Deal Breakers. What makes you "walk" away?

Any kind of post restrictions. There have been more RPs that I can count where I've liked the setting, idea, pretty much everything about it, but have to say no because there's a post length limit I can't guarantee I'll meet. I'd rather keep away from an RP like that than risk annoying the GM with posts that don't meet what they're looking for.
 
When it's obvious that no matter what you do, the other person's character fulfills the RPer's plans for that particular RP. They don't allow the character to develop naturally and react to the stimulus put forth. They push through any obstacle to accomplish the "Goals" of the RP.
 
It sounds rather uppity of me, but I can't role-play with people who don't put detail into their posts. I can't handle just a few lines of dialogue and actions. I myself, have never posted much more then a couple paragraphs, but I do my best to always write something to put meat on the post. Sometimes I just go on about the sky for no reason just so there's a better scenery. I don't like picturing text on a blank background for the RP.
 
^^^^ this guy gets it!


I usually NOPE out when I recieve a one liner, frequent paragraphs with sparse detail and grammar, or Rp rule breaking. 
 
When it's obvious that no matter what you do, the other person's character fulfills the RPer's plans for that particular RP. They don't allow the character to develop naturally and react to the stimulus put forth. They push through any obstacle to accomplish the "Goals" of the RP.



I've seen this quite a bit; characters that barely acknowledge the events occurring around them, as if they exist in a little bubble within the RP. The way I see it, it's usually an egotistical thing. Many characters ignore, dismiss, or scoff at anything that would usually have an impact on a real person. It's almost like a display of power for them to wave their hands at everything laid out before them.


Personally, my biggest deal breaker is any setting that gives absolute freedom to the players. I mean, giving people freedom to play whomever they want sounds great and all, but it's usually infeasible. If you let someone play as the lonely king of the corner of the world, chances are they will sit in the corner of the world and mope about how people don't come to the corner of the world. I don't think I've ever seen really spread out games like that ever last longer than a page.
 
I need to have detail. I am a big fan of realism, well to a certain extent anyway, I hate 'post restrictions'.


"but shee wnt tlk 2 m3"


^


I also hate when people don't try.
 
As @tane5naoki mentioned above, where people don't actually want to collaborate, they just want you to feed their story.


The only RPs I've walked away from were where people ignored (or in one case actually deleted) my posts because it didn't fit in with what they wanted to do.


Hmmm...that didn't come out as planned. As an aside, how do I tag people?
 
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Looking back on it, I've generally bailed after encountering one of several things.


1. A community I don't fit in with


Without fail I'll always head over to the OoC chat and stalk it a bit. If the average players appear to be much younger than me, I will likely decide not to join. If the conversations consist of massive amounts of "lol random" humor, that's also a tip off that I won't fit in. OoC roleplaying is another thing I tend to avoid.


This might seem like a harsh reason to bail, but I honestly do not want to ruin anyone's fun. I actually tend to get along with many groups, even ones with wildly different interests. However I also tend to take things much too seriously to enjoy the more laid back styles of conversion and roleplaying, so I think it best to avoid being a wet blanket and go elsewhere for my roleplaying. Not everyone likes cynicism and people who say "but that makes no sense!", and I'm pretty good at spotting who doesn't right off the bat and staying clear so I don't step on people's toes. (It's not foolproof but it's kept me out of trouble)


2. A plot or setting description with convoluted lore


This one is kinda tricky, but in general it's a matter of "don't call a rabbit a smeerp". If I see people throwing terms right and left without a thought to how the audience can comprehend what they're talking about (using excessive terminology that is entirely unique to their roleplay and when a more general term would function equally well). For instance, going on extensively about how the Astaphals went after the Sophactimas in a clash that nearly destroyed all of Briv Moava, which enraged the Ploflofits who used their kaafl to awaken the Niortov to erase all beings with ability to use graenitivs. Going on and on without specifying what any of the terminology refers to is a red flag for me. And even when it is explained, I approach with caution since it's excessive to have a special name for everything in a fantasy or sci fi setting. While I enjoy lore heavy settings, it should be made comprehensible and not use too many fluff words for things which already have an equivalent English word.


On a related note, I avoid stories that seem more like the GM wants players to follow their expectations and essentially play out the story that exists in their head. Though I don't always do that and then I end up being grumpy about it but too involved to back out without causing damage ^_^;


3. Post Apocalyptic/Zombie/Child soldier rps


I feel kinda bad because there is a lot of good stuff that exists that I just know I won't be able to enjoy because of the genre. This is probably the best example of roleplays being promising that I still "nope" out of. I don't care for any of the genre, even good examples of it done well.


I've encountered too many post Apocalyptic stories that don't actually make any interesting observations or try to be unique in any way. Even the ones which do manage to do so I still find a tedious setting for a roleplay. So either the inaccuracies bother me, or it's feels like too limiting a setting to be interesting to me in comparison with other genres.


Zombies I just dislike across the board because I don't like survivor plots much and I can never bring myself to get on board with how zombies work. Magically risen from the dead? Virus? If you've been dead awhile then your muscles shouldn't work right, and if it's a virus then it wouldn't be able to spread so easy because biting is a terrible way to spread a virus. I have a hard time keeping my suspension of disbelief engaged, so similarly to how I don't want to be a buzzkill in ooc chat, I don't want to bring nitpicking into zombie roleplays.


Lastly, child soldier roleplays are just depressing. It doesn't matter if they're special magic children or not. Either this type of roleplay is played lightheartedly, which means it won't delve into the morality enough for me to enjoy it, or it goes dark in which case I don't find it fun because children are murdering each other. I've yet to find such a roleplay that hits a perfect enough balance for me to consider it as something I want to play.
 
Well I am pretty laid back really and I don't have a lot of things that will just automatically result in a ( oh hell no ) from me. 


1. Explicit Content


This includes but is not limited to : smut, kinks, fetishes, incest, sexual/romantic relationships between adults and minors, S/M for the sake of kink/smut/fetishes, furries, and really anything that would get you kicked off this site if I reported you.


I just do not see the appeal of roleplaying sex even if the person says they're an adult. I find it deeply uncomfortable to write out what is essentially erotica with some stranger I don't know. 


No judgement on the people who like that kind of thing it just wiggs me the fuck out.


2. FRIs


For those who are not familiar with the term a FRI is a forced romantic interest. Someone ( usually female but males can fall into this trap too ) whose soul reason for existence is to be the "romantic" interest of another character. Ex. when you make a girl just so a guy can get into her pants. Or vice versa. The character has no real characterization outside of "romantic interest" and no purpose to the story. If I could replace this character with a lampshade and have pretty much the same relevance to the overall plot than I'm not gonna do it. Nor do I appreciate people asking me to do the male equivalent wherein I make a male ( OC or Canon ) who exists solely to pursue a romantic relationship with their female character.


3.Taboo Relationships


So this is like the student/teacher || girl / stepfather || girl / brothers fiance || boy / best friends fiance || etc. Basically a relationship that is either illegal or just likely to get you shunned socially in real life. I don't know maybe I'm a prude but I just find the idea of portraying a relationship that is either extremely questionable legally ( adult / minor ) or that would result in destroying a life long bond ( affair with friend/sibling significant other ) to be deeply distasteful.


4.Personal Ads


So I'm probably gonna get flak for this one ( and number three ) but I just automatically back button when I see a search thread set up like a personal ad. Like Girl seeking Guy for romantic roleplay. Only it's not ( I play female characters seeking someone who plays males ) It's literally I'm a girl seeking a guy for romance ( or vice versa ). And it just wigs me out. Like first off I don't trust someone who can't distinguish between themselves and their characters. I just feel like that's a one way ticket to drama town. Secondly just the way it's written sometimes. Like exactly what are you trying to say "romance". Uh. Uh. Nope. 
 
when shadow the edgehog (totally OC guise, and not ripped off from an anime character) appears in the character sign ups and you're like 'psh no way he's gonna be accepted' but then the gm goes 'haha thats a great character, he can exist' and you're just like 'fuck'


I also, for some demented reason, just detest gifs to be used for character profiles. It just seems that every profile with a gif just seems to be the one in the lot that seems like crap most of the time. I'm sorry if you use gifs and are an actually good writer, but them's the apples. 
 
I've seen this quite a bit; characters that barely acknowledge the events occurring around them, as if they exist in a little bubble within the RP. The way I see it, it's usually an egotistical thing. Many characters ignore, dismiss, or scoff at anything that would usually have an impact on a real person. It's almost like a display of power for them to wave their hands at everything laid out before them.


Personally, my biggest deal breaker is any setting that gives absolute freedom to the players. I mean, giving people freedom to play whomever they want sounds great and all, but it's usually infeasible. If you let someone play as the lonely king of the corner of the world, chances are they will sit in the corner of the world and mope about how people don't come to the corner of the world. I don't think I've ever seen really spread out games like that ever last longer than a page.



The biggest nope an RP can get, is when the who is bent just to accommodate that one player that purposefully makes a character that doesn't fit in, and will not make any attempts to naturally fit in. When the whole adventure is turned to their little corner of the world, just so that THEY do get adventure.


Other than that is just when players have repetitive spelling and grammar mistakes far beyond what one could consider as typo. Or getting a one liner answer to something that is 3 or more paragraphs long. x.x


Though I may sound picky, other than this~ I'm pretty alright with everything. In the first case even, I tend to try to accommodate that one player so the RP itself can go on and feel fun to be a part of. (Rather turning what could be a one-man side quest into THE quest... as if they were the center of the world.)
 
too many people in a rp. i just don't have the attention span for shit like that, 4 is probably my limit.
 
when shadow the edgehog (totally OC guise, and not ripped off from an anime character) appears in the character sign ups and you're like 'psh no way he's gonna be accepted' but then the gm goes 'haha thats a great character, he can exist' and you're just like 'fuck'



This annoys me so damn much. Why do you even have an application there when you're just going to accept any tripe that gets posted at all? Double disgust points if it says something about their "mysterious past" or amnesia. Whatever, you're just lazy and don't want to bother with a backstory.
 
This annoys me so damn much. Why do you even have an application there when you're just going to accept any tripe that gets posted at all? Double disgust points if it says something about their "mysterious past" or amnesia. Whatever, you're just lazy and don't want to bother with a backstory.



I wouldn't say amnesia is that bad, there are times when it is a vital part of the character and isn't simply used as a way to handwave the requirement for for a backstory. (But those who do that just make me look bad when I go ahead and make a character with amnesia.)
 
When people have a length requirement! 4+ paragraphs all the time will get stale fast. Sometimes there's only so much that you can describe in one scene. And to strictly enforce the 4+ paragraph requirement even when there's a lot of dialogue going on makes it a real drag to try and read.


It often leads to 4 paragraphs of useless prose with ""No." She said" put on at the end because all that was in the middle of a conversation.
 
1. Like others have said, having a strict requirement about post length quickly turns me away. Constantly writing more than 2 or 3 paragraphs causes too much filler and too slow pacing for my tastes.


2. When partners try to write paragraphs, but the actual content of the post is basically a one liner. I'm not even talking about being needlessly descriptive (though that can be annoying too), but about rpers who try to pad their posts by basically repeating everything I put in mine, just reworded from their character's view. They don't add anything new to the story or help move it along, they just mildly respond or react to whatever I put out there, giving nothing for me to respond to. But they do it in a way that it looks like a decent amount of writing, until you read it and see it's a whole lot of nothing. This is why I'd rather have 3 sentences of quality plot movement or character development than 3 paragraphs of words that say nothing.


3. Requiring romance. I don't roleplay romance at all, so if it's required or implied to be the main goal of the plot, I nope out.
 
I'm one of those people who can work with just about anything.  When you say a promising roleplay, that entails quite a lot for me.  First thing's first, I have to like you.  There aren't too many people who I don't like, so this usually isn't very hard.  The harder parts?  Writing style and work ethic.  You and I may be able to pump out six solid paragraphs each, but if I can't stand your writing style, thing's aren't going to work out.  The same can be said about work ethic.  You may have a well-rounded character, and I may have a well-rounded character, but nothing is going to happen if we cannot collaborate with one another well.  Heck, I don't even care if the characters are a 'cliche' pairing.  In my world, anything can work, because it can work.  You and I are the ones who will make it work.


Demanding romance in a roleplay is a little different because romance novels do exist.  That being said, if the sole point of the roleplay is to develop a romantic relationship between our characters, as romance novels tend to do, then romance in this setting makes perfect sense.  But if we're trying to kick but next to Superman and Indiana Jones, I don't see how love is a "requirement".  It's a possibility, yes, but barely a requirement.


So, I like you, you write well, and your characters are fascinating, but the thing that will make me walk away is how we interact with one another both inside and outside of the roleplay.  My opinion is influenced heavily by at least six years of strict one on one roleplaying.  I find that a lot of these elements also apply to the group roleplays that I have more recently participated in.
 
I've only left one roleplay myself, because the other person made a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes, used absolutely no punctuation and gave me short posts all the time. I post 3 paragraphs, get 2 sentences in return. And that happened all the time.


That's my main petpeeve. One liners CAN happen, but when I give you enough to work with and you just don't give a damn and post a sentence, I'll drop it.


Also, when plotting is forced on me, god modding, characters that seem absolutely perfect... the usual. 


Dark and mysterious characters, that can see with something over their eyes, are perfectly strong and capable of killing 10 people at once, disrespect a king without consequences and be, like, 20 max AND  be lean and skinny like they never worked out in their life...really... that's just sooo unrealistic. 
 
When bb code is a requirement... like why? Some people just aren't a fan of using it ._.



Well your in luck there. BBC code is dead. Gone the way of the typewriter and the gramaphone. So they can't actually require it anymore as it doesn't exist.
 

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