What trait(s) annoys you most in characters?

[The Golden Lion]

Again if you say a swordsmanship and get mad because some techniques seem illogical. Then you don't have no merit to be called a swordsman as many school have techniques that have heavy spiritual concepts that go with truth of Japanese swordsmanship schools. One it's illogical/logical thing to use a shingen the name of said blade given to true Bushi(noble warriors). Reasons being that yes it's a mental/physical battle the spiritual aspects are there stated by Musashi Miyamoto. As the niten ichi ryu school is his legacy so all his techniques an for that logic swordsmanship developed from the heian to the meiji era. All holds merits to well true practitioners. I study many schools irl.  But my point is don' call something that's been around since the heian era having no merit. Also calling swordsmanship just swinging metal. It's at the core as martial art a battle of wills/thoughts to convey to your opponent. But that's my part. I really hate when those who try to demean you fro your knowledge saying it's phony. When they don't even know about the Moving Zen & Zanshin along with Chudan no Kamae basic mandatory things to know.

 

[call me rae]

there are a different types of nymphs. Umbrie is a Nyxad or a Nymph of the Night. Nyxads are in general, shorter and lighter compared to the various more Physically inclined varieties of Earth and Water element Nymphs. in Umbrie's case. she stands at a height of 155 centimeters and weighs 43 kilograms if you round her weight to the nearest kilogram. she is easy to overwhelm physically if you try to wrestle her or engage in most forms of CQC. which generally means she fights dirty by using a combination of her enhanced assassin reflexes with a knife to such vital areas as the eyes. because the only way she can win in close quarters, is to literally deny her opponent something important, like eyesight. but she is easy to overwhelm in a contest of strength or endurance, and at the same time, her senses are easy to overwhelm due to her sensitive nervous system and a flashbang could knock her out from dizziness.

lol i was just using an example of the traditional nymph to explain easy to understand physical weaknesses linked to a magical character. the point is - if your character has any kind of above average ability they must have some correlating weaknesses that is either purely biological or something my character could reasonably access.


i will never forget the time someone tried to tell me their god like being had the weakness of - anyone with equivalent strength. that is not a weakness. if my character must also be god in order to defeat your character than you have done fudged up in the character development process.


for me though OP characters aren't an issue because combat is like number ten on my list of priorities when it comes to roleplay and that's if it's even in the roleplay at all which it rarely is. i'm more interested in who your character is as a person than what they can do.


The only OP trait that pisses me off is mind reading. No flat out I will not allow you to use telepathy. And I'd prefer you not use telekinesis either but I'll at least let that slide. The reason is that people do not understand how either power works. 


The reason for telepathy is because it's basically just god-modding. Your character can magically have omniscient powers and be able to read my posts, the OOC, and my characters profile. Like okay telepathy is basically reading surface level thoughts and maybe if your really good a deep subconcious scan. But either way your essentially using an ability to control the roleplay or make your character OP as heck and no.


Telekinesis is a little better if you at least describe what precisely your character can do. Don't give me - they move stuff with their mind. Okay how? What kind of stuff? Is there a limit? Do they need line of sight? I mean give me something.


It ties into the previous point - if my character cannot realistically counter your characters power without having equal outrageous abilities than you need to nerf them somehow. Or accept the fact that your character is the villain and my character is going to spend the roleplay trying to get around them. 

 

[aetherrose]

Edge. I can forgive 2D because not everybody can make a character that is deep and interesting, but everybody can work together to avoid being needlessly edgy. I also really hate teleport syndrome. That is, being in the place you want to be at all times so your character can be involved in everything.

 

[Crispy Fries]

"HE IS EX-SPECIAL FORCES"

I'm guilty of this, but I try to make it so characters I play who are ex-military or special forces aren't just the biggest badass around. Depending on the setting though, it can make sense for a backstory.

 

[StarryKnights]

For me, i hate it when characters are clearly just a skin for their builder. Like, if we're role playing (in person or online) and I know you personally, i can tell when you've simply slapped a name and design onto a piece of paper and called it a character, when its really just the player's personality. 


Drives me nuts because that character could be so much more, but people are too lazy to develop them. 

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

Any characters without real Combat Strategy or Emotion


Good for Me: Infernal Rapture into Hungry Coils (i believe thats the name)


Bad for Me: Gets into defensive position, ready to counter the upcoming attack

.... Martial arts, bad for you. Nonsensical fiction allowing you to manipulate the situation in drastic and impractical ways, good for you?


Maybe I'm reading it way wrong, I dunno, lol. Either way, you just said practical strategy is bad for you, at the same time over simplifying to make your point. Sounds like you just hate realistic combat. And almost any highly trained fighter or soldier will not have too much emotion during combat. Remaining clam and focused is the key to success and victory. But I think I know what you mean,  subtle emotions and realistic reactions.

• I hate characters who are overtly edgy or confrontational to a fault. Like that impossible character who never seems to be able to oblige, agree, or cooperate. They are always upset, pursuing ulterior motives, being difficult and combative about the most basic things.  Usually the will meet everything with resistance or complications of some kind. When they do happen to just go with the flow, there's always a catch.
  

"I will disarm that bomb... But only because that timer is annoying me.. So you're lucky. Otherwise I'd gladly let you all die."


Go see a good therapist, join a support group. Work on yourself, because your deep mental and emotion issues are so obvious you look like a Metroid boss.

• Characters that consistently contradict themselves (not little things driven by plot or development) because they weren't properly developed, or the writer is just flying by the seat of their pants.
  

• I hate characters that refuse to show any form weakness or vulnerability unless it's initiated by the writer (not an outside force or other character), and usually minor things that don't even count.
  

"I'm too angry."


"I hate everyone."


"I don't care about right or wrong."


"An old injury from when I killed a legion of greater demons keeps flaring up (but it's nothing I can't manage when it comes time to fight )"


"I'm too damaged from my haunting past to do what I know deep down is right..."


Amateur hour is happening at your own damn RP, why don't you check that out.

• Needy characters who do nothing but stall the plot and attention seek.
  

"Come on, we have to kill this guy before he destroys the entire fucking world!"


"I can't...   I'm not strong enough. I'll only get in the way....  "


Then why the fuck did you join the RP? Write a solo work in the Creativity section you fucking weirdo!


"Bella! We gotta get the fuck outta here! Those zombies will be here any minute, and we'll both be ripped to fucking shreds!"


*Falls, snapping her ankle* 'Help, Cody! I cna't get up!  (Babysit me until my ankle heals or I die )"


You're on your own bitch, I didn't sign up for a fuckin' Lifetime movie!

• I hate people who don't know their head from their ass and their ass from a hole in the ground when in comes to combat. Unable to sell the fight when it comes to their own character. NO knowledge of practical combat dynamics, physics, or the human anatomy, fantasy or not. Refuse to accept losing the advantage, even though they made an objectively bad choice.
  

*Throws wide, looping strike against a trained fighter (instead of a linear strike)*


*Has arm caught and placed in joint lock*


*Throws hissy fit in OOC or PM*


You're right, bro. I should downplay and short my character because you have no idea what you're doing.


And I'm not against magic or special abilities, but creative responsibility is always watching and judging you. Even magic can be executed practically.


"I just got stabbed..."

"... But my body, doesn't know what going into shock or blood loss even means... *snickers* I've still got 10 good posts of wide-open fight left in me."

• Tacky Japanime kids in general.
  

 

[Lorsh]

I'm guilty of this, but I try to make it so characters I play who are ex-military or special forces aren't just the biggest badass around. Depending on the setting though, it can make sense for a backstory.

I sometimes play military characters too. Though, they're usually just national guardsmen and nothing more.

 

[Crispy Fries]

I sometimes play military characters too. Though, they're usually just national guardsmen and nothing more.

A character having a military background can also be used for more than just justification for being a badass

 

[Drangor]

I don't mind most characters. People are bound to have faults, and I don't mind most. But...there's one that sticks out like a sore thumb repeatedly stung over and over.


When someone, intentional or unintentional, molds a character after themselves.


Now, I'm not talking about making a character they like, or a flat out Mary-Sue. I'm talking about a character who essentially represents them. Now, they don't usually copy their own name or look. Namely, I mean personality. Characters, themselves, can be a hell lotta diverse! You can have one who's down-to-earth, or one doesn't understand the difference between figurative and literal meanings of phrases. But when someone just bases it off them, with only a few tweaks, that annoys me. You can, visibly, spot the difference; the way both of the characters act, the way they like to "speak" in text that is. It's unoriginal, boring, and above all else, lazy. You have your entire imagination to use, but they decide to simply use themselves. Hell, even if they try to cover it by adding some "faults" to their character, it still shines through!

 

[SanguineThanos]

I think the most annoying trait I can think of at the top of my head is absolute perfection. When a character simply cannot have a flaw, cannot falter, cannot have moments of ugliness, or even when they do it is overshadowed by just how gushy PERFECT they are... it drives me insane. I'm someone who greatly enjoys character development and I love seeing characters grow and change, respond to situations in a way that doesn't seem like they are manufactured off of plastic. And whenever I see someone be disgustingly perfect, I realize that I should just give up. I cannot have fun if the other person cannot mold their character to be believable and interesting.

 

[Umbrie]

The Piler.. this Roleplayer doesn't just build an overpowered character by picking a strong ability relative to their verse. they don't care about their verse, in fact, they will play a half demonic half angelic vampiric weredragon super saiyan who has a devil fruit power, a captain class zanpakuto, all the bending styles, a nine tailed fox sealed inside them, powerful wizarddry, assassin training, psionics, bankai, hollowification, a sage mode, a vibranium suir, and a noble phantasm. piling on everything they can onto one character with no rhyme or reason, and oh, their character is 10,000 years old, and still a sophomore in high school as a cover.

 

[Esper Alucard]

@Umbrie Dont forget Susano'o Armor


"Impossible!"


*Merges a Terumi and Hakumen plush into a Susano'o plush*


"No way!"

 

[Umbrie]

another thing i am annoyed by.


this practice is generally found in Dice based roleplays. aparrently, the immersion killing idea that a master swordsman literally trips and drops his or her sword 20 feet away from his or her self in the back of a companion once every 20 swings or in systems with smaller dice, once every 12 swings or even more frequently than that. it is commonly enforced by grognardian game masters who feel a blatant need to murder a player character every combat encounter and generally want to punish the warrior for being so good with a sword. so they create critical fumble charts to make the warrior have some kind of immersion killing penalty because grognards have a hate boner for elite warriors. i'm not saying a soldier should be allowed in a zombie apocalypse game. but in a game of swords and sorcery. the master swordsman should not be fumbling in a way that disarms him or her and wounds one of his or her companions every 4th turn.

 

[Esper Alucard]

@Umbrie I have never tried these dice games, online and physical. They actually look really fun and interesting, any good ones i should try? (other than dnd)

 

[Umbrie]

@Umbrie I have never tried these dice games, online and physical. They actually look really fun and interesting, any good ones i should try? (other than dnd)

i recommend Savage Worlds if you want something fast and simple with a variety of dials intended to adjust it for a variety of settings while having a candidate for the cheapest core rulebook you have to actually purchase, i recommend Savage Worlds. the big issue with Savage Worlds is you have to come up with your own setting, your own lore and your own descriptions. because all the system cares about is the mechanical impact an a particular ability has on the game rather than what it looks like. though i recommend starting core savage worlds with an approach that your characters are sensible but focused. it isn't a system where you can pile on abilities and it is a system that penalizes excessive minmaxing while also penalizing excessive generalization. the system rewards solid archetypes and has some room for branching out, rather than being entirely class based


d4-2 = untrained or minimal experience. that wallet you made in kindergarten is an untrained repair roll. d4 is minimal training to get by making a living with that task. like that person who flips burgers at Mcdonalds, a d6 is average for somebody who is experienced in that field, like shooting for a soldier, d8 is an extremely high skill level. d8 opens a lot of doors, being that lawyer who can quote obscure laws,  a d10 is nearly olympian quality. a d10 is Sydney Crosby in the NHL. d12 is world renowned, like Bruce Lee, d12+any bonus are generally superhuman.. though you can further customize your character with edges and hindrances. most generally reduce a penalty or improve a specific set of skills, or provide utility you can gain by roleplaying.


i really don't recommend D&D, i mean D&D groups are easy to find, but most of them are extremely similar, which leads to fantasy fatigue. SW also has pre published settings if you needed them, i recommend Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer's Edition. which came out in 2010 and is still the current edition. D&D makes a new ruleset every 5 years.

 

[Bethari]

All of this is really good information for me on what to avoid, since I'm relatively new to RP.

 

[Windsock]

All of this is really good information for me on what to avoid, since I'm relatively new to RP.

It's always good to do research before embarrassing yourself and bringing shame upon your family.

 

[102bees]

@Umbrie I have never tried these dice games, online and physical. They actually look really fun and interesting, any good ones i should try? (other than dnd)

I'm a huge fan of the New World of Darkness line, especially the Promethean book. New World of Darkness strikes an excellent balance between system complexity and efficiency. It's faster and more streamlined than D&D, but also has enough depth and complexity to model a wide range of situations. It's basically a horror game designed for playing mortals or monsters in a dark, twisted version of the modern world. Promethean is the book in the system based on playing constructed monsters powered by divine fire and trying to become human. It's a really good game with a lot of space for everything from pure combat sessions to very introspective and philosophical sessions.


Exalted is good too if you want to play a really ridiculous game of magical martial arts and divine superpowers.

Edge. I can forgive 2D because not everybody can make a character that is deep and interesting, but everybody can work together to avoid being needlessly edgy. I also really hate teleport syndrome. That is, being in the place you want to be at all times so your character can be involved in everything.

I hate edgy, grimdark characters. They're just so dull.


And they make me think of this:

 

[TheCarolean]

lol i was just using an example of the traditional nymph to explain easy to understand physical weaknesses linked to a magical character. the point is - if your character has any kind of above average ability they must have some correlating weaknesses that is either purely biological or something my character could reasonably access.


i will never forget the time someone tried to tell me their god like being had the weakness of - anyone with equivalent strength. that is not a weakness. if my character must also be god in order to defeat your character than you have done fudged up in the character development process.


for me though OP characters aren't an issue because combat is like number ten on my list of priorities when it comes to roleplay and that's if it's even in the roleplay at all which it rarely is. i'm more interested in who your character is as a person than what they can do.


The only OP trait that pisses me off is mind reading. No flat out I will not allow you to use telepathy. And I'd prefer you not use telekinesis either but I'll at least let that slide. The reason is that people do not understand how either power works. 


The reason for telepathy is because it's basically just god-modding. Your character can magically have omniscient powers and be able to read my posts, the OOC, and my characters profile. Like okay telepathy is basically reading surface level thoughts and maybe if your really good a deep subconcious scan. But either way your essentially using an ability to control the roleplay or make your character OP as heck and no.


Telekinesis is a little better if you at least describe what precisely your character can do. Don't give me - they move stuff with their mind. Okay how? What kind of stuff? Is there a limit? Do they need line of sight? I mean give me something.


It ties into the previous point - if my character cannot realistically counter your characters power without having equal outrageous abilities than you need to nerf them somehow. Or accept the fact that your character is the villain and my character is going to spend the roleplay trying to get around them. 

Since telepathy is only surface level thoughts, you can just play cards or something like that in your head to block it off, if you know this person is a telepath. That is a trick taught to me by KOTOR. 

 

[call me rae]

Since telepathy is only surface level thoughts, you can just play cards or something like that in your head to block it off, if you know this person is a telepath. That is a trick taught to me by KOTOR. 

I meant more specifically that telepathy as an ability is only reading thoughts ( surface or rarely subconcious ) this does not translate to your character being able to read my posts, the OOC, and the character profiles. That is not the same kind of ability at all.

 

[Umbrie]

I meant more specifically that telepathy as an ability is only reading thoughts ( surface or rarely subconcious ) this does not translate to your character being able to read my posts, the OOC, and the character profiles. That is not the same kind of ability at all.

depends on the level of control and concentration the Telepath uses. if they are aggressively scanning your memories for information to use against you. they probably aren't in a state where they can really perform much of a reaction and are merely a headshot away from death. ut anything beyond surface thoughts requires agressive scanning which takes longer the older the target happens to be. sure, you can scan the memories of a nearly 2 milleniia old nymph child if you don't mind collapsing before you can find anything useful. the primary reason ancient ageless creatures prefer to read case files over using telepathy is because case files are faster and more efficient, even if they require translation.

 

[call me rae]

depends on the level of control and concentration the Telepath uses. if they are aggressively scanning your memories for information to use against you. they probably aren't in a state where they can really perform much of a reaction and are merely a headshot away from death. ut anything beyond surface thoughts requires agressive scanning which takes longer the older the target happens to be. sure, you can scan the memories of a nearly 2 milleniia old nymph child if you don't mind collapsing before you can find anything useful. the primary reason ancient ageless creatures prefer to read case files over using telepathy is because case files are faster and more efficient, even if they require translation.

lol I'm not asking for a definition of Telepathy. I am stating that I don't like people using telepathy as an excuse to metagame which is a different problem entirely. 

 

[Bethari]

Total noob question here, but what's metagaming?

 

[call me rae]

Total noob question here, but what's metagaming?

it is when you take information out of character - for instance stuff you say while planning the plot or talking to your partner, or information in the character sheets, or information in the thread that your character couldn't know - and using that to your characters advantage.



For instance if I say in the Character Sheet that my character's favorite color is blue - and you have your character say  - Hey I like Blue Too! - without my character actually SAYING they like blue than that would be an example of meta gaming.

 

[Bethari]

Oh, I see. That would be really annoying if someone did that. Thankfully, I haven't come across someone like that yet.