Viewpoint How Do You Feel About RP Pitch With Predetermined Characters?

Ranix Aurus

Languishing in Progress
Roleplay Type(s)
I'm not even sure if I'm using the right wording in the title, but I've been thinking about this lately. Disclaimer that I usually lurk exclusively in 1x1, so this might not reflect the overall experience of the entire RPNation community, or even the majority of 1x1. It's just what I saw from my totally biased point of view.

For example, let's say the RP pitch is like this. Muse A is a heartbroken person who had just returned to his/her old hometown because he/she was dumped by his/her abusive boy/girlfriend. Muse B is an arrogant, century-old vampire who was bored with immortal life. They accidentally met and Muse B thought that Muse A is interesting and so different. They then made a connection. Etc. Etc.

This pattern is problematic for me personally because I feel like either muses are locked to a very specific scenario from the start. The personalities are already molded, the backgrounds are determined, the reactions of the characters are placed on tracks. It felt like I'm playing someone else's character instead of my own. I'm fine if the premise is just Muse A is a human, Muse B is a vampire, they met, boom shakalaka. That provides enough freedom to make whatever character we want to make while keeping them relevant to future plot points.

I'm not saying that this kind of pitch is wrong, oh no, not in the slightest. It's just not a style that I'm comfortable with, nothing more than that. But I guess it's working for other people. I dunno.

Any thoughts about this?
 
i think people just generally look for a different amount of freedom when it comes to roleplaying, and i personally prefer having something to go off of than having free reign to make whatever character i want. which is why i only participate in group roleplays with roles usually~

to reference the example you've given specifically, even though you might assume that it's been molded and decided from the pitch alone, here's what i see! instead of a whole personality, you're getting only a few traits that are considered "required" in your character rather than their entire psyche or history being laid out for you.

muse b might be arrogant, but because they're making up for a past where they were considered inferior. why are they bored? were there any experiences that make muse a particularly interesting to them? are they quick-tempered or icy and cold?

to me, the info that's given just sets up a dynamic, which i find to be really important in pairings, mostly because the idea of having to match together two characters that are completely incompatible is something i find super difficult! the mismatch is my main issue with it (´・ᴗ・ ` )
i will mention that i usually don't participate in roleplays that don't already have tropes/roles that interest me or fit what i'm craving at the moment! that's how i get to play what i want!!
 
Frankly, looking at the example here's what I think: Those aren't predetermined characters, at most you could say those are roles. Yes, there isn't total and absolute freedom in the character design but it is a far far far cry from locking on a different person's character. One of the characters has literally one event and one reaction, the other two character traits and everything else about the characters is left open.

Frankly approaching this as if the character's are predetermined is extremely reductive to what a character is.

A degree of determining what the characters are, is a necessary component for the vast majority of plot concepts. If there's a specific kind of story you wanna deal with, or if there's a specific kind of character (and notice here the distinction between a specific "kind of" character versus a "specific character") someone wants to participate in or play against, then it is contrary to their goal to make the interest check and not include those things. A story between a human and a vampire is still technically a story, but it's not necessarily the same type of story as a "bored immortal vampire meets heartroken human" story.

Here's the key thing here: The person isn't looking for a partner to make them play a character that person doesn't want to play. The person is looking for a partner interested in playing what they are looking for. The person is not only entirely entitled to do their own thing within the bounds of the concept, the person with the interest check is specifically looking for, say, someone interested in playing a bored immortal vampire. If you don't wanna roleplay a character like that, then that roleplay is not for you, and making that filter is at least part of the purpose of including it in the first place.



My own plots are far more specific than the example given here and I wouldn't exactly call them pre-determining characters either, which isn't to say pitches that actually do pre-determine characters exist. There are role-based roleplays with extremely detailed roles for characters or which actually determine your success in the roleplay beforehand. I have seen pitches that actually had character sheets for other people to choose from.


Bringing it now to a matter of personal preference, I personally far prefer when plots are at a more medium level of specificity. I want an understanding of the core ideas of what the partner wants out of the plot and characters, and I want them to put those things together. If possible I want context like what kind of setting and tone we're talking about. I work better with more information in general, but more specific ideas also tend to denote more thought put into those ideas and a greater degree of commitment and passion towards them. Of course, I do want to be able to do my thing and use my own creativity, so a balance must be struck, but if literally anything can fit the role, then my character is just a replaceable token and I don't want that to be the case.
 
So adding onto what others have said I tend to view those kind of pitches are centered on a character dynamic.

Ex. Shy Girl x Jock

They might add a few more adjectives but ultimately it boils down to a very broad pairing. Players are also usually open to some interpretation of individual characters.

Ex. Say you wanna play an immortal witch instead of a vampire. Or someone who is content with immortality and just wants someone to share it with.

As the core dynamic is just Human x Supernatural Being (maybe Human x Vampire specifically). But vampire come in a wide variety of character types.

I would say a pre-established character is something like this :

So your character if a thirty something year old blonde woman who likes motorcycles. She is constantly hit on by rude men and as such has a bit of a chip on her shoulder about dating. My character is a nerdy man with brunette hair and thick glasses. Your character finds mine extremely attractive and wants to date him.


Because 1. It’s a contradictory description anyway which very much pushes a “Not Like Other _____” spotlight onto the OP’s character.

2. It is giving a very specific and detailed view of the character. You get appearance, you get hobbies, you get personality, and you get how your character has to feel about their love interest.
 
I see it more as roles that need to be filled for the RP to go ahead. I have done this kind of thing myself, but I leave it pretty wide open. Additionally, it's not much different from someone looking for a specific character dynamics. Things like good girl x bad boy, etc.
 
I'm a terrible person who agrees to sign up for prewritten roles, only to proceed to just play the character the way I want (ie, agreeing to play the "jock" or "ice queen" character, but then creating my own conception of who they are beyond the stereotype). It's not to derail the other person's idea, I just tend to view guidelines as a springboard for my own idea for a character.

Most people actually don't seem to mind this, so I'm guessing that most of the time people are already intending for the predefined role to be more of a suggestion than anything else. It's a narrative device to get the story moving quicker or in a direction that's interesting to the person proposing the roleplay.

The only time I can particularly remember someone being annoyed by my chosen deviation was when I joined a group rp with predefined characters, but chose to interpret the description as my character only liking girls. (I think the description I was going off was something like "she is rude to guys who hit on her", which I escalated to "she is disinterested in all men at best, and despises them at worst".) That didn't play into the GMs harem fantasy that he was trying to subtly push for. Guess you can't win them all 🤔

To sum up how I feel, I guess I just feel like predetermined characters are more of a suggestion than a hard rule, so I don't think too hard about it when I see it. And if a user really does mean for it to be a hard rule, then that will become clear pretty quickly and I can decide from there if I want to go along or find something else to play.
 

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