Deal Breakers. What makes you "walk" away?

[Risky]

YES. My general rule for length is as long as I can work with it, I'll be happy. I don't care if it's a one-liner or ten paragraphs, if it's a bunch of unnecessary nonsense, then I'm going to burn out quickly.

And at least (near) one-liner responses tend to be posted much faster, no? It always helps to build momentum.

On a semi-related note, too much background information can also be overwhelming. If I get to learn your character's entire tragic backstory in your opening post, then what's left for me to discover? Well, there'd still be something, I reckon, but it sure puts out a lot of the fire.

 

[Jarrecko]

The only thing that ever really gets me to leave a Roleplay is when it slows to a crawl. I can't stand waiting for people to post when they have every opportunity to. Especially if I know the person over Discord or Skype and they're sitting there blathering to everyone when we are all waiting for them to post and they have made it clear they have nothing else going on beyond talking to us.

 

[HeathertheGamer]

And at least (near) one-liner responses tend to be posted much faster, no? It always helps to build momentum.

On a semi-related note, too much background information can also be overwhelming. If I get to learn your character's entire tragic backstory in your opening post, then what's left for me to discover? Well, there'd still be something, I reckon, but it sure puts out a lot of the fire.

Yes! Basically, as long as I don't get the dreaded "He smiled.", we're good.

 

[Akkun no Baka]

Perverted players

 

[Myxyzptlk]

Surprised this thread is still up. I doubt there's anything that people have not really covered on a topic but their are number of things that have derailed me in pursuing a roleplay. Recently it was this thing and this thing alone that made me call quits for the first time in a roleplay setting.
As if the one liners, bad quality, and force-conforming plot was not bad already their was something to ice all of it on top:

- Illogical durability

Ever heard the phrase "Injuries are more than a flesh wound?". A character's suffering, consequences, and injuries are perfect times to capitalize on player growth and gives them time to reflect as the plot steadily moves forward. Yet, so often I see characters with their illogical and low quality posts go on a tangent about how they "adapted within an hour".

Let me elaborate: The roleplay that made me leave. The nail in the coffin was when another character had his hand cut off, giving the circumstances and setting of the roleplay he got a mechanical hand, whatever ok. What set me over was that their was no withdrawal for this character, the event merely happened and than he was done with it, no room for growing cause he himself refused to let it happen. And as I messaged them about it they gave me flack as if I were the moron in the scenario and when the others in the discord server were siding with him I just decided I had enough and took my leave.

It was even worse because of how promising the roleplay was. Damn shame it turned into a ces pool of garbage.

 

[Shivana]

Surprised this thread is still up. I doubt there's anything that people have not really covered on a topic but their are number of things that have derailed me in pursuing a roleplay. Recently it was this thing and this thing alone that made me call quits for the first time in a roleplay setting.
As if the one liners, bad quality, and force-conforming plot was not bad already their was something to ice all of it on top:

- Illogical durability

Ever heard the phrase "Injuries are more than a flesh wound?". A character's suffering, consequences, and injuries are perfect times to capitalize on player growth and gives them time to reflect as the plot steadily moves forward. Yet, so often I see characters with their illogical and low quality posts go on a tangent about how they "adapted within an hour".

Let me elaborate: The roleplay that made me leave. The nail in the coffin was when another character had his hand cut off, giving the circumstances and setting of the roleplay he got a mechanical hand, whatever ok. What set me over was that their was no withdrawal for this character, the event merely happened and than he was done with it, no room for growing cause he himself refused to let it happen. And as I messaged them about it they gave me flack as if I were the moron in the scenario and when the others in the discord server were siding with him I just decided I had enough and took my leave.

It was even worse because of how promising the roleplay was. Damn shame it turned into a ces pool of garbage.

I think this thread really serves more as a way for people to vent, plus there are dozens of pages so I doubt anyone is really reading all of them lol.

 

[Myxyzptlk]

I think this thread really serves more as a way for people to vent, plus there are dozens of pages so I doubt anyone is really reading all of them lol.

Fair point. I'm not even sure if this is my only time posting in it

 

[Stories Abound]

For me, it is trashing other peoples play that are honestly trying. I don't like it. I'd rather we help build someone up than spend time picking on the things they didn't do well.

 

[Hablmet]

I don't really have an issue with short sentences - they need to tell what's going on well, however. Back on Twitter I was still limited by 140 characters, and as such I attempted to make the replies short, yet informative. If it was needed I usually made the reply into three tweets maximum.
My biggest issue with RPs is however ridiculous god modding and metaplaying. For the latter I can let it slide if the coincidence factor is at maximum (eg. Oh, Marie is probably still in the room, I'll come and stop by. The character then opens the room to find it empty, but there is something sticking out of the wall, and that's what leads to the discovery of something not really nice.), but if a character decides to close a wall safe and hide it behind a painting, then another character shouldn't just waltz in and pull off the painting.

 

[Elernia]

When people take RP as a competition or game and do anything and everything to 'win', even god modding.

Their characters are all powerful, all knowing, they can solve any conflict and defeat any enemy. They're literally like Saitama. And the worst thing is sometimes players like this aren't obvious to spot. It's kind of a slow sprinkle of these things that turn into a giant snowball at the end and kind of ruin the experience for me. I've literally had characters read my character's mind in a situation of emotional conflict and BOOM, plot solved, next!

That brings me to another one: impatience. Not to generalize but I see that with especially younger players. There's little willingness to think outside the box or truly develop a plot, a world, a character, to really savor a conflict in the story. Eventually all stories kind of fall into the same cookie cutter mold, or the goal of the characters is reached inhumanly fast. It's not about the end, it's about the journey.

 

[KinglyLion]

I had to walk away from one on here already. This guy wanted to do an anime rp. Ok, cool. He didn't want to give any sort of Plot. Just wanted both characters to be MxF and anime. Ok..... He wanted me to be female without even offering a choice, I suck at playing girls in a MxF setting because of personal reasons but I went a long with it thinking I'd give it another shot. So my willingness to go out of my comfort zone was already met. THEN the bugger wanted me to start his own damn roleplay. Now I generally offer anyone to start a roleplay and most of the time I have to start them when they're my own. Fair enough right? However, I extend the offer to be polite in case the other person wanted to lay down an idea first. Not this guy, his rp, I had to be female, had to start it without any sort of plot line.

So I start it, He has the audacity to ask me " What are you fucking doing?" I was taken aback. I never had anyone ask me what I was doing. Then he proceeded to just fly off the handle how was he supposed to build off what I wrote. I finally had it with this jerk. I told him, " Since you didn't give any sort of plot ( which I do freestyle time to time so it wasn't orginally a problem) what did you expect me to do? I gave you an opening for your character and you can't go off of that?"

He started cussing me out , so I blocked him.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I had to walk away from one on here already. This guy wanted to do an anime rp. Ok, cool. He didn't want to give any sort of Plot. Just wanted both characters to be MxF and anime. Ok..... He wanted me to be female without even offering a choice, I suck at playing girls in a MxF setting because of personal reasons but I went a long with it thinking I'd give it another shot. So my willingness to go out of my comfort zone was already met. THEN the bugger wanted me to start his own damn roleplay. Now I generally offer anyone to start a roleplay and most of the time I have to start them when they're my own. Fair enough right? However, I extend the offer to be polite in case the other person wanted to lay down an idea first. Not this guy, his rp, I had to be female, had to start it without any sort of plot line.

So I start it, He has the audacity to ask me " What are you fucking doing?" I was taken aback. I never had anyone ask me what I was doing. Then he proceeded to just fly off the handle how was he supposed to build off what I wrote. I finally had it with this jerk. I told him, " Since you didn't give any sort of plot ( which I do freestyle time to time so it wasn't orginally a problem) what did you expect me to do? I gave you an opening for your character and you can't go off of that?"

He started cussing me out , so I blocked him.

He seems like a charmer. Men like him are why so many women refuse to roleplay with male players.

A. This is not a dating site creep go harrass people on OKCupid.

B. I am not a psychic maid that exists to do the bidding of anyone over the internet.

Well hopefully you had some chocolate and a break before looking for some better partners

 

[KinglyLion]

I’m in the process of trying to find better players. I’ve started a few role plays but I haven’t been getting any replies back for a few days which I don’t think anyone ghosted me other than a couple. People get busy so I’m fine with that. I just wish I had one person who was semi frequent but it’s not a deal breaker for me.

 

[Sephus]

One liners.. :3.

 

[Im_just_here]

Too many one liners that add nothing: I dont ask for a novel. I'll take a one liner, as long as it adds to the story. I cant handle one liner after one liner, over and over. Dont sit there and expect me to do all the work. Give me something to work with.

 

[Otaku_Girl]

One line responses, or replies that are clearly padded without adding anything to the progression of the characters or plot. I tend to find those who do either of these wait for someone else to lead all of the time, which can become cumbersome and feel like you are the only one pulling your weight (which is rarely fun or engaging).

 

[cry baby]

Everyone here keeps saying one liners but the only RPers I'm finding on this site are one-line, two or three at most, posters. D; The hell.

 

[Genkai]

I was talking to this guy off-site last night about a possible RP. We had only exchanged about 3 messages and we were narrowing down canon characters. I told him I'd love X since he offered. I then offer W, N or A for him to pick from because I didn't mind and wanted partner input. He then comes back and tells me N is his waifu and then began to reconsider, giving A a few creepy nickname as well. Ew.

I had to go to bed but I spent a good ten minutes just cringing at the casual use of waifu. I then considered this guy is a lot younger than I am. I mean I get if you have a favorite character and might want to share but using the term waifu brings a sexual assumption (at least to me) that came off as soooo creepy. I had to laugh because I knew I would turn him down on that alone. It feels silly, it really does.

At the same time, it didn't seem like we were very compatible as writers so the waifu thing was probably just the last thing I could put with. I feel kinda bad that the term waifu became a dealbreaker but my gut is telling me things wouldn't have worked out anyway.

No offense to anyone.

I just think anyone using the term waifu is around 16 years old and that's a too young for me to write with em. Plus it came off as a bit pervy.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Genkai I wouldn’t say it’s silly. I think you learn over the years to pick up on red flags for problematic behavior.

For instance I won’t roleplay with anyone who uses top/bottom or seme/uke or dominant/submissive language.

It just comes across as creepy and fetishistic to me. There could be nice people who use those terms but I’m not going to take the risk when I’m pretty sure 99% of the time we’re just not going to be compatible

 

[Genkai]

Genkai I wouldn’t say it’s silly. I think you learn over the years to pick up on red flags for problematic behavior.

For instance I won’t roleplay with anyone who uses top/bottom or seme/uke or dominant/submissive language.

It just comes across as creepy and fetishistic to me. There could be nice people who use those terms but I’m not going to take the risk when I’m pretty sure 99% of the time we’re just not going to be compatible

That's a good example too.

I used to use those terms when I was pretty young, just starting out but I don't think using them now that I'm older, fits well. Plus I don't think characters can be described as one or the other. And it does add an emphasis of sexualization as you said. I would rather see dynamics shift and take shape naturally than push a narrative.

 

[rae2nerdy]

That's a good example too.

I used to use those terms when I was pretty young, just starting out but I don't think using them now that I'm older, fits well. Plus I don't think characters can be described as one or the other. And it does add an emphasis of sexualization as you said. I would rather see dynamics shift and take shape naturally than push a narrative.

I think for me it’s either a mark of someone who is going to overly fetishize the roleplay (usually when combined with other indications) or it means the other person is going to be writing really shallow one-note characters.

Neither of which is something I’m interested in.

 

[BeyondTheStars]

When a partner doesn't give you much to work with and doesn't want to be involved in the overall story of the roleplay. Also, one liners.

 

[PhoenixMire]

Sexual content at all, even if it's just "fade to black". I know a lot of people are put off by that, but I make sure to let people know beforehand that I won't do anything sexual at all in an RP; if they're fine with that, awesome, and if not they can easily go find someone else. But one time I had someone try to force an explicit scene on me in an RP despite the fact that I told them multiple times I didn't want that. I ended up just bailing.

Also, horrible grammar. I get it, nobody's perfect at grammar; I can accept misspellings and punctuation or sentence structure that isn't the best. I'm not even close to perfect, either. If it's legible and it's got heart, I'm good. But if I can't even understand what the heck somebody is trying to write, then the entire RP is going to be miserable.
On a similar note to poor writing, characters that seem really overpowered or perfect are awful. On a different site, someone literally just described their character as being able to make things disappear with a blink of her eyes and being able to heal anyone or anything with a single touch, and they gave her no flaws or weaknesses that I can discern. Ugh. Unfortunately I'm really bad at saying no, so I struggle to tell someone that I don't want to RP with them... helppls

 

[OneGoodUsername]

Theres a good number of small things that get to me

- Forced plot lines to the point where its overbearing
- Giving no effort/using one liners
- Trying to make the focus of the story around our two characters falling in love, even if the situation doesnt make sense.
- Godmodding or wicked op characters
- mary sue characters

 

[Malphaestus]

As a person with a lot of aesthetic interest with BBCoding and depth in character developement and character making, I can't help but look down on roleplays where no effort is made to expand the setting with details and effortlessly tossing out a character sheet the likes of which any form of toddler could spank out in a flash.