Viewpoint “Young” RPer turn-offs

[Georgeisoverparty]

Recently (very recently) got engaged in a post about under 18 players and how people don’t like writing with them due to inexperience. I consider myself a fairly skilled writer but are there any things that mark a young person out immediately or make you want to avoid them?

 

[DisneyGirl]

For me, it has nothing and I mean nothing to do with their writing skills or their maturity level. There are minors out there who are better writers and much more mature than a lot of adults I know but that to me is irrelevant. The reason I—and a lot of other adults—don’t roleplay with minors is simply out of respect to their parents. Most parents do not want their kids hanging out with adults online no matter how innocent the relationship may be and I understand and agree with that. There are already enough adults for the adult to roleplay with and enough kids for the kid to roleplay with. That doesn’t mean an adult role playing with a minor is a bad thing, but I don’t want to have to deal with causing a parent worry about their child’s safety. It truly is nothing personal at all.

 

[Lurker]

I don't think anyone in that thread actually cited inexperience as a reason to not rp with someone under the age of 18.

Not really specific to RP but I find that people that prefer to keep their age private are almost always under 18. Which is the smart thing to do. But no one above 18 really cares about their age or thinks it's private.

Specific to rp things...I don't personally think of anything age wise. Edgy characters maybe, them being more likely to be made by a 14-16 year old who's going through that phase.

 

[Gowi]

I started role-playing in the message board format in 2001. I was twelve years old at the time. I still RP with the first person I met back then and he was out of college at the time.

That said, I obviously have no issues with writing with different generations of writers, but some people just discriminate out of concern as a premeasure. A writing relationship can evolve in a lot of ways and there are some things to keep in mind. I’ve met writers between thirteen and eighteen who were not only better than me at the same age but sometimes better than me at my current age. My personal philosophy is the only thing that matters is writing ability and ooc behavior. Other people are different. There is also the fact that the formats of 1x1 and group have different connotations. Someone could restrict minors to write with them in 1x1 but not groups. Some group RPs might be explicit or expect more experienced writers in terms of characterization. For some, its tricky. For everyone, its complicated.

 

[Georgeisoverparty]

For me, it has nothing and I mean nothing to do with their writing skills or their maturity level. There are minors out there who are better writers and much more mature than a lot of adults I know but that to me is irrelevant. The reason I—and a lot of other adults—don’t roleplay with minors is simply out of respect to their parents. Most parents do not want their kids hanging out with adults online no matter how innocent the relationship may be and I understand and agree with that. There are already enough adults for the adult to roleplay with and enough kids for the kid to roleplay with. That doesn’t mean an adult role playing with a minor is a bad thing, but I don’t want to have to deal with causing a parent worry about their child’s safety. It truly is nothing personal at all.

Ah, as long as I can find loads of teenagers to Rp with it should be chill

 

[DisneyGirl]

Ah, as long as I can find loads of teenagers to Rp with it should be chill

You definitely will! RPN, and the role playing community in general, have a lot of teenagers around to roleplay with

 

[Bells of Nevermore]

Although I will not RP with minors, I absolutely love to help them develop their skill as writers, and I am always around if someone wants feedback and useful constructive criticism. I am a pretty soft place to land with critique. I want to build up, not punch down.

 

[Crayons]

It's really just a safety/security thing for me regarding minors. I would RP with minors as part of a group setting, but I'd feel uncomfortable doing 1x1 especially if it's in private and/or involves romance. As long as the RP itself is wholesome and PG13 it's usually fine. Like, if I would be happy with their parent reading the RP then that's OK. I'd happily talk to the parents if they wanted and make sure they are aware of what is happening.

Maturity levels are a different issue. If you lack maturity, at whatever age, then it might be hard for us to RP together. Taking things overly personally, writing two-dimensional characters or having a lackadaisical "whatever" attitude would be off-putting to me whether you're 16 or 36.

 

[Georgeisoverparty]

Although I will not RP with minors, I absolutely love to help them develop their skill as writers, and I am always around if someone wants feedback and useful constructive criticism. I am a pretty soft place to land with critique. I want to build up, not punch down.

Perfect, I’ll let you know when I start posting short stories

It's really just a safety/security thing for me regarding minors. I would RP with minors as part of a group setting, but I'd feel uncomfortable doing 1x1 especially if it's in private and/or involves romance. As long as the RP itself is wholesome and PG13 it's usually fine. Like, if I would be happy with their parent reading the RP then that's OK. I'd happily talk to the parents if they wanted and make sure they are aware of what is happening.

Maturity levels are a different issue. If you lack maturity, at whatever age, then it might be hard for us to RP together. Taking things overly personally, writing two-dimensional characters or having a lackadaisical "whatever" attitude would be off-putting to me whether you're 16 or 36.

Yeah, 1x1 would be weird for me with an adult too I guess; hopefully I don’t get too many rejections from groups

 

[Bells of Nevermore]

Yeah, 1x1 would be weird for me with an adult too I guess; hopefully I don’t get too many rejections from groups

I do have a group game starting off. It's fantasy, though more of a Game of Thrones gritty feel than something like Lord of the Rings. I'm kind of knocking around the idea of leaving it open to people under 18, though it might be a little more harsh than many people like.

 

[Georgeisoverparty]

I do have a group game starting off. It's fantasy, though more of a Game of Thrones gritty feel than something like Lord of the Rings. I'm kind of knocking around the idea of leaving it open to people under 18, though it might be a little more harsh than many people like.

I’ve got exams this year so don’t think I’ll join anything serious until I have time to dedicate; otherwise it isn’t fair on other players

 

[Bells of Nevermore]

This is... well, yes. Serious. Complex, violent, rife with political intrigue.

 

[Cassie Lang]

For me, I honestly don't care for how old you are unless the roleplay falls into two categories:

1) I will only RP 1x1s with anyone 18+. I just find it slightly uncomfortable to RP one-on-one with anyone who isn't an adult.

2) If the group RP includes mature tones, though I can be lax on this more often than not as it depends on how "mature". If we're RPing a story about law enforcement busting some criminal ring with heavy references to drug use and the ilk, then yeah, I'm going to ask for 18+. On the other hand, and lets use my zombie RP on this site as an example, I'm not worried over age given that I, myself, was watching zombie and other horror flicks at a young age. If they can handle, say, flesh eating monsters and are a decent enough writer, then it isn't any of my business.

 

[Tyrannical by Design]

For me, it has nothing and I mean nothing to do with their writing skills or their maturity level. There are minors out there who are better writers and much more mature than a lot of adults I know but that to me is irrelevant. The reason I—and a lot of other adults—don’t roleplay with minors is simply out of respect to their parents. Most parents do not want their kids hanging out with adults online no matter how innocent the relationship may be and I understand and agree with that. There are already enough adults for the adult to roleplay with and enough kids for the kid to roleplay with. That doesn’t mean an adult role playing with a minor is a bad thing, but I don’t want to have to deal with causing a parent worry about their child’s safety. It truly is nothing personal at all.

All of this.

It hasn't happened yet, but I'm terrified of someone coming after me because I was writing something darker with, say, a fourteen-year-old. I really enjoy writing villains, after all, and it's pretty rare that my stories are fluffy or chock full of noble deeds. I'm not into tragedies, but I do like to make the characters struggle for the happy endings to their stories.

 

[ashwynne]

I only discriminate by age when it comes to content that I am not comfortable RPing with minors (be it for legal or personal reasons). Usually things like romance or descriptive violence. Everything else is fair game so long as you can write. If there's concern about parents being okay with it then I'm happy to speak with them, but I don't see a friendship between minors and adults as something to be afraid of. There's this weird paranoia that surrounds it nowadays that may come from a good place but isn't all that healthy (imo). Having a stable presence/friendship/mentor that has been through the hard parts of growing up can make a huge difference in someone's life, and telling a story together is just about the most innocuous way of creating a healthy bond that I can think of.

My general philosophy is that if the content (of both OOC and IC) is something that wouldn't be weird to come up with as a back and forth in person, in front of their parents (I picture a back and forth verbal storytelling), then there's no reason to discriminate based on age.

That's just me personally though. I happily pick and choose partners based on a variety of other factors but age is not one of them (barring specific mature plots, as mentioned initially)

 

[Cassie Lang]

For me, I honestly don't care for how old you are unless the roleplay falls into two categories:

1) I will only RP 1x1s with anyone 18+. I just find it slightly uncomfortable to RP one-on-one with anyone who isn't an adult.

2) If the group RP includes mature tones, though I can be lax on this more often than not as it depends on how "mature". If we're RPing a story about law enforcement busting some criminal ring with heavy references to drug use and the ilk, then yeah, I'm going to ask for 18+. On the other hand, and lets use my zombie RP on this site as an example, I'm not worried over age given that I, myself, was watching zombie and other horror flicks at a young age. If they can handle, say, flesh eating monsters and are a decent enough writer, then it isn't any of my business.

To expand on this:

Spoiler

I'm obviously not going to RP something like True Detective with minors, but I don't really see anything wrong with RPing something like the Walking Dead, given my experience and even Common Sense's rating, with anyone not an adult. If their parents have an issue with their kid RPing that kind of stuff, then, well, I honestly believe that's on them; not me.

Also, since someone mentioned it here, writing character romance with non-18+ is really, really iffy. Then again, I'm not super big on writing romance anyway (I tend to avoid it if I can), so it isn't really something for me to worry over.

 

[rosiphaura]

I honestly think that not rping with someone due to inexperience is a bit unfair. Obviously, that's not the case for everyone but I feel like if we don't give inexperienced people a chance to roleplay and learn then they'll never gain the experience needed to make the community grow.

Having said that, I don't think the issue is with inexperience, there are many users on this website willing to roleplay with someone who is young! the problem is that in the other thread things were brought up in a less than ideal manner which just kind of stained the reputation of you, youngsters.

There is absolutely NOTHING that marks you or that lets people know that you're underage (Obviously when you make posts like this people are going to notice) Now...I think this specific topic has gotten a bit out of hand which is just going to make people ask around for age whenever you're starting a roleplay.

Again, I stand by my last advice. Just be truthful and ask if the partner has any issues with roleplaying with someone who is underage. Get to know your partner and if it doesn't work out then just be patient, the right person will come

Good luck out there!