Experiences Whats making you angry today? Rp pet peeves

[Gowi]

Story is more important than shipping!

 

[Zipper Man]

People who write out their character's accents phonetically.

 

[Cassie Lang]

People who write out their character's accents phonetically.

How so?

I think that it can add a touch of character to, well, the character. Not saying that every character needs a distinct accent, though.

 

[SP3CT3R]

People who write out their character's accents phonetically.

It should only be used to replicate the PoV character's interpretation for the audience. Like if the accent is thick enough to make it hard to understand them.

 

[Crayons]

People who write out their character's accents phonetically.

OH MY FRICKING GOD YES

This drives me nuts, and I'll tell you why. People READING the roleplay have different accents. Your phonetic spelling of an accent will be different from mine. That means that your roleplay post becomes an unintelligible mess as I try to figure out what the heck you mean. It is also usually done in a really awkward and often borderline racist way. It also excludes a lot of people for whom English is not their first language. It's like nails down a chalkboard for me. I literally hate this SO MUCH. JUST DON'T DO IT PEOPLE. JUST DON'T.

 

[Comicwolf]

Being ghosted more then ten times

 

[iMeisaki]

Being ghosted more then ten times

lmao, i feel that dude

 

[Comicwolf]

lmao, i feel that dude

Idk why its happening agian

 

[Gowi]

People are afraid of confrontation for some reason, I've found.

 

[ashwynne]

People who write out their character's accents phonetically.

I think it depends. Taking pirates as an example, they commonly use a drastically different form of speaking than 'landlubbers.' If you have a pirate among a bunch of upper class citizens (or just people from a different dialect, even) then having your pirate character speaking identically to them would just seem bizarre and out of place to me.

Same idea goes for roleplays set in more historical time periods where differences in diction were common between social classes. Having upper class and peasant class people talking the same takes away a lot of the dynamics, in my opinion. Dropped letters and enunciation differences can often only be made to come across phonetically. Saying something like "Margaret spoke with the accent common to the peasant class" and then having her dialogue be no different than upper class lacks authenticity, in my opinion. I'm not going to read Margaret's lines in 'an accent common to the peasant class' because I have no idea what exactly you have in mind when you say this.

Now... it does ultimately depend on context. People with an accent don't think they have an accent because that's just the way they speak. If someone is going to make a character that has a manner of speaking that's different from the other character(s) then using phonetics to get it across can work. But it requires a light touch--just enough to get across that there is a difference without hampering readability.

Idk, I see how it could be super annoying but I think there can be a lot of richness added to an RP with someone who knows how to give their character unique diction without impairing readability.

 

[Gowi]

I think it depends. Taking pirates as an example, they commonly use a drastically different form of speaking than 'landlubbers.' If you have a pirate among a bunch of upper class citizens (or just people from a different dialect, even) then having your pirate character speaking identically to them would just seem bizarre and out of place to me.

Same idea goes for roleplays set in more historical time periods where differences in diction were common between social classes. Having upper class and peasant class people talking the same takes away a lot of the dynamics, in my opinion. Dropped letters and enunciation differences can often only be made to come across phonetically. Saying something like "Margaret spoke with the accent common to the peasant class" and then having her dialogue be no different than upper class lacks authenticity, in my opinion. I'm not going to read Margaret's lines in 'an accent common to the peasant class' because I have no idea what exactly you have in mind when you say this.

Now... it does ultimately depend on context. People with an accent don't think they have an accent because that's just the way they speak. If someone is going to make a character that has a manner of speaking that's different from the other character(s) then using phonetics to get it across can work. But it requires a light touch--just enough to get across that there is a difference without hampering readability.

Idk, I see how it could be super annoying but I think there can be a lot of richness added to an RP with someone who knows how to give their character unique diction without impairing readability.

Facts.

I typically write in medieval fantasy with hard fantasy elements, so I'm going to write commonfolk different than nobles. People in a norse tribal confederacy won't sound like "greenlanders" and so on and so forth. Plus, at the end of the day, it is a good writing exercise whether you have an ear for linguistics or not.

 

[RP-Missy]

In my vast years of roleplaying. I've found it hard to find 'Roleplay Chemistry'
I think I've started to narrow done some moving parts of good chemistry.
Roleplay Styles Matching - Reply Frequency - Enjoyable Characters
It's not an exact science yet. I'll get back to you.

 

[Idea]

Just adding my own two cents on the matter of phonetics.

I don't generally do this, as the patterns of many differents tend to blend to me, and I'm not so consistent with dialogue yet that I could reliably remember to keep that on the character. I also tend to use expressions like "ya'll" or "ya" instead of "you", but that just because I find it sounds fun in my head, so I make use of that. It's not a particular accent I'm trying to immitate. Still, that's about OOC.

However, there are instances where I do or would make use of phonetic accents. For instance, if I want to get across that a character has such a thick accent that they become hard to understand, or if there is some connotation to the accent that I want to communicate applies to the character (such as a very, very young character or someone mocking another starting using words like "widdle" ).

I can understand why it would annoy someone of course, if you can't understand what a relevant character is saying, and the point isn't for you to not be able to understand it as a player, then it can be quite problematic for the RP.

 

[Gowi]

If you cannot understand what the writer was saying in a post, you could just ask them, too. After all, they're possibly in the same RP as you!

 

[Idea]

If you cannot understand what the writer was saying in a post, you could just ask them, too. After all, they're possibly in the same RP as you!

True, but that's like saying "if you don't understand this in the movie/book/etc... you should check the wiki / alternate material"! You technically can do it, but it can take you out of the story, plus it means that your story/post doesn't work on its own and it's an extra step of work whose presence isn't obligatory.

It's not like it should never be used, but if you do use, it should have a point, something about the experience of the post that is meant to be enhanced by using that method.

 

[Zipper Man]

How so?

Partly because I can barely read it in most cases, partly because most people that I've rpd with has had a tendency to overdo it.

Like, I get why people do it and I do agree that it can add to a character. It just irks me a bit.

 

[lion.]

I'm new here, but I've roleplayed for long. I have to say that one of my pet peeves is when characters don't undergo character development and jump too quickly to romance.

 

[Gowi]

True, but that's like saying "if you don't understand this in the movie/book/etc... you should check the wiki / alternate material"! You technically can do it, but it can take you out of the story, plus it means that your story/post doesn't work on its own and it's an extra step of work whose presence isn't obligatory.

It's not like it should never be used, but if you do use, it should have a point, something about the experience of the post that is meant to be enhanced by using that method.

I mean its different being a reader of a book and a co-writer in a collaborative story.

 

[ashwynne]

I'm new here, but I've roleplayed for long. I have to say that one of my pet peeves is when characters don't undergo character development and jump too quickly to romance.

Welcome!! I agree with this! Although I've had some really fun roleplays where the romance actually facilitated character development. It has only ever been in roleplays where the romance element was structured to cause upheaval though (arranged marriages, mostly)

 

[Gowi]

I don't write gender based on attraction, I write them on story necessity and inspiration. If I want to play a cool princess or a snarky edgelord, I'm going to create those characters and frame things around them as best I can. Shipping is secondary to me. A good romance can strengthen a story but a bad one can do the opposite. An amount of planning, writer interest, and organic chemistry is important for romance storylines to work, IMO.

 

[Idea]

I mean its different being a reader of a book and a co-writer in a collaborative story.

Very true, and people do tend to forget that. However, the problems I mentioned earlier- breaking of immersion, loss of individual value, and extra work- definitely still apply to roleplay just as much as they would a book. Perhaps one could argue that middle one not as much, since a book is supposed to contain a self-contained story, whereas posts are supposed to be alternatively chained, but the events within a given posts are still essentially self-contained. If your post contains anything more than just the immediate action, then it should have beginning, middle and end. So it's still self-contained enough that it loses value when you have to go outside the post to understand what the post itself wants to communicate.

In causing those issues, the phonetic writing starts requiring justification to be used, a purpose that justifies the damage it can cause.

 

[Gowi]

Very true, and people do tend to forget that. However, the problems I mentioned earlier- breaking of immersion, loss of individual value, and extra work- definitely still apply to roleplay just as much as they would a book. Perhaps one could argue that middle one not as much, since a book is supposed to contain a self-contained story, whereas posts are supposed to be alternatively chained, but the events within a given posts are still essentially self-contained. If your post contains anything more than just the immediate action, then it should have beginning, middle and end. So it's still self-contained enough that it loses value when you have to go outside the post to understand what the post itself wants to communicate.

In causing those issues, the phonetic writing starts requiring justification to be used, a purpose that justifies the damage it can cause.

That's true. But sometimes its not the failure of the writer that their phonetic dialogue has reading comprehension issues. So a little elaboration to your writer partner, I feel, doesn't lose impact or break immersion too much. But everyone thinks different things, of course.

 

[Idea]

That's true. But sometimes its not the failure of the writer that their phonetic dialogue has reading comprehension issues. So a little elaboration to your writer partner, I feel, doesn't lose impact or break immersion too much. But everyone thinks different things, of course.

You do have a point in that it isn't necessarily the fault of the writer, as they may see somethign a legible while another might disagree. That said, I would be careful with linking it "being the author's fault" to negative impact on the reader or fellow player. It not being someone's fault does not make the negative impact lessened or non-existent. The reverse, funnily enough, is also true, a good chunk of the things you ARE responsible for will never be aknowledged.

 

[Parallax]

I feel bad for having this be as high of a pet peeve for me as it is, but something really drives me up the wall about characters who are "Sweet and anxious and shy" who stutter in every sentence.

Now, it's not what it seems. It only bothers me when every single sentence consists of "b-b-b-b-but w-w-w-w-what do you m-m-m-mean!?"
Like.
Every sentence.

At that point I'm rolling my eyes and mentally thinking "I get it. Your character is a nervous person." And just kind of wish there was a different way of it being expressed.

Sorry if that sounds mean. I don't intend it to be. But it's just a pet peeve of mine, and mine personally.

 

[ashwynne]

"Sweet and anxious and shy" who stutter in every sentence.

THIS!!
I think I've met exactly.... 0 people who are like this in reality.
I get nervous sometimes and stutter on occasion... it's m-maybe one letters worth and usually just the once. If that.
It stops being cute when it's constant and it's hard to take characters seriously who behave like that. If I was actually shy and had a stutter that bad, I would probably become a selective mute since stuttering would call more attention to me rather than less.
Anyone who wants to know how to write characters with a stutter should read Stephen King's "It" and pay attention to how he writes Bill Denbrough's dialogue.