What do you like/dislike in an RP? - Running List -

Pros:


Good story


Great interaction between writers


Detailed posts


Character development


Cons:


Making an effort to make a good introduction only to get a one line response.


One liners in general


Super Strict Authors


God-modding


Naturally whiny characters


Story getting revealed in the first few posts


Plot that doesn't make any sense


Being rushed to post every 15 minutes and will bombard you with messages asking you as to why you haven't replied to the rp yet


BAD GRAMMAR
 
Pros:


Fantastic stories


Interesting original characters


People who truly play as their character


Thorough RP background and lore


Well planned RP plot-line


Surprise awesome RP plot-lines


Meeting awesome people


Tons and tons of writing practice


When your character changes before your eyes


Amazing posts written by colleagues


Becoming not only a character but also a part of the Dev team.


Fantastic Mod support


Good DM support on RP details, etc.


Detailed RP rules


Cons:


One liners


Late joiners who do not read previous posts


People who don't take the time to read the RP rules


RPers who skip the maps page


Those few who rush a post


The many who just don't post


When you notice colleague skipped your post


Poorly written characters


Pure anime RP's (that's just me)


Picture's required for character appearance


God-modding


Bad grammar (only when there is obvious lack of effort)


RP's published with zero lore


Lack of plot


Lack of DM support or direction


The same scenario repeating many times with the same 2 players


Flirters who will not let go of your character, locking you in, because ditching them is out of character


Fights that never end and with no consequences


Ghost sign ups


I thinks that's about it....
 
Pros

  • Enough brave to make a sudden plot twists (not too ground-breaking though, makes me feel awkward)
  • Creative and multi-dimensional character development
  • Humane character
  • Describing feelings of the character


Cons

  • Too active/aggressive/emo/whiny character (baically all cliche character types; everything in small dozes are fine)
  • Mary Sueing
  • Way too many grammar mistakes (not that I would be the Shakespeare around here; but mixing you're, your, their, there, they're... Nope.)
  • Being too anime (I mean by being all "A-a-a-arihime s-sama" and stuff like that)
  • Describing just objective details of your character
  • Autohitting/OP'ing
 
PROS:


* Character has character.


* Don't ask me "what should I do next?"


* Can shake things up a bit, I know I give guidelines for my roleplays but i'm not keeping you on a leash, I'm letting you loose in a giant park 600km square, DO SOMETHING BY YOURSELF!!!


* Female characters who actually have a goddamn backbone!


* partners who actually contribute to the Rp world and can introduce their own things into the world.


CONS:


* One Liners


* Boring partners with boring characters.


* Overly submissive female characters (honestly it's bland and lazy and they have no character)


* Demanding the exact same plot as every other request.


* Partners who can't think of a setting more complex or interesting than "In a city" "in a town" "in a school" GOD that's irritating!


my BIGGEST CON!


* when my partner gives her character a name like "Sally Smith" and makes her character more boring and bland than a grain of salt in a star wars, elder scrolls etc... based roleplay or a roleplay where she plays an alien or a mythical creature or in a fantasy world or anything like that.


you know what? I'm making a declaration, whenever someone makes a boring, bland character in a world that's interesting or a world where the other put effort into, we call that "Bella Swanning" because even though the Twilight universe is bland on itself, it has SOMETHING in it, the character of Bella has NO character!


those are the top 5 of each.
 
Pros:


-flexibility


-a story that's not predetermined or 'on rails' so to speak


-long-term roleplays with character development


-partner that can think for them self, and not just follow my lead


-partner who can keep me on my toes (goes with the above)


-communication


-a story that has emotion (not necessarily an emotional rollercoaster, of course)


Cons:


Oh boy... might want to get some popcorn for this


-one liners


-Sues


-people who require a picture for character sheets/apps/sign-ups


-predetermined plots


-people who steal ideas and use them with other people after you've plotted with them


-vanishing roleplayers (life gets in the way of the best of us, but some kind of heads up would be nice_


-elitists/persnickety people


-people who don't check their grammar (I make typos, we all do, but when it's obvious that the person did not bother to check, I want to pull my hair out)


-people who drop you and don't say why (I have a backbone; if something displeases you about my writing and/or writing an rp style, say something. I can take criticism)


-people who don't show any effort whatsoever


-overpowered characters


-people who refuse to see that their character is overpowered


-rushed plots


-whiny people/characters


-plots that get dragged out to the point where you go 'is anything even going to happen?'


-people who try to shoehorn a character that obviously doesn't mesh, into a lore.


-people who want to rp with you, and then tell you everything you are doing wrong with your idea


-people who disagree with your idea, but don't really elaborate or even expand on their ideas


-groups that have no structure and people are just... there... doing stuff.... for five pages.


-people who want sex in every single romance plot they do


Ok, I'll stop now...
 
Dislikes


One Liners


Proper spelling


Not enough effort


Boring rps


God modding


The same old, general plots that people come up with everyday.
 
When you sign up for a RP with a decent plot, create a character that you think is amazing, wait patiently for hours and hours for all the roles to fill, and when finally the RP starts the first posts either turn into a 1x1 without you or go a little like this:


Person 1: I went into the house and waited for people.


Person 2: I was already in the house and saw person one walk in. "Hi."


You: My character, NoName, woke up from a peaceful dream. He reached up in a stretched cracking the bones in his spine and let out a satisfied sigh. He stood up and went over to the restroom to do his business and start his morning routine of face cleansing and teeth whitening. When he was done NoName went over to his walk-in closet and stared at his clothes for hours before choosing a red flannel shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, and his favorite pair of vans. When he was satisfied with the way he looked, NoName walked out of his room and into the kitchen, "What's for breakfast," he called out in a sleepy voice hoping someone had already started cooking.


Person 1: "Hi NoName. I'm so glad you're awake. Now there's more people to talk to."I giggle he was really cute in the morning.


Person 2: "I like pickles and ham and all the butterflies in the world. What do you like?"


Just...no.
 
I'm a little late for this list but oh well. Fashionably late.


Pros:

  • To The Point Overview: Yes, we all know that having a big long wall of text is impressive and all but a great skill to have is to be able to get your point across in a short, to the point way. You don't want to bore your readers after all.
  • Balanced Activity: I often hear about how a roleplayer cannot keep up with a roleplay. This is not because of the quantity of words in a post. It's simply that some people can type and write faster than others. A roleplay with activity from everyone is absolutely marvelous!
  • Character Development: Yes, character development. Be it good development or bad development, a realistic character will develop and not create something but then ignore it for the rest of the roleplay.
  • Understanding Roleplayers: Roleplayers who complain, whine, and basically act like a spoiled little kid are never fun. Those who are able to understand someone's real life circumstances are great!


Cons:

  • Limelight: Focusing on your character completely and trying to make him/her be "totally awesome". Yeah, it's not fun. Please stop. The whole roleplay isn't based completely around your character. Unless it is. But still remember to focus on the other characters as well. Any character can become a Mary Sue depending on how they are portrayed.
  • Giant Walls of Text: The enter key is your friend. Please do remember to separate your paragraphs. Not only does it look more professional, it's easier on the readers' eyes.
  • Inability to take Criticism: Those who cannot take criticism will find it extremely difficult to improve. If you become extremely defensive and sensitive when someone clearly and politely points out what you need to improve in, then do please work on your ability to take criticism.
  • Melodrama: Don't build up drama and crap just to be all like "And he slashed them all apart with his super duper cool ancient katana." Unless you're doing it to be funny then go for it. You'll look like a clown.
 
Pros:

  • A solid storyline
  • Characters that have a lot of depth to them
  • A roleplay that looks appealing, I know this sounds vain but a roleplay with a lot of color or maybe some pictures can really go a long way and draw people in
  • Committed roleplayers
  • A storyline that has a clear beginning middle and end


Cons:

  • When real life photos are required, I think this might be just me but I hate using real life pictures, like you never know who's in the picture, it could be a serial killer or an offender of some kind, and wouldn't it be weird if someone is doing a hardcore romance rp and they use your picture as an appearance? I guess that would be flattering but awkward at the same time
  • Posting a really long and detailed post and than getting a one liner in reply, it's like a slap in the face
  • When you post a character sheet and the author ignores it, even when you ask if your accepted but they ignore that to, not even attempting to tell you why they didn't accept your character, it's extremely rude
  • Ignoring other people in general like how rude can people get?
  • Sob story characters, characters that were put in the rp so everyone could pity them
 
I've come out of the shadows to join this.


Pros of the MODERN RPNation:


-Large RPer base. Honestly back in 2012 it was a mess getting any rp big because there wasn't as many people, but when you did get one, hoowee was it fun.


-Any RP not about a (insert cliche here) this includes High School, Gods, Academies, Academies for magical people, Zombiez, Vampire Academies. You know if it's not about an academy it receives an extra 10 internetz from me.


-People who post decent posts, from one paragraph to as many as they can handle with the magical ENTER key.


-A story treading new and decent ground, if it's not cliche and tries to do something new and awesome, I get back on the site for the roleplay. Other than that I'm forced to be an old lurker.


Cons of the MODERN RPNation:


-Too much cliche. I've checked on the popular Supernatural page and have seen two of the three featured rps about Academies or High Schools. 'But wait Komeko' they say, ' our RP has magical girls and vampires in it!' to which I reply, 'Get back to 2013!' That isn't to say I hate the good old school rps all the time. I once remembered an rp where only the most genius would go, I loved it because every character didn't feel like a carbon copy. We had mad chemists, angry flute players, obsessive artists, cloud headed gamers and more!


-Dear God someone find the Low Orbiting Ion Cannon and blast the Mary Sues away. While they are few in number and don't tread on serious roleplays, they are always there. And I hate them. So. So. Much. They are the vampires that aren't affected by silver, the sun, the stake through the heart, the blessed swords or ANYTHING. They can do practically anything they want, from knowing magic to fighting like a musketeer with a sword. They can also operate bows and arrows, which are 'Special' and have 'Powers' to which I lost a couple thousand neurons wasting my time comprehending them.


-Sadly this one is also sometimes a Mary Sue, the one liner. Grab your cannons Legion, because you'll need a lot of them. The one liner usually is new, and can be helped, although can also be just a roleplayer who hasn't seemed to learn to roleplay heavily. I don't like them. I just don't. Very simple. I can't FORGIVE or FORGET the sadness that a roleplayer has when someone writes two or more paragraphs to receive a one to three sentence response.


-Anime Bombing. Like seriously, anime isn't the end all be all, they DO NOT have to be (Insert Japanese name here) while you may think you're very cool for the first few months, it gets boring. Fast. Try different cultures, because I've loved my Arab characters, I've done Spanish French characters, Germans, Taiwanese, Russians, Americans, like, I've even brought in Mongolians. Try making a different character, and you'll see how much more fun it is to roleplay as Salah ad-Din and Fernand de Morcerf than as Nanako-chan. That isn't to say I hate Japanese characters, I love me my anime and I occasionally have indulged my self in anime roleplays, although my character has never truly had to say 'chan', 'san', or 'sama'. And if you love to do that, go to an anime roleplay. Heck if it's really cool you might find me there.


(By the way if you know the secret messages in here PM me. I'll help you out.)
 
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There are a lot of good things here and a lot of bad things. I agree with most of them so I'm not going to rewrite them all here. There is a couple of things I hate though that I haven't seen on anyone's list (maybe someone wrote them, I didn't look that well and I feel the need to say them because I just got out of a role play that went like this.)


-When your RP partner is always bugging you to reply. I get that if I don't reply in a while, you should definitely say something, but in the role play I was just in my partner literally bugged me nearly every day to reply. I don't have the time to reply to a role play every day most if the time, and just because I'm online doesn't mean that I'm doing nothing, I have other role play going on as well that need replying too. Plus, I always find that role plays die out pretty fast if they're rushed in the beginning because people lose motivation that way.


-When you're doubling with someone and your RP partner focuses more on one character than another. I find a lot that if I'm doing any sort of romance that some people will spend more time on their female character than their male one. This literally frustrates me to no end


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Pros:

  • A interesting story.
  • Seeing other peoples characters, and maybe even see their stories along the way.
  • Thinking outside the box a bit on plots.
  • If its something based off of a show, movie, video game etc etc, make it feel like a sequel, and stay true to the world.
  • Friendly players.


Cons:

  • Strict owners of rps. Especially the lying variety if something bad happens, and they don't even ask what is going on if someone screws up.
  • People stealing the show with one hit kills on a supposibly situation where its like a lot of enemies against five. This happened to me a couple of times and one time I even had to pause the rp to tell her whats going on.
  • No one showing up to an rp or even posting in it if they even posted their character.
  • This one pisses me off the most. Adding realism to something that isn't supposed to be realistic. Like adding realism in a cartoon show, like in the show one day the main HQ is destroyed by an attack, and next day its all repaired as if it never happened (it will be funny as hell if it was part of a comedic rp), but add realism its like it will be months til the hq is repaired, so yeah no fun for all.


And that is about it.
 
When you put up a request thread, someone messages you they are interested, you plot as well as go through the trouble of making a rather long opening thread only for them to not bothering to reply or even respond to a pm you sent stating you made the thread.
 
Bad - Strict Rp Authors, by this what I mean is the type who make you write a bio for your character when you try to be mysterious about it, the kind that expect you to post a lot every time despite the situation. And also when they want a certain type of picture like anime only or real pictures only ect.


Godmodding I hate it when people ruin a good Rp with an overpowered character and one hit kills and so on, No trolling please.


Realism vs. Fantasy I hate this the worst when someone tries to make a fantasy type rp or a rp based off of an anime or generally unrealistic Rp and they try to force realism into it, also the same with making an unrealistic slice of life rp.


One Liners Now I criticized people that give a set limit to a posts length but I mean the ones that expect a paragraph or more, I'm fine with one liners if they are just talking or if the situation is a tricky one to give a longer post. But other than that I hate it when I spend a half an hour typing away and then someone responds with a ridicoulously short response after I just gave them so much to respond to and it would be easy to give at least 3 or 4 lines.


Good - Plot Twists I love it when someone can be creative enough to turn the story in an unexpected direction. It adds some spice and keeps other roleplayers interested.


Well Made Characters This can mean either a very mysterious characters who ends up giving the story plenty of added drama and unexpected turns, or just a well made character that has a well done bio and while not mysterious still adds a lot to the plot with their well done background and personality.


Also friendly roleplayers who can work together well.
 
Pros





  • Being grouped with literate people or finding them.
  • Getting into groups where everyone communicates well and passes around ideas.
  • Having a well-developed story with good information to back it up.
  • People that make decent, realistic and relatively well-rounded characters.
  • OOC communication and friendly chitchat.
  • Versatile partners.









Cons





  • Trying to communicate ideas and getting, "I'm ok with anything" type responses(extremely frustrating).
  • Incredibly strict and precise rules.
  • Spot-light grubbing and Godly characters.
  • Losing interest.
  • Poor spelling and grammar.
  • People that refuse to play anything but one gender. "I'm just not good at x :( ." Practice makes perfect, guys!
  • Being unable to separate the roleplay from reality.
  • Sonic-speed posting. So, three people posting every hour or three at a time and leaving everyone else in the dust.
 
0_O This might be long. Sorry!


Pros:

  • Well thought out worlds and characters, as well as posts. I want you to engage me... every sense I have - and make me CARE. If I don't care about your characters or their struggles, I'm not going to want to participate. There is nothing to me that is more exciting than a brilliant, clever character in a universe filled with cool and original details.


  • A serious GM, who influences the storyline, but is also actively guiding things along by -posting-. Nothing disappoints me more than a flat, one dimensional GM, who doesn't know how to guide a story along... but in reverse, there is nothing better than a GM who takes the time to lead a story along a thrilling journey.


  • Exceptional detail. I wanna know what you're looking at, hearing, smelling, listening to - not in every post you make, of course, but when it's important. And utilize descriptions for other people's characters, as well. It's always so much fun seeing how someone else views your character - particularly when it's well written.


  • "Prequel" connections - I love when you can come up with a backstory not only for your own character, but one that involves my characters as well. Have they met before? If so, where? What happened? It adds another layer to the RP that is deliciously intriguing and can give an element of surprise to the other readers/writers.


  • LISTENING TO THE RULES... This is a must for me, when I GM. If you are a rebellious rule breaking hippie... take a hike! But in all seriousness... It's important. You need to know what you're getting in to before hand so you know if it's something you can handle. Nothing bugs me more than someone who doesn't read the rules and then complains when I inform them that I have a three paragraph minimum per post...


  • Expanding on my ideas, with your own. I LOVE when people PM me with suggestions for plot ideas or twists and turns. And I LOVE not being the only person who's interested in playing the villains xD


Cons:

  • One liners. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I hate them. I hate them with a fiery, burning passion. If you can't think of something more to write, then in my humble opinion, you don't belong RPing. They're lazy, uninformative and they're nearly IMPOSSIBLE to respond to. If you post a one liner in my RP, beware. I will eat you alive. If you post a one liner in an RP I'm a part of, do not be surprised if/when I don't engage your character. There is nothing remotely appealing about having to figure out a response to ten words... It just isn't fun. It's the equivalent to me, of bringing a veggie tray to a bake sale... Pure evil. And for the love of all that is good and holy on this earth... do NOT be that person who makes a one line post and then whines that everyone is ignoring you. If you want someone to dance with you at the party, you need to have a little rhythm, baby.


  • Snowflakes/Country Music Stars - whether intentional or not. If you come into an RP, particularly if you are not the GM of said RP and your character suddenly and inexplicably becomes the center of attention, in a way that has NOTHING to do with the storyline at hand, there is something wrong. I do not want to enter into a storyline about a group knights slaying dragons and suddenly have to rescue your princess from a troll. It's annoying, it changes the flow of the story and it can get boring, REALLY quickly. I joined the RP because of the plot specified in the overview... and that plot cannot happen as long as your character is bleeding to death on the front lawn cause they were attacked by their Aunt Myrtle's piranhas... Overly depressed or pathetic characters happen... I know. And YES... you can have a character with sad-sap backstory, or something horrible that happened to them, but please remember that most people are not defined by their struggles. That we all have multiple dimensions. I get bored very quickly of the "I'm so sad cause my dad killed my mom and my hamster ran away" country music routine. Can it improve a character ? Yes... But it can also ruin them. If your sole purpose for making a character's backstory miserable and depressing is to get attention for that character, or because you just "like" to do it... don't. Just don't do it. Skip it. Find something else to do. Torment them IN THE ROLEPLAY. But when you bring a character in who's already has an entire baggage line, it can be a little overwhelming. There is a way to get attention without having to be the CENTER of attention... I urge you, figure it out. And try to remember that a depressing backstory does not a flaw make... People are not perfect. They are not liked by everything, they are not GOOD at everything. Being sad is not a character flaw - it is a character trait. If you want to make a decent character, they need to have weaknesses.


conversely

  • One dimensional "zero" characters. If you don't give me anything to work with, I cannot respond to you and this is the case with the Zeros. Characters that are so flat and blank they literally bore me to tears. Tabula Rasa is a super sexy way of saying Blank Slate... but it DOES NOT WORK for characterization. Not everyone has to be a former child slave who was abused by both parents and the pet parakeet for eight years before they joined a circus and were abused by the clowns... But if you don't have at least a remotely interesting backstory or something that sets your character apart from Gumby, it's going to be exceptionally difficult to interact with you.


  • Unresponsive, unimaginative GMs. You are making an entire WORLD for people to interact in. This is hard work. This is not something to enter into lightly. If you are not prepared to WOW people with your creativity and cleverness, it is probably best NOT to attempt GMing. There is very little I hate more than creating a character in someone else's world and then having no direction on where to go from there. Lead me, Oh Shepherd. And try to remember if you approved someone to play in your world, you really ought to find a way to include that person as best you can (I currently have over 10 characters in one RP, because I refuse to approve someone and then not offer them someone to interact with). I realize not everyone can be involved in everything that happens all the time, but there's nothing more frustrating than making a really great character, who sits around and does -nothing-. And if for some reason you're swamped and can't interact with that person yourself, guide them to someone else... There's a reason you can invite more than one person into a PM. Plotting is a magical thing, and if you find a way to make everyone feel involved and welcome, you will have a MUCH more active RP, anyhow. I will always give something the one-two-shot... where I'll post at least twice in something I've joined... but if after two posts I still have no one to interact with, well.. sorry :( I'm gonna drop out. It is your world and I should not be expected to run it. Why don't I force the interaction myself, you ask? Well... because who -actually- enjoys it when someone throws themselves at your character, who you were totally planning on moving in a different direction? I prefer to get permission, before plopping myself down at the big-people table.


  • Biggest pet peeve of all... and I ranted about this just this morning... DO NOT join an RP if you are not planning on being active in said RP! It is the BIGGEST pain in the butt to get involved with a particular character, only to suddenly have that character's handle fall MIA and stop responding. I didn't join up so I could get stuck in limbo, waiting for you to remember it is your turn. You wouldn't sign up for a cooking class, turn the stove on, put in the soup and walk away, would you? The soup would boil over and leave a terrible mess and who's gonna clean it up?? If you start something, have the courtesy to put effort into it. If you get stuck or can't continue SAY SOMETHING! Do not disappear and just expect people to "get it". It's rude. It's annoying. It's BAD manners. And quite frankly, it will result in me never approving a character of yours, and never interacting with you again. People put hard work into their worlds and characters and for you to just vanish on them without so much as an explanation and apology is big time bad etiquette and gets you blacklisted, in my book. And possibly worse then that is making a character sheet and then NEVER joining the RP. It's weird. Why would you go to the trouble of thinking out a character that you aren't ever going to use??


  • Cartoon images in lieu of real-life models. There's nothing more jarring to me then a cartoon image in my head when I'm picturing a character. I realize that just sounds petty, but it's the truth. Obviously there are exceptions (if you're playing an animal, say... or an alien or something), but really, it just completely throws me off when I see your character as a cartoon in my head. xD I would rather have NO image and just a physical description, than a cartoon.


  • Inconsistency or lack of continuity. If you have a character who is shy... they need to be shy - you cannot suddenly have them performing as an ample flirt, because someone made a super-cute character you wanna nab. If your character is a raging alcoholic, you cannot suddenly have them sober up after one night of cold-turkey -- withdrawal is a killer, sometimes literally. If in your first post you didn't know my character from Adam and then in the second post you and my character are suddenly old BFFs from highschool, I'm gonna be confused. Pay attention to what you write and know who your character is and then stick with that. If they change over the course of the storyline, that's one thing, but post-to-post consistency is a BIG factor in whether or not I'm gonna RP with you. And as it is in real life, you do NOT always have to involve romance as a plot device. Is there anything wrong with romance? No... but when it takes over the major plot or becomes all your character does/is/thinks about, it gets pretty old. If your character DOES develop a relationship, note the key word... develop... make it interesting. People don't just fall instantly in love... it's cliche and lame and there's nothing fun in reading instantaneously "head over heels" characters.


  • Take your time when you post. I've never understood the draw of a "fast paced" RP. Having a million pages in your thread does not make a good RP if the majority of those posts are one-liners with no substance behind them. Quality over quantity, I say. I'd rather have it take you two days to respond, and then receive a six paragraph masterpiece of thought provoking genius, to which I can respond with my own best work, than two minutes and a pile of something smelly one has to avoid stepping in, lest they risk ruining their classy heels. Respond in kind - if you are given three paragraphs... reply with at least three paragraphs. It's only fair that if someone takes the time to write you something exceptional you should return the favor. If I make you a delicious apple pie from scratch, do not buy me a box of tasty-cakes... Utilize your brain - it's a powerful thing that can create wonders when exercised properly. And bless your heart, you little Punim... PROOF READ YOUR POSTS. If you take the extra ten minutes before hitting send to fix up grammar and spelling errors, I won't have to fight to resist the urge to whack you with a ruler in defense of the English language.


  • Do your research. Obviously most people on the site aren't spies for the government, or archaeologists, or damsel-rescuing knights of old - but if you are going to join a storyline that has a specific focus, and you're going to play a character with a -very- specific occupation/title/belief/creed etc... then know what you're doing. Study up. There isn't usually a test, but while it's frustrating to read a post littered with grammar/spelling errors, it is easily just as frustrating when you're writing about being an airline pilot and you don't even know what the instrument panel is.


AAH! Sorry... xD that was extremely long winded xD
 
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