Experiences How do you think you've changed as a roleplayer compared to last March, or when you first started roleplaying?

[diracdelta]

Personally, I think I've gotten a lot better at communicating with roleplay partners and not letting my anxieties overwhelm me, even if my writing stamina has definitely taken a steep decline compared to last year. I burned out pretty hard in mid-to-late-2021, and now I'm kind of just cruising on ashes. On the bright side, the most low-effort posts I've produced this year would still be very impressive to my ten year old self; I think they might be disappointed that I stopped roleplaying Warrior Cats, though.

 

[Onmyoji]

Hmm compared to last March... nothing changed. I was burnt out last year and I'm burnt out again. However there was a surge of activity in between and I found a great rp partner.
I'm still roleplaying same characters and same fandoms for more than a year and I'm still not tired of it lol Being burnt out is related mostly to real life than my characters.

Compared to starting roleplaying? A lot of things changed XD My fandoms changed entirely, plots I like to play changed, character types I like to play changed, post length changed, and quality of my posts (hopefully) got better. I definitely got better at *role* playing and not making self insert OCs lol

 

[nerdy tangents]

I think I have significantly more chill than last March. Partially that’s due to IRL changes which cause me much less stress.

Partially that’s cuz last March I was in the middle of a large roleplay world building project (which I got to update/archive soon) and also dealing with some rather toxic people (again IRL and in FPS)

I think I am doing pretty good now though. I have chill partners and have found a comfortable grove in kind of easy going roleplays.

 

[Chordling]

My writing style has changed a ton over the years. I think it’s improvement. I have also gotten more used to group roleplays than I used to be but I still prefer one on ones.

 

[Daisie]

I know I've gained a lot of flexibility and communication skills in the past year. I've gotten better at bringing up the stuff that bugs me and making a storyline that runs smoothly with as little unexciting/unimportant parts as possible. Collaboration in general is the most important part, and I learned the truth about it, which is: When you collaborate on ideas, sometimes someone's just gonna get their ideas shot down/morphed into something else, and that's okay. It's not always fair and it's not always equal, but it doesn't ruin the RP, and I learned that you can't take it personally. It doesn't mean they're out to get you. I've had to pull myself off my high horse a few times XD

 

[Idea]

Well, I can definitely say I changed a lot since when I first started roleplaying. I still remember back when I was first started writing a couple paragraphs was a monumental effort, and I remember how amazing it felt when one of my characters happened to get confessed to or how it hurt when they were cheated on, I remember making really dumb mistakes like making a character with religious prattling, and there’s been more bad character design choices than I could count.

Me from when I first joined RPN and me today were pretty different too. In particular, I had some experiences with trying to DM that I think held valuable lessons for me in terms of becoming less rail-roady and a bit more lax with rules than before, focusing on more flexibility instead of trying to answer every single thing with a new rule addressing it.

That said, the biggest change for me was definitely how over time I came to understand myself and my own preferences better. I like RPs at a slower pace, with long and very descriptive posts of good quality (though the last part goes without saying), I like to play in first person, I know what kind of characters I like most I like planning, etc... Every piece of my preferences I understood better made me more selective about my partners, but by the same token allowed me to improve the experience I got for the time I invested. Nowadays I roleplay maybe a generous tenth of what I used to, but I enjoy myself a lot more with the roleplays I do get, and a consistent pattern has already appeared for the best roleplays and best partners I've had.

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As for any changes since last March... honestly I've been pretty stable, a slight increase of posting requirements and a bump down during the summer when I began experimenting with roleplaying inside World of Warcraft, but otherwise not much of a change.

 

[ShirenTheWitch]

I started rping 15 years ago so I've grown quite a bit. I know how to write properly for a start. I no longer use asterisks to show my actions. I write narrative instead of the chopped up style that was popular "back in the day". I actually make use of references to deepen immersion where as before I merely gave a general description. And most importantly, I now know how to communicate with my partner or partners without it devolving into a fight.