What trait(s) annoys you most in characters?

[Axel The Englishman]

Characters who never adapt to the situation.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Characters who never adapt to the situation.

What exactly do you mean by this? A lot of different examples can fall under this so I'm just curious as to what your definition is.

 

[Umbrie]

Characters who never adapt to the situation.

What exactly do you mean by this? A lot of different examples can fall under this so I'm just curious as to what your definition is.

i would likely guessed based on my own similar dislikes that this refers to a character that stays static or follows a preplanned path despite being exposed to circumstances that would clearly force a change in the character's goals or at least question what they have done. "i'm going to join the Knight's Templar because they are my hreoes" despite the fact the knights templar burned down your home village and slaughtered your family in front of you in the RP, and be like "i will join the Knight's Templar anyway". sorry, but no Sane character would view thier childhood heroes as heroes when said heroes burned down thier home village and proceeded to slaughter thier entire family before thier eyes. i mean, it might have been cool to want to be a Templar as a child. but post slaughter, i'm sure you would likely Vow Revenge or something, not try to become thier ally.

 

[Esper Alucard]

i would likely guessed based on my own similar dislikes that this refers to a character that stays static or follows a preplanned path despite being exposed to circumstances that would clearly force a change in the character's goals or at least question what they have done. "i'm going to join the Knight's Templar because they are my hreoes" despite the fact the knights templar burned down your home village and slaughtered your family in front of you in the RP, and be like "i will join the Knight's Templar anyway". sorry, but no Sane character would view thier childhood heroes as heroes when said heroes burned down thier home village and proceeded to slaughter thier entire family before thier eyes. i mean, it might have been cool to want to be a Templar as a child. but post slaughter, i'm sure you would likely Vow Revenge or something, not try to become thier ally.

This is why brainwashing exists


Also the Assassin's creed movie was kinda good, if anybody else saw it

 

[Husk]

Less a trait complaint, but I hate it when someone has a know-how or 'thing' that they can do, but the player behind them is horrible at practicing that thing. Like a charismatic that can't hold a conversation, or a doctor that cauterizes a bullet wound in a fucking hospital, or a soldier that can't write their combat actions well.






 

To be fair, while it's not a common practice, cauterizing a bullet wound in the hospital can happen if they need to stop the bleeding quickly and can't access the area. There are better alternatives but in the medical field our ABCs (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) come first so hell yes if it's what needs to be done I will do it. It's not a go to or preferred method but check out electrocauterization. 

 

[The Gunrunner]

To be fair, while it's not a common practice, cauterizing a bullet wound in the hospital can happen if they need to stop the bleeding quickly and can't access the area. There are better alternatives but in the medical field our ABCs (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) come first so hell yes if it's what needs to be done I will do it. It's not a go to or preferred method but check out electrocauterization. 

Fair enough, but this situation didn't apply. It was after the wound was closed via stitching. I... think it was also a leg wound...

 

[Husk]

Fair enough, but this situation didn't apply. It was after the wound was closed via stitching. I... think it was also a leg wound...

Oh, oh god, no point in cauterizing a stitched up wound unless he hated his patient. Tourniquets people! Put them extremities in a tourniquet! Not that it fits ALL situations but it's more likely than cauterization. We use tourniquets pre-hospital as well. Learn a lot medically from the wars that becomes standardized.

 

[Hyydra]

The characters that feel like they need to express every-single-thought that goes through their head, or how they want to simplify any argument as much as possible, careless of how long it takes.

 

[Blazinghookshot]

White knight characters or Mary sus.

 

[Umbrie]

White knight characters or Mary sus.

Mary Sue has become so Diluted a Term that it has lost its original meaning. the closest thing i can think of that honestly fits the definition is a minmaxed character or a character that is optimized for a particular skillset to an excessively unrealistically high degree for their character's functional age to the point it has no credibility. like a 19 year old Mythology Otaku being more knowledgeable about the weaknesses of Faeries than the 45 year old Veteran Witch Hunter who murders Faeries for a living. white knight characters are annoying when done wrong, and some roleplays specifically have a no white knight rule, like the majority of the stuff in within the core setting of the world of darkness line of RPGs by white wolf publishing.

 

[Throne Trinity]

Mary Sue has become so Diluted a Term that it has lost its original meaning. the closest thing i can think of that honestly fits the definition is a minmaxed character or a character that is optimized for a particular skillset to an excessively unrealistically high degree for their character's functional age to the point it has no credibility. like a 19 year old Mythology Otaku being more knowledgeable about the weaknesses of Faeries than the 45 year old Veteran Witch Hunter who murders Faeries for a living. white knight characters are annoying when done wrong, and some roleplays specifically have a no white knight rule, like the majority of the stuff in within the core setting of the world of darkness line of RPGs by white wolf publishing.

See, I have a bit of a different opinion on min-maxing characters. I think, if done correctly, a min-maxed character can be extremely enjoyable to play and entertaining to watch. Of course doing this to a character usually only works when the RP has some sort of stat based system, which means that when the time comes around for something like an intelligence roll (and you've been minned on intelligence) you're basically fucked, and that can lead to some pretty hilarious experiences.


Part of me wants to say that unless you're okay with having some wacky humor in your RP, a min-maxed character isn't for you, but the other part of me does believe that a truly skilled RPer could keep things serious and professional. Most min-maxed characters won't be found in a realistic RP, because you're right, most of the time it's excessively unrealistic, but in a game like D&D or other fantasy RP's I love having characters who are really good at a few things, and god awful at everything else. This tends to create situations (for a GM at least) where you want to throw the character out of there comfort zone and into a spot where they will almost certainly fail spectacularly, but the player then tries to use their skill set in a fun and creative way you didn't think of. I had this one player who had a bard character that was drunken and stupid, but very charismatic. He had very little dexterity and very little intelligence so I threw him into a sphinx's dungeon with the rest of his party and let me tell you, there are traps everywhere. Traps that our drunk would not be able to dodge. So instead of trying his hand at solving the riddles and traps, he just straight up turns around and seduces the sphinx!    


Anyway, that's just my opinion and my experience with min-maxed characters. I've seen it done well many times, and I'd like to believe I've done it well myself many times. That's not to say I haven't seen it go very wrong at times (strong man tries to punch all of his problems away), cause it has, but it's also something I can look back on and laugh (strong man tries to punch all of his problems away and succeeded).

 

[Umbrie]

it isn't having high scores and low scores i have an issue with. it is the degree of minmaxing that occurs to the point of comedic exaggeration i have issues with. of course, somebody whom is skilled at accounting will likely have trained their attributes towards being an accountant, but being an accountant shouldn't be the sole focus of their character. at the same time, there should be more to a soldier than merely being good at fighting things. most realistic characters are above average in some areas and below average in others. where it gets excessive is when the strong and tanky fighter can outmuscle tiamat but can't even tie the laces to their footwear or dress themselves without the help of a smarter character.

 

[Throne Trinity]

it isn't having high scores and low scores i have an issue with. it is the degree of minmaxing that occurs to the point of exaggeration i have issues with. of course, somebody whom is skilled at accounting will likely have trained their attributes towards being an accountant, but being an accountant shouldn't be the sole focus of their character. at the same time, there should be more to a soldier than merely being good at fighting things.

Oh, you're referring to when a character's becomes one thing. So like, if I had a character who was a poet but that was literally all they were good for and could do?  


Hello, my name is Po McEt and my personality is poet, my history is poetry and I like poetry but dislike things that are not poetry. Are you talking about that sort of thing? 

 

[Umbrie]

Oh, you're referring to when a character's becomes one thing. So like, if I had a character who was a poet but that was literally all they were good for and could do?  


Hello, my name is Po McEt and my personality is poet, my history is poetry and I like poetry but dislike things that are not poetry. Are you talking about that sort of thing? 

that is essentially the level of minmaxing i find to be excessive and cannot stand. the very point a character becomes a one trick pony, as your example, the poet whom was only good for poetry and could only do poetry but could whip up some divine poems.

 

[Esper Alucard]

Mary Sue has become so Diluted a Term that it has lost its original meaning

Just trying to spark comedy here, but the term Skill has also lost its original point, because skill back then was being able to take out Counter Strike 1v5-6. Nowadays its who can get the slowest bodyshot with the AWP.

Characters who never adapt to the situation.

Lets see... Tf2 snipers, Patrick 2.0 here with his BS Push Type, And people trying to back away as a tank... when they're being chased as rushers...


If you dont get it... Theres this simple world where customized brick people do random crap

 

[TPBx]

i would likely guessed based on my own similar dislikes that this refers to a character that stays static or follows a preplanned path despite being exposed to circumstances that would clearly force a change in the character's goals or at least question what they have done. "i'm going to join the Knight's Templar because they are my hreoes" despite the fact the knights templar burned down your home village and slaughtered your family in front of you in the RP, and be like "i will join the Knight's Templar anyway". sorry, but no Sane character would view thier childhood heroes as heroes when said heroes burned down thier home village and proceeded to slaughter thier entire family before thier eyes. i mean, it might have been cool to want to be a Templar as a child. but post slaughter, i'm sure you would likely Vow Revenge or something, not try to become thier ally.

I mean this would be plausible if you made it something like, "I'm gonna cure the corruption of the Knights Templar from within." But generally speaking, yeah its these sort of characters who lack any reasonable justification for their actions that tick me off.

 

[TPBx]

The characters that feel like they need to express every-single-thought that goes through their head, or how they want to simplify any argument as much as possible, careless of how long it takes.

To be fair, this is the reason why I've become really lenient as a GM about post length. Because you literally don't need to spout out 10 lines of drivel just to get a 1 or 2 line point across.

 

[ziggy455]

Characters that look at every single setback with a roll of their eyes and proceed to cut through any enemy unscatched.


Characters that have ten billion good traits and two bad traits. What annoys me is that characters that are well-rounded, and powerful for change are the ones who are flawed and filled with negative aspects and people just go "My character had a bad past and can take on anything unscathed." Doesn't make sense and kills the atmosphere.

 

[Umbrie]

Characters that look at every single setback with a roll of their eyes and proceed to cut through any enemy unscatched.


Characters that have ten billion good traits and two bad traits. What annoys me is that characters that are well-rounded, and powerful for change are the ones who are flawed and filled with negative aspects and people just go "My character had a bad past and can take on anything unscathed." Doesn't make sense and kills the atmosphere.

a bad past would make you less likely to take on things unscathed. abused children grow up to have less self esteem, not more. and a low self esteem can actually affect performance at stuff like a job or stuff like combat.

 

[DustyLeaves]

Aside from 2D characters, honestly one trait I really, really hate, and this is so specific I doubt anyone can relate. Is when I realize; A. I'm role playing with someone that can't handle shit not going their way. B. You're in some love triangle with them, and they have this insane moment where they realize they're not the "winner" of this game of romance. And what do they do next? This is C; The character you once actually got slightly invested in goes ape-shit, probably kills the other lover, you know, the one you're preferring. Then they proceed to try everything to get to you, attention seeking, whining, anything. It's not even the character traits, it's the person behind the screen flipping their shit. :3 Or, the definition of a sore looser.


But a character trait I hate the most? Sorry man, but I really hate the common cutesy character with no real dimensions. Or a character's existence is to just be cute. Kinda like Honey-Senpai from OHSHC, and then we get the; "dark side" of the character. Or when they *GASP* be intimidating and throw a damn tantrum because they can't have a cookie, or they can't get their way. XDD If you like these characters? Great, you actually appreciate something I can't. No sarcasm. But personally? When I see another one of these archetypes, I want to grab my gun, make sure it's filled to the brim with ammunition, and shoot their faces off. Not so cute when you're in tiny bloody pieces.


Oh, and minor thing I dislike, I hate it when people get disgusted if I say a character is chubby, or not perfect looking. I've run into that on so many other websites. Not that everyone does it, on the contrary actually. It's good I'm running into less and less of these. But it still exists.


:3 Just my personal opinions.

 

[ziggy455]

a bad past would make you less likely to take on things unscathed. abused children grow up to have less self esteem, not more. and a low self esteem can actually affect performance at stuff like a job or stuff like combat.

I see a lot of people making characters with tragic backstories where their character takes every conflict like it's nothing. It's not super realistic, and in RPs where you want to show character developent, it's annoying to see a bunch of Terminators given bad backstories for depth.

 

[Umbrie]

I see a lot of people making characters with tragic backstories where their character takes every conflict like it's nothing. It's not super realistic, and in RPs where you want to show character developent, it's annoying to see a bunch of Terminators given bad backstories for depth.

Tragic Backstory doesn't always Equal Depth. i could probably make a character with still living yet loving parents whom has a slight bit more Depth than your average Murderhobo Orphan. and i could probably do it without making them the blatant heir to the throne.

 

[Umbrie]

but Elena? how can you honestly give Depth to a Character with Living and Loving Parents?


you mean Ilina, but at least you got one of the derivative spellings. and i will tell you how, and your character doesn't need to be the Heir to a Title to do it.


complications can still happen to a character's family, and living relatives can still be targeted by officials as bargaining chips. in a Fallout Tabletop Game, Doctor Redwood had to save his Adopted, Reprogrammed, Refurbished Fully Sentient Gen 3.75 Synth Incursior Daughter quite often and you won't beleive how much his Historian Wife got in trouble trying to find a new pre-apocalypse book to add to her collection. lots of people target her for being the only Teacher for tens of miles with a fully intact copy of "the Legend of Five Rings" or "The Art of War" in her personal Library. these complications couldn't happen if i didn't give him a spouse and child.


i also had a character whom lived with her mother, and her mother was a Pharmacist, so i used the Pharmacist mother as an excuse to start with a rank or few in the Alchemy and First Aid Skills and justify a perk that made them class skills, on a character whom was primarily intended for reconnaissance. she disabled enemy traps, found them in the first place, scouted lairs, procured mcguffins, and bluffed her way out in costume. that is because intelligence and charisma are more useful than agility in those particular circumstances and in that particular RPG. "but why didn't your rogue optimize agility?" "because i was going for a Kunoichi style rogue whom focuses on blending in and infiltrating by appearing harmless and friendly rather than a nimble person in black pajamas with a katana in each hand."