Experiences Whats making you angry today? Rp pet peeves

[Murdergurl]

I also have had this problem. I have an entire world I have created that think would make a great RP setting but it never works, it's not even that people won't sign up they just don't seem to listen. Like I'll say there is a fair amount of lore and such that I have to tell you about so you can understand the gist of the setting and have the info necessary for you to make your character because I want you to know all your options and see what you'd be interested in, hell I'lleven accept your characters and world-building ideas that you've made with no prior knowledge and we can just tweak and adapt them to fit the setting they say it's fine but they always seem to be surprised Pikachu face when exactly what I warned them about beforehand is presented to them.

Then I go and put a interest check out with the minimalist of effort and everyone lines up...its disheartening when you put so much work into something and you love it pieces and no one seems to be interested, yet they flock for the things you barely put any thought into. It's not a dig at anyoknd because obviously I kike this RP too, love them actually it's just frustrating sometimes.

Well, I woudnt say that you have the same problem. At least you have people lining up at your "minimal effort" ideas. I've presented and repackaged things in different ways. Hell, I've even gone as far as to whittle down my group ideas into 1x1 dynamic. But I still get nothing. It sucks, and is why I have gone on multiple hiatus over the last few years. I've only recently come back from one, but the utter lack of interest (and some other factors) makes me feel like leaving again.

 

[Wandering Fae]

Wandering Fae i think it’s over-explaining that is the problem. I am also a heavy world builder and the most consistent feedback I get is that it’s overwhelming.

So my solution is just “fish out of water”. Put another way my partner just plays a character with no experience with the setting.

Now depending on the world there might be some very basic things they need to know :

Ex. People have superpowers, all super powers are hereditary, you can’t have these types of powers.

And of course if they have a question OOC I will answer it at any point.

But I have found it’s more exciting for both parties if I just reveal the world through the story rather then try to explain it in the beginning. Because a lot of times other people just aren’t interested in the minutia the way I am.

See that's the thing, I've found a way to simplify it and I have given them the option of doing fish out of water and learning as we go, for that very reason, but they insist that it's fine despite this. I understand that it's a lot I've said as much I've warned them about it, my issue is that people seem to think I'm kidding or something about th very thing I just told them about.

 

[nerdy tangents]

See that's the thing, I've found a way to simplify it and I have given them the option of doing fish out of water and learning as we go, for that very reason, but they insist that it's fine despite this. I understand that it's a lot I've said as much I've warned them about it, my issue is that people seem to think I'm kidding or something about th very thing I just told them about.

I think it’s more perspective. I can easily do pages of world building. That to me is “a lot”

But for some people multiple paragraphs is “a lot”

So it’s not that they think your lying it’s that your version of a lot is different.

 

[Lunar Bunny]

In response to the current topic, I think people forget sometimes that most of the userbase on Rpnation (and I'd argue that this is the case for the majority of forum roleplay sites these days) have a casual mindset when it comes to stories. That is to say, they want their entertainment to be easily digestible.

Part of the reason why writing workshops tell you not to dump exposition is because 99.9% of people will not care for it, especially in the early stages of the story. Maybe a hardcore fan or two will get really deep into the lore of their favorite story, but the truth is that few people will love your world as much as you do and not after already getting super invested into it. Unfortunately, and this is a comment a lot of rpers here don't seem to like, if you have a world you really love, you're better off writing short stories about them on your own time. Not that they should be published, just that, like I said, roleplayers may not appreciate the level of care you put into your worldbuilding.

This also goes for niche topics. If you're not hitting the common tropes most people enjoy in rp (attractive people doing attractive things with maybe a love subplot and minimal conflict) you'll probably not get much interest. A lot of people here just want to see their darlings dab their eyes once in a while and otherwise go about their lives, fall in love, etc. Not many are looking for a high-stakes thrill-ride, historically accurate castle politics, or to play as a less than savory creature. I don't know what it is, but most people here shun uncomfortable concepts like that. In the past, I rped topics like, "best friends reconnect after X years of separation only to get caught in a Saw-like experiment run by two psychopaths" but good luck finding interest in something horrible like that here lol.

 

[Melpomene]

In response to the current topic, I think people forget sometimes that most of the userbase on Rpnation (and I'd argue that this is the case for the majority of forum roleplay sites these days) have a casual mindset when it comes to stories. That is to say, they want their entertainment to be easily digestible.

Part of the reason why writing workshops tell you not to dump exposition is because 99.9% of people will not care for it, especially in the early stages of the story. Maybe a hardcore fan or two will get really deep into the lore of their favorite story, but the truth is that few people will love your world as much as you do and not after already getting super invested into it. Unfortunately, and this is a comment a lot of rpers here don't seem to like, if you have a world you really love, you're better off writing short stories about them on your own time. Not that they should be published, just that, like I said, roleplayers may not appreciate the level of care you put into your worldbuilding.

This also goes for niche topics. If you're not hitting the common tropes most people enjoy in rp (attractive people doing attractive things with maybe a love subplot and minimal conflict) you'll probably not get much interest. A lot of people here just want to see their darlings dab their eyes once in a while and otherwise go about their lives, fall in love, etc. Not many are looking for a high-stakes thrill-ride, historically accurate castle politics, or to play as a less than savory creature. I don't know what it is, but most people here shun uncomfortable concepts like that. In the past, I rped topics like, "best friends reconnect after X years of separation only to get caught in a Saw-like experiment run by two psychopaths" but good luck finding interest in something horrible like that here lol.

Yeah this is generally true for a majority of media.

Niche ideas are just not going to be picked up by most people that is why they are niche.

This isn't to say don't look. Just expect to have to spend a long... Long time before you find people who are into the same thing. I've learned that, and now I have few, but very good RP partners that I enjoy writing with. It sucks, but the more niche your interests the more patient you have to be.

 

[Coco Adel]

In response to the current topic, I think people forget sometimes that most of the userbase on Rpnation (and I'd argue that this is the case for the majority of forum roleplay sites these days) have a casual mindset when it comes to stories. That is to say, they want their entertainment to be easily digestible.

Part of the reason why writing workshops tell you not to dump exposition is because 99.9% of people will not care for it, especially in the early stages of the story. Maybe a hardcore fan or two will get really deep into the lore of their favorite story, but the truth is that few people will love your world as much as you do and not after already getting super invested into it. Unfortunately, and this is a comment a lot of rpers here don't seem to like, if you have a world you really love, you're better off writing short stories about them on your own time. Not that they should be published, just that, like I said, roleplayers may not appreciate the level of care you put into your worldbuilding.

In response to the current subject...I kind of don't feel this applies here, don't get me wrong it's true but at the same time from what I can understand the people were warned beforehand that there was a lot. Yes, our definitions of what is a lot differ, Like I've met people who think more than two sentences is a lot. However, if I am understanding the comments correctly they were also given the option to receive said world-building in a digestible way but actively choose to go for the exposition dump, that's not really their fault if their partners actively choose to take the harder route.

Now if you aren't feeling it you aren't feeling it, but honestly, to me, that issue falls on the partner at that point. I mean I can't force you to take the easy route, but you also can't blame me for something being hard when I told you this route to the right is hard but I have this easier route for you on the left and you decide to go to the right and then when you see the route on the right is hard like I told you it was, instead of taking the left route that I have explained it much easier you decide to give up altogether that's not really my fault at that point. I'm not saying anyone is obligated to do anything but you could also just not sign up for something you know you're just not going to be into, like you know from the start rather or not you can handle a lot of exposition all at once or if you'd like it fed to you in digestible bites, no one made you wolf that info down but you.

 

[Lunar Bunny]

In response to the current subject...I kind of don't feel this applies here, don't get me wrong it's true but at the same time from what I can understand the people were warned beforehand that there was a lot. Yes, our definitions of what is a lot differ, Life met people who think more than two sentences is a lot. However, if I am understanding the comments correctly they were also given the option to receive said world-building ins a digestible way but actively choose to go for the exposition dump, that's not really their fault if their partners actively choose to take the harder route.

That's true, that's kind of how I understood it as well. I was speaking more broadly in that I'd personally avoid trying to start a rp that has that much lore at all. In Wandering Fae's case, I have no idea what the options looked like to the other players. For all I know, the full exposition could have been a few extra sentences or an entire novel's worth. Either way, something happened where the players thought, "sure, how much detail can there really be?" to "oh... uh, actually, I'm not into it g2g."

 

[Wandering Fae]

That's true, that's kind of how I understood it as well. I was speaking more broadly in that I'd personally avoid trying to start a rp that has that much lore at all. In Wandering Fae's case, I have no idea what the options looked like to the other players. For all I know, the full exposition could have been a few extra sentences or an entire novel's worth. Either way, something happened where the players thought, "sure, how much detail can there really be?" to "oh... uh, actually, I'm not into it g2g."

The full exposition dump would consist of multiple documents of lore, the short version involves and short overview of the world's premise which is about a paragraph long, and then the rest we can learn on the way. I may give a bit more if you tell me what kind of character you want to play and I present you with similar options that exist in the world which again is only about a paragraph or two at the most. The rest we can do as we go along, as I mentioned to another person I do give a fish out of water option, but for some reason, all my partners insist that they would rather just have all the information from the beginning.

 

[Coco Adel]

The full exposition dump would consist of multiple documents of lore, the short version involves and short overview of the world's premise which is about a paragraph long, and then the rest we can learn on the way. I may give a bit more if you tell me what kind of character you want to play and I present you with similar options that exist in the world which again is only about a paragraph or two at the most. The rest we can do as we go along, as I mentioned to another person I do give a fish out of water option, but for some reason, all my partners insist that they would rather just have all the information from the beginning.

If this is true...I would just not post the interest check with the option to have all the info from the beginning, protect them from themselves so to speak, just present it as you have a lot of content that you can work with to make an interesting story for y'all to RP with, as long as you only present things that are relevant at the time in a case by case basis as you go along it should be fine...should but that's not a guarantee.

 

[nerdy tangents]

The full exposition dump would consist of multiple documents of lore, the short version involves and short overview of the world's premise which is about a paragraph long, and then the rest we can learn on the way. I may give a bit more if you tell me what kind of character you want to play and I present you with similar options that exist in the world which again is only about a paragraph or two at the most. The rest we can do as we go along, as I mentioned to another person I do give a fish out of water option, but for some reason, all my partners insist that they would rather just have all the information from the beginning.

Have you informed them that it is multiple documents of lore? I might just give them an example :

* this is not necessary to read but it is an example of the full lore *

(( link to document ))

As I said I think it’s just that your version of “a lot” is more in depth than their used to.

 

[Lunar Bunny]

The full exposition dump would consist of multiple documents of lore, the short version involves and short overview of the world's premise which is about a paragraph long, and then the rest we can learn on the way.

I think the disconnect might have been this right here. A paragraph per section is about what most people can take. If you offer more lore than that, sure, curiosity might get the better of them and they'll insist to see it, but the pages upon pages of documents will ultimately scare them off. I agree with Coco Adel that you shouldn't even mention the larger scope of the lore. Only give players the relevant information and keep the rest to yourself as Author's Notes.

 

[Wandering Fae]

Have you informed them that it is multiple documents of lore? I might just give them an example :

* this is not necessary to read but it is an example of the full lore *

(( link to document ))

As I said I think it’s just that your version of “a lot” is more in-depth than their used to.

I always tell them it's multiple documents and I usually share those documents in a PM and stress the fact that there is a shorter and easier option. They insist upon having all the info from the beginning so I post all the documents and again after I have posted the documents remind them again that there is an easier option that I am more than willing to do, but they insist that they can read all of it, that they like reading and love when people put this much detail into their world, etc and again I stress that theg don't need to read it all from the beginning, we can just learn as we go along, in the end, they always come back and tell me there is a lot to read...something I told them from the beginning, something I showed them and pretty much asked if they were sure several times, but I still offer to go the easier route because I know it's a lot, but I think I'll go with what Coco said from now on.

 

[Coco Adel]

I always tell them it's multiple documents and I usually share those documents in a PM and stress the fact that there is a shorter and easier option. They insist upon having all the info from the beginning so I post all the documents and again after I have posted the documents remind them again that there is an easier option that I am more than willing to do, but they insist that they can read all of it, that they like reading and love when people put this much detail into their world, etc and again I stress that theg don't need to read it all from the beginning, we can just learn as we go along, in the end, they always come back and tell me there is a lot to read...something I told them from the beginning, something I showed them and pretty much asked if they were sure several times, but I still offer to go the easier route because I know it's a lot, but I think I'll go with what Coco said from now on.

So here is why I say don't give them the option. Some people feel like they have to match you to be an adequate partner, it's a self-worth thing, they have to feel like they can keep up with you so even if you give them an easier option they may feel like you're babying them and don't like the idea of having to have their hand held for any length of time so if they feel like they can't walk beside you as an equal they'll quit. This has nothing to do with you, obviously, you have no problem walking them through it until theg catch their stride, but that's how people be sometimes, by not giving them the option you eliminate that because it's build in that you will be walking them through it.

 

[Wandering Fae]

On a related note, when people post a lot one after the other whilst you're working on a reply and you never get to post because you are constantly editing it to add in the new information from the constant barrage of posts. Then if you say screw it, I'm gonna post someone gets mad because you "ignored" their post...look somebody had to suffer the cold shoulder because otherwise y'all would complain that I'm not participating, maybe slow down for a sister when she tells you she is working on her post.

 

[Coco Adel]

This seems like a really silly peeve to have but I've been on this site for a long time and it irritates the hell out of me that the fantasy and modern and realistic tags have switched colors. I know this is a nothing burger, but at th same time why? Why did they need to switch colors?

 

[Abyss]

This seems like a really silly peeve to have but I've been on this site for a long time and it irritates the hell out of me that the fantasy and modern and realistic tags have switched colors. I know this is a nothing burger, but at th same time why? Why did they need to switch colors?

For me, I miss having your latest status update included in the little pop-up from when you hover your curser over a user's profile. They were fun and I feel like they were more relevant when they were included.

 

[Onmyoji]

This seems like a really silly peeve to have but I've been on this site for a long time and it irritates the hell out of me that the fantasy and modern and realistic tags have switched colors. I know this is a nothing burger, but at th same time why? Why did they need to switch colors?

It was brought to our attention that users with color blindness were having difficulty distinguishing between some prefixes.
So we switched those two colors to make them more distinct.

 

[Coco Adel]

It was brought to our attention that users with color blindness were having difficulty distinguishing between some prefixes.
So we switched those two colors to make them more distinct.

Okay that sounds like a good reason...however, it still makes no sense to me because the colors were not changed they were just switched, they're the same colors it's just realistic and modern is purple now instead of fantasy and fantasy is green now instead of realistic and modern. Now I will fully admit I probably don't understand because I'm not colorblind but wouldn't using the exact same colors on different labels still have the same problem or am I wrong?

 

[Onmyoji]

Okay that sounds like a good reason...however, it still makes nmo sense to me because the colors were no changed they were just switched, they're the same colors it's just realistic and modern is purple now instead of fantasy and fantasy is green now instead of realistic and modern. Now I will fully admit I probably don't understand because I'm not colorblind but wouldn't using the exact same colors on different labels still have the same problem or am I wrong

Those two prefixes have different length of words.
The problem was that Fandom (pink) and Fantasy (purple) were both short words and both start with F. It was hard to distinguish between purple and pink.
So we switched purple from Fantasy to Realistic and modern because the length of words is very different and green is easier to distinguish from pink.

 

[Coco Adel]

Those two prefixes have different lengths of words.
The problem was that Fandom (pink) and Fantasy (purple) were both short words and both start with F. It was hard to distinguish between purple and pink.
So we switched purple from Fantasy to Realistic and modern because the length of words is very different and green is easier to distinguish from pink.

Oh okay that makes perfect sense now, maybe it'll stop bugging me so much now that I know

 

[Murdergurl]

Why is it that Group servers on Discord rarely (if ever) proffer up group RPs? Everyone inevitably winds up posting up RP reqs and then going off on 1x1s.

I am just getting SO frustrated with RP overall.

 

[Inno]

I don't mind doing the opener for roleplays. If it's a plot of my creation that a partner and I have brainstormed on, fine, not a problem. It really does make sense. Now my issue is with some others who have these big plots and huge worlds, lore, etc and I'm coming in with my characters yet they expect me to write the opener. There's not even any type of compromise. No "I'll write the starter since things are happening that I want to happen first."

I get red flags when some people don't even want to do an opener when the idea is theirs to begin with.

 

[BestHelicopter]

People who seem to use pretty much all the filters when posting an advert.

The amount that have say 'realistic', and 'zombie' for example.
Oh so zombies are realistic now?!

It makes it hard to find roleplays I like as I'm generally into modern realistic slice of life type. 'm not into fantasy so want to filter it out but loads of people seem to have both fantasy and realistic tags which means I'm scrolling through pages and pages of fantasy roleplays to actually find a realistic roleplay

 

[Wandering Fae]

People who seem to use pretty much all the filters when posting an advert.

The amount that have say 'realistic', and 'zombie' for example.
Oh so zombies are realistic now?!

It makes it hard to find roleplays I like as I'm generally into modern realistic slice of life type. 'm not into fantasy so want to filter it out but loads of people seem to have both fantasy and realistic tags which means I'm scrolling through pages and pages of fantasy roleplays to actually find a realistic roleplay

Well realistic is a bit subjective on with website, modern and realistic doesn't always mean it's 100% based in reality, it just means that it's more based in reality than say high fantasy, such as having realistic survival rules or if you get injured the healing process is more realistic than just "I'll use magic and heal myself instantly "

 

[Onmyoji]

Yes, pretty much what Fae said.
Realistic is more in terms of having realistic setting and rules of the world as opposed to 'pew pew magic'.
Zombie setting is not realistic by itself but if the plot happens during "modern era" and people have to rely on realistic equipment to survive and not on magic or lightsabers then it can have "realistic/modern" prefix.