Viewpoint What you cannot stand in characters?

I can't RP against [most] characters that are self-proclaimed geniuses. I don't mean scholarly, smart, or storied. I mean the 'instant prodigy baby genius IQ of 599' type of characters.

For starters; the wise man knows he knows nothing, and pasting how smart your character is all over your character sheet is just telling me they're smart, not showing me. Which means I instinctively have little to no faith the writer can handle writing a character like this, and it's probably out of their depth anyways.

That's my true only sticking point when it comes to not really wanting to RP with someone's character; if their reach is a very, very, very far reach. It instantly kills immersion, and it doesn't really matter what they're going for. They could want the most bad-ass monk, or the strongest dragon-witch, or most powerful mecha anime cat girl.

What matters is that they can handle writing the character, or if they're just pantomiming what they think the attributes are, without owning them fully.
 
Crayons said:
I know what I mean. Have you never seen the spelling noob?! XD

But people use newness/inexperience as a stick to beat people with and that's not what I'm getting at.
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I think he was simply describing the differences between the two. “Noob” being someone who isn’t very good at something despite experience and “newb” being someone who is literally just new to something and due to that aren’t skilled at the subject. They are interchangeable in a lot of venues, but I personally use them differently with said definitions.
 
I can't deal with insanely hot characters whose only personality trait is that they're hot. The worst thing is, these characters will constantly talk about their hotness and the effects it has on other characters and if perchance your character doesn't acknowledge and worship their beauty it's an affront to God or something. Yes, you're pretty, but so is anything that Michelangelo has painted and you don't see me obsessing over the Sistine Chapel. Beauty is subjective, and it can only get you so far. Get a hobby or grow a personality! Not to say you can't have a pretty character IC, just make them more than their face and body, ya know, a person.
 
- Characters that have zero flaws make a plot or story incredibly boring (especially in RP).
- Joker-Harley based romances that romanticize abuse, or hell, even the characters.
- The whole "my character is powerful, but they can't control their powers" play.
 
when a character is created purely to one up the others whether it’s in power, pure interest, talents/skills, intelligence etc. Hard to explain because I have no problem with OPness in the right context but it u can tell when it’s the intent to just be the “best” of all the characters.
 
*Cracks knuckles.*

1. People who give their characters disabilities (mental or physical) and they clearly had no idea what their limitations are or pretend that their characters can get about day to day life easily. Blind characters who know the exact layout of every strange new city they go into. Mutes who can 'talk easily with their eyes'. People with mental disorders.... who.. okay, this one is a long one and covers everything but people who basically RP mental disorders with no clue.

2. Characters who are edgy for the sake of being edgy. Their only trait is edginess. They have no other redeeming characteristic growth. Just edge. Sharp, sharp edge.

3. The pretty girls who always need help or are always getting into trouble. Likewise, the pretty girls who are total badasses and never need any help and can do everything flawlessly because they got 600 years of grandpa's karate training.

4. Characters so lustful and romance driven that the world can be on fire and the orphans are running loose with wild dogs chasing them but they're only worried about making out.
 
The character that can't be injured or if they do get injured they are able to recover without some issues later on all in the same post. Dude is shot several times, he's up and about at Starbucks.
 
This is strongly tied to my own preferences of course and I definitely don't want to beat anybody down for the way they like to portray their characters, but I personally get turned off by almost all characters that are like... overly badass. Especially in a setting where it would be most logical for that character to be inexperienced.

It's okay for people to write their own characters whatever way they want, we can all easily choose what to engage in! I prefer to play more submissive characters, and I love characters with flaws. If you start that character from the bottom the only way they can go is up! Giving way to plenty of opportunities for character development.

Some Fallout fanfictions would make a great example on what I'm talking about. I just don't think it makes much sense for a character that spent most of their life in a cozy, easy apple pie life pre-apocalypse setting to be cryogenically frozen for many years, to come out into a dangerous wasteland knowin' how to dual wield machetes or some shit, or come out of a gun battle completely unscathed and unbothered. I wanna see that character struggle, go through emotional turmoil and face tons of new challenges!
 
This is going to get heavy.

I cannot stand it when people include depressing traits in every character. I used to role-play with some people and one of the girls would insist that every character had been assaulted in a sexual manner, mainly when her characters would be in single digit ages. Not only would they have that traumatic backstory, they’d have everything thrown in there in attempt to “do it first.” I’m just going to leave it there; sweet and straight to the point.

I also dislike when people make overpowered characters who instantly know everything about your own character on first meeting.
 
Sybela said:
This is going to get heavy.

I cannot stand it when people include depressing traits in every character. I used to role-play with some people and one of the girls would insist that every character had been assaulted in a sexual manner, mainly when her characters would be in single digit ages. Not only would they have that traumatic backstory, they’d have everything thrown in there in attempt to “do it first.” I’m just going to leave it there; sweet and straight to the point.
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OOH yeah. The traumatic sexual assault backstories, I've seen a ton of those, too. There are TONS of other ideas for traumatic events, or even just ordinary challenges, like medical problems for instance. Why not? There are thousands of medical conditions to research and explore.

I like some characters that struggle with depression or anxiety, but mental illness is a popular crutch as well that people will beat the hell out of. Just... characters that wanna kill themselves all the time or their backstories always including suicide attempts, and that's about as deep as it goes for some characters.
 
Characters that throw themselves at every member of the opposite sex*, often times all at once.
With a player who hopes to score that sweet, sweet romance with whoever gives them attention first.

*It can happen with same sex characters but I notice it far less.
The biggest culprit tend to be females pining after males characters.​
 
I'm immediately concerned when a character will be really violent. The roleplay could be totally chill and laidback, but there might be that one character who will KILL you at a second's notice. I've only seen a few, but I'm always terrified when something like that comes my way--is this reflective of the player themselves? IS MY CHARACTER IN DANGER?

You know, those or the ones who psychopaths. How do I know they're psychopaths? Because the character sheet says so. Oh, but don't worry, the writer said, "Your character will probably be safe." WHAT DOES "PROBABLY" MEAN? THIS IS WHY I GO VERY FEW PLACES ON THE INTERNET!
 
AnimeGenork said:
I'm immediately concerned when a character will be really violent. The roleplay could be totally chill and laidback, but there might be that one character who will KILL you at a second's notice. I've only seen a few, but I'm always terrified when something like that comes my way--is this reflective of the player themselves? IS MY CHARACTER IN DANGER?

You know, those or the ones who psychopaths. How do I know they're psychopaths? Because the character sheet says so. Oh, but don't worry, the writer said, "Your character will probably be safe." WHAT DOES "PROBABLY" MEAN? THIS IS WHY I GO VERY FEW PLACES ON THE INTERNET!
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Honestly this sounds like the sort of thing I'd do
 
Reading so many things here that I'm like "ehehehe uh yea! that thing I totally never do..." like my one sorrow-porn character I wrote in high school. He ended up in so many multiverse RPs: first he watched his planet 'splode because it got infested by nasties so bad conventional cleansing (orbital nuclear bombardment) wouldn't work, then his reality died and he built a ship out of duct-tape, staples, and magic engineering to basically be a Tony Stark archetype with a 200% weakness to magic and alcoholism.

He once ended up in a Kingdom Hearts RP and regularly got stranded on worlds because he refused to play with Gummi blocks, and called a Keyblader a few nasty names before one ended up choosing him. But, he figured out how to synthesize whiskey so all was well. Looking back, if I'd been less edgy he would have been absolutely hilarious to play and not at all filled me with cringe and regret. Could have predated Rick Sanchez by nearly a decade.

On to my peeves though: I've seen it more in DnD than anywhere else, but it has happened in a few odd freeforms, but when one character branches off from the rest of the group and does something that ruins everything for the entire group. Like the player that made his character Evil just so he could get his rocks off when his character is the only one that tossed out their moral compass. Player Characters are supposed to be a unit, and someone who responds with "suck my unit" gives me a figurative aneurysm. Why bother making a character if the Wizard goes and Ennervates the Paladin to reveal his CE nature?

But beyond THAT! When a character takes anything done to them to the absolute worst possible interpretation every time. "Oh, you stayed in town because your mother is deathly ill and you need to tend to her? Sounds a lot like you lied to me when you said you'd help me." "Oh, you want me to come back in the morning after I get some rest because I'm not being coherent? I'll go die in the woods now, because you hate me." 🤬
 
Windsock said:
I dont like it when insanity is portrayed as an excuse to be lolrandom or just edgy.
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Now is there a setting in which mental disorders not portrayed factually correct would be okay for u? I ask this because there are many different writing styles and genres. For example, One Piece has a character called pudding who obviously suffers from a personality defect although u probably wouldn’t find it in their bio. I don’t think it’s portrayed completely accurately and at times there are funny moments because of it. One Piece is a wacky anime where logic has been thrown out the window for some time so I don’t have a problem with it and I’m certain there is a huge sect of RP’ers who draw inspiration from stories like these. Now for more realistic or serious RPs I feel the same way about inaccurate portrayals as u, but I do think there is a setting for looser concepts. Just wanted to hear your thoughts and anyone else who feels the same way.
 
LazyDaze said:
Now is there a setting in which mental disorders not portrayed factually correct would be okay for u? I ask this because there are many different writing styles and genres. For example ... ... ... Just wanted to hear your thoughts and anyone else who feels the same way.
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I obviously don't mind if it's respectful and well done (I'm not familiar with one piece so I don't know your example), but I think the furtherance of what I mean is best exemplified by an anecdote of mine conveying why I dislike it.

So I was running a game many years ago when I was newer to running RP's and the basic idea was spelunking in spooky tombs, and somebody made a character that was insane and has been stuck down there for a while. At first I was ecstatic because that's great natural synergy between a character concept and the story they're in, but they were entirely normal besides just saying random shit like "blueberry muffin.. pancake.." when they were bored. While stuck in a spooky tomb full of weird creatures, why would you be worried about foodstuffs? It doesn't make sense even from a non-standard perspective, and was just generally played awfully. Then they ditched the concept and acted 'normally' afterwards.

I find that disingenious and I've had similar anecdotes, and I know it isn't emblematic of everyone who wants to play or explore 'insanity' themes, but it just seems more trouble than its worth to actually convey the theme properly for most people. I'd like to see the theme properly played through, at least go whole hog and be absolutely bonkers. Insanity is awful in real life, and I feel that part should be conveyed better instead of just using it as a throw-away tidbit or gag.

Thank you for wanting me to discuss it further and throwing your own two cents.

ADDENDUM: edited in more clarity, in orange.
 
Windsock said:
I obviously don't mind if it's respectful and well done (I'm not familiar with one piece so I don't know your example), but I think the furtherance of what I mean is best exemplified by an anecdote of mine conveying why I dislike it.

So I was running a game many years ago when I was newer to running RP's and the basic idea was spelunking in spooky tombs, and somebody made a character that was insane and has been stuck down there for a while. At first I was ecstatic because that's great natural synergy between a character concept and the story they're in, but they were entirely normal besides just saying random shit like "blueberry muffin.. pancake.." when they were bored. While stuck in a spooky tomb full of weird creatures, why would you be worried about foodstuffs? It doesn't make sense even from a non-standard perspective, and was just generally played awfully. Then they ditched the concept and acted 'normally' afterwards.

I find that disingenious and I've had similar anecdotes, and I know it isn't emblematic of everyone who wants to play or explore 'insanity' themes, but it just seems more trouble than its worth to actually convey the theme properly for most people. I'd like to see the theme properly played through, at least go whole hog and be absolutely bonkers. Insanity is awful in real life, and I feel that part should be conveyed better instead of just using it as a throw-away tidbit or gag.

Thank you for wanting me to discuss it further and throwing your own two cents.

ADDENDUM: edited in more clarity, in orange.
Click to expand...

Highlighted in red: That is the whole truth
No problem, I’ve always wanted to know because I’ve heard this many times. And oh dear, I suppose I have been REALLY lucky or really good at picking RP’s/partners. I was giving ppl more credit, believing no one would do...well that. Lol and I agree, that is a pretty bad representation of mental illness no matter what u draw from. I can definitely see how ppl will just use it as a crutch and I’ve heard stories on how others have glorified mental illness. I haven’t come across it myself so it was good to hear your experience.
 
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