Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[Grey]

Now I kind of want to do a RP with a nomadic tribe that is incredibly scholarly. Perhaps they're nomadic because they want to travel around and learn more about the world.

I'd suggest looking to perpatetic groups for inspiration, particularly around India. If memory serves, the Bedouin had quite a rich scholarly tradition at some point, too (but finding scholarship on the topic is, ironically, an absolute pain the arse).
The main obstacles are recording methods, transporting recorded information, and a propensity for nomadic groups to be strongly traditionalist which is great for some fields of study and anathema to others. Purely oral records can be subject to fierce dogma or significant drift, as well.

 

[Crayons]

As an actual librarian I find it amusing how many people have this weird stereotypical view of librarians and how resistant they are to changing it. I have worked in a library for almost thirteen years and last weekend my mom had the nerve to flat out tell me I didn’t know how libraries were run cuz I told her the stereotype about this quite place were people read books isn’t an accurate depiction of the services library offer. She literally tried to pull a definition off google to prove that I (the person trained and actively working as a librarian) didn’t know what I was talking about.

So yeah the helpless nerd thing is weird to me. Like y’all think dealing with the public is something a bunch of shy wilting flowers can do every week?

I was a librarian too, and worked in libraries for 11 years total. There was always a share of shy, wilting nerds. But there are actually a bunch of library work stereotypes all of which I saw during my time.

Shy wilting male nerd
Clumsy shy girl grew up and is now clumsy shy middle aged woman
Sexy librarian
Goth librarian (this one was extremely popular)
Stern middle aged lady yelling shhh!
Nice and cuddly children's librarian

You can guess which one of those I was.

I mean there were a whole bunch of other people who didn't fit into stereotypes too. XD

Libraries are awesome. :3

 

[Becker]

I did a brief stint of voluntary work at my local library and I can't even read.. ​

 

[pancakemix]

What are some of your opinions about roleplay that you think might be unpopular?

Here's a few of mine;

- I think one liners and short responses in general get a little toooo much hate. Sure, there are times when a few lines aren't enough and you need to write a longer response.. but I also think there's situations where the reverse is true, too. For instance, I feel like a lot of fight scenes go better when the responses are shorter.

- I wish people would stop using uncredited art as face-claims. (Especially because if you reverse image search a lot of them and find the original, instead of just pulling it off google images or pinterest, you'll find a lot of these artists actually don't want their work reposted at all..)

- Slightly related to the last one, I don't think faceclaims should be required, really. They're cool to have but I don't understand when people insist on you using one, given roleplay is mostly about the writing.

What are some of your opinions about roleplay that you think might be unpopular?

Here's a few of mine;

- I think one liners and short responses in general get a little toooo much hate. Sure, there are times when a few lines aren't enough and you need to write a longer response.. but I also think there's situations where the reverse is true, too. For instance, I feel like a lot of fight scenes go better when the responses are shorter.

- I wish people would stop using uncredited art as face-claims. (Especially because if you reverse image search a lot of them and find the original, instead of just pulling it off google images or pinterest, you'll find a lot of these artists actually don't want their work reposted at all..)

- Slightly related to the last one, I don't think faceclaims should be required, really. They're cool to have but I don't understand when people insist on you using one, given roleplay is mostly about the writing.

I have to disagree on the "short replies" thing. I've been RPing since 2012, and I think of it as a challenge. How can you make the most of what's given to you? It's not about what's necessary, it's about creativity and giving your partner something to play off of. Short replies are fine, but just putting down two sentences can be viewed as "lazy". RP is still writing, why would you willingly take shortcuts? Taking something you "can't" reply to and giving 2 solid paragraphs makes you a better writer.

 

[Syntra]

I have to disagree on the "short replies" thing. I've been RPing since 2012, and I think of it as a challenge. How can you make the most of what's given to you? It's not about what's necessary, it's about creativity and giving your partner something to play off of. Short replies are fine, but just putting down two sentences can be viewed as "lazy". RP is still writing, why would you willingly take shortcuts? Taking something you "can't" reply to and giving 2 solid paragraphs makes you a better writer.

Tbh, if I get a post I "can't" reply to, I'd rather talk to my partner and ask them to expand upon the reply rather than force myself to make something out of nothing. That's the fastest way for me to start resenting the roleplay.

 

[Dead-On-Arrival]

Might not be the most out in left field, but I think people should weight how much they sync ooc wise over the skill of the rper, especially with casual rps. Its all about having fun and chilling out, so no worries if your partner isn't quite the level you are. (That doesn't negate people putting in equal effort tho)

also drawn face claims should be more popular, its so much fun seeing how people represent their characters no matter the skill level!

 

[Crayons]

I have to disagree on the "short replies" thing. I've been RPing since 2012, and I think of it as a challenge. How can you make the most of what's given to you? It's not about what's necessary, it's about creativity and giving your partner something to play off of. Short replies are fine, but just putting down two sentences can be viewed as "lazy". RP is still writing, why would you willingly take shortcuts? Taking something you "can't" reply to and giving 2 solid paragraphs makes you a better writer.

Why would you willingly write with someone who is giving you unsatisfying responses? Sure, use it as a personal growth platform if you want but ultimately it's boring and frustrating to get back brickwalling or much shorter posts than you write yourself. RP is fun, it's not about toting baggage around with you. If you're both writing two sentence replies then fine, but why waste your time RPing with someone who will read your two solid paragraphs and give you back some ill-thought out two sentence reply again. It seems more like torture than self improvement to me.

 

[defenderofberk]

A bit about the previous answer, roleplayers who want to start roleplaying as soon as you show interest in their plot.
I cannot stress how absolutely necessary it is, at least for me, to get to know people before roleplaying. I don't mean becoming friends (I don't think it is necessary in order to roleplay with someone), but at least getting a bit acquainted with them, with what they like, what they dislike, how they write, etc. And it is even more important to me to spend a good time plotting and talking about the roleplay. I like to do it too, and I think it gives people a solid idea in order to start, as it prevents the roleplay to go nowhere.
Granted, I love plot twists, I love unpredictable events, but having, at least, a sketch of what the story might look like is necessary to me. And I think that many people neglect such previous communication, which might lead to misunderstandings in the future.

This bugs me so much. If we're going to work on a fun collaborative project, is it really that much to ask to know a little bit about the other person. It's great for establishing potential themes and ideas for the role play as well; do you like similar music, films, characters, even food?

 

[defenderofberk]

Precisely! Granted, I don't really think that a friendship is necessary, but having, at least, a base knowledge about the other person's interests and tastes. It turns easier if both people have similar tastes, but if they do not, knowing what the other one likes helps a lot when plotting and discussing ideas. I am a huge fan of horror, but if I know that my roleplay partner is not, I'll obviously avoid such topic, for example, and focus on other topics.
But indeed, roleplaying with someone whose tastes are very different from yours is actually hard and not satisfying as well. For the same reason as the one mentioned above: people won't click, and the tastes will be so different that any sort of identification is lost. Knowing one's common ground is a reasonable choice, I guess and if such common ground is big, even better!

Yeah I don't need to know their life history but just some casual chit chat helps keep interest peaked and makes the role play more personal (this can be a bad thing though).

The thing about any genre is it has so many different sub genres. I like horror myself but I like psychological horror whereas other might like comedic horror, body horror or supernatural horror. That's why it's much easier to connect about what movies or books you both like, as it's far more precise.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

Now I kind of want to do a RP with a nomadic tribe that is incredibly scholarly. Perhaps they're nomadic because they want to travel around and learn more about the world.

That would be an awesome take on the concept of a nomad. And would be fun to see how someone way to into the cliche takes it LOL

I have a character that comes from a tribe that travels around their area of the land they live in taking advantage of the best terrains by seasons. And they have many who travel out of their 'territories' to meet and make deals with other people. And they are quite artistic and crafty with wares and things to trade they make in the harsher winter when they must stay still. People in the cities call them barbarians but I made t pretty obvious it was a kind of insulting term.

And somehow in an RP someone tries to spin a prejudice story of their character hating mine because her people pillaged his hometown like some viking barbarian. I assumed it would be some misunderstanding and in OOC like NOPE. They actually tried to use pre-established stereo type to argue that a culture I made up should be a cliche barbarian culture.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

also drawn face claims should be more popular, its so much fun seeing how people represent their characters no matter the skill level!

Face claims are not something I dealt with in my old SITE. But I see the request more and more on other sites. And it's turned into a case of what what makes me yeet out of a search.

I agree. I stated once before I can see groups demanding certain styles to be a way of finding people who can obey rules and take the group seriously. I've been offered a chance in these groups by a few people I talk to. But I'm kind of more into casual story building RPs where I can be comfortable using characters I've worked on. So I do the mature thing and decline. But apparently a lot of people don't want to decline and instead want the RP to change for them. Most people I talk to that join or run these have a lot of "It was going great until this one or two people just couldn't stand some restriction on so-and-so and kept starting fights or breaking the flow of the RP . . . " So I can see them making people finding certain face claims for the characters to be a first test in if they can obey the rules to begin with. Especially when these RPs have a lot of making the character from scratch or at least altering anyway. It can help weed out the play-by-their-own-rules people who think an Action Replay should work on a game run by actual humans.

But over all in less strict areas when roleplays are open to playing characters someone has already made and worked on for sometime. And drawn or commissioned work of them? And the rules are a matter of agreeing you are compatible and have the same comfort zone and interest? In these cases I see a red flag if someone can't look at a picture and imagine it in the style their imagination will be seeing while reading replies. It's like "I got like 8 pictures of this character in 3 styles but you want me to find a actual human that looks like him? You can't imagine him as a human?" special color, eyes, or other feature. I mean seriously I've had perfectly fun RPs with people showing me character pictures I could have drawn! (And my attempts at drawing humans will make you cry in pity)

And I don't do romance or shipping. So someone needing to judge the characters 'hot' factor would just be a warning sign.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

I gotta say, I am shocked at the amount of support I got with my complaint about librarian cliches. Glad to see so many agree people using libraries and working in them are not nerds. People shouldn't hate on other's looking to read or learn or help other's do so. Or in the case of many libraries join groups or clubs because yeah, many do that too. My local library had a bunch of groups for kids and even teenagers to give them something to do together other than get in trouble. Plus a young socialization group to help kids not be recluses.

Also, it had a huge database of video game magazines. Was a free movie rental place. And the source for fund raisers. Certainly not a place for nerds who only want to talk to books.

 

[defenderofberk]

I generally use three to five pictures even if they're just a human, but if it's a supernatural I may use more, highlighting which bits are the most accurate to my vision. It usually works out okay. Usually.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

I feel so much that part about casual talking. It can be great, and the base of a new friendship. But in the other hand it can bring many problems as well, if people don't click. And it is so important to differentiate between roleplay ooc and actual friendly conversations too. But sometimes the two things get so attached that it us basically impossible.

And that's do true as well. My favourite form of horror is also psychological horror. And my least favourite one is gore/slasher. Not because it disgusts me, but rather because it often doesn't serve a purpose. So it is way easier to know precisely what the other roleplayer likes y asking them what films, TV series, books, etc, they like.

It's always best to have an actual talk about comforts and not when RPing. I find even if you are willing to try to over look a couple of 'small' things you don't like. In the end these things tend to really tear down the fourth wall in the end. Like with me the whole 'circle of life' fad for want of a better description. Sorry, but I have a deep rooted vibe that slavery, rape, torture, and cannibalism are all things in the villain category. So if you want me to play my characters hanging out with someone who knows a creature is intelligent but "They live by nature's rules, so killing and eating a sentient being is fine!" I just can't fully get into a story or stop questioning the actual purity of you your good guys heart. Or play my character being okay with them.

So how about we actually discuss this stuff ahead of time.

Also, as far as OOC.

This was a huge issue that ended up leading to the end of a fairly long term RP. Me and the person had certain key issues we didn't agree on. They were very Social justice warrior (like seriously hardcore) and strongly into science over religion. And at first "Yeah, fine avoid said topic." Until they seemed to be getting ghosted and by their 'friends' for bringing up said topics. Then they wouldn't stop trying to come to me about it.

I'm pretty open minded to people having different beliefs than me, but this got to the point they weren't just trying to 'educate me'. Even setting traps showing me prehistoric creatures to try to get a comment to look for a rant opening. Or asking me what my characters thought of some social current hot topic. Yeah, they tried to get around it by asking my characters. And it was bleeding into the RP to the point thier characters would break into tangents for no reason and it broke plot.

The beginning of the end was when they contacted me complaining their friends were mean to them. They were always complaining about these 'friends' anymore. I looked at the incident and was like. "Um, yeah, I'm on their side ." These people were talking about cryptids (a favorite topic of mine) and got literally tore into for 'believing' in them (not really,, they were just talking from a cool if this happened POV) And then interrupted for not discussing it 'in science' by a spamming of videos while they were ignoring the tangent. So RP partner got thoroughly tore into in a 'we finally had it with your s***' digital screaming.

After this they got real heavy into trying to 'convert' me for want of a better word. Forgetting the whole you be you and I'll be me. It got to where as soon as they started it and sent a laughy emoji when I reminded them 'not my thing' I would ghost them for at least 24 hours. All it did was make them more smart ass until it led to an incident where I first ended the RP. Nothing was actually happening anyway because they couldn't keep their characters in character or they had them getting angry and just yelling and never moving plot. And the side characters they had they had vanish so my characters had no one to actually have plot with. They tried to talk about fixing the RP but as soon as anything pointed to me not liking 'their thing' they just sent the laugh emoji and I blacklisted the conversation altogether.

We managed to talk a little OOC and they seemed to calm down. Then they took something that happened near me and could have hurt my family as a chance to make fun of my country. Then I yeeted them out of my life. After a few weeks they seemed to realize I was actually done and tried to contact me. But the apology at this point I couldn't take seriously. They actually stalked my DA page for like five months before sending a final message to try to restart. But frankly they already proved to not want to listen to other's sides of things.

 

[CaptainAddy00]

I don't really do word count. It feels like writing an essay for one of my classes to me and I've had enough of that to do. I also think anime FCs are pretty cool, especially for fantasy creatures like elves and stuff.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

I feel that roleplayers as much as they try to break the molds with their settings frequently remain too comfortable and familiar often the harder they try to stick out. This isn't to say I discourage those who try but it's usually very easy to spot the influences and inspirations as well as the kind of atmosphere they are going for. To be fair this doesn't stop roleplays from being really fun but I do feel that fantasy is a bit more guilty of this though science fiction can feel a bit too boilerplate space opera. Post apocalyptic I think might actually suffer from this the worst.

 

[AndPeggy]

I'm not a fan of dialogue towers. By which I mean, I can't stand it when there are multiple points of conversation happening in a single reply (often divided up by paragraph) because it literally makes no sense, temporally speaking.

If character A talks about the weather, then weapons training, and then something about, oh, I don't know, books - and character B reacts to all three items, congratulations, you now have 3 separate conversations happening simultaneously that don't lead into one another.

It just feels like word count padding. I get that it's more efficient in revealing info about your character, but. It's just so messy!

This is my biggest pet peeve and I can't believe how many people do this! It throws off the entire progression of time. I would rather have many short replies, like a real conversation, so there's time to react to things, rather than a long post with 3 conversations going on simultaneously.

 

[AndPeggy]

I don't think that people should commit to multiple rps if they KNOW their schedule is going to drastically change in the future.

For example, during the pandemic some people were working from home or furloughed and had a lot of extra time. But why would someone join multiple rps when they KNOW they will eventually have to go back to work and not have time for them anymore?

The same goes for people who join RPs during summer break when they know that when they go back to school they won't have time anymore.

Are they expecting the RP to conclude within a few months? I don't get why people do this. It's unfair for everyone else in the RP.

 

[Delinquent]

Are they expecting the RP to conclude within a few months?

Yeah, pretty much. And considering that most die within a week I think its a fairly reasonable expectation.

 

[welian]

I'd love to see more short roleplays, like forum versions of one-shot dungeon crawls.

 

[Crenando]

As someone who helps run an RP that's been going for an unnaturally long amount of time, I've played around with the idea of doing an RP in a mini-series format that lasts a set number of episodes, chapters or issues, with a definitive ending in sight.
I think if people know there's an ending and it won't just spin its wheels until it dies, there'll be more interest.

 

[AnnJam]

...RP in a mini-series format that lasts a set number of episodes, chapters or issues, with a definitive ending in sight...

I've done this!

 

[Grey]

I endorse a definitive ending and discrete arcs.

The one long-term viable RP I had used that model, and technically so do all of my RPs - it's just never get started.

 

[Lorsh]

Wish 1x1 GMed stuff was more popular, they were called Interactive Story Roleplays (ISRPs) on the forum I came from.

 

[Jannah]

Wish 1x1 GMed stuff was more popular, they were called Interactive Story Roleplays (ISRPs) on the forum I came from.

What do you mean by this?