Viewpoint What are some dealbreakers to start a new RP with a previous roleplay partner?

[Battychaichilla]

For me, it’s if the person ghosted me in our previous roleplay. Like... I understand if you weren’t interested and you let me know that from the get go. I’d really appreciate that. I also completely understand that you are not obligated to roleplay with me if you don’t want to. But please don’t try to start up another roleplay with me when you’ve already ghosted me in the past; if you had let me know before I would have happily jumped on another RP that will hopefully be more interesting and engaging than before.

But I dunno, do I make sense? If you just up and left once before, you’re more likely to do it again. Common courtesy goes a long way, right?

What do you guys think? Have you ever turned down someone you’ve roleplayed with previously for a similar/different reason?

 

[nerdy tangents]

The only reasons I will turn someone down is toxic personality or lack of roleplay compatibility.

- So if our writing styles don’t mesh then I won’t bother with a second attempt at roleplaying.

- If you were rude, bigoted, demanding, selfish, a troll, a boundary overstepper, or uncooperative than I am usually going to block you outright. At least when I search for roleplays, so I don’t accidentally end up in a toxic situation twice.

 

[Onmyoji]

It very much depends on why we stopped roleplaying before.

If it was something out of our control like ghosting due to real life etc I wouldn't mind to try again if the rest was fine.

But if our writing styles or ideas didn't match well or if we didn't have good time OOC I wouldn't want to start again. Even if it wasn't toxic, just... didn't work out well. Then no. I could resume OOC talking but not rp.

I didn't have to turn someone down though. Either we resumed roleplaying because it was good and we just took a long hiatus but could rp as normal when there was a chance. Or they never showed up again.

 

[Crayons]

I think I'd want there to be a consistent pattern of ghosting before I definitely ruled it out. Like, ghosting once isn't a big deal since there are so many reasons it could happen, but if they are doing it all the time I'd probably not want to RP with them again.

Usually if I've enjoyed the RP with them I would give it another go. I can't think of any time this has actually happened to me so this is on a theoretical basis.

No wait, there was this one person who seemed really cool but she ghosted me twice for really long periods of time. When she came back she wanted to RP with me, but wanted to do something different, and tbf the only thing I would have been willing to take her back for was the original roleplay because I was really into the premise we had worked out. So I said no.

 

[Battychaichilla]

Absolutely!! I agree with all these points, and am
completely fine with waiting for partners; there have been times when I’ve actually waited months before letting them continue the rp with me. That I do not mind, and have been guilty of myself because life happens.

I’m more referring to someone who intentionally leaves a private discord server or a PM rp without even letting me know and/or intentionally leaving the RP without any intention of returning to it. A small heads up helps and it kind of hurts when they seem to forget that they did this to you and approach you for a different RP from an interest check.

 

[Viper]

See, I like planning RPs way more than I do actually doing them, which is sometimes a major problem. I always tell people when I am no longer interested... unless they drop off the face of the Earth first. The point is, if I am giving someone the courtesy of telling them I'm dropping, then you better not get pissy at me about it. Like fine, be disappointed, but don't be rude. If you are rude, then I will never tolerate you. Losing interest is normal and oftentimes more than just be not being interested in the plot. Being rude is always unacceptable since a simple "Alright. Good luck in other RPs" is so easy to say even when you don't mean it.

I have a list, a short-list but one none-the-less of people I will not accept RPs from and will not contact again; in the latter cases, there was clearly something in their interest check that was checking all of my boxes but something OOC or IC is clearly not right. Maybe they did not talk OOC in a way that I enjoy (short responses that imply lack of interest or creativity, for example). If I RP with someone twice and both times I want to drop, then I'll never (or at least for a long time) do another anything with them.

 

[Jannah]

I will give pretty much anyone a second chance unless the original RP failed due to incompatible writing styles or a nasty falling out(yes, this has happened with some of my partners and not even over RP related stuff). I'm pretty ghost friendly, especially since I tend to do it a bit myself due to my mental health. If a person ghosts I just assume they lost interest in that particular RP so I feel it never hurts to reach out to them for another that might keep their interest for longer.

 

[Murdergurl]

It's a little more complicated with me, since I only RP in groups. So I actually don't have a lot of control over who else joins in on the RP. I guess the closest I could augment the question to be relevant to me, would be: "What would be a dealbreaker to joining a new RP with a previous GM?"

To that I would list the following reasons:

• If the GM dropped out of their RP and left the players high and dry (it happens more often than you think).

• If the narrative style wound up being considerably less than I was looking for. In other words, if they provide very scant posts to push the story forward.

• If it was obvious that they didn't know what they were doing or where to take the story, and were kind of bumbling along in the narrative with little or no direction.

• If they show a lot of favoritism to any given player ICly in letting them get away with OP characters, Metagaming, etc. while coming down on everyone else.

• If they set forth certain guidelines for character creation, but do not stick to it themselves (or otherwise let some people slide while holding others rigidly to it. See above)

 

[Sailormars34]

If that person suddenly decides to disappear on me while I'm starting to like rping with them