Bad habits of RPrs.

[~Ozy~]

Well, as with all things online, the quality of role-play tends to come and go. And yes, there is a reason I posted this here instead of in the RP Lounge, namely that the Lounge tends to be overlooked. However, if either of the mods feel this is not a good reason, feel free to move it. I just used my best judgement as to what would attract the most attention. Anyways, back to what this is all about: a list of bad habits that all RPrs, old and new (myself included) should attempt to avoid. This is not meant against anyone in particular, just a few things that I would like to see people make an effort to correct.

The Slapdash Character: Try to spend a decent length of time writing a new character. I try to take at LEAST 15 minutes, 20-30 for ones I intend to reuse. Believe me, a hastily-thrown together character shows, and they aren't much fun to RP as or with. If you're reusing a character, modifying them to the RP is an obvious move, but also try to correct the things you found made them less fun to play as in previous RPs.

The Cliche Character: Yes, we've all been there, particularly when we start RPing. But theses are characters such as the Cynical Mercenary, the Angsty But Still Good Demon, the Warrior With A Tragic Past, etc. etc. Yes, these can be fun characters to play at times, but they're incredibly common and it's nice to see an RPr take the effort to come up with something out of the ordinary. I'm guilty of creating and using such characters myself, but I try to avoid it.

The One-Liner: I disagree with the decision to enforce a four-line/one-paragraph rule in the RP forums because circumstances do arise where such a rule is, quite simply, inane and actually DETRACTS from post quality (this is especially true in drawn-out conversations), but it's nice to see people make the effort to add as much detail as possible.

The No-setting Plot: You can have gobs of plot in an RP, I mean, and immensely detailed, drawn-out affair, but what about the setting? What season is it? Is it mountainous? Humid? Does it snow almost year-round? Is it far to the north, or equatorial? All these things effect the setting of the plot. Like, if it's far to the north or south, the seasons won't be as diverse, and the days and nights, much longer, depending on the season. The Araura Borealis (or Astraulias) will show up too. Is it a rich county or a poor one? Densely populated? All of this is important.

The Not-applicable-to-element Character (applies to elemental RPs only): I know I spoke against cliched characters earlier, but if your character has control of a specific element, they're HIGHLY likely (read: certainly) to reflect traits of it in their personalities. So a water-element mage isn't going to be hasty or reckless, as those are traits given to the fire-element. Similarly, a light-element character isn't going to be a hyper-depressive cutter.

The Optional Personality: This is a personal pet peeve of mine. I HATE seeing the Personality in an RP sign-up made an option. It should, in my opinion, be a required field, along with Appearance, Name, Gender, Race and Age. There's a good reason for all this, there's a good reason for a Personality field, namely that it give you a way to force your character to act. Real people don't simply skip around from emotion to emotion, they typically have a set group of reactions and emotions. So should your character. Even better is a history that agrees with this, e.g., a happy-go-lucky, carefree character isn't going to see their parents brutally murdered in front of them when they were six.

The Punctuation And Capitilization: Put them in, and put them in right. Proper nouns, new sentences, acronyms, and "I," all get a capital. Spaces after commas, periods, question marks, semicols, etc. etc. Study the rules of punctuation and commit them to memory.

The Post That Obviously Didn't Get Read Over: I'll admit that I've done this too, when a lot of people are RPing and I'm trying to keep up, or when dinner's almost on and I'm rushed, but in general, read over each post for typos. Because typos are annoying.

Alright, that's what I personally would like to see improved upon. Just a helpful (hopefully) little list.

[Chibi-chan]

I hate the clitche Rpers.....but this is because of a past event in my life i wish not to reveal yet XD. you also forgot the godly RPers...

[Kratos]

O, I despise godly rpers. They are also extremly demanding too.

[Kurosaki]

It's fine here, as long as it doesn't start any flaming, which I hope you guys are mature enough to avoid that.

The One-Liner: I disagree with the decision to enforce a four-line/one-paragraph rule in the RP forums because circumstances do arise where such a rule is, quite simply, inane and actually DETRACTS from post quality (this is especially true in drawn-out conversations), but it's nice to see people make the effort to add as much detail as possible.

If you haven't noticed, this one isn't enforced as strongly as the others. You have your opinion on the subject, but if you have one line, there isn't quality to begin with. I know it's supposed to be quality > quantity, but I recieved numerous complaints before the rule was made about the posts of some being too short.

[~Ozy~]

I agree with the case there, and I do see that it is not as strictly enforced, but I don't think making a rule of it has helped much. If a GM wants to enforce their own rule about it, I'm fine with that, but as an overall rule, it can be unfair to new RPrs and again, detract from post quality at times.

[Raichu Master]

I just want to point out one irony to you, Jake. Two of your favorite novel characters a cliche's...Drizzt is a good drow elf. Artemis is a deadly assassin with a dark past and is equally as cunning as a drow.

Just wanted to draw your attention to that. But as you said, they can be quite fun to role-play every now and then.

Here are a few more I can think of:

Diversity: Character's that reflect ones personality and looks are ok in some, but not in a lot. It took a while for me to figure that out. I would spend an hour developing a guy that was simpler to me. Why? Cause I didn't want to put the hard work into challenging myself. Instead one should try to rp a character that doesn't reflect yourself, so therefore it's more challenging because you have to think what the character would do and not yourself.

Character Creation: There are a lot of crudy characters. To name some of mine: Johann, Johann, Johann, John. Yes they all are the same thing...but they were different guys. One don't name each of your characters by the same name. I found out how rediculous it is. Two, this goes along the lines of what TAD was saying. The easiest way to find out if your character is good is look at your profile, read over it. And see if you'd want to read about it in a novel. If you wouldn't, chances are it isn't very good.


I have a few other ones but they're boarding flaming...so...I can't add them.

[Sorairo]

i hate RP'rs who want the RP to be about them...shouldnt this be in the RP lounge...?0.o

[Miyu-chan]

Sometimes in fast pased RPs, I make my character out-going in order to make it easier to keep up w/ the story line. =/ But I don't like it that much.

And sometimes... the characters that people make get way~~ out of character. *applies to fiction also* >"<; But I really dislike seeing obvious spelling/grammar mistakes in RP posts. o.x;

[~Ozy~]

I know, I know RM. Welcome to the idiosyncracies of my life.

I know, Miyu, I know... Though I've done it myself... But I try to save it for when something life-changing happens. and then they get a personality revamp, a la Chaos.

I explained the reasons why I put this in ORP in my first post, and Yukito okay'd it being here, so...

[Shiney]

Yes, this is all great. Some of it I do myself, mainly because I'm lazy, but if people want to have a far better RPing experience, this should be taken to heart. I think it deserves a sticky.

[Kurosaki]

If you want it stickied, it's going in the lounge. All topics like this are stickied here besides the rules. (Yes, the ratings are rules as well >>)

[ThEoNeAnDoNlY555]

I believe this should be stickied in "Other RP", not the lounge.This because many new RPers would not look in the lounge before posting here, but most will read through the stickys here before posting, and if this is here then they will get to see it.

[Kurosaki]

I've actually been thinking of making a thread here in ORP that contain helpful links to threads to may help them from the lounge, so how about I just do that? I'm trying to keep everything organized >> XD

[~Ozy~]

I really don't care, if you think this would be helpful, by all means, include it, if not, eh, whatever. Just keep it open, this is by no means all-inclusive, and I'd like to see it added to.

[Karmillina]

Well, I hate the Godly players or Speshulness!players, they get me on my nerves.

[Lily]

Um, isn't this a little late/almost in the wrong section? o_o;

[Loki]

The One-Liner: I disagree with the decision to enforce a four-line/one-paragraph rule in the RP forums because circumstances do arise where such a rule is, quite simply, inane and actually DETRACTS from post quality (this is especially true in drawn-out conversations), but it's nice to see people make the effort to add as much detail as possible.
I thought Two-liners were just as bad Ozy. >_>

And anyway, you forgot this.

History doesn't match up?:If your character had a bad past, such as abuse, neglect, or murdering of parents before very eyes, then they'll have to attone to that. Your character is probably going to be at least partially scarred by these childhood events. So in other words, if your character had a bad history, they won't exactly be the most ditzy, most bubbly cheerleader at school.

And to add to that, even people who just try to be nice with the bad pasts who act all dramatic behind the scenes bug me out. I hope I'm not guilty of doing so, but it still bugs me out when they're perky and cheerful around people and depressed and thinking of suicide when by themselves. >=O It makes me angrah!

And I'll type this one up as well.

Gods:You're not a demi-god, or a god. You don't have control over every single player's character in the RP unless you ask permission to play their characters, and use your common sense to find out that you can only use them when the creator tells you you can do so. Powerplaying is a no-no, and is when you control another person's character without their permission.

(And yet no matter how many times I see RPers flame others for Powerplaying, I still see newbs stumble in and powerplay.)

Dialect Only: (I'm guilty of this.) Nobody wants to see a post that's just quotes and 'She said' or 'He said'. Description is what makes a post less boring to read. You could add something like 'She exclaimed' even to make it ever so slightly more amusing to read. Really long posts are easier to skip, but it makes it ever the worse when the long post is really nothing but dialect. If it's just dialect, I usually just skip them even if they're less then 5 lines. It's just boring to read.

Stickies:They're there for a reason. Read them. They help. (Why else are they at the top of the page my friends?)

I'm not sure if this is what you meant by you 'skipping of the postage' thing at the top, but I interpretted it in a different way then I'm posting it now.

Skipping:When you skip someone else's post, you often get details wrong, such as where the other character is, in what position, or sometimes what they're doing at the present moment. Sometimes these minor details can make all the difference, and even though it may get ridiculous after 2 pages missed, sometimes it worth going back while you're typing up your post and making sure you've got your facts right. (I plead guilty)

Description/Appearance: First and foremost, nobody wants to see just a picture. Most pictures don't cover the entire attire, body, clothes, and appearance in general. If you use a picture, it would be wise to type in the parts that the picture leaves out, so that your not the only person in the RP who know's what your characters shoes or back looks like. (This bugs me the most, when there's only a headshot and they're like, OKAY! Good enough for me! I see this a lot) If you are hotlinking/providing a link, you may want to check on your own browser if the link still works. Webpages such as AdvancedAnime's URL's are constantly changing, and soon, you may have a guy picture in place of your female character. (Not pretty at all)

Rejection:If the creator of the RP says that your not accepted, one post asking why you were rejected is more or less justified if the creator doesn't say in the first place, but after rejected twice or more, it gets ridiculous. If you're rejected, and you change it, quotes like 'I thought it looked better then it does now', or anything similar to that, are UNECESSARY. (sp?)

Those are my views on most of the problems in my RPs, and the RPs I'm participating in. (Woah. Long post.)

[Amy-chan]

And to add to that, even people who just try to be nice with the bad pasts who act all dramatic behind the scenes bug me out. I hope I'm not guilty of doing so, but it still bugs me out when they're perky and cheerful around people and depressed and thinking of suicide when by themselves. >=O It makes me angrah!
Yeah, that annoys me too. >_> Especially since I'm gulity of it, as you've seen. >>;

Anyway, I agree with all of the stereotypes and quirks mentioned here, and the opinions on the said. I admit myself guilty of quite a few of these things, and I think this would be very useful, even to veteran RPers, as a reference on what not to do. This is quite a thorough guide, and very accurate, and even now it can be added onto. Considering the quality of RPing here nowadays(and I'm not pointing any fingers, I myself add to it), this would be a helpful introduction on the do's and dont's for newbies and old RPers alike. I support it being stickied, and added onto when needed.

Oh, and...
Um, isn't this a little late/almost in the wrong section? o_o;
True, it was revived from almost a year ago, but the information here is still perfectly true. As for the section, ~Ozy~ explains why he put this here in the first post.

[Mika]

I'm not sure if anybody here mentioned this...

But I cannot, seriously cannot stand two things about RPs

God Moding RP Masters: Honestly. I hate, loathe, despise these people and in some ways, they have the absolute right to be this way.

These are the people who start the rp boards and refuse to let anybody else add to their plotline, (Ex. I bring up my character's past in a post) I've had people actually tell me before that I need to delete my post because I'm drawing attention away from their character and they don't like it or they don't like my character's history because it's too deep.

It's also when they believe their characters are flawless because they are the "head" of the board. I wish I could find all the rp leaders who actually humble their characters and give them cookies. @_@ It's so flippin annoying when they tell you that you cannot power play or god mode when they do it themselves. ¬¬; Once in awhile is okay, everybody has power played at one point or another, but if every post depicts that character destroying something way beyond the character's ability... it's just ridiculous

Fan Girl/Fan Boy Chars: ...I loathe despise hate curse (etc) these characters more than the above said person. My stomach churns at the sight of something along the lines of:

Optional: Mary is Riku's girlfriend they are going steady and are very happy together

Seriously. This is just plan ridiculous but thankfully only seems to happen with certian RPs. (Anything with hot male characters in them ~.~) OCxOC relationships are fine but OCxRiku (This is an example as this is the one I see the most) is not. Bring out your fantasies in FanFics, not in the RP forums. It's honestly not fair to the other RPers if a person is playing Riku and did not previously agree to being "hooked up" with the OC. If it was previously aranged, I still hate it. It's just plain unfair.

Rejection:If the creator of the RP says that your not accepted, one post asking why you were rejected is more or less justified if the creator doesn't say in the first place, but after rejected twice or more, it gets ridiculous. If you're rejected, and you change it, quotes like 'I thought it looked better then it does now', or anything similar to that, are UNECESSARY. (sp?)

I completely agree with you but I wanted to add something that kinda follows your other point about skipping.

If the RP Master says no more applications are being accepted, DO NOT APPLY

It's so obnoxious to have a poorly put together profile shoved into the middle of an rp. If they've already in the middle of something, don't post on the board. If you absolutely NEED to get in, try pming the leader, don't intrupt the flow of the RP; it'll only tick people off.


Webpages such as AdvancedAnime's URL's are constantly changing, and soon, you may have a guy picture in place of your female character. (Not pretty at all)

I completely agree. It only shows laziness if you can't type out an appearance. Pictures of outfits that are overly complex are fine but make sure you upload them to your own server. As a Web Master, I can't tell you how many times I've found my images linked without credit. It eats our bandwidth and to be honest, hot linking is just plain rude to the people who wrote out their descriptions. It takes an extra 20ish minutes sometimes to type out that appearence but once you complete it, you have that image in your mind and it doesn't leave



Hopefully I haven't repeated anybody. @_@ Just wanted to add these points.

[Kurosaki]

I completely agree. It only shows laziness if you can't type out an appearance. Pictures of outfits that are overly complex are fine but make sure you upload them to your own server. As a Web Master, I can't tell you how many times I've found my images linked without credit. It eats our bandwidth and to be honest, hot linking is just plain rude to the people who wrote out their descriptions. It takes an extra 20ish minutes sometimes to type out that appearence but once you complete it, you have that image in your mind and it doesn't leave

Not to mention there are services like Photobucket and Imageshack capable of hosting the images for you, so there really is no excuse for hotlinking. As for the typing appearance > picture thing, thats really each individuals own preference. I can't really see a problem if it's a full body shot, but if the picture shows like half the body, it tends to get annoying. If you can see the entire front of a picture, it isn't really hard to picture the back side. Now, on the topic of typing the description up, I can't stand people who type extremely long appearances, delging into uneeded details. Also, I find it hard to properly describe the appearance of the human body, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. (Not to mention I'm about as creative as a rock, XD)

Anyways, I'll move this to the RP Lounge~

[Wolf_Goddess]

Cliched
Cliched RPers bother the hell out of me! For example, I was on this one site, a wolf RP, and there's this one person that just really peeved the heck out of me! She was trying too hard to make her character uber-powerful and evil (her grammar and spelling sucked too, as well as other such key things towards Roleplaying) and, get this, her wolf's description was black pelt and red eyes, like EVERY OTHER evil wolf on the site. My character even commented on her being cliched, and she was like

((OMG, i am no cliched lol!)) in OOC, and on our site it is looked down upon to use web-chat (or as I like to call it, n00b dialect) when typing out of character.

So I beg of you, try not to make your character a cliched character. Sure, a hot-headed redhead is considered cliched, but it is true. I should know, I'm a redhead...

(But it would be nice to throw people off and have a character with a totally evil description, but his/her personality being that she/he's a sweetie or something like that.)

n00b Chat
lyke omg, dun u just h8 it wen ppl typ lyke tis?

I don't need to explain why I hate it when people talk like this, it bothers the heck out of me. But suprisingly, there are people who RP like that too! By G_d, I loathe them.

Pictures
I don't mind it when people use pictures for descriptions...but still. It shows you lack of creativity. End of story, just describe your character. Let others use their imagination.

Reading
There are some people out there who do not like to read extremely long, detailed posts. I hate it when people do that. They're like "Wow, super long...I didn't read it." and that is just disrespectful! A person probably took their time and talent to write such a post, and the person doesn't even read it? I'm sorry, if you don't like reading that much, don't Roleplay. As simple as that.

((I will add more to this list. Please comment on how crappy I did it...))

[~Ozy~]

These are all good additions, everyone, and this is always an open list. When I made this, I adressed what I saw as the main problems in the RP sections.

[Loki]

(But it would be nice to throw people off and have a character with a totally evil description, but his/her personality being that she/he's a sweetie or something like that.)

0_0 That's exactly what I loathe. You're not going to see a happy-go-lucky goth...or, I hope not. That'd be what I call, (not to their face of course) SUPAH-N00B. XD

SPAM.:I'm sure many of you know what Spam is by now, and nobody (in their right sane mind) likes reading spam. SO DON'T DO IT! *gaspeth* It's very easy to stay on topic. Spam is a no-no, but wrongly accusing someone of spam is a no-no-NO. Double check to see if it's truly spam before you say 'So-and-so, don't spam'. Because you're gonna have half the RPer's after you for doing so. (Personal experiences my friends. Personal experiences.)

Unsuccessful: Unsuccessful RP's are everywhere, but if nobody joins, or if it just goes downhill, or just plain doesn't go the way you wanted it, don't whine and gripe about it. Everyone is an individual, and perhaps they didn't fancy the topic your RP was on. And when you post an RP, it's not neccessarily going to go smoothly along the way you imagined it would. Different people have different reactions to different events. Whining and griping only makes people less enthusiastic about joining your future RP's, knowing that they'll have to deal with your attitude.

Oh. My. God. Someone did this to me as well, but no, they seriously broke down, because I said 'OMFG how did you guys get so far without me?!' and the entire roleplay board started flaming me. Claimed that the RP master was crying and they said I was a mean -----, and totally went insane. I was like 'AH! HURRICANE ANDREW IS COMIN' MY WAY!'. *rolls eyes*

[Wolf_Goddess]

0_0 That's exactly what I loathe. You're not going to see a happy-go-lucky goth...or, I hope not. That'd be what I call, (not to their face of course) SUPAH-N00B.

Well, I didn't really mean it like that...

I just don't like stereotypical characters. Like, on wolf RPing terms, white fur=good, black fur=evil

[Loki]

Well, I personally don't do wolf RP's, but I consider black fur=good white=bad. 0_0 Because an albino wolf seems so much scarier then a black one with red eyes wouldn't you agree? And a black wolf with white highlights seems so much plainer then a white wolf, and would work much better for a pack member.

[~Ozy~]

0_0 That's exactly what I loathe. You're not going to see a happy-go-lucky goth...or, I hope not. That'd be what I call, (not to their face of course) SUPAH-N00B. XD

See, that's a fine, and somewhat interesting point, actually. Yes, you aren't going to see your "happy-go-lucky goth," but what about a sadistic character, one who takes pleasure from the suffering of others, or someone completely insane who operates on similar principles? Someone completely twisted who covers it with a kind, nice, sweet act? Those can be very very interesting villians, or even player characters to interact with.

[Lily]

Oops...My profuse apologies. XP


There is one thing that bothers me to a certain extent. True, one can list RPers in these subjective categories, but I dislike those who convey the problems with a vague subtlety. It's as if they're wavering between the borderline of annoyance and normality at the same time, which makes it hard for me to be judgmental. x_x

[Light_Azumarill]

I agree with everything said so far. Though, I must say I am guilty of a few of them to a certain degree. ^^; Hey, I know I'm not perfect.

Two things I have to add:

Conflict Characters: People who seem to try and make everyone hate them even when it essential that all of the characters work as a team for the plot to work. By try I mean actively try. They just pick fights with everyone and then whine in an OOC post about how no one's interacting with them or that everyone hates them. It should stand to reason that if you make everyone hate you, you will be ALONE. Which leads me to....

Whiny Loners: Those who go off one their own in an RP, don't interact with anyone's characters, and then begins to get angry when no one talks with their character. They'll start yelling at people, and then just stop posting because they aren't having any fun. Ugh... just because your character is a 'loner' doesn't mean that they can't find an exception with one person. At the very least you can still place yourself with the others. -.-

I don't think anyone else said those already... though I have been known to be guilty of "Skipping". ^-^

[Alter Ego]

I want to stab an enginer right now, for I have just lost my whole post due to a keyboard malfunction. But this is irrelevant to the topic so...on to bad habits!

Ahem, first of all I'd like to express my support for most of the things said here, although there are two opinions I disagree with. One, I'm afraid that I don't agree with your comment on the one-liner thing, ~Ozy~, as I have yet to see a single RPing situation to which four lines could not be added as a response. It's all about going into detail about how your character feels about the information recieved/things taking place, thoughts, feelings...small mannerisms that that character has when talking (E.g. correcting his/her hair, fiddling with clothes, changes of pose/expression etc.), there are really very few people that are able to just stand/sitt completely still while talking with someone else, especially during lengthy conversations. And really, if you make the response one line, and then add at least one line of everything I listed above then you've already got four, so yeah. Two-liners on the other hand are always a depressing read, especially if they're made in tandem by inexperienced people with enormous signatures. At the risk of sounding crude, if you can't write four lines of coherent english then you should be signing up for a school/support lessons in english, not an RP. -.-

My second disagreement is with Kurosaki's comment about appearance descriptions. As far as I'm concerned, written description > picture, always. Allowing people to get away with pictures is basically asking for a bunch of characters who look like ones from Anime/Manga shows, which has always annoyed me, and then there's the whole image-not-here problems and whatnot which make it a very unreliable method. Also, detailed descriptions really shouldn't be underestimated as they are an excellent opportunity to convey various aspects of your character's personality. I know it's tough to think up something truly original (Clothes are a particular problem for me), but your creativity won't get any better if you don't push it a little. xD Anyways, like you said, it's a personal preference.

And now that that's over with, it's time for some bad habits:
[B]
Duck pond RPing

That is, only RPing with your own personal RP buddies and ignoring everyone else. I've seen this plenty of times and have to admit having been guilty of it myself now and again. A lesser, but just as annoying, form of duck pond RPing is always having your character navigate his/her way to the character(s) of your friend(s) and have them become bestest buddies and whanot, it's seriously discouraging for those who are not in your particular 'pond' as it makes them feel left out and ignored. Duck pond RPing is particularly bad if an RP master is doing it as, in that case, everyone else is just plain screwed because the plot is moving without them.

Irresponsible RP masters

Yes, by starting an RP and selecting the people whom you admit there you are also assuming the responsibility of making said RP work. What annoys me is that many RP masters don't see this at all, merely focusing on keeping their own character(s) and possible love interests etc. (See Duck pond RPing) in the spotlight, which really sucks for everyone else concerned. If your own character is incapacitated and can't prod the plot along, fine, just create an NPC or event that will have the same effect instead. But whatever you do, do not just leave RPers hanging without a clue of what they should be doing.

Whiny RP masters

When the RP master says 'no' it means no, yes? Well people should realize that the same applies for RPers. If an RPer doesn't want to sign up then he/she doesn't need to sign up, unfortunately, some RP masters don't seem to realize this and so choose to pester people with endless 'plz join' PMs. Inviting people is one thing, and I have nothing against those who do so in order to get the RPers they want in as long as they respect the decision of the RPer in question, but pestering them and spamming up their PM boxes is another.

Species identification (Mostly for pokémorph RPs)

Okay, this has been a peeve of mine from the very beginning. Am I really the only one who finds it a little bit odd that every pokémorph is somehow capable of identifying the exact species of every other pokémorph they come across? And indeed, how come even every trainer knows the types, names, and abilities of every individual pokémon in existence? Now you as an RPer might sitt there with all the answers ready, but unless there's a very good reason for the character in question to possess this knowledge then I fail to see why he/she should have it.

So yeah, those are some of the habits which annoy me and haven't been listed yet (Or at least I don't think they have), and I'm sure that there are many I missed, but I'll just end here before my keyboard decides to die on me again. ~_~

[Kogenta]

Though I understand the reasoning behind the desire for a typed physical description, I occasionally find it easier to design and portray my character with pencil and paper than with words--especially with more unique aspects of my character's appearance.

Although I usually describe my character via keyboard, sometimes I prefer to draw and scan them. :: shrug ::

[Lily]

Drawing and describing them might work, too, if you want to convey the exact appearance. I've seen people try that method, and it worked out just fine.

[~Ozy~]

One, I'm afraid that I don't agree with your comment on the one-liner thing, ~Ozy~, as I have yet to see a single RPing situation to which four lines could not be added as a response. It's all about going into detail about how your character feels about the information recieved/things taking place, thoughts, feelings...small mannerisms that that character has when talking (E.g. correcting his/her hair, fiddling with clothes, changes of pose/expression etc.), there are really very few people that are able to just stand/sitt completely still while talking with someone else, especially during lengthy conversations.

I still have to diasgree on that. In some cases, many I believe, less is indeed more. That, and a great many of those things can be conveyed in a short space if the writer is skilled. Rule #17 of The Elements of Style is "Eliminate uncessary words." It is sound advice in many ways. You can (and I have in the past) conveyed all of those details in three lines by following that rule. Furthermore, such detail is occasionally detrimental. If Ernest Hemingway had reworked A Farewell to Arms to meet your standards, it would have lost much of its impact. Good writing is more than length, and I will always, ALWAYS stress quality over quantity.

[Lily]

o.o; If one stresses on the importance of quality, surely that will ensue in shorter RP posts, which is relatively unwanted in accordance to forums. If someone assigns a specific length, and yet by eliminating unnecessary details, it is still possible for one to reach that length. Such details in this case are not harmful considering RPs are solely based on interaction, and everything you input will be studied upon, as stories are different from them...at least, this is purely my opinion based on your reasoning. ._.;

[~Ozy~]

Given, though as roleplaying is almost a multi-author story, continuity is a factor, as is writing skill. I prefer to see the two of those over length. However, if an RP and the character used in it is compelling, neither item should necessarily be a problem. Thinking about it in-depth, I find the theoretical question of length to be moot, as if there is a skilled RP Master and a skilled RPr, then post length and post quality will come naturally. The practical question is different, though, and I would rather focus on quality. Take for example, a formemr meber by the name of kirby0_0. Long RP posts, no one could fault that, but the quality was very much lacking. Once the quality of the RP writing as reached a reasonable and consistant level, then I find it a good time to concern yourself with length.

[Kogenta]

Even in the event that someone could contain an incredibly worthwhile, quality piece of information within one line, how many people would have that skill? And, how many people would simply abuse the use of one-line posts? How would it be possible to make that individual distinction, being that it would be based on opinion alone?

Having a required minimum of four lines is something concrete that can be judged by fact, rather than having the risk of accusations of favoritism.

:: shrug :: At the least, that is what seemed logical to me . . .

[~Ozy~]

Hence the contrast between the theoretical and the practical. Yes, getting people to write in a skilled manner consistantly is somewhat subjective and far more time-consuming, especially on a general-intrest forum such as this (as opposed to a dedicated RP board) than is setting a length requirment, but I still see it as the better approach. Furthermore, I didn't say that all of that could be contained in one line. The best I've ever done that contained thought, emotion, action and dialogue was three lines. I do not advocate having absolutely NO length requirement, but asking people to insert inane detail for the sake of meeting said requirement if they do not posess the skill to make the extra reading worthwhile is a detriment, not an asset.

[Kurosaki]

I wouldn't have any qualms about eliminating the limit rule if not for the fact that many posts like this (http://www.pokecommunity.com/showpost.php?p=1765917&postcount=293) would rise once more. (Sorry to the member who's post this is, it was the closest example)

I'd also like to express my dislike of those who don't read all of the posts, and just act on what they want to do instead of taking into consideration of what all of the other characters will do. (I'm guilty of is at well) It just comes to a point where a lot of the members get left out and decide to leave.

[~Ozy~]

I do understand your concern very well, and I would actually like to compliment the RP Mods for doing so much to improve the general quality of the RPs here. I suppose my main issue is that there seems too much pressure to meet length requiremnts, even wheen it means sacrificing quality to do so.

[Kurosaki]

I do understand your concern very well, and I would actually like to compliment the RP Mods for doing so much to improve the general quality of the RPs here. I suppose my main issue is that there seems too much pressure to meet length requiremnts, even wheen it means sacrificing quality to do so.
I don't really warn people about short posts unless the posts are like the example given, and I don't believe Ookami does either. That rule is there as more of a guideline than anything.

[~Ozy~]

I don't get the pressure feeling from the either of you, on the contrary. I find both to be understanding of that. I typically get that feeling from other RPrs, it seems almost like a contest at times as to who can type the most three-page responses. Not to criticize, but to me it seems that this behavior seems if nod condoned, subtextually implied by the two of you through a suggested length requirement. I truly would like to see more of a push for quality. There does come a point when things are too detailed for the good of the RP as a whole.

[Faltzer]

God mod RPers is what I hate most.they always want to do something to make themselves look good.

[Lily]

Even if quality is far more significant, not everyone can impose the correct amount of details and such. Rather, they seem to have the opposite problem, which is the lack of details, thus forcing Kurosaki/Ookami to enforce the quantity rate. In the case of skilled RPers, we all have our different methods. I don't think it's possible to convert everyone to quality, though, since we're all used to our style by now. x.x;

[Alter Ego]

I still have to diasgree on that. In some cases, many I believe, less is indeed more. That, and a great many of those things can be conveyed in a short space if the writer is skilled. Rule #17 of The Elements of Style is "Eliminate uncessary words." It is sound advice in many ways. You can (and I have in the past) conveyed all of those details in three lines by following that rule. Furthermore, such detail is occasionally detrimental. If Ernest Hemingway had reworked A Farewell to Arms to meet your standards, it would have lost much of its impact. Good writing is more than length, and I will always, ALWAYS stress quality over quantity.

And there are stories written solely in dialogue (Efficient for that very reason), and a lovely little book called 'The Dwarf' (Written by a Swedish author so I'm not sure if you know it) which was written purely in the form of a diary, but that doesn't mean that either of those techniques is ever going to work for RPing. ~_~ Hemingway's style of writing is very difficult to do properly and would only work if everyone in the RP could do it, and seeing the general level of RPing around here around here I can't see that happening. Long and descriptive might not be the eptiome of style, but it's a fairly easy technique to learn and makes it easier for others to understand your character's motives (As opposed to making him/her look irrational) and thus actually get more out of the RP. As it is, not enforcing length and descriptiveness leads to posts like the one Kurosaki showed. So yeah, I rest my case. Quality > Quantity, yes, but for those who aren't professional writers it becomes easier to achieve quality with quantity. Please also note that some styles of writing depend on length and descriptiveness. For instance, and I know this isn't the best example, Zadie Smith's novels depend heavily on listing countless seemingly irrelevant details to bring forth both information and mood and would in turn loose their impact if adapted to Ernest Hemingway's style. Yes, quality can be achieved with shortness, but that doesn't mean that it's the only way. <.<

So yeah, quantity doesn't always bring quality, but the fact of the matter is that a majority of the quality posts here are short, and I challenge you to find a single example of a Hemingwayish short post of quality.

Concerning the description-thing, well, you do have a point Kogenta...but still, it's always better to have at least some kind of writing description which is then supported by means of a picture, if only to give those less proficient in describing clothes and the human body something to work off.

As for enforcing quality, well, I agree that it would be better, but the problem is, how do you enforce quality, and who gets to decide what quality is? Obviously going "Okay, from now on your posts must be good." is not going to work. So yes, it's a lovely goal, but I for one can't think of any concrete way of striving towards it.

[Xhaiden]

Hmm things that irritate me about roleplayer? That is indeed an interest question. I strongly dislike first person point of view in rps, mainly because in rps there are usually more then one person and it can get confusing. I also agree with Alter-Kun on the picture thing. I can not STAND it when people just rip off of another anime or something for a character unless they are rping that particular character. It shows lack of creativity and those people should not rp unless they are willing to make their own characters. (Not counting rps that are of actual Manga/Anime/ect.) This thread amuses me greatly I must say...

[Loki]

XD Wow you guy's can really go. But I suppose I would've joined in had I had the oppotunity. Anyway, you all realize that even though we talk about whining and griping, we are- in a way- whining and griping ourselves? XD Me included. We all point things out that we find annoying, yet many of these crimes (<-HAHAHA) we have performed ourselves.

I'm not usually one for compassion, and you'll tell by the way I phrase this, but even though those n00b RPer's who bug the blargh outta everyone kinda suck at RPing and make everything worse for us, they're having fun. Pokecommunity was founded to be a place to have fun, and of all the few places I've seen of Pokecommunity, (other then the hacking section) this place is rather uptight. Not everyone is your professional Hemingway, which by the way I have no idea who that is. ^_^ But still, though they're taking our fun away, aren't we sinking to their level when taking away their "fun"? (Though I find it hard to see just how "fun" it gets when I can't even decipher what the poster is trying to say)

My second disagreement is with Kurosaki's comment about appearance descriptions. As far as I'm concerned, written description > picture, always. Allowing people to get away with pictures is basically asking for a bunch of characters who look like ones from Anime/Manga shows, which has always annoyed me, and then there's the whole image-not-here problems and whatnot which make it a very unreliable method. Also, detailed descriptions really shouldn't be underestimated as they are an excellent opportunity to convey various aspects of your character's personality. I know it's tough to think up something truly original (Clothes are a particular problem for me), but your creativity won't get any better if you don't push it a little. xD Anyways, like you said, it's a personal preference.

It's not always that easy to describe an appearance. If it's really complicated, with a lot of different layers and things like that, if you want to convey to the others just how different the look is, it's not easy through words. Because you will imagine something different then someone else, but when you see the same picture, you recieve the same image. ^_^

One-liners. First off, if you haven't seen any of those, you need to join someone's RP. Someone who posts one-liners as well. I have done so on many accounts, and hahahaha. The sarcasm there is heavy. There is little more then four lines if fourlines at all. My posts are usually dialog, and thinking to themselves, and I suppose that is unnesseccary padding, but you haven't seen me complain about marshmallow padding yet have you? ^_^;; But the one liners are usually a reeeally long quote with a 'he said' at the end.

Like so---
"No!" He shouted "You can't touch that because it's dangerous! You might get really hurt Lila, and I can't bear to see you get hurt!"

Ah yes I have seen posts as bluntly stating their interest in having a romance in the beginnning of the RP. But as you can see, I'm not even entirely sure that'll end up as even one line. I may have to edit. -_- But that is quite literally what some people would do, if the other's, (us) didn't flame them about it. Even when I say 'I believe there is a four line minimum rule', I see...one more line at most?

Advice:When someone gives you advice on roleplaying, it's usually up to you to decide whether it's good advice, or bad advice. Not only the mods give good advice, as you'll notice they're not the holy gods of the entire world. Everyone has different views on things, but when someone gives you advice, it becomes your responsibility to decide whether or not to go through with it. But sometimes, the advice people give, aren't those kinds. Sometimes, it's just the plain fact that you're lacking the common sense to read the rules, or just accidentally missed something. Take the advice when it is made clear it is a rule the first time, or someone's gonna start pushing that pretty button on the top right hand corner of your post.

Hmm, since I'm too lazy to quote Kagome, I have to say...It also bugs me when someone rips off an anime/manga/game character, but when I rip it off, I don't use characters that I have actually seen in anime, unless the RP calls for it. (Seen those crossover originals RPs yet?) Most of my pictures come from games/animes/manga that I will most likely never see any more of then that picture. I try to never use pictures from games and anime I have played/seen before.

[Mika]

My second disagreement is with Kurosaki's comment about appearance descriptions. As far as I'm concerned, written description > picture, always. Allowing people to get away with pictures is basically asking for a bunch of characters who look like ones from Anime/Manga shows, which has always annoyed me, and then there's the whole image-not-here problems and whatnot which make it a very unreliable method. Also, detailed descriptions really shouldn't be underestimated as they are an excellent opportunity to convey various aspects of your character's personality. I know it's tough to think up something truly original (Clothes are a particular problem for me), but your creativity won't get any better if you don't push it a little. xD Anyways, like you said, it's a personal preference.

And this Alter, is why people worship you. @_@

Or 'least, tis why ah do. o-o

I seriously cannot stand people who just stab up a picture. It... just... geeze... If it's original, fine. That's great. :3 I love original. Original shows the same amount of effort you'd put into a writen description. However, those ones people steal from AnimeNation (Thus my previous hatred rant towards bandwidth eaters) and say "OMG!!!!111 luk at my originl art/ luk at my char so original" need to be sent to the Hall of Death and get a few holes poked in them (Kudos to anybody who catches that humour)

People spent a long time drawing those. xx Trace if you have to but put some friggen effort into it.

[Loki]

Er, but these RP's are our pasttimes. Not our jobs. XP Not many people are willing to spend that much time to trace, especially since it's hard to trace a color image. Then you gotta print it and everything, and my mom's very touchy about color ink. But, didn't the artists spend that much time drawing them, for the public to see? 0_0;; But w/e, it doesn't matter. The reason I don't use my drawings for my character's, is because, I personally don't like the way I draw. Not everyone is good at drawing. And I just can't portray my character's appearance through my skills. o~o

See last post for reasons on typing description, and below.

I'm not objecting to either one, I'm just giving a debate. I don't think everyone can put out the same amount of effort. Everyone has their limits, and being a perfectionist, I'd rather not spend two hours drawing out a character and coloring it etc. etc. Besides, what bothers me the most, is that, only a select few take the time to actually type out what their character's look like in detail. Otherwise, I have to imagine everything else, and most of the facts I get wrong. It bothers the everything outta me!!

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

Even if quality is far more significant, not everyone can impose the correct amount of details and such. Rather, they seem to have the opposite problem, which is the lack of details, thus forcing Kurosaki/Ookami to enforce the quantity rate. In the case of skilled RPers, we all have our different methods. I don't think it's possible to convert everyone to quality, though, since we're all used to our style by now. x.x;

To me, "style" is the character you're used to creating. I prefer a laid-back person who can just barely back up their lazy, overconfident mouth. I throw in a twist most of the time, but don't change it completely because I'll forget the change and RP as the character I'm used to. Most of us are like that, even if we don't want to admit it.
Written descriptions are better than pictures because if you're ripping off a character, you can tweak the design a little (but that doesn't make it RIGHT). Then you can feel free to add a personality you're used to. If you rip off a picture, people know who it is, how they act, and anything else about them. Either way, ripping off a character is just an act of unimaginative laziness.

[Jack O'Neill]

The Slapdash Character: Try to spend a decent length of time writing a new character. I try to take at LEAST 15 minutes, 20-30 for ones I intend to reuse. Believe me, a hastily-thrown together character shows, and they aren't much fun to RP as or with. If you're reusing a character, modifying them to the RP is an obvious move, but also try to correct the things you found made them less fun to play as in previous RPs.15-30 minutes? That's rather quick for me. I often spend upwards of 45 minutes to an hour writing up my characters. Taking your time on something like this is always a good thing, 'cause a rushed job almost always sucks.

The Cliche Character: Yes, we've all been there, particularly when we start RPing. But theses are characters such as the Cynical Mercenary, the Angsty But Still Good Demon, the Warrior With A Tragic Past, etc. etc. Yes, these can be fun characters to play at times, but they're incredibly common and it's nice to see an RPr take the effort to come up with something out of the ordinary. I'm guilty of creating and using such characters myself, but I try to avoid it.Guilty of that too, but only on rare occasions. I always try my best to make up something original or at least put my own personal twist on a cliché.

The One-Liner: I disagree with the decision to enforce a four-line/one-paragraph rule in the RP forums because circumstances do arise where such a rule is, quite simply, inane and actually DETRACTS from post quality (this is especially true in drawn-out conversations), but it's nice to see people make the effort to add as much detail as possible.Agreed. There are times one-liners can't be helped.

The No-setting Plot: You can have gobs of plot in an RP, I mean, and immensely detailed, drawn-out affair, but what about the setting? What season is it? Is it mountainous? Humid? Does it snow almost year-round? Is it far to the north, or equatorial? All these things effect the setting of the plot. Like, if it's far to the north or south, the seasons won't be as diverse, and the days and nights, much longer, depending on the season. The Araura Borealis (or Astraulias) will show up too. Is it a rich county or a poor one? Densely populated? All of this is important.Guilty of that, but sometimes, settings involve at least some measure of common sense. I mean, do you expect to see snow in Vietnam or the Philippines? Do you expect to see a shining metropolis bustling with people along the Ho Chi Minh Trail or in the Philippine countryside?

The Optional Personality: This is a personal pet peeve of mine. I HATE seeing the Personality in an RP sign-up made an option. It should, in my opinion, be a required field, along with Appearance, Name, Gender, Race and Age. There's a good reason for all this, there's a good reason for a Personality field, namely that it give you a way to force your character to act. Real people don't simply skip around from emotion to emotion, they typically have a set group of reactions and emotions. So should your character. Even better is a history that agrees with this, e.g., a happy-go-lucky, carefree character isn't going to see their parents brutally murdered in front of them when they were six....Now I know what I've been forgetting.

The Punctuation And Capitilization: Put them in, and put them in right. Proper nouns, new sentences, acronyms, and "I," all get a capital. Spaces after commas, periods, question marks, semicols, etc. etc. Study the rules of punctuation and commit them to memory.If you can't type coherently, then you shouldn't RP, simple as that.

The Post That Obviously Didn't Get Read Over: I'll admit that I've done this too, when a lot of people are RPing and I'm trying to keep up, or when dinner's almost on and I'm rushed, but in general, read over each post for typos. Because typos are annoying.Also guilty of that. I rarely make typos anyway.

History doesn't match up?:If your character had a bad past, such as abuse, neglect, or murdering of parents before very eyes, then they'll have to attone to that. Your character is probably going to be at least partially scarred by these childhood events. So in other words, if your character had a bad history, they won't exactly be the most ditzy, most bubbly cheerleader at school.

And to add to that, even people who just try to be nice with the bad pasts who act all dramatic behind the scenes bug me out. I hope I'm not guilty of doing so, but it still bugs me out when they're perky and cheerful around people and depressed and thinking of suicide when by themselves. >=O It makes me angrah!Can't say I've been guilty of that. I try my best to match histories with personalities.

Gods:You're not a demi-god, or a god. You don't have control over every single player's character in the RP unless you ask permission to play their characters, and use your common sense to find out that you can only use them when the creator tells you you can do so. Powerplaying is a no-no, and is when you control another person's character without their permission.Guilty, but in some of the RPs I've been in, the creators give permission for others to use their characters; I never give permission, however, and I've had to deal with quite a few powerplayers.

Dialect Only: (I'm guilty of this.) Nobody wants to see a post that's just quotes and 'She said' or 'He said'. Description is what makes a post less boring to read. You could add something like 'She exclaimed' even to make it ever so slightly more amusing to read. Really long posts are easier to skip, but it makes it ever the worse when the long post is really nothing but dialect. If it's just dialect, I usually just skip them even if they're less then 5 lines. It's just boring to read.Not guilty. I always try to sprinkle in at least some description.

Stickies:They're there for a reason. Read them. They help. (Why else are they at the top of the page my friends?)I never read stickies. To me, RPing's basically intuitive anyway.

Skipping:When you skip someone else's post, you often get details wrong, such as where the other character is, in what position, or sometimes what they're doing at the present moment. Sometimes these minor details can make all the difference, and even though it may get ridiculous after 2 pages missed, sometimes it worth going back while you're typing up your post and making sure you've got your facts right. (I plead guilty)I make it a point to read everything, so skipping's not that big of a problem for me. I do have lapses in concentration, however.

Description/Appearance: First and foremost, nobody wants to see just a picture. Most pictures don't cover the entire attire, body, clothes, and appearance in general. If you use a picture, it would be wise to type in the parts that the picture leaves out, so that your not the only person in the RP who know's what your characters shoes or back looks like. (This bugs me the most, when there's only a headshot and they're like, OKAY! Good enough for me! I see this a lot) If you are hotlinking/providing a link, you may want to check on your own browser if the link still works. Webpages such as AdvancedAnime's URL's are constantly changing, and soon, you may have a guy picture in place of your female character. (Not pretty at all)Guilty, guilty, guilty. Most of the time, I take the time to type out my descriptions, but there are other times when I get lazy and just slap a picture on there. Sometimes, the picture fits (I once played a character who was an expert cosplayer), and sometimes, it doesn't. Visual aids can be useful, but don't try to abuse them out of laziness.

Rejection:If the creator of the RP says that your not accepted, one post asking why you were rejected is more or less justified if the creator doesn't say in the first place, but after rejected twice or more, it gets ridiculous. If you're rejected, and you change it, quotes like 'I thought it looked better then it does now', or anything similar to that, are UNECESSARY. (sp?)Never really had to deal with rejection anyway.

God Moding RP Masters: Honestly. I hate, loathe, despise these people and in some ways, they have the absolute right to be this way.

These are the people who start the rp boards and refuse to let anybody else add to their plotline, (Ex. I bring up my character's past in a post) I've had people actually tell me before that I need to delete my post because I'm drawing attention away from their character and they don't like it or they don't like my character's history because it's too deep.

It's also when they believe their characters are flawless because they are the "head" of the board. I wish I could find all the rp leaders who actually humble their characters and give them cookies. @_@ It's so flippin annoying when they tell you that you cannot power play or god mode when they do it themselves. ¬¬; Once in awhile is okay, everybody has power played at one point or another, but if every post depicts that character destroying something way beyond the character's ability... it's just ridiculousGuilty, but only on rare occasions. Besides, I'm almost always a participant anyway.

Fan Girl/Fan Boy Chars: ...I loathe despise hate curse (etc) these characters more than the above said person. My stomach churns at the sight of something along the lines of:

Optional: Mary is Riku's girlfriend they are going steady and are very happy together

Seriously. This is just plan ridiculous but thankfully only seems to happen with certian RPs. (Anything with hot male characters in them ~.~) OCxOC relationships are fine but OCxRiku (This is an example as this is the one I see the most) is not. Bring out your fantasies in FanFics, not in the RP forums. It's honestly not fair to the other RPers if a person is playing Riku and did not previously agree to being "hooked up" with the OC. If it was previously aranged, I still hate it. It's just plain unfairFanpeople disgust me, plain and simple.

If the RP Master says no more applications are being accepted, DO NOT APPLY

It's so obnoxious to have a poorly put together profile shoved into the middle of an rp. If they've already in the middle of something, don't post on the board. If you absolutely NEED to get in, try pming the leader, don't intrupt the flow of the RP; it'll only tick people off.I never butt in when RPers are obviously in the middle of something, even if applications are supposedly always open. Just leave them be unless they specifically request your presence.

n00b Chat
lyke omg, dun u just h8 it wen ppl typ lyke tis?

I don't need to explain why I hate it when people talk like this, it bothers the heck out of me. But suprisingly, there are people who RP like that too! By G_d, I loathe them.If you can't type in proper English, then don't RP. I can't stress that point any more.

Reading
There are some people out there who do not like to read extremely long, detailed posts. I hate it when people do that. They're like "Wow, super long...I didn't read it." and that is just disrespectful! A person probably took their time and talent to write such a post, and the person doesn't even read it? I'm sorry, if you don't like reading that much, don't Roleplay. As simple as that.I'm one such person given over to writing long and detailed posts, and yes, it's insulting when people don't bother reading. And I agree that if you don't want to read, then don't RP.

SPAM.:I'm sure many of you know what Spam is by now, and nobody (in their right sane mind) likes reading spam. SO DON'T DO IT! *gaspeth* It's very easy to stay on topic. Spam is a no-no, but wrongly accusing someone of spam is a no-no-NO. Double check to see if it's truly spam before you say 'So-and-so, don't spam'. Because you're gonna have half the RPer's after you for doing so. (Personal experiences my friends. Personal experiences.)Agreed. It's basically common sense.

Unsuccessful: Unsuccessful RP's are everywhere, but if nobody joins, or if it just goes downhill, or just plain doesn't go the way you wanted it, don't whine and gripe about it. Everyone is an individual, and perhaps they didn't fancy the topic your RP was on. And when you post an RP, it's not neccessarily going to go smoothly along the way you imagined it would. Different people have different reactions to different events. Whining and griping only makes people less enthusiastic about joining your future RP's, knowing that they'll have to deal with your attitude.Most, if not all, of my RPs are unsuccessful, but you don't hear me whining.

Conflict Characters: People who seem to try and make everyone hate them even when it essential that all of the characters work as a team for the plot to work. By try I mean actively try. They just pick fights with everyone and then whine in an OOC post about how no one's interacting with them or that everyone hates them. It should stand to reason that if you make everyone hate you, you will be ALONE. Which leads me to....

Whiny Loners: Those who go off one their own in an RP, don't interact with anyone's characters, and then begins to get angry when no one talks with their character. They'll start yelling at people, and then just stop posting because they aren't having any fun. Ugh... just because your character is a 'loner' doesn't mean that they can't find an exception with one person. At the very least you can still place yourself with the others. -.-If playing the anti-social and bellicose loner doesn't work in real life, then it sure as hell won't work in an RP.

Duck pond RPing

That is, only RPing with your own personal RP buddies and ignoring everyone else. I've seen this plenty of times and have to admit having been guilty of it myself now and again. A lesser, but just as annoying, form of duck pond RPing is always having your character navigate his/her way to the character(s) of your friend(s) and have them become bestest buddies and whanot, it's seriously discouraging for those who are not in your particular 'pond' as it makes them feel left out and ignored. Duck pond RPing is particularly bad if an RP master is doing it as, in that case, everyone else is just plain screwed because the plot is moving without them.I've encountered my fair share of duck pond RPs, and I must say that it's an unsavoury practice. People should be given a chance to prove themselves.

Irresponsible RP masters

Yes, by starting an RP and selecting the people whom you admit there you are also assuming the responsibility of making said RP work. What annoys me is that many RP masters don't see this at all, merely focusing on keeping their own character(s) and possible love interests etc. (See Duck pond RPing) in the spotlight, which really sucks for everyone else concerned. If your own character is incapacitated and can't prod the plot along, fine, just create an NPC or event that will have the same effect instead. But whatever you do, do not just leave RPers hanging without a clue of what they should be doing.Responsibility is an essential part of RPing, as it is with just about everything else. Always make sure to tend after your flock, lest they be eaten by the wolves.

Whiny RP masters

When the RP master says 'no' it means no, yes? Well people should realize that the same applies for RPers. If an RPer doesn't want to sign up then he/she doesn't need to sign up, unfortunately, some RP masters don't seem to realize this and so choose to pester people with endless 'plz join' PMs. Inviting people is one thing, and I have nothing against those who do so in order to get the RPers they want in as long as they respect the decision of the RPer in question, but pestering them and spamming up their PM boxes is another.Choice is the problem here. Personally, I don't like to pester people into joining; they should join out of their own free will, not because they've been coerced.

I'll try to address more points as I see them.

[.fate]

Jack, was that just out of boredom, or what? XD

Relationships: Probably been brought up before, but I hate it when two RPers focus everything around the relationship of only their two characters. RPs are supposed to involve everyone, and I've seen RPers kill good RPs like this...

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

My views on whiny loner and duck pond RPing:

Personally, I prefer having my character off alone with occasional contact to the others. That way, you don't have to wait on other people to post. Whining about it, however, is just immature. If you made it that way, that's your fault. Don't let your anger out on everyone else because of what YOU, and you alone, did.

Now, I don't duck pond because of my reason stated above. That's just plain dumb. Duck ponding would be a good reason for someone to become a loner, because they really are being rejected by the others. If the entire RP is a team thing and a few people go off on their own and neglect everyone, then that RP will never work out.



That's pretty much it. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Loki]

Jack, was that just out of boredom, or what? XD

Relationships: Probably been brought up before, but I hate it when two RPers focus everything around the relationship of only their two characters. RPs are supposed to involve everyone, and I've seen RPers kill good RPs like this...

Amen. Especially when they post a billion million times and all that stuff, and it's all consecutive, Member A, Member B, Member A, Member B, etc etc. It butts everyone else out, and you're just like, wtf?

Too many events?: Wow, I've had to deal with this before. The weepy 'give-me-your-pity' character butts in on you and makes a whole bunch of issues. His/her past, his/her problems, and they seem to expect you to sort them out, all the while making it QUITE PLAIN that they wish for a relationship between your character and theirs.

My views on Duck pond. Well, I've definetly been in that position. In fact, I'm in it in one of my RP's right now, in a different forum, but what pisses me off is that, sometimes I butt in, sometimes I don't, and these dudes have set up an impenetrable wall, and it focuses on THEM AND THEM ONLY. So, I have abandoned it. Unfortunate, because it's ridiculous in the first place! Why put up a public RP just to let the other RPer's wander around by themselves for the entire thing? >=(

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

Calling battles is hard, too. If it's between two people, one of them is almost certain to call it down the middle if it looks like they'll lose. This is bound to get the winning person mad. I think if anyone in the RP is "near" the battle, they should judge. In an RP, anger leads to sabotage. Then there's a ton of arguing, spam, etc.
If you're battling a sub-character you can control, then make that fair too. If they're stronger, they're stronger. It would be better to go down fighting then to pull of an impossible win.

[Jack O'Neill]

Jack, was that just out of boredom, or what? XD

Relationships: Probably been brought up before, but I hate it when two RPers focus everything around the relationship of only their two characters. RPs are supposed to involve everyone, and I've seen RPers kill good RPs like this...
No, I did not that out of boredom. XP

The inverse of whiny loners: a pair of RPers who can't be separated even if you stick a block of C4 in between them and detonate it. Bell's right in that you can't really get a word in edgewise. Kinda like a miniature duck pond in my opinion.

[Muse]

This entire topic could be compared to real life, it seems...o0

And I think you've all covered just about all of the 'Bad Habits.' I haven't Role-Played much, but I've been lucky enough to be able to avoid almost all of the mentioned bad habits except for one: The infamous Powerplaying! It seems like those who are new to RPing are the worst when it comes to this (not to throw all of the new RPrs into one big group or anything). Controlling other people's characters probably comes from not knowing that it's a BIG no-no. I know I'm guilty of controlling other characters on accident every once in a while, especially when I was new to it. It would probably help if everyone read, understood, and lived the rules, huh.

Moral: READ THE RULES! =D

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

Powerplaying is always bad, but when they control YOUR character...*shudders* There's a reason that person is yours. You might have a whole chain of events set out, only to have them messed up by someone who takes control of your character.

Most of the stuff here is pure evil in an RP. These are the RP sins, I guess.

[Loki]

Cat and Mouse: WARG. I could just...BITETHESEPEOPLE'SHEADSOFF. >.< Seriously, have you ever roleplayed in something, where it's just like, your this far away from them, and everything just goes WRONG because they can read your post and every single move your character does?

*cough* Anyway, on a more professional note, Cat and Mouse is where the person seems to take on a birds-eye view and seems to avoid everything. This is closely related to 'the super character' AKA, the mary-sue, in which the character is nearly untouchable unless you post everything in one go, and even then, manages to dodge an unlikely number of thought-out attacks, verbal assaults, or the such.

Example:
"Mary moves to the right to get a better aim.

Gary moves to the left because he felt like something bad was going to happen if he stayed where he was.

Mary moves to the left, frustrated.

Gary feels weird on the left too, so he moves to the right, just in case."

Not that exaggerated, but where you simply, chase the character because the RPer themself is like, "Oh, well, I can read your post, so I'm just going to avoid you, because I don't want my character to become the invalid, and I especially don't want to make a fool of my character by getting trapped, hit, losing, or knocked out.

Bunnying: I don't know, this has been really really really bothering me lately. Bunnying is almost worse then all-out powerplaying, because it just happen's so frequently. It's hard to do anything without bunnying, but it's possible, so why not just cut out the bunnying? There's just so much that you can kill with a simple little bunnying act, and sometime's, you end up having to change it anyway.

Short Posts: It's not hard to post four line's. We've all done it before, we're all capable of it, if you can't type four lines for each RP, don't bite off more then you can chew, cause you'll pay for it later. Also, what's the point? If you can say what you have to say in a post that replies to more then just one person, you can take care of so many more other problem's, like the duck-pond RPing, and the repitition of member A, member B, member A, member B, etc.

Just had to rant. And, I'm gonna sticky this thing. This has way too many good things in it for it NOT to be stickied. I'm gonna flaunt this in my sig the day I find room for it- in BIG red text. =_=;;

[YoshiRiRu]

Call me crazy, but I haven't read this until right now. I definetely have a few gripes - Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, I give you...

The Ever Present Bad-Ass.

This character pisses me off to the max - unless it's played well. My first RP here entailed being dropped smack into a "Ruined World" of Kanto; basically, like FF6's World of Ruin.

Now, the EPB-A winds up in this shattered reality, and is cool as ice. There's a difference between not panicking, and not caring at all. No fear whatsoever - just utter faith in themselves. Which at 15, most young people don't possess. (I don't, anyway; and I turned 15 on Monday.[Yes, that WAS a shameless plug of my birthday, thank you.]) Which brings me to my next point.

I TOTALLY HART MY POKEMANS AND THEY NEVER HERT ME LOL CUZ I ROX!!1

Everyone does this, and it's totally normal, but for some reason, the fact that mostly everyone has a fine and dandy relationship with their pokemon, and every single one is completely under their control. I've yet to really encounter an RP where someone truly loses control of one of their pokemon, and they can always trust them COMPLETELY. This has, mind you, only begin to gripe at me recently.

The Elite Pokemon Team.

I find that many a mediocre rper has in their team one of the following, some may be combined.


A starter pokemon, or other outrageously powerful pokemon that was their first pokemon, and never has any faults. Always loyal and forgiving.
A very young, cute, charming, baby Pokemon. Pichu, Cleffa, etc. These kinds of Pokemon are always the sunshine of every pokemon team, no matter what. (guiltyguiltyguiltyguilty)
A FRICKIN' EEVEE-LUTION! Argh, this pisses me off so bad. Eevee-lutions are so old, they're almost spoiling. I can't stand to see another one, I'm sorry


I, for one, try to use sort of "unique" pokemon in my RPs, like Girafarig, or Spoink, or Lanturn. People who use the same teams ooover and oover again annoy me.

I'm sure there are more things, but those are the ones that came to mind right now.

[Midnight_Dragon249]

A FRICKIN' EEVEE-LUTION! Argh, this pisses me off so bad. Eevee-lutions are so old, they're almost spoiling. I can't stand to see another one, I'm sorry.

o.O; I don't care how spoiled or old my Umbreon is: I still love it. Plus, there are 2 more in gen4. Old AND new at the same time. :P o-o' But that means I have to add those to my figure collection! Ack! <I have all 5 Eevee-lutions and Eevee sitting on my desk in my room. I'm a dork like that.>

Anyways, this is just simple stuff that bugs me. Misspelling words and incorrect use of grammer. I mean, if you know you're not the brightest lightbulb in the shed, copy+paste your post into Word, spellcheck, then copy+paste AGAIN. That just really bugs me. And I don't know why... And not just misspelling a few words, or maybe a few typos. But I mean typing something like~

Well, I'm not going to point out anyone in particular, but you all know what I mean. People who didn't pay attention in Language.

One more thing~1748 People joining an RP! It's insane!! And I guess some RP masters just don't have the heart to say, "Well, sorry, we're full," or ,"Sorry, we have others wanting to join so we can't accept someone with a bad sign-up." I know there ARE people willing to give the big rejection to someone, but I have seen quite a few RPs with a ton more people than it should have.

[Loki]

The Ever Present Bad-Ass.

This character pisses me off to the max - unless it's played well. My first RP here entailed being dropped smack into a "Ruined World" of Kanto; basically, like FF6's World of Ruin.

Now, the EPB-A winds up in this shattered reality, and is cool as ice. There's a difference between not panicking, and not caring at all. No fear whatsoever - just utter faith in themselves. Which at 15, most young people don't possess. (I don't, anyway; and I turned 15 on Monday.[Yes, that WAS a shameless plug of my birthday, thank you.]) Which brings me to my next point.


LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Sorry, that called for chatspeak. I remember that RP: I R guilty guilty guilty. Then again, after awhile I started to dislike my RP, so I got lazy. *apologize for type's, I don't have my glasses on, so I'm kind of hoping everything isn't covered in absolute errors*

As for the pokemon thing, I was guilty of the eevee-evolution's waaaay back when, but I'm otherwise not exactly guilty of this...often. I hate having starter pokemon on my team, even though sometime's it's nesseccary. They're just so bland to me. I remember I used to have an obsession with fighting pokemon and had an entire team of fighting pokemon- not a single ray of sunshine here! (Remember Karen? Yeah.)

Faker: Someone who think's they're "TEH 00BAH MASTAH AT RPing", when they're the one's who break all the rule's because they're not that great at RPing. These guy's reaaaally bother me, but it's nice for a laugh. xD

[YoshiRiRu]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Sorry, that called for chatspeak. I remember that RP: I R guilty guilty guilty. Then again, after awhile I started to dislike my RP, so I got lazy. *apologize for type's, I don't have my glasses on, so I'm kind of hoping everything isn't covered in absolute errors*

As for the pokemon thing, I was guilty of the eevee-evolution's waaaay back when, but I'm otherwise not exactly guilty of this...often. I hate having starter pokemon on my team, even though sometime's it's nesseccary. They're just so bland to me. I remember I used to have an obsession with fighting pokemon and had an entire team of fighting pokemon- not a single ray of sunshine here! (Remember Karen? Yeah.)

Faker: Someone who think's they're "TEH 00BAH MASTAH AT RPing", when they're the one's who break all the rule's because they're not that great at RPing. These guy's reaaaally bother me, but it's nice for a laugh. xD

Oh yeah, Karen.. that RP rocked my socks off. XD

Fakers piss me off from time to time, however, they don't seem to show up that much for me. I love to fight fakers, too. They always find some cheap way to win in a battle; and then it's easy to call them on it.

Nice RP masters: I'm sure everyone's encountered an RP like this - you join an RP, and someone posts a half-assed sign-up, I mean, obviously no effort or anything like that, and the RP master doesn't want to hurt the lazy ass's feelings, so he accepts them, and the overall quality of the roleplay is lowered considerably.

History and Personality Clashing: Somebody mentioned this earlier, (sorry, too lazy to look it up *_*) and it also makes me mad when people try to not only have a bubble exterior with murdered parents and other traumatic events, but also when people try too hard to break the norm (i.e. have normal, nice pasts) and then, have a sullen, angry, traumatized personality. It's really not that hard to link the two together - and it really shows in your RP skills.

[Shiney]

History and Personality Clashing: Somebody mentioned this earlier, (sorry, too lazy to look it up *_*) and it also makes me mad when people try to not only have a bubble exterior with murdered parents and other traumatic events, but also when people try too hard to break the norm (i.e. have normal, nice pasts) and then, have a sullen, angry, traumatized personality. It's really not that hard to link the two together - and it really shows in your RP skills.

I don't often post here, but I wanted to make a note on the history-personality clash thing. Personality is somewhat inborn, and influenced by other factors as well, in my experience. For example, I had a wonderful childhood, not really spoiled, but I didn't exactly suffer any serious lackings, either. My parents are the most kind and understanding people I know. But I still grew up being a resentful cynic. I'm not saying that they should be completely unrelated, but sometimes, a bit of clashing should be expected, and preferred, if you want my opinion on it.

[YoshiRiRu]

o.O; I don't care how spoiled or old my Umbreon is: I still love it. Plus, there are 2 more in gen4. Old AND new at the same time. :P o-o' But that means I have to add those to my figure collection! Ack! <I have all 5 Eevee-lutions and Eevee sitting on my desk in my room. I'm a dork like that.>

Anyways, this is just simple stuff that bugs me. Misspelling words and incorrect use of grammer. I mean, if you know you're not the brightest lightbulb in the shed, copy+paste your post into Word, spellcheck, then copy+paste AGAIN. That just really bugs me. And I don't know why... And not just misspelling a few words, or maybe a few typos. But I mean typing something like~



One more thing~1748 People joining an RP! It's insane!! And I guess some RP masters just don't have the heart to say, "Well, sorry, we're full," or ,"Sorry, we have others wanting to join so we can't accept someone with a bad sign-up." I know there ARE people willing to give the big rejection to someone, but I have seen quite a few RPs with a ton more people than it should have.

No, you misunderstand! I love Eevees, and all their evolutions - it's just that I can't stand how everyone has to have one in their pokemon teams. Aren't they like... oober rare?

And it seems you beat me to my previous post at the end of yours - didn't even see it. :D

[Midnight_Dragon249]

No, you misunderstand! I love Eevees, and all their evolutions - it's just that I can't stand how everyone has to have one in their pokemon teams. Aren't they like... oober rare?

And it seems you beat me to my previous post at the end of yours - didn't even see it. :D

Depends on what the RP type is. If it's more game-based, they probably would be rarer, as Eevee is generally a one-off. So, you could either of gotten it by a friend breeding it, or from Oak, as him having an Eevee as a starter is obviously possible, thanks to Yellow Version.

If it is more anime-based, then...I guess finding an Eevee would be extremely lucky. Or someone who had a ton of Eevee eggs could have gone around like the Easter Bunny :P

And the chara I've made with an Umbreon is a really lucky chara. Let's see...Here it is~http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1889/teamkr7.png . That's lucky. Or just alot of running around in one spot looking for rares. Which is what I would do if Eevee were able to be caught in the wild. I did that to get a Dratini in the Safari Zone. :D

[Loki]

Yeah seriously, you'd have to spend an eon just looking for the shiny ninetales. =_=;; Though sometime's I need a prettified team to match my character, I really hate it when someone is just overdoing it. The 'super kawaii, super suteki' team just bugs the bejeezuz outta me.

Pichu, Minun, Plusle, Azurill, Cleffa, Magby- What do you plan on accomplishing with that team?

Psh. Honestly.

Optimism Overboard: Ever encountered this? The super super super optimistic person, who, in a horrible situation where like, everyone you knew just got killed or murdered or something to that extent, and they're just like... "Oh...that's too bad. But, you've always got to look on the bright side, at least I wasn't killed!" *note the sarcasm* It's just like, 'Dude, you've got some serious issues you need to sort out with yourself.'

Fakemon: Don't use them in an RP. Just don't. It's smarter if you use it in a Fanfiction with a new region- that's where it's cool! (Only if you describe them well,) But otherwise, to be as blatantly obvious as I can possibly be, DON'T use them, because nobody cares what your imagination can contribute to the pokemon franchise as far as I'm concerned. I've seen this happen before, and I was so annoyed I dropped out of the RP. It was horrible.

"Frostbite!" <---What is that?

"Black Aura!" <--- Isn't that from Yu-Gi-Oh, or Magic Cards, or something like that?

Just no.

x_x

There are so many bad habit's that can come with an RPer. I'm sure we'll have fun listing them all as they come. xDD

[Midnight_Dragon249]

Yeah seriously, you'd have to spend an eon just looking for the shiny ninetales. =_=;;

In my defense, I found a shiny Electrike and Vulpix in ... I think it was Ruby or Sapphire. So, if someone hadn't of deleted my save file on Gold with my precious lv70-73 Umbreon, I could make the above team.

And people trying to join an RP right in the middle of it. Y'know, you and your group are roleplaying and could be right in the middle of a big event/battle/whatever, and *POPGASP*! A SIGN-UP SHEET! Even if in the 1st post, the RP master has said, "No more people may join," you'll STILL get people trying to sign-up. What's worse is when the sign-up sheet isn't even good. And I'm not sure if anyone has said that yet, although I'm pretty sure someone has. (but I'm too lazy to look :D; )

And I do aggree w/Bijou. I have a ton of Fakemon (More than 75) but I never use them in an RP, as no one cares about them much in an RP. It's just too hard to really use them in one. You could have a Water type fakie fighting an Electric type, then *BAM* Earthquake! And no one could argue will you doing that because it's a Fakie and doesn't have to be limited to Water, Normal, "Bite", Ice, or Electric moves. (Kyogre can learn Thunder, BTW) OR, you could say, "FakemonA hits RPerB's Raichu and totally kills it because it's an uber Fakie." Unless you have a detailed move list, stat total, and image of it, Fakies shouldn't be used. Period.

[Mika]

I thought of one. The other day. When I was reading sign ups for mah own rp.

Copy and Paste Sign Up Sheets: You know, those people who snatch your own four-hour-slaved-over sign up sheet, scribble out a word here and there and then call it their own personal creation (complete with a bandwidtch stealing hot-linked picture -shakes fist at-) and then, when you reject 'em, they pm you with complaints about how they "admire" you and "it's not that similar"


Character Thiefs (I'm also dealing with this one currently.) People who want to use your character in a fan-fiction when you've said no repeatedly or worse, as an NPC in their own rp because "your character has so much potential and you're letting him/her go to waste by not going further" I'm sorry but last time I checked, I slaved over that character's sheet for 3-72 (Don't ask...) hours and created a 20 page back story (again don't ask...) not you


People who can't use simple 1st, 2nd grade level english tools (Puncutation Capitalization etc) A sub-cat of chatspeak, these are the people that don't proofread their posts, post things so badly jumbled it looks like a small child wrote them. (Mystics-coughcough-) They're also the people that repeat the same word eight times 8 times in a sentance or throw in a random learned world in place of the traditonal colliquial mess to look "advanced" without knowing it makes them look more stupid. D< Under this catagory is the common misunderstanding of an overall word tense. Nothing ticks me off more than one person rping in the 1st person while the other eight rp in 3rd. It's just... not right. ;-;

Pichu, Minun, Plusle, Azurill, Cleffa, Magby- What do you plan on accomplishing with that team?

Hey. >>; this is my little sister's team... with skitty inplace of a magby and a taillow in place of a cleffa and she loves them dearly. (She had a freakin level 80 pichu at one point...which pwned my poor ickly level 90 altaria... and it was holding an everstone. o-o) She's a baby poke freak and for a 10 year old, she's pretty good at rping them... while having them not be all innocent and cute (<< for example her pichu likes to steal things. And then run like hell. Into trees.)

[Loki]

...I meant, in a roleplay that doesn't involve level's. < <; Usually those things will end up looking 00ber if it doesn't have level's, and also, it'll look unrealistic if it's that level in an RP too. Also, how many RP's around here have level's? o o; Last I checked, none.

[Midnight_Dragon249]

...I meant, in a roleplay that doesn't involve level's. < <; Usually those things will end up looking 00ber if it doesn't have level's, and also, it'll look unrealistic if it's that level in an RP too. Also, how many RP's around here have level's? o o; Last I checked, none.

Pokehunter56's RP, "Region of Fossils" does. I mean, it makes no sense to have levels in an RP. Someone could say, "Oh, my lvl72 Umbreon could pwn your lvl25 Beedrill, so we don't even need to fight." Or, "Umbreon used Bite on RPer's Beedrill and it got OHKO'd." And then say "I can OHKO your Poke because mine is a higher level!" And having a baby Pokemon team in a non-leveled RP would be a really weak team. But then you get a team with Charizard, Aggron, Salamence, Metagross, Flygon, and Dragonite and people will start saying "Hey that's too good/uber of a team!" You just can't win, can you?

[YoshiRiRu]

A lot of these things can be just as bad if not worse when the circumstances are reversed. For example..

The pitiful bag of tears: We discussed before about people who are super optimistic and are always being cheery and such like that.. well, this is just the opposite.

This is the character that is miserable at all times, cries in public, and generally is an attention whore; anything to get them recognized, and possibly start a pitiful-pitier (sp?) relationship in an RP.

Super pessimists, as opposed to super optimists.

The "Rebel" This is the person who refuses to play along, or "sees" through your plot. Say for example, if you're trying to trick a group of people, and you have it written (Not said, mind you) that you're trying to trick them, and the conversation goes a bit like this.

Rp'r A:
"They went this way!" he exclaimed, pointing in the complete opposite direction that his friends had gone, knowing their trail was well covered. There was no way that anyone could have proven him wrong, and they were so riled up, that the smallest suggestion of where to go would be sure to send them raving off in that direction.

RP'r B:
"no he is lying!" said jon. "i have powers and i saw them go the other way" said jon. "dont belive him hes lying" said jon

Well, I guess that's a bit of an exxageration, but I think you get my drift.

[Loki]

...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YoshiRiRu, the rebel is SO true. I can't imagine HOW many time's that's reduced me to fist's and tears (of laughter) due to the rebel's absolute stupidity. *Arrow flies through self, words, 'guilty' written across it*

*cough* Anyway, yeah, I hate it when that happens, it's just like, Arrrrg!

Supah Gawd: Ever met that person who just never run's out of youthful fighting spirit? You know, the one that insists that they be 'left behind' or the such, to be the hero of the day? The one who, in a reasonable anime, roleplay, or manga, is the one who get's incredibly injured? Ah, but that's not the case with our Supah Gawds, they have an unlimited supply of energy, and that energy never run's out. Even after they blow up a mountain, elevate a valley, and dry up the ocean, they're still around to say, "Drat! I missed!" Then they insist they're human, just have a little more energy then everyone else.

A little?

Yeah.

[YoshiRiRu]

Okay, I'm going to post something that I do, and maye a few of you others find it annoying too, and maybe some of you are even guilty of it.

Excuses: When you've got a good RP going, and someone just HAS to not post - for whatever the reason, they can't find an excuse, and the RP goes nowhere. So a potentially great RP is ruined by people's laziness.

Anyway.

Yeah.

[Alter Ego]

Nyah, excuses, excuses, excuses...yes, I'm familiar with that one. But my excuses are usually valid, like poofing off because of KH II. :O Seriously, though, I think most of the RPers around here have excused themselves many times over. It's human, but you ought to draw the line at the point where the whole RP is on the verge of extinction. I mean, at least have the decency to appoint someone else for ushering your character out of the plot's way if you can't be bothered to make the post yourself. xP Speaking of which, I seem to recall a certain RP we're both in suffering from that particular problem ATM. This wouldn't be you excusing yourself from the whole thing, would it? :P (Just kidding of course)

Aaaanyhow...about the level thing...meh, I tend to avoid that, personally. :\ Same goes with having set movesets for pokémon, I mean that's what the games are for, no wants to go through that tedious bussiness in an RP, right? I do make a point of making people stick to certain guidlines such as the type chart, trait effects learnsets (Ergo, what moves the pokémon actually can learn) and general statlines (No "Speed-trained" Snorlax outspeeding a Ninjask or other nonsense like that, thank you. <.<) but other than that I'm all for RPer liberty. Battles become dreadfully boring if all elements of creativity (E.g. Using the terrain to your advantage, applications of moves such as Rock Smash to counter a Rock Slide (Makes sense, ya' know =P) and suchlike) are taken out. I'd rather have it interesting than completely by the book. ^^

Oh, and on the fresh sins...

NPC Overload: Yeah, guilty as charged to this one. Sticking in a new NPC here and another there to prod the plot along might look like an easy solution, but the problem I've come across is that I'm in a situation where there are simply NPCs sticking out of every nook and cranny and you don't have a clue about what to do with em' all. This is mostly an RP master-type thing - as those usually end up having to carry the bulk of the NPCs - so as a piece of advice to anyone who wants to start their own RP: recycle. No, really, one well thought-out, multi-faceted character can quite well pull the weight of three simple ones created for the sake of convenience, and it will look a lot better from a plot perspective too. Not to mention that it's a lot less confusing. =3

The "Nice Character": I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but...have you ever come across the endlessly understanding, kind, and encouraging character who'll forgive everyone for everything every time without a shadow of a doubt but is always ready to kick evil butt? These would be the polar opposite of "troublemaker" characters, I guess, bordering on the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu category but without the L33T battle skills of doom. I mean sure, getting along with the rest of the cast is all well and good, but let's draw the line somewhere, m'kay? No-one can always be complete and utter friends with everyone else in the group and always agree with everything they say, that's not human! <.< The worst thing is, these accursed leppers are really hard to pin down because they aren't really godmodding or powerplaying (Since they don't force others to like them or miraculously win every battle) and certainly aren't disrupting the plot. The fact that they are making you, personally, pull out your hair and scream "Can't you act normal even once?!" is unfortunately not a very good basis for kicking them out of the RP, so make sure to stamp these infernal pests out in the sign-up process. Trust me, it will save you a lot of frustrated hair-pulling later on.

Little Mr/Ms Helpful: Another peeve of mine, these are the insufferably perceptive characters who always know what must be done and always have the means to do it, typically followed by a miraculously expanding inventory of useful items. Pokémon KOed? Guess who's carrying a Max Revive. Rain? They've brought an umbrella. Mystery enemy working behind the scenes? Those incriminating documents (Complete with signatures, pictures, and detailed descriptions of all plans) just keep falling in their hands. World doomed to destruction in five seconds? They've got a time machine to make that five centuries. Regardless of the situation, Mr/Ms Helpful is on the job. This is another manifestation of the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu syndrome which has the annoying quality of passing through sign-ups relatively unnoticed, although luckily, they can be caught and accused of powerplay/godmodding if they become too much of a problem. But as a prevention method, I'd like to ask that all of you who are reading this never resort to this 'helpfulness' measure. Sure, every character has the right to solve a problem occasionally (Provided that there are valid reasons for why they are capable of solving it) but an RP where every problem is solved with the flick of a wrist is a dull one indeed. -.-

[Loki]

NPC Overload: Yeah, guilty as charged to this one. Sticking in a new NPC here and another there to prod the plot along might look like an easy solution, but the problem I've come across is that I'm in a situation where there are simply NPCs sticking out of every nook and cranny and you don't have a clue about what to do with em' all. This is mostly an RP master-type thing - as those usually end up having to carry the bulk of the NPCs - so as a piece of advice to anyone who wants to start their own RP: recycle. No, really, one well thought-out, multi-faceted character can quite well pull the weight of three simple ones created for the sake of convenience, and it will look a lot better from a plot perspective too. Not to mention that it's a lot less confusing. =3

The "Nice Character": I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but...have you ever come across the endlessly understanding, kind, and encouraging character who'll forgive everyone for everything every time without a shadow of a doubt but is always ready to kick evil butt? These would be the polar opposite of "troublemaker" characters, I guess, bordering on the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu category but without the L33T battle skills of doom. I mean sure, getting along with the rest of the cast is all well and good, but let's draw the line somewhere, m'kay? No-one can always be complete and utter friends with everyone else in the group and always agree with everything they say, that's not human! <.< The worst thing is, these accursed leppers are really hard to pin down because they aren't really godmodding or powerplaying (Since they don't force others to like them or miraculously win every battle) and certainly aren't disrupting the plot. The fact that they are making you, personally, pull out your hair and scream "Can't you act normal even once?!" is unfortunately not a very good basis for kicking them out of the RP, so make sure to stamp these infernal pests out in the sign-up process. Trust me, it will save you a lot of frustrated hair-pulling later on.

Little Mr/Ms Helpful: Another peeve of mine, these are the insufferably perceptive characters who always know what must be done and always have the means to do it, typically followed by a miraculously expanding inventory of useful items. Pokémon KOed? Guess who's carrying a Max Revive. Rain? They've brought an umbrella. Mystery enemy working behind the scenes? Those incriminating documents (Complete with signatures, pictures, and detailed descriptions of all plans) just keep falling in their hands. World doomed to destruction in five seconds? They've got a time machine to make that five centuries. Regardless of the situation, Mr/Ms Helpful is on the job. This is another manifestation of the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu syndrome which has the annoying quality of passing through sign-ups relatively unnoticed, although luckily, they can be caught and accused of powerplay/godmodding if they become too much of a problem. But as a prevention method, I'd like to ask that all of you who are reading this never resort to this 'helpfulness' measure. Sure, every character has the right to solve a problem occasionally (Provided that there are valid reasons for why they are capable of solving it) but an RP where every problem is solved with the flick of a wrist is a dull one indeed. -.-

Yeah that's been said, but that's something that should definetely be repeated. Definetely.

Guilty? Er, I might be. I'm not sure, but I do know that that is annoying. Where someone just happens to know or have or do just what's needed. There should be a rule on that, but that'd be extremely unfair.

NPC Overload actually sounds kind of foreign to me. I'm guilty of it, but honestly, when there are only two RPer's actually roleplaying, wouldn't you want to add a bunch of NPC's, so it doesn't get boring? It's only a problem for me if there are already enough characters in the first place. But to add, we're not the Pokemon Anime people's, we don't need a new character every new episode/post.

Solution Solved- Oops, Just Kidding!: Don't you just hate it when you think you've just solved somebody's problem, and you've gone through like 15 posts of fire and brimstone, and then all of the sudden, "Johnny started to cough violently again- for some reason, the water wasn't working!" Even if in your posts your character trudged like, 50 billion miles just to get the frigging water?

[YoshiRiRu]

Nyah, excuses, excuses, excuses...yes, I'm familiar with that one. But my excuses are usually valid, like poofing off because of KH II. :O Seriously, though, I think most of the RPers around here have excused themselves many times over. It's human, but you ought to draw the line at the point where the whole RP is on the verge of extinction. I mean, at least have the decency to appoint someone else for ushering your character out of the plot's way if you can't be bothered to make the post yourself. xP Speaking of which, I seem to recall a certain RP we're both in suffering from that particular problem ATM. This wouldn't be you excusing yourself from the whole thing, would it? :P (Just kidding of course)

Aaaanyhow...about the level thing...meh, I tend to avoid that, personally. :\ Same goes with having set movesets for pokémon, I mean that's what the games are for, no wants to go through that tedious bussiness in an RP, right? I do make a point of making people stick to certain guidlines such as the type chart, trait effects learnsets (Ergo, what moves the pokémon actually can learn) and general statlines (No "Speed-trained" Snorlax outspeeding a Ninjask or other nonsense like that, thank you. <.<) but other than that I'm all for RPer liberty. Battles become dreadfully boring if all elements of creativity (E.g. Using the terrain to your advantage, applications of moves such as Rock Smash to counter a Rock Slide (Makes sense, ya' know =P) and suchlike) are taken out. I'd rather have it interesting than completely by the book. ^^

Oh, and on the fresh sins...

NPC Overload: Yeah, guilty as charged to this one. Sticking in a new NPC here and another there to prod the plot along might look like an easy solution, but the problem I've come across is that I'm in a situation where there are simply NPCs sticking out of every nook and cranny and you don't have a clue about what to do with em' all. This is mostly an RP master-type thing - as those usually end up having to carry the bulk of the NPCs - so as a piece of advice to anyone who wants to start their own RP: recycle. No, really, one well thought-out, multi-faceted character can quite well pull the weight of three simple ones created for the sake of convenience, and it will look a lot better from a plot perspective too. Not to mention that it's a lot less confusing. =3

The "Nice Character": I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but...have you ever come across the endlessly understanding, kind, and encouraging character who'll forgive everyone for everything every time without a shadow of a doubt but is always ready to kick evil butt? These would be the polar opposite of "troublemaker" characters, I guess, bordering on the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu category but without the L33T battle skills of doom. I mean sure, getting along with the rest of the cast is all well and good, but let's draw the line somewhere, m'kay? No-one can always be complete and utter friends with everyone else in the group and always agree with everything they say, that's not human! <.< The worst thing is, these accursed leppers are really hard to pin down because they aren't really godmodding or powerplaying (Since they don't force others to like them or miraculously win every battle) and certainly aren't disrupting the plot. The fact that they are making you, personally, pull out your hair and scream "Can't you act normal even once?!" is unfortunately not a very good basis for kicking them out of the RP, so make sure to stamp these infernal pests out in the sign-up process. Trust me, it will save you a lot of frustrated hair-pulling later on.

Little Mr/Ms Helpful: Another peeve of mine, these are the insufferably perceptive characters who always know what must be done and always have the means to do it, typically followed by a miraculously expanding inventory of useful items. Pokémon KOed? Guess who's carrying a Max Revive. Rain? They've brought an umbrella. Mystery enemy working behind the scenes? Those incriminating documents (Complete with signatures, pictures, and detailed descriptions of all plans) just keep falling in their hands. World doomed to destruction in five seconds? They've got a time machine to make that five centuries. Regardless of the situation, Mr/Ms Helpful is on the job. This is another manifestation of the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu syndrome which has the annoying quality of passing through sign-ups relatively unnoticed, although luckily, they can be caught and accused of powerplay/godmodding if they become too much of a problem. But as a prevention method, I'd like to ask that all of you who are reading this never resort to this 'helpfulness' measure. Sure, every character has the right to solve a problem occasionally (Provided that there are valid reasons for why they are capable of solving it) but an RP where every problem is solved with the flick of a wrist is a dull one indeed. -.-

GUILTY. Wow, I've done this a lot. I hate being the downer of a group, and I usually try to be the optimist. But I rarely take it too far, I like I know some people have the tendency to do. I usually back off, or at least have something negative come out of my mouth once in a while.

I've never really been like that, but I've RP'd with some people who have. This is especially annoying when you're a villian, and there's an uber helper on the good guy side (Really helpful people are ALWAYS good.) And just as you're about to succeed in your scheme..

DUN DUH DAAAAAAAAAA!

Captain helpy McHelperson, to the rescue.

Unimaginative Vocabulary: How often have you seen a paragraph like this?

"No" said Jon, walking to his sister. "'You're dying" said jon, walking away. "I have a potion." said Fred, walking to Jon's sister." "PLZ HALP!1" said Jon. "ONLY IF U HAVE ZENY ND A GUD ASL LOL!1ONE" said fred.

Said. Said. Said. Said. Said. Said. Doesn't matter if you're screaming, singing, crying, or whispering, said is all that comes out. I mean, how hard is it to choose a new word? Thesaurus.com for the win, ladies and gentlemen.

BAD GRAMMAR: This has been said over and over and over and over again. But please, for the love of sanity, just learn some basic english! Punctuation, capitalization, and anything like that make your posts look twenty times more professional than something just slapped together. No matter how amazing your sign-up may be, if it has bad grammar, odds are you'll be marked down heavily for that.

[Alter Ego]

Guilty? Er, I might be. I'm not sure, but I do know that that is annoying. Where someone just happens to know or have or do just what's needed. There should be a rule on that, but that'd be extremely unfair.

Yeah, it's a bit too situation-dependent to make a general rule of it. I just stamp it as powerplay if I come across it and leave it at that.

Solution Solved- Oops, Just Kidding!: Don't you just hate it when you think you've just solved somebody's problem, and you've gone through like 15 posts of fire and brimstone, and then all of the sudden, "Johnny started to cough violently again- for some reason, the water wasn't working!" Even if in your posts your character trudged like, 50 billion miles just to get the frigging water?

Nyah, I haven't encountered this to any serious degree yet, but yeah, I can imagine what a pain that is to go through, what with having gone through single problem solving situations spanning a good seven pages. Just goes to show how a clueless N00B can ruin pages upon pages of quality RPing with a random two-liner. Life is so unfair in some ways. ~_~


Unimaginative Vocabulary: How often have you seen a paragraph like this?


"No" said Jon, walking to his sister. "'You're dying" said jon, walking away. "I have a potion." said Fred, walking to Jon's sister." "PLZ HALP!1" said Jon. "ONLY IF U HAVE ZENY ND A GUD ASL LOL!1ONE" said fred.

Said. Said. Said. Said. Said. Said. Doesn't matter if you're screaming, singing, crying, or whispering, said is all that comes out. I mean, how hard is it to choose a new word? Thesaurus.com for the win, ladies and gentlemen.

Amen to that, and lets not forget about 'thought' either. Thought, thought, thought, doesn't matter if the same friggen' thought is split into five friggen' pieces, there will be a 'thought' after each and every one of them. >_< Come on people, try contemplating, musing, planning, anything except for thought, thought, thought. It's not that hard. <.<

BAD GRAMMAR: This has been said over and over and over and over again. But please, for the love of sanity, just learn some basic english! Punctuation, capitalization, and anything like that make your posts look twenty times more professional than something just slapped together. No matter how amazing your sign-up may be, if it has bad grammar, odds are you'll be marked down heavily for that.
November 6th, 2006 03:28 AM

Again you've hit one of my main peeves. It's amazing how teenage people - even people born in the bloody US of A or UK, people who should know their native language - can't comprehend the function of the full stop, let alone paragraphing. Same goes for a stunning ignorance concerning words with similar spellings, such as 'manor' and 'manner', and even simple spelling. It's certain, okay? CERTAIN! NOT CERTIAN DARN YOU! HOW MANY TIMES WILL I HAVE TO POUND IT INTO YOUR THICK N00BISH SKULLS?! >_____<

Ehh...sorry about that, I've got a lot of pent up aggressions on this issue. ^^

[Charon]

I agree with what's been said so far, but here's another three;

Where's the continuance?
Don't you just hate it in a roleplay when there's been a really maaaajor, emotionally significant scene, with insults throwing left right and centre, but a few posts later the character involved seemed to have forgotton about it completely and aren't emotionally affected at all? I don't know about you lot, but I've been in roleplays where my character's steel have really been tested emotionally, and they've left an arguement shaken and upset. However, the character she's been arguing with seems... completely fine. Happy again, even. Not just emotional things, too. One scen a character's limping, but then he scales a cliff or whatever... I mean, I know we all forget things some times, but often the continuance in roleplays is awful.

That's not how it's spelt!
I got SO angr