Experiences Why did the roleplay you were in die?

[BittyBobcat]

I've been on RPnation on and off for... honestly, I'm not sure exactly how long, but long enough to learn that the a problem many rps seem to have is that they stagnate and die off. In fact, I'm fairly sure that that's one of the main complaints people have about roleplaying (I speak only from sentiments of my own and others that I've heard, though, so I could very easily be wrong).

Either way, the point is that it is an issue that a lot of people seem to run into, and I'm wondering what leads to this happening. It's usually a combination of factors, I think, but I'd assume that there are a main few reasons for it. So, out of both curiosity and wanting to see if there's a way to preserve any roleplays I may or may not GM in the future, I made this thread.

Why did the roleplay you were in die? Or: How did you keep the roleplay you were in alive?
In your opinion, what makes a roleplay stay active or die off?

 

[Murdergurl]

I think a lot of the Group RPs I have joined in the past tend to die off is because they take too long to get started. You have all these initial interests, but then everyone drags their asses to get character apps in. Meanwhile the ones that have them, are just waiting and bored. So then they likely will look for other RPs that ARE moving and try to join those, or maybe they undertake some 1x1s. Either way, they effectively fill their card and drop the RPs that are taking too long to get off the ground. Assuming that these PRs start, a lot of the peeps that made characters take forever to make a post, or never even post to begin with. I'd say that like 80% of the group RPs I join, usually die within the first scene. Most don't get passed the introductory phase, and the ones that do never make it to the second scene.

Sometimes this is due to the GM not actually having a storyline laid out. I guess a lot of GMs just try to wing it, but then when they have to pony up to the roleplay narrative they dip out and leave everyone high and dry. This has happened to me a LOT.

One thing that does confuse me is when people seem to be going strong in their posts and then just go awol without any explanation. The post rate was consistent, and everyone seemed cool with the paragraph requirements... but then 75% of the group just dwindled out. Sometimes I think that people just overcommit themselves and they bite off more than they can chew. And the drop out has a domino effect because when people leave everything stalls.

 

[Reid]

The RP I'm going to talk about wasn't on RPN for context. this was kind of the catalyst for me leaving this other community I was in since 2013. Been a long time coming considering that community went to shit lol. Anyways.

So I'm in a rather niche Fandom. It's hard to generate interest in such an rp, on top of the plot being on a ship that well... it's not unpopular but it isn't as "desirable" a subject compared to the fandom's main, canon ship. I had a couple of buddies that we initially started talking largely because of our common interest in this Fandom so this whole rp thing wasn't planned. However, at that time, I was new to the Fandom so I still didn't know everything about the universe and its characters. However, when I finished watching the media, then started engaging more with the Fandom community and talking more with these people , I suggested a rp based on a ship I liked. One of them showed interest so we started RPing. (1x1)Everything was fine in the beginning. But then they started replying less and less. Which is fine, we all get busy, or just... things happen that slow things down. I mean, RP is just RP, ya know?

My problem wasn't this.

However, we had a group chat with the other friend we got into the Fandom and honestly? I started getting really not so good vibes from my partner. I didn't address anything for a while, just acted like everything was fine. They didn't respond for nearly 2 weeks to our RP but was active in chat. I kinda nibbled at this point and asked if everything was okay. You know... as you do.
They immediately got defensive and said something to the effect of "sometimes im just not in the mood, okay?"

Okay, fine. I mean, I get it. Though, the other friend in the group chat and I started talking privately and they've mentioned that they've tried to roleplay with this person in the past but they ghosted too and reacted the same way when asked. And that got me thinking that maybe it's better if I just cut this off. They're not interested, clearly. And have a history of being rather rude to RP partners. So I left. Only to be told by this other person that this previous partner was... let's just say... less than happy that I cut ties. Which is really contradictory, in my opinion.

Anyway, I hate drama. The only drama I like is roleplay in character drama lol. Anyway, now im here on RPN and I found a partner that I've clicked with, and this RP is a lot more enjoyable than what was happening in that other community and im a lot more happy here in RPN

 

[Jannah]

I mostly do 1x1's and usually they die due to at least one of us losing interest.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I would say 50/50 IRL and just incompatibility.

So for IRL I tend to roleplay with a wide age range of role players (I don’t have an age limit for my partners).

So IRL can be anything from work, a death in the family, finals, computer issues, health issues, etc.

Lack of compatibility usually happens when I feel like our writing styles don’t match OR we can’t agree on world building.

 

[Jannah]

So I would say 50/50 IRL and just incompatibility.

Lack of compatibility usually happens when I feel like our writing styles don’t match OR we can’t agree on world building.

Oh yes, this is a big one for me too. There needs to be chemistry and also compatible ideas/styles.

 

[Sacrilege]

Most RPs that are considered 'flops' from what I've experienced typically occur in the planning phase. We're all familiar with it - the tango of taking forever to get to the point where you can write a starter post, people not coming prepared with ideas, life gets in the way and the days turn into weeks...realistically, it's a bit like having a job application. You get to the interview, sure, but getting to the actual job is a long process that's rarely successful. And much like a job application, things usually go well once you've secured the job (or in this case, the rp) and start working.

The planning phase is usually all I need to figure out whether or not I'll be compatible with someone for the writing part. You can tell a lot about someone's RP preferences by how they approach world building, plotting, ideas for the future; if someone seems disinterested and has nothing to contribute, then I stop things there before I waste my time writing posts for them. It works the other way around, too. If I'm having trouble coming up with anything, I likely don't have the muse to deliver consistently good posts, so it's best I announce that I don't want to continue there. It's always better for an RP to die before it happens than for it to die seventy posts in.

Otherwise, the other most common reason for an RP to fail is bad OOC communication. I'll take someone with ""less skill"" who's a great person to have a conversation with any day over some ""mastermind"" who's distant and cold.

 

[BrexTheMarvelFan]

I'm a minor so I have parental issues and I can get in trouble a lot and have forgotten to reply to roleplays. Otherwise I can read and forget to reply, the other person reads and forgets to reply, or we both get busy and decide to plan a new rp. I had a period in time where I got grounded for a few months and almost all of my rps died from my inactivity.

 

[Crayons]

Ghosting, and IRL issues for most.

The GMs not posting in an RP when there was a group of enthusiastic people waiting for them and active OOC was probably the most annoying one. I don't even know why they stopped posting, they just ... didn't.

 

[Onmyoji]

Mostly due to real life and less so because of incompatibility with rp partners.

Over the years I surely had a fair bit of incompatible rp partners. Sometimes it was just blatantly incompatible ideas or writing styles. Sometimes it was really subtle like, there was nothing inherently wrong just we didn't click well enough.

But real life, oh boy, the #1 Ultimate Enemy of All Things Roleplay.
My rp partners got sick, moved, started new jobs and disappeared for personal reasons.
I also had to drop a few roleplays due to moving or health issues. And work sometimes cosplays a Dementor that can suck out all my spiritual energy, so my current and recent rp partners know I have to take breaks from rp and my reply frequency can fluctuate a lot between daily / weekly / monthly / bi-monthly or worse. Sometimes those breaks last too long and it kills the rp which makes me very sad.

 

[AnnJam]

1. players dropped out and it was a linear RP and replacing the player threw a huge wrench in the story and players lost interest.

2. Harassment campaign from a player kicked from the RP.

3. Posting order changed.

4. Post order was removed.

5. Post order was implemented.

6. Players got bored.

7. Multiple players stopped posting (this is mostly what happens).

 

[Murdergurl]

Ghosting, and IRL issues for most.

The GMs not posting in an RP when there was a group of enthusiastic people waiting for them and active OOC was probably the most annoying one. I don't even know why they stopped posting, they just ... didn't.

This. so much this.
And an active OOC full of bullshit chatter and memes while the IC thread just sits and stagnates is something that irks me to no end. and when you bring it up, people are like, "yeah, I need to get a post donr. hopefully to tomorrow"

And that tomorrow just never happens. It's one excuse after another, and when that person finally just leaves, the next person doesn't wanna do it either, ad infinitum.

Like I've said before: I think people like to TALK about roleplaying more than they actually like to roleplay.

 

[FoolsErin]

Basically what everyone else has said. I don't really know what else to add that wouldn’t be extremely redundant. Lack of care, boredom, and inactivity in their many forms are a powerful poison to even the best roleplaying idea. I mean, once in a great while you get some reason outside of some combination of the three, like drama so repetitive and bad that it makes the whole roleplay violently implode, but we’re not talking about my experiences here.

 

[Listens-to-music]

More than often I end up putting in more effort than my partner! I'm so sick of one liners!! Proper grammar! Take yo damn time ppl!!! I think because when I'm not rping I write more casual, people think I'm down for one liners and no detail, but in actuality I fuckin' love huge ass posts.

Though my most recent rp ended up dying because they turned out to be a bit sexist and didn't like it when I called them out on it. Soooooo RIP that rp I guess, but I don't want to rp with someone who is sexist anyway.

 

[FathersDislikeMe]

"sometimes im just not in the mood, okay?"

Ah, the "I have a headache" excuse.

That's kind of BS. I ran a forum game for a year - D&D 3.5, Lvl 3-12, planar, pretty epic quest - and it was awesome. A lot of that was due to how concerned for each other's enjoyment we were. Sometimes even I didn't want to post, but I would because everyone else was excited. Seems a lot of you have the same problem. Like, don't agree to participate in/run a game if you ain't gonna stick around. I'm not gonna ask someone to post if they have, like, a death in the family, but show a little concern for your partners.

I've run into quite a few problems with games dying when the person running the game cares too much. As a GM, I will admit that I have, in my younger days, wanted a story to go a certain way (i.e. "railroading"). When people want an RP to go their way, rather than enjoy the story as it develops organically within the community, a lot of people get frustrated and leave/lose interest. Selfish role playing has no place in my world.

I played this one 3.5 game where the game fell apart because the players didn't stay on the railroad. I had a player leave one of my games because she wanted her character to hook up with one of the male PCs and it didn't happen, so she got frustrated. I eventually learned that successful RPs are those where players care more about the story than they do about what they WANT to happen.

When I write a freeform or dice game, I don't even think about the players. I write an outline of what will happen without PC intervention, and describe the flow of events without considering player action. This allows players to feel like their character actions are having an actual quantifiable effect on the setting, and my GM talents have been lauded.

Selfishness has no place in RPs, and often people don't understand that. It's why I'm told I'm a good boyfriend (well, when I'm not drinking, at least) - I actually think about the other person's needs. Like, if the girlfriend has to cancel dinner plans because her son's sick, I don't get all pissy, I suck it up and bring her and her son some carry out.

 

[Merciless Medic]

So, this is going to open a whole can of worms, as I have had many experiences. XD I will only post a few.

I have hosted some RPs and I have joined some RPs. Sometimes it is in a site like this, but not actually RpN. Other times, it's on a Discord server that is not mine. I have had more group RPs than not due to the formats, but I have had quite a few one-on-one RPs. Since mostly everyone has said their thoughts on why people just ghost (whether intentional or unintentional), or they just don't have time to RP due to events that happen in their life, I'm going to share some stories. All people will be anonymous so as to not send hate, but just be mindful of these red flags.

Toxic RP Server

This was a Pokemon RP server (not going to say which one). I have no idea if it's available or if it got shut down, but it was pretty bad. The guy who made it didn't even like Pokemon. Now, the rules and regulations he added were okay. It was to help make Pokemon more realistic, weed out trolls, figure out who was very literate to not-so-literate, and to keep OP characters from gracing the server. These were good, and the setup and some of the execution was good. However, there was a channel that, once you were an RP creator, a tester (for new people or for people who wanted a Legendary or wanted to act as a Legendary), or a mod/admin, you were able to access this channel. Normally, a channel like this was acceptable. The things that went down, like the gossip and the hate to the more inexperienced members and even making a bingo chart of new people who came on, completely unaware of the blatant disrespect hiding behind a channel as they couldn't see it, was not. I was in that server for a good half-a-year. There was one time where someone got kicked because he insulted a moderator. But there was a reason for why he insulted the mod.

Mind you that I don't condone insulting anyone, even if you are really angry or emotional.

In the RP server, we had a Google Doc that listed all of the rules and things that were okay and things that weren't okay, as well as what was canon and what wasn't canon, even to the canon universe (like most Ghost=Types not being dead Pokemon, even though they very well could be in the context of the official Pokedex entries). Now, that's okay. There are whole AU arcs within the server, so I didn't have an issue with that either. The Google Doc forgot to mention something about Shadow Pokemon and whether or not the events in Orre were even canon, and this what the new guy was asking. The mods kept telling the new guy to read the rules and guidelines again, as it was very common for people to come online and try to RP without reading the rules. However, he said he did read it. The mod pushed the guy and insulted his intelligence and his reading capabilities, so the new guy insulted back, as he was not having it. The creator of the server kicked the new guy, but didn't give the mod any reprimands for their actions, even though they should have gotten in trouble. He put favoritism to those who have been there longest, and actively insulted anyone who was not competent enough.

This was toxic behavior.

For the actual RPs that happened in the server, most were okay. However, the creator expressed disdain for those who made detailed posts and preferred posts that got to the point. This opinion was okay and all, but his words in expressing this opinion were not, as it was right after my RP posts, which were detailed and I had to send most of my posts in two or three chunks since Discord had a 2,000 character limit. He also made it a point that if I ever do play with detailed posts, he'd skip them. There was a Halloween RP that I was a part of on the server, as well. Within the RP, I had read a post wrong of his. However, his post was pretty vague and I had my character try to walk through a door that I thought his character opened. It was closed and proceeded to make an RP post explaining that my character was walking into a door and kept walking. And then he asked if I wanted to try again. He didn't give me a warning, and he probably thought it was pretty funny. On a good day, sure, I would have laughed, but I voiced I wasn't having a good day earlier in chat due to irl shenanigans and he decided to pull that stunt.

Another RP that I wasn't a part of led a member to leave. They had no idea that the RP that he was asked to join was going to crossover. They do not like crossover RPs and the creator, seeing that this was their RP, basically told them that if they didn't want to join, then they shouldn't have, to which they responded that they had no idea that the RP was going to be a crossover RP and the creator's actions were trying to bunny their character into joining the plot. The creator was pushing for the guy to continue with the RP, but the guy made bland posts that didn't react to what was going on. When asked about this, the guy said he didn't want to join, but he felt obligated to because of the creator's behavior. They settled on the matter and the guy left the RP while the creator continued with the crossover plot. However, the initial portion of that was pretty badly executed.

Another Site Shenanigans

I didn't have many experiences in this one that the others haven't gone through. Like people ghosting the RP, leaving the RP to die, but the biggest one was an RP that I wish I had been a part of. So there was this Pokemon Tournament and the battle was between an Abomasnow and a Gengar (I think, but I am sure it was a Gengar). The Gengar was abusing the power of phasing in and out of attacks and attacking with no penalty to stamina or anything. This went on for at least 12 posts. The other guy whose character had the Abomasnow didn't want to back down, so they pulled some crazy stuff too. Then it was brought up in the discussion that the guy with the Gengar (let's call him Gengar-Guy) was power-playing (basically god-modding where they have their characters do something that really shouldn't happen without drawbacks or doing anything they shouldn't be doing at all). Gengar-Guy denied this and said it was canon that Gengar was able to do so. However, the Aboma-Guy (his opponent in the RP) told him that there should be a drawback at least, as this was practically cheating. There was a bit of a flame war and then a mod stepped in and Gengar-Guy decided to be nice and have his character's Pokemon get knocked out, and then spread contempt that this wasn't fair. This was a few years ago and I'm glad to say that the guy has gotten better.

Other things that kill the RP are weird off-the-wall plots that sound good on paper, but aren't well executed (like my Almia Pokemon Tournament, which took way too long to get started and there were too many rules and guidelines so nobody really joined besides two people). There was an RP of someone's that I joined that I was interested in. I thought the guy had a plan, as the plot was to capture our characters by a resurging evil team and then we had to break out and escape. We made limitations on our Pokemon who can Teleport and that was it. When we got halfway through the RP (it was really short, it didn't even span two full pages), the other players were asking questions as to whether it was this easy if the evil team were actually reputable bad guys and how did we get caught by them. The creator couldn't give an explanation, and we all decided to leave because, after we escaped, there was nothing for us to do. The creator also abandoned their own RP because they realized that the novelty wore off.


That should be everything about my experiences. Sorry if this was really long. If any one of you recognize these RPs or the Discord server, do not comment the name of the server or the people's names.

 

[DaydreamLover]

A big thing for me that causes an RP to die off is the lack of plotting and OOC chatting. That seems to be the cause of a lot of rps dying off, they just never seem to get anywhere and I can't get excited about it. Now those are the ones that kind of die off earlier.

For ones that die off later, I think people lose interest in RPing. I roleplayed with one partner who wanted to RP using this one band now, one she lost interest in the band, she just let the RP die off. We were both good writers and our styles were similar so I was quite sad but I couldn't force her to be inspired.

I still maintain that the biggest issue i have encountered is no plotting, no OOC chatting and getting comfortable with each other, to me that makes it for a bust almost from the beginning. Also, all the inspiration and plotting coming from one side is also an issue because not just one person should do all the heavy lifting or it gets boring.

 

[_gallifrog_]

I've been in this situation so many times before, mainly in group RPs. I have been in numerous groups, and not a single one has lasted beyond two months, and it's a relief in a way to learn that this is a problems across RPN. Through some quirk of the universe or maybe just bad luck, I've ended up numerous times being the last person to post and sat there, waiting for a reply that never comes. I have to say I have gone through the 'is it my fault they're all crashing' phase, but looking back on it, they were flagging loooong before I hit send.

Sometimes there is a legitimate reason for them ending, which I can understand, but it's in my experience very rare, most times they seem to die due to ghosting or lack of interest. I feel a bit of a rant coming on, but I'll try and make it somewhat coherent, give some general examples and some specific ones that have happened to me.

Lack of motivation/interest to continue
Reading other posts here, this seems to be a common theme. You go into an RP pumped, loving the concept and the world building, the potential, you look at other people's characters and think 'woooah, I can't wait to have my character interact with theirs'. There's a flurry of activity on the discord and OOC, you can barely keep up with it. Then it just all slows, posts stop coming (people have other commitments and they'll do it tomorrow) and people start drifting away and the whole thing slows to a stop. It's never formally announced it's over, but you just know- there isn't going to be any posts here any more.

Overplotting and overplanning
This pretty much describes exactly what I mean

We're all familiar with it - the tango of taking forever to get to the point where you can write a starter post, people not coming prepared with ideas, life gets in the way and the days turn into weeks...

Like I've said before: I think people like to TALK about roleplaying more than they actually like to roleplay.

You spend so much time plotting character relationships and planning arcs that the RP just never happens. Sometimes the GM forces this on you, wanting everything planned out in meticulous detail before you start. Other times it's because there process of getting into an RP takes a month. First there's a selection process you make a character, post up a detailed CS and wait until everybody else has put up as CS, then you wait for the GM to choose the worthy characters. Then there's plotting and relationships and so much extra work that by the time the RP starts people are sick of it and it fizzles out. I don't mind planning, planning is vital for an RP, and bouncing ideas off people often leads to better ones emerging, but there is a point where it becomes a chore and opposed to actually constructive.

Incompatible writing styles/interests
I've had a few of these. I like fairly detailed posts (minimum two, max five paragraphs) with some depth in what the character is thinking as well as what they're feeling. I put effort into a post only to receive one or two line answers in response and that's just annoying. Another bugbear is grammar and typos, mine isn't perfect, I know. There's stuff that slips through for me and for everybody, we're only human. But some posts are so littered with them it's distracting. I'd rather be waiting a while for a well written post than receive a badly written once quickly. As for interests, it happens, I go in expecting one thing and somehow end up shoehorned into something I didn't have an interest in (or in the case of fandoms, enough background knowledge in) to write a decent post.

Ghosting Incident One
I was in a 1x1 RP for a while with somebody I'd met on another site, we were both kinda green and new to roleplaying, still trying to figure out or styles, but bonded over a mutual interest in sci-fi and aliens. I was unable to post for a few days and I told my partner so and that I'd reply as soon as I humanly could. When I get back from the trip I reply, but I never hear anything from them again. They upped and left the site (and the first site I met them on) and as far as I know they've never been active on either since.

Ghosting Incident Two
This time it was a group RP the GM had run this RP before, and it had died for whatever reason and told us (the RPers) that they were determined not to let it die. We got about two scenes in and all was going well, one or two posts up a day from the various characters (there was nine I think). Then out of nowhere the GM just vanished. We tried messaging them, but nothing. So somehow I (who has no qualifications whatsoever to GM) ended up in charge of it. It lasted maybe a week and then just fizzled out, we'd all lost interest and I really couldn't commit myself properly to the RP properly anyway, so, as frustrating. as it was, it was probably for the best.

GM unable to continue
This is a more specific example, and I have nothing against this person as an RPer, I've been in a few things with them and have never had any problems, so this isn't me hating on them or bad-mouthing. They were running two RPs at once- one set in a superhero world, one set in a world of supernatural creatures and quite a few people were in both RPs. A considerable amount of time had been spent planning and plotting, there were rough arcs and a rough shape each 'episode' was to take. Then something came up in the GMs real life and they were unable to continue. Which is fair enough. the only reason I'm putting it here is that they took a full week to let the players know. Sure it's tough to tell people you're bowing out, but at the same time it's also common courtesy, all players are invested in the RP not just the GM.

RP that's not actually an RP
This one is something I haven't seen in other's posts here, and it's only happened to me once, so it might just be a one off, but I'll tell the story anyway. I joined an RP centered around criminals and their various activities with and against each other. The premise was interesting (I can't go into too much detail because don't want to be pointing fingers) and the group was pretty diverse (ie I hadn't seen many of these people in other RPs before). There was a discord for planning, which I joined. It quickly became apparent to me that bar myself and one other, everybody in the RP knew each other in real life. The discord quickly turned away from RP-related matters completely and into full on OOC, them chatting about their lives and personal stuff. The RP died, but the discord lived on and eventually I left because it was clear that I really wasn't meant to be there, I honestly felt quite uncomfortable there, I didn't know these people and this was stuff I really didn't need to know. But nobody had the guts to say 'look this is now a private discord server unrelated to RP, and as you aren't somebody we know in real life we're gonna have to ask you to leave'. I would have been fine with that.

That ended up going on for way longer than I meant it to, but hopefully that sheds some light of the age old question question of why so many RPs here die

 

[Jace Quin]

I let them.

Either I or my partner (pretty much only do 1x1s) was losing interest, posting schedule slowing down because of real life stuff, other roleplays I was more excited to reply to took priority, and a variety of other factors might have been involved but ultimately all it came down to was at some point it was clear the roleplay had reached a sticking point and I chose not to shove past. Either I explicitly stated this to my partner or I simply allowed my last post to go unanswered and never asked why. I have had times in many other roleplays where we chose to skip ahead or have something unexpected happen to our characters when we got to a sticking point like this and some of my roleplays lasted for months or years but all those other times when one 'died' it was because we let it happen. Sometimes I didn't want to push someone with a busy schedule and other times I wasn't interested enough in the roleplay to carry the plot or indecision became the decision.

So yes. I'll admit it. I let them die.

 

[CrystalDisc]

More often than not, I leave them as well - but NEVER without letting them know that I want to call the game off, or continue it another time. Don't ghost, folks.

 

[akamatsu]

One liners and improper grammar. I had a Roleplay partner who would just type out a lazy one liner that was honestly hard to read. He was fun to Roleplay with at first, he typed a decent paragraph that was enough for me to go off of, but then he became lazy and would type out a short sentence with improper grammar or just three words in response to my 5 sentence paragraph. Roleplay soon died off when my responses were being made slower and slower.

 

[Wyldrwolf]

The roleplay I was in for several years eventually died out for a combination of lost interest in the group, OOC conflicts, and the merge of our forum software with another, less user friendly company and format. Sadly the site just didn’t survive the move

 

[ThePrinceoffire]

I can get overwhelmed with ideas, like me and this one person talked about a silent Hill role play and at first it was just going to be Harry and an OC looking for Cheryl/Heather. But then they started talking about when we get to the second game in the timeline how they do all this before we even started the rp, it is very hard to contain your excitement and blabber about shit at least for me.

 

[StAmuriah]

So I have this system I do every time I decide to come back here. I go to the 1x1 interest check and reply to the freshest and /or loneliest RP that no one has joined yet. I figure "hey, if no one wants to play with them then I'm certainly up for the challenge." Problem is that No matter who I play with I always run into the same problem:

People are too concerned with characters and likeability and not the story making them more reactive than proactive.

The RP's that I've join 80% of the time die because my partner is more interested in making a character that wants to wax rhapsody about their character, state of mind, past, hopes, dreams, fears, wounds, morning rituals, etc inside an internal monologue rather than figure out what the goal, problem or quest is that needs to be done. I feel that partners in generall are more invested in their characters that they forget that a story requires them to put these perfect specimens in troubling situations that will test their charcaters actual merit. Then when met with conflict be it personal, verbal, physical, internal, external they have a tendency to fold and act out with much angst. Lots of reactions to problems rather actions to solve them. It gets tedious and boring, I really do try and help the situation a lot by playing as many roles as is necessary in order to create setting, a cast with 3D personalities on the fly and a plot that is plausible enough for both of us to get invested in, but then I get used as a crutch to create the conflict for them to react to, resolve it and then move on; rinse, repeat. I am by no means saying I am an amazing writer at all, but I feel many people come to places like RP nation to engage in a an escapist fantasy to play characters they enjoy. The problem is they don't have the instinct or the know-how to put forth the other crucial parts it takes to make a story besides characters. You need a plot, a setting and themes to anchor them down. This isn't an MMORPG for your to let your OC's just run around and cause havoc. And even in group RP's where something like that is more plausible where you theoretically have a better chance of having more people to bolster the story instead you end up babysitting an entire group of literary LARPers rather than a group of writers. You don't need to be good, but my point simply is:

-interesting characters are not always likeable, only sympathetic. In fact, the more interesting characters are unlikable and watching them grow is what is captivating. In a word, Pathos.

-the point of a story, let alone partnered RP's is to have strangers get into strange problems together that they need to solve. By definition conflict is inevitable. particularly external. At some point characters, and by extension, the writers will be put in an uncomfortable situation they need to get out of and solve. Getting messy is part of the fun.

-Character foils are more interesting than bubby-buddy characters. The buddy-cop trope is proof. Good cop, bad cop routine and how they play off each other. Characters that are opposites so that way they can test the other character's moral truth's and ethical integrity while trying to solve a conflict. They don't hate each other, but being agreeable.... it's just plane boring. Everything going according to plan. Might as well read a math book to see how to solve any problem devoid of personality.

*sigh* I'm sorry. I know I must sound crazy and demanding, but all I'm trying to say is that rps, especially my rps, die because they get boring. They get boring because characters have nothing to do. They have nothing to do because everything is awesome. And everything is awesome because either A- no one wants to be disagreeable or B- playing with someone who is or who is playing a disagreeable character is uncomfortable because of the emotional investment in the character anyone is playing. No one is willing to sacrifice their feelings for the sake of an interesting story. I'm not saying teo hell with triggers. I'm saying no one likes being disliked. But that's why we like our media. Because we watch characters go through some mess and come out the other end. When RP writers do it THAT is the secret ingredient they are missing.

 

[Merciless Medic]

So I have this system I do every time I decide to come back here. I go to the 1x1 interest check and reply to the freshest and /or loneliest RP that no one has joined yet. I figure "hey, if no one wants to play with them then I'm certainly up for the challenge." Problem is that No matter who I play with I always run into the same problem:

People are too concerned with characters and likeability and not the story making them more reactive than proactive.

The RP's that I've join 80% of the time die because my partner is more interested in making a character that wants to wax rhapsody about their character, state of mind, past, hopes, dreams, fears, wounds, morning rituals, etc inside an internal monologue rather than figure out what the goal, problem or quest is that needs to be done. I feel that partners in generall are more invested in their characters that they forget that a story requires them to put these perfect specimens in troubling situations that will test their charcaters actual merit. Then when met with conflict be it personal, verbal, physical, internal, external they have a tendency to fold and act out with much angst. Lots of reactions to problems rather actions to solve them. It gets tedious and boring, I really do try and help the situation a lot by playing as many roles as is necessary in order to create setting, a cast with 3D personalities on the fly and a plot that is plausible enough for both of us to get invested in, but then I get used as a crutch to create the conflict for them to react to, resolve it and then move on; rinse, repeat. I am by no means saying I am an amazing writer at all, but I feel many people come to places like RP nation to engage in a an escapist fantasy to play characters they enjoy. The problem is they don't have the instinct or the know-how to put forth the other crucial parts it takes to make a story besides characters. You need a plot, a setting and themes to anchor them down. This isn't an MMORPG for your to let your OC's just run around and cause havoc. And even in group RP's where something like that is more plausible where you theoretically have a better chance of having more people to bolster the story instead you end up babysitting an entire group of literary LARPers rather than a group of writers. You don't need to be good, but my point simply is:

-interesting characters are not always likeable, only sympathetic. In fact, the more interesting characters are unlikable and watching them grow is what is captivating. In a word, Pathos.

-the point of a story, let alone partnered RP's is to have strangers get into strange problems together that they need to solve. By definition conflict is inevitable. particularly external. At some point characters, and by extension, the writers will be put in an uncomfortable situation they need to get out of and solve. Getting messy is part of the fun.

-Character foils are more interesting than bubby-buddy characters. The buddy-cop trope is proof. Good cop, bad cop routine and how they play off each other. Characters that are opposites so that way they can test the other character's moral truth's and ethical integrity while trying to solve a conflict. They don't hate each other, but being agreeable.... it's just plane boring. Everything going according to plan. Might as well read a math book to see how to solve any problem devoid of personality.

*sigh* I'm sorry. I know I must sound crazy and demanding, but all I'm trying to say is that rps, especially my rps, die because they get boring. They get boring because characters have nothing to do. They have nothing to do because everything is awesome. And everything is awesome because either A- no one wants to be disagreeable or B- playing with someone who is or who is playing a disagreeable character is uncomfortable because of the emotional investment in the character anyone is playing. No one is willing to sacrifice their feelings for the sake of an interesting story. I'm not saying teo hell with triggers. I'm saying no one likes being disliked. But that's why we like our media. Because we watch characters go through some mess and come out the other end. When RP writers do it THAT is the secret ingredient they are missing.

I feel you there and I hate it when that happens. A part of the fun is torturing your characters XD

But anyway, another thing I remembered is that someone gets bored and ends up trying to rush through the RP because people are going too slow for them, so they end up destroying chances of having their characters interact with anyone due to be a few days ahead and being in a completely different area.