Deal Breakers. What makes you "walk" away?

A lot of roleplays/roleplay culture on this site rub me the wrong way, I suppose I'm just 'old-fashioned' though.

Still a wonderful place, just some of it isn't for me.

Just out of interest, what specific things?

I mean ... I'm old fashioned too so I'm kind of intrigued since I'm not getting rubbed up the wrong way especially.
 
Old-fashioned enough to need an explanation?

No idea what either of those signify.
E-feds were basically pro wrestling RPs. They were big on the early internet, back when wrestling peaked in mainstream popularity in the mid-to-late 90's. You made your own gimmick, you wrote promos and matches, that kind of thing. You can still find them if you look but they're a lot smaller.
 
E-feds were basically pro wrestling RPs. They were big on the early internet, back when wrestling peaked in mainstream popularity in the mid-to-late 90's. You made your own gimmick, you wrote promos and matches, that kind of thing. You can still find them if you look but they're a lot smaller.
Just out of interest, what specific things?

I mean ... I'm old fashioned too so I'm kind of intrigued since I'm not getting rubbed up the wrong way especially.

Interesting, but that's not the type of roleplaying I enjoy.

As for what, well.

I suppose furries for one, not for me.
 
I'm pretty choosy about what I join in the first place, but one thing that will always make me walk away is disrespectful players (to each other, to me, generally in their attitude to certain subject matter).
If I see someone acting like a bigot, I give them one chance to be educated, and then I'm out.

Otherwise I can't think of anything that'd make me walk away that wouldn't have been a red flag right at the interest check phase.
 
Normally I 'research' my partners really well before I decide to RP with them, but sometimes things surface several posts in which weren't obvious in their writing sample or starter.

One thing that I've stumbled upon a few times in the past is that character whose main personality trait is shyness. Extra points if the character is closeted. These characters usually chicken out of every social interaction that I downright try to force just to get some action in my posts when they're involved in a particular scene. I appreciate character flaws - when done correctly they can bring a delicious realism to a RP or piece of writing - but if your character is socially awkward and quiet all the time and I have to have my characters treat yours like china and literally squeeze some interaction out of yours, it just kills any desire for me to keep pursuing that relationship. I don't like to guess what I have to do to get your character's attention all the time.

Another pet peeve of mine is when RPers 'clickbait' me with a wonderfully written starter, action rich paragraphs and great vocabulary, only to laze a few posts in to the point where all I have to work with is 3 significantly lower quality paragraphs. I'm okay with shorter replies when it comes to dialogue/action scenes that require a bit of back and forth from both roleplayers, but otherwise... It just feels like false advertising.
 
One of these threads I haven't replied to? That's a rarity!

What makes me walk away... is usually bad vibes from the GM and/or players, or not even bad, but just a sense that I won't get along with the group. It's not always obvious, and of course you could be the first person to sign up for an Interest Check, then a bunch of people join that you won't get along with.

Could also have combination of the following:

1) RP is different than advertised.
2) GM is too overbearing or conversely not keeping their shit together enough.
3) A clique.
4) People's writing is really bad but I didn't know that when I joined.
5) People's characters are really bad and I don't want to play with them.
6) Too many people joined the RP.

Then I'd probably slip out at the OOC stage.
 
I guess I can add my others here because the list just keeps on growing my brothers.

1. I love characters. I absolutely adore them. I don't love cardboard cutouts that are just there as a stand-in for a person while they are carried by the wind through the plot. Whenever I feel a character is bland and lacks body, I yeet on out of there. Now, I think I have become quite... critical of characters since I have begun writing more professionally. Like, all characters are great. If you enjoy what you do, you keep doing you boo boo. But, I like my characters to have a lot of body. I like them to have traits that don't directly relate to the story/plot. I like more than just backstory and reactions from them, I like more than just surface level stuff, and if feels many characters are only surface level. Like, everything to them is all there in the first post. I like characters that you slowly get to learn more about them the more you read about them. You get to see their hopes, aspirations, dreams and goals as well as their failures, darkest secrets and deepest fears.

2. A dealbreaker for me that has been made is that whenever a character acts like an irrational human being, if the author does not accept the consequences of that, I am going to fucking yeet out of there. Too many damn times have people been mad at my character's reaction when theirs is being a shithead. Like, no duh my character doesn't like yours, my character doesn't like unasked for and unprompted criticism of their personality from someone they barely know (Note: this is only when my character was not being a shithead (because calling them out for that is warranted nor when my character does something stupid that could directly effect the other character (also warranted). I mean when no one is being hurt by my character's actions or words or lack thereof and this character decides to criticize). No, my character does not like being grinded against by someone they have never spoken to before. No, my character does not want to be touched by yours when they just started speaking to them. No, my character does not like being sat on by someone they do not know. Yes, my character will likely want to avoid yours after such an interaction. Either that, or punch them in the face. Depends on how confrontational and angry they are.

3. No fun in the OOC chat. I am a very chatty person. Nothing else, I just like people to talk to me because I am an attention whore so if you refuse to talk to me ooc it makes me really sad. This is more of a me problem, but I digress.
 
For a more relevant gripe; characters that are 'jokers' are something I cannot deal with well. Not are they only destructive for the plot and setting more than they are not, but a lot of people cannot do the "joker" idea justice.

Instead going around making light of the world in which they inhabit, without any purpose or intent behind their actions of doing so. For no reason.
 
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Normally I 'research' my partners really well before I decide to RP with them, but sometimes things surface several posts in which weren't obvious in their writing sample or starter.

One thing that I've stumbled upon a few times in the past is that character whose main personality trait is shyness. Extra points if the character is closeted. These characters usually chicken out of every social interaction that I downright try to force just to get some action in my posts when they're involved in a particular scene. I appreciate character flaws - when done correctly they can bring a delicious realism to a RP or piece of writing - but if your character is socially awkward and quiet all the time and I have to have my characters treat yours like china and literally squeeze some interaction out of yours, it just kills any desire for me to keep pursuing that relationship. I don't like to guess what I have to do to get your character's attention all the time.

Another pet peeve of mine is when RPers 'clickbait' me with a wonderfully written starter, action rich paragraphs and great vocabulary, only to laze a few posts in to the point where all I have to work with is 3 significantly lower quality paragraphs. I'm okay with shorter replies when it comes to dialogue/action scenes that require a bit of back and forth from both roleplayers, but otherwise... It just feels like false advertising.

So I think this depends on how you view shyness. I’m a huge introvert and naturally shy. This doesn’t mean I never initiate a social interaction or that I shun all other people. It just means I’m awkward and I have to sometimes force myself outside of my comfort zone.

If someone comes up to me to try to initiate a conversation I’m fine going along with it. I mean I will be a little awkward and maybe unsure how to keep the conversation going but I’ll at least make an effort for politeness

And repeated exposure to someone tends to make me less anxious when interacting with them.

So yeah just saying a character is “shy” doesn’t excuse not making the effort to interact with other players or pushing your character passed their comfort zone.
 
So I think this depends on how you view shyness. I’m a huge introvert and naturally shy. This doesn’t mean I never initiate a social interaction or that I shun all other people. It just means I’m awkward and I have to sometimes force myself outside of my comfort zone.

If someone comes up to me to try to initiate a conversation I’m fine going along with it. I mean I will be a little awkward and maybe unsure how to keep the conversation going but I’ll at least make an effort for politeness

And repeated exposure to someone tends to make me less anxious when interacting with them.

So yeah just saying a character is “shy” doesn’t excuse not making the effort to interact with other players or pushing your character passed their comfort zone.

Yeah, I've played shy characters too. But what she's getting at is the "I'm shy therefore I won't initiate anything" characters of which there are MANY, all of which are a pain in the neck to roleplay with. Of course, you can play shy characters if you put them out of their comfort zone and make them do sociable things, or give them reasons to interact with people, and it can be hella fun. I loved playing my extreme introvert who didn't understand people but felt like she needed to try. But this is not the majority of shy characters, and it isn't what Peri was talking about.

And you're right, it doesn't excuse not making an effort. I feel like people play these shy characters in order to not have to make an effort, or to be "chased" because it makes them feel special.
 
Yeah, I've played shy characters too. But what she's getting at is the "I'm shy therefore I won't initiate anything" characters of which there are MANY, all of which are a pain in the neck to roleplay with. Of course, you can play shy characters if you put them out of their comfort zone and make them do sociable things, or give them reasons to interact with people, and it can be hella fun. I loved playing my extreme introvert who didn't understand people but felt like she needed to try. But this is not the majority of shy characters, and it isn't what Peri was talking about.

And you're right, it doesn't excuse not making an effort. I feel like people play these shy characters in order to not have to make an effort, or to be "chased" because it makes them feel special.

It's a hard balance to find. The characters who don't interact really aren't shy, to be honest, they just want to be along for the ride and leave the brunt of the work for other characters. I have played my fair share of shy characters and it doesn't take much to get them to be engaging as long as another character isn't a complete dick to them or something.
 
So I think this depends on how you view shyness. I’m a huge introvert and naturally shy. This doesn’t mean I never initiate a social interaction or that I shun all other people. It just means I’m awkward and I have to sometimes force myself outside of my comfort zone.

If someone comes up to me to try to initiate a conversation I’m fine going along with it. I mean I will be a little awkward and maybe unsure how to keep the conversation going but I’ll at least make an effort for politeness

And repeated exposure to someone tends to make me less anxious when interacting with them.

So yeah just saying a character is “shy” doesn’t excuse not making the effort to interact with other players or pushing your character passed their comfort zone.

As I said, I’m talking about shy characters who are a pain for my characters to interact with and make it almost impossible to build even a platonic relationship with due to them chickening out of any social context.

These characters are fine in a personal project/book but not in the context of a roleplay where your character has to interact with other people’s characters for the story to roll. I don’t want to struggle to squeeze something out of them just so I have something to reply to. At some point it feels very one sided to me.

Again it’s just my experience. You may have another opinion and that’s completely up to you.
 
Oh yeah I usually call those types of characters lone wolves (or sexy lamps for the ladies). Because it’s not that they are shy it’s that the player wants to have the roleplay revolve around them.

Like they don’t want to have to do any work it’s all about making their partner do everything for them.
 
Oh yeah I usually call those types of characters lone wolves (or sexy lamps for the ladies). Because it’s not that they are shy it’s that the player wants to have the roleplay revolve around them.

Like they don’t want to have to do any work it’s all about making their partner do everything for them.

No, I don’t think that’s true. After all we all want our characters to shine in our RPs. I think it’s just another case of snowflaking.

To give you an example, a solid few years ago I was in a RP where my partner’s main character was an orphaned teenage boy who was closeted and so submissive that it became a pain to build any sort of proper friendship between him and my characters. He was constantly quiet, constantly brooding, and only occasionally sticking out in fight scenes because he was ridiculously powerful. Action scenes were fun for a little bit, then he went right back to not saying basically anything and being upset at my main character all the time.

My partner and I never ended up finishing the RP and we tried to pick up a couple other ones. Same thing happened, so I just gave up because for me it ain’t fun if the other partner isn’t adding their own input to the story. Thankfully I discovered RPN and some insanely talented partners after that.
 

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