Viewpoint Type of Roleplays: Tired of Seeing? Want to see more of?

[DovahBeat]

Oh I'm gonna get so much flack but I am so tired of modern day greek mythology rps ouside of like, "This is all based off Percy Jackson". I probably still have a sour taste in my mouth from a bad greek myth group I was in but I find that every single one of them just spit up "The story of Hades and Persephone but in modern times" and it's so boring. We get it everyone loves underworld mom and dad. Give me more compelling stories.

If i may piggy back, what about other pantheons/culture's myths? why can't we have a PJO but norse mythology, or egyptian, or anything else that isn't greek/roman? lmao this concept has so much potential but no one wants to explore it, I feel like!

 

[Yunalescaa]

If i may piggy back, what about other pantheons/culture's myths? why can't we have a PJO but norse mythology, or egyptian, or anything else that isn't greek/roman? lmao this concept has so much potential but no one wants to explore it, I feel like!

I would be much more invested in a variety, and in original PJO roleplays I even put the option out there for other pantheons. But I do find a lot of people who advertise a modern day Greek mythology RP be it 1x1 or group is almost always something with Hades and Persephone. It's very overdone now and I feel like Greek, and other pantheons, have more myths to offer up. And more compelling "characters" if you will. Ain't nobody ever wants to do anything with the oracle Cassandra cursed by Apollo to never be believed.

 

[Rusty of Shackleford]

If i may piggy back, what about other pantheons/culture's myths? why can't we have a PJO but norse mythology, or egyptian, or anything else that isn't greek/roman? lmao this concept has so much potential but no one wants to explore it, I feel like!

Sorta like an idea I was playing, focusing on the reincarnations of various "dead" gods being brought together to oppose the destruction of the world.

 

[Jannah]

Oh I'm gonna get so much flack but I am so tired of modern day greek mythology rps ouside of like, "This is all based off Percy Jackson". I probably still have a sour taste in my mouth from a bad greek myth group I was in but I find that every single one of them just spit up "The story of Hades and Persephone but in modern times" and it's so boring. We get it everyone loves underworld mom and dad. Give me more compelling stories.

Personally I'm tired of Greek mythology stories in general. I'd love to see mythologies from other cultures explored more if we're absolutely insistent on RPing that type of thing here.

 

[Murdergurl]

Tired of seeing roleplays where all the PCs are expected to be humans.

We need more roleplays where the group is not only able, but encouraged to be races outside of humans. And not just the standard Tolkien races (Elves, Dwarves, halflings, etc.), either.

 

[DovahBeat]

Tired of seeing roleplays where all the PCs are expected to be humans.

We need more roleplays where the group is not only able, but encouraged to be races outside of humans. And not just the standard Tolkien races (Elves, Dwarves, halflings, etc.), either.

I'm working on a rp that, while humans are an option, there's a wide variety of races and very few if any are Tolkien-esque. And we don't have Elves, dwarves, or halflings.
But we do have steampunk robots, plant people, elemental people, beast folk, demons, and a handful of others!

 

[Murdergurl]

I'm working on a rp that, while humans are an option, there's a wide variety of races and very few if any are Tolkien-esque. And we don't have Elves, dwarves, or halflings.
But we do have steampunk robots, plant people, elemental people, beast folk, demons, and a handful of others!

I've been taking the last week of my freetime to write up a Middle-Eastern-based Fantasy setting. And while it does allow for the inclusion of more... traditional fantasy races, I have also created lore for a handful of setting-appropriate races native to the region. But, I'm not ready to put up an RT yet. Maybe in another week if I can keep a hold on my muse.

 

[EggB]

Less of:
- Nothing, I have no issues with people rping what they want. So long as we still get options lol! I am not personally interested in drama ridden modern settings... but I'm not going to say there needs to be less of them!

More of:
- Less serious rps! One of my longest rp was super free form, and filled with passion and motivation because players could do almost whatever they'd like to move the plot forward. It was a pretty rare occurrence, but I truly believe it was because everyone could contribute something to the story just because they wanted to. Yes, it got wacky sometimes, but it was so worth it!

- Original ideas obviously aligns with the above idea, so that's a go in my book. Anything unconventional. Even if you aren't sure people will like it... You never know!

- Fun! I feel like some people forget that this is all supposed to be fun for everyone at the end of the day.

 

[Jet]

Many of the overdone types are only overdone, because most people have a working knowledge of how things will work. Take superpower/magic academy RPs, everyone has been to school and everyone can pick a power, so everyone is a potential member.

The more niche your interest, the less people can participate without researching the topic. One reason anime RPs are so prevalent, is because this is the holy grail of nerd communities, and nerds like anime. So most people have seen the big animes that are used for RP.

I'm seeing a lot of posts about other pantheons like Norse for example, but most people don't know anything more than Zeus and Oden, shoutout to Marvel. It's not that your ideas are bad, people just know about Greek lore because of Percy Jackson.

Personally I hate slice of life, but it usually goes hand in hand with romance, and everyone can write in a realistic modern world. Romance is popular, and so SoL is popular.

Speaking of what I wish was more common, space westerns please god. I'd love a firefly RP with a band of misfit mercenaries, stumbling through space by the skin of their teeth. But it's such a niche genre. There are only a few examples of mainstream space westerns, and that's reflected here. You've got a very small player base who'd join such a thing, and joining is half the battle. How many will be active and stick around, push the plot and write well?

It's demoralizing.

I've tried niche things, like my favorite failure called Jumpers. Where the cast was traveling back through time, chasing an irresponsible time traveler who was changing history, causing different realities to collide with our own. Each stop would be an alternate history, and each one had a "shatter point" we needed to repair.

It was a mix of serious history and campy fun, with things like ancient Egyptian aliens, a Europe spanning USSR and cavemen vs dinosaurs. It felt like a winner, and then it died because I could barely field a group, and only a couple members didn't flake.

So now I just do fantasy because it's the only stable middle ground. I can have an actual story and make an original world, explore dark themes and politics, but it's not too niche for its own good.

 

[Jannah]

I've been taking the last week of my freetime to write up a Middle-Eastern-based Fantasy setting. And while it does allow for the inclusion of more... traditional fantasy races, I have also created lore for a handful of setting-appropriate races native to the region. But, I'm not ready to put up an RT yet. Maybe in another week if I can keep a hold on my muse.

And I would definitely join that. I've been hoping for some more RP's in non-western settings.

 

[Jannah]

Many of the overdone types are only overdone, because most people have a working knowledge of how things will work. Take superpower/magic academy RPs, everyone has been to school and everyone can pick a power, so everyone is a potential member.

The more niche your interest, the less people can participate without researching the topic. One reason anime RPs are so prevalent, is because this is the holy grail of nerd communities, and nerds like anime. So most people have seen the big animes that are used for RP.

I'm seeing a lot of posts about other pantheons like Norse for example, but most people don't know anything more than Zeus and Oden, shoutout to Marvel. It's not that your ideas are bad, people just know about Greek lore because of Percy Jackson.

Personally I hate slice of life, but it usually goes hand in hand with romance, and everyone can write in a realistic modern world. Romance is popular, and so SoL is popular.

Speaking of what I wish was more common, space westerns please god. I'd love a firefly RP with a band of misfit mercenaries, stumbling through space by the skin of their teeth. But it's such a niche genre. There are only a few examples of mainstream space westerns, and that's reflected here. You've got a very small player base who'd join such a thing, and joining is half the battle. How many will be active and stick around, push the plot and write well?

It's demoralizing.

I've tried niche things, like my favorite failure called Jumpers. Where the cast was traveling back through time, chasing an irresponsible time traveler who was changing history, causing different realities to collide with our own. Each stop would be an alternate history, and each one had a "shatter point" we needed to repair.

It was a mix of serious history and campy fun, with things like ancient Egyptian aliens, a Europe spanning USSR and cavemen vs dinosaurs. It felt like a winner, and then it died because I could barely field a group, and only a couple members didn't flake.

So now I just do fantasy because it's the only stable middle ground. I can have an actual story and make an original world, explore dark themes and politics, but it's not too niche for its own good.

It's a shame I missed out on that time travel RP. It sounds like the sort of time travel story I've been wanting to do for awhile.

 

[Jet]

It's a shame I missed out on that time travel RP. It sounds like the sort of time travel story I've been wanting to do for awhile.

Thats awesome!! I'll keep that in mind if I ever start it again, which I probably will, because I never learn my bloody lesson

 

[Lorsh]

And I would definitely join that. I've been hoping for some more RP's in non-western settings.

yeah fuck cowboys

 

[Jannah]

yeah fuck cowboys

Nah. I would just love to see more RP's set in or inspired by places besides North America and western/central Europe.

 

[Murdergurl]

yeah fuck cowboys

I'm not a football fan, myself. lol

---

And I would definitely join that. I've been hoping for some more RP's in non-western settings.

I'll definitely send you a PM whenever I put out a req, then

 

[Murdergurl]

Another thing I would LOVE to see less of: Heavily coded request threads.
I get it, people like the fancy presentation. The "aesthetic".
But imo, less is more, and I for one don't like to have to scroll inside of a tiny box within a set of boxes to read the tiny font of the lore, or figure out which one of the weird icons brings me to the character roles, etc.

Also happens with the character sheets where people supply these extravagant set ups. Ironically, the content within these gaudily-coded presentations is usually nowhere as thorough. If this much effort went into the writing instead of the coding, we'd have an overall better end-product. js

To weigh out this post, something I'd love to see more of is RTs that are complete when they are presented.
How many RTs have I looked through where the GM still hasn't finished the lore? or the CS template? If people pop in with their interest, they are immediately hit with a roadblock because neither of these things have been laid out for them. Finish your RTs before you post them, people!
(And then GMs wonder why interest wanes and peeps drop out. It might be because they kept the interested parties waiting around for too long. js)

 

[BakaTheIdiot]

Alright I'll throw my takes into the ring. Warning: stupid opinions ahead.

I need less:
-Explicitly slice of life roleplays. Look, there's nothing wrong with this idea by itself, but it's not enough to sustain a full roleplay group in my humble opinion. It needs to be augmented with something to be really neat. For example, take like a military outpost slice-of-life: for the most part, there's gonna be a lot of downtime in between assignments so there's moments where slice of life elements can be worked in. That being said, there's still the "hours of boredom, minutes of terror" mentality where when something goes down, it goes down. I'm not against the genre, again, but I wanna see some shakeup. The Great Ganbatte (a group I'm in right now) is a good example of mixing slice of life with some actual entertaining showmanship. Good times.
-Romance. I did romance almost exclusively romance for like 2 years a while ago. It's done. I'm done. It has been done for a while. There's only so many ways that you can twist romance, and it's even more boring when it happens instantly. Still, to each their own.
-Overly fantastical fantasy magic settings. OK, this isn't gonna sit well with everybody, but personally I think "magic" as we like to think of it is kinda basic as hell. It's just boring. There's no stakes, there's artificial drama, and everybody has relatively unfair abilities that they leverage to Mary Sue themselves into awesomehood. Not a fan, though I may be biased from bad experiences.

What I want more of:
-SPACE SHIT! The universe is massive! Let's put stuff in it! Please! I always wanted to continue the TV show Firefly, but these groups never seem to last long. That or I'm just salty that my Interest Check dried up almost immediately. I'm still sad ;-;
-Grounded characters. By this I mean characters that are aware of their limitations. A while ago I was in some group and no matter how many times we gave this kid an opportunity, he always found some way to rules lawyer his way out of any character development. Being underpowered can be really interesting and fun! Give it a shot.
-Actual antagonists. I'm trying to take on this beast myself actually! Assuming "Of Seas and Sovereigns" comes back into form I will finally be the BBEG I always wanted to be! Give me motivations, actually solid logic, not-so-tragic backstories, wanting to watch the world burn, just someone interesting! I always feel sad when the villain has all the personality of a brick.

 

[Jannah]

Alright I'll throw my takes into the ring. Warning: stupid opinions ahead.

I need less:
-Explicitly slice of life roleplays. Look, there's nothing wrong with this idea by itself, but it's not enough to sustain a full roleplay group in my humble opinion. It needs to be augmented with something to be really neat. For example, take like a military outpost slice-of-life: for the most part, there's gonna be a lot of downtime in between assignments so there's moments where slice of life elements can be worked in. That being said, there's still the "hours of boredom, minutes of terror" mentality where when something goes down, it goes down. I'm not against the genre, again, but I wanna see some shakeup. The Great Ganbatte (a group I'm in right now) is a good example of mixing slice of life with some actual entertaining showmanship. Good times.
-Romance. I did romance almost exclusively romance for like 2 years a while ago. It's done. I'm done. It has been done for a while. There's only so many ways that you can twist romance, and it's even more boring when it happens instantly. Still, to each their own.
-Overly fantastical fantasy magic settings. OK, this isn't gonna sit well with everybody, but personally I think "magic" as we like to think of it is kinda basic as hell. It's just boring. There's no stakes, there's artificial drama, and everybody has relatively unfair abilities that they leverage to Mary Sue themselves into awesomehood. Not a fan, though I may be biased from bad experiences.

What I want more of:
-SPACE SHIT! The universe is massive! Let's put stuff in it! Please! I always wanted to continue the TV show Firefly, but these groups never seem to last long. That or I'm just salty that my Interest Check dried up almost immediately. I'm still sad ;-;
-Grounded characters. By this I mean characters that are aware of their limitations. A while ago I was in some group and no matter how many times we gave this kid an opportunity, he always found some way to rules lawyer his way out of any character development. Being underpowered can be really interesting and fun! Give it a shot.
-Actual antagonists. I'm trying to take on this beast myself actually! Assuming "Of Seas and Sovereigns" comes back into form I will finally be the BBEG I always wanted to be! Give me motivations, actually solid logic, not-so-tragic backstories, wanting to watch the world burn, just someone interesting! I always feel sad when the villain has all the personality of a brick.

I'm in agreement about slice of life. It's fine, but doing an entire RP of nothing but slice of life would just get boring. There should be other elements included as well, even if they don't make up the bulk of the story. Just a little something to shake things up a bit, y'know?

Also, the most fun villains to write, at least to me, are the lawful evil types. They usually have motivations beyond just being evil for the sake of being evil. Like, the vast majority of the time the lawful evil villains genuinely believe they're trying to make the world a better place. They just have evil and twisted means of doing so. Plus it's easy to give them minions and such that do their bidding if they're already some sort of authority figure or something. Also, the purely chaotic villains who just want to watch the world burn are fun too. I feel like these are things not explored in RP often enough. Some people are scared to cross certain lines when it comes to writing villains and there's a lot of unexplored potential. Like, villains should be feared precisely because they're crossing moral boundaries that most people simply would not.

 

[101]

Another thing I would LOVE to see less of: Heavily coded request threads.
I get it, people like the fancy presentation. The "aesthetic".
But imo, less is more, and I for one don't like to have to scroll in a tiny box within a set of boxes to read the lore, or figure out whch one of the wierd icons brngs me to the character roles, etc.

Also happens with the character sheets where people supply these extravagant set ups. Ironically, the content within these gaudily-coded presentations is usually nowhere as thorough. If as much effort went into the writing as the coding, we'd have an overall better end-product. js

To weigh out this post, something I'd love to see more of is RTs that are complete when they are presented.
How many RTs have I looked through where the GM still hasn't finished the lore? or the CS template? If people pop in with their interest, they are immediately hit with a roadblock because neither of these things have been laid out for them. Finish your RTs before you post them, people!
(And then people wonder why interest wanes and peeps drop out. It might be because they kept the interested parties waiting around for too long. js)

This is relatable Dead Space roleplay I made and you were interested in. I did absolutely nothing and I self aware that I was too lazy and interested in other things than dead space at the time, lol.

Also warning; This is my opinion .

I also agree COMPLETELY about the coded and ‘aesthetic’ interest checks, having to figure out what icon has a link and not hurts my brain and makes me want to be interested less if that makes any sense.

I’m also sick of the academy role-plays, there’s just so many that are basically the same thing.

 

[Murdergurl]

This is relatable Dead Space roleplay I made and you were interested in. I did absolutely nothing and I self aware that I was too lazy and interested in other things than dead space at the time, lol.

Well, I wasn't calling out anyone in particular with that. Tbh, the behavior is so common that it would be impossible for me to keep track of all the GMs that failed to do the things I mentioned when posting their RTs

---

What I want more of:
-SPACE SHIT! The universe is massive! Let's put stuff in it! Please! I always wanted to continue the TV show Firefly, but these groups never seem to last long. That or I'm just salty that my Interest Check dried up almost immediately. I'm still sad ;-;

You and me both (I stated as much in my first comment in this thread, actually.)
And others have already echoed the same sentiment. So, this seems like a pretty popular want.

I personally, have tried on multiple occasions to toss out ideas for spacey sci-fi/space western groups. But Every. Single. Time. it is met with lack of interest, or people stating interest, and then doing nothing. I've tried original ideas. I've tried fandoms. Same problems persist. I've even been in a few group RPs that I settled for and joined in on. But they fell flat on their face almost immediately. Either the GM just faltered out, or the other PCs stopped posting (or never posted at all).

 

[101]

Well, I wasn't calling out anyone in particular with that. Tbh, the behavior is so common that it would be impossible for me to keep track of all the GMs that failed to do the things I mentioned when posting their RTs

Absolutely true and no need to apologize.

Tbh I’ve just been thinking of quitting the site and just doing something else like playing more video games as I have no social life lol.

 

[Murdergurl]

Absolutely true and no need to apologize.

Tbh I’ve just been thinking of quitting the site and just doing something else like playing more video games as I have no social life lol.

I mean, I still play games and read books in my free time when nothing is going on here (or other RP sites) or I'm not working on an idea for RP. It's good to take breaks from the hobby if you are feeling frustrated. If for no other reason than to recoup your motivation.

 

[101]

I mean, I still play games and read books in my free time when nothing is going on here (or other RP sites) or I'm not working on an idea for RP. It's good to take breaks from the hobby if you are feeling frustrated. If for no other reason than to recoup your motivation.

Yeah just been feeling like I could be doing something better with my life than on my phone typing out long paragraphs.

 

[StrixDesmodus]

There isn't much I want to see less of, because I have the liberty of not joining those rps. I rarely see rps around here that offend my moral sensibilities, so I won't even discuss that either.
However, here's what I want to see more of

• Laboratories with mutants and mad scientists and stuff like that
• Mythical creatures facing superpower loss
• Characters who face unwanted or disadvantageous supernatural phenomena without the supernatural phenomena being antagonistic or objectively bad
• Vampires and werewolves, and similar creatures, but they question conventional hierarchies
• High fantasy adjacent to the 18th, 19th, or early 20th century
• A rp that takes place in an asylum or similar setting, but doesn't rely on objectively ableist tropes. Something in which the patients aren't just edgy copy-paste stereotypes, but have some actual personality.
• Settings where the characters may not be there voluntarily

 

[StuartAnderson]

Fandom canon character x OC
in my experieicen, you're basically just there to fulfill their romantic fantasy with a canon character