Experiences Whats making you angry today? Rp pet peeves

[Crayons]

I haven't done any actual new RPs in aaaaaaages now lol, but something that ever-so-slightly irritates me when browsing the forums and looking through CSes is... likes and dislikes. Or how most people fill them out.

Likes: Good food, her friends, sunny days, the beach
Dislikes: Liars, hypocrites, bad people, loud noises

I don't know if this is unreasonable of me or not, but... BRUH these are things that everyone likes or hates. I haven't seen a single person who likes a liar, these things tell me zilch about your character as an individual. In my opinion, the things that should go in these lists are things that are tailored to your character. Things they like/dislike that regular people might not. Or better yet, just scrap the list and figure that crap out in-character. I'm not even too terribly in favor of character sheets as a whole.

I've also seen this a lot with fears.

He is afraid of death.
She is afraid of her family dying.

When I've taught character creation, I give them a little mini CS to fill in, and if they put anything like that for their fear I make them change it. XD

 

[tuxedo-fish]

I don't really like when roleplays require you to have a face-claim/photo of your character. I don't know how common this is now because I haven't roleplayed in a while; but in the past it just seemed like people assumed you would provide one, and I never got why? Like, it's cool to have, but this is a written medium so surely a written description of their appearance is just as good? Idk.

This really bugs me when it's done in the cartoon/comic/manga RP world. A lot of these RPs insist on real-world faceclaims to even participate!

"We need to know what they look like!"

"Okay, cool, here's a scan from--"

"NO! WHAT THEY REALLY LOOK LIKE!"

"Uh...?"

 

[Daisie]

She is afraid of her family dying.

Plot twist: She isn't afraid of her family dying because she's a literal sociopath

 

[Lorsh]

I hate it when ppl tell me i cant hate coders wtf?!

Imagine having to read a small Wiki's worth of info just to participate.

I made a wikia for my RP universe that I basically only edit at my own pleasure, at this point some of it is actually outdated / contradictory to my own headcanon due to the volume of info present.

I referred my players to it (long ago), and it's obvious some are more interested in big picture lore compared to others, but it doesn't matter because the characters they play could realistically have a skewed knowledge of history (beyond the local level). If any big updates are made I'll let them know but until then idc, no biggie

I also typed up a whole lore document (more of a summary) which is just a really culturally specific/ICly racist and highly religiously inspired "scholarly" interpretation of the world's history. Something bare minimum, easy to consume...

 

[Andei]

Hmm... I think a pet peeve of mine is where it's clear from their writing that they don't really much for any character other than their own. Motivation to write does take a bit of a hit when you see 'protagonist syndrome' coming in so hard that they take a post you've taken ages to craft and then downplay or even outright ignore the emotional / narrative significance of what your character's just said / done so they can do their own monologue or day-saving antics.

Admittedly, it can be an easy trap to fall into (at least, I certainly have), as most writers love their own creations and quite rightly so. That said, I reckon most of us have enough love to go round for characters beyond the ones we've made *cue pointed glance at extensive number of 'fandom'-tagged threads*

 

[Melpomene]

I haven't done any actual new RPs in aaaaaaages now lol, but something that ever-so-slightly irritates me when browsing the forums and looking through CSes is... likes and dislikes. Or how most people fill them out.

Likes: Good food, her friends, sunny days, the beach
Dislikes: Liars, hypocrites, bad people, loud noises

I don't know if this is unreasonable of me or not, but... BRUH these are things that everyone likes or hates. I haven't seen a single person who likes a liar, these things tell me zilch about your character as an individual. In my opinion, the things that should go in these lists are things that are tailored to your character. Things they like/dislike that regular people might not. Or better yet, just scrap the list and figure that crap out in-character. I'm not even too terribly in favor of character sheets as a whole.

Oh God I FEEL that.

Like, they'll say something like: "dislikes literal nazis, puppy killers, and murderers." Like what? Great, they aren't sociopaths, now what about something that actually tells me anything about your character lol.

I mean, even if it was something as random as they dislike the communist manifesto. Or if they hate sand because it is course, and irritating and gets everywhere, that'd be a little more telling.

 

[Crayons]

Plot twist: She isn't afraid of her family dying because she's a literal sociopath

Sociopath characters are indeed one of my pet peeves.

It's just an excuse to not care about your fellow characters, not to bother building genuine relationships, and act like an asshat/kill people at random. I have never seen one done well. If I was GMing and someone's character concept included the word sociopath I would immediately refuse it, and have indeed done so! Especially so if character concept is only that they are a sociopath.

 

[Onmyoji]

When you're incredibly inspired to write for rp but there is work and real life responsibilities that prevent you from writing for your own pleasure... And by the time you have a chance to write there is barely any energy left because it was all spent on real life.

 

[luvfull]

I don't really like when roleplays require you to have a face-claim/photo of your character. I don't know how common this is now because I haven't roleplayed in a while; but in the past it just seemed like people assumed you would provide one, and I never got why? Like, it's cool to have, but this is a written medium so surely a written description of their appearance is just as good? Idk.

as someone who generally prefers a face claim, i like them because my memory is awful. i'm always afraid i'm going to forget traits from their characters or assume something and it's completely wrong, you know? i guess i could always go back and read the description, but i feel like i remember more when i know what the character actually looks like.
if any of that makes any sense.
idk.

 

[Mirgris]

When someone does a bunch of BB Code and by the end of it the box their text is in is 10% of the space of their post.

So now I'm squinting and can't even scroll to read on my phone if I'm out an about. It's just an annoying mess.

Like cool, nice presentation is cool, and some Code is cool and fine, but I'm tired of seeing this colorful boxes with mutliple tabs and links, and gif back grounds and I'm stuck here unable to read the post easily.

The post should be the point.

 

[Mirgris]

Sociopath characters are indeed one of my pet peeves.

It's just an excuse to not care about your fellow characters, not to bother building genuine relationships, and act like an asshat/kill people at random. I have never seen one done well. If I was GMing and someone's character concept included the word sociopath I would immediately refuse it, and have indeed done so! Especially so if character concept is only that they are a sociopath.

It worse because it isn't even an accurate view of sociopaths, people with ant social personality disorder, DO care about people, they also tend to be more rash, angry and impulsive than the typical "Nothing phases me, I'm a sociopath, I can murder you without blinking" and ontop of that some of them are fucking married, happily.


It is harder for them to get close to people, and it takes longer/more for them to care and empathize but yeah modern medicine says the actual sociopath is almost exactly the opposite of the stereotype super cold blooded serial killer

 

[Crayons]

It worse because it isn't even an accurate view of sociopaths, people with ant social personality disorder, DO care about people, they also tend to be more rash, angry and impulsive than the typical "Nothing phases me, I'm a sociopath, I can murder you without blinking" and ontop of that some of them are fucking married, happily.


It is harder for them to get close to people, and it takes longer/more for them to care and empathize but yeah modern medicine says the actual sociopath is almost exactly the opposite of the stereotype super cold blooded serial killer

I guarantee you that less than 0.01% of people playing "sociopath" characters have done any research at all on real life sociopaths.

 

[Andei]

When you're incredibly inspired to write for rp but there is work and real life responsibilities that prevent you from writing for your own pleasure... And by the time you have a chance to write there is barely any energy left because it was all spent on real life.

This is so real that it literally came to life, leapt off the screen and commuted to work complaining about tax returns

 

[CecilDMMasters]

This really bugs me when it's done in the cartoon/comic/manga RP world. A lot of these RPs insist on real-world faceclaims to even participate!

"We need to know what they look like!"

"Okay, cool, here's a scan from--"

"NO! WHAT THEY REALLY LOOK LIKE!"

"Uh...?"

That sounds as weird and roundabout as the the time someone replied to my RP ad and sent their rules. We were pretty compatible rule and interest wise except I was "No romance or shipping. Platonic only." and they were "ROMANCE IS A MUST!!!!!!"

"Your rules say romance in a must. As you can see in my rules I don't do romance RPs."
"It'll be okay. I just need a LITTLE romance."

At no point did I ever get an explanation to exactly what a little romance meant. Light crushing? Them having a romance among their own characters? The conversation just went in circles a few replies of them not clarifying and insisting it would be fine. Me being clear my characters were not interested in dating. They stopped replying. I kind of didn't really think a RP was happening after the first mention of a LITTLE romance though. LMAO

 

[CecilDMMasters]

It worse because it isn't even an accurate view of sociopaths, people with ant social personality disorder, DO care about people, they also tend to be more rash, angry and impulsive than the typical "Nothing phases me, I'm a sociopath, I can murder you without blinking" and ontop of that some of them are fucking married, happily.


It is harder for them to get close to people, and it takes longer/more for them to care and empathize but yeah modern medicine says the actual sociopath is almost exactly the opposite of the stereotype super cold blooded serial killer

Thank you! While I never diagnosed the character I have one I use in vigilante RPs that during character talk I simply said simple anti social and socially stunted due to bad childhood. Someone I RPed with tried to but in.

"Uh, I played a RP with you with him. He certainly has issues and won't talk about certain stuff. Or be hugged but he has some close friends and is still willing to work with people in RPs. He's not anti social."
"Yeah, and I have a whole back story about how he had to learn to trust those friends and being anti social doesn't mean he won't do what he feels is his job to stop people from dying. He would never have gone with your characters to just hang out until they worked together."

 

[Andei]

That sounds as weird and roundabout as the the time someone replied to my RP ad and sent their rules. We were pretty compatible rule and interest wise except I was "No romance or shipping. Platonic only." and they were "ROMANCE IS A MUST!!!!!!"

"Your rules say romance in a must. As you can see in my rules I don't do romance RPs."
"It'll be okay. I just need a LITTLE romance."

At no point did I ever get an explanation to exactly what a little romance meant. Light crushing? Them having a romance among their own characters? The conversation just went in circles a few replies of them not clarifying and insisting it would be fine. Me being clear my characters were not interested in dating. They stopped replying. I kind of didn't really think a RP was happening after the first mention of a LITTLE romance though. LMAO

This would actually be great to play out:

Spoiler: A Little Romance

Edmund looked up at Gemma, and for the first time, actually looked at her. The previously faceless, unimportant, vaguely skin-coloured shadow was coming into focus, and from underneath her flyaway blonde hair he could make out a nose scrunched up with a weird combination of frustration and concern. Her lips, with its hastily-applied lip gloss (she was evidently not a morning person), were bent into a natural pout as she told him that it didn't matter to her that Edmund was actually a guinea-pig. Her large, misty blue eyes - were eyes usually that big? - bored into his own with... what? Determination? Longing?

'Gemma... I...'

'Yes?'

'I... I think we should stop this staring contest right now because my meta-senses are telling me we're at real risk of overstepping into the realm of "light crushing" and "longing looks" which is only two steps away from the "True Romance" territory, which was not within the established guidelines when we began this interaction.'

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

When someone does a bunch of BB Code and by the end of it the box their text is in is 10% of the space of their post.

So now I'm squinting and can't even scroll to read on my phone if I'm out an about. It's just an annoying mess.

Like cool, nice presentation is cool, and some Code is cool and fine, but I'm tired of seeing this colorful boxes with mutliple tabs and links, and gif back grounds and I'm stuck here unable to read the post easily.

The post should be the point.

I hate it when they use it for CS's it feels like they're trying to hide the OP OC BS under all that "LOOK AT ALL THIS CODING! UWU!" mess.

 

[BunnyDemon]

When people don't follow instructions. -- At the very bottom of my search thread, I have written in bold, red letters "Please do not post here. I will delete any posts that aren't mine. If you're interested, send me a PM." I have this for two very specific reasons. 1) I'm a fairly private person. I don't want planning and discussion going on in my search thread. 2) To see who can follow instructions. If you can't do one specific thing that I ask you very plainly to do in my search thread (really, it's not a hidden code word or task within the thread), it tells me that you will probably only be interested in your side of the RP and won't pay attention to my side.

I had a person comment on my thread about a plot that wasn't in my thread. I've been in the roleplaying scene a long time. I used to reply to EVERYONE with a yes or no, but I've finally learned that that just isn't possible, especially since I tend to feel bad and anxious every time I say no. This single rule has given me the excuse I need to ignore people that I can pretty much guarantee I won't mesh with because they were warned. So, I just deleted the comment without saying anything. Almost immediately, they commented on my thread AGAIN calling me bogus because I deleted their comment and saying that I should have just said no. I wanted to refer them back to my rule in my opening post, but I held my tongue and just deleted that comment as well.

When people won't contribute to the planning process. -- When someone messages me about an idea in my search thread, I assume they have their own expectations and ideas for it as well and I like to ask them what they want out of the RP. If their ideas don't completely contrast with what I'm looking for, I don't mind changing or combining plot points that I had. But I've had people respond with "Yes," or something similar when asked, but didn't elaborate on it without me coming back with something like, "Okay, what is your idea?" All this does is make the planning process longer than it needs to be. I'm not going to play that game. Either you tell me what you want or I'm going to stop replying. I'm not going to fish for your ideas.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

This would actually be great to play out:

Spoiler: A Little Romance

Edmund looked up at Gemma, and for the first time, actually looked at her. The previously faceless, unimportant, vaguely skin-coloured shadow was coming into focus, and from underneath her flyaway blonde hair he could make out a nose scrunched up with a weird combination of frustration and concern. Her lips, with its hastily-applied lip gloss (she was evidently not a morning person), were bent into a natural pout as she told him that it didn't matter to her that Edmund was actually a guinea-pig. Her large, misty blue eyes - were eyes usually that big? - bored into his own with... what? Determination? Longing?

'Gemma... I...'

'Yes?'

'I... I think we should stop this staring contest right now because my meta-senses are telling me we're at real risk of overstepping into the realm of "light crushing" and "longing looks" which is only two steps away from the "True Romance" territory, which was not within the established guidelines when we began this interaction.'

ROFL that is hilarious . Sadly I doubt the person I was dealing with would be that comical.

They likely would have likely been the type to do over done unrequited love end up throwing in the dreaded "I know you said you don't do romance. But I can't help but notice the chemistry between . . .''

A chemistry only someone addicted to romance would see . . . .

 

[sugarleaf]

If people say they are not looking for OC's, they are not looking for OC's!!!

This happens far too often to me.

 

[sugarleaf]

When people don't follow instructions. -- At the very bottom of my search thread, I have written in bold, red letters "Please do not post here. I will delete any posts that aren't mine. If you're interested, send me a PM." I have this for two very specific reasons. 1) I'm a fairly private person. I don't want planning and discussion going on in my search thread. 2) To see who can follow instructions. If you can't do one specific thing that I ask you very plainly to do in my search thread (really, it's not a hidden code word or task within the thread), it tells me that you will probably only be interested in your side of the RP and won't pay attention to my side.

I had a person comment on my thread about a plot that wasn't in my thread. I've been in the roleplaying scene a long time. I used to reply to EVERYONE with a yes or no, but I've finally learned that that just isn't possible, especially since I tend to feel bad and anxious every time I say no. This single rule has given me the excuse I need to ignore people that I can pretty much guarantee I won't mesh with because they were warned. So, I just deleted the comment without saying anything. Almost immediately, they commented on my thread AGAIN calling me bogus because I deleted their comment and saying that I should have just said no. I wanted to refer them back to my rule in my opening post, but I held my tongue and just deleted that comment as well.

When people won't contribute to the planning process. -- When someone messages me about an idea in my search thread, I assume they have their own expectations and ideas for it as well and I like to ask them what they want out of the RP. If their ideas don't completely contrast with what I'm looking for, I don't mind changing or combining plot points that I had. But I've had people respond with "Yes," or something similar when asked, but didn't elaborate on it without me coming back with something like, "Okay, what is your idea?" All this does is make the planning process longer than it needs to be. I'm not going to play that game. Either you tell me what you want or I'm going to stop replying. I'm not going to fish for your ideas.

I've had the same issues when it comes to plotting! Most of the time it's people connecting to my prompt who want to contribute very little. On the other-hand, I'm very surprised at the number of people I connect with that seem very disinterested and dismissive about their own prompt. I'll contribute an idea and they'll only respond with, "sounds cool." They don't offer to expand on their idea at all, instead, only making small nods towards my suggestions. Like if you don't want plot discussion, then don't put, "Send me a PM and we can further work out the plot details ."

 

[BunnyDemon]

I've had the same issues when it comes to plotting! Most of the time it's people connecting to my prompt who want to contribute very little. On the other-hand, I'm very surprised at the number of people I connect with that seem very disinterested and dismissive about their own prompt. I'll contribute an idea and they'll only respond with, "sounds cool." They don't offer to expand on their idea at all, instead, only making small nods towards my suggestions. Like if you don't want plot discussion, then don't put, "Send me a PM and we can further work out the plot details ."

Yaaasss!!! I try so hard to make sure my partner feels inclusive to the RP by making sure there is room for their ideas and that I put just as much in their side as I do my own. If I wanted to be the only one carrying the RP, I would just go write stories on my own. Interaction and cooperation are why I RP. I'm not going to carry the RP or the initial conversation, for that matter, on my own.

 

[Chordling]

"I want long term roleplays but please reply daily because I don't want to wait 2+ days for responses. The story would go on for over a year."

This always makes me scratch my head because I always believed that "long term" meant years plural.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

"I want long term roleplays but please reply daily because I don't want to wait 2+ days for responses. The story would go on for over a year."

This always makes me scratch my head because I always believed that "long term" meant years plural.

My long term roleplays often have times of no response. It's just part of both sides having a life.

 

[tuxedo-fish]

Log in.

Check 1:1 for people who might list my very specific interests in their fandom lists.

Find nothing.

Sigh.