This is not usually a problem, as I tend to make my own characters evading the overlaping with my fellow players, so for starters my character always has this little niche at least in my head. The problem starts if the RP continues to accept characters from new players after that, and those players come and step on my toes, often because they didn't bother reading the character sheets, though not always. When this happens it tends to entirely kill my motivation to RP, because it's not really a reason to protest- their character isn't necessarily bad or anything, it's just that they are doing the thing that was "my thing", and that's a real downer for me.

It's a petty thing from me, I realize, but I can't really help it. So I can only act within the confines that it leaves me in.

 

[Phangirl]

What rule do you have that, if broken, will immediately make you leave a Roleplay?

---

For me, it's a no one liners rule. If somebody shows up using one liners, there will be no words, no discussion, nothing. You read my rules, and chose to ignore them. Good day sir.

I frown upon anyone who's first message to me is some sort of flirtatious move. I'm a teenager, I'm not here for romance between real people. I also hate, HATE those stupid * thingies!

 

[BakaTheIdiot]

I frown upon anyone who's first message to me is some sort of flirtatious move. I'm a teenager, I'm not here for romance between real people. I also hate, HATE those stupid * thingies!

THANK YOU. I am also a minor, and I absolutely cannot stand this kind of thing. I came here to RP, not appeal to your fantasy.

 

[Phangirl]

THANK YOU. I am also a minor, and I absolutely cannot stand this kind of thing. I came here to RP, not appeal to your fantasy.

Yes! Ugh, I always felt like I was the only one! Such creeps, I swear.

 

[Coco Adel]

My unbreakable rule is participation, of course, I have other peeves but that one is a dealbreaker for me. I may not need you to contribute ideas, I mean it would be nice but I don't need that, as long as you can at least follow along and participate I'm good. However, I can't deal with people who have no agency about themselves whatsoever, I can't deal with a partner who is merely there to observe and can't even provide the simplest of answers looks should we go left or right or where every major interaction or majority of interactions period is just me talking to or fighting with myself. It makes me feel like you don't actually want to RP with me, it makes me feel like I'm RPing with myself and I refuse to RP with myself when there is supposed to be a whole other person here.

 

[JadeGreen17]

When somebody starts adding abilities or equipment or buffing speed/strength/durability mid-fight because they're losing.

 

[BittyBobcat]

I don't have a problem with people doing it outside of rps I'm in (I don't really apply to rps with it) but whenever I fandom rp I absolutely can't make myself rp characters or watch other people rp canon characters.
Again, there is nothing objectively wrong with it, but if canon characters start appearing out of no where in an rp (unless its for a very minor role) it annoys me. I never sign up for rps that outright say they will involve/might involve canon characters in any of the info or interest checks or anything, so this doesn't happen often, but I still end up with the occasional curveball.

 

[Cassie Lang]

I don't have a problem with people doing it outside of rps I'm in (I don't really apply to rps with it) but whenever I fandom rp I absolutely can't make myself rp characters or watch other people rp canon characters.
Again, there is nothing objectively wrong with it, but if canon characters start appearing out of no where in an rp (unless its for a very minor role) it annoys me. I never sign up for rps that outright say they will involve/might involve canon characters in any of the info or interest checks or anything, so this doesn't happen often, but I still end up with the occasional curveball.

Same, really. I don't really touch canon characters unless in a minor NPC role. I like Fandom RPs, I just don't do canon characters.

 

[JadeGreen17]

I don't have a problem with people doing it outside of rps I'm in (I don't really apply to rps with it) but whenever I fandom rp I absolutely can't make myself rp characters or watch other people rp canon characters.
Again, there is nothing objectively wrong with it, but if canon characters start appearing out of no where in an rp (unless its for a very minor role) it annoys me. I never sign up for rps that outright say they will involve/might involve canon characters in any of the info or interest checks or anything, so this doesn't happen often, but I still end up with the occasional curveball.

I can live with other players in an RP doing canon characters, but RPing them myself is a No-No.