Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[readfoxes]

I love inner monologues. I find them very entertaining to read and write.

Me, too! I also love the play-by-play reaction of my partner's character to mine's words and actions. I feel like I get to know their characters so much better this way, and it helps me to love them the way I love my own.

 

[Valerin]

Me, too! I also love the play-by-play reaction of my partner's character to mine's words and actions. I feel like I get to know their characters so much better this way, and it helps me to love them the way I love my own.

The inner monologue is the best part. A story can fall pretty flat if it's just a lot of telling what the characters are doing; I wanna know their thoughts, how they feel about a certain topic, if the sight of someone familiar ignites a painful spark of recognition -- all that jazz. It can almost get a bit awkward if a character just starts to cry and there has been zero inner monologue that explains their emotional state.

 

[BackSet]

Here's my unpopular opinion:
Powers, Abilities and Skills are all different things.

Powers are active, e.g fire control.
Abilities are passive: super speed for instance. Abilities are always activated in my opinion, meaning their isn't an off button. You can't switch your own healing factor off can you even if you will it? Unless chemicals. Yeah.
Skills are learned things such as cooking.

I don't get why people try and group these three together so often...

THANK YOU!

Well, actually, I do kind of lump powers and abilities together but I keep skills seperate (I do occasionally add joke powers that could technically be considered skills though, like the power of sarcasm and razor sharp wit).

 

[defenderofberk]

THANK YOU!

Well, actually, I do kind of lump powers and abilities together but I keep skills seperate (I do occasionally add joke powers that could technically be considered skills though, like the power of sarcasm and razor sharp wit).

One of my characters arrogance could honestly be considered a skill as it gives her the confidence to just walk into the enemy base and try to chat up the head guy.

 

[BackSet]

One of my characters arrogance could honestly be considered a skill as it gives her the confidence to just walk into the enemy base and try to chat up the head guy.

Did it work?

 

[defenderofberk]

Did it work?

Right up until she got captured, yeah.

 

[BasiliskVeranda]

I've been thinking about this for a very long time. And I bet almost nobody is going to agree with me:

I don't care about perfect grammar, perfect spelling, how long you spent on a char sheet, how long your paragraphs are (try but IDGAF), how well-fleshed out the world is, or what rules people insist must be followed to enact good writing (show not tell, no purple prose, blah).

I only care if you make me feel something. If you get me invested, I do not care how you got there, not really. It's the only thing you cannot teach somebody in writing. You can teach someone what rules to follow, grammar, spelling, how to frame a scene, provide a framework of constraints, give them adjectives, etc. But you cannot pull blood from a stone where fashioning a fantastic story/character/plot/narrative is concerned. It isn't teachable, it comes from within.

I do not care if you botch my world-lore, for instance (I'm GMing again, aghh).

If my world-lore is botchable within enough throwing distance to constraints, that's something I should've foreseen, and have no problem retconning to make sense for the writers in a satisfying way. Stories evolve, priorities change, growth is gorgeous.

Fundamentally, storytelling should evoke feelings, pose concepts, and examine ideas. It should get you invested. If this includes breaking the fourth wall, includes a completely wackadoo new lore-set, or doing something patently nuts but fundamentally brilliant, do it. Live your truth, wield your words, collab, make the good sh*t.

tldr: Being a stickler about formats, frameworks, functions, 'things to avoid', spelling nitpicks, etc, makes for a dull roleplaying experience. Instead, focus on what CAN be done, how it COULD work, and let the magic happen.

 

[BackSet]

I've been thinking about this for a very long time. And I bet almost nobody is going to agree with me:

I don't care about perfect grammar, perfect spelling, how long you spent on a char sheet, how long your paragraphs are (try but IDGAF), how well-fleshed out the world is, or what rules people insist must be followed to enact good writing (show not tell, no purple prose, blah).

I only care if you make me feel something. If you get me invested, I do not care how you got there, not really. It's the only thing you cannot teach somebody in writing. You can teach someone what rules to follow, grammar, spelling, how to frame a scene, provide a framework of constraints, give them adjectives, etc. But you cannot pull blood from a stone where fashioning a fantastic story/character/plot/narrative is concerned. It isn't teachable, it comes from within.

I do not care if you botch my world-lore, for instance (I'm GMing again, aghh).

If my world-lore is botchable within enough throwing distance to constraints, that's something I should've foreseen, and have no problem retconning to make sense for the writers in a satisfying way. Stories evolve, priorities change, growth is gorgeous.

Fundamentally, storytelling should evoke feelings, pose concepts, and examine ideas. It should get you invested. If this includes breaking the fourth wall, includes a completely wackadoo new lore-set, or doing something patently nuts but fundamentally brilliant, do it. Live your truth, wield your words, collab, make the good sh*t.

tldr: Being a stickler about formats, frameworks, functions, 'things to avoid', spelling nitpicks, etc, makes for a dull roleplaying experience. Instead, focus on what CAN be done, how it COULD work, and let the magic happen.

I agree with a little over half of those and I'm not going to tell you what I don't agree with because I'd rather that any flame wars started be on someone elses conscience.

 

[Virus]

Tags, I hate tags.
It's not that tags are just... Bad... I know they're there for a reason in rps, but in other stuff besides rps, it should not be added. It's very annoying

 

[BackSet]

Tags, I hate tags.
It's not that tags are just... Bad... I know they're there for a reason in rps, but in other stuff besides rps, it should not be added. It's very annoying

I would suggest taking it up with the mods.

 

[BasiliskVeranda]

I agree with a little over half of those and I'm not going to tell you what I don't agree with because I'd rather that any flame wars started be on someone elses conscience.

That's fair. Fundamentally, I just think that it doesn't quite matter how perfect something is intended to be. Frameworks do not matter as much as execution, and evoking emotions is everything in writing. Even inspiring awe, perhaps, for a well-written landscape, takes a good deal more than just explaining what exists. Even if the explanation is perfect in construction, if it doesn't evoke, it crafts no awe.

You need to paint.

I appreciate your comment anyways

 

[BackSet]

You need to paint.

I can try, but I'll have you know that I didn't do very well in 8th grade art class.

 

[Idea]

I do not care if you botch my world-lore, for instance (I'm GMing again, aghh).

If my world-lore is botchable within enough throwing distance to constraints, that's something I should've foreseen, and have no problem retconning to make sense for the writers in a satisfying way. Stories evolve, priorities change, growth is gorgeous.

In 2017 Shia Labeuof in protest of Donald Trump raised a flag in Greenville, with no indication as to its location: There was only a live stream of the flag with the background of an open sky. Within a day,with the use of animal noises, constelations, wheather and flight patterns, 4chan managed to locate the flag and replace it with a hat.

I'm mentioning this as an example of the kind of insane conclusions people are able to come when they put together their different experiences and have a common goal. Now, someone trying to exploit how your worlds work is probably not working with this level of coordenation but they do have access to information you couldn't hope to know about, or see things in an angle that you couldn't because that's just not the way you think.

If I make a world, I cannot be responsible for not forseeing every possibility of what people with entirely different life experiences than me could possibly come up with. That goes double for players who are actively trying to subvert the rules for their own gain, as they will ignore the spirit of the rules in favor of searchign for loopholes. And this is all not to mention when players and GM have a difference of opinion on a topic which could have significant impact on the world, such as how a particular business venture might be received for instance.

Of course, any world is subject to holes and the creator should have the flexibility to deal with things when they show up. But a player should have a degree of respect for the creator's work as well, and they shouldn't be considered responsible because some obscure thing they never heard about, or some misunderstanding they had lead to the player finding a loophole. This is both in the interest of a consistent, workable world being used, but also in the interests of keeping somewhat fair for those players trying to enjoy things without exploiting them.

 

[Grey]

Just chiming in to note one of my favourite things is watching players exercise ingenious ways to break my system and setting without breaking any established rules or conventions.
Generally its a fine demonstration of mastery to break something in interesting ways.

 

[BasiliskVeranda]

Just chiming in to note one of my favourite things is watching players exercise ingenious ways to break my system and setting without breaking any established rules or conventions.
Generally its a fine demonstration of mastery to break something in interesting ways.

This is 100% what I mean. Thank you for chiming in, because figuring out how to explain this on 5 hours of sleep was taking way too long for me.

It is clever. I like clever. I want the sweet-sauce. If everyone is enjoying themselves, and people have equal freedom to flex-a-little-flex, I am the happiest GM on the planet TBH. Make it spicy, let the team do a poll, and get down witcha bad self.

I will eat up ingenuity like the cake it is.

 

[BackSet]

I rarely plan out my worlds enough ahead of time for it to matter.

I still get the same building opportunities but without the sadness of seeing a setting I worked so hard on break.

 

[Idea]

This is 100% what I mean. Thank you for chiming in, because figuring out how to explain this on 5 hours of sleep was taking way too long for me.

It is clever. I like clever. I want the sweet-sauce. If everyone is enjoying themselves, and people have equal freedom to flex-a-little-flex, I am the happiest GM on the planet TBH. Make it spicy, let the team do a poll, and get down witcha bad self.

I will eat up ingenuity like the cake it is.

Of course, of course, more to power to ya there for enjoying it, nothing wrong with that. My point is that one cannot reasonably expect a GM to be able to keep up with or be indefinitely flexible to every exploitation of the setting players can come up with.

 

[BasiliskVeranda]

Of course, of course, more to power to ya there for enjoying it, nothing wrong with that. My point is that one cannot reasonably expect a GM to be able to keep up with or be indefinitely flexible to every exploitation of the setting players can come up with.

But we also can't expect players to know everything either. If GMs cannot be expected to wrangle the horns of a game at its fullest bucking, then neither can players who are curious and want to express themselves, and trying to figure out what they can and cannot do.

If they bad and make 900 year old dragon girl in the body of a 18 year old, using an anime FC, for a realistic crime thriller game, yes. Sure, okay, yeet them. But I'm not on about that.

I'm on about my subjective opinion that if we all are down like clowns, and it makes it juicy-juicy, I am up for whatever way this bronco wants to throw me (as a GM). Throw me your curve balls.

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

I'm on about my subjective opinion that if we all are down like clowns, and it makes it juicy-juicy, I am up for whatever way this bronco wants to throw me (as a GM). Throw me your curve balls.

I feel so old. But I disagree. Either try to tell a damn good story that pays off, or let us know you're justing fucking about for fun.

I have been saying this since 2008: We need two types of RP. Story telling, and fucking about. You can't tell a great story on autopilot unless you get a magical run with the right people using the perfect characters.

But hey, art is subjective. It's just frustrating to see everyone in casual mode 24/7 as they complain about completion rates and getting ghosted.

 

[Idea]

But we also can't expect players to know everything either. If GMs cannot be expected to wrangle the horns of a game at its fullest bucking, then neither can players who are curious and want to express themselves, and trying to figure out what they can and cannot do.

If they bad and make 900 year old dragon girl in the body of a 18 year old, using an anime FC, for a realistic crime thriller game, yes. Sure, okay, yeet them. But I'm not on about that.

I'm on about my subjective opinion that if we all are down like clowns, and it makes it juicy-juicy, I am up for whatever way this bronco wants to throw me (as a GM). Throw me your curve balls.

Naturally, agree on the players not needing to know everything either. Never stated so nor anything alluding to such.

 

[Grey]

Sometimes you need to paint a target on your darlings so someone else can kill them.

 

[BasiliskVeranda]

I feel so old. But I disagree. Either try to tell a damn good story that pays off, or let us know you're justing fucking about for fun.

I have been saying this since 2008: We need two types of RP. Story telling, and fucking about. You can't tell a great story on autopilot unless you get a magical run with the right people using the perfect characters.

But hey, art is subjective. It's just frustrating to see everyone in casual mode 24/7 as they complain about conpletion rates and getting ghosted.

I'm not talking about casual-mode, my dude.

I'm talking about Serious Mode but with a band of rag-tag misfits who are Game Time for some amazing stories. I like flexibility, and that's my subjective tea. The Right People = super important, and you can find them. It IS hard. Lord, believe me. I'm 32 and it is Magic if you find that right combo. But it can, and does, happen.

 

[BackSet]

I've never really got the whole "kill your darlings" thing.

I mean, sure if you're trying to actually sell a book and need to adjust it to the people's wants but if you're writing personal things or roleplays it doesn't really matter, does it.

 

[Grey]

I've never really got the whole "kill your darlings" thing.

I mean, sure if you're trying to actually sell a book and need to adjust it to the people's wants but if you're writing personal things or roleplays it doesn't really matter, does it.

Very much a matter of personal standards. As an RPG designer in Current Year, nothing is ever fully casual for me and I am always eager to take knives to my work, less in response to demographic wants and more a desire to make the best version of something.
But if you're a hobbyist? Fuck it, cuddle your darlings, we're here to have a good time.

 

[BackSet]

Also the term darlings is annoyingly vague. Does it mean characters? Sentences? Paragraphs? Concepts? Artistic license?