Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[Zeev]

There's nothing bigoted about wanting characters in stories to be more than just who they're sexually attracted to. Good characters, of any sexual orientation HAVE PERSONALITY.

As for OP characters, in the context of RP it definitely takes a degree of trust. There's very few people I've ever RPed with whom I can trust to actually be able to pull off an overpowered character successfully. It worked in the example I described because the RP was with someone I had been RPing with for years. We knew each other's writing styles and goals.

Then OP characters are not the issue then, they are symptomatic casualties of your lack of trust as well, people's poor mishandling of them, I don't engage in much open roleplay, I tend to be a bit selective nowadays, so perhaps that filter has prevented the flaws from being exacerbated for me.

 

[Jannah]

Then OP characters are not the issue then, they are symptomatic casualties of your lack of trust as well, people's poor mishandling of them, I don't engage in much open roleplay, I tend to be a bit selective nowadays, so perhaps that filter has prevented the flaws from being exacerbated for me.

The issue with RP is that often everyone wants to one up everyone else in being the most badass mofo on the block.

 

[Grey]

The issue with RP is that often everyone wants to one up everyone else in being the most badass mofo on the block.

This is among the reasons I prefer system-supported play. Defining and applying an upper limit means characters can feel contextually powerful without deforming their interactions with the narrative or other characters.
Attaching a randomizer adds a nice layer of uncertainty and scope for failure.

 

[FoolsErin]

I don’t see any problem at all with having people with different kinds of faceclaims in one roleplay. In my opinion there’s not really an issue with two dudes with anime pictures for their characters roleplaying in a group with someone having a character with a photo faceclaim. Yea, I get it can be a little difficult on the imagination to picture all these very different artstyled characters in the same place, but I personally just take an Into the Spiderverse angle on it and it works fine. Maybe it’s because I mostly specialize in crossovers where this stuff nigh-inevitably happens sometimes, but it’s really not that big of an issue in my eyes.

Edit: Though I’m not a huge fan of people who use faceclaims of recognizable actors and canon characters for characters that aren’t or aren’t played by those people. It makes it harder to get into the roleplay because every time I read about said character all I can think about is said character who is/character played by the faceclaim. It’s distracting. Not a deal breaker for as far as roleplays I’ve been in/are currently in go, but still not my favorite thing.

 

[Uriels-Fire]

Sometimes, things that are trope-y and full of clichés are good, and you don't always need a totally brand new, Never Been Done Before, super duper unique idea, or to always be subversive and pushing boundaries and throwing out convention. Sometimes it's nice to just sit down for a while and settle for something comfortable and familiar and enjoy, it even if it's not real groundbreaking stuff you're doing. Not all stories you write with someone have to be full of tons of creative or artistic/literary merit to be worthwhile and enjoyable.

Sometimes you just want to play the story equivalent of popcorn and m&ms instead of the real classy dinner, and you know what? Perfectly fine! Sometimes that's just what you're hungry for and there's zero shame in indulging in that.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I don’t see any problem at all with having people with different kinds of faceclaims in one roleplay. In my opinion there’s not really an issue with two dudes with anime pictures for their characters roleplaying in a group with someone having a character with a photo faceclaim. Yea, I get it can be a little difficult on the imagination to picture all these very different artstyled characters in the same place, but I personally just take an Into the Spiderverse angle on it and it works fine. Maybe it’s because I mostly specialize in crossovers where this stuff nigh-inevitably happens sometimes, but it’s really not that big of an issue in my eyes.

Edit: Though I’m not a huge fan of people who use faceclaims of recognizable actors and canon characters for characters that aren’t or aren’t played by those people. It makes it harder to get into the roleplay because every time I read about said character all I can think about is said character who is/character played by the faceclaim. It’s distracting. Not a deal breaker for as far as roleplays I’ve been in/are currently in go, but still not my favorite thing.

I mention this in another thread. But it's something that has started to bother me more the older I get. It makes me retroactively cringe a little for all those times I put an actor face claim in my CS. I mean it's not a deal breaker or anything I'd call someone out for.

But it does kind of kill the suspension of disbelief if your face claim is a recognizable person/character OR it's an obviously stylized/sexualized model. I used to try to get around this by looking up pictures of celebrities just hanging out. No make up, no action poses, when they looked more or less like real people with maybe super nice cheek bones.

 

[Crayons]

Sometimes, things that are trope-y and full of clichés are good, and you don't always need a totally brand new, Never Been Done Before, super duper unique idea, or to always be subversive and pushing boundaries and throwing out convention. Sometimes it's nice to just sit down for a while and settle for something comfortable and familiar and enjoy, it even if it's not real groundbreaking stuff you're doing. Not all stories you write with someone have to be full of tons of creative or artistic/literary merit to be worthwhile and enjoyable.

Sometimes you just want to play the story equivalent of popcorn and m&ms instead of the real classy dinner, and you know what? Perfectly fine! Sometimes that's just what you're hungry for and there's zero shame in indulging in that.

And this is why RP is much, much easier than writing a novel! Woop woop!

On the subject of faceclaims: I don't really like photos of people as faceclaims, but if I do use one, I'd rather it was an actor (than a model or anything else) because a) you can get movie stills of them doing all kinds of facial expressions/poses/in different outfits so it isn't just pouting "sexily" at the camera and b) you can say, "Well, it's like if Richard Chamberlain was playing this character in a movie" and thinking of your RP being a movie with actors playing the parts is pretty cool.

 

[Daisie]

Sometimes, things that are trope-y and full of clichés are good, and you don't always need a totally brand new, Never Been Done Before, super duper unique idea, or to always be subversive and pushing boundaries and throwing out convention. Sometimes it's nice to just sit down for a while and settle for something comfortable and familiar and enjoy, it even if it's not real groundbreaking stuff you're doing. Not all stories you write with someone have to be full of tons of creative or artistic/literary merit to be worthwhile and enjoyable.

Sometimes you just want to play the story equivalent of popcorn and m&ms instead of the real classy dinner, and you know what? Perfectly fine! Sometimes that's just what you're hungry for and there's zero shame in indulging in that.

This! I have a writing partner where we're basically making the sappiest, sweetest, most trope-y romance there is. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. We're both having a good time with it, and that's all that matters.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

Romance is the most boring thing you can ever roleplay.

 

[Daisie]

Romance is the most boring thing you can ever roleplay.

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Romance isn't the most boring thing you can RP if you haven't RPed hardly any romance before! I find it fun, but I've only relatively recently started to even consider it.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

Romance isn't the most boring thing you can RP if you haven't RPed hardly any romance before! I find it fun, but I've only relatively recently started to even consider it.

Well, I tried, and thus far it's the most boring thing I have. Even some slice of life seems to be more exciting than that. But feel free to change my mind! XD I mean, what do I know, I've only tried it, like... four, five times, maybe? Hardly an experience.

 

[Daisie]

Well, I tried, and thus far it's the most boring thing I have. Even some slice of life seems to be more exciting than that. But feel free to change my mind! XD I mean, what do I know, I've only tried it, like... four, five times, maybe? Hardly an experience.

Oh, and I'm not saying you don't have the right to dislike romance, by the way! Like what you like, don't like what you don't like... I just looked at the image and got thinking lol

Do you think your experiences were good experiences? Personally, I find that romance is best if it's not planned ahead. If it happens naturally, it's more like "oh, this is such a cute thing that's happening" instead of "here, partner I don't know, I'm going to create a character and you're going to create a character and we're going to mash them together like Barbie dolls"

No offense to people who do pre-planned romance, lol. Again, like what you like!

 

[kevintheradioguy]

Oh, and I'm not saying you don't have the right to dislike romance, by the way!

I'm not saying you implied that. I'm genuinely saying that you are free to change my mind - I had little experience with it, and what I had turned me against the genre; and jokingly suggest you RP romance with me to prove me wrong XD

I had amazing partners, but as a genre it never really stuck. And for exact reason you mentioned: the reason of going into romance as a genre. Because you plan it ahead when you search for a romance RP, you know you want these two characters to end up together, and in the end, it all felt forced to me. Like I'm not playing my role, but pushing, and forcing, and violating my character, making them feel and act a certain way, and it just feels... revolting. It feels like I'm playing someone else, and not the guy I started playing as. Which, again, doesn't mean i had bad partners. In my lifetime I think I had a bad partner (ERP-wise, I had plenty tabletop-wise), a single one, but even then I cannot say it was a Bad Player per se - she was just too young (or sounded young), and didn't get the hang of... RP culture, whatever that means. Anyway, my partners were great writers, but romance games were nothing but characters just... hanging out! Doing nothing but cooing, dating, looking at each other awkwardly, and so on. I can coo, date, and look at my fiance every day without it being in a RP. A game I'm currently playing has elements of romance in it, but it's only on the background, the central plot is a detective one, and it works fine, though I find myself enjoying the detective ten times more than the romance thing. I'd play that game without a romance subplot. I wouldn't play wit without the detective one.

Most importantly, I always say that RPGs, especially text ones, present you with the world of endless possibilities. You can be anything, from daring gnomish adventurer, to a mighty dragon, to man-eating tentacle monster, to a giant flying dumpling from Mars! Why choose something as usual and mediocre as romance (or slice of life, come to think of it)? It's something you can do in your ordinary life - and something you probably actually do in your real life. Why waste perfectly good RP partner, platform, and time for this, when you can experience something you will never possibly do? Like, fighting aliens, or jumping portals to hellish dimensions, or being a genius detective!

My opinion: if it happens - it happens. If suddenly amidst the war with the undead my giant black dragoness falls in love with a dashing elven prince - so be it. But I'm not planning that, not counting on that, and not turning the otherwise badass medieval fantasy adventure hack-and-slash game into a dating sim just because that happened, you know?

PS there are also these things with sudden jealousy, ant-multi-ships, and so on I hear about on Twitter, and they frankly scare me.
PPS now look how we ruined the perfectly fine meme.

 

[Grey]

I always feel like romance works best as an extra layer to another genre focus, and if you're just doing romance you have to really put work into the narrative arc.
I've got an essay on the topic around here somewhere, but you'd get more out of romance by choosing a theme and conflict for it to revolve around. Wartime, for example - the war story in which instance is wrapping for a story that is in some way about love, framing it with a conflict to provide narrative weight and impetus.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

I always feel like romance works best as an extra layer to another genre focus, and if you're just doing romance you have to really put work into the narrative arc.

That reminds me that I have actually read a romance book before, just to feel it, and it was actually pretty disgusting. Indeed, there was no other arc besides the romance, and it basically was a set of actions the female character said she didn't want to do (but wanting them inside), and the male character forcing her to do so. Nothing sexual (mostly), it's like wearing a pretty dress, letting him cook, going for a ride, buying a new car, going for a vacation, telling a co-worker to fuck off. Some sex stuff too, but, you know, I'm not willing to go there. The author presented it as the female lead wanting all those things, but just saying no because she didn't like the male lead, and him forcing her was a good thing, but it read... horribly. Abusive. Never took another romance book since.

edit: oh, I also read the first 50 shades book. Same thing.

 

[Daisie]

I always feel like romance works best as an extra layer to another genre focus, and if you're just doing romance you have to really put work into the narrative arc.
I've got an essay on the topic around here somewhere, but you'd get more out of romance by choosing a theme and conflict for it to revolve around. Wartime, for example - the war story in which instance is wrapping for a story that is in some way about love, framing it with a conflict to provide narrative weight and impetus.

I tend to agree with that! Going back to that sappy, sweet romance plot I've got going on, I think it'd be way more boring if the main plot wasn't going on in the front of it. Stories - at least, the stories I enjoy - tend to need a good balance. If the story were completely revolving around these two characters coming together, I think it would be a bit too sweet to handle. But there are tons of other things going on. Another, slower, more serious romance growing in the background, location changes, a central goal, life-endangering action, ect.

 

[Grey]

That reminds me that I have actually read a romance book before, just to feel it, and it was actually pretty disgusting. Indeed, there was no other arc besides the romance, and it basically was a set of actions the female character said she didn't want to do (but wanting them inside), and the male character forcing her to do so. Nothing sexual (mostly), it's like wearing a pretty dress, letting him cook, going for a ride, buying a new car, going for a vacation, telling a co-worker to fuck off. Some sex stuff too, but, you know, I'm not willing to go there. The author presented it as the female lead wanting all those things, but just saying no because she didn't like the male lead, and him forcing her was a good thing, but it read... horribly. Abusive. Never took another romance book since.

Oof, I don't blame you. That's last century as fuck.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

I think it'd be way more boring if the main plot wasn't going on in the front of it.

To me, as I said earlier, if it happens- it happens. But then I go on a partner hunt on the forums, and like... eight out of ten ads state "romance is a must". Which to me means that it's the centre of the story for them, even if they state otherwise, if it's a must, then they're solely interested in that thing alone. Which turns every other genre into a subplot, while romance is the main plot. And that brings me back to all the "irl vs fantasy" thing.

 

[Jannah]

Romance is the most boring thing you can ever roleplay.

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For me it depends on how it's done. I like forbidden romance and star-crossed lovers plots. Those can be fun. Other than that, though, meh.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

star-crossed lovers plots

Pardon, the-what?

 

[Jannah]

Pardon, the-what?

Basically doomed lovers. Think Romeo and Juliet or Jack and Rose from Titanic. That sort of thing.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

Basically doomed lovers. Think Romeo and Juliet or Jack and Rose from Titanic. That sort of thing.

My first thought about that term was the complete opposite.

 

[rae2nerdy]

That reminds me that I have actually read a romance book before, just to feel it, and it was actually pretty disgusting. Indeed, there was no other arc besides the romance, and it basically was a set of actions the female character said she didn't want to do (but wanting them inside), and the male character forcing her to do so. Nothing sexual (mostly), it's like wearing a pretty dress, letting him cook, going for a ride, buying a new car, going for a vacation, telling a co-worker to fuck off. Some sex stuff too, but, you know, I'm not willing to go there. The author presented it as the female lead wanting all those things, but just saying no because she didn't like the male lead, and him forcing her was a good thing, but it read... horribly. Abusive. Never took another romance book since.

edit: oh, I also read the first 50 shades book. Same thing.

Yeah that’s not really demonstrative of the genre as a whole. That’s the kind of thing you find on the Bad Books Good Times blog. (FYI if you want a good deconstruction of how to make a bad romance good check out Jenny Trouts Jealous Haters Book Club. She started it deconstructing the Fifty Shades books and actually does sprinkle in some good tips here and there for how to do things better or specifically where EL James goes wrong).

Romance as a genre is no different than any other genre. Your going to have your schlock and your classics and everything in between. I find YA is actually a good genre for romance, especially some of the newer stuff. For instance Rainbow Rowell actually does some fun popcorn romance.

Its all about learning to spot patterns and get a feel for what’s worth your time and what isn’t. I have a hard time writing romance (being aro/ace) but I have fairly recently decided to broaden my role play horizons so I read a lot of romance books. And I found that a lot of them are very well written and tackle interesting questions of diversity. Even the regency style books aren’t all as bad as I remembered although some are big piles of yikes.

I think the reason writing romance is hard is because it’s really about writing chemistry and a engaging character. If you don’t like either of the romantic leads OR at least find them interesting to read about than your not going to be engaged in the love story. That’s true whether your reading a book or making a roleplay.

I would say if your serious about getting into romance than start with a genre you already enjoy and find the romance equivalent.

ex. If you like fantasy try paranormal romance. If you like history try historical romance. If you like mysteries there are plenty of cozy mystery romance series.

 

[defenderofberk]

I am not obligated to feel comfortable or to play with your trans/non binary pansexual character just because you want me to. Are you obligated to play with my character just because I've spent ages developing them? No, so why am I?

wow I just noticed how dead this thread was. Whoops.

 

[BakaTheIdiot]

Imma peace out before this thread blows up again...