Viewpoint What is one thing you wish to roleplay, without getting judged?

[natsukashii]

Definitely Power Rangers or Digimon. Call me a man-child but they were my two biggest fandoms growing up and I still go back and watch them from time to time.

If I had to choose, it would be something like Time Force of Lost Galaxy and Digimon, season 1 is where it's at!

 

[defenderofberk]

It's ok. We can give it a shot if you want

That'd be awesome

 

[BackSet]

Call me a man-child

Yeah, given the stuff we've been confessing too, none of us have the right to do that.

 

[Skulldogcandy]

Oh man, definitely MCU oneshots. It can be fluff, angst, interactions, alternate scenes, you name it, I want it

 

[The Waluigist Priestess]

I want to try a father and daughter role-play....like the daughter goes to school, or works or something and her dad is there every day to talk to her...that would make me warm and fuzzy on the inside. I like that idea. Like a wise old father. I didn't get to talk to my dad only once in my life so its a secret I want to try.

OFC!

 

[FliesandSpiders]

I want to do a roleplay with amnesia as an element. I realize this is somewhat frowned upon in the roleplay world. A superhero project I want to try out uses this. All the players start off with their memories erased except for their first name and basically how old they are. Basically an organizations kidnaps all the players and erases their memories as a way to try and control them; probably a little misguided but they think if they don't remember their former lives they'll be more likely to cooperate with what they have planned for them. Whether they actually get their memories back is something I haven't actually determined.

 

[Malphaestus]

Something ineffably "edgy."

 

[rae2nerdy]

I want to do a roleplay with amnesia as an element. I realize this is somewhat frowned upon in the roleplay world. A superhero project I want to try out uses this. All the players start off with their memories erased except for their first name and basically how old they are. Basically an organizations kidnaps all the players and erases their memories as a way to try and control them; probably a little misguided but they think if they don't remember their former lives they'll be more likely to cooperate with what they have planned for them. Whether they actually get their memories back is something I haven't actually determined.

I wouldn’t say amnesia itself is looked down upon. It’s more when it isn’t taken seriously and is used as a cheap gimmick to make a character interesting.

For instance if your character has amnesia specifically to get sympathy points and make the rest of the players have to cater to them it’s bad.

if your character has amnesia because it’s a part of their character arc and something they will (or won’t) overcome over the course of the roleplay that’s fine.

A lot of the mental health arguments are like that. It’s not “don’t ever make a character with mental health issues that’s bad”. It’s “don’t treat serious illnesses like a cheap parlor trick to make your boring ass character more shiny.”

 

[Crenando]

A lot of the mental health arguments are like that. It’s not “don’t ever make a character with mental health issues that’s bad”. It’s “don’t treat serious illnesses like a cheap parlor trick to make your boring ass character more shiny.”

I've seen people misinterpret this advice, like all good writing advice, as 'don't ever make a character with mental health issues that's bad.'
People just have a tendency to only hear half of what someone is saying in situations like that, I've noticed.

 

[Comicwolf]

Detentionaire rp or possibly arrow platonic rp

 

[Emotional Enigma]

I'd like to RP a toxic relationship. FxM, two people who hate each other but are forced to be with each other for some reason and are attracted to each other.

 

[defenderofberk]

I'd like to RP a toxic relationship. FxM, two people who hate each other but are forced to be with each other for some reason and are attracted to each other.

Honestly that sounds awesome

 

[ElayneCiara]

Honestly, I'd love to do an RP where the characters just... kinda... snap. They'd go completely insane. Maybe they were already insane to begin with, and they were hiding it behind a facade of normalcy, but then they slip up and that facade cracks (I love characters like that). But no romance would be involved, no "sane character saves crazy character from themselves and helps them heal", nothing like that. Just some deeply mentally disturbed characters going around being insane and screwing everything up.
As much as I would love to do something like that, it'd also be pretty intimidating... because I don't even come close to having the mind of one of those characters, lol. (I'm just fascinated by them for some inexplicable reason.) I'd have to do a lot of research to feel like I was creating an accurate character. I've already done research on various mental conditions, but not enough.

Are... Are we the same person?! :0
This x10000, I hate it when people write it off as being childish but y'know! Sometimes people just want to have a little fun!

 

[rae2nerdy]

Are... Are we the same person?! :0
This x10000, I hate it when people write it off as being childish but y'know! Sometimes people just want to have a little fun!

I don't know as it's childish just a little disrespectful to people who have real-world mental illnesses. I mean it's one thing if you just give your character an attack of "the crazy" and have them act like a chaotic foil to the rest of the world. There is nothing inherently wrong with that.

It's a little more ick when you say your character has DID, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, sociopathy, etc. Because real-world mental illnesses are rarely particularly zany when they "snap". Having interacted with people who are schizophrenic and have bipolar disorder when they "snap" it's usually more stressful and scary than a fun romp through town.

So I think that's typically the pushback. Not so much "Oh that's a childish storyline" it's "isn't that kind of a gross thing to say about people with mental illness?" Assuming your assigning a real-world mental illness to the character and not just going with "they have the crazies".

I usually compromise with those kinds of storylines by giving them a made-up mental disorder whose symptoms match what I want the character to behave like.

Ex. my character has McGuffin Syndrome - the symptoms are blah, blah, and blah. That way I can have my fun and zany storyline without having to worry about getting a real-world mental illness incorrect and accidentally saying gross things about mental disorders. (Plus as I mentioned I have met people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder which rather cured me of wanting to write about those particular disorders tbf)

 

[ElayneCiara]

I don't know as it's childish just a little disrespectful to people who have real-world mental illnesses. I mean it's one thing if you just give your character an attack of "the crazy" and have them act like a chaotic foil to the rest of the world. There is nothing inherently wrong with that.

It's a little more ick when you say your character has DID, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, sociopathy, etc. Because real-world mental illnesses are rarely particularly zany when they "snap". Having interacted with people who are schizophrenic and have bipolar disorder when they "snap" it's usually more stressful and scary than a fun romp through town.

So I think that's typically the pushback. Not so much "Oh that's a childish storyline" it's "isn't that kind of a gross thing to say about people with mental illness?" Assuming your assigning a real-world mental illness to the character and not just going with "they have the crazies".

I usually compromise with those kinds of storylines by giving them a made-up mental disorder whose symptoms match what I want the character to behave like.

Ex. my character has McGuffin Syndrome - the symptoms are blah, blah, and blah. That way I can have my fun and zany storyline without having to worry about getting a real-world mental illness incorrect and accidentally saying gross things about mental disorders. (Plus as I mentioned I have met people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder which rather cured me of wanting to write about those particular disorders tbf)

No, no! I wasn't talking about the Mental illness aspect! Just like, a normal character with normal flaws that just snaps. Never did I mention advocating people seeing others with mental illness in a bad light. Seems you made a bit of a stretch there. But I mostly agree with you.

 

[Melpomene]

As mentioned before in this thread, I'd love to roleplay stories that have a dark plot line. I love horror especially when it comes to psychological horror. And even though the suspense might be a bit hard to create, having in consideration we are speaking about roleplays and the plot is already settled, I like the atmosphere that those stories have.
Unfortunately, it is hard to find dark characters who aren't simply hot headed sadistic, and who can manipulate people, not just burst in anger and kill everyone in front of them. I like to see characters who yes, are completely awful people and who are capable of great atrocities. I like to give my own characters their good dose of madness, but I like when that madness isn't simply purely impulsive. I like that to be calculative. And yes, I'd like to explore such darker themes throughout the roleplay.
Unfortunately, that's something not many people are willing to do, I guess.

I get you. One of my favorite characters I have ever made is not sadistic, but willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, so while he does not have anger outbursts, I think he is all the more frightening because his rage tends to be quiet and cold. He is the type who will plan out a long winded plan to take someone down to his satisfaction. He still needs a lot of work from my end because he is certainly not perfect, lol, but I think characters like that are some of the most interesting, to be honest.

The type that might be easily viewed as evil, not because they go around slaughtering and raping, but because they are willing to play the long game and break someone down or manipulate them until they are satisfied. I'm with ya on darker themes and such all the way, I love it all and I love writing it all, I usually end up doing things like that in my personal writing rather than RP haha.

 

[rae2nerdy]

No, no! I wasn't talking about the Mental illness aspect! Just like, a normal character with normal flaws that just snaps. Never did I mention advocating people seeing others with mental illness in a bad light. Seems you made a bit of a stretch there. But I mostly agree with you.

you were replying to a post that specifically mentioned insane characters so I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to assume you meant mental illness. Especially as again the original post mentioned researching real mental illnesses as well

 

[defenderofberk]

you were replying to a post that specifically mentioned insane characters so I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to assume you meant mental illness. Especially as again the original post mentioned researching real mental illnesses as well

"Insane" can be a pretty broad term, especially in writing. I don't think many people are offended by Harley Quinn or the Joker despite the fact they clearly suffer from various mental issues. There's no real harm in doing research into real life illnesses as long as you make the distinction that what you're writing is fiction.

 

[Tulik]

I’ve always wanted to try a DBZ roleplay. I remember back in the day how cringe worthy people’s OCs for that universe were. I think it could be good if done correctly, and I grew up with dragon ball all the way to Z.

 

[rae2nerdy]

"Insane" can be a pretty broad term, especially in writing. I don't think many people are offended by Harley Quinn or the Joker despite the fact they clearly suffer from various mental issues. There's no real harm in doing research into real life illnesses as long as you make the distinction that what you're writing is fiction.

I was more responding to the point that it was a reach to talk about mental illness at all. When the original post was talking about mental illness specifically.

And in my post itself I also mentioned there is a difference between referencing real mental illness and just having a character be “crazy”.

It was more the idea that my comment wasn’t actually relevant that bothered me. I understand the nuance of the situation.

 

[defenderofberk]

I was more responding to the point that it was a reach to talk about mental illness at all. When the original post was talking about mental illness specifically.

And in my post itself I also mentioned there is a difference between referencing real mental illness and just having a character be “crazy”.

It was more the idea that my comment wasn’t actually relevant that bothered me. I understand the nuance of the situation.

There is a definite difference between just "crazy" and real life conditions and this can sometimes get lost in writing, one particular gripe of mine is how depression is just portrayed as your character feeling sad once. So actually I think research into these things could be really useful, not just for writing but to help people build an awareness of these conditions. Now I wouldn't advocate this if the role player was quite young, as teenagers love nothing better than to look at a mental condition and be "oh that's like so me" but if you wanted to do a really in-depth story as adults it could be a really good learning experience.

I read the original post and I think they were more thinking of getting inspiration (for lack of a better word) from real life illnesses but they weren't actually going to assign one to their characters, it's more of a study into what could cause a certain pattern of behaviours.

 

[Melpomene]

Exactly, I love to create characters like this. It is rather hard to work on them, especially during roleplays, because normally I associate to them a rather distant and cold personality, which makes IC communication harder, but that's a challenge, both for me and for my roleplayer partner, so I guess it can be fun. These types of characters also tend to be very vengeful, which is also something I also love to address on my stories/roleplays. It's interesting to see how that anger, determination and hateful feelings might develop in a calm, cold and ruthless way, with yes, some anger outbursts through the middle, but those not being the whole character's main mood.
Those are definitely hard characters to create/use. But it is definitely interesting to see how such personality works.

I think we are kindred spirits, haha. Because that is exactly why I love making these characters so much. Being in their mind and seeing their quiet and cold rage, watching them plan for years to take vengeance on someone or gain their right to the throne, it is so good. It is such a distinct personality from your run of the mill asshole as well. Because I feel a lot of the times while this character can tend to be cold, at the same time they could be extremely charismatic which is where some of the frightening parts of them lie. Ugghhh I love this character type so much. If you ever want to Rp with one hit me up haha.

 

[Crenando]

I’ve always wanted to try a DBZ roleplay. I remember back in the day how cringe worthy people’s OCs for that universe were. I think it could be good if done correctly, and I grew up with dragon ball all the way to Z.

You'd need a way to stay on-brand. A lot of what cringe-worthy OCs do is an attempt to emulate what official Dragon Ball media does to make their characters more threatening or cool.
It's a matter of getting an RP-runner who knows how to strike that balance and knowing when to say no to characters.

 

[Lexico]

I would like to play GOD. But i am afraid i will be judged.

 

[jaded]

One of my characters is a shape-shifting multi-dimensional time-traveler that has no control over their powers. I've had people tell me it's a cop out because they can literally be in any situation and look like anything, and a lot of people shy away unless it's specifically sci-fi. However, their personality and character is consistent so I don't really think it's a cop out and it really forces me to be creative as far as how and why they are in a situation. It does, however, provide good conflict.