Deal Breakers. What makes you "walk" away?

[Jannah]

I'm asexual so can write either straight or homosexual characters. It doesn't really make a difference. I just happen to prefer writing straight ones, both because I'm simply more comfortable with it and because straight characters more easily fit into most of the type of stuff I write.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I'm asexual so can write either straight or homosexual characters. It doesn't really make a difference. I just happen to prefer writing straight ones, both because I'm simply more comfortable with it and because straight characters more easily fit into most of the type of stuff I write.

I’m curious on where straight relationships would fit that homosexual wouldn’t?

Not being snippy I am genuinely curious about the internal mechanics that would make the distinction.

The settings I am imagining are either religious in nature OR family oriented. By which I mean a setting where bearing children is a defining social expectation for individuals. Which also does not allow for some kind of mechanism where people can reproduce asexually or homosexually.

 

[Jannah]

I’m curious on where straight relationships would fit that homosexual wouldn’t?

Not being snippy I am genuinely curious about the internal mechanics that would make the distinction.

The settings I am imagining are either religious in nature OR family oriented. By which I mean a setting where bearing children is a defining social expectation for individuals. Which also does not allow for some kind of mechanism where people can reproduce asexually or homosexually.

Usually historical settings where homosexual relationships are heavily taboo or simply don't fit certain social roles(since as we know those were more defined in the past). The only time I can really fit homosexuality into historical settings is if I'm taking the forbidden romance route, but that's honestly pretty cliche and overdone now.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Usually historical settings where homosexual relationships are heavily taboo or simply don't fit certain social roles(since as we know those were more defined in the past). The only time I can really fit homosexuality into historical settings is if I'm taking the forbidden romance route, but that's honestly pretty cliche and overdone now.

Ah fair enough I don’t do historical roleplays so wouldn’t have made that connection.

 

[Jannah]

Ah fair enough I don’t do historical roleplays so wouldn’t have made that connection.

It's one of my favourite genres, so... xD

 

[Alvis Delle Pree]

This is 100% and purely aesthetic. But a really really really don't like character profiles and RP threads where the coding puts the text inside of a scroll box. It's poor shity graphic design, that is like one of the things they teach you in graphic design, the more work and the longer it takes an individual to figure out how to navigate your design the more likely they will click away.

Sure it ooks cute but honestly if it takes someone more than like 10 seconds to figure out how to navigate your character's profile you've lost them they're not reading your character's profile. So the designs that have tabs, then sub tabs inside of those tabs sections and pop down windows are all things that cause people to click away.

And don't get me started on the profiles that are like a 500 by 500 px box in the middle of a post and then inside that you have scroll boxes and you have to put your mouse over that tiny little scroll box to scroll the tiny text which you have to zoom in your screen to 200% just to be able to see.

As a fun thing to practice coding fine. But don't think for a second people are reading your profile, it is too much for and time to figure out the dressing and people don't care that much.

 

[LegoLad659]

This is 100% and purely aesthetic. But a really really really don't like character profiles and RP threads where the coding puts the text inside of a scroll box. It's poor shity graphic design, that is like one of the things they teach you in graphic design, the more work and the longer it takes an individual to figure out how to navigate your design the more likely they will click away.

Sure it ooks cute but honestly if it takes someone more than like 10 seconds to figure out how to navigate your character's profile you've lost them they're not reading your character's profile. So the designs that have tabs, then sub tabs inside of those tabs sections and pop down windows are all things that cause people to click away.

And don't get me started on the profiles that are like a 500 by 500 px box in the middle of a post and then inside that you have scroll boxes and you have to put your mouse over that tiny little scroll box to scroll the tiny text which you have to zoom in your screen to 200% just to be able to see.

As a fun thing to practice coding fine. But don't think for a second people are resting you profile, it is too much for and time to figure out the dressing and people don't care that much.

I barely even read character profiles normally XD If I ever had to go through something like that to understand what they were talking about, I wouldn't bother even if I needed it

 

[Alvis Delle Pree]

I barely even read character profiles normally XD If I ever had to go through something like that to understand what they were talking about, I wouldn't bother even if I needed it

They are all over this site. and don't get me wrong this site has the best coding system of any form I have ever been on. And there is so much that you can do with that coding and some people have made some fantastic codes. but some people go the pretty aesthetic route and they make these tiny little boxes and it's like I get it they are really cute but they are functionally constipated there's no navigating that bullshit.

As a means of practicing how to write code and making something complicated and little like that is cool. But don't actually use it in practice in an RP because like no one can read it no one can navigate it it's like the worst experience.

 

[LegoLad659]

They are all over this site. and don't get me wrong this site has the best coding system of any form I have ever been on. And there is so much that you can do with that coding and some people have made some fantastic codes. but some people go the pretty aesthetic route and they make these tiny little boxes and it's like I get it they are really cute but they are functionally constipated there's no navigating that bullshit.

As a means of practicing how to write code and making something complicated and little like that is cool. But don't actually use it in practice in an RP because like no one can read it no one can navigate it it's like the worst experience.

Ah XD Yeah, when your text is no longer the central focus of your post, you've done something wrong

 

[rae2nerdy]

This is 100% and purely aesthetic. But a really really really don't like character profiles and RP threads where the coding puts the text inside of a scroll box. It's poor shity graphic design, that is like one of the things they teach you in graphic design, the more work and the longer it takes an individual to figure out how to navigate your design the more likely they will click away.

Sure it ooks cute but honestly if it takes someone more than like 10 seconds to figure out how to navigate your character's profile you've lost them they're not reading your character's profile. So the designs that have tabs, then sub tabs inside of those tabs sections and pop down windows are all things that cause people to click away.

And don't get me started on the profiles that are like a 500 by 500 px box in the middle of a post and then inside that you have scroll boxes and you have to put your mouse over that tiny little scroll box to scroll the tiny text which you have to zoom in your screen to 200% just to be able to see.

As a fun thing to practice coding fine. But don't think for a second people are reading your profile, it is too much for and time to figure out the dressing and people don't care that much.

Yeah my rule of thumb is “Can I read it on my phone?” If answer is no than I move along or ask for a plain text version that I can actually read.

 

[Alvis Delle Pree]

My only other NOPE would be having to write a very detailed character profile. I like to develop my characters over time, and often I feel like my initial character if I wrote it down in detail will sound super cliche and the very thing people rip on and hate. All I say then is "trust me it's okay this will work out I know it sounds bad on paper or like really cliche but like it'll work I've done it before it'll work."

but it's also sort of the reason I usually don't want to ask for detailed character profiles. I find it very easy to judge a character on the profile because the profile might sound a little cliche. Or what people call Mary Sue like. but in reality when paired off and played against all the other characters in The RP or in a one-on-one it all balances out. Despite it being a cliche character it just has a good dynamic and flow with everybody.

but that's just my experience over the many many years that I've RP'd. I find even with myself that if I don't have a detailed profile to judge you on, I am more likely to be okay with what's presented in the long-term. and then when I do read the profile I am less likely to judge so harshly because I've experienced the character and I'm like "yeah sure it sounds cliche but like no it totally works".


Edit: sorry I like to use voice to text and sometimes my messages are a jumbled mess. Apologies for the massive amount of typos and incoherent yammering in some of my posts!!

 

[Alvis Delle Pree]

Yeah my rule of thumb is “Can I read it on my phone?” If answer is no than I move along or ask for a plain text version that I can actually read.

and honestly that is what anyone who creates a code should take into consideration. If it can't be read on a mobile device then it's probably poorly designed.

and honestly you have to consider that this site in and of itself is well-designed and functions for mobile and desktop. So plain text or very minimal coding is all you really need to do.

And I agree if I can't read it on my phone or if it requires me to zoom in on to my desktop screen just to see it it's not worth clicking through.

 

[rae2nerdy]

My only other NOPE would be having to write a very detailed character profile. I like to develop my characters over time, and often I feel like my initial character if I wrote it down in detail will sound super cliche and the very thing people rip on and hate. All I say then is "trust me it's okay this will work out I know it sounds bad on paper or like really cliche but like it'll work I've done it before it'll work."

but it's also sort of the reason I usually don't want to ask for detailed character profiles. I find it very easy to judge a character on the profile because the profile might sound a little cliche. Or what people call Mary Sue like. but in reality when paired off and played against all the other characters in The RP or in a one-on-one it all balances out. Despite it being a cliche character it just has a good dynamic and flow with everybody.

but that's just my experience over the many many years that I've RP'd. I find even with myself that if I don't have a detailed profile to judge you on, I am more likely to be okay with what's presented in the long-term. and then when I do read the profile I am less likely to judge so harshly because I've experienced the character and I'm like "yeah sure it sounds cliche but like no it totally works".


Edit: sorry I like to use voice to text and sometimes my messages, it is a jumbled mess. Apologies for the massive amount of typos and incoherent yammering and some of my posts!!

Your good Yeah for me I usually just do an elevator pitch essentially. A paragraph (maybe two if I get wordy) just giving the basics of the backstory to show how the character fits into the story and maybe the broad strokes of their personality (if that's relevant to the plot).

Also usually a written description if the partner isn't a stickler for face claims.

But nothing that doesn't take less than five minutes to fill out.

 

[Alvis Delle Pree]

Your good Yeah for me I usually just do an elevator pitch essentially. A paragraph (maybe two if I get wordy) just giving the basics of the backstory to show how the character fits into the story and maybe the broad strokes of their personality (if that's relevant to the plot).

Also usually a written description if the partner isn't a stickler for face claims.

But nothing that doesn't take less than five minutes to fill out.

Yeah I'm pretty okay with like physical descriptions. Go ahead describe your clothes, describe what you look like, tell me about your weapons and your gear. Especially if it's relevant like you're in a combat story or like a fantasy story that has magic or a specific dress attire.

The areas that really get me our personality because writing the description of a personality and the nuances of personality is very difficult. So most characters sound like a walking cliche.

History it depends sometimes I feel like just a very brief paragraph to kind of give you a sense of the character's backstory is best. Just like you said a little bit of flavor she got an idea of the character. But it's also an area where it's very easy to judge of character if it's really detailed.

like for example this is a character from my own RP who is probably one of my favorite characters he was amazing.

Is history would sound something like this: my mother died when I was young killed while being part of a negotiation on a planet. My father abandoned me to be raised by a family friend. my father then took another soldier under his wing and treated him like his son. I grew extremely jealous and spiteful and hateful of that other man and later would come to learn that my father and this other soldier were complicit in starting a war and orchestrating the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people. That soldier survived and came to me and tried to help me escape the grasp of this family friend who had begun to coerce me into a relationship. I left after being physically beaten by my family friend and I went with the soldier who was the reason for my father's death. Now we travel together and it's been about 10 years and I am slowly falling in love with the man who stole my father from me. I am also a bit of an alcoholic drug abuser asshole, who seeks out relationships with terrible people to spite the man that I am slowly falling in love with, who isn't aware that I know that he was in a relationship with my father all those years ago.

Like he sounds cliche to me, but I know how dynamic and fantastic he was.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Yeah I'm pretty okay with like physical descriptions. Go ahead describe your clothes, describe what you look like, tell me about your weapons and your gear. Especially if it's relevant like you're in a combat story or like a fantasy story that has magic or a specific dress attire.

The areas that really get me our personality because writing the description of a personality and the nuances of personality is very difficult. So most characters sound like a walking cliche.

History it depends sometimes I feel like just a very brief paragraph to kind of give you a sense of the character's backstory is best. Just like you said a little bit of flavor she got an idea of the character. But it's also an area where it's very easy to judge of character if it's really detailed.

like for example this is a character from my own RP who is probably one of my favorite characters he was amazing.

Is history would sound something like this: my mother died when I was young killed while being part of a negotiation on a planet. My father abandoned me to be raised by a family friend. my father then took another soldier under his wing and treated him like his son. I grew extremely jealous and spiteful and hateful of that other man and later would come to learn that my father and this other soldier were complicit in starting a war and orchestrating the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people. That soldier survived and came to me and tried to help me escape the grasp of this family friend who had begun to coerce me into a relationship. I left after being physically beaten by my family friend and I went with the soldier who was the reason for my father's death. Now we travel together and it's been about 10 years and I am slowly falling in love with the man who stole my father from me. I am also a bit of an alcoholic drug abuser asshole, who seeks out relationships with terrible people to spite the man that I am slowly falling in love with, who isn't aware that I know that he was in a relationship with my father all those years ago.

Like he sounds cliche to me, but I know how dynamic and fantastic he was.

Yeah that's why I tend to just do the elevator pitch, the whole idea isn't to give you a complete biography. It is just to determine - Hey X person has read and understood the plot/settings. (And also here is a visual of the character if needed.)

 

[Tove]

When it is painfully obvious the person has an elite type of attitude of other people not living up to their roleplay standards but their own writing tells a vastly different story.

 

[halo7725]

Definitely. I feel being open minded to different ideas is very important, this is something I’ve rarely seen in roleplay based off games. Elitism can be a big issue and always ends in drama if you’re not on top of this as a GM.

EDIT:
There's some more dealbreakers, one of which is people getting way too much into the roleplay, up to the point where they'll message me at 3 AM in the morning about some theory to be used in the RP. I just cannot give that much of a sh*te anymore about roleplay to be thinking about it 24/7. I used to be like this as well. Now, I look at RP like throwing a Halo 2 disc in your Xbox to play it for an hour or so.

 

[Becker]

Hm, I guess with all this 'Elitist' stuff being mentioned, i'd like to throw in a headache of my own. Now, I will wholeheartedly say that I am a Elitist however I completely understand that not everyone would want to take two hours or so to write up a few paragraphs for a thread, we don't all have the spare time nor processing power avaliable at any one time. We all have different paces, ideas and whatnot so I can't really look down on someone that writes a few lines less than me as i'm sure there is someone already looking down on me for not being 'on their level'.

Such is life...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That said in all the roleplays that I run, I clearly state that I require two paragraphs at a minimum as it's my personal average-sized post and I do get frustrated when this rule is ignored. I've had to slap a couple of wrists in the past whenever someone has posted a single line (or even less sometimes) and on occasion i've clashed with folk that clearly don't have the spare time to post the length I have requested but decided to join the roleplay anyway. I've always found it annoying whenever people join but have alot on their plate and therefore cannot commit to either the posting length nor the frequency of the posts to keep up with the others, at the end of the day it holds everyone up.

So in a nutshell, folk that are too busy to post but decide to join five or more roleplays anyways are the bane of my existance and it's not always easy to foresee which ones are likely to fall behind the pace/other roleplayers.​

 

[Jackstack]

My only other NOPE would be having to write a very detailed character profile. I like to develop my characters over time, and often I feel like my initial character if I wrote it down in detail will sound super cliche and the very thing people rip on and hate. All I say then is "trust me it's okay this will work out I know it sounds bad on paper or like really cliche but like it'll work I've done it before it'll work."

but it's also sort of the reason I usually don't want to ask for detailed character profiles. I find it very easy to judge a character on the profile because the profile might sound a little cliche. Or what people call Mary Sue like. but in reality when paired off and played against all the other characters in The RP or in a one-on-one it all balances out. Despite it being a cliche character it just has a good dynamic and flow with everybody.

but that's just my experience over the many many years that I've RP'd. I find even with myself that if I don't have a detailed profile to judge you on, I am more likely to be okay with what's presented in the long-term. and then when I do read the profile I am less likely to judge so harshly because I've experienced the character and I'm like "yeah sure it sounds cliche but like no it totally works".


Edit: sorry I like to use voice to text and sometimes my messages are a jumbled mess. Apologies for the massive amount of typos and incoherent yammering in some of my posts!!

Exactly, aren't we supposed to find all this stuff about the character in the RP? I just feel like it puts me in a box, and if I go outside that box it makes me a liar. I have to overly plan what my character is going to be like, and ruins the purpose of what an RP supposed to be.

 

[Jannah]

Exactly, aren't we supposed to find all this stuff about the character in the RP? I just feel like it puts me in a box, and if I go outside that box it makes me a liar. I have to overly plan what my character is going to be like, and ruins the purpose of what an RP supposed to be.

That's precisely why I don't like doing character profiles. If I must then I will stick to the very basics. Name, age, appearance, etc.

 

[Tove]

Very creepy out of character behavior. I'm a naturally private person I do enjoy talking to potentially partners outside of a roleplay or plotting to a certain degree but when a person, and I've had this happen, starts offering up information I never asked or wanted to hear or wants to know about more in my life that's really none of their business I start to pull away. It feels very uncomfortable to me especially if it has only been a day or two at the most. No. Nope. Not a chance.

 

[ycips]

I hate detailed character profiles, if I couldn't fill it out to describe myself without feeling awkward how am i supposed to do it for my characters.

 

[rae2nerdy]

People who clearly don't prioritize the roleplay. Now I'm not talking about prioritizing it over real life or anything. I mean if you have multiple roleplays going on and it's kind of obvious that our roleplay is the lowest priority of the lot. I'm not going to stick around just to be the partner you hit up when everyone else is busy.

 

[LegoLad659]

Okay I don't know if this real petty of me, but I walk away when people who join the RP don't respect the obvious visual coding and language of an RP. Intentionally choosing to make characters who clearly do not match the theme or intention of the RP/GM.

For example someone does a layout that is really pastel, light, floral or generally soft and someone goes and makes a brutish dude-dude character; because they happen the like the idea of the RP but the thematic softness and consistently stated romantic, floral, soft, fun and whimsy of the thread doesn't match up with their desired character or story telling. Like come on be respectful clearly this person is trying real hard visually and textually to clearly point out this isn't your gritty scifi story and they want prettiness. @____@'

Sorry having a personal rant here it seems too. XD

I think this could work, but only if the dude-dude character's arc in the story is about them learning to open up and becoming a softer person. Now, chances are that's not what the person applying as them has planned, but I wouldn't count that as an immediate dealbreaker XD Perhaps it'd be a good idea to ask and go over what your character is and what you have planned for them before setting up the CS

 

[rae2nerdy]

Okay I don't know if this real petty of me, but I walk away when people who join the RP don't respect the obvious visual coding and language of an RP. Intentionally choosing to make characters who clearly do not match the theme or intention of the RP/GM.

For example someone does a layout that is really pastel, light, floral or generally soft and someone goes and makes a brutish dude-dude character; because they happen the like the idea of the RP but the thematic softness and consistently stated romantic, floral, soft, fun and whimsy of the thread doesn't match up with their desired character or story telling. Like come on be respectful clearly this person is trying real hard visually and textually to clearly point out this isn't your gritty scifi story and they want prettiness. @____@'

This happens to me way to often. My superhero RP was this pastel, whimsical, soft aesthetic and I had all these people making edgy, angry dude characters who wanted gritty street action and fighting and I was like "holy shit did no one pick up this is like a dramatic interpersonal relationship RP with superheroes from the obviously floral, pastel banners and the fact it states just that in the themes/genre?" . . . unfortunately it was all male RPers and I don't know if that is just a thing that dudes do in RP or what . . . but shesh.

In fairness I don't know as I would associate just an aesthetic with a specific style of story telling. I just might think it's something you like to look at but has nothing to do with the theme of the story.

That said if you specifically state that the theme itself is soft/whimsical/etc and someone tries to go all grimdark edgy on you than that's super rude.