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

[Inno]

If your romance story starts with kidnapping and breaking your love interest then I'm out. If your love story starts with you disrespecting your love interest's preferences or bodily autonomy for selfish reasons then I'm out. If your interest check goes out of it's way to be rude to cishet men I'm out.

Kidnapping+breaking=Love?
No. Nope. No way.

 

[Green Glow]

Kidnapping+breaking=Love?
No. Nope. No way.

Oh I remember that one specifically. Me and my would-be partner were going to do an RP where our characters were based on mythical creatures and they said our love interests should be the sons of a noble or a king and as a right of passage they were tasked with kidnapping us and breaking us into their slaves and I was like..."Oh okah but they don't go through with it and set our characters free instead?" Nope they said that they feel bad about what they did and try to undo the damage they did by treating us as people and not slaves...I never answered them again after that. Didn't even explain why I left just bounced.

 

[Kaiju Cat]

Oh I remember that one specifically. Me and my would-be partner were going to do an RP where our characters were based on mythical creatures and they said our love interests should be the sons of a noble or a king and as a right of passage they were tasked with kidnapping us and breaking us into their slaves and I was like..."Oh okah but they don't go through with it and set our characters free instead?" Nope they said that they feel bad about what they did and try to undo the damage they did by treating us as people and not slaves...I never answered them again after that. Didn't even explain why I left just bounced.

Yeah no I would bounce too

 

[Inno]

Oh I remember that one specifically. Me and my would-be partner were going to do an RP where our characters were based on mythical creatures and they said our love interests should be the sons of a noble or a king and as a right of passage they were tasked with kidnapping us and breaking us into their slaves and I was like..."Oh okah but they don't go through with it and set our characters free instead?" Nope they said that they feel bad about what they did and try to undo the damage they did by treating us as people and not slaves...I never answered them again after that. Didn't even explain why I left just bounced.

.....I would have bounced as well. That's just...nope.

 

[sevyn]

master / slave dynamics… which, you’d think is usually a sexual thing, so one wouldn’t see that on rpn, right? still pretty gross, but no. i just saw someone advertising a master / slave plot, as in slave labor. whyyy the fuck would you want to imagine a world where slaves are still the norm? i will never ever understand the romanticisation of it, most commonly by… ️️️ people. it’s genuinely disgusting. slavery was a horrific and vile point in history and you’re writing a lil romance about it? hello??? literally what is Wrong with you??

 

[Jannah]

master / slave dynamics… which, you’d think is usually a sexual thing, so one wouldn’t see that on rpn, right? still pretty gross, but no. i just saw someone advertising a master / slave plot, as in slave labor. whyyy the fuck would you want to imagine a world where slaves are still the norm? i will never ever understand the romanticisation of it, most commonly by… ️️️ people. it’s genuinely disgusting. slavery was a horrific and vile point in history and you’re writing a lil romance about it? hello??? literally what is Wrong with you??

And let me guess, it was set in the American South too?

 

[nerdy tangents]

There are a lot of searches where I am like “your aware this is usually sex stuff right? And honestly it’s way less problematic when it’s two adults just ironing out their kinks.”

Also in fairness there is a lot of subconscious kink going on where if you listen to the explanation it is very clearly just sex stuff without the “fade to black bits.”

Out of curiosity where they wanting to be the slave or the master sevyn ?

 

[sevyn]

And let me guess, it was set in the American South too?

they said “modern but where slavery still exists, medieval, ancient egypt or ancient rome” if i recall correctly which… either way, fucking gross, none of those settings should be glorified. dark roleplays are one thing, but in my opinion, some things just shouldn’t be written— at least not like that, with the intention of making it romantic. it reminds me of that weirdly common trope of nazis falling in love with the kind of people that real nazis targeted???

 

[Jannah]

they said “modern but where slavery still exists, medieval, ancient egypt or ancient rome” if i recall correctly which… either way, fucking gross, none of those settings should be glorified. dark roleplays are one thing, but in my opinion, some things just shouldn’t be written— at least not like that, with the intention of making it romantic. it reminds me of that weirdly common trope of nazis falling in love with the kind of people that real nazis targeted???

I do explore pretty dark topics and settings myself, but I will never romanticize them. Yuck.

 

[Green Glow]

they said “modern but where slavery still exists, medieval, ancient egypt or ancient rome” if i recall correctly which… either way, fucking gross, none of those settings should be glorified. dark roleplays are one thing, but in my opinion, some things just shouldn’t be written— at least not like that, with the intention of making it romantic. it reminds me of that weirdly common trope of nazis falling in love with the kind of people that real nazis targeted???

Who tf wants to play a Nazi?

 

[Kaiju Cat]

Who tf wants to play a Nazi?

I had this person wanting to play one in the walking dead server who claimed he isn’t supportive of them. I’m guessing that’s the case, maybe? It’s disgusting.

 

[Green Glow]

I had this person wanting to play one in the walking dead server who claimed he isn’t supportive of them. I’m guessing that’s the case, maybe? It’s disgusting.

Okay so was the nazi the villain or something? I can understand someone playing one as a villain.

 

[Kaiju Cat]

Okay so was the nazi the villain or something? I can understand someone playing one as a villain.

I don’t remember tbh i guess their character was supposed to be a villain.

 

[Green Glow]

I don’t remember tbh i guess their character was supposed to be a villain.

I mean here is the thing is you're portraying things like Nazi's and slavery in your RP I believe it should be made clear that it's not right, it's bad and unacceptable, but don't go "Hey this is bad, now anyway my Nazi general is in love with his slave isn't that cute?!" No its bad and something neds to be done about it. I'm not gonna say you can't portray them whatsoever because that would be hypocritical of me when I have no issue with HP RPs and let's not pretend the Death Eaters aren't Wizards Nazis but the are portrayed as bad and in the wrong.

 

[Jannah]

Okay so was the nazi the villain or something? I can understand someone playing one as a villain.

I have played Nazi characters, but they're always either villains or basically just forced into the Nazi ideology by circumstance and don't actually believe in it.

 

[sevyn]

There are a lot of searches where I am like “your aware this is usually sex stuff right? And honestly it’s way less problematic when it’s two adults just ironing out their kinks.”

Also in fairness there is a lot of subconscious kink going on where if you listen to the explanation it is very clearly just sex stuff without the “fade to black bits.”

Out of curiosity where they wanting to be the slave or the master sevyn ?

sorry luv, didn’t see this. also, agreed… feel like i’ve seen a good few searches that had strangely sexual undertones, but i figured if the mods didn’t take it down, it’s really none of my business and i ultimately don’t care much.

and like i said before, i find master / slave to be immensely repulsive even as a kink, but then it’s at least slightly less weird since that generally doesn’t have… racist or other very problematic undertones.

they wanted to be the slave. i’m not sure what would’ve been worse, but i think it might be pretending that the horrific conditions of being a slave could possibly lead into romance. oh, sure, some masters might’ve had “affairs” with the slaves on their land, but that wasn’t exactly in a romantic or even consensual context, obviously. i doh’t see how someone could possibly want to make light of that. uneven power dynamics usually are an ick for me when it comes to most roleplays, but this? this is an extreme case of that.

 

[sevyn]

Okay so was the nazi the villain or something? I can understand someone playing one as a villain.

i can’t. i can’t possibly understand what enjoyment people get out of playing nazi characters, racist characters, homophobic characters, et cetera. i’m sure someone will say that it’s just “expanding their ability to play different types of characters,” but it’s still weird as hell to me, and i’m 100% side eyeing people who do that there are better ways to write evil characters

 

[Green Glow]

i can’t. i can’t possibly understand what enjoyment people get out of playing nazi characters, racist characters, homophobic characters, et cetera. i’m sure someone will say that it’s just “expanding their ability to play different types of characters,” but it’s still weird as hell to me, and i’m 100% side eyeing people who do that there are better ways to write evil characters

I mean that's subjective also just because someone plays or write something doesn't mean they "enjoy it" that's kinda like saying if you made a joke about x topic then you support x topic, life just ain't that black and white and it's kinda presumptuous, unfair and kinda rude to side-eye them and assume they take the enjoyment out of said topics simply because they portray them in any way shape or from, sure if they're being creepy and gross about it, romanticizing and trying to paint it in a good light sure but if they're portraying it as the evil that is was I really don't see the need to side-eye them. People shouldn't have to avoid or pretend the subject doesn't exist. Yes, there are other ways to make a good villain but honestly what's wrong with just making an awful character who is just awful wit horrible values and world views and we know they're awful?

 

[sevyn]

I mean that's subjective also just because someone plays or write something doesn't mean they "enjoy it" that's kinda like saying if you made a joke about x topic then you support x topic, life just ain't that black and white and it's kinda presumptuous, unfair and kinda rude to side-eye them and assume they take the enjoyment out of said topics simply because they portray them in any way shape or from, sure if they're being creepy and gross about it, romanticizing and trying to paint it in a good light sure but if they're portraying it as the evil that is was I really don't see the need to side-eye them. People shouldn't have to avoid or pretend the subject doesn't exist. Yes, there are other ways to make a good villain but honestly what's wrong with just making an awful character who is just awful wit horrible values and world views and we know they're awful?

most people roleplay for enjoyment, or that’s at least a large contributing factor, so usually people create characters that they enjoy playing for one reason or another. call it rude if you want to, i don’t know what you thought that would change. slay i guess?? frankly, your opinion means nothing to me. it will forever be weird in my eyes — if you’re fine with it then that’s good for you, but racism is pretty rampant enough in the real world, why would you need to make a character surrounding that sort of ideal? weird! strange! bonkers! i don’t understand it, i don’t want to understand it.

i understand writing dark topics or whatever, and i’m not even saying that no one should talk about certain topics, but it’s weird to me to actively roleplay things like racism or the life of a nazi. that’s not the same as, say, making a joke about a nazi, which is still usually in poor taste, but still not the same thing whatsoever.

 

[Jannah]

most people roleplay for enjoyment, or that’s at least a large contributing factor, so usually people create characters that they enjoy playing for one reason or another. call it rude if you want to, i don’t know what you thought that would change. slay i guess?? frankly, your opinion means nothing to me. it will forever be weird in my eyes — if you’re fine with it then that’s good for you, but racism is pretty rampant enough in the real world, why would you need to make a character surrounding that sort of ideal? weird! strange! bonkers! i don’t understand it, i don’t want to understand it.

i understand writing dark topics or whatever, and i’m not even saying that no one should talk about certain topics, but it’s weird to me to actively roleplay things like racism or the life of a nazi. that’s not the same as, say, making a joke about a nazi, which is still usually in poor taste, but still not the same thing whatsoever.

I suppose it depends why a person writes and/or RP's. A lot of people do it for escapism from the real world, yes, but that's not necessarily the case for all. Some also see writing as a relatively safe medium to explore these subjects on a deeper level and try to understand them better. Personally I like to write in a way that gets people thinking. Not necessarily as preachy political commentary, but on all sorts of philosophical questions and such. Racial issues, class issues, etc. are all part of that.

 

[Onmyoji]

If you want to continue your argument, please do so in Private messages, not the public thread.

 

[Wandering Fae]

When your interest check includes personal info that you want from your partner like their gender and sexuality. I'm sorry I can respect that you've had bad experiences in the past but people's irl gender and sexuality are none of your business and you don't get to demand they tell you...plus they can just lie about it to make you feel comfortable anyway so how would you even know?

 

[Green Glow]

When your interest check includes personal info that you want from your partner like their gender and sexuality. I'm sorry I can respect that you've had bad experiences in the past but people's irl gender and sexuality are none of your business and you don't get to demand they tell you...plus they can just lie about it to make you feel comfortable anyway so how would you even know?

I will add to this when you want to play a certain relationship dynamic be it mxf m// or f// and find it appropriate to insult the others. I mean you can express your sexuality without insulting the others.

 

[Wandering Fae]

Premade roles. I'm sorry I can't stand them I have an overactive imagination and I just can't do it. You are free to do them if you want I just won't be joining.

 

[nerdy tangents]

sorry luv, didn’t see this. also, agreed… feel like i’ve seen a good few searches that had strangely sexual undertones, but i figured if they mods didn’t take it down, it’s really none of my business.

and like i said before, i find master / slave to be immensely repulsive even as a kink, but then it’s at least slightly less weird since that generally doesn’t have… racist or other very problematic undertones.

they wanted to be the slave. i’m not sure what would’ve been worse, but i think it might be pretending that the horrific conditions of being a slave could possibly lead into romance. oh, sure, some masters might’ve had “affairs” with the slaves on their land, but that wasn’t exactly in a romantic or even consensual context, obviously. i doh’t see how someone could possibly want to make light of that. uneven power dynamics usually are an ick for me when it comes to most roleplays, but this? this is an extreme case of that.

So the reason I ask it because I had someone contact me about a similar kink/trope and the way they described it really helped me understand where the romance comes in.

It’s not about real life slavery in the same way that literacy in a roleplay context isn’t about being able to read and write.

It’s basically the damsel in distress phenomena on steroids. The people who like this are into the idea of someone else taking control of their life and taking care of them. They see it as a caretaker relationship just with added humiliation fetishes (usually for the more sexy stories).

Now obviously that is not how real life slavery worked which is why it’s a bit of a problematic trope in romance. Cuz it’s kinda hard to say that white plantation owners were taking care of their black slaves (or whatever other historical context your in) without it coming across as deeply racist.

Which is why I usually ask “Why do they have to be a slave? I am fine with my character just taking care of yours in a damsel type situation. Heck in most of history just plain matrimony would give you the romantic notion without any of the icky racial politics.)