RP Pet Peeves

[AaronShadows]

Edit: Oh sh- this was meant to be titled RP Pet Peaves. FFFUUUUUUUU!

We've had one for the internet in general and fanfiction, and I feel like complaining, so here's the thread we've been waiting for. xD. Most of my roleplaying took place in a specialised mmorpg private server, so my poorly articulated bi.tching will have Warcraft references. Lots of them.

First of all! The overpowered scum of the Earth. The worthless pieces of trash on legs with malfunctional cognitive organs duct taped to their deformed skulls. The cretins who pop up in a small medieval town with two revolvers that shoot exploding tungsten bullets and a full armour suit made of the toughest and rarest metal in the setting, which apparantly does not slow them down at all. There are loads of variations, but they're all obscenely powerful to the point of ruining it for everyone else just by being there.

The canon defilers. Anyone who knows the faintest detail about WoW should be sick at the prospect of some blood elf he-she entering the building wielding frostmourne and the ashbringer, but some few are immune; they make themselves the vampire offspring of Warchief Thrall and King Varian Wrynn through immaculate conception, relate themselves to every single other character and come up with a nauseating excuse to possess every legendary object and trinket in the entire universe. They also sometimes claim ownership of the Black Temple or the Icecrown Citadel.

...I'm done for now.

[Miranda_]

Tried to edit in Firefox, then went into IE and it worked. Oh well, guess it's just another Firefox thing that won't work here.

Long list now...

1. Godmoding. That, basically speaking, is someone who controls another person's character without asking permission. It can be anything from posting what they are doing, to posting how they react to something your character did. I've had people do that before here, back in the bad old days when I was first made the mod of the RP forum and trying to bring some order to the forum, and it annoys me just as much now as it did then.

2. Mary Sues. Just as irritating in RP as they are in fanfic, Mary Sues are poison to RPs. To have someone posting in an RP with a character who's the best at everything, loved by all and who always wins just ruins the RP for everyone else and pretty much ensures that everyone else will leave. The same goes for anyone who posts an RP with their horrible Sue as the main focus; it's not going to garner many players and those who do join will eventually leave in disgust.

3. People who post RPs without thinking. In other words, people who just go right ahead and post an RP without seeing first if anyone wants to play with them so the RP just sits there gathering dust. You can't assume that everyone will automatically sign up for your RP; if said RP is on some obscure subject, or has a zillion rules, then most people will just pass it by. All you have to do is ask your friends first if they want to join, then post it.

4. Scripted RPs. A pet hate of mine, cuz it just suppresses creativity. I don't mean giving out rules for your RP created world, but an RP where the owner tells you what your character is called, their personality etc and what's going to happen next in the RP. Basically, they're controlling the whole thing and it gets old fast. I've seen these posted on other sites and they either end up degenerating into flame wars, or everyone just gets fed up with the RP owner and leaves.

5. Spam posting in a rulebreaking RP. This thankfully doesn't happen so much now, but back in the aforementioned bad old days when I first posted rules for the RP forum, a lot of people did this. They erroniously thought that if they mega posted in their rule breaking RP and got it up to ten pages before I saw it, then I'd forget about the rules and let it stay. No way. Doesn't matter if an RP that breaks the rules is one page long or one hundred, the moment I see it it'll be locked.

6. Copying RPs. This just depresses me. When I see a new RP, I hope that the owner has the creativity to make one that's as original as they can make it. Of course, a lot of the themes are used over and over again, for example, vampires, but it is entirely possible to make your RP different to the other vampire themed RPs rather than just plagurising someone else's. This usually happens if someone tries to join an RP, is told no for whatever reason, then makes their own which is a copy of the one they weren't allowed to join.

7. Thin RPs. These RPs are posted by people who didn't even bother to click on the rules topics, let alone read them. They usually consist of one or two sentences for the plot, for example, "this is a school where everyone has powers lol so post your character with their crush and power etc" along with their own character complete with page stretching anime picture and very few words to go with it. Either that, or it'll be a vile Mary Sue. In order to RP effectively, you must have at least three paragraphs for a plot, along with another paragraph with any rules for your world and a big intro. Otherwise, the RP is boring and unplayable.

8. Whining. This can be either about the rules ("They're too strict!") or about the fact that they weren't allowed to join an RP. Contrary to popular belief, the rules for this forum are not strict; I've seen RP rules on other sites that are ten times more strict. Also, I am not an ogre and am perfectly happy for people to join my RPs as long as they a) read the forum rules and b) create a good character that fits the RP. If they do neither then I don't want them there, and neither would any RP owner. Moaning either in the RP or in a PM about the rules or that they weren't able to join an RP with their sick making Mary Sue is a road to nowhere.

9. Noobs. Noobs, just to clarify, are not newbies, but instead are people who don't want to read the rules and don't want to improve their RPing. They are the people who will constantly try to join closed RPs or post their rulebreaking RPs over and over until threatened with bannage; sometimes, even after being temp banned. I and the other RPers will wear ourselves to a shred telling them the rules over and over and informing them how to make a proper character and a decent RP, all in vain. These people never learn and will usually only leave the forum after they're finally given a long ban.

10. Lack of spelling and grammar. This is tenth in the list cuz I'm no grammarian or spelling Na'zi; the odd typo, misspelled word etc doesn't really bother me cuz we're all human and we all make mistakes sometimes. Also, I use the odd shortened word cuz I'm a lazy typist. XD However, when someone posts in constant chatspeak, ebonics, kRaZy or 1337, it really tries my patience and I will not allow it in RP cuz it interrupts the flow when you have to spend ten minutes working out what someone's character is doing cuz they've posted it all in chatspeak.

[spirit_queen]

Chatspeak should have never been invented; it's dam.n painful!

Also, something you didn't mention that irks me; rps/rpers that try to suck you into writing out the sex scenes.

Well, first off, I'm a freakin' VIRGIN, so I have no experience to go off of, and I am NOT 'researching' that particular topic.

Second off, if you feel like you need to get off by writing scenes with someone online, get your butt off that chair and go find someone real. PUH-LEAZE!

Third off, sex scenes do not add to the plot fo any rp whatsoever. Now, there can be moments after the scene that could be cute/awkward/important for the characters, but sex scenes are easily skippable in a realistic manner.

[Miranda_]

I usually use a "fade to black", ie post "There was an x-scene" and leave it at that. I really hate it when people try and describe sex scenes in vast detail; unless you're writing erotica, don't bother. And certainly don't do it here cuz it's not allowed here.

There was one person on here who kept doing this; it was sick. -.- Especially since they were only about fifteen.

[spirit_queen]

It's like you want to scream at them, "Just go an GET SOME already!" We don't need your erotic fantasies posted here for us to have to deal with.

Yes, sex happens, happens often, and, in its own way, putting two characters together can add to a story. But I don't want -or need- to hear ever tiny detail about how it went down; it's fairly easy to guess what happens, anyways.

[TheHayleyDoll]

I will say, I think the rules are kind of strict if you're trying to introduce new players. Sure there's newbies RPs, but they never really go anywhere. I would love to start one for the average RPer and actually keep it, you know, ALIVE. xD Although all the rules make perfectly good sense, I do think they might be somewhat intimidating for newbies. I got into RPing by playing part in one of those "this is about highschool kids with powers" RPs, and after that I started improving. I was totally with you guys BEFORE I left, but now I'm kind of thinking, why does it matter if it's not completely well-plotted or has a certain number of paragraphs, or falls in to a specific category that's already full? If it's not your thing, don't enter it. As long as the characters aren't way too perfect, or if it's an exact repost, or it the plot is literally a sentence long, or if no one wanted to join... I honestly don't see the problem.

Anyway, that's not a pet peeve, but rather an opinion on rules here. I'm not saying things should change, I just wanted to mention that, I suppose. My fingers typed that our with no real reason. Strange.... Well, my pet peeves are:

1. When I'm the last post and no one posts afterwards and then it dies out. That always made me sad. Then again, sometimes I had nothing to post and wouldn't post either, so I guess it works both ways.

2. People entering WAYYYY too far in. I hate when people try to enter an RP that is already 50+ pages long. Unless I feel like it's dying or that person has read all the pages and wants to enter, then no. >_<

3. Pretty much everything already started.

4. When people use no writing skills whatsoever. You know the ones... They RP like:

hi, i'm andrew. we should be best friends. *shakes hands*

[Catlover642]

I don't role play much on here anymore, but one thing that always bothered me, even when I was just reading fiction or fan fiction, was flowery descriptions. This is a role play for crying out loud, not a novel. What makes it worse is that is leads into Mary Sueness..The way I view it is, if it doesn't really enhance or further the story, we don't need 5 paragraphs of unnecessary writing.

[Miranda_]

Especially if all you're doing is describing the character's looks. -.-

[Catlover642]

Exactly, which is why detest it so much. Because no one really cares about how your character's golden blonde hair cascades freely down her shoulders, two highlights seamlessly combining into one angelic hue. *shudder* It even hurt to write that..

Though, I suppose people whose post have absolutely no alluring vocabulary or actions can get boring too. I guess you just have to find the midway point and stay that.

Ah, how I miss roleplaying.