Experiences What are some red flags in rp ads/requests? Why do they turn you off?

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RoosterRiot

Cause my long hair just can't cover up my red neck
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Personally I’m a little wary when I see the character described as shy. More often than not the character ends up doing nothing as far as plot, and I end up doing all the work. They only react, never do.
 
Hypocritical requests.

Say the poster requests that their partner replies once a day but they can only reply once a week.

Say the poster requests that their partner writes 500 word posts but they average maybe a paragraph per post.

So on and so forth.
 
Wanting daily replies: I just can't do it.

Also, having a large list of triggers. While that is fine and I respect it I know immediately that the person and myself would not be good partners simply because I tend to get pretty dark in my stories usually. I touch on a lot of sensitive topics in my stories, but I will always respect those who prefer to avoid that kind of thing. I just know we are unlikely to ever RP together.
 
People who whine about all of their past partners being disappointments. Like, no. I don't want to write with anyone with a sour attitude. Everyone has a bad experience or two, but this is you making a first impression and I am not at all interested in your tragic backstory about ghosting.
 
People who want to "fandom" rp with and as 'real people' as characters and not just a faceclaim.
It's very creepy and pretty objectifying all things considered
 
People who whine about all of their past partners being disappointments. Like, no. I don't want to write with anyone with a sour attitude. Everyone has a bad experience or two, but this is you making a first impression and I am not at all interested in your tragic backstory about ghosting.
Yeah, in situations like this, I like to say if one or two people were bad, the problem is them, but if all were bad, the problem is probably you.
 
When search ad is written in a very condescending tone. It's fine to consider yourself a good writer and look for other good writers, just when it comes off as snobbish it can be a big red flag for some people.
 
Players that repeatedly assert that they are over eighteen, want to write with other players who are also over eighteen, but then list their OC's "love interest" as a character who is canonically a child. I assume (and hope) most players in this scenario age those characters up, but. Yeah.
 
Meandering interest checks that lore dump instead of explaining things. I go to interest checks to see what the RP is about, and deep lore & exposition doesn't help. Give me the basics and then, after that, hit me with lore. Don't make me skim 3K words to get a feel for what's going on.
 
Personally I’m a little wary when I see the character described as shy. More often than not the character ends up doing nothing as far as plot, and I end up doing all the work. They only react, never do.
This is a major one for me. I'm not sure I have ever played with a proactive 'shy' character, so I don't bother anymore.

Riddled with spelling/grammatical errors (I get the odd one; I have stubby fingers and so make typos but come on, you're looking for writing partners, make an effort in writing the advert!).

As Onmyoji pointed out, some people go too far the other way and act like writing with them is a privilege, and you must "prove" yourself worthy. They gloat about how great their writing is and have extreme standards.

People who don't have an idea of a plot and want you to bring them one.

They say that they're 'limitless'. Nobody is limitless, so it sounds like they can't be bothered.

Not willing to make/play side characters- how can you make a realistic and engaging world when your character only ever speaks to one person?

"I only write 'x' gender"- preferences are fine. But to claim you can't even write a side character of the opposite gender just doesn't say great things about your writing.
 
My pet peeve with shy is that the characters aren’t actually shy. They’re somewhere in the range of anxious to introverted depending on the writer.

It’s the same with nerdy, clumsy, etc. characters. It’s like the players live in a vacuum and have never met a real person with the personality trait they want to write.

Real people don’t act like characters on TV. So if you want to write a shy, popular, clumsy, nerdy, etc. character your better off basing them on real people or yourself.

I know it’s unpopular to “self-insert” but it really does help you make a more well rounded character because you can write the internal reasoning for why the character does XYZ. Rather then character does XYZ because the plot requires it or because that’s what I saw them do on a TV show once.

Even basing them on book characters is better than nothing because in (well-written) books you will get the point of view characters inner motivations for why they do XYZ.

With shy people it just means they avoid direct confrontation not that they don’t do anything proactive. That’s more of an anxiety thing, and even then it can be interesting to turn that into an overly prepared mindset. They’re constantly preparing for imaginary catastrophe that they inadvertantly have a detailed plan to help solve the conflict.

As for shy just because you won’t confront someone directly doesn’t me you won’t confront them at all. Or that your a pretty lamp to be dragged everywhere under the sun.
 
It's really just one line.

"Rules will be altered and developed at the moderators' discretion. "

If you don't have a clear understanding of the rules and how to enforce them. Then I really question if this experience will be dictatorship or mediumship.

Like I've tried that rule before, it just made me a mad idiot, and it made me and my team crash and burn.

Know what you're going to enforce and stick with it.
 
When a shy character is really 'shy' it can be fun writing against it. So I don't see it as a very bright red flag.
But when it means 'lack of any kind of activity' is where the problem starts. I'm not sure if this is a bigger problem in Group or 1x1, I feel like it may cause fair share of issues in both. For groups it's a character that requires other characters to notice them and include in their actions and for 1x1 it may feel like the other character is dragging them on a leash.
Sometimes it is possible to make an assessment from the way the search ad itself is written. And this is where some red flags may be encountered. But I'm not sure if I can describe what exactly makes me think it's one or the other straight from the ad. More like a gut feeling which may probably be wrong sometimes lol Maybe the way the characters are described (if there are any descriptions included).
 
When a shy character is really 'shy' it can be fun writing against it. So I don't see it as a very bright red flag.
But when it means 'lack of any kind of activity' is where the problem starts. I'm not sure if this is a bigger problem in Group or 1x1, I feel like it may cause fair share of issues in both. For groups it's a character that requires other characters to notice them and include in their actions and for 1x1 it may feel like the other character is dragging them on a leash.
Sometimes it is possible to make an assessment from the way the search ad itself is written. And this is where some red flags may be encountered. But I'm not sure if I can describe what exactly makes me think it's one or the other straight from the ad. More like a gut feeling which may probably be wrong sometimes lol Maybe the way the characters are described (if there are any descriptions included).

I think it’s simplistic writing. If you’re gonna make the character more nuanced you usually don’t describe them in a simplicity of way.
 
Canon x OC

I just can’t do it. I’ve tried to do it in the past, and my creativity has immediately fizzled out and I have felt awful. Oh, and it’s especially bad if there’s no doubling involved, since it seems like those people just want to play out a fantasy that could have very well just been fanfiction.
 
Canon x OC

I just can’t do it. I’ve tried to do it in the past, and my creativity has immediately fizzled out and I have felt awful. Oh, and it’s especially bad if there’s no doubling involved, since it seems like those people just want to play out a fantasy that could have very well just been fanfiction.
Honestly
And I know there's people who don't mind being the oc
But I can only see it getting exhausting. Happy for people who do find partners though

For myself again, it's the condescending tone like Onmyoji said, I've tried to rp with them before but it's ended over explaining jerks who act as if I'm stupid or that my characters are stupid.

Which honestly is another big thing that's not even about ads, when people assume or try to make my characters behave a certain way, or have a certain trait, but let's stay on topic lol
 
Canon x OC

I just can’t do it. I’ve tried to do it in the past, and my creativity has immediately fizzled out and I have felt awful. Oh, and it’s especially bad if there’s no doubling involved, since it seems like those people just want to play out a fantasy that could have very well just been fanfiction.

This.
I don't do canon x oc for this reason. 99% of the time it's clearly a self insert to fulfill some romantic fantasy with a canon character
 
This.
I don't do canon x oc for this reason. 99% of the time it's clearly a self insert to fulfill some romantic fantasy with a canon character
Yep, likewise. Then again I only do OC x OC in fandom RP's because I don't like writing other people's characters.
 
Yep, likewise. Then again I only do OC x OC in fandom RP's because I don't like writing other people's characters.
Same, I strongly prefer OC x OC.

the only fandom i'll do is criminal minds because I love the show and know it well so think I can portray them accurately.
 
One that fully creeps me out when the ad assumes I am the same gender as my characters.

Like I know some people prefer to write their gender identity and that doesn’t bother me.

But when it’s like “I want a female partner to play female characters (or any other gender identity tbh)”.

It gives me MAJOR red flags and a full body shiver.
 
  • I wouldn't say that it's a "red flag" per se, but a big ol' turn off of mine in RP requests is when the ad is formatted in extravagant BBcode. You know the ones I mean: excessive moving pics and windows in windows that you need to scroll through. Hidden bullets in stylized icons and banners for everything. It's just too much. Less is more, imo. And when I see adverts like this I just click the back button.

  • Other topics I avoid are ones where canonical characters are involved.

  • Pretty much anything that is multi-verse. Multi-verse is just a guise for lazy writing, and instead of actually proposing a story and setting, the person proposing the RP has opted to just let anything into the narrative. super lame

  • School RPs.

  • Vampire RPs. I've yet to see them done in a fashion that isn't some cringy "Interview with the Vampire" wannabe rendition or otherwise some kinda dumb familial clan thing. It's always the same tired ideas. Vampire and Werewolf is even worse in this regard.

  • A long list of prohibited themes or topics. I understand the "No Metagaming" and "no godmodding". But once they start making a blacklist of all the stuff that they find personally offensive, I start to feel like I'm going to be dealing with a group of little snowflakes that are going to get their feathers ruffled if I don't keep in line with their personal agenda
 
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