Viewpoint What are some things you won't role play?

[defenderofberk]

Just like the title says really. Feel free to elaborate as to why not as much or as little as you see fit, "I don't like it/it doesn't interest me" is a perfectly fine explanation as we're all just here to have fun. Here's a few of mine:

Heavy fluff - it just gets boring
Animal abuse - just no
Promiscuous characters - it turns too lewd/sexual
Furries - just not my thing and kinda creepy tbh
Older women dating younger men/women - I'll role play the other way round (just no student/teacher stuff) but it almost always gets fetishized.

 

[Dalphy]

I can't deal with animals getting hurt most of the time.

 

[rae2nerdy]

- Sexual abuse or abusive relationships
- Real world mental illness
(I don’t mind if you make up fake ones)
- Adult and Minors in relationships
- Psychics (In superhero roleplays specifically)
- Purely straight world (like everyone in a relationship must be straight)
- Forced relationships (You play my crush and make up a crush for me to play)
- Edit : Mystery roleplays (I like them fine they just don’t work out in my experience)

 

[haleighlujah]

I just need a roleplay to have an interesting hook. Why am I spending hours of my time on a game that has nothing to do? It's the equivalent of video games that spend a lot of energy into graphical and open world aspects of gameplay; it feels empty. I'm not engaged, I'm bored. Sure it's pretty, I see you care a lot about what's going on, but I'm sorry to say I don't until you make me care. Give me a reason to get invested and I'll probably play anything.
Everyone has their own personal interests. I don't like superheroes, vampires, elves. If I click on a roleplay and it's a generic setting described, with a generic war, the search will continue. But it could be about superheroes, and I would still play if you had an interesting hook.
EDIT: This goes the same way for "House Party" roleplays. "You go to a house with a bunch of other people and oh no the doors are locked and the phone's broken and there are only garbanzo beans in the pantry guess you're stuck here lol"
Those kinds of games go for two pages then nowhere.

 

[ashwynne]

Mmmm this is a fun question xD Generally speaking I don't really impose many limitations. If the premise is interesting and the writing is good I'll explore almost any topic. Whole purpose of fiction (at least for me) is to explore differing points of view and lives than my own. Helps build empathy and understanding to step into the shoes of other people.

That said... I won't generally write romantic adult/minor relationships. (I mean... it can get more complicated when you're dealing with only 3-4 year age gaps, so this isn't always a hardline rule, dependent on context).

 

[defenderofberk]

- Roleplays without moral dilemmas behind them and dark themes. I like to explore a lot about the human nature when both roleplaying and writing for myself and putting characters into situations that make them conflicted inside. I just find the story boring if there is no such things included, and I lose motivation

I can definitely agree with you there

I agree with your other points too, but that one in particular. I'd love to do a pregnancy/child raising role play if it was done in a more serious tone but that's really hard to find.

 

[rae2nerdy]

M Mesenterium yeah I think a lot of the reason I don’t do mental illness and abusive relationship is that exact thing. I had one partner once who actually had bipolar disorder ask if they could write a character like themselves, I was like sure just don’t fall it bipolar because my mom has it too and it kills my suspension of disbelief.

Especially if you are going to show a character struggling with their symptoms it is a very real situation I live IRL, I don’t want to relive it in real life.

As for abusive relationships, I feel like a lot of people think that as long as you aren’t hitting your partner than it’s not abuse. But they’ll then romanticize a lot of toxic behaviors as being loving. And again as someone who has observed what happens IRL when those kind of toxic relationships go bad I don’t find it fun or romantic.

And I think a lot of people just don’t realize they are romanticizing those kinds of things cuz they are just writing what they see in pop culture or in books and don’t realize all of that is just misleading tropes.

 

[haleighlujah]

I agree with your other points too, but that one in particular. I'd love to do a pregnancy/child raising role play if it was done in a more serious tone but that's really hard to find.

It's dying down, but it used to be really edgy to not only dislike children, but want absolutely nothing to do with them. The concept can be done well, if it pushes the plot.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Oddly I have seen a fair number of pregnancy fetish roleplays over the years on other sites.

On a more wholesome note family slice of life roleplays where really popular on Gaiaonline for years. They were really fun and usually had a fun little twist. I was in one where the twist was the house pets where actually the POV family (they were shapeshifters) and they kind of hung out with next door shapeshifting house pet family.

 

[defenderofberk]

The thing is it's usually incredibly cringey/wholesome or fetishized which is what puts me off (also it's what puts me off about same sex role plays). Just give me a more down to earth struggle with the neighbors and in-laws while having some fun days at the beach.

 

[Crayons]

Rape, child abuse, weird fetish stuff. By weird fetish stuff I mean, fetishes that I am not personally into and that I find kinda icky.

Oh, and I don't do smut so everything is fade to black. XD

Everything else is pretty much context dependent and I wouldn't rule anything out.

 

[defenderofberk]

Fetishization of teachers is the one for me. If you want to have your character befriend a teacher and then learn about them outside of their professional life and then develop feelings, maybe, but not just "wow he's got let me jump him".

 

[rainywrites]

i don't like writing romance. it just always turns out awkward, because i've never fallen in love, for one thing, so i'm opperating entirely off clices. for another, there's just... so many other relationships our characters could have. siblings, cousins, parent/child, besties, frenemies forced to work together? coworkers? unlikely friends? complete strangers? why limit yourself to only love when there are so many other nice relationships out there?

 

[defenderofberk]

who was able to truly love my arrogant pompous bastard XD

Is he a european over the age of 25?

For some reason I read that as euro (you're)-pean(peon).

 

[defenderofberk]

No, he is, in fact, european, but not over the age of 25 XD He can be though I normally put an age range on my characters, and his is between 20 and 35 years old (quite a huge age range hahah).
Hahaha XD

Honestly he sounds like the sort of character mine would leap all over and either make out with or murder.

 

[defenderofberk]

Hahah he really produces extreme effects on people: whether people love him, or they hate him, and normally it is the second one XD

Sounds like my characters

 

[rae2nerdy]

M Mesenterium fellow aro/ace and I am always so frustrated with romance. I’m like listen I need a point of reference for what “crush” looks like in this scenario. I can’t draw from real experiences so just telling me “I dunno we’ll see how it works” doesn’t cut it. Cuz my characters are all written from a platonic perspective.

And people always seem to struggle with the idea that you can not feel romantic feelings. Like it translate in their head to you must be either 1. A feeling less robot. 2. You do actually feel romantic feelings tho right?

 

[Delinquent]

Historical settings. There are seemingly always too many limitations imposed in the name of historical accuracy for the causal roleplayer part of me to have any fun whilst simultaneously being too historical inaccurate for the historian in me to enjoy them.

 

[defenderofberk]

I find it's good to go through certain steps if I'm trying to build chemistry between two characters, but frankly it's something that needs time to build up properly.

What do they think of the others appearance? Do they find them attractive, are there elements to them they find attractive (eyes, hair, body type), or do they think they're butt ugly? Are there things they initially miss or gloss over that they later find attractive/irritating? Same with mannerisms.

Do they enjoy their time together?
Do they have common interests/traits?
Do they similar life goals?
Can they share anything together?

All these things can lead to a relationship but they don't need to, it's just something that might occur if they both want it. I prefer to have an initial lingering attraction and then have a slow burn from casual to friends to lovers.

 

[Becker]

I tend to really dislike 'Royalty' Rps because of the sheer amount of royal characters i've seen acting like complete dictators. (I thought it be best to edit out the fella I mentioned earlier.. for obvious reasons.)

 

[defenderofberk]

I tend to really dislike 'Royalty' Rps because of the sheer amount of royal characters i've seen acting like complete dictators. (I thought it be best to edit out the fella I mentioned earlier.. for obvious reasons.)

Damit I didn't read it in time

 

[Crenando]

I tend to really dislike 'Royalty' Rps because of the sheer amount of royal characters i've seen acting like Uday Hussein. (I would not suggest googling the fella if you're of a light heart.. the cretin of a man was a complete monster.)

Who looks at the eldest son of Saddam Hussein and goes 'yeah I want to roleplay as this man'?

 

[Becker]

Damit I didn't read it in time

Some people deserve to be buried under the prison.

 

[Becker]

Who looks at the eldest son of Saddam Hussein and goes 'yeah I want to roleplay as this man'?

People that enjoy power-play.. but they have all the power.

 

[Hella Downweather]

I am someone who gets really influenced by what I write, so contrary to a lot of you guys, I prefer fluff to a lot of things XD

I won't RP :
Angst - Heavy, light, if the focus of the RP is about something dark, I won't touch it with a ten foot pole. Like I said before, when I write I usually keep the mood of the RP with me, so I'd rather not feel depressed for the day after finishing my post, thank you.
Anything remotely sexual - It's so awkward and creepy. You could be an old guy only wanting this. I could be an old guy only wanting to lure younger people in. We will never know for sure thanks to the anonymity of RP Nation, and I'd rather not risk it.
Horror - Now....I love Horror. I listen to podcasts specialized in the genre while I work, I read books and mangas on the subject. But I've always felt awkward trying to recreate a similar mood/setting with someone else. I guess it's something I'd rather enjoy than create.
Love at first sight - I hate this trope with a passion...It feels forced, and I'd rather take time to know your writing style and the feel of your character before attempting romance.
Adult/Minor romance - I get to work a lot with kids (people under 18), thanks to my job and my volunteering activities, so the whole thing is pretty iffy to me. An adult will almost always have a certain dominance or authority over a minor, and the whole thing is just not my jam.