Other Least and Most Favorite Parts of a CS

[Shog]

What is your least favorite part of filling out a CS? What about your most favorite? I'm interested to see what you guys come up with.

Obviously my least favorite part of a character sheet is the time it takes to fill one out. I tend to be very slow and meticulous when filling out my my CS, often taking upwards of an hour (longer if I don't already have a working idea in my head). Part of this is finding the perfect picture(s), and we all know how often we find exactly what we imagined. Then again, I also suck at search for face claims. In terms of things found on the CS itself, I'm going to say the likes and dislikes sections. For me they usually feel like something forced in to make the character sheet feel longer. The information given in these sections can often be picked up in the personality and/or bio sections.

My most favorite is usually the bio. There are certainly cases when the bio is not necessary and even counter productive, but those are few and far between. The bio section forces people to really think about their character and the major events in their life that drove them to where they are now. As a consequence, their personality is also reveal to an extent. I personally tend to spend far too long on my bios, reaching an average of five paragraphs. I usually expect one or two paragraphs from my applicants.

Anyway, what about you guys? What do you like and dislike about character sheets and why?

 

[Onikmey]

Things I don't want on a CS:

Likes/Dislikes: They feel forced and meaningless for the most parts

Sexual Orientation: Most times it's used to make weird passes at romance with strangers or not used at all. I'd rather develop relationships IC.

Strengths/Weaknesses: While a good idea, strength and weaknesses usually become a way to min/max you character and avoid problems. Also things that arent weaknesses are usually put in the weakness area.

Personality: People are complex. Learn a character's personality IC like a normal person.

Things I love on a CS:

Appearance: So I know what to visualise

Bios: Most of the history and character development beforehand goes here.

Detailed abilities: The techical how your character does things. more detailed is better because it's not just "I do damage" but it's "I use this specific fighting-style"

Password: So you actually read the rules.

 

[Shog]

Things I don't want on a CS:

Likes/Dislikes: They feel forced and meaningless for the most parts

Sexual Orientation: Most times it's used to make weird passes at romance with strangers or not used at all. I'd rather develop relationships IC.

Strengths/Weaknesses: While a good idea, strength and weaknesses usually become a way to min/max you character and avoid problems. Also things that arent weaknesses are usually put in the weakness area.

Personality: People are complex. Learn a character's personality IC like a normal person.

Things I love on a CS:

Appearance: So I know what to visualise

Bios: Most of the history and character development beforehand goes here.

Detailed abilities: The techical how your character does things. more detailed is better because it's not just "I do damage" but it's "I use this specific fighting-style"

Password: So you actually read the rules.

I usually put a Weaknesses/Limitations section on my character sheets. It's not something I enjoy, but I view it as a necessary evil because I generally don't trust people to create balanced powers. And I 100% loath when people put things that are not weaknesses under the weakness section! If I had a nickle for every time I saw someone say "cute girls" or "arrogance"... well I'd probably only have a dollar, but that's still too much!

 

[Count Gensokyo]

Obviously my least favorite part of a character sheet is the time it takes to fill one out. I tend to be very slow and meticulous when filling out my my CS

Ditto.

Things I don't want on a CS:

Likes/Dislikes: They feel forced and meaningless for the most parts

Sexual Orientation: Most times it's used to make weird passes at romance with strangers or not used at all. I'd rather develop relationships IC.

Strengths/Weaknesses: While a good idea, strength and weaknesses usually become a way to min/max you character and avoid problems. Also things that arent weaknesses are usually put in the weakness area.

Personality: People are complex. Learn a character's personality IC like a normal person.

Things I love on a CS:

Appearance: So I know what to visualise

Bios: Most of the history and character development beforehand goes here.

Detailed abilities: The techical how your character does things. more detailed is better because it's not just "I do damage" but it's "I use this specific fighting-style"

Password: So you actually read the rules.

Ditto to the extreme on nearly all of that, man.

Listing likes and dislikes seems too forced, and so does (character) strengths and weaknesses. Having to reveal too much in a Personality or Bio section is also something I dislike having to do, as I feel like I'll have less wiggle room to develop my character or reveal secrets about them through the course of the RP. Imagine describing your entirety as a person in just a few paragraphs—as people, we're far more complex than words can fully describe, and even the famous figures of yesteryear had far more going for them than just the little facts you usually learn about them in the post-modern era.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

I honestly would just spring for a picture and a name in a perfect world. I want you to show me your character's obvious malicious intent or their do gooder attitudes when they save a starving child on the side of the road. The only time things such as bio matter, is if the GM is going to painstakingly read and incorporate everything within these bios into the rp. Otherwise it's nothing more than an exercise to try and psyche people up and get them into the rp artificially.

 

[Count Gensokyo]

I honestly would just spring for a picture and a name in a perfect world. I want you to show me your character's obvious malicious intent or their do gooder attitudes when they save a starving child on the side of the road. The only time things such as bio matter, is if the GM is going to painstakingly read and incorporate everything within these bios into the rp. Otherwise it's nothing more than an exercise to try and psyche people up and get them into the rp artificially.

You bring up a good point. I feel like these kind of opinions should be broadcast more on the site. Maybe GM's have just taken to including "Personality" and "Bio" sections in their CS requirements because that's what everyone else is doing?

 

[Shog]

I honestly would just spring for a picture and a name in a perfect world. I want you to show me your character's obvious malicious intent or their do gooder attitudes when they save a starving child on the side of the road. The only time things such as bio matter, is if the GM is going to painstakingly read and incorporate everything within these bios into the rp. Otherwise it's nothing more than an exercise to try and psyche people up and get them into the rp artificially.

I respectfully disagree. It can be difficult to create a new character for everything you do, so it is very easy and tempting to pick canned characters and just use them. I agree that what you say your character is like needs to be backed up by their actions more than anything, but that's why a CS should only be viewed as a skeleton of a character. That said, I view the bio as the most important part of a CS (barring maybe their name). It shows that the writer as put effort into their character and, if done right, helps define them more than any other part of the CS. Truth be told, all information found in a CS could be shown only using the bio. It also shows that the writer has at least a basic understanding of how the world works and can even bring up inconsistencies or unknowns that the creator of said world didn't think of, saving pain later. After all, the best writers know everything about their characters, so why not show that. The main exception to this, of course, is if the character is harboring a secret. In most cases this should remain exempt from the bio for obvious reasons.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

You bring up a good point. I feel like these kind of opinions should be broadcast more on the site. Maybe GM's have just taken to including "Personality" and "Bio" sections in their CS requirements because that's what everyone else is doing?

Sometimes it's fine to just go with the flow and meet people's expectations. The lesser barriers to entry you have, the better it is for your players. If having a bio has any sort of effect on how people percieve the sheet itself, I'd put it in everytime. But yay someone else who can see the merit in this approach.

I respectfully disagree. It can be difficult to create a new character for everything you do, so it is very easy and tempting to pick canned characters and just use them.
By that same extension, if you have to create a character from scratch and the GM hasn't created a fully fleshed out world, the player ends up making up a lot of assumptions about said world. Or worse yet, you end up doing what I do and making a character who just grows up in a peasant home. With a dad who taught my character to be tough and a mom who taught my character to be sensitive to other people's needs. This kind of character can end up with 5-6 paragraphs of writing, but ultimately is a generic and canned character because the gm doesn't have an established world for me to focus in on:

1. Social influences like religion
2. History of the world, such as gods interacting with humans, wars, plagues to set a backdrop to the rest of the world
3. Missing societal structures such as a caste system, monarchy, totalitarian government

Which leads to a less than stellar sheet. So if I'm going to be putting the same old stuff on each sheet, with minor changes, then why bother? In my opinion anyways. I'll write a bio but doing it in a begrudgingly manner.

I agree that what you say your character is like needs to be backed up by their actions more than anything, but that's why a CS should only be viewed as a skeleton of a character.
Sometimes character sheets lead people to be less open minded. When you post that you're a nice character but feel like a situation doesn't call for that. Then it feels like you're boxed into this skeleton, lest you get flack from other players for not toting the line and being unfaithful to your character sheet.

That said, I view the bio as the most important part of a CS (barring maybe their name). It shows that the writer as put effort into their character and, if done right, helps define them more than any other part of the CS.
Then you have the gm's who don't want to incorporate your hard work into the rp. I've had gm's say that they don't want to give me a chance to get some character development by using the skeleton of a bad guy in my history as a small villain in the rp, because they don't want to emburden others with my character sheet. Which also applies to others as well, where they write a page for their sheets. But none of it is actually used to enhance the rp. And only serves as a writing session and glorified brainstorming session for the individual.

Truth be told, all information found in a CS could be shown only using the bio. It also shows that the writer has at least a basic understanding of how the world works and can even bring up inconsistencies or unknowns that the creator of said world didn't think of, saving pain later. After all, the best writers know everything about their characters, so why not show that. The main exception to this, of course, is if the character is harboring a secret. In most cases this should remain exempt from the bio for obvious reasons.

I would agree on the last point, that everything could be summed in the bio. It's quite jarring to see people list what their character can do(let's say naruto fireball jutsu),but no where in their bio do they explain the intricacies of how their character struggled and trained to use said fireball jutsu. It's like if you're gonna list a power, which is central to how you defend yourself. Then why haven't you written about their learning of said style in the bio? This same stuff applies to everything else as well.

 

[staticteeth]

I'm kinda divided on character sheets, honestly? Given I haven't filled one out in ages because I'm normally the "picture and a name" type, if that (have had a beautiful 5,000+ word RP going on for over a year now where we knew nothing about each other's characters in the beginning), but I also really disliked the time it took to fill them out. It already takes me long enough to write a post because I'm often easily sidetracked and/or super meticulous, and going into detail with them almost always feels awkward and forced. Characters are fleshed out much easier for me when discussing them and/or the plot with a partner. Plus, I usually start to stray from the personality that I originally described as the plot progresses.

Despite all that I'll happily fill out a character sheet (as long as you're patient enough) but I do prefer just a name, a picture, and any necessary information, and let the writing do the rest.

 

[Dalamus Ulom]

What is your least favorite part of filling out a CS? What about your most favorite? I'm interested to see what you guys come up with.

Obviously my least favorite part of a character sheet is the time it takes to fill one out. I tend to be very slow and meticulous when filling out my my CS, often taking upwards of an hour (longer if I don't already have a working idea in my head). Part of this is finding the perfect picture(s), and we all know how often we find exactly what we imagined. Then again, I also suck at search for face claims. In terms of things found on the CS itself, I'm going to say the likes and dislikes sections. For me they usually feel like something forced in to make the character sheet feel longer. The information given in these sections can often be picked up in the personality and/or bio sections.

My most favorite is usually the bio. There are certainly cases when the bio is not necessary and even counter productive, but those are few and far between. The bio section forces people to really think about their character and the major events in their life that drove them to where they are now. As a consequence, their personality is also reveal to an extent. I personally tend to spend far too long on my bios, reaching an average of five paragraphs. I usually expect one or two paragraphs from my applicants.

Anyway, what about you guys? What do you like and dislike about character sheets and why?

Honestly, I've never had a problem with face claims. Of course, I tend to create characters based on pictures, instead of trying to find a picture that matches. Makes the process far easier.

Personally, the worst part is making the bio in a largely undefined world, cause you have to make it ambiguous as hell, and it just makes it all really annoying.

The best part personally is the face claim, mainly because I tend to try and base my vharacter off of cool pictures, rather than make a character then try and find a picture that matches. The latter method is a sure way to give yourself a headache.

The only time things such as bio matter, is if the GM is going to painstakingly read and incorporate everything within these bios into the rp.

Shit, how do you already know my GM style?

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

Shit, how do you already know my GM style?

Because. The.

Great minds think alike? :3

 

[Idea]

So at first I thought this was about actual CS segments, then I saw you commenting about CS making generally and then everyone else went into segments, so I guess I'll try doing both. However, I've seen some of my likes attacked here (and by attacked please don't take it to mean like it personally offended me, it was just criticism that I felt was unjustified) so the following is a list of several CS aspects and why I use them or not AKA why I like them or not.
Now, a couple things before we begin. First, of course, certain parts of the CS will vary in usefulness depending on the roleplay. In addition to this, I am already a pretty planning RPer , meaning I like things with detail, a solid base and forethought. I am to make roleplays that are worth my time, not waste scavenging for vague traces of fun blindly. I am not trying to put down anyone when I say this, but simply pointing out and justifying my own viewpoint as of course everything I say from here on out will assume that viewpoint.
Lastly, while I do consider a lot of things useful, being useful and being essential are different matters. It's not impossible to roleplay with a complete blank slate even, but adding layers makes it a more solid character for all purposes in the roleplay. And some things you may want to hide, which is why I developed the secret system I use in my roleplay: certain parts of the CS can be PMed to the Gm instead of written in the actual CS, allowing you to hide them while still making sure they are valid.

Oh and one last thing, I am of course also assuming that whoever is filling the CS is taking it like they should. So if they put something in likes for example, it's not just "the character midly approves of it", but "the character absolutely loves this".

Like and useful: I tend to use these by default in my CSs. I like them and find them rather useful as Gm and as a player

Name: I don't think this one needs much of an intro. Naming things is rather important as is knowing their name, as you need to call them SOMETHING. But often this can just be replaced with knowing a character's nicknames/titles.

Nickname/Title/Rank: I label these all together because they are all basically alternative names with little effect unless that is part of the world. But they do often give a strong feeling of the kind of position the player is going for., and what kind of things they want players focused on.

Age: Chronological position, relationships based on age differences like siblings or parenthood, expectable mentality or stats, symptoms of difference races etc... age plays a big roll in many aspects of a character and is just one of those traits that always has to appear in a CS.

appearant age: Some characters may appear way younger or older and this may not be easily conveyed sometimes via images or even just via description. So having a separate section from it may help players who want to do it express this idea more easily, provided yours is the kind of roleplay where this could happen.


Wealth: This can provide interesting character dynamics and can help know whether you are on the streets or can call down a helicopter with a phone call.

Species: In particular in fantasy or scifi, but sometimes also in animal roleplays, species comes up and it's incredibly pratical to know, as it can give you quite the insight into just about every aspect of character from anatomy to powers, culture and so on...

Gender: It's important. I'd say more but I'm afraid I mgiht trigger someoone

appearance: Having visual aids is amazing to help get immersed with the idea of interacting with a character, and it is also useful to sometimes just know how something looks to incorporate it in your post

Height: Sizes are things people have some awareness of and that can help understand whether a character would be capable of say, take the cookie jar in the last shelf. It also serve as great point of comparison and character interaction

Personality: Character personality. Defines your behavior, thought process and even some skills as a character. It's the basis for dialogue, action and everytthing else. Because your character's personality IS the character. The same character, change only the personality and they will be completely different. So making it up as you go seems to me like a pretty irresponsible thing to do, especially when character change is so important. Your character can't grow if they didn't exist before. And character contradictions and 180s are things I see happening for purely being convenient in virtually every roleplay I've done where the person didn't have to write a personality. Yes, writing a full complex personality is not easy, but it's not required either. But if you don't at least have the ability to put the character idea in general into words then you probably only have a very vague concept. You essentially don't have a character.

Likes/Dislikes: Likes and dislikes adds some much needed complexity to a character making them more three-dimensional by adding somehting that is independent from the usual personality: tastes. Tastes also help out a lot in finding out how to interact with a particular character or what actions they might take before certain choices.

Fears: Fears are IMPORTANT. Nobody has no fears and they are one of the best ways to humanize a character or to disable them with having too come up with some hocus pocus out of your ass.

Relationships: these for one encourage players to discuss their characters and possibly become more invested in the roleplay or even form new ffriendships by way or intermingling their characters in some way, but is also just a super fun thing to do.

Backstory: As people have said before in here, backstories justify who the character is and how they came to be this way. But there is one more MAJOR reason why backstories should be made beforehand: They are part of the cannon. If your character comes from a ninja village, and later in the plot we learn ninjas ave been extinct for ages suddenly your backstory contradicts the plot. Your character is an impossible anomaly bcause you had to go and make it up later or hide it.

Powers/abilities: Again, knwoing what can or can't be done is very important as it provides a general guideline for what situations to put the character in and help the plot being shaped organically instead of having to force you to sit back. Since both your character instantly solving every problem and your character getting knocked out ruin the experience, it just changes for whom it ruins the experience.

Skills/Talents: Similar to the powers/abilities

Items: By this I don't mean listing everything your character owns down to the toilet sink. I mean just knowing what your character carries around, again, to know what they would or not be cpabale of doing.

Pets: if your character regularly has a pet near them, that's basically a whole other character to deal with, the very least that can be done is letting me know they exist.

Lightly Interesting: I'm not gonna develop much on these since I'm basically neutral about them, but unless the roleplay actually calls for it being treated differently, I usually go for making these optional.
Clothes
Mannerisms
Quotes
favorites
Theme songs


Don't like- either shouldn't exist at all or belong someowhere else.

Country: Knowing what country a character is is often more restrcited than useful. There is hardly a non-xenphobic way of going about dealing with the specific country. At best it's nice to know they are from abroad, but that usually should come in the background or appearance...

Alignment: Alignments are a completely arbitrary and meaningless way of measuring behavior. If at least people asked for an exact description of the reasons I might get why, but then again these things belong in the personality.

Sexual Orientation: Made for the sake of relationships and boiling down to the ones you're interested in, yet everyone always seems to reply "whatevs" by adding somehting like "pansexual" which I doubt they even know what means. So utterly pointless.

Weight: I dare you to go the street outside right now and guess the weight of the people that pass. Seeing as to how 999/1000 you will be wrong, now try guessing exactly how you would feel, look or act like if you were 10 grams fatter. You probably can't either. Now, seeing how the real you can't tell the actual difference between weights how are we suppose to make it meaningful for fictional characters in fictional worlds which often operate under different physical laws than ours?

Strengths/Flaws/Weaknesses: these should be split. Don't treat character flaws the same way as weaknesses. you risk having characters with only one kind or characters that smply don't have enough of any. Instead the personality should be balanced and the power should as well.

Writing Sample: Have you ever had one of those tests in which you scored either really well or really bad but you know it was a fluke? Well, imagine having to turn up one of those every time you want to see TV, and for all you know, the person on the other side judging you doesn't even have the competence to understand basic writing, yet feels entitled to putting themselves above you in those erms and judge you based on 1 random piece that definitely can't represent the whole you, not the consistent you at least. This is what writing samples are. The whole idea is flawed and rotten to the core. it doesn't select better writers, it selects better conman.

Colors: I'm referring to eye color, hair color, etc... Those should be clear with your appearance already. Why do I have to keep repeating information?

Universe/Fandom: I just despise multifandoms in general, they are an abomination to the world builder and combat roleplayer inside.


Now, you may have read some of these and thought "Hey, wait a minute, isn't it better if I just show this in my roleplay?" (as someone said "like a normal person", which I can't stop laughing about). Well, no. Not unless you've won some kind of writing nobel prize, you can't assume you are so good you can keep all the fundamentals of your character in mind as you write them unless you develop the alternative problem of being overly obsessed with them. This is double true for people who don't have fixed OCs, but which make them for each roleplay like I do. Experience tells me that the majority of roleplayers vastly overestimates their writing ability, probably myself included. You don't have the magical talent for improvising you may think you have. And if you want proof of that, then look at the fact that to keep an element of surprise or out of sheer laziness you are trying to resort to just not wrtiing the thing. You are ignoring the basic rules of foreshadowing and setting yourself up for a parade of asspulls. Because once you ARE roleplaying, the windows are going to blows on both the tents and the building. The tents will be sent flying. If you don't force yourself to be grounded odds are you will not stay consistent. And when that happens comes ALL the classic roleplaying problems. Powerplaying, metagaming, godmodding, plot-breaking, deus ex machina, overly involved but dramatic backstories gary stus and mary sues... Every last one of them can be largely avoided with a solid character base you follow through. You will not be making ex machinas if we already know what you can do. You are not making a mary sue if we've already corrected your personality.and most of the others are hugely reduced by just having a good, concrete idea of who a character is and what they can or not do.



Final Note: I want to apologize for all typos, sassyness, rude wordss and ramblings here, I have a massive headache and am really tired, but I didn't want to do this in the morning, but I still wanted to post here... So enjoy and apologies for those issues...

 

[Idea]

Obviously my least favorite part of a character sheet is the time it takes to fill one out. I tend to be very slow and meticulous when filling out my my CS, often taking upwards of an hour (longer if I don't already have a working idea in my head). Part of this is finding the perfect picture(s), and we all know how often we find exactly what we imagined.

Oh, also this. Only with me it's more like 3 days

 

[Count Gensokyo]

So at first I thought this was about actual CS segments, then I saw you commenting about CS making generally and then everyone else went into segments, so I guess I'll try doing both. However, I've seen some of my likes attacked here (and by attacked please don't take it to mean like it personally offended me, it was just criticism that I felt was unjustified) so the following is a list of several CS aspects and why I use them or not AKA why I like them or not.
Now, a couple things before we begin. First, of course, certain parts of the CS will vary in usefulness depending on the roleplay. In addition to this, I am already a pretty planning RPer , meaning I like things with detail, a solid base and forethought. I am to make roleplays that are worth my time, not waste scavenging for vague traces of fun blindly. I am not trying to put down anyone when I say this, but simply pointing out and justifying my own viewpoint as of course everything I say from here on out will assume that viewpoint.
Lastly, while I do consider a lot of things useful, being useful and being essential are different matters. It's not impossible to roleplay with a complete blank slate even, but adding layers makes it a more solid character for all purposes in the roleplay. And some things you may want to hide, which is why I developed the secret system I use in my roleplay: certain parts of the CS can be PMed to the Gm instead of written in the actual CS, allowing you to hide them while still making sure they are valid.

Oh and one last thing, I am of course also assuming that whoever is filling the CS is taking it like they should. So if they put something in likes for example, it's not just "the character midly approves of it", but "the character absolutely loves this".

Like and useful: I tend to use these by default in my CSs. I like them and find them rather useful as Gm and as a player

Name: I don't think this one needs much of an intro. Naming things is rather important as is knowing their name, as you need to call them SOMETHING. But often this can just be replaced with knowing a character's nicknames/titles.

Nickname/Title/Rank: I label these all together because they are all basically alternative names with little effect unless that is part of the world. But they do often give a strong feeling of the kind of position the player is going for., and what kind of things they want players focused on.

Age: Chronological position, relationships based on age differences like siblings or parenthood, expectable mentality or stats, symptoms of difference races etc... age plays a big roll in many aspects of a character and is just one of those traits that always has to appear in a CS.

appearant age: Some characters may appear way younger or older and this may not be easily conveyed sometimes via images or even just via description. So having a separate section from it may help players who want to do it express this idea more easily, provided yours is the kind of roleplay where this could happen.


Wealth: This can provide interesting character dynamics and can help know whether you are on the streets or can call down a helicopter with a phone call.

Species: In particular in fantasy or scifi, but sometimes also in animal roleplays, species comes up and it's incredibly pratical to know, as it can give you quite the insight into just about every aspect of character from anatomy to powers, culture and so on...

Gender: It's important. I'd say more but I'm afraid I mgiht trigger someoone

appearance: Having visual aids is amazing to help get immersed with the idea of interacting with a character, and it is also useful to sometimes just know how something looks to incorporate it in your post

Height: Sizes are things people have some awareness of and that can help understand whether a character would be capable of say, take the cookie jar in the last shelf. It also serve as great point of comparison and character interaction

Personality: Character personality. Defines your behavior, thought process and even some skills as a character. It's the basis for dialogue, action and everytthing else. Because your character's personality IS the character. The same character, change only the personality and they will be completely different. So making it up as you go seems to me like a pretty irresponsible thing to do, especially when character change is so important. Your character can't grow if they didn't exist before. And character contradictions and 180s are things I see happening for purely being convenient in virtually every roleplay I've done where the person didn't have to write a personality. Yes, writing a full complex personality is not easy, but it's not required either. But if you don't at least have the ability to put the character idea in general into words then you probably only have a very vague concept. You essentially don't have a character.

Likes/Dislikes: Likes and dislikes adds some much needed complexity to a character making them more three-dimensional by adding somehting that is independent from the usual personality: tastes. Tastes also help out a lot in finding out how to interact with a particular character or what actions they might take before certain choices.

Fears: Fears are IMPORTANT. Nobody has no fears and they are one of the best ways to humanize a character or to disable them with having too come up with some hocus pocus out of your ass.

Relationships: these for one encourage players to discuss their characters and possibly become more invested in the roleplay or even form new ffriendships by way or intermingling their characters in some way, but is also just a super fun thing to do.

Backstory: As people have said before in here, backstories justify who the character is and how they came to be this way. But there is one more MAJOR reason why backstories should be made beforehand: They are part of the cannon. If your character comes from a ninja village, and later in the plot we learn ninjas ave been extinct for ages suddenly your backstory contradicts the plot. Your character is an impossible anomaly bcause you had to go and make it up later or hide it.

Powers/abilities: Again, knwoing what can or can't be done is very important as it provides a general guideline for what situations to put the character in and help the plot being shaped organically instead of having to force you to sit back. Since both your character instantly solving every problem and your character getting knocked out ruin the experience, it just changes for whom it ruins the experience.

Skills/Talents: Similar to the powers/abilities

Items: By this I don't mean listing everything your character owns down to the toilet sink. I mean just knowing what your character carries around, again, to know what they would or not be cpabale of doing.

Pets: if your character regularly has a pet near them, that's basically a whole other character to deal with, the very least that can be done is letting me know they exist.

Lightly Interesting: I'm not gonna develop much on these since I'm basically neutral about them, but unless the roleplay actually calls for it being treated differently, I usually go for making these optional.
Clothes
Mannerisms
Quotes
favorites
Theme songs


Don't like- either shouldn't exist at all or belong someowhere else.

Country: Knowing what country a character is is often more restrcited than useful. There is hardly a non-xenphobic way of going about dealing with the specific country. At best it's nice to know they are from abroad, but that usually should come in the background or appearance...

Alignment: Alignments are a completely arbitrary and meaningless way of measuring behavior. If at least people asked for an exact description of the reasons I might get why, but then again these things belong in the personality.

Sexual Orientation: Made for the sake of relationships and boiling down to the ones you're interested in, yet everyone always seems to reply "whatevs" by adding somehting like "pansexual" which I doubt they even know what means. So utterly pointless.

Weight: I dare you to go the street outside right now and guess the weight of the people that pass. Seeing as to how 999/1000 you will be wrong, now try guessing exactly how you would feel, look or act like if you were 10 grams fatter. You probably can't either. Now, seeing how the real you can't tell the actual difference between weights how are we suppose to make it meaningful for fictional characters in fictional worlds which often operate under different physical laws than ours?

Strengths/Flaws/Weaknesses: these should be split. Don't treat character flaws the same way as weaknesses. you risk having characters with only one kind or characters that smply don't have enough of any. Instead the personality should be balanced and the power should as well.

Writing Sample: Have you ever had one of those tests in which you scored either really well or really bad but you know it was a fluke? Well, imagine having to turn up one of those every time you want to see TV, and for all you know, the person on the other side judging you doesn't even have the competence to understand basic writing, yet feels entitled to putting themselves above you in those erms and judge you based on 1 random piece that definitely can't represent the whole you, not the consistent you at least. This is what writing samples are. The whole idea is flawed and rotten to the core. it doesn't select better writers, it selects better conman.

Colors: I'm referring to eye color, hair color, etc... Those should be clear with your appearance already. Why do I have to keep repeating information?

Universe/Fandom: I just despise multifandoms in general, they are an abomination to the world builder and combat roleplayer inside.


Now, you may have read some of these and thought "Hey, wait a minute, isn't it better if I just show this in my roleplay?" (as someone said "like a normal person", which I can't stop laughing about). Well, no. Not unless you've won some kind of writing nobel prize, you can't assume you are so good you can keep all the fundamentals of your character in mind as you write them unless you develop the alternative problem of being overly obsessed with them. This is double true for people who don't have fixed OCs, but which make them for each roleplay like I do. Experience tells me that the majority of roleplayers vastly overestimates their writing ability, probably myself included. You don't have the magical talent for improvising you may think you have. And if you want proof of that, then look at the fact that to keep an element of surprise or out of sheer laziness you are trying to resort to just not wrtiing the thing. You are ignoring the basic rules of foreshadowing and setting yourself up for a parade of asspulls. Because once you ARE roleplaying, the windows are going to blows on both the tents and the building. The tents will be sent flying. If you don't force yourself to be grounded odds are you will not stay consistent. And when that happens comes ALL the classic roleplaying problems. Powerplaying, metagaming, godmodding, plot-breaking, deus ex machina, overly involved but dramatic backstories gary stus and mary sues... Every last one of them can be largely avoided with a solid character base you follow through. You will not be making ex machinas if we already know what you can do. You are not making a mary sue if we've already corrected your personality.and most of the others are hugely reduced by just having a good, concrete idea of who a character is and what they can or not do.



Final Note: I want to apologize for all typos, sassyness, rude wordss and ramblings here, I have a massive headache and am really tired, but I didn't want to do this in the morning, but I still wanted to post here... So enjoy and apologies for those issues...

Wew lad

 

[The Silent Z]

Most times the answer is the same for me. Pends on the character however and how easily or difficult they are to get ideas for with background and proper history. Also leads to ease, fun writing or that which seems like a task rather then a creative enjoyment. I also tend to suck with names, rarely do I feel happy with the name I went with or am leaning toward. (In some cases with races such as aliens like Asari or Quarian or fantasy races like elves and dwarves, I try to find a accurate to race name. Which increases my problems with name selection)

But really with me it varies from character to character because some flow nicely and come easy for you. While others you can find difficulty in cementing down proper character traits or backgrounds or whatever the issue might relate and pertain to for said CS.

Also finding a balance between OP and Pathetic for certain universes can be a chore as well. Some compell you to enhance certain traits or else die early and perhaps in some, you just won't enjoy being the laughing stock character of the Rp because you tried to use reason and be non anime/movie level with how powerful or knowledgeable your character is and others have other versions of what's fine. (So dying early or else live yet don't enjoy is your choice in cases of some Rp universes.) not saying that is common for me in recent year, but has happened here and there as it has for any Rper who's been around long enough.

I haven't experienced such issues like ones concerning power level and such in quite some time luckily. Or least not to the point I recognize it in the same light because I've seen worse. But mostly such issues are rare now for me, but here's my opinion on the matter. .... ramble over.

 

[Shog]

So at first I thought this was about actual CS segments, then I saw you commenting about CS making generally and then everyone else went into segments, so I guess I'll try doing both. However, I've seen some of my likes attacked here (and by attacked please don't take it to mean like it personally offended me, it was just criticism that I felt was unjustified) so the following is a list of several CS aspects and why I use them or not AKA why I like them or not.
Now, a couple things before we begin. First, of course, certain parts of the CS will vary in usefulness depending on the roleplay. In addition to this, I am already a pretty planning RPer , meaning I like things with detail, a solid base and forethought. I am to make roleplays that are worth my time, not waste scavenging for vague traces of fun blindly. I am not trying to put down anyone when I say this, but simply pointing out and justifying my own viewpoint as of course everything I say from here on out will assume that viewpoint.
Lastly, while I do consider a lot of things useful, being useful and being essential are different matters. It's not impossible to roleplay with a complete blank slate even, but adding layers makes it a more solid character for all purposes in the roleplay. And some things you may want to hide, which is why I developed the secret system I use in my roleplay: certain parts of the CS can be PMed to the Gm instead of written in the actual CS, allowing you to hide them while still making sure they are valid.

Oh and one last thing, I am of course also assuming that whoever is filling the CS is taking it like they should. So if they put something in likes for example, it's not just "the character midly approves of it", but "the character absolutely loves this".

Like and useful: I tend to use these by default in my CSs. I like them and find them rather useful as Gm and as a player

Name: I don't think this one needs much of an intro. Naming things is rather important as is knowing their name, as you need to call them SOMETHING. But often this can just be replaced with knowing a character's nicknames/titles.

Nickname/Title/Rank: I label these all together because they are all basically alternative names with little effect unless that is part of the world. But they do often give a strong feeling of the kind of position the player is going for., and what kind of things they want players focused on.

Age: Chronological position, relationships based on age differences like siblings or parenthood, expectable mentality or stats, symptoms of difference races etc... age plays a big roll in many aspects of a character and is just one of those traits that always has to appear in a CS.

appearant age: Some characters may appear way younger or older and this may not be easily conveyed sometimes via images or even just via description. So having a separate section from it may help players who want to do it express this idea more easily, provided yours is the kind of roleplay where this could happen.


Wealth: This can provide interesting character dynamics and can help know whether you are on the streets or can call down a helicopter with a phone call.

Species: In particular in fantasy or scifi, but sometimes also in animal roleplays, species comes up and it's incredibly pratical to know, as it can give you quite the insight into just about every aspect of character from anatomy to powers, culture and so on...

Gender: It's important. I'd say more but I'm afraid I mgiht trigger someoone

appearance: Having visual aids is amazing to help get immersed with the idea of interacting with a character, and it is also useful to sometimes just know how something looks to incorporate it in your post

Height: Sizes are things people have some awareness of and that can help understand whether a character would be capable of say, take the cookie jar in the last shelf. It also serve as great point of comparison and character interaction

Personality: Character personality. Defines your behavior, thought process and even some skills as a character. It's the basis for dialogue, action and everytthing else. Because your character's personality IS the character. The same character, change only the personality and they will be completely different. So making it up as you go seems to me like a pretty irresponsible thing to do, especially when character change is so important. Your character can't grow if they didn't exist before. And character contradictions and 180s are things I see happening for purely being convenient in virtually every roleplay I've done where the person didn't have to write a personality. Yes, writing a full complex personality is not easy, but it's not required either. But if you don't at least have the ability to put the character idea in general into words then you probably only have a very vague concept. You essentially don't have a character.

Likes/Dislikes: Likes and dislikes adds some much needed complexity to a character making them more three-dimensional by adding somehting that is independent from the usual personality: tastes. Tastes also help out a lot in finding out how to interact with a particular character or what actions they might take before certain choices.

Fears: Fears are IMPORTANT. Nobody has no fears and they are one of the best ways to humanize a character or to disable them with having too come up with some hocus pocus out of your ass.

Relationships: these for one encourage players to discuss their characters and possibly become more invested in the roleplay or even form new ffriendships by way or intermingling their characters in some way, but is also just a super fun thing to do.

Backstory: As people have said before in here, backstories justify who the character is and how they came to be this way. But there is one more MAJOR reason why backstories should be made beforehand: They are part of the cannon. If your character comes from a ninja village, and later in the plot we learn ninjas ave been extinct for ages suddenly your backstory contradicts the plot. Your character is an impossible anomaly bcause you had to go and make it up later or hide it.

Powers/abilities: Again, knwoing what can or can't be done is very important as it provides a general guideline for what situations to put the character in and help the plot being shaped organically instead of having to force you to sit back. Since both your character instantly solving every problem and your character getting knocked out ruin the experience, it just changes for whom it ruins the experience.

Skills/Talents: Similar to the powers/abilities

Items: By this I don't mean listing everything your character owns down to the toilet sink. I mean just knowing what your character carries around, again, to know what they would or not be cpabale of doing.

Pets: if your character regularly has a pet near them, that's basically a whole other character to deal with, the very least that can be done is letting me know they exist.

Lightly Interesting: I'm not gonna develop much on these since I'm basically neutral about them, but unless the roleplay actually calls for it being treated differently, I usually go for making these optional.
Clothes
Mannerisms
Quotes
favorites
Theme songs


Don't like- either shouldn't exist at all or belong someowhere else.

Country: Knowing what country a character is is often more restrcited than useful. There is hardly a non-xenphobic way of going about dealing with the specific country. At best it's nice to know they are from abroad, but that usually should come in the background or appearance...

Alignment: Alignments are a completely arbitrary and meaningless way of measuring behavior. If at least people asked for an exact description of the reasons I might get why, but then again these things belong in the personality.

Sexual Orientation: Made for the sake of relationships and boiling down to the ones you're interested in, yet everyone always seems to reply "whatevs" by adding somehting like "pansexual" which I doubt they even know what means. So utterly pointless.

Weight: I dare you to go the street outside right now and guess the weight of the people that pass. Seeing as to how 999/1000 you will be wrong, now try guessing exactly how you would feel, look or act like if you were 10 grams fatter. You probably can't either. Now, seeing how the real you can't tell the actual difference between weights how are we suppose to make it meaningful for fictional characters in fictional worlds which often operate under different physical laws than ours?

Strengths/Flaws/Weaknesses: these should be split. Don't treat character flaws the same way as weaknesses. you risk having characters with only one kind or characters that smply don't have enough of any. Instead the personality should be balanced and the power should as well.

Writing Sample: Have you ever had one of those tests in which you scored either really well or really bad but you know it was a fluke? Well, imagine having to turn up one of those every time you want to see TV, and for all you know, the person on the other side judging you doesn't even have the competence to understand basic writing, yet feels entitled to putting themselves above you in those erms and judge you based on 1 random piece that definitely can't represent the whole you, not the consistent you at least. This is what writing samples are. The whole idea is flawed and rotten to the core. it doesn't select better writers, it selects better conman.

Colors: I'm referring to eye color, hair color, etc... Those should be clear with your appearance already. Why do I have to keep repeating information?

Universe/Fandom: I just despise multifandoms in general, they are an abomination to the world builder and combat roleplayer inside.


Now, you may have read some of these and thought "Hey, wait a minute, isn't it better if I just show this in my roleplay?" (as someone said "like a normal person", which I can't stop laughing about). Well, no. Not unless you've won some kind of writing nobel prize, you can't assume you are so good you can keep all the fundamentals of your character in mind as you write them unless you develop the alternative problem of being overly obsessed with them. This is double true for people who don't have fixed OCs, but which make them for each roleplay like I do. Experience tells me that the majority of roleplayers vastly overestimates their writing ability, probably myself included. You don't have the magical talent for improvising you may think you have. And if you want proof of that, then look at the fact that to keep an element of surprise or out of sheer laziness you are trying to resort to just not wrtiing the thing. You are ignoring the basic rules of foreshadowing and setting yourself up for a parade of asspulls. Because once you ARE roleplaying, the windows are going to blows on both the tents and the building. The tents will be sent flying. If you don't force yourself to be grounded odds are you will not stay consistent. And when that happens comes ALL the classic roleplaying problems. Powerplaying, metagaming, godmodding, plot-breaking, deus ex machina, overly involved but dramatic backstories gary stus and mary sues... Every last one of them can be largely avoided with a solid character base you follow through. You will not be making ex machinas if we already know what you can do. You are not making a mary sue if we've already corrected your personality.and most of the others are hugely reduced by just having a good, concrete idea of who a character is and what they can or not do.



Final Note: I want to apologize for all typos, sassyness, rude wordss and ramblings here, I have a massive headache and am really tired, but I didn't want to do this in the morning, but I still wanted to post here... So enjoy and apologies for those issues...

I agree with most of that. I omit most of what you said for most of my RPs (for example your apparent age will match your actual age in the vast majority of cases), but I never tell someone to remove a section if they find it helpful (if their apparent age does not match their actual age, for example). You are also one of my new favorite people! I loath the idea of multi-fandom role plays with a fiery passion! i'd explain why, but you do perfectly. That last paragraph was also one of the most beautiful thing's I have ever read. Well done! *insert clapping emoticon*

Sometimes it's fine to just go with the flow and meet people's expectations. The lesser barriers to entry you have, the better it is for your players. If having a bio has any sort of effect on how people percieve the sheet itself, I'd put it in everytime. But yay someone else who can see the merit in this approach.


I would agree on the last point, that everything could be summed in the bio. It's quite jarring to see people list what their character can do(let's say naruto fireball jutsu),but no where in their bio do they explain the intricacies of how their character struggled and trained to use said fireball jutsu. It's like if you're gonna list a power, which is central to how you defend yourself. Then why haven't you written about their learning of said style in the bio? This same stuff applies to everything else as well.

I'm just going to start off by saying that I generally do not participate in role plays where 4-5 paragraphs is necessary. Perhaps I'm just less "elite" than you (that was not meant to be offensive and I apologize if it was), but I don't have the time for that most days. Plus I tend to participate in very fast paced RPs, so adding that many paragraphs ends up with a fair amount of filler. Just understand that this is the mindset I will have as I progress.

Starting with your first point, I get what your'e saying, but at that point isn't it better to just ask the GM for clarification? If you feel as though your'e missing the information required for a good CS then why not ask for help? This can end up helping everyone making a character, save you from taking a risk, and help solidify the RP as a whole by filling in blanks. Sometimes I intentionally leave aspects of the world ambiguous to allow players to create just about any character they want and help define the world that way.

I just blatantly disagree with your second point. At no point should you feel boxed in by defining your character. Like I said, a CS is just a skeleton. A place to start your thought process. I've never seen someone be scolded my fellow role players for not following their CS to a T. Characters are allowed to change just like people. If they aren't allowed to do that they they're two dimensional at best and boring to play.

You're absolutely right. That is a perfect example of a horrible GM. Maybe I've been that person before, but I hope not. There's always going to be bad GMs out there and they tend to be exceptions to the rule, not the rule itself. If I find those then I politely inform them over PM that I will be retracting from the RP and detail why. This will hopefully lead them to do better in the future.

Using your Naruto example, that's what I'd expect from my applicants. Of course I don't expect them to detail their life from birth to current (though that's roughly what I do) if they learn a defining technique/power/spell/etc. Then I expect learning said skill and the important events leading up to it to be at least mentioned. I admit I'm a bit lazy in this regard, but only when I know people are waiting for me to post the CS (I refuse to post the CS until mine is complete so hopefully some questions can sort themselves out by example).

Still, in the end it's all personal preference. I can definitely see where you're coming from.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

m just going to start off by saying that I generally do not participate in role plays where 4-5 paragraphs is necessary. Perhaps I'm just less "elite" than you (that was not meant to be offensive and I apologize if it was), but I don't have the time for that most days. Plus I tend to participate in very fast paced RPs, so adding that many paragraphs ends up with a fair amount of filler. Just understand that this is the mindset I will have as I progress.

I just have standards. If the gm expects me to comply and make a good character sheet, then they need to create a good world for me to create my character. It's a reciprocal relationship. However I don't know where you got 4-5 paragraph posts from or this idea that I'm elite. My posts, are barely 2 paragraphs on average. When they're longer it's because my players gave me a ton to work with lol. And time isn't a valid point either. If you expect 5 paragraphs from my bio, then I expect 10 from your exposition thread at the minimum.

Starting with your first point, I get what your'e saying, but at that point isn't it better to just ask the GM for clarification? If you feel as though your'e missing the information required for a good CS then why not ask for help? This can end up helping everyone making a character, save you from taking a risk, and help solidify the RP as a whole by filling in blanks. Sometimes I intentionally leave aspects of the world ambiguous to allow players to create just about any character they want and help define the world that way.

I am a very open and straight forward guy. GM's tend to get annoyed with me because my standards for the rp are higher than theirs. However this doesn't change the fact that if you expect effort from me, that I expect effort from you.

I just blatantly disagree with your second point. At no point should you feel boxed in by defining your character. Like I said, a CS is just a skeleton. A place to start your thought process. I've never seen someone be scolded my fellow role players for not following their CS to a T. Characters are allowed to change just like people. If they aren't allowed to do that they they're two dimensional at best and boring to play.

Then why is it so important if it's just a skeleton? By that logic I can simply forego personality and do what I've advocated, focus on the rp and less on my sheet. Unfortunately when you read the pet peeve thread, there was a time when people got annoyed with people who were not following their cs to the T. It's a thing that happens or rather, can happen if even if you don't personally box people in their descriptions on the sheet.

You're absolutely right. That is a perfect example of a horrible GM. Maybe I've been that person before, but I hope not. There's always going to be bad GMs out there and they tend to be exceptions to the rule, not the rule itself. If I find those then I politely inform them over PM that I will be retracting from the RP and detail why. This will hopefully lead them to do better in the future.

Well I don't really join roleplays anymore,but this tends to happen with casual and dedicated gm's. Casuals don't bother asking for anything and more detail orientated gm's tend to care more about their vision than your history. Despite having standards. It's happened a few times,but this is all just anecdotal evidence. I'm responding from the place of a gm who strives to not make the same mistakes as my previous gms.

sing your Naruto example, that's what I'd expect from my applicants. Of course I don't expect them to detail their life from birth to current (though that's roughly what I do) if they learn a defining technique/power/spell/etc. Then I expect learning said skill and the important events leading up to it to be at least mentioned. I admit I'm a bit lazy in this regard, but only when I know people are waiting for me to post the CS (I refuse to post the CS until mine is complete so hopefully some questions can sort themselves out by example).

Same, when I ask for a bio. It's just important events. Like luffy being saved by shanks. It's just one event that shaped his entire life from there on.

till, in the end it's all personal preference. I can definitely see where you're coming from.

Just responding is all. I'm confident in my own ways and apologetically so. You won't get any sort of concession from me,but I do enjoy these types of discussions. However if you couldn't tell, we differ vastly in how we approach roleplay. I'm serious about my roleplays though. The one thing I can't stand is a half assed idea with no direction or drive. People who want to do those types of rp's are free to do so,but when I rp, it has to be taken seriously.

Because otherwise, why would I waste time with your roleplay when I can be watching anime and scratching my ass lazily during my free time?

 

[Count Gensokyo]

What's the deal with the stigma against multi-fandoms? I genuinely enjoy them if they're not inherently cringe-worthy (which can be said of any rp genre, really); in fact, they're my go-to because I have the most fun in them. Some of my best rp experiences have come from the varied interactions I've seen in these setups.

Universe/Fandom: I just despise multifandoms in general, they are an abomination to the world builder and combat roleplayer inside.

World building I understand, but combat? Please elaborate on that one. Even with canonical power-levels kept intact, I've still had fun writing combat posts when said fights have story purposes behind them. I don't see how poorly made combat posts in a multi-fandom setting can be any worse than poorly made combat posts in an original or singular fandom setting.

 

[Shog]

What's the deal with the stigma against multi-fandoms? I genuinely enjoy them if they're not inherently cringe-worthy (which can be said of any rp genre, really); in fact, they're my go-to because I have the most fun in them. Some of my best rp experiences have come from the varied interactions I've seen in these setups.

For me personally it boils down to how the laws of one universe almost always violate the laws of another. I just enjoy my randoms separate. Think of one fandom as chocolate ice cream and another vanilla. Separately they have distinct flavors, but mixed together each is diluted into a more "meh" where one often takes becomes stronger. They just feel better separate in my opinion.

I just have standards. If the gm expects me to comply and make a good character sheet, then they need to create a good world for me to create my character. It's a reciprocal relationship. However I don't know where you got 4-5 paragraph posts from or this idea that I'm elite. My posts, are barely 2 paragraphs on average. When they're longer it's because my players gave me a ton to work with lol. And time isn't a valid point either. If you expect 5 paragraphs from my bio, then I expect 10 from your exposition thread at the minimum.


I am a very open and straight forward guy. GM's tend to get annoyed with me because my standards for the rp are higher than theirs. However this doesn't change the fact that if you expect effort from me, that I expect effort from you.


Then why is it so important if it's just a skeleton? By that logic I can simply forego personality and do what I've advocated, focus on the rp and less on my sheet. Unfortunately when you read the pet peeve thread, there was a time when people got annoyed with people who were not following their cs to the T. It's a thing that happens or rather, can happen if even if you don't personally box people in their descriptions on the sheet.


Well I don't really join roleplays anymore,but this tends to happen with casual and dedicated gm's. Casuals don't bother asking for anything and more detail orientated gm's tend to care more about their vision than your history. Despite having standards. It's happened a few times,but this is all just anecdotal evidence. I'm responding from the place of a gm who strives to not make the same mistakes as my previous gms.


Same, when I ask for a bio. It's just important events. Like luffy being saved by shanks. It's just one event that shaped his entire life from there on.


Just responding is all. I'm confident in my own ways and apologetically so. You won't get any sort of concession from me,but I do enjoy these types of discussions. However if you couldn't tell, we differ vastly in how we approach roleplay. I'm serious about my roleplays though. The one thing I can't stand is a half assed idea with no direction or drive. People who want to do those types of rp's are free to do so,but when I rp, it has to be taken seriously.

Because otherwise, why would I waste time with your roleplay when I can be watching anime and scratching my ass lazily during my free time?

In the post I quoted you edited into my post during your response a the character having 5-6 (not4-5, my bad) paragraphs in replies. I (incorrectly) interpreted this as your standard length. Most people who I meet with this standard for post length give me the feeling of believing they are elite, so over time I associated that post length requirement with that mind set. Logical fallacy, I know, but then so is being human. I'm also not sure what you mean by time isn't a valid point either. It's Friday night, so I'm free to discuss this freely. During the week, however, I fill my time with classes and homework. I simply do not have time to make responses of the aforementioned length with any semblance of quality. As stated I generally expect about two paragraphs of bio. The more the merrier, but I'm not going to expect it. Likewise, if you can get all essential information into one big paragraph then good you. Still, expecting a proportional length of exposition to expected bio length is not reasonable. For example, I have one to two paragraphs describing the many regions of one RP, and only minimal information in a single paragraph in a fandom RP because you're expected to have a certain background knowledge beforehand.

OK, I get that. My point still stands. Just ask for clarification to help improve your character if needed. (Just to clarify, that is a general "your" directed at anyone who reads it and not you specifically)

Agreed and glad to see you striving to be better than them.

Placeholder as it's clear there is nothing more to discuss here.

I am so sorry I came off as trying to get a confession or get you to change your ways. Just like you, I enjoy these discussions. I am, unfortunately, in a creative rut at the moment. I come up with half baked ideas that I want to use, but likewise do not want to participate until it is ready. I have, on several occasions, specifically asked for help during an interest check. This has helped me, but still others have faded to oblivion as no one (myself included) came up with anything to keep it going. Truth be told, I'm envious of you. I do not have the drive or energy to put as much energy into role playing as I used to. As mentioned earlier, my classes and homework require a large chunk of time and attention and after all's said and done I'm just tired by the time I let myself RP (most days).

 

[Crenando]

What's the deal with the stigma against multi-fandoms? I genuinely enjoy them if they're not inherently cringe-worthy (which can be said of any rp genre, really); in fact, they're my go-to because I have the most fun in them. Some of my best rp experiences have come from the varied interactions I've seen in these setups.

It's not that Multifandom is inherently bad for worldbuilding, it's just that most people just want to focus on character interactions and pre-existing lore. Most of the time, they just throw some schlock together to get to the good stuff. Here are some examples, though they aren't all from inherently bad RPs:

• Two generic god beings
• Psuedo-timelord types who fiddle with events between realities
• More generic god beings, but one of them is pressured into doing ERP by the other, making everyone incredibly uncomfortable
• Yet more generic gods, but i'm pretty sure this one got derailed by an Undertale wedding arc
• A race that can only be described tribal tattoo anime people

Like any RP, you just need the right set of people with good ideas to make it work.

For me personally it boils down to how the laws of one universe almost always violate the laws of another. I just enjoy my randoms separate. Think of one fandom as chocolate ice cream and another vanilla. Separately they have distinct flavors, but mixed together each is diluted into a more "meh" where one often takes becomes stronger. They just feel better separate in my opinion.

I feel like that can be a strong point for multifandom, though. Often, multifandom RPs don't use the differences between their settings to tell the story. If one setting basically glosses over the morals of the protagonists basically being child soldiers, people from more grounded settings wouldn't take that particularly well.
Contrast in general is just really neat in these sorts of roleplays.

 

[Nogoodname]

Favourite thing? Abilities, as someone interested in game design I always love seeing creative abilities.

Least favorite is personality, it feels like you're forced you play as whatever it is you've written and make players scared to show personality growth.

 

[Shog]

It's not that Multifandom is inherently bad for worldbuilding, it's just that most people just want to focus on character interactions and pre-existing lore. Most of the time, they just throw some schlock together to get to the good stuff. Here are some examples, though they aren't all from inherently bad RPs:

• Two generic god beings
• Psuedo-timelord types who fiddle with events between realities
• More generic god beings, but one of them is pressured into doing ERP by the other, making everyone incredibly uncomfortable
• Yet more generic gods, but i'm pretty sure this one got derailed by an Undertale wedding arc
• A race that can only be described tribal tattoo anime people

Like any RP, you just need the right set of people with good ideas to make it work.


I feel like that can be a strong point for multifandom, though. Often, multifandom RPs don't use the differences between their settings to tell the story. If one setting basically glosses over the morals of the protagonists basically being child soldiers, people from more grounded settings wouldn't take that particularly well.
Contrast in general is just really neat in these sorts of roleplays.

That may work for you and that's great. Do what makes you happy. But for me personally, it just drives me nuts. As this thread has illustrated several times now, we each like things just a bit differently.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

It's Friday night, so I'm free to discuss this freely. During the week, however, I fill my time with classes and homework. I simply do not have time to make responses of the aforementioned length with any semblance of quality. As stated I generally expect about two paragraphs of bio. The more the merrier, but I'm not going to expect it. Likewise, if you can get all essential information into one big paragraph then good you. Still, expecting a proportional length of exposition to expected bio length is not reasonable. For example, I have one to two paragraphs describing the many regions of one RP, and only minimal information in a single paragraph in a fandom RP because you're expected to have a certain background knowledge beforehand.

When people speak of time as an excuse, it's just that, an excuse. An old teacher of mine once told me: People make time for things which are important to them. If rp simply isn't important enough to make time for, then that's the end of that. However I will not ever give anyone any leg room to blame time for their rp failings. Whether that be your own mishandling of the rp or simply not having the desire to make it happen; it all falls on you as the individual not wanting to make it happen. Not wanting to make it happen at the cost of sleep or not watching game of thrones(common excuse) is perfectly fine. But excuses for bad behavior are intolerable in my books.

As mentioned earlier, my classes and homework require a large chunk of time and attention and after all's said and done I'm just tired by the time I let myself RP (most days).

I understand your frustration. I had 4 exams gank me this past week. I had to actually schedule out my studying, it was that bad. Thursdays was social psych. Friday was Child dev. Saturday was half of cog, half of bio psych. Sunday was review for social and child psych. Monday was child psych exam, into studying for social psych and cog. Tuesday was social psych exam into cognitive psych and biopsych prep. You probably get the idea, long nights, 12 hour study days and a whole lot of soda. Yet through all of this, I never once made the excuse that I was too busy. It's my escape.

but to respond to the comment about being ready. Sometimes you just have to do it. Just do it. Every rp I've ever hosted has taken twists and turns that turned it into an abomination that was completely unrecognizable from my vision. Planning too much is the downfall of rp. You just can't plan for human decision making.

 

[Shog]

When people speak of time as an excuse, it's just that, an excuse. An old teacher of mine once told me: People make time for things which are important to them. If rp simply isn't important enough to make time for, then that's the end of that. However I will not ever give anyone any leg room to blame time for their rp failings. Whether that be your own mishandling of the rp or simply not having the desire to make it happen; it all falls on you as the individual not wanting to make it happen. Not wanting to make it happen at the cost of sleep or not watching game of thrones(common excuse) is perfectly fine. But excuses for bad behavior are intolerable in my books.


I understand your frustration. I had 4 exams gank me this past week. I had to actually schedule out my studying, it was that bad. Thursdays was social psych. Friday was Child dev. Saturday was half of cog, half of bio psych. Sunday was review for social and child psych. Monday was child psych exam, into studying for social psych and cog. Tuesday was social psych exam into cognitive psych and biopsych prep. You probably get the idea, long nights, 12 hour study days and a whole lot of soda. Yet through all of this, I never once made the excuse that I was too busy. It's my escape.

but to respond to the comment about being ready. Sometimes you just have to do it. Just do it. Every rp I've ever hosted has taken twists and turns that turned it into an abomination that was completely unrecognizable from my vision. Planning too much is the downfall of rp. You just can't plan for human decision making.

Up until that post I actually liked you, but that pisses me off. I am not making an excuse. I am simply stating my shortcomings. I know I have let some people down and I accept that. It is an inherent risk in this form of entertainment. Role playing is important to me. It got me though some pretty rough patches. Still, I am willing to sacrifice some of the quality of my posts if it means spending more time working to secure my future. I've been in a similar situation pretty much nonstop since about the third week of school. Maybe your'e just better at school and life than me, but after all's said and done I am drained. It generally takes all my remaining energy to put up the posts I do as opposed to just jumping in bed. I don't watch TV and I've played maybe an hour of video games over the past week while struggling to get any of my RPs going. So yes, I do care. I just don't have the expectations you do and it is unreasonable to expect everyone to have the same as you. Long story short, this is all cause and effect. Go to sleep at 2:00 AM, wake up for class the next morning, fit in homework and studying between classes, go to dinner, continue studying until 10:00-1:00, repeat. The best I can do is squeeze in a reply somewhere in there and pretend everything's OK.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

Up until that post I actually liked you, but that pisses me off. I am not making an excuse. I am simply stating my shortcomings. I know I have let some people down and I accept that. It is an inherent risk in this form of entertainment. Role playing is important to me. It got me though some pretty rough patches. Still, I am willing to sacrifice some of the quality of my posts if it means spending more time working to secure my future. I've been in a similar situation pretty much nonstop since about the third week of school. Maybe your'e just better at school and life than me, but after all's said and done I am drained. It generally takes all my remaining energy to put up the posts I do as opposed to just jumping in bed. I don't watch TV and I've played maybe an hour of video games over the past week while struggling to get any of my RPs going. So yes, I do care. I just don't have the expectations you do and it is unreasonable to expect everyone to have the same as you. Long story short, this is all cause and effect. Go to sleep at 2:00 AM, wake up for class the next morning, fit in homework and studying between classes, go to dinner, continue studying until 10:00-1:00, repeat. The best I can do is squeeze in a reply somewhere in there and pretend everything's OK.

Good luck with your life and rp's. If you don't like me because of my principles, then oh well.