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Chit-Chat: General Roleplay Discussion Thread "the RPD" (archived)

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How many RPs are you part of right now? How many of them do you GM?
1 right now and submitting a RP for approval so fingers crossed.

Do you prefer sandbox roleplays or more structured roleplays? Why?
Honestly its the story I look for... a good story makes or breaks a RP. Also I need to make a character I really like RPing. I have dropped from a RP when I made a character I didn't like RPing...

Do you enjoy writing sign-up sheets?
Sometimes... usually yes for some parts but NO for others. Describing a character's looks is tough and I don't really like doing that very much.
 
Red's Hawt Chibi Pelippers said:
If I recall correctly that it really was yours, you were great GMing in that RP of which I have forgotten the name but there were rebels with technology and soldiers without it and I played a Weavile and had loads of fun making morally challenging decisions before I got too busy or something. I think you should remake that :3 Only way to get better is to practice the thing you want to get better at, after all.
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Hm... yeah I did start that up. :V I'll have to get back into that now that I think about it. I have grown a bit but I'll just need to tackle the idea of the story, make it more firm and such. Thanks for the words of encouragement mate.
 
I can agree on the history part. Sometimes you have this great idea for a character but aren't sure about their origins until you have played with them for a while and realized where you want to take things.

But on the other hand, creating a history already in the sign up can help you get a grasp for what your character's goals and feelings come from and give you more to go on already early on in the RP. So I'd say both having history in the SU and not having it has its merits. Ultimately, I guess it should depend on the RP.
 
I much prefer history to personality - personality seems... pointless? Since personality is how you write a character, a personality should always be evident in your roleplay sample, whereas a history could contain 'secret' information, etc.
 
In truth... with how personality is done, I wouldn't be against simply making the personality section a roleplay sample with the character. Like roleplaying the character in their daily life and perhaps doing a good three paragraphs to show how you intend to play the character. Not only that, but it would show the GM how well you rp and how you intend to play your character as.
 
Greiger said:
In truth... with how personality is done, I wouldn't be against simply making the personality section a roleplay sample with the character. Like roleplaying the character in their daily life and perhaps doing a good three paragraphs to show how you intend to play the character. Not only that, but it would show the GM how well you rp and how you intend to play your character as.
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I think that's what Skymin does in her RPs lately, so maybe those who have signed up for them can testify whether it works well or not :) At one or a few times, I've just made a field called "Biography" in the SU sheet, forcing RPers to merge history and personality into some kind of background where they can state whatever they feel necessary for the GM and the other players to get a feel for the character before the RP starts. That option could be a bit too fluffy and undefined, though. Again, it can vary from RP to RP. For "journey" RPs with pokémon, maybe history isn't as important as personality for example.

Hey guys btw did you notice that there are now prefixes for threads in the RPC? 8D
 
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The thing is, though I like the idea of roleplay samples representing a character's personality, I use SUs personally to see what my character is like, whether it's their appearance or anything else. Taking out the personality could make writing harder if you've had a break, are juggling with several different rps or just easily forgettable like me. Just my two cents.
 
{D:} AAAHH NEW THREAD! It's so lovely and shiny... I'm a little late here, I guess, I kept forgetting to subscribe.

I'm in two RPs, and I GM one of those. Except the one I GM isn't actually up-and-going yet, but RAISINS. (Insert shameless advertising here)

I think I answered the sandbox/structured question, or something similar, in the non-shiny RPD thread, so on to number three! SUs are pretty fun, for me. Usually, though, it's not so much creating a character in signup format as it is forming a character beforehand, or while reading the RP (to get a feel for it) and then putting the character into SU form. I generally like the characters I come up with, so I've no problem with writing about them. Gives me a better feel for the character, lets me write things about them that I usually wouldn't consider.

NEW THINGS? Oh, lordy, my thread is an Other, I feel so special ^^
 
They're still being tweaked (very slowly) bear with! I'm gonna slowly edit up peoples threads <_< PM me any protests.

Names like Pokémon: blahblah will probably become [Pokémon] Blahblah.
 
Regarding the personalityhistory discussion, I personally really using a sign up to develop a character and both of those sections really help with my brainstorming, since I know otherwise I would probably just leave things be. History is a good means for finding motivation for your character and having appropriate reasons for them to responding to certain things.

For example, when I first made a wrote a sign up for Anise, in her history I had her be attacked by a Houndoom, a very traumatic event for her, this had led having a reasonable (though maybe not negative) response to Houndooms in particular.With this I have a lot I could do to develop her character forward, give her a challenge to overcome or a weakness she can't deal with. If I had not written out her history for the sign up, this little trait would have probably never existed and any opportunity to expand on it would never have existed.

And the only reason I had this event first occur in her history was because I needed something to catalyze her personality. Anise was originally just going to a very happy looking kid while being very manipulative. She needed a reason to be manipulative, so I decided to make her insecure and why was she insecure? The train continues and soon enough I have a much more well rounded character. Because she had a traumatic event in her childhood. I'm a lazy person so if I could have just left it at just "happy but dark person" I probably would have and put more focus in her development through the journey rather than her back story. I feel like having a proper history planned make decision making a lot easier for characters which also ultimately prevents plot holes when it comes to meaning behind actions.

I just feel like you create a much more complete character if you actually take your time to write out their personality and history, though this may just be more effective for me personally.
 
Personally I find that a good character's personality is nothing more than a reflection of their history and how it helped shaped them as people. As a GM, usually I use the personality field for one very specific thing: Quickly identifying whether an RPer has given their character any clear flaws. That's something that can be a lot harder to identify using history or even a sample post.

I've seen RPs that use a simple biography field instead of a split history / personality and that's great too, except some people will take that as an excuse not to write much if at all about their character's actual personality resulting in the same problem listed above.

I think that's the primary reason the personality field has been such a long stay in SUs. It's direct, leaves little room for incorrect interpretation and solves a problem most other types of SUs don't necessarily.
 
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What new prefixes I don't even my world is changing


As for the current topic about Sign-Up Sheets / Personality sections: I believe that I prefer it if a SU Sheet has a Personality section. It lets others get an idea of your character, even if you don't play it out exactly how you may have described it. Beyond that, a lot of times I don't have every detail of my character down beforehand. Even with characters I've established in the past, sometimes I come up with new ideas and quirks for the character when writing out the personality.

PkMnTrainer Yellow said:
Personally I find that a good character's personality is nothing more than a reflection of their history and how it helped shaped them as people. As a GM, usually I use the personality field for one very specific thing: Quickly identifying whether an RPer has given their character any clear flaws. That's something that can be a lot harder to identify using history or even a sample post.
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And I also come up with flaws I may not originally have thought of, so I agree with this.

When an SU Sheet doesn't contain a Personality section (I think one of Skymin's RPs was the only one like that that I ever joined.), I tend to just add one when writing it anyway.



How many RPs are you part of right now? How many of them do you GM?

I'm only in one roleplay at the moment, considering my activity levels don't really allow for too much roleplaying at the moment. I am currently GMing none, but I do have one ready to submit. I'm still not sure if I should. It's just a journey roleplay, so I'm not sure of the interest.

Do you prefer sandbox roleplays or more structured roleplays? Why?

Aaaaaaaaaaaah depends on my mood, I guess. They can both be fun for vastly different reasons. I enjoy both.

Do you enjoy writing sign-up sheets?

Yes and no. I have a tendency to take forever writing anything, so having to do the SU Sheet can be tedious. At the same time, though, the SU Sheet helps me develop a character so much, sometimes in ways I wouldn't have originally taken with that character.
 
You know it has my interest, Nakuzami. I helped you develop it after all!

Although I'm in the same position. Heart Stealer is pretty much definitely ready to go but I'm postponing it a week (maybe) so I can clear a few personal things out of the way and give it my full attention. Regardless it's pretty much set for posting!
 
Okay! But, um, when I first wrote out The Lost Islands League 2.0, I guess I decided to give Professor Rowan a first name. Does anyone think that would be awkward?

Like, is it weird or just plain wrong to assign a first or last name to canon characters that never officially received one? I think it would be awkward to have the Professors not be on a first name basis, and only half of the regional professors have first names that we're aware of.

'Cause now this little detail is making me question whether I should post the roleplay at all. Agh! It's all ruined because three people don't have a first name. Oh my lord.
 
So my RP has been accepted:
Return From Exile

Its a Sci Fi RP so a little out of the ordinary for this site but thought why not. Any feedback is welcome even if you're not interested in joining. If you are interested there are plenty of slots open.
 
RPs are pretty much like alwaysgoingon events. Did you have something forum-spanning in mind again?
 
It's much more contained than our last one, and hopefully it'll please those who miss/missed the RPOs. Small, mini-roleplay/writing events.
 
Looks cool! Hopefully even people who feel busy can participate in this~

Exam times sure are unforgiving. My douchebrain thinks up RP ideas and tempts me to join RPs every day when I've filled it with too much chemistry formulas. But I shall resist. Maybe.
 
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