Experiences What do you like most about Roleplaying and why did you get into it

[BackSet]

The purpose of this thread is obvious. What do you like about Roleplaying and why did you get into it. Personally I like it because there's other people to remind me to keep going. Unlike a story in wich I have to urge myself to keep going and I usually forget about the story if a roleplay has several people replying I remember to keep going. I also like cooperative story telling so that's a plus.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

I also like cooperative story telling so that's a plus.

The short and simplest answer is this. I'm also just a natural born day dreamer. So rp'ing gives me an outlet without having to commit to writing a book.

 

[BackSet]

The short and simplest answer is this. I'm also just a natural born day dreamer. So rp'ing gives me an outlet without having to commit to writing a book.

Agreed.

 

[Lunaria Silver]

I like rping because it's almost like writing a fanfiction or a book, except you can't really plan as much. People have such gloriously unexpected responses.
I got into it when a friend and I made up some characters and roleplayed on pictochat. I didn't realize it was roleplaying at the time.

 

[BackSet]

It really does test your ability to adapt to the situation doesn't it.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

The unexpected part is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes I have a hard time maintaining my themes based on the curveballs that I get lol

 

[JayTee]

It lets me do all the cool stuff I can't do in real life because silly things like physics and modern socioeconomics get in the way.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I mostly enjoy the social aspect myself. I like making friends with people of similar interests and coming up with fun stories together with them. I also like world building but I tend to get a little caught up in it if I don't have anyone to bounce ideas off.

 

[Borkus Lazorus]

It is literally escapism. Role-playing is one of the most distilled forms of escapism and there is literally no other reason to like roleplaying other than that brief feeling of being someone else.

 

[BackSet]

It lets me do all the cool stuff I can't do in real life because silly things like physics and modern socioeconomics get in the way.

I don't let that second one get in the way of my fun in real life.

 

[IFudgedUp]

I stumbled upon a Harry Potter roleplaying site when I was 12 and I've been roleplaying on and off ever since, taking hiatuses every so often.
I also used to write stories in a little notebook for fun before that, so I guess you could say it started there.

 

[Caroline1539]

I love being able to get into a characters skin and feel everything that they feel. I love experiencing what they do (unless it's horribly unpleasant with no real reason for the unpleasantness) and I use my characters' emotions as catharsis to burn off my own intense emotions.

I also like getting into character because it helps me explore motives and reasons for why they do what they do and why they feel what they feel. It's a huge hit for my empathy, and to be honest it's one of the best things in the world to me.

One of the single best things I've ever done is roleplay with a friend of mine- her character is best friends with my character and they/we clicked almost immediately and we still mesh together perfectly. I cherish her immensely and I don't think roleplaying would be the same for me if I didn't have her.

 

[kung fu kenny]

it’s my best stress reliever.

 

[Tierax]

It's the stories and escapism in equal measure for me, sometimes its to try out different experiences and playstyles, sometimes its to see how i myself would react in a world like that.

 

[Eonivar]

I came upon textual RP by almost accident by playing in a tabletop roleplaying game. I was playing in a Pathfinder Campaign when we had a dramatic moment with my character (an elven wizard at the time) to where the group decided to continue the session via email after the live session. I got in some email RP with another member of the party and then we started to RP more ourselves eventually doing several stories. As with the posts above it is about escapism. For me, it is the connection, the writing, and the interaction with another. The act of sharing and creating with others really drives me and RP gives me that in spades.

 

[Jay Wolf]

The purpose of this thread is obvious. What do you like about Roleplaying and why did you get into it. Personally I like it because there's other people to remind me to keep going. Unlike a story in wich I have to urge myself to keep going and I usually forget about the story if a roleplay has several people replying I remember to keep going. I also like cooperative story telling so that's a plus.

Well, I like Roleplaying because it's an escape from day to day life. I can be whatever without any worry, and I often get great book ideas and it's just so darn fun!

 

[phonograph]

I didn't have many friends growing up; I was a nerd in a little backwater town. I got into rp'ing because I could meet people just like me with the same passion. That's what I really love, and also being able to explore different walks of life and create new worlds.

 

[Idea]

I like the way it let's me meet new people and allow me to explore my imagination and the written medium. I actually became a roleplayer while I was looking for a way to express short stories or characters from the digimon fandom. I ended up finding my first roleplay site there and fell in love with the rules, so i joined.

 

[Archdemon]

Hmmmm, I like rping because it helps my creativity, improves my writing skills like grammar and paragraph structure. The main reason is because I can create characters and understand the different aspects of people I can't do IRL, like the phrase "Stepping in someone elses shoes."

I actually got into it here because I always wanted to rp so I just looked up sites and fell in love with RpN.

 

[DailyRoLord]

I love roleplaying because I as a person love writing. Roleplaying takes me to my imaginary worlds that I can’t have in real life, and I can write up anything I imagine.

 

[Biird]

I love creative writing. I've improved so much over the years in terms of personal projects AS WELL AS academic papers and such. I love the thought of entertaining someone as much as I'm being entertained in turn, and basically writing the chapter (or chapterS) of a story collaboratively. It's also made me more social.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

My dad was a huge nerd in college (He's still a nerd but eh, details), doing things like tabletop RPG and Magic:The Gathering, I would hear about it, watch the different dices and such and want to try it out by myself someday, because it sounded like fun.

Roleplay was also one of those things that I've had always wanted to try but didn't have friends to do it with growing up. That is until I discovered Nation States. What started as kind of an experiment for me soon became something I truly enjoyed... Sure, the first try was a total disaster, I did reeeeally bad, but it was fun and I found a group of people that I could really open up to and play with, during what was the second hardest time of my life, High School.

We, the Insanity Club as our Skype group was called, would often join together in impulsively created plots just for the fun of it. It was mostly script style and I didn't invest in the details as I do these days, but that was kinda the point, quick stories we could enjoy for a couple nights without taking much time, as I was a High School student and everyone else was either going to or at college already...
Eventually, our lives caught up with us and the Insanity Club went silent. I myself was busy with studying to get into college and was without a computer anyway because it decided to die. Years later I managed to get one of those friends to join me in AEGIS over here after I had already gotten into college >w<


As to why I roleplay, It was primarily for the fun of it.
I missed writing and was looking for a new medium to do so, then I ran into RPN, but nowadays there's a bit of a challenge in there too. I went for things I hadn't tried before, striving to better my writing style and vocabulary more and more. Eventually, it became sort of a game to come up with a personality concept and then put it into practice. I deeply enjoy understanding what makes a person act the way they do, react the way they do. My characters got more and more complex as I started putting a lot of thought into what made them the person they are today. I consider all their replies very carefully in every single post.

At the same time as I dwelt deeper into vocabulary, I started experimenting with the ways to convey emotions. One thing I absolutely adore is the use of metaphors, I often get a bit poetic in my narrations, it makes the whole process of writing a lot more entertaining to me. I turned out to take the entire RPing experience quite seriously, becoming even a bit of a perfectionist. I want to feel satisfied with what I write, I want to make the effort worth, I want to be proud of it. But even more, I want it to be dynamic. To evolve, to change. I get bored and discouraged pretty easily, thus I need to feel like things are improving or at least flowing better to really engage myself.
That's why I absolutely don't write a post until I'm 100% feeling it because the writing starts getting dull to me, it's stagnated, unchanging, I'm unable to connect to it. I may even grow to hate it which makes the task even more painful. If I'm going to write I need to pour myself entirely into the task, have the phrase constructions flow almost instinctively.

Just like when doing art, there's nothing more fulfilling than losing yourself into the task, casting aside all your worries and then have it result in something you truly love, because you can absolutely see yourself in it! You did this and it's amazing! It's like I was meant to do it all along, you know? I can't really explain it, I don't think words could ever convey the sensation clearly, but it's... magical.