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

[VanoLenz]

A trope I hate is when someone makes a character of two original characters of a fandom that are almost 100% unlikely to enter a relationship together for various reasons such as having no pre-existing romantic interactions or just not fitting together just to create their own original character that's a combination of both characters, usually two OP characters and having a horrible storyline to boot.


That always irks me.

 

[Jannah]

One thing that would definitely turn me off is poorly-researched names. IRL, names aren't always meaningful. My first name, Erik, means "ever ruler" in Old Norse, and I'm not the ruler of anything. Also, it's jarring to see Japanese characters in realistic settings with names like Ichigo, Rin, Hotaru, and Nagisa. Many of these names are actually pretty rare outside of anime and manga. That's like expecting people from France to have names like Quasimodo and Eponine. Japanese names in non-Japanese settings are even worse, especially when it doesn't make sense. Do you really expect someone in Victorian England to be named Ryu? Russian surnames are gendered, yet a lot of people seem to forget this - a woman is Romanova, not Romanov. Native American names tend to be misused a lot too - oftentimes people will just use the name of tribes. Native Americans do not give their kids names like Dakota, Cherokee, or Cheyenne.

Also, unusual names do not make characters any more special than people with common names. Aerith and Ichigo are no more special than Mary and Jane.

Oh yes, truth right here. If you want to write a character of a specific culture outside your own then at least get their naming conventions correct. For mine I often use random name generators. I know a site that has random name generators, properly researched ones, for a variety of different cultural groups. I like to mish mash results from those until I come up with something I like. Names do not always have to have some deeper meaning unless it's explicitly tied to some important plot device like a prophecy or something.

 

[Jannah]

Damsel in distress trope it can get old there’s a time and place for it not in a zombie apocalypse rp.

Damsel in distress tropes have their place and they can also be fun to reverse sometimes. Like, for example, having a man needing rescuing by a strong badass woman.

 

[ManhattanIV]

For me it's first-person POV's, for whatever reason I hate it!

 

[Damafaud]

An RP heavy on weapon descriptions throws me off.

Mostly this is with realistic war RP and the guns and tanks (which I never really join), but occasionally it's in futuristic mecha/cyberpunk RPs. Everyone describes the fusion reactor in their left thumb and their Blak-Tek Socket Plasmainator 200 that's standard to middle managers of Not Evil Corporation Enterprise Company and I just blank out haha

Not that those kinds of RPs are bad. I'm just bad with coming up with tech worldbuilding (techbuilding?) and knowing I won't enjoy coming up with something just as cool and lore-pretty means it's better for me to leave ^^'

 

[Miaow]

I can't remember if I've posted here before haha, but a lot of mental health stuff is a no-go for me. I like dark themes but as soon as someone shows up with a character with an eating disorder I am OUT of there. As someone recovering from one myself, I don't want to see people write about all of the unhealthy behaviours I'm trying to stop doing.
Also, characters being able to do stuff they probably wouldn't be able to do? Like, a post-apocalyptic roleplay where out of nowhere, someone knows how to hot wire a car or pick a lock. They have a criminal backstory? Sure, but I'm pretty sure most normal people don't know how to do that? Please educate me if hotwiring cars and lockpicking are normal skills I should know.

 

[Lorsh]

An RP heavy on weapon descriptions throws me off.

i hate it when people do that in zombie/apocalyptic RPs, knowing the specific names of firearms "this is my M16A23456" isn't as impressive as some people seem to think it is. you just need to say "rifle", or maybe "assault rifle" or "hunting rifle" at the next level of specificity.

 

[Kaiju Cat]

I dislike when people put their characters in situations that make no sense and put not only their OCs and others in danger for no reason.

 

[Kaiju Cat]

Damsel in distress tropes have their place and they can also be fun to reverse sometimes. Like, for example, having a man needing rescuing by a strong badass woman.

I’m all for bad ass characters, but when they fail badly and do stupid things that could get their characters killed like I mentioned in a zombie apocalypse turn no.

 

[Walliver]

Damsel in distress tropes have their place and they can also be fun to reverse sometimes. Like, for example, having a man needing rescuing by a strong badass woman.

I do agree. But also like-
When the damsel in distress is CONSTANTLY in need of rescuing? Then it’s just a badly done trope.

 

[Jannah]

I’m all for bad ass characters, but when they fail badly and do stupid things that could get their characters killed like I mentioned in a zombie apocalypse turn no.

Oh yea, definitely. Needs to be within reason. Like, making your character take completely unrealistic actions (unrealistic within the limits of the established universe and the characters themselves) then it does break the immersion for me.

 

[Melpomene]

I can't remember if I've posted here before haha, but a lot of mental health stuff is a no-go for me. I like dark themes but as soon as someone shows up with a character with an eating disorder I am OUT of there. As someone recovering from one myself, I don't want to see people write about all of the unhealthy behaviours I'm trying to stop doing.
Also, characters being able to do stuff they probably wouldn't be able to do? Like, a post-apocalyptic roleplay where out of nowhere, someone knows how to hot wire a car or pick a lock. They have a criminal backstory? Sure, but I'm pretty sure most normal people don't know how to do that? Please educate me if hotwiring cars and lockpicking are normal skills I should know.

Same on the mental health business. Often I find that most people don't bother to even properly research the mental disorder they are depicting. So it just gets me frustrated to read them so flippantly give a character something like BPD and then make a rather disgusting and offensive depiction of it.

Mental issues shouldn't be used just to be edgy, y'all. Do your research.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Same on the mental health business. Often I find that most people don't bother to even properly research the mental disorder they are depicting. So it just gets me frustrated to read them so flippantly give a character something like BPD and then make a rather disgusting and offensive depiction of it.

Mental issues shouldn't be used just to be edgy, y'all. Do your research.

Added to that research shouldn’t just be googling symptoms on webMD. Ideally you should look at first hand accounts of people with the disorder. As mental health is a spectrum and not everyone manifest symptoms in the same way.

 

[Cassie Lang]

I immediately bow out if any sort of apocalypse/survival RP has characters like the "le epik katana wielding zombie killer xd swish swoosh they're all dead" character. I like seriousness in my roleplays opposed to funny, "cool" stuff. Not to add that it falls into power gaming and other "do not do this" in RP factors.

Another thing in the same scenario that puts me off from those RPs is when people try to game the system with military, police, survivalist, etc. characters. Yes, these people do exist IRL, but it does draw away from the whole aspect of surviving when your character is already geared towards being a hardass. Even more so when, say, in the case of a military character, they're walking around armed to the teeth guns with suppressors and all other kinds of attachments.

And before I forget: edgelord characters are just no. You're not going to the next Negan or whatever X villain/bad guy so please stop trying to write an Anakin moment where you kill "not just the men, but the women, and the children too."

 

[Kaiju Cat]

I immediately bow out if any sort of apocalypse/survival RP has characters like the "le epik katana wielding zombie killer xd swish swoosh they're all dead" character. I like seriousness in my roleplays opposed to funny, "cool" stuff. Not to add that it falls into power gaming and other "do not do this" in RP factors.

Another thing in the same scenario that puts me off from those RPs is when people try to game the system with military, police, survivalist, etc. characters. Yes, these people do exist IRL, but it does draw away from the whole aspect of surviving when your character is already geared towards being a hardass. Even more so when, say, in the case of a military character, they're walking around armed to the teeth guns with suppressors and all other kinds of attachments.

And before I forget: edgelord characters are just no. You're not going to the next Negan or whatever X villain/bad guy so please stop trying to write an Anakin moment where you kill "not just the men, but the women, and the children too."

This. This. I am not fond of military characters for the same reasons in your post.

 

[yutohase]

I immediately bow out if any sort of apocalypse/survival RP has characters like the "le epik katana wielding zombie killer xd swish swoosh they're all dead" character. I like seriousness in my roleplays opposed to funny, "cool" stuff. Not to add that it falls into power gaming and other "do not do this" in RP factors.

Another thing in the same scenario that puts me off from those RPs is when people try to game the system with military, police, survivalist, etc. characters. Yes, these people do exist IRL, but it does draw away from the whole aspect of surviving when your character is already geared towards being a hardass. Even more so when, say, in the case of a military character, they're walking around armed to the teeth guns with suppressors and all other kinds of attachments.

And before I forget: edgelord characters are just no. You're not going to the next Negan or whatever X villain/bad guy so please stop trying to write an Anakin moment where you kill "not just the men, but the women, and the children too."

Although I agree with the edgelord sentiment, I could probably never play a zombie apocalypse RP. And the reason why, is because I want my characters to feel badass. Not necessarily in a “pew pew they’re all dead” way, but just in a way that I can sit myself down at the end of the day and say “wow, that was pretty incredible”. And just surviving doesn’t really do that for me. I need characters who are brave heroes, hardasses, people who know what they’re doing, and a plot that allows me to not just survive but also thrive. So I guess my turn off would be somewhat of an opposite to yours, but that’s just a preference and nothing to berate each other over.

 

[Sugarnaut]

Slice of Life is my favorite trash so I have no clue if this transcends to other genres, but if I join a roleplay's discord and there is an #endgame channel.
Romance is king but I just know... If one person drops then everyone is dropping like flies if romance is the backbone of the roleplay.

 

[starboob]

krps. it’s one thing to have a character who is korean or even a rp set in korea but krps have always struck me as fetishistic and i tend to find that the rpers interested in them are koreaboos. it’s really weird to me that it’s even a genre. like… maybe im misinterpreting the genre but you dont see other settings based on a specific culture getting a tag.

 

[Jannah]

krps. it’s one thing to have a character who is korean or even a rp set in korea but krps have always struck me as fetishistic and i tend to find that the rpers interested in them are koreaboos. it’s really weird to me that it’s even a genre. like… maybe im misinterpreting the genre but you dont see other settings based on a specific culture getting a tag.

You have a point, but the popularity of RP's set in Korea specifically mostly stems from the popularity of K-dramas I think. I'm sure there would be a similar trend with other countries if their own media became as popular as Korean media has in the west.

 

[Jannah]

I'm sure this has already been mentioned, probably more than once, but RP's involving playing any real people. Whether it's a Youtuber, an actor, a K-pop idol, whatever it's uncomfortable. These are real people with their own lives and that should be respected. If you want to do RP's involving Youtube streamers or idols then at least make up fictional characters for them.

 

[Kaiju Cat]

My newest pet peeve using graphics that stretches the page making it impossible to read their posts or threads.

 

[Lorsh]

I'm sure this has already been mentioned, probably more than once, but RP's involving playing any real people. Whether it's a Youtuber, an actor, a K-pop idol, whatever it's uncomfortable. These are real people with their own lives and that should be respected. If you want to do RP's involving Youtube streamers or idols then at least make up fictional characters for them.

and it's also just frickin lame

 

[Jannah]

and it's also just frickin lame

Idk some people like it. I'm personally not into it, but I can understand the appeal it has for some. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[HNTR]

Abusive relationships, Yandere characters, and Stalker x Victim dynamics. I just don’t see that type of thing amusing.

 

[SpiderQueen]

Rape or sex in general? Just no. I knew someone who liked to rp rape, pedophilia, and sex slaves and all I could think about what was wrong with their head? As for sex. What's wrong with the good old fade to black?

Poly relationships. I just find it ridiculous.

Romantizing abusive relationships. That's not funny.

First person povs. That confuses me so much.