Is the high school setting clichè?

[Tonstad39]

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It seems like every other RP contains two tropes: 1. Teenagers 2. School. From hogwarts inspired boarding schools to slice of life highschool RPs. It's the go to setting for rite of passage, romance, drama etc. But that gets old after a while & I have to ask, is the highschool RP a tired trope in the roleplay sphere?


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[Grey]

Yes.


And so is this thread. Third one in two months, I believe.

 

[Tonstad39]

Yes.
And so is this thread. Third one in two months, I believe.

i wonder if i could pull off a workplace RP.

 

[call me rae]

Well you got to look at demographics - a lot of the people on this site are teenagers. And a lot of people start out with roleplaying what they know.


I mean there's nothing to say the genre itself is tired. As long as you do something creative with it.


I mean think about the whole YA trope of love triangles. That's in just about every CW show and YA book written for tween girls ever. Does that mean it's impossible to do justice? or well? No.


You want to make a high school roleplay go for it. People will absolutely join.


If you don't want to make a high school roleplay and you want to join something else - do that too.


Nothing says you have to follow the band wagon or that the existence of a band wagon itself is bad.

 

[Grey]

Possibly, but I expect it would be a lot of work. Why roleplay ordinary people at work? Because you want to do some kind of workplace drama or comedy. So it probably won't stay at their workplace.


It would also require very strong characterization from the players, and a compelling, engaging, believable plot. At which point I feel like you're better off just writing a novel.


Or for comedy, that the characters are flawed but compelling and have plenty of opportunities for jokes, misunderstandings, and accidents. Collaboratively, that seems trickier, and again, maybe you'd be better off writing a TV series.


If they're ordinary people in a dangerous line of work, say, Deadliest Catch style Atlantic fishing, maybe you've got room for intense character drama and tragedy.


Maybe they're ordinary people in a ridiculous line of work? A straight-faced low-stakes Ghostbusters RP could work nicely. Or a group of classic movie monsters who work in a tech startup. A vampire in the server room, a werewolf programmer, the CEO is a Mummy. They sell apps to zombies.


Generally, when people write about real life, they're trying to make a point. I wouldn't bother bringing that up, but most people here fancy themselves writers and their roleplays are wholly legitimate collaborative writing projects. You should probably, therefore, have a statement expressed by your roleplay, or an argument between collaborators expressed through character-proxies.


I mean, otherwise a lot of nominally real-life RPs are just wish fulfillment.

 

[call me rae]

Well I suppose it varies on the person do. I mean most high school roleplays aren't about much more than hooking up. And you could do that just as easily at a work place. You could have virtually the same catty, cliquey nonsense with adults at their work as you could with teens at the school dance.


So it's just a matter of selling the work place. I know modeling agency roleplays have had lots of success with this. Or talent agencies.


So it's not impossible to do. Just depends on why you're doing it.


If your wanting to use a workplace scenario to make a more "believable" or "adult" roleplay chances are that's not going to pan out well.


People don't want to actually roleplay real life. That's boring.


They want to play the reality tv version of real life. The kind that you know logically has to be bullshit scripted by the people behind the scenes but is so dang entertaining you don't care. You sign up for the crazy ride and a crazy ride is what you get.

 

[Grey]

At which point you're basically back to wish fulfillment.


I expect anyone making this complaint has no interest in such a thing, NFG. Or they at least want to hide it in a superhero persona.

 

[call me rae]

I think your misunderstanding @Grey - I am stating that the reason people do most high school roleplays is for the same reason they watch reality tv. They like the over the top drama.


I would say wish fulfillment isn't so much a slice of life specific problem as that's a reason a majority of people roleplay period. Across all the genres. Nor is that necessarily a problem. If they want to role play to fulfill some kind of fantasy what's wrong with that?


Not everything has to be some kind of deep psychological drama, complex storyline, or uber bit of realism.


I personally wouldn't want my roleplays to be too realistic because then they're just boring/depressing/frustrating.

 

[Idea]

Without wishing to gang up here, I would say that there is another reason why highschool RPs aren't that bad- they're a base.


If you go around in 1x1s enough you'll find a lot of people just can't seem to be able to really come up with almost anything except the basic plot or pairing they initially wanted. Beyond that, ask them to work on other setting details and they'll go nowhere, specially nowhere with quality. However, many of these people aren't invested in the setting, but it does show a simple thing to realize: attention is limited.


Now, that being the case, if a person has an idea they feel is great and they want to develop it sometimes the location or age group where that takes place is really an unimportant aspect. If it is, then surely using the standard can clear the way to be able to focus one's time and attention on other aspects that actually matter for the central themes , rounding up characters and conflicts, etc...

 

[Grey]

I'll admit, I hadn't looked in a while. Last time I did, highschool roleplays seemed mostly to be about sulking, being cooler than everyone else, and flash-in-the-pan romances. That just seems like aimless wish fulfillment to me - reality TV is, afterall, a passingly-scripted illusion. If you're going to have drama, you need a dramatic conflict and accompanying narrative, no? Not just a bunch of teenage vampire genius ninjas showing off while trying desperately to look like they're not showing off?


I'm happy to be proven wrong if you've got a link to a highschool RP that resembles reality TV. Not that one example would be representative of the lot.


And I'm not saying people can't indulge in wish fulfillment if they want, regardless of genre (hence the comment about a superhero persona) - merely that it seems to be the point of pseudo-realistic RPs and fandom RPs. Which is really fine! As long as people are having fun. I only really grouse about it if you pretend it's anything else.


@Idea You know I wrote a tutorial on how you can use schools as a base from which to build, right? Like six months ago?

 

[Idea]

I'll admit, I hadn't looked in a while. Last time I did, highschool roleplays seemed mostly to be about sulking, being cooler than everyone else, and flash-in-the-pan romances. That just seems like aimless wish fulfillment to me - reality TV is, afterall, a passingly-scripted illusion. If you're going to have drama, you need a dramatic conflict and accompanying narrative, no? Not just a bunch of teenage vampire genius ninjas showing off while trying desperately to look like they're not showing off?
I'm happy to be proven wrong if you've got a link to a highschool RP that resembles reality TV. Not that one example would be representative of the lot.


And I'm not saying people can't indulge in wish fulfillment if they want, regardless of genre (hence the comment about a superhero persona) - merely that it seems to be the point of pseudo-realistic RPs and fandom RPs. Which is really fine! As long as people are having fun. I only really grouse about it if you pretend it's anything else.


@Idea You know I wrote a tutorial on how you can use schools as a base from which to build, right? Like six months ago?

No I had no idea. I was just giving my reasons as to why I believe they are not a cliche not trying to argue with you, which is precisely why I mentioned right in the beggining that I wasn't trying to gang up on anyone

 

[Grey]

I know you're not ganging up on me; I simply misunderstood it as a direct response, fool that I am. I thought you meant 'I disagree with these rebuttals but I'm not trying to be a jerk about it' rather than 'adjacent to those points I have this to say.'


Shameful display of ego. Sorry.

 

[call me rae]

Yeah and for me it's not so much that they are or not cliche it's just this idea that people have to somehow justify enjoying them or be thought of as poorer roleplayers.


That's the part that revs me up. I don't care what kind of roleplay you like doing nor am I going to quiz you on why you like that style over the other. You like what you like and that's fine.


If it's the over-saturation that bothers you than there isn't much you can do about it but accept that a lot of people like that style and move on.


It shouldn't matter why they like that style. Just that they do.

 

[Idea]

I know you're not ganging up on me; I simply misunderstood it as a direct response, fool that I am. I thought you meant 'I disagree with these rebuttals but I'm not trying to be a jerk about it' rather than 'adjacent to those points I have this to say.'
Shameful display of ego. Sorry.

No I apologize too for misleading you, sorry.

 

[Grey]

I hope you don't believe I think poorly of people who prefer those RPs, NFG. I think poorly of the RPs themselves, but I don't hold it against the people who like them. The most negative thought to cross my mind is only ever 'I reckon you have a lot to learn'.


And I question them so I can understand - this is a discussion forum, is it not? People can just tell me 'I like them, that's all' and I'll mostly just leave them to it. It's not like I rampage through the 1x1s telling people to stop having fun.


Honestly the threads complaining about oversaturation bug me, but I don't care about the oversaturation myself. I know where the things I like are posted.


@Idea thank you, but I really do think this one is on me.

 

[MISTER UN. 0W3N]

... I do like the idea of a workplace setting for RPs. I think with enough thought and trust in the users, I think it can be one hell of a fun time.

 

[rubelline]

the only thing that comes to my mind when you talk about a workplace rp is doing something similar to the office or parks & rec...


...and that would be pretty amazing, if done right.

 

[MISTER UN. 0W3N]

@rubelline


Same here.


Bah... now I'm reminded of one of my precious threads that never came to be... it was a workplace thread too.

 

[Bone2pick]

And I'm not saying people can't indulge in wish fulfillment if they want, regardless of genre (hence the comment about a superhero persona) - merely that it seems to be the point of pseudo-realistic RPs and fandom RPs. Which is really fine! As long as people are having fun. I only really grouse about it if you pretend it's anything else.

Not to go too far off topic, but I wrestled with that last sentence. I've considered launching a superhero roleplay on this site, and while wish fulfillment would certainly be an element of the experience, I'd stop short of calling it "the point". Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit, but wish fulfillment alone just doesn't sound adequate/adult enough for my efforts.

 

[Idea]

Not to go too far off topic, but I wrestled with that last sentence. I've considered launching a superhero roleplay on this site, and while wish fulfillment would certainly be an element of the experience, I'd stop short of calling it "the point". Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit, but wish fulfillment alone just doesn't sound adequate/adult enough for my efforts.

Given the expression is used on a derogatory sense most of the time, I think nobody would really think if they're work as wish fulfillment, but really, without the attached connotation, the term is such a broad thing and such a key thing in roleplaying as a whole when you think about it, that it pretty much works like fake psychology: it actually depicts your thing accurately, but only because it depicts every else just as accurately.


So the point I think @nerdyfangirl wanted to make is that, yeah, it's wish fulfillment, but there is more to it, and even if there wasn't , wish fulfillment is a valid reason to Roleplay the thing to begin with.

 

[Grey]

Not to go too far off topic, but I wrestled with that last sentence. I've considered launching a superhero roleplay on this site, and while wish fulfillment would certainly be an element of the experience, I'd stop short of calling it "the point". Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit, but wish fulfillment alone just doesn't sound adequate/adult enough for my efforts.

Tangential interjection, Bone. I meant that superheroic stuff can be a vehicle for wish fulfillment, but I don't assume it to be the point when I see it. If I see something about a magic school, I would be surprised to find it wasn't wish fulfillment. I was just acknowledging it can be a problem across genres.

 

[Idea]

Oops, @Bone2pick you can forget what I said, I was thinking of something else when I wrote that.