Viewpoint What you cannot stand in characters?

[Idea]

I'm taking for granted that those characters are already in the sin bin. XD

The worst is when the CS looks fine, but as soon as you are in the RP it's all constant attention seeking. "Oh my character got kidnapped, again!!!" "Oh my character needs help or they'll die!!!" "My character is gatecrashing your scene because you're not paying attention!!!" etc.

Disclaimer: Being kidnapped or in need of help is totally fine within reason. Character vulnerability is great. If it's always happening then the eyerolls get prompted.

Kidnappers: *show up*
Damsel in Distress: "Ah, don't worry, this happens all the time. I brought my own chloroform!"

joke shamelessly stolen from the Nostalgia Critic

 

[SP3CT3R]

Kidnappers: *show up*
Damsel in Distress: "Ah, don't worry, this happens all the time. I brought my own chloroform!"

joke shamelessly stolen from the Nostalgia Critic

Did you mean: Princess Peach

 

[Idea]

Did you mean: Princess Peach

Among others (in the original it was Lois Lane, or however you spell her name)

 

[Gowi]

It is a very Lois Lane line.

 

[Dexter_]

When more than two people are being Homer Simpson's clones

 

[Idea]

When more than two people are being Homer Simpson's clones

How do you mean?

 

[Dexter_]

How do you mean?

We can't all be the greatest vigilante of all time. Someone's got to be the villain, be it El Barto or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

 

[Idea]

Oh I see...I think?

 

[AnonyMouse]

Most of the things mentioned in this thread have me nodding my head and thinking, "yes, thank you for bringing that up!" But, here's one I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Power creep: the slow escalation of powers/magic/abilities/skills. I've seen this in a lot of action- or combat-based RPs, where the "story" is more about being an epic badass instead of being a complex person with goals, flaws, and meaningful relationships. it's bad enough when it happens in the roleplay itself, but FAR WORSE when it happens before the RP has even begun and every character sheet starts to look like "the previous character, +1."

Sometimes, it isn't even power creep. the power level just shoots straight to OVER 9000 instantly because the GM approved one character whose abilities , skills, experience, or whatever completely outclasses everyone that came before. It makes me nope outta there real quick. i usually take many days to make a CS, sometimes a week or more, so... yeah... by the time I'm finished crafting my "bringing a spoon to knife fight" character, he looks more like he's bringing a spoon to thermonuclear war, LOL. *starts sharpening the spoon*

 

[SP3CT3R]

Most of the things mentioned in this thread have me nodding my head and thinking, "yes, thank you for bringing that up!" But, here's one I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Power creep: the slow escalation of powers/magic/abilities/skills. I've seen this in a lot of action- or combat-based RPs, where the "story" is more about being an epic badass instead of being a complex person with goals, flaws, and meaningful relationships. it's bad enough when it happens in the roleplay itself, but FAR WORSE when it happens before the RP has even begun and every character sheet starts to look like "the previous character, +1."

Sometimes, it isn't even power creep. the power level just shoots straight to OVER 9000 instantly because the GM approved one character whose abilities , skills, experience, or whatever completely outclasses everyone that came before. It makes me nope outta there real quick. i usually take many days to make a CS, sometimes a week or more, so... yeah... by the time I'm finished crafting my "bringing a spoon to knife fight" character, he looks more like he's bringing a spoon to thermonuclear war, LOL. *starts sharpening the spoon*

Oh god, this right here. I wish I had the confidence to play an underpowered character to make a point out of this, but I don't want my ass handed to me if pvp breaks out.

 

[BackSet]

Traitor characters. I know that it's irrational and I know that they can be done well but most of the time they aren't.

One time I was in an rp with so many levels of traitor that there were basically no good guys left except for me and a friend. And most of them did it badly. From then on out I've been very careful about those kinds of characters and I even straight up ban them in my own rps unless someone can give me a convincing reason.

 

[Lioness075]

It's so difficult for me because I can be so nitpicky. I could never run a RP myself because I'd be way too judgemental of everyone's CS. >.< I have to leave that up to GMs and just take the backseat instead.

I suppose my biggest frustration with character sheets is when the person either clearly did not read the rules or they did not read the lore. Or sometimes there will be people who don't read either and just make an assumption about what's allowed. It's very frustrating because then the GM has to reiterate things that have already been said and spend too long having someone edit their CS over and over again.

Another big pet peeve of mine in general when it comes to writing is the grammatical structure and proper spelling in someone's CS. I'm imperfect and sometimes when I reread a CS of my own, I have to go back and edit some things. But like, the CS with blatant mistakes left and right is what really drives me up a wall. Even more so when it's been up for over a day, the person is interacting in the OOC thread, and they clearly aren't going to bother editing unless someone tells them to. >.<

Now I swap around the same collection of OCs for every RP I join. I even swap out the same names. BUT I make sure that the name and OC I use is tailored to the RP I'm joining. It frustrates me when I learn that a certain RPer is just using the same character(s) over and over again, but they refuse to edit anything about them for the RP they're joining.

I guess my last big frustration would be the spotlight characters. Now everyone deserves a little time in the spotlight in each RP, but the characters that just have to be in the spotlight 24/7 or have to be the edgiest and toughest character around are the ones that really grind my gears. Like, please take a chill pill and stop already. XD

 

[Idea]

I could never run a RP myself because I'd be way too judgemental of everyone's CS. >.< I have to leave that up to GMs and just take the backseat instead.

I think you could actually, I mean I'm pretty harsh and nitpicky on my player's CSs, especially when it comes to personality and abilities. I wouldn't say a GM being peculiar on what kind of CSs are a problem is an issue per say, provided the criteria is well-outlined and not just coming from whims.

 

[Lioness075]

I think you could actually, I mean I'm pretty harsh and nitpicky on my player's CSs, especially when it comes to personality and abilities. I wouldn't say a GM being peculiar on what kind of CSs are a problem is an issue per say, provided the criteria is well-outlined and not just coming from whims.

I’ve been working on improving my bluntness over the years, but I’ve had a few instances in the past where I upset other RPers and even once scared one away from a RP entirely. >.< I don’t want to do that to anyone ever again.

 

[Idea]

I’ve been working on improving my bluntness over the years, but I’ve had a few instances in the past where I upset other RPers and even once scared one away from a RP entirely. >.< I don’t want to do that to anyone ever again.

Understandable. Another relatable thing for me there, holding back my words was a tough thing to learn and it’s debatable whether I’ve even really learned it yet XD

Still, I would argue that the best way to not scare players away from an RP they are in, is to be clear upfront on the exact nature of how things will be. Some players won’t want to participate of course, but an RP that takes everyone isn’t worth much for any of them.

 

[Abendrot]

It's so difficult for me because I can be so nitpicky. I could never run a RP myself because I'd be way too judgemental of everyone's CS.

Honestly? I wish I had more gms like that. It often frustrates me when gms blindly accept every cs they see, even if they’re complete trash.

 

[BakaTheIdiot]

There are too many things.

But the one thing that grinds my gears more than anything else is a "Truly Flawless Human Being."

If your character does not have flaws of some kind, you're a lazy character designer. There's no such thing as perfection. In my opinion, the more flaws, the better!

 

[Tove]

Arrogance, entitlement, general all around bitchiness, and completely one dimensional characters-what you see is what you get-no type of character development.

 

[just_patches]

I have a few
-Comic relief characters who are invincible to consequence because they're SOOOO FUNNY
-People who make insane characters that treat mental insanity like a wacky lol random trait "my character has 1000 personalities (stereotypes)." Happens most of the time with Schizophrenia.
-When a character uses a gun and the writer chooses a Desert Eagle. It's just an overused and overrated gun because it's big and loud. (I'm a bit of a hypocrite since I have a gunslinger character and they use a classic western revolver, which is basically the "katana of guns" in terms of overratedness)

 

[DarkiusHeavenstein]

Not persay in regard of finding things off putting about a character, but when a person adds so much information to the Character Sheet that is not asked for when the GM (me) clearly asked not to add any more information that that what has been asked for.

For characters;
- Characters that (purposely) do not fit into the plot or setting or idea of the roleplay.
- Characters that are way too young for whatever background they have. (Yes, I know children and teenagers go to horrible stuff and yes, I know I am guilty of this stuff too. But please if you make someone a top lawyer or whatever, you need time to finish a study and make a carreer and a name for yourself. So I am a bit done with seeing overly successful, straight from the uni and into the top of their carreer / professional 22 and 23 year old. Not saying it is impossible, but yeah...)
- Characters that are obviously just the players desires stacked on top of each other that doesn't make sense. (Like a very sucessful instagram artist, who also is world champion in boxing and as a hobby does motorcrossing (on top level ofc) and studied psychology with two degrees in maths.)
- I probably can name a lot more things. But this is top of the head for now. And I tried not to repeat whatever has been said before.

OH the 'they are super shy and won't come out of the room to greet other characters' and then complain when other characters do not acvitely socialize with them because there are other (not shy) people around they are interacting with.

 

[cloudyskies]

-People who make insane characters that treat mental insanity like a wacky lol random trait "my character has 1000 personalities (stereotypes)." Happens most of the time with Schizophrenia.

THIS.
People should really do their research first if they’re going to correctly portray a character with mental illness. I don’t want to “do it wrong”, so I always make sure to do at least brief research into whatever it is I’m planning to write, more commonly with characters.

Also, kind of my pet peeves in this topic:
-Eyes changing colors. I believe anything can work in a story, but a lot of the time when this is used it’s unnecessary or doesn’t make sense.
-characters who stutter constantly to get across that they’re shy. As someone who’s (mostly) shy in real life, I don’t stutter. Yes, some people stutter when they’re nervous, but not every other word. I’m not saying a character can’t be shy and have a stutter, but some people just write the stutters wrong.
-When I have a character who’s a literal psychopath and the other character starts to hint romance with them.
-“I’m too pretty nobody likes me” not saying this hasn’t been done right, but it usually isn’t.

 

[Crayons]

OH the 'they are super shy and won't come out of the room to greet other characters' and then complain when other characters do not acvitely socialize with them because there are other (not shy) people around they are interacting with.[/font]

omg this. XD Normally if I'm in a group RP I just ignore the hell out of this kind of character. The player is basically saying "You do all the work" and it's never worth your time trying to winkle some responses out of someone who is attention seeking by playing a shy character - they will only do it more. It's a roleplay, the whole point of it is characters interacting - if your character is shy at least give them some other reason to have to interact with people.

 

[Damafaud]

Bubbly to hell and back characters

Friendly beyond the point of being naive and innocent irritates me. Oh the big bad evil just massacre the entire school!

Everyone else: What the fuck are you crazy shit run

"Killing people is wrong! My mom won't like that!"

You know. Shut up a bit, will ya? Read the atmosphere a bit? Why are you even calling your mother? Did your mother offend you or something?

Epecially if the character not only talks stupid but acts stupid. After saying said line, he jumps at said danger without a care for his utter safety without knowing a single effing thing of what the hell is going on.

 

[BackSet]

I have a character who's kind of like that...

He's friendly and cheerful and jumps into danger at the first sign of trouble.

He also has a robot suit and is a super hero so he's fine. He also isn't stupid. Naive? Yes. Stupid? He's a frikken robotics prodigy.

 

[just_patches]

-characters who stutter constantly to get across that they’re shy. As someone who’s (mostly) shy in real life, I don’t stutter. Yes, some people stutter when they’re nervous, but not every other word. I’m not saying a character can’t be shy and have a stutter, but some people just write the stutters wrong.

Agreed.
I-if... You, um... T-talk like... Um... Talk like th-this... You like... Um... You're p-posts, um... B-b-become v-very annoying... Um... To... To read.

As someone who use to RP in a open roleplay setting where someone played Fluttershy from MLP, they typed like that ALL THE TIME.