Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[rae2nerdy]

I like Doom Patrol enough, but I think the run it takes from tries a bit too hard to recapture the Morrison weirdness, which is really freaking hard because it's Grant Morrison. I'm glad Flex showed up because it draws more attention to his solo book, which is the sort of silver age-tinged post-modern interesting stuff I'd like to see more of on the site.

People seem to think you can only make the settings more interesting if you make the heroes bastards or make the teen characters more troubled than they'd normally be. Stuff like that.

I never read the comics admittedly. But I liked that it gave really respectful take on the mental illnesses that might come with/from superpowers. And also just the ways in which you can become a better hero by just loving yourself as a person more. I feel like a lot of stories forget that they are people behind the spandex.

I'm a sucker for friendship and loving yourself themes. It's kinda sweet to see it in a show that on the surface is edgy weirdness.

That said I like flashy bam smack pow roleplays better than stuff that goes all psychological. So love watching Doom Patrol would absolutely not roleplay it.


Speaking of superheroes and unpopular opinions. As my Rainbow League jokes indicate. Not all superheroes are straight.

Seriously if you can accept time travel, alternate realities, plasma rays, and superpowers. You can accept that the people in spandex hitting things in the name of justice don't only bang people of the opposite gender.

 

[welian]

Unpopular opinions:

1. Long posts and profiles are boring.
2. Ppl (myself included) are too cowardly to play FtM characters
3. DISCORD OOC S U C C

 

[defenderofberk]

DISCORD OOC S U C C

Definitely agree with you on this one

 

[Crenando]

DISCORD OOC S U C C

Exclusively Discord OOC sucks.
I like the option being there to hop in a call with some friends, as well as a thread.

 

[defenderofberk]

Exclusively Discord OOC sucks.
I like the option being there to hop in a call with some friends, as well as a thread.

I dunno because then it gets disorganised

 

[The J]

1. DISCORD OOC S U C C

To be fair, you have brought this upon yourself maybe four times now.

 

[welian]

To be fair, you have brought this upon yourself maybe four times now.

disrespectful

 

[The J]

disrespectful

What better way for me to post for the first time in over a year?

 

[defenderofberk]

Alright guys cool it off.

 

[Lemon Boy]

Unpopular opinions:

1. Long posts and profiles are boring.

I agree. In fact I take the more extreme stance of thinking that profiles and all that they entail are rarely at all necessary. Nearly all the information contained and displayed in them can be better explored and explained through simply writing about it. Personality can be easily displayed through the RP as the character interacts with others, background can be slowly revealed as things go on, appearance can be easily established in a first post or the post can simply have the face claim displayed on the side/top of the writing. The only things really needed from a profile that might be difficult to believably write into a post without destroying the flow would be things like their full name, age, sex, gender and etc.

Now I'm sure some people reading this are thinking, "well how are we supposed to vet people?" and that's quite simple. Make them provide a writing sample, ask them a few questions and if possible and if they're willing, go through their history. Samples can provide the information that's actually important; writing style, post length, tone and focus. Questions can be used to determine things like how often they want to post, how free they are, what they want to do in the RP. Actually talking to applicants before they join is a lot better than just waiting for random people to throw a profile up and hoping they're ok as posts start to come out. It's also exceedingly easy to determine if a player is going to be troublesome or not by going through their history. If they've flaked from every RP they've ever been in then it's quite easy to guess what they're probably going to do in yours. Are they a power gamer? More often than not you'll be able to see that too from their previous activities.


Personally I think the only reason profiles are a thing is because it's a RP norm as opposed to something being genuinely want to do. That and I suppose for some people its a way to show off their pretty BBCode skills.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Lemon Boy , character sheets are also used to determine if the player understands the lore of that specific roleplay.

It’s why I know some GMs use elevator pitches instead of asking for elaborate post.

It give an overview of a character but more importantly it ensure that the person actually understands the lore and what is being asked of them as a participants. Not only that for special abilities it gives the GM the opportunity to weed our powers that don’t fit or which might prove difficult to integrate into a group setting.

I feel like writing samples are also only useful if employed properly. Don’t just ask for some random slice of writing, ask them to link past roleplays. If they don’t have past roleplays then you can do a more interview type approach.

I honestly feel like writing isn’t the primary concern of most GMs. It’s can you be a team player and actually play in the setting I provided. Character sheets are the best means of determining that.

Although admittedly they don’t need to be super complex. A paragraph or two pitching the character is usually fine. (With extra more in-depth sections added if there is some kind of special power involved)

 

[defenderofberk]

Lemon Boy , character sheets are also used to determine if the player understands the lore of that specific roleplay.

It’s why I know some GMs use elevator pitches instead of asking for elaborate post.

It give an overview of a character but more importantly it ensure that the person actually understands the lore and what is being asked of them as a participants. Not only that for special abilities it gives the GM the opportunity to weed our powers that don’t fit or which might prove difficult to integrate into a group setting.

I feel like writing samples are also only useful if employed properly. Don’t just ask for some random slice of writing, ask them to link past roleplays. If they don’t have past roleplays then you can do a more interview type approach.

I honestly feel like writing isn’t the primary concern of most GMs. It’s can you be a team player and actually play in the setting I provided. Character sheets are the best means of determining that.

Although admittedly they don’t need to be super complex. A paragraph or two pitching the character is usually fine. (With extra more in-depth sections added if there is some kind of special power involved)

I dunno about linking past role plays as you don't know what they might've agreed to OOC, also the other person might not want it shared if it was done over PMs. Maybe instead ask for a few different examples?

 

[Lemon Boy]

Hmmm I think you have a point there in regards to the lore and the seeing if one can be a team player. I have to admit I wasn't thinking of it from a GM perspective because I haven't been one so perhaps character sheets do have their virtues after all.

 

[The J]

Alright guys cool it off.

We're joking you twozzock.

 

[SP3CT3R]

I agree. In fact I take the more extreme stance of thinking that profiles and all that they entail are rarely at all necessary. Nearly all the information contained and displayed in them can be better explored and explained through simply writing about it. Personality can be easily displayed through the RP as the character interacts with others, background can be slowly revealed as things go on, appearance can be easily established in a first post or the post can simply have the face claim displayed on the side/top of the writing. The only things really needed from a profile that might be difficult to believably write into a post without destroying the flow would be things like their full name, age, sex, gender and etc.

Now I'm sure some people reading this are thinking, "well how are we supposed to vet people?" and that's quite simple. Make them provide a writing sample, ask them a few questions and if possible and if they're willing, go through their history. Samples can provide the information that's actually important; writing style, post length, tone and focus. Questions can be used to determine things like how often they want to post, how free they are, what they want to do in the RP. Actually talking to applicants before they join is a lot better than just waiting for random people to throw a profile up and hoping they're ok as posts start to come out. It's also exceedingly easy to determine if a player is going to be troublesome or not by going through their history. If they've flaked from every RP they've ever been in then it's quite easy to guess what they're probably going to do in yours. Are they a power gamer? More often than not you'll be able to see that too from their previous activities.


Personally I think the only reason profiles are a thing is because it's a RP norm as opposed to something being genuinely want to do. That and I suppose for some people its a way to show off their pretty BBCode skills.

>Agreeing that long posts are bad
>Long post

 

[Lemon Boy]

i wasn't agreeing about the long posts, just the profiles : P

 

[Hella Downweather]

Kicking back the hornet's nest, so sorry if it goes off topic! Simply needed to throw my 2 cents here. Also defenderofberk I saw your cool it off post after writing everything here, I've tried to keep it as informative and non biased as possible, but I apologize if it comes across as a personal attack.

It's less to do with the feminist themselves and more to do with how they seem to be backed by huge companies, which is what plays into the belief that there's an agenda.

I think people can also be very exclusive/rude while fighting for a more "inclusive/safe" environment, so it's not just like that's a one sided problem.

Compagnies are "backing" feminists because they make more money doing so. It's all marketing, and since women have 50% of the market share, they are trying to grab it however they can. Best example is the pink tax, where products aimed at women are more expensive for a product that is sometimes of lesser quality than their male counterparts. Other example is that since the worldwide success of Wonder Woman, we see Marvel make much more empowering women moments in their movies. Because it sells more.

If there is an agenda, it's people voting with their money, and it's working.

And for the second part, I feel like it's a bit of a strawman argument really, because most of these issues are resolved relatively peacefully. But peace doesn't sell, so most news sources only cover when people gets angry, violent or do extreme things. So it shows a pretty extreme fringe of the community. Likewise, all conservatives aren't yelling into the streets that women should get back in the kitchen, but when some do, it's all over the media.

Also :

Yeah! The man that was shot in the arm got aggressive towards me! So clearly, he is in fault too!

Most feminists are ignored, sure, but you must be aware of the culture war. A lot of companies seem to be quite happy to lose a bit of money to hire some pink haired lunatic to lecture the fanbase about misogany. I mean have you seen twitches new advisory and safety council?

SOOOOO....This touches me a lot more, as a woman studying and working in CS, and involved in video game competitions.

First off, Strawman issue again.

Second off :
-Online bullying is a BIG problem (towards men and women) and I am glad Twitch made a team to help improve the platform to these cases.
-Even if the situation is improving, the place of women in the competitive video game industry is really, really bad. (I could say the same for the video game industry...but it's getting better and it's not as toxic as the competitive scene), so here too I am glad Twitch saw these concerns and made a team comprised of men AND women to help fight the toxicity around it. I'm not talking about trash talk/locker talk, I'm talking about harassment, sexual harassment and sexual assault.

And I mean...should I really remind people that certain conventions in 2009 had lapdances offered to it's participants? That when the new Lara Croft came out, there were published articles comparing the character's boobs over the years?

So yeah! If it means having less of these (I have a lot of other examples, feel free to PM if you want!) I'm more than happy companies start hiring more feminist and minority to it's board.

---

As far as unpopular RP opinions :

-I have trouble roleplaying with sci-fi settings. Usually it doesn't make sense scientifically speaking and it triggers me...Same for people playing "hackers"
-Fluff is love, fluff is life
-If you create a bisexual character, they don't have to end up with the same gender in the roleplay. They are bi for a reason! They love both!

 

[Crow]

>Agreeing that long posts are bad
>Long post

This is a long post which is meant to integrate every bit of neccessity, the same way long posts as a strong start are used to establish a lot of background details and stuff. Short posts are of better quality if they have long posts to build off at the origin.

 

[Grey]

Oh boy are we back on post-length discourse? I'm going to bed.

 

[zippy]

I don't know if this opinion is unpopular or just underconsidered, but more post-apocalyptic, fantasy, and sci-fi RPs should explore new societal models like anarchism.

Could you elaborate on this?

 

[Crenando]

Kicking back the hornet's nest, so sorry if it goes off topic! Simply needed to throw my 2 cents here. Also defenderofberk I saw your cool it off post after writing everything here, I've tried to keep it as informative and non biased as possible, but I apologize if it comes across as a personal attack.

Everyone's entitled to their opinions and all that but we should probably cut it off here before the mods have to step in to try and cool the conversation back down, yeah?
I don't want to be 'that guy' here, but it's happened before.

 

[Grey]

Could you elaborate on this?

Yeah, sure.
Most settings seem to assume either a feudal model (in fantasy, which typically makes sense but is worn out), or other strict hiearches like warlordism, corporate totalitarianism, or just plan ol' neoliberal capitalism.
I still include stuff like theocracies in my settings, but I also make a point to include stuff like communist bureaucracies (Stalinist necromancers make great antagonists), pre-industrial anarchies, syndicalist democracies, or post-scarcity anarchism.
It diversifies settings, makes for interesting material to explore narratively and intellectually, can inform really interesting character perspectives, and basically leverages the unique advantages of the medium to think about different ways of being.

 

[defenderofberk]

Compagnies are "backing" feminists because they make more money doing so. It's all marketing, and since women have 50% of the market share, they are trying to grab it however they can. Best example is the pink tax, where products aimed at women are more expensive for a product that is sometimes of lesser quality than their male counterparts. Other example is that since the worldwide success of Wonder Woman, we see Marvel make much more empowering women moments in their movies. Because it sells more.

I wouldn't mind if it was done sensibly like in wonder woman but frankly when people try to shove in "empowered women moments" it just makes me sigh. As a kid I looked up to women like The Bride (Beatrix Kiddo) because she showed that a woman could fall in love, put her child first, make mistakes, get dirty and she was a compelling character. I liked major Kira because she stood up for herself, had understandable prejudices and also made mistakes. I liked female characters that were strong but made mistakes, as they were more human. Characters like Rey and Captain Marvel don't inspire me because they never have any mistakes to learn from.

I only casually game and I can't say I've encountered any problems, in fact people seem to treat me better and thus go a bit easier on me. Which I don't really mind as I'm not usually that great.

Edit because I didn't really address the point:

I don't believe that modern feminism helps movies as not only does it have a history of being implemented poorly (it's impossible to know whether it would've done better or worse, but the studios actions regarding a sequel is usually a good indicator as to whether they have faith in it being worth it) but they seem to have missed the point of why people see movies. For the most part, it's escapism and fun. Unless you're watching something like Hotel Rwanda (which is a great film that I'd suggest any adult watch) you generally either snuggle up on the coach or invite a few friends round, get in some popcorn and drinks, and all laugh or swoon at what's happening on screen.

But feminist characters have a habit of just being snarky and too independent. I wasn't a huge fan of the MCU but I've seen Captain Marvel... she's a plank of wood. Like Groot is less of a tree than this woman. She's not fun to watch, and if it's not an intellectual film, boring is pretty much one of the worst things your character can be. I can't even remember the film that well despite being able to recall films I saw three or four years ago perfectly well. As a female batman fan since the age of 8 the Birds of Prey movie simply didn't interest me (I'm not actually that keen on the actress that plays Quinn) but when I heard it was a feminist production I was even more dubious. And judging by the reviews, it seems it wasn't missing much.

I talk a lot about movies with the people I like, and here's what I've noticed about what the women say they like in films:
Hot, manly guys showing their charismatic, sensitive side
Romance
Suave, sophisticated guys
Guys being heroic

(Admittedly I hang around a lot of women between the ages of 30 - 55)

The problem with feminist movies is they take out all the hot muscular guys being sensitive and suave and saving everyone in favour of non traditionally attractive women saving themselves. They seem to be baffled when women don't go and see their movies, yet they put nothing in it for women. Now I don't even like romance films, but even I want the men on screen to at least be fairly nice to look at and reasonably attractive personality wise; why, because it's fun to watch.

 

[Crenando]

Stalinist necromancers make great antagonists

This is ideal for some kind of Cold War-era pulp setting that happens to have magic as well.

 

[Grey]

This is ideal for some kind of Cold War-era pulp setting that happens to have magic as well.

I'm 90% sure I read that novel at some point circa 2005 but to be honest in my settings they're a product of material conditions - being trapped in a forever war with theocratic vampire cultists.
At one point they were sympathetic but they got real genocide-y and doubled down after the international community intervened (in the form of a bunch of shining golden demigods decimating their forces, putting a cursed statue of their patriarch in the capital, and flying away).

Listen more of you need to sign up for my RPs you know this shit is cool.