Types of role plays and things role players do that annoy you

[call me rae]

One time, like four years ago, I had someone join an rp of mine on another site. At first he seemed absolutely nice. But then I had one of my characters (who said rude things to everyone mind you), call his character ugly or something stupid like that. He flipped out and began posting messages on the thread cussing me out before quitting and blocking me. Talk about unnecessary. Yikes!

Some people do not understand that roleplaying is about making stories with fictious people. I can't tell you how many times I've seen in searches where people are basically writing it out like it's a singles ad.


Like you must be this / that / the other thing.


And I"m like... um I am not my character.

 

[dopiko]

Some people do not understand that roleplaying is about making stories with fictious people. I can't tell you how many times I've seen in searches where people are basically writing it out like it's a singles ad.
Like you must be this / that / the other thing.


And I"m like... um I am not my character.

I can understand being like "I want someone to rp vampires with me", or "I want someone to rp one of these video game series with me" but yeah some people are way too specific, especially with romance. I see some guys with really detailed, narrow requests for a MxF romance rp, "girls only" and I can't help but feel a tad creeped out because, like you said, it's totally like a singles ad.

 

[dopiko]

Also, this isn't really annoying per se. It's more absolutely creepy. I hate those pedophilia prompts that are like "babysitter x kid". That's just nasty... Eww.

 

[Seiden]

Yes, these people that cannot understand a character is a character! They are so annoying!


I do not want to always play nice and gentle characters, sometimes I play a rude person who may talk to others in an unpleasant way, but damn, this is a roleplay. I am not insulting you, it is a character insulting another character, but more than often, the player takes it like if I was directly talking to them, and then gets mad at me or even reports me to the mods.


And I have to admit the worst one was my girlfriend.... getting mad at me because our characters' relationship was not all rainbows and marshmallows. Everytime our characters had a talk, they got mad at me, and even dumped me because of this... (well, she came back two days later, but still). It went to a point were I just could not roleplay with her anymore, because everything my character could say could be used as a reason to get mad at me.


Okay, this was my little personal rant, I am sorry for this.

 

[call me rae]

Yes, these people that cannot understand a character is a character! They are so annoying!
I do not want to always play nice and gentle characters, sometimes I play a rude person who may talk to others in an unpleasant way, but damn, this is a roleplay. I am not insulting you, it is a character insulting another character, but more than often, the player takes it like if I was directly talking to them, and then gets mad at me or even reports me to the mods.


And I have to admit the worst one was my girlfriend.... getting mad at me because our characters' relationship was not all rainbows and marshmallows. Everytime our characters had a talk, they got mad at me, and even dumped me because of this... (well, she came back two days later, but still). It went to a point were I just could not roleplay with her anymore, because everything my character could say could be used as a reason to get mad at me.


Okay, this was my little personal rant, I am sorry for this.

Yeah like I'm fine with you playing a self-insert. That's your choice. But I am not my character. My character might be somewhat similar but I can acknowledge that I'm playing a ficitonal character. And I'll tell you that.


But for instance I played a racist character once. A real bigot and a mean b---. And I had this person go on this whole defensive rant about how they're so much better than me because they aren't a bigot, a vegetarian, and a whole lot of other crap that had nothing to do with the story or conversation.


And I'm like... okay first of all : this is a fictious character holding fictious prejudices about other fictious people. See how many times I said fictious? That MEANS ITS NOT REAL.


So don't be sitting there and telling me I"m a terrible human being because I want my character to have their own kind of views and opinions and maybe make them not so nice a person.

 

[DikkeVetteVlinder]

People that are very passive is something I always have trouble dealing with. Like; come on, think with me, work with me. You can't let me pull the entire story, that shit won't fly. It's not always on purpose of course, as sometimes someone might feel hesitant to add big things to the story, for example, and that's alright, I'm understanding of that. It's just when it feels like someone just doesn't really give a shit that it gets unpleasant, because I just can't really escape the feeling that what I'm writing isn't fun enough.


Though the opposite isn't very pleasant either, when someone seems to think they have full control over everything and block every move you try to make, though that doesn't happen to me as frequently as the other thing.

 

[ONI]

a mean b---.

I think that word has 5 letters.

 

[zanarkand]

I hate it when a roleplayer requires you to post 6+ paragraphs for every reply..like honestly dialogue starts to really suffer if they think about the past, present and future and note how the wind feels on their skin every single time when all they say in the end is "no"


I'm not about to match length when less can actually be more. I've done rps in the past where we each wrote 3-4 sentences or how ever much is required. If you go back and read that type of roleplay it can flow a lot better.

 

[solvernia]

I find it annoying when people don't format their dialogue properly and just stick it in the middle of a paragraph surrounded by actions and even more dialogue. Or worse, they put dialogue in wacky colors!! Black & white only, please! Haha!

 

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

I find it annoying when people don't format their dialogue properly and just stick it in the middle of a paragraph surrounded by actions and even more dialogue. Or worse, they put dialogue in wacky colors!! Black & white only, please! Haha!

Really, they do that to highlight it. If someone is skimming, or even confused by what constitutes a thought or actual dialogue, putting the dialogue in a different color assists in differentiating what should be responded to as dialogue. It can be very helpful. Granted, when I do so, I prefer to bold it or italicize it, but that can be easily confused with me highlighting an action or thought as significant, so colors when used consistently can help to clear up misunderstanding. Assuming it's not a bad color like yellow or dark brown, it can look alright too.

 

[zanarkand]

Why not just format it like most novels do though? It's not hard to differentiate it that way without the need for colors. If I was reading something and the dialogue was in all italics I'd assume it was thoughts at first since I use italics for thoughts or to emphasize a word or phrase.


I'm with Solvernia on this one, colors make it hard for me to read it. And putting dialogue in the middle of everything without separating it out just looks bad and it's also difficult to read.

 

[call me rae]

Why not just format it like most novels do though? It's not hard to differentiate it that way without the need for colors. If I was reading something and the dialogue was in all italics I'd assume it was thoughts at first since I use italics for thoughts or to emphasize a word or phrase.
I'm with Solvernia on this one, colors make it hard for me to read it. And putting dialogue in the middle of everything without separating it out just looks bad and it's also difficult to read.

Not everyone is a big reader though and in some sites people are taught to use colors for thoughts and dialogue. In my previous site people would have entire color palettes assigned to their characters.


Now most had the sense to use readable text and bold and color dialogue but you wold get your newer people making mistakes.


Grant you on that site they would put keys in the post


This is talking


This is thinking





It made things easier to spot especially if they had a lot going on in their posts.

 

[call me rae]

I hate it when a roleplayer requires you to post 6+ paragraphs for every reply..like honestly dialogue starts to really suffer if they think about the past, present and future and note how the wind feels on their skin every single time when all they say in the end is "no"
I'm not about to match length when less can actually be more. I've done rps in the past where we each wrote 3-4 sentences or how ever much is required. If you go back and read that type of roleplay it can flow a lot better.

I can sort of see having some kind of minimum though. I mean six paragraphs is stupid - I'm not writing an essay - but like must write at least a paragraph or two isn't so unreasonable.


Because you have to remember it's about progressing the story. A few sentences of dialogue might progress the conversation but they aren't necessarily going to progress the story as a whole.


Now I'm not saying you have to write a five page essay on morality for each post but at least a paragraph or two with some action and/or dialogue will keep the reoleplay as a whole moving forward.

 

[Deadkool]

Labeling Simple RPs as casual. The median between a simple sentence and a page of writing is shrinking. It onto makes it worse when 'Oscar said to him "That's pretty cool, right' is being labeled as Casual.

 

[Deadkool]

Roleplays including phrases such as 'D&D-like' where it's obvious no one has any idea what they're talking about.


Any player or GM who thinks quantity = quality.

I'll admit, I am guilty of this sometimes. Trying to improve in a new RP. Practice and whatnot.

 

[SpookySableye]

Labeling Simple RPs as casual. The median between a simple sentence and a page of writing is shrinking. It onto makes it worse when 'Oscar said to him "That's pretty cool, right' is being labeled as Casual.

Dear god, I know what you're talking about, and it's common and annoying. Don't betray me with that false casual label! No!

 

[Ginger Kit]

I think taking control of my characters is definitely one thing that will get to me faster than anything. I won't even warn the person, I'll just stop responding. If they're brand new to roleplaying, I might warn them about it. The few times I have said something, the person was totally confused and asked, "Well how else am I supposed to do (insert whatever they'd planned) later on in the story!?" and I just like, face palmed and never responded.


Other than that--and this isn't really an annoyance but it gets to me nonetheless--is someone who will only play as one gender or will only play one character. Like, that leaves a huge portion of the story for me to carry! I won't roleplay with someone who refuses to double or play the opposite gender. If you want to play a certain gender for a main character (Like good girl x bad boy, for instance), then that I can deal with.

 

[call me rae]

People who won't roleplay with you because you disagree with their real life opinions or political views.


Like how is that relevant to roleplaying at all?

 

[ApfelSeine]

One thing that I have recently found quite frustrating is when people dramatically shift the direction of the story or dialogue, often to make their character seem more important or tragic/sympathetic. It makes absolutely no sense, destroys the realism of the dialogue, and there is no way to react to it.


For example:


Character A: "It's nice to meet you character B!"


Character B: "My parents were murdered on a moonless night when I was eight years old."

 

[call me rae]

For example:


Character A: "It's nice to meet you character B!"


Character B: "My parents were murdered on a moonless night when I was eight years old."

Character A:"...*awkward pause then slides away" Right..um I think I have a phone call"


--- and Player B bitches you out for not comforting their character or whatever.


Like I'm sorry that's not sympathetic it's awkward and uncomfortable and most people would get away from your character as fast as possible.

 

[ApfelSeine]

Character A:"...*awkward pause then slides away" Right..um I think I have a phone call"
--- and Player B bitches you out for not comforting their character or whatever.


Like I'm sorry that's not sympathetic it's awkward and uncomfortable and most people would get away from your character as fast as possible.

An then character B proceeds to murder six people... But it's okay because "they're traumatized and cant control it. Now have your character fall in love with them because of how rough their life is". I can't deal with the unrealistic angst. In the real world, murder gets you arrested.

 

[SpookySableye]

An then character B proceeds to murder six people... But it's okay because "they're traumatized and cant control it. Now have your character fall in love with them because of how rough their life is". I can't deal with the unrealistic angst. In the real world, murder gets you arrested.

Not only that, but I'm pretty sure most sane people (or characters in this case) aren't going to just magically fall in love with someone they saw killing multiple people.

 

[Deadkool]

Vanessa Fisk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not only that, but I'm pretty sure most sane people (or characters in this case) aren't going to just magically fall in love with someone they saw killing multiple people.

(8))


Nah, actually, all of this is a great place to vent and I can see that getting on your nerves. I imagine it probably happens more in 1x1s and Realistic RPs (both of which I shy away from). I've had the good graces to never experience it.

 

[SpookySableye]

Vanessa Fisk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(8))


Nah, actually, all of this is a great place to vent and I can see that getting on your nerves. I imagine it probably happens more in 1x1s and Realistic RPs (both of which I shy away from). I've had the good graces to never experience it.

Now, I'm not saying that it can't happen, or that it shouldn't happen; I'm just saying there should probably be a decent reason for the character falling in love with a murderer.

 

[ApfelSeine]

Now, I'm not saying that it can't happen, or that it shouldn't happen; I'm just saying there should probably be a decent reason for the character falling in love with a murderer.

Exactly. If something built up to it or it fit with the character's personality to do so then that would be a decent reason. I think that leads into another pet peeve, people expecting your character to act contrary to their personality in order to fit the way they want the narrative to go. Sometimes, an RP partner can take things in a direction that you don't expect, which can be a lot of fun and make things more interesting (as long as it makes logical sense). But some people don't seem to be able to put up with a character not behaving the way they expect, and as a result will either throw a fit or godmod their response to force things to go the way they want.