Deal Breakers. What makes you "walk" away?

[rae2nerdy]

Saw a lot of talk about face claims.

Against the grain here but I dislike using real people.
Mostly because I saw a game about soliders and one of the images was from a news paper report of how they had died in combat.

Now they just used google image search and didn't know this.

It did make me acutely aware that we were using other real people for our games.
The last thing I want is someone to google someone they lost and finding their image being used in one of our RPs.

Even if they aren't dead they could find themselves and be made uncomfortable.

I also agree though that anime tends to be common among low grade RPs.

I try to use drawings or art rather than the other options, but it does seem in a big way there is no good way to do a face claim.

Real people could be insensitive
Anime tends to be a warning flag
Drawings tend to be of a lower quality for actually showing a face (as well as seeming odd) and can have the same issue as anime.

So yeah we are participating in a written medium, so lets write about faces.

There is a site for face claims that actually uses randomization to create faces. They aren’t real people just an assortment of features compiled by a computer.

This Person Does Not Exist

Also for drawings you can use doll generators which allow you to customize an individuals appearance.

I mean obviously you can use written descriptions if you want. But for the times when that isn’t possible

 

[koneko-chan]

Saw a lot of talk about face claims.

Against the grain here but I dislike using real people.
Mostly because I saw a game about soliders and one of the images was from a news paper report of how they had died in combat.

Now they just used google image search and didn't know this.

It did make me acutely aware that we were using other real people for our games.
The last thing I want is someone to google someone they lost and finding their image being used in one of our RPs.

Even if they aren't dead they could find themselves and be made uncomfortable.

I also agree though that anime tends to be common among low grade RPs.

I try to use drawings or art rather than the other options, but it does seem in a big way there is no good way to do a face claim.

Real people could be insensitive
Anime tends to be a warning flag
Drawings tend to be of a lower quality for actually showing a face (as well as seeming odd) and can have the same issue as anime.

So yeah we are participating in a written medium, so lets write about faces.

at least for me, when i’m writing in a universe based on/around an anime (or something western done in a more anime style, like RWBY), i will use an anime fc. describing someone as having ‘round, baby blue eyes’ means one thing on a real person, but can look totally different on an anime character. when writing, i visualize hard. we’re talking 100% clear images of a scene done in whatever style the series is done in! when i’m reading a book, i like to be able to take what information there is on a character’s appearance and imagine them as my mind sees fit. when it’s a rp (co-writing, in a sense), though... i don’t like doing that. the other character isn’t MINE by any means, but i’m writing in DIRECT connection to them, so it just feels strange to be unable to visualize them perfectly in their universe, i think. there’s no limit to the human imagination, but there’s a limit to human patience with your character being described wrong a hundred times because the other person can’t see them like you’re able to. not everyone can see clear images in their head, and a visual aid is nothing to be ashamed of. it isn’t a reflection of their writing ability, at least in my opinion. labeling anime a ‘warning sign’ just seems kind of presumptuous to me. if i’m writing an original universe or something based on a live action show or a book series, then i probably won’t use an anime fc because it doesn’t fit. i’m by no means a top-tier writer, but it’s sort of discouraging to think some people will go straight to writing me off because of something that makes the experience more fun.
(sorry for such a long post, i’m not like. actually ANGRY or anything i’m legit just so long winded with everything LMFAO)

 

[Jannah]

Saw a lot of talk about face claims.

Against the grain here but I dislike using real people.
Mostly because I saw a game about soliders and one of the images was from a news paper report of how they had died in combat.

Now they just used google image search and didn't know this.

It did make me acutely aware that we were using other real people for our games.
The last thing I want is someone to google someone they lost and finding their image being used in one of our RPs.

Even if they aren't dead they could find themselves and be made uncomfortable.

I also agree though that anime tends to be common among low grade RPs.

I try to use drawings or art rather than the other options, but it does seem in a big way there is no good way to do a face claim.

Real people could be insensitive
Anime tends to be a warning flag
Drawings tend to be of a lower quality for actually showing a face (as well as seeming odd) and can have the same issue as anime.

So yeah we are participating in a written medium, so lets write about faces.

What about celebrities? Sites I'm on only allow for signed celebrities as FC's. I'm personally not a fan of using cartoons or anime unless the RP is set in a cartoon or anime universe.

 

[Tove]

When, instead of ghosting a person, you tell them up front you're taking a break from writing which is a hiatus really and they ask "Would discord be a better place to write? We can keep the roleplay going there right now."

 

[Mirgris]

Let me go down some deal breakers.

1) Smaller than default fonts. Look I may be reading on a laptop, large TV or phone. If I have to squint I'm out.

2) "OwO" or any variation of it. I'm not 13, I really don't want text language and "Meme chat". Maybe someone who speaks like that can write eloquently but I am a least a little suspicious.

3) Memes: While memes are amusing they have become the new crossfit vegan super hybrid. Time and a place for them, not here normally.

4) Fandoms that use "But this is an AU" excuse constantly. Even for core mechanics of the universe.

5) Existing RPs that say they are supernatural or fandom, but everyone is already paired up and 80% of the RP IC is about that rather than the setting and story. Like sometimes romance happens. If we are RPing people, sometimes people bone. But if it's a 40k game about being imperial guard, and we do no gaurd things and it's 20 pages of romance talk. Nope, nope nope.

6) Sexy Vampires/werewolves: Essentially the above, your going to lie to me and say its about blood and murder and war. it isn't people are going to pair up. Its furry/vampire sexy time.

7) I know your fetishes from reading the thread. I should not be able to tell someones fetishes by the premise of the game. EG: I was invited to a werewolf game, were all the werewolves were prisoners unlikely to get out and being experimented upon. Lots of bondage and furry. Also it was full dog/human only werewolves. You were going to be a furry prisoners and get experimented upon, that is the whole game.

8) GM PCs: I have never seen it done well. The ability to run the game and give yourself no advantage, not even subconscious seems to be nearly impossible. If nothing else when making the PC you had the best idea of what the game/story needed. I also really doubt the GM is going to make themselves unhappy or bored with the story players sometimes are as things shift between player focus.

9:No cap on number of players: Really, you have so little story to tell that you can divide it infinitely?

10: Mary Sue: Look, don't have special eyes and special powers (unusual for the universe) just don't it's such a trope by now that I won't trust it. Could it be played well by thumbing it's nose at the tropes, satire? Sure, but so could someone with a sexual attraction to children who struggles against their nature and debates suicide. Do I think your going to take that complicated nuanced situation and play it well? Probably not.

11: Players playing a thing they know very little about. This is probably a bit of a personal issue but I have a background in the millitary and medicine and even a bit of martial arts. However "Sniper rifles" rarely exist, fucking google it. If it doesn't need/have a spotter it isn't a sniper rifle.
If it's bolt action that doesn't make it a sniper rifle.
If you aren't trained by a sniper school your not a sniper.
The term your looking for 99% of the time is designated marksman. (Or designated marksman rifle)

12: Thats pedophilia with extra steps: Not something I've seen to much of in RPS more in fiction about time loopers or immortals. (Or just the ageless like twilight).
The age of consent exist with the assumption that humans die around 100. If we removed that limit, then we have issues that are tricky to adress so lets not make a story about them: (a 2000 year old man dating a 20 year old, seems like abusive power manipulation to me)
(EG: Groundhog day movie comes terrible close to being about rape, he got centuries to keep retrying to find the perfect way to manipulate a woman until she had sex with him, all while taking advantage of magically granted memory loss to spy/stalk her. In fact he had a litteral infinite amount of tries it was not physically possible for her not to have sex with him in an infinite universe given he had infinite time)
(Twilight has multiple pedophiles in it, including someone "In love" with an unborn baby)

Like yeah consent and romance can be a complicated subject, more so when we drag time loops and centuries old people into it, but can we at least give it some consideration if it's going to come up, or not drag it up if we don't want to dive into those issues.

13: "Lol so random" which is the same as "Did it for the luls" or "Just did it because they are bored" or various others. "I can't make a character so here is a cardboard cut out I want you to take on a magical adventure.

14: Synonyms/antonyms: For fuck sakes know the words you are using to describe your PC. "He was a happy go lucky type, always brooding, quick to act but always methodical and thoughtful, caring to others but can be cruel and rude"
Yes people are sometimes nice and sometimes mean, saying that (more so with flowery language) is a waste of my time, tell me why/how.

15: "I'm a PC with no driving goal and just doing this because it happened in front of me"

16: "Lol I'm a bard I'm going to intterupt the game for everyone else to try to have sex with everything"

17: The person who only plays one PC but reuses it for everything. I had a DnD player who only played a charlatan who wouldn't do combat. "Ever" he wanted to do DnD without being a murder hobo. He was eventually removed after a few campiagns, because once is an interesting exploration, twice is what did you learn. Eventually though I realized that if they only have one person they play. It's a self insert, they are going to get emotional and they are going to have no separation of IC and OOC. It also will normally be boring and them trying to fit a square block into any shape hole.

18: Selective physics: The commoner rail gun comes to mind. (In which through abuse of DnD readied actions you move a spear at the speed of light then argue it should get bonus damage) the issue is that you want physics to apply to your benifit "hahaha all the damage it should get" but not one milisecond prior. "The spear going several hundred miles an hour has caught flame and the commoners fail to grab something moving so fast and smashes into the ground exploding and killing several of them" Real world physics should be either on or off.

19: "Pretty is my super power" I swear to god, the next one of those I see, I'm making someone who is chemically castrated and a sociopath to go PC killing with. I have so many "I have super high charisma" "I have such a big bonus to apperance" etc etc. It has never been done well, the same way diplomacy rolls are a bad idea in general. Just saying "I'm very attractive/charismatic" doesn't work when your PC is sneaking in somewhere they aren't suppoused to with a huge pile of weapons on them. The secretive service won't get a flash of clevage and say "Okay sure take those explosives in to see the president"

20: Responding without quoting or tagging. Come on, I'm not a mind reader, let a mother fucker know.

 

[Redfork2000]

1 - Obligatory faceclaims: Why do I have to use an image? Can't we just describe how our characters look? Writing is what we'll be doing during the whole roleplay, so why is it a problem to describe my character's appearance.

2 - Obligatory coding: I once joined a roleplay that had a very interesting setting and story. I was excited about the roleplay. But it was all ruined because the character sheet template was a bunch of coding, and when I asked the person organizing the roleplay if I could write my character sheet without coding, the person said: "It's obligatory." I never left a roleplay so fast before. I understand the purpose is for it to look nice, but I don't like overcomplicating things. Normal text is good enough for me, and while I have no trouble with other people coding, if they make in a requirement for everyone, I'm out.

3 - Obligatory Dark Themes: I don't enjoy dark themes. I may be 18, but I'm a lighthearted roleplayer that doesn't enjoy dark themes at all. Gore, depressive themes, and anything else that would be considered too dark for young audiences generally repels me. This also goes for sex scenes and the similar. I like romance, but I don't like having sex scenes in roleplays. Not even fading to black. Just keep the topic completely out of the roleplay.

4 - Excessively long post length requirements: I can definitely make long posts if I'm really inspired and having a lot of fun, but being expected to write too much for every single post would just wear me out.

5 - That being said, I don't enjoy costant one-liners either. I'd say it's all about balance. Not too little, but not too much either.

6 - MxM or FxF. Just personal preferences here. I respect anyone who's into that kind of stuff, but I don't feel comfortable roleplaying anything romantic that isn't MxF.

7 - Swear words. I just don't feel comfortable working around those.

8 - Mary Sues. Those are completely out of the question for me.

9 - Bland characters. They're just boring to work with. I like characters to have personality, goals, strengthes and flaws. I don't mind clichés at all, in fact, I'd be glad to use them if my rp partner doesn't mind.

10 - Anything that makes your text hard to read. Whether it's small font, or some kind of coding with a weird font, if I have to make an extra effort just to understand what you wrote, that's a problem. I'll include grammar here to, because even though it's not the same thing, it's a similar point. I'm not asking for perfection, but at least make it so it's not hard to understand what you write.

 

[King Crimson]

Less of a deal breaker and more of a red flag, but I get very hesitant to join an rp if I see that the GM is running multiple games at once in the catalog.

Burnout is real guys, don't do this to yourself.

 

[Jannah]

6) Sexy Vampires/werewolves: Essentially the above, your going to lie to me and say its about blood and murder and war. it isn't people are going to pair up. Its furry/vampire sexy time.

I made an asexual vampire character once specifically to break away from the sexy vampire trope. At 500 years old he was still a virgin because in life he was forced to become a monk. After he was turned he never broke his vows(partially due to lack of interest due to the asexuality thing).

3 - Obligatory Dark Themes: I don't enjoy dark themes. I may be 18, but I'm a lighthearted roleplayer that doesn't enjoy dark themes at all. Gore, depressive themes, and anything else that would be considered too dark for young audiences generally repels me. This also goes for sex scenes and the similar. I like romance, but I don't like having sex scenes in roleplays. Not even fading to black. Just keep the topic completely out of the roleplay.

I'm the opposite. I love dark themes and usually will not join light-hearted RPs, partially because I'm just not all that great at writing the more light-hearted stuff.

 

[Orikanyo]

Legs, they tend to make me walk

 

[Tove]

Legs, they tend to make me walk

 

[MasterRed]

3 - Obligatory Dark Themes: I don't enjoy dark themes. I may be 18, but I'm a lighthearted roleplayer that doesn't enjoy dark themes at all. Gore, depressive themes, and anything else that would be considered too dark for young audiences generally repels me. This also goes for sex scenes and the similar. I like romance, but I don't like having sex scenes in roleplays. Not even fading to black. Just keep the topic completely out of the roleplay.

I thought you meant dark themes as in the option on this site to make the background black and I was confused about how someone wouldn’t accept people who didn’t use it into a roleplay. I’m an idiot.

 

[Becker]

I thought you meant dark themes as in the option on this site to make the background black and I was confused about how someone wouldn’t accept people who didn’t use it into a roleplay. I’m an idiot.

Don't worry my dude, i'm in the same boat

 

[Rareraven]

When people are not open minded in trying a same sex romance rp.

 

[rae2nerdy]

When people are not open minded in trying a same sex romance rp.

Also just folks that aren’t willing to look beyond “x falls in love with y” as the only possible romantic storyline. What about X and Y are planning their wedding? X and Y are getting a divorced and need to recapture the affection they once felt for one another? Or X is in the closet and comes out to Y and they navigate their new relationship.

Like thinking out of the box and showing off different relationships is fun too.

 

[Rareraven]

Multicharacter pairings in a rp, I think of you just have one pairing it can be okay but more than one pairing makes the rp more fun since you have more than one story line.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Multicharacter pairings in a rp, I think of you just have one pairing it can be okay but more than one pairing makes the rp more fun since you have more than one story line.

So you want multiple pairings in a roleplay OR multiple pairings make you walk away from a roleplay?

 

[Rareraven]

Multi pairings in a rp

 

[SP3CT3R]

When people are not open minded in trying a same sex romance rp.

That's a matter of preference.

 

[Jannah]

That's a matter of preference.

Truth. I'm personally more comfortable playing hetero romance, but that's not to say I've never done same sex romantic pairings. I just happen to be more comfortable with the former. If that makes me a homophobe like some people might seem to think then tough. Everybody has their own preferences in their fiction writing and that should be respected.

 

[MasterRed]

I know it’s preference but I genuinely don’t understand how people can play heterosexual romance but can’t play homosexual romance. Like I’m not trying to be rude here I just genuinely don’t understand. Maybe it’s because I’m bi?

 

[rae2nerdy]

I know it’s preference but I genuinely don’t understand how people can play heterosexual romance but can’t play homosexual romance. Like I’m not trying to be rude here I just genuinely don’t understand. Maybe it’s because I’m bi?

From what I can tell it's one of two things.
1. Religion - as in their religious believes do not support homosexuality (this one is fairly rare)
2. Connection - some people have a hard time connecting with something outside of their personal experience.

 

[LegoLad659]

I know it’s preference but I genuinely don’t understand how people can play heterosexual romance but can’t play homosexual romance. Like I’m not trying to be rude here I just genuinely don’t understand. Maybe it’s because I’m bi?

Lots of personal preferences can't really be explained in any other way than it's their preference. For example I'm a straight male but I prefer lesbian romance over heterosexual, but another straight male might like something else. Really it's just part of being Human ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[rae2nerdy]

Lots of personal preferences can't really be explained in any other way than it's their preference. For example I'm a straight male but I prefer lesbian romance over heterosexual, but another straight male might like something else. Really it's just part of being Human ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Actually there is a theory for that one. It is the same reason so many straight women find gay romances more interesting than heterosexual romances. It typically breaks down into one of two lines of thought :

1. The person finds a layer of distance between themselves and the characters necessary for immersion. So therefore homosexual relationships allows them to write from the perspective of someone that shares their physical attraction (as a straight man you and lesbian women both fancy women) and it keeps them from feeling like they're making a character that is just themselves (which making a male might do)

2. Women paired with other women nicely side steps some of the more problematic elements of traditional heterosexual relationships. I.e. men that are overly aggressive or hyper masculine.

 

[LegoLad659]

Actually there is a theory for that one. It is the same reason so many straight women find gay romances more interesting than heterosexual romances. It typically breaks down into one of two lines of thought :

1. The person finds a layer of distance between themselves and the characters necessary for immersion. So therefore homosexual relationships allows them to write from the perspective of someone that shares their physical attraction (as a straight man you and lesbian women both fancy women) and it keeps them from feeling like they're making a character that is just themselves (which making a male might do)

2. Women paired with other women nicely side steps some of the more problematic elements of traditional heterosexual relationships. I.e. men that are overly aggressive or hyper masculine.

I'm mainly addressing the suggestion that MasterRed might not understand it because they're bi, I was just saying that it probably has less to do with it than they might think

 

[rae2nerdy]

I'm mainly addressing the suggestion that MasterRed might not understand it because they're bi, I was just saying that it probably has less to do with it than they might think

Possibly or it might have everything to do with it as they don't worry as much about the gender of the individuals in a relationship. It would be hard to say without knowing more about them as a writer.

I specifically mentioned the straights writing homosexuals theory because it is a YUUUGE thing in a lot of gay romances (fanfic, roleplay, and professional works). Where a vast number are written and consumed by straight women. So that's where the original theory comes in (well point one anyway, point two is a little different obviously for pairings evolving men).

I don't know how this phenomena follows for lesbian fiction/roleplay/professional works because I don't personally read them but it wouldn't surprise me.