Experiences What's one RP trope/topic that makes you leave without discussion?

[Milkshake Crush]

What's one RP trope/topic that makes you leave without discussion? Like, you don't even bother asking if they can change their post/character if it involves XYZ.

For me it would be (teen) pregnancy. Not at all a "weird" topic in general, I just don't want to get involved with it at all. It makes me so uncomfortable.

Or someone wanting to write in first-person, rather than third. I want there to be a clear difference between character and author.

Don't fight in the replies, yo. This is all based on personal experiences. To each their own.

 

[FloofWhispers]

Mpreg or Rape. Just. No.

One, Mpreg is just weird af.

Secondly, I've dealt with rape at least three times in my lifetime, and that shit isn't fucking funny.​

 

[Lorsh]

If the character sheets are inexplicably filled with anime refs

 

[Hootle]

I will automatically nope out of any type of discussion with the following:

Abusive relationships
Stockholm Syndrome/Kidnapping
Possessive and obsessive characters
Teen Angst

 

[Seabiscuit]

Sorry to hear about the three experiences. No one deserves that kind of crap.

I sort of agree with the mpreg thing though, but it has to make sense to me. Like if the character trans-male, and they kept their uterus. If it is not the case, then yes, I would say it's weird.

Mpreg or Rape. Just. No.

One, Mpreg is just weird af.

Secondly, I've dealt with rape at least three times in my lifetime, and that shit isn't fucking funny.​

For me, I can't really do girl x girl roleplays. Nothing against lesbians, I just can't roleplay it.

 

[Mr Phoebius]

Spoiler: This is my thinking

All the previous mentions for sure. Plus arrogancy. I can't stand someone who tells you "Do what ever you want you're free to storytelling..." and then "You should have told me, you can't do that because you didn't asked my permission to write about it". There's people so entitled that they consider themselves hurt when you develop storytelling and they just dont. If you're gonna let your stuff clear just say it beforehand, because I would want to develop scenario and backstory. I don't care if you wont.

A very sad sh@#t to withness, then you know that player didn't wanted to play with you, but owning you.

Roleplay should be a matter of according sets, and freedom. Free way to learn from veterans, and show new players the possibilities. People who thinks they can own people and make them do what they want should stop to Rp. That's not what this is about.

 

[Mr Phoebius]

If the character sheets are inexplicably filled with anime refs

Definitely agree with you. There's people who does not recognize human culture as valuable outside from its own. That kind of purism is blinding stuff. As Rp's we have to be willing to interact with other influences Not making them fuse into ours.

 

[StrixDesmodus]

Gosh, I only do group rps and I try to be open to what the people want, but here's a few things I don't like. It's probably not an exhaustive list, but it's what I can think of at the moment.

• Shipping potential as a primary character trait. This is a red flag for me, as usually whoever does this will railroad the rp.
• Inflexible post length quotas. Not only do my post lengths tend to vary wildly, but I've caught some harsh flak for it. If I so much as see someone say "no one-liners" it makes me nervous, even though I can usually manage to write more than one line. Similarly, people using the term "literacy" as a synonym for high post length. This ties into the bad experiences I had, but was a pet peeve from the get-go for the inaccurate usage of the word.
• Most fandom rps. I just feel afraid to get things wrong, even if it's a fandom I'm into myself. For this reason, I vastly prefer original settings. If fandom is involved, it must be an AU.
• Posting orders. They're too restrictive for me, and break realism.

 

[GojiBean]

There is a lot I can and will put up with as far as role-playing.

However, there are a few things I don't stand for and won't ever involve myself with. And they are as follows:

1) Post Length Requirements.

Post length is 100% arbitrary and is not a measure of a writer's skills or their "literacy." In fact, it's usually the exact opposite. The more someone writes, the more likely they are to be making mistakes, spouting needless exposition, describing details nobody cares about and which aren't relevant to what's going on, and breaking the golden rule of "Show, Don't Tell." I often prefer shorter, or at least more concise posts, as it's much easier to include only the most important and relevant details while also moving the story forward in the moment.

In my 20+ years of role-playing it's been a very, very rare occurrence that a longer post has been a truly high quality one.

The instant I see any sort of post length requirement, I wouldn't join even if they wanted to pay me to participate.

2) GM Micro-Management.

It's been very rare that I've encountered this, but I have in fact encountered a few GM's over the years who would stop me after every post and say "I don't like this," "can you change that," or "this isn't what I'd like to happen, can you adjust the outcome?"

If a GM ever tries to micro-manage me like that, I leave immediately with a very stern word to said GM in a private message to remember me by.

Stories aren't meant to be micro-managed. And individual stories aren't meant to adhere to one person's personal vision or preferences. For example, if the GM's character says something my character doesn't like and they ask me to change it so that my character likes it... No. You (the GM I'm yelling at) don't get to determine what my character likes and doesn't like. And I won't force my character to like what your character said just so your character can stay "popular" or whatever nonsense is running through your head.

3) A lack of gratitude and/or respect.

As a GM myself, I have done a lot of RP's where I either bent a few RP rules or adjusted worldbuilding to facilitate a participating player's character and their abilities so that they would be more comfortable and enjoy their experience. And what do I get when I finally draw a solid line and say "I can't allow this because it fully breaks a rule rather than stays within the limits we agreed on?" I get hostility and accusations of being inflexible and an asshole who's trying to stifle their creativity or some shit like that.

I've bent over backwards for more than one person over the years. And I refuse to do it anymore. If what you want isn't on offer in the original RP worldbuilding and lore I've come up with, move on.

Every time this happens I very quickly boot the player from my RP and put them on my "Ignore" or "Ban" list, depending on what the site has available, and I never bother with role-playing with them again.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

And that's really about it.

For the most part I'll try everything once and/or remain as flexible with people as possible regarding a host of topics and/or issues in an effort to help everyone enjoy the experience.

Cheers!

~ GojiBean

 

[Murdergurl]

As StrixDesmodus mentioned above, this seems more geared toward 1x1 issues. As a participant in group RP almost exclusively, the kinds of issues the OP is talking about dont come up as often (or at least not as personally). But after clicking in to a group RP title that has caught my eye, things that make me immediately leave without further inquiry are:

• Multi-verse settings
• Slice-of-life
• Furries
• Canon characters
• Dragons as protagonists
• Heavy Magic Focus (Characters are ALL magic-users, etc)
• Anime based and/or Anime Fandoms
• School/Academy Setting
• Romance Focused
• Demons/Angels/Deities
• DC/Marvel comicverse
• Werewolves/Wolfpack
• Vampires Vs. Werewolves
• High Society/Politics/Nobles

 

[Milkshake Crush]

1) Post Length Requirements.

Post length is 100% arbitrary and is not a measure of a writer's skills or their "literacy." In fact, it's usually the exact opposite. The more someone writes, the more likely they are to be making mistakes, spouting needless exposition, describing details nobody cares about and which aren't relevant to what's going on, and breaking the golden rule of "Show, Don't Tell." I often prefer shorter, or at least more concise posts, as it's much easier to include only the most important and relevant details while also moving the story forward in the moment.

In my 20+ years of role-playing it's been a very, very rare occurrence that a longer post has been a truly high quality one.

The instant I see any sort of post length requirement, I wouldn't join even if they wanted to pay me to participate.

I literally feel this in my core, oof- 100% agree

 

[Murdergurl]

GojiBean I actually like post-length requirements. I mean, I dont want to be held to a strict standard. But I appreciate when people want more than a few paltry lines for a response. As a multi-para writer, the frustration is a real thing when you have just put your heart and soul into a 600 word post and it is responded to with four sentences. Yeah... no thanks.

That being said, a padded post is just as much of a buzzkill to read over. We all know what I'm talking about: the post that basically just reiterates what you just wrote, and really their ACTUAL contribution is once again a small handful of lines added at the end.

 

[nerdy tangents]

1. Clumsy / nerdy ocs, I hate the trope with a unreasonable passion
2. Romanticized abuse / trauma / or mental illness
3. Non human names (No one is going to name their child Sapphire Teardrop or whatever.)
4. Creepy power imbalance relationships (ex. kidnapper x kidnapee)

 

[Murdergurl]

3. Non human names (No one is going to name their child Sapphire Teardrop or whatever.)

I have a ... I think she's a second cousin? named Wynter Angel
And in the same relative branch of the family, one of my other cousins named their kid Azrael Cyrus
I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted to. lmao

 

[GojiBean]

GojiBean I actually like post-length requirements. I mean, I dont want to be held to a strict standard. But I appreciate when people want more than a few paltry lines for a response. As a multi-para writer, the frustration is a real thing when you have just put your heart and soul into a 600 word post and it is responded to with four sentences. Yeah... no thanks.

That being said, a padded post is just as much of a buzzkill to read over. We all know what I'm talking about: the post that basically just reiterates what you just wrote, and really their ACTUAL contribution is once again a small handful of lines added at the end.

If multi-paragraph writing is your style, that's fine. It's usually mine too since I have too much crap in my brain not to write several paragraphs more often than not. And if the post length is presented as a "nice to have, but not required," then I'm fine with that too because it leaves everyone free to be in their comfort zone and adjust to the RP as it goes along.

What I have a problem with is the GM's who go out of their way to make it an actual Rule in the RP to write a "minimum of X number of paragraphs."

Such a length is not needed in all situations. And forcing people to adhere to it is just a dick move.

For example, in many low-key and relaxed situations where it's just a casual conversation going on between four players and their respective OC's, it's entirely unreasonable to expect paragraph responses when there's literally nothing to respond to except dialogue. It's a conversation. Not an essay submission. When we're actually speaking to someone we're not thinking of narrating our reactions to what someone else said in our heads. We just respond.

If someone wants to write a bit of narrative between their own dialogue lines to address a few things in how their character perceives a specific word or line of dialogue which might not be too obvious in the wording the character uses when they speak in response, then that's one thing. But how does a GM expect someone to write two paragraphs when it's just a conversation? Why would we force ourselves to write two entire paragraphs of dialogue when we could easily say the same thing in one?

Make sense?

So when post length is a "nice to have, but not required," I'm fine with it. Obviously some people are more comfortable writing more information or including more detail either as part of their style or because they just enjoy it. And that should always be fostered. But when the GM makes it a rule to fulfill a paragraph count, that's crossing the line to me because it shows no acknowledgement or respect for other people's personal styles and/or comfort levels which is not proper GM behavior.

Cheers!

~ GojiBean

 

[Murdergurl]

If multi-paragraph writing is your style, that's fine. It's usually mine too since I have too much crap in my brain not to write several paragraphs more often than not. And if the post length is presented as a "nice to have, but not required," then I'm fine with that too because it leaves everyone free to be in their comfort zone and adjust to the RP as it goes along.

What I have a problem with is the GM's who go out of their way to make it an actual Rule in the RP to write a "minimum of X number of paragraphs."

Such a length is not needed in all situations. And forcing people to adhere to it is just a dick move.

For example, in many low-key and relaxed situations where it's just a casual conversation going on between four players and their respective OC's, it's entirely unreasonable to expect paragraph responses when there's literally nothing to respond to except dialogue. It's a conversation. Not an essay submission. When we're actually speaking to someone we're not thinking of narrating our reactions to what someone else said in our heads. We just respond.

If someone wants to write a bit of narrative between their own dialogue lines to address a few things in how their character perceives a specific word or line of dialogue which might not be too obvious in the wording the character uses when they speak in response, then that's one thing. But how does a GM expect someone to write two paragraphs when it's just a conversation? Why would we force ourselves to write two entire paragraphs of dialogue when we could easily say the same thing in one?

Make sense?

So when post length is a "nice to have, but not required," I'm fine with it. Obviously some people are more comfortable writing more information or including more detail either as part of their style or because they just enjoy it. And that should always be fostered. But when the GM makes it a rule to fulfill a paragraph count, that's crossing the line to me because it shows no acknowledgement or respect for other people's personal styles and/or comfort levels which is not proper GM behavior.

Cheers!

~ GojiBean

well, as I said: I wouldn't want to be adhered to a strict standard. So I wouldn't expect others want it either. And requiring (x word count/paragraph) minimum is asinine. But I think "no one liners!" is not only completely reasonable, but (imo) shouldn't even have to be stated because it's such a faux pas.

Oftentimes, what happens when you have post requirements is that you get padded posts (as I also mentioned). and this is still a far cry from the "quality" posts that the person making the req is looking for.

I've actually seen some reqs state that they dont want people OVER-writing. I've only seen it like two or three times. But the opposite is out there where the pitching individual clearly is tired of seeing novella responses.

 

[StrixDesmodus]

I have a ... I think she's a second cousin? named Wynter Angel
And in the same relative branch of the family, one of my other cousins named their kid Azrael Cyrus
I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted to. lmao

Exactly! Some people name their kids some unusual names. Of course, I tend to go over the top with my character names in some of my rps. In the one I'm hosting now, you can tell that whoever named the people in-universe are.... Well a few of them self-identify as evil, so that should explain a lot. And of course, on my side of the fourth wall, it's supposed to be comedic.

 

[Murdergurl]

Exactly! Some people name their kids some unusual names. Of course, I tend to go over the top with my character names in some of my rps. In the one I'm hosting now, you can tell that whoever named the people in-universe are.... Well a few of them self-identify as evil, so that should explain a lot. And out course, on my side of the fourth wall, it's supposed to be comedic.

Themed names are fun to follow. I do this in video games a lot. Like, my first play is just to get a grip of the game's mood. And then I will delete my character, and rename them with something that feels like it comes from the same setting.

 

[StrixDesmodus]

I nearly forgot! I'll never join an rp that requires Discord. It was a bit of a hassle in the first place, but a year or two back I also had a bad experience with that. Most of the people were great, but one was being a creep and I just don't know what I'd do if that happened with a different group.

 

[Nihilum]

Not so much an RP thing as it is a player thing...one of the first things I look at when I'm interested in someone's ad is their posting history. If they do nothing but complain non-stop about everything (nobody wants to RP with them, they never get any responses, their last partner ghosted them because their cat got into a incendiary boating accident, this partner's post was too long, this other one's was too short, they don't like novella, they don't like short para...) it's an immediate nope. You know the saying. The guy who walks around complaining everywhere smells like dog shit should really check his own shoe.

Potential character relationships being treated as transactional. 'sure we can do gay!! but only if you play a super masculine toxic man for my damsel in dis-' What? No. That's not how this works. I don't want to write that, you don't want to write this, so why would we bother with either? Doubling is weird.

Extremely aggressive rules. You know what I mean. "BECAUSE THIS HAS HAPPENED TIME AND TIME AGAIN, I MUST MAKE MYSELF CLEAR, DON'T EVEN BOTHER TALKING TO ME UNLESS YOU CAN POST FIFTEEN TIMES A DAY. I AM A MEAN BITCH. I DO NOT PLAY GAMES. I WILL LITERALLY DECAPITATE YOU AND SPIT ON YOUR CORPSE IF YOU LOOK AT ME WRONG."

Bonus round: romanticization of mental illness and abusive/toxic dynamics. No, an older character with more power in a situation abusing and gaslighting a younger, mentally ill character is not 'SOOOOO hot and romantic' or 'dark and edgy!!' It's just gross. And that's coming from someone who's actually dealt with those topics in reality. It ain't cute, sis. If I find out someone likes this kind of stuff, I'm staying half a continent away from them.

 

[Murdergurl]

... The guy who walks around complaining everywhere smells like dog shit should really check his own shoe.

is that a real saying? I fucking love it!

 

[Nihilum]

is that a real saying? I fucking love it!

I believe the actual one is more along the lines of "If everywhere you go smells like dog shit, maybe it's time to check your own shoe." I'm not actually sure where it started or originated from...just that I heard it once and it's stuck ever since. Kind of like dog dookie, conveniently enough.

 

[Murdergurl]

I believe the actual one is more along the lines of "If everywhere you go smells like dog shit, maybe it's time to check your own shoe." I'm not actually sure where it started or originated from...just that I heard it once and it's stuck ever since. Kind of like dog dookie, conveniently enough.

I'm gonna put a pin in this and use it a some point irl.

 

[Hootle]

Not so much an RP thing as it is a player thing...one of the first things I look at when I'm interested in someone's ad is their posting history. If they do nothing but complain non-stop about everything (nobody wants to RP with them, they never get any responses, their last partner ghosted them because their cat got into a incendiary boating accident, this partner's post was too long, this other one's was too short, they don't like novella, they don't like short para...) it's an immediate nope.

Yeah. Sounds like they don't even want to roleplay as much as they complain.

 

[Whisker]

I don't know if it's a trope as much as it is annoying, but I will generally nope out if another person's character is beyond ridiculous for the setting. Some GM's will crack down on stuff like that, but others let every Tom, Dick, and Harry character skate by and join even if said character is totally out of place. For example, I once joined a WWII roleplay wherein someone was allowed to join as a magical anime loli. I disappeared from that RP faster than a fart in the wind.