Experiences Pairings: Do's and Don't's

Jannah

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As we all know pairings, particularly in 1x1's, are pretty much a staple in the Roleplaying world. They are an easy and pre-established way to force two characters together, whether in a romantic or platonic sense. However, some get on the more bizarre, and even triggering, side. I'm not judging as we all have our preferences, but we also all have certain things we will not RP at all. That leads me to my question. What is a roleplay pairing that you will absolutely not play out? You can feel free to say why, but if that makes you uncomfortable then you do not have to.

For me it's the bully x bullied type pairings. I personally have PTSD and a whole host of other mental problems due to prolonged bullying, harassment, and verbal/emotional abuse so those sorts of pairings are actually triggering for me. For that same reason I absolutely hate when the Harry Potter fandom ships Hermione with Draco. Draco was a bully and he bullied Hermione. There is simply no way around that.
 
Teacher x Student: I am out of school. School was something I couldn't wait to get over and done with so even thinking about doing a roleplay with anything involving school I don't want to do let alone a pairing that may or may not involve romance between a teacher and student. It's uncomfortable. I've seen a lot of people, not necessarily here, put it as a favored pairing. I'm not knocking them, everyone can like what they like but I just wouldn't do it and never would want to. Just anything school related.

Master x Slave: Any type of pairing where someone has control over another person's life or there is physical and emotional abuse involved no thanks.

Love triangles: A is with C but has feelings for B so hurts C by falling head over heels for B blah blah blah. Too much drama for me.
 
So in no particular order

Homewrecker Pairings - So these are pairings like Sister x Brother's Fiance, Father x Daughter's Best Friend, etc. They are a turn off because I can never think of them as anything other than just selfishness on the part of the participants (the characters not the players). I don't know maybe I look at things too realistically, but when I see this pairing all I can see is a lot of broken family bonds and hurt feelings surrounding this lovestory.

Love Fixes Mental Illness - So this is basically something like Mental Patient x Anyone really. It is usually about how finding someone to love is magically going to make someone's mental illness go away. And no thank you hard pass. My entire family has mental illnesses and I find adding them into a roleplay in general to be anywhere from triggering to distasteful. But adding them in for the express purpose of romance just makes me feel icky.

Adult x Child - I find this to be morally repugnant and deeply upsetting.

Power Imbalance Pairings - So by this I mean Boss x Employee , Student x Teacher (where they are both legal, if not see above) , Master x Apprentice , Master x Slave* , etc. Basically any relationship where one party is in a position to control the other party in some way. I just find it to be boundary crossing in a real world sense and I can't get over the lingering ick factor for roleplays.

I should note when I say "Master x Slave" I am not talking about BDSM. I am talking about a person who literally owns another person and forces them to perform specific tasks without consent.

Crush Pairings - So if you list any portion of your pairing as "Crush" I am immediately noping out. Because that tells me I am playing a real life fantasy of yours and you're going to be very high maintenance about how it is portrayed.

Seme/Uke/Top/Bottom - This is due to the fact that in the site I was on previously these were all smut/fetish terms. So I just have a bad association with them and can't take any pairing with them seriously.
 
So in no particular order

Homewrecker Pairings - So these are pairings like Sister x Brother's Fiance, Father x Daughter's Best Friend, etc. They are a turn off because I can never think of them as anything other than just selfishness on the part of the participants (the characters not the players). I don't know maybe I look at things too realistically, but when I see this pairing all I can see is a lot of broken family bonds and hurt feelings surrounding this lovestory.

Love Fixes Mental Illness - So this is basically something like Mental Patient x Anyone really. It is usually about how finding someone to love is magically going to make someone's mental illness go away. And no thank you hard pass. My entire family has mental illnesses and I find adding them into a roleplay in general to be anywhere from triggering to distasteful. But adding them in for the express purpose of romance just makes me feel icky.

Adult x Child - I find this to be morally repugnant and deeply upsetting.

Power Imbalance Pairings - So by this I mean Boss x Employee , Student x Teacher (where they are both legal, if not see above) , Master x Apprentice , Master x Slave* , etc. Basically any relationship where one party is in a position to control the other party in some way. I just find it to be boundary crossing in a real world sense and I can't get over the lingering ick factor for roleplays.

I should note when I say "Master x Slave" I am not talking about BDSM. I am talking about a person who literally owns another person and forces them to perform specific tasks without consent.

Crush Pairings - So if you list any portion of your pairing as "Crush" I am immediately noping out. Because that tells me I am playing a real life fantasy of yours and you're going to be very high maintenance about how it is portrayed.

Seme/Uke/Top/Bottom - This is due to the fact that in the site I was on previously these were all smut/fetish terms. So I just have a bad association with them and can't take any pairing with them seriously.

Wait, people actually do adult x child pairings? Wtf?!

Also, I agree with you on most of these. The crush pairings especially.
 
Wait, people actually do adult x child pairings? Wtf?!

Also, I agree with you on most of these. The crush pairings especially.

Yeah. I mean admittedly it's usually like adult x teenager but still. They tend to fall under Homewreckers (Adult being inappropriate with child's peer group) OR it's Student x Teacher.
 
Yeah. I mean admittedly it's usually like adult x teenager but still. They tend to fall under Homewreckers (Adult being inappropriate with child's peer group) OR it's Student x Teacher.

I personally don't play out student x teacher pairings simply because it's not really within the realm of stuff I enjoy RPing, but if it's like a collage/university professor and a student then I'm less bothered by it. At least then they're both adults. High school and below it's plain icky, though, and gets into all sort of legal boundaries that a person should not be crossing.
 
I personally don't play out student x teacher pairings simply because it's not really within the realm of stuff I enjoy RPing, but if it's like a collage/university professor and a student then I'm less bothered by it. At least then they're both adults. High school and below it's plain icky, though, and gets into all sort of legal boundaries that a person should not be crossing.

Which is why I put them in two distinct categories. An Adult x Child pairing is where you pair up someone say in their twenties or older with someone who is seventeen or younger. It is a case of an adult entering a relationship with a minor.

A college professor entering a relationship with a college student would likely be two adults. But the thing is I still see it as coercive. As the student is not on equal footing with the professor just because they are both legal adults. The professor is still a person of authority, the same way your boss would be if you are in a job. There is a reason dating your boss is a bad idea and it's nothing to do with legal adulthood. It's because they are in a position of authority of you and have the ability to negatively effect your livelihood if you cross them. The same way a professor can negatively affect a students livelihood if they are crossed.

I mean I know that the fantasy of "college student x college professor" doesn't really have anything to do with real world issues of authority but it just icks me out too much for me to write about it.
 

Basically anything with teenagers and this is purely because I'm 31 years old and that is creepy. However, I understand teenagers playing teenagers, I understand teenagers RPing student teacher. As an adult you have to understand what is appropriate and curate your RPing to reflect that. I don't fault a teen RPing a classic taboo pairing like a highschooler and a teacher; but as a damn fucking adult I know not to be the one to engage in that kind of RP with a minor (or even someone my own age). Let teenagers RP their little fantasy, but as an adult stay away.

I just think adults shouldn't RP with teens period; but that's me.

All said I think I tend to just avoid things like teacher/student, patient/doctor (and anything dealing with mental illness or physical with a caretaker pairings).

Do you mean when it comes to romance ? Or do you mean when it comes to any roleplay?
As we're the exact same age but I mostly roleplay slice-of-life platonic roleplays. Where it's like
our characters run a magic farm/bookstore/restaurant. Or the characters are exploring the setting.

And I've never had any particular problem doing that with kids. But that's because I'm doing stuff that
is practically G-rated. So it's not something I'd be worried about some parent finding on their kids
computer.
 
I just think adults shouldn't RP with teens period; but that's me.

I personally don't RP with anybody under 18 if I can help it. Not because I'm getting into weird kinky fetishy stuff, but simply because I touch on dark and mature themes I'm simply not comfortable getting into with teenagers/children.
 



See this is getting into moral territory and as a real life situation I agree it is questionable. However, as a fantasy, a kink, a taboo and cliche trope, I think it's 100% fine to RP collage/uni student X professor/teacher.

But the thing is we're talking about personal preferences. I don't care what other people do. I'm not shaming them or trying to change their mind. I'm explaining why I find it distasteful. And it's precisely because I can't get over the real world implications to enjoy the fantasy.
 

rae2nerdy rae2nerdy I mean as an adult I do not RP with teenagers whatsoever.

As for the genre I just don't RP because I'm not interested in it. However there is nothing wrong with RPing it as an adult. I just think an adult shouldn't RP it with someone underage G-rated or not.

I wasn't asking what kind of genres you liked. I was mostly asking if your adult x teens issue was strictly age related or if it was tied to content. As some people might be uncomfortable with specific themes (sex, romance, gore, etc.) but fine when it comes to specific ages outside of that. And some people are more uncomfortable specifically with ages regardless of themes.

It seems your the latter if I'm reading your reply correct?
 
I wasn't asking what kind of genres you liked. I was mostly asking if your adult x teens issue was strictly age related or if it was tied to content. As some people might be uncomfortable with specific themes (sex, romance, gore, etc.) but fine when it comes to specific ages outside of that. And some people are more uncomfortable specifically with ages regardless of themes.

It seems your the latter if I'm reading your reply correct?

I think for me it depends on theme. If I was RPing something cute and fluffy then I probably wouldn't care about age. However, I rarely do cute and fluffy RP's. They just don't interest me much. I like the dark and gritty. I like to get down into the darkest recesses of what humanity is capable of because let's be honest. Humanity is awful. I do not have a high opinion of this species lol.
 
Y yanastyboi Again I'm not addressing "taboo" topics. I'm talking specifically about real life ages. So like if a twenty year old and a fourteen year old did a roleplay about unicorn farming that would still be upsetting to you.

As for "purity culture" I don't think that's age specific at all. As my grown adult ass has been chewed out for daring to not have the same preference as other people. And I'm like... listen I am a grown woman I'll roleplay whatever I want.
 

rae2nerdy rae2nerdy I mean you have to be reasonable. I can make outlandish RP plots that are G as fuck. But honestly as an adult you should just RP with adults. I think if you're into RPing unicorn farms I am sure as an adult you're in a community that is into unicorns and can find another adult to RP a unicorn farm plot; you shouldn't need to resort to RPing with a minor. The older I get the more I believe it's possibly to RP within your age group without needing to resort to finding a minor to RP with.

And I'm not really upset by it, it's just common sense in my opinion. If you're 30 years old you probably are able to find a partner who isn't 12 years or more younger than you. And I would really question someone in their 30s if they're going out of their way to RP with a minor.

I mean I don’t personally quiz my partners about their age one way or another. I don’t even know how old two of my current partners are and the last one offered their age without prompting.

They were worried because they’re a teen and thought it might turn me off. But as my interests are pretty niche I don’t get picky about my partners.

There aren’t enough people in my age range that share my interests for me to be able to turn up my nose at teenagers.

I mean that said realistically I also don’t know that many teenagers interested in my ideas either. So it’s less - I’m seeking out kids - and more - I’m just hoping someone, anyone, wants to do a unicorn farm roleplay.
 
I mean I don’t personally quiz my partners about their age one way or another. I don’t even know how old two of my current partners are and the last one offered their age without prompting.

They were worried because they’re a teen and thought it might turn me off. But as my interests are pretty niche I don’t get picky about my partners.

There aren’t enough people in my age range that share my interests for me to be able to turn up my nose at teenagers.

I mean that said realistically I also don’t know that many teenagers interested in my ideas either. So it’s less - I’m seeking out kids - and more - I’m just hoping someone, anyone, wants to do a unicorn farm roleplay.

I can relate to you on the whole having niche interests thing. I still don't like RPing with individuals under 18, though. If I know they're under 18 then I won't RP with them. However, I don't go out of my way to ask if they don't have their age specified. I just give them the benefit of the doubt.
 

I mean I'm too old not to ask people for their age. I straight up go "yo I'm 31, I need to know how old you are" but that is a priority for me because I don't want to ever RP with a minor at my age (groups and one on ones). As for niche I too RP niche but honestly if I can't find someone on RPN (and chances are I won't) I go to places with older user bases (and larger). There really is no excuse as an adult to require needing to RP with a minor. I may sound too serious about it but like honestly you get old enough that it should be a priority as an adult in the RP community.

If you're 20 w/e you're not that much older than a 17 year old. But when you're 30+ eeeeehhhh I dunno gotta draw the line somewhere. 18 is sometimes uncomfortable.

But that is my priority ain't nothing so niche I can't find someone my age to RP it. I mean shit just go to Gaia at least there you're guarantee to find people 28+ consistently to RP with because it's a large and old community people there aged with the site. I ain't RP'd with someone off there that wasn't 25+.

I dunno it's weird to be an adult RPing with minors IMO.

And it really shouldn't be so weird to ask people their age. I mean it's for the benefit of both parties.


I'm 28 so not far behind you. I do actually have other sites I RP on simply because few people here share my RP interests. It seems to be a younger community that is more heavily into fandoms and stuff while I just want detailed and historically accurate shenanigans, lol.
 

I mean I'm too old not to ask people for their age. I straight up go "yo I'm 31, I need to know how old you are" but that is a priority for me because I don't want to ever RP with a minor at my age (groups and one on ones). As for niche I too RP niche but honestly if I can't find someone on RPN (and chances are I won't) I go to places with older user bases (and larger). There really is no excuse as an adult to require needing to RP with a minor. I may sound too serious about it but like honestly you get old enough that it should be a priority as an adult in the RP community.

If you're 20 w/e you're not that much older than a 17 year old. But when you're 30+ eeeeehhhh I dunno gotta draw the line somewhere. 18 is sometimes uncomfortable.

But that is my priority ain't nothing so niche I can't find someone my age to RP it. I mean shit just go to Gaia at least there you're guarantee to find people 28+ consistently to RP with because it's a large and old community people there aged with the site. I ain't RP'd with someone off there that wasn't 25+.

I dunno it's weird to be an adult RPing with minors IMO.

And it really shouldn't be so weird to ask people their age. I mean it's for the benefit of both parties.


Gaia is a toxic hellhole that also recently got Its active usebase slashed by new policies. And I can assure you I was on that site for years and no one shared my interests, which is why I moved here.

And it being “weird” is your opinion. I disagree. I personally don’t care how old my partners are as long as they fit my requests. I assume from context clues their mostly college age. But that is largely coincidence.

I don’t care if they are, it’s just college students tend to have the same slow roleplay post schedule as me.
 
Back to the topic of what pairings we wouldn't RP, I think most of what I have to say is the same everyone has said so far:

-Person in a position of authority x Person who is under the other person's authority, such as Boss X Employee, Teacher X Student, Master X Slave, etc. The only kind of pairing that's similar to this I like is Royal x Commoner, and by the way, when I RP that, the royal tends to treat the commoner as an equal rather as someone he/she has authority over. So it comes to show that I really don't like Rping pairings where one person uses authority or power over the other.

-Pairings that have a wide age range between them: I'm not just talking about adults x minors (which I find way too weird), but also those with two adults that have a huge age difference between them, like a 20 year old x a 45 year old. I don't have the same issue regarding my roleplaying partner's age though. I'm 18, but I really don't care if my roleplay partner is a teen, or a person in their 30's or 40's. My RPs tend to always be G rated stuff. I even ask my roleplaying partner to avoid dark themes or cursing words because I'm simply not comfortable using those in an RP.

-Toxic relationships, such as those where one person bullies the other, or abuses them physically, verbally, emotionally, etc. I don't like RPing unhealthy relationships. Not only do I find it uncomfortable to RP as either of the two roles, but as I said before, I prefer lighthearted RPs without dark themes. And unhealthy relationships is one of the things I simply will not RP.

-Pairings where one of the two has a mental illness, specially if it's portrayed as if love cures the mental illness.

-Canon character x Mary Sue/Gary Stu, when it comes to fandom RPs. I also won't RP OC x OC if the other person's OC is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu either.
 
Hmm...I don't do romance often, but my personal peeves are:

- Unbalanced relationships: By this I mean any sort of imbalance. Power imbalance (teacher-student, boss-employee, etc.) romantic feelings imbalance (uber one-sided relationships, as in only one person is pursuing) and whatnot. Especially the latter. Relationships are a mutual thing, so it just irks me when one won't even try to put in effort for it.

- Toxic/unhealthy relationships: I see this so many times in fanfiction and whatnot and it's just so...why do people fetishize this? It's insane. It's almost the same thing as the whole "love cures mental illness" trope.

- Massive age gaps: Refer to everyone else's points on adult x minor ships. I don't really care about the RPer's age, but if their character is like, almost ten or so years older than mine, they're off the dating table for me.
 
Regarding power imbalance, I've done RP's in the past that were kind of along those lines. For example, a military officer and a recruit. Those pairings I make strictly platonic, though, since I think it's genuinely a fun RP experience to build up that kind of friendship. Their relationship begins as a strictly professional one, but then the challenges of the battlefield eventually leads to them bonding as friends. I would never take it in a romantic direction because, well, I'm just not into that.
 
Regarding the primary question of the thread:

CanonxCanon / CanonxOC- Because I don't do cannon characters, unless I want to play the fandom itself and it's not possible without the presence of said cannon character (even then, it'll only be as an NPC).

submissive/dominant/uke/sume -type pairings- If you use that type of language unprompted I don't want to RP with you. The issue is that from what experience I've had with this, and even ignoring the smut connotations, this kind of language is used to characterize characters, as in, by itself. The character is put into a box called "submissive" and it's entire existece becomes that or that mixed with a self-insert, broken only writer's so bad they can't even keep that consistent and shift it in accordance to whatever is plot-convenient.
I want to make it clear that I do not think every person who uses this language or plays these pairings is like that, but that a large enough number of the people are like that that it is reasonable to expect one who does use it to statistically be like that.

demon/angel - pairings- I have a big pet peeve when it comes to demons and religious material in general as it is portrayed in media and fiction in general, including roleplays, specifically, fundamental changes like the idea of demons being anything other than pure evil. While in media I can kind of go along with it, in a roleplay it feels like I'm forced to accept the idea to move forward, there's less detachment and that just really irks me. It's a personal bias of mine, but there ain't much I can do about it.

lgbt+ / incredibly specific disease character pairings- I want to clarify, I do play FxF pairings, and I can play with characters that fall into the lgbt spectrum, specially in group RPs. I have no problem with the characters themselves, but with the oversensitivity of the players that I see playing them. I am a player that loves comedy and good character arcs (among other things obviously) and I just don't see it coming out of people who can't take themselves with levity, who'll be upset by tiny innacuracies (I understand the irony given my previous point, though the difference lies that in my case I am specific and upfront on what I have a problem with, whereas the kind of person I'm talking about here tends to either extremely overreact at minor things and deny it, and/or they invent problems to be offended by) or consider anything bad happening to their character as a personal attack on themselves and whatever groups they happen to belong to.
How many players of this ilk are there among those that play these types of characters? That I do not know. I try to avoid them, as the risk is just too great. I am willing to consider the possibility that the fraction I've had the misfortune of playing with was just that, a massive case of misfortune. But, at least at the moment, I'm not willing to take the risk.

Relationship Problem Pairings- I just don't find the drama brought by this anything other than annoying. I can see myself maybe pulling something like a love triangle or an unrequited love in a group RP, and I can definitely play characters that are in an active relationship (and therefore have problems associated with it) but I won't be going around with ex's and such.

P X Y's something or another- This kind of pairing isn't bad per say, but I can't get over the fact the question of "why not just P x Y?". Especially because the answer usually falls on the above.

Beyond that, there's pairings I just can't muster any interest in, and others which are just too depressing for my light-hearted tastes. They are very specific cases though, and I doubt I could probably list them all like that, so I'll leave it like this.

Regarding some of the other topics brought up:

--------> I feel like a lot of these pairings are being assumed to be romantic, when they shouldn't necessarily. For instance, we can all agree adult X child romance is creepy, no doubt there. But if the pairing is adult x child, I wouldn't assume that to be romance, I think a much more reasonable assumption (well, in most cases) is for plots like, for instance, a child being adopted.

----->An adult playing with a minor isn't a creepy thing. Rather, there's no logical reason to take it as such. It can be creepy if the adult has ill intent or there are actual sexual implications or something of the sort, but other than that there's nothing wrong with it persay. If anything, an adult showing a minor the ropes and helpign them improve and mature is kind of the whole idea of teaching in a nutshell, so it's a good thing not a bad one. Now that isn't to say one's wrong to not roleplay with them if they feel uncomfortable with the idea. That's with them and their personal line as to what they can or can't do. Just, it's an emotional reason, not a logical one. There is nothing to the act itself that is wrong- only things people can infer as being wrong regardless of their actual merit.
 
Idea Idea

What is P x Y?

Also as to the “not necessarily romantic” aspect of the pairings. I can’t speak for everyone else but I had assumed the OP question was specifically about romance and answered accordingly.

As the answer is different for platonic pairings.

Platonic Pairing Donts

- No abusive pairings (whether it’s parental abuse, sibling abuse, toxic friendships, etc.) a lot of my family has dealt with abuse IRL so I find it distasteful in roleplays.

- No mental illness: (whether this is about caring for someone with mental illness or someone trying to receive help). Same reason above actually, a lot of my family suffers from mental illness. So I find roleplaying it to be depressing or triggering. I will make an exception for made up illnesses if it’s necessary to the plot.
 
What is P x Y?
Just two letters to mean anything. It really varies a lot, like in some cases it's like "assassin X target's best friend" or "girlfriend x boyfriend's brother" that kind of thing is what I was talking about. I would have used X and Y, but since I was already using an X I thought I should probably use a different letter.

Also as to the “not necessarily romantic” aspect of the pairings. I can’t speak for everyone else but I had assumed the OP question was specifically about romance and answered accordingly.
I mean...

whether in a romantic or platonic sense

I didn't see any indication of it just being romantic, and platonic ones were specifically mentioned in the OP. Not accusing anyone of anything though, I just wanted to bring up the idea that there are cases where a plot isn't trying to do some weird romance but just do something that's a little different like, exploring different character dynamics other than just the romantic ones, which I felt were being somewhat negleted in the thread.
 
Just two letters to mean anything. It really varies a lot, like in some cases it's like "assassin X target's best friend" or "girlfriend x boyfriend's brother" that kind of thing is what I was talking about. I would have used X and Y, but since I was already using an X I thought I should probably use a different letter.


I mean...



I didn't see any indication of it just being romantic, and platonic ones were specifically mentioned in the OP. Not accusing anyone of anything though, I just wanted to bring up the idea that there are cases where a plot isn't trying to do some weird romance but just do something that's a little different like, exploring different character dynamics other than just the romantic ones, which I felt were being somewhat negleted in the thread.

I see well I misread that then. And again for my own case specifically I wasn’t talking about vague pairings.

I was literally talking about - Susie wants to do Father dating Daughter, Mother dating son’s best friend, Teacher dating fourteen year old student, etc.

I’m not talking where it says - Hey I want to do a parent x child roleplay about adoption issues.

I am talking when the person is explicitly stating they want it to be sexual, romantic, or both.

Admittedly this is not hugely common in this site with the strict smut rules but it would pop up on my previous site.
 
Regarding the primary question of the thread:

CanonxCanon / CanonxOC- Because I don't do cannon characters, unless I want to play the fandom itself and it's not possible without the presence of said cannon character (even then, it'll only be as an NPC).

I will do fandoms, but strictly OC x OC. The only time I'll have canon characters present is if they're minor NPC's or they're characters we actually don't know a lot about in the source material. For example, Grindelwald before the Fantastic Beasts movies came out. We really only knew that he was evil and that he was friends with Dumbledore. His actual personality, mannerisms, etc. were left completely wide open. This is also true for many of the Hunger Games side characters. There's enough we don't know that I would be comfortable including them in a RP.

submissive/dominant/uke/sume -type pairings- If you use that type of language unprompted I don't want to RP with you. The issue is that from what experience I've had with this, and even ignoring the smut connotations, this kind of language is used to characterize characters, as in, by itself. The character is put into a box called "submissive" and it's entire existece becomes that or that mixed with a self-insert, broken only writer's so bad they can't even keep that consistent and shift it in accordance to whatever is plot-convenient.
I want to make it clear that I do not think every person who uses this language or plays these pairings is like that, but that a large enough number of the people are like that that it is reasonable to expect one who does use it to statistically be like that.

Tbh, I didn't even know what those terms meant until I saw people using them in reference to RP. As soon as I learned it was some sexual thing, though, I backed right off. I don't like power imbalance in relationships, even fictional ones, at all. It makes me feel very uncomfortable.

demon/angel - pairings- I have a big pet peeve when it comes to demons and religious material in general as it is portrayed in media and fiction in general, including roleplays, specifically, fundamental changes like the idea of demons being anything other than pure evil. While in media I can kind of go along with it, in a roleplay it feels like I'm forced to accept the idea to move forward, there's less detachment and that just really irks me. It's a personal bias of mine, but there ain't much I can do about it.

As a Christian I'm very careful about this one myself. I'm not opposed to doing, say, a RP that has religious characters(think devout believers, priests, monks/nuns, etc.), but as soon as demons and angels are involved I get uneasy. To me it's at least borderline blasphemous to have angels and demons fall in love with each other.

lgbt+ / incredibly specific disease character pairings- I want to clarify, I do play FxF pairings, and I can play with characters that fall into the lgbt spectrum, specially in group RPs. I have no problem with the characters themselves, but with the oversensitivity of the players that I see playing them. I am a player that loves comedy and good character arcs (among other things obviously) and I just don't see it coming out of people who can't take themselves with levity, who'll be upset by tiny innacuracies (I understand the irony given my previous point, though the difference lies that in my case I am specific and upfront on what I have a problem with, whereas the kind of person I'm talking about here tends to either extremely overreact at minor things and deny it, and/or they invent problems to be offended by) or consider anything bad happening to their character as a personal attack on themselves and whatever groups they happen to belong to.
How many players of this ilk are there among those that play these types of characters? That I do not know. I try to avoid them, as the risk is just too great. I am willing to consider the possibility that the fraction I've had the misfortune of playing with was just that, a massive case of misfortune. But, at least at the moment, I'm not willing to take the risk.

I've written both LGBT+ characters and mentally ill ones myself. I think the key is to make those traits a part of who they are, but not completely who they are. Like, I've seen people make characters where being gay or mentally ill completely defines who they are. That gets annoying. It reminds me of those flamboyant gay guys in real life who have to let everybody know how gay they are. Like, dude, most of the public doesn't care nor do we want to know. Keep it to the bedroom.

Relationship Problem Pairings- I just don't find the drama brought by this anything other than annoying. I can see myself maybe pulling something like a love triangle or an unrequited love in a group RP, and I can definitely play characters that are in an active relationship (and therefore have problems associated with it) but I won't be going around with ex's and such.

These ones depend on context for me. Like, I've done cheating plots in the past, but usually it has some sort of revenge tied in. I won't do them simply "just because". In other words, there needs to be a justified plot reason for it and the entire plot should not revolve around that one single point. I also don't like plots where somebody gets together with an ex. Heck, I don't even like when people do that in real life. Whenever I hear about it I'm like "why? Didn't you two already break up and decide you're not compatible?"

Regarding some of the other topics brought up:

--------> I feel like a lot of these pairings are being assumed to be romantic, when they shouldn't necessarily. For instance, we can all agree adult X child romance is creepy, no doubt there. But if the pairing is adult x child, I wouldn't assume that to be romance, I think a much more reasonable assumption (well, in most cases) is for plots like, for instance, a child being adopted.
Fair point, but in the world we live in I sadly wouldn't be surprised if there were romantic implications from some people.

----->An adult playing with a minor isn't a creepy thing. Rather, there's no logical reason to take it as such. It can be creepy if the adult has ill intent or there are actual sexual implications or something of the sort, but other than that there's nothing wrong with it persay. If anything, an adult showing a minor the ropes and helpign them improve and mature is kind of the whole idea of teaching in a nutshell, so it's a good thing not a bad one. Now that isn't to say one's wrong to not roleplay with them if they feel uncomfortable with the idea. That's with them and their personal line as to what they can or can't do. Just, it's an emotional reason, not a logical one. There is nothing to the act itself that is wrong- only things people can infer as being wrong regardless of their actual merit.

Again, totally subjective. I don't find it creepy RPing with minors. I just prefer not to due to the themes I delve into while RPing.
 

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