Roleplay Pet Peeves

[Tad Cooper]

18 hours ago, r0y said:

If there (or should there be) a /slash command to pop up the $target's info window?  so people (RP'ers) can easily macro it?  e.g. /macro i "/toggleinfo $target" or something... that might help.

 

I know one can leave that window floating (I sometimes do, but I have a LOT of screen real estate, and it probably isn't good for those with UHD res or lower).

 

Also, a generally-accepted RP SCALE would be nice.  I'll *very rarely* do "light rp" with an RP team, I don't do the "hang out at the bar and flirt" RP.  I mean, I see "casual RP" or "light RP is OK" and I'm there.  Inversely, a "heavy RP" or "serious RP only" is also very useful to me (and the team), as it's not for me, but for more RP-centric.  Something like a letter or code thing "RP1" or "RP9" for light to heavy?  I dunno, just brainstorming.

There are several. "/info" is the same as right clicking and picking Info.  You can also use "/info_tab #" where 0-1 is the bio, the powers page is 2, etc etc. If you don't have a target selected it opens yours, or you can use "/info_self" and "/info_self_tab #" to always open your own.

[r0y]

21 hours ago, Tad Cooper said:

There are several. "/info" is the same as right clicking and picking Info.  You can also use "/info_tab #" where 0-1 is the bio, the powers page is 2, etc etc. If you don't have a target selected it opens yours, or you can use "/info_self" and "/info_self_tab #" to always open your own.

So I need to start making a macro:

/macro i "info_tab 0"  (also, why are there two pages 0 & 1, but we only get one in the info box?)  Time for PAGE 2 on description/backgroun!  😉

 

Thank you for pointing this out!

[Slithershot]

I have one REAL pet peeve. The rest is just minor stuff that I ignore. 

 

Roleplay teams. More often than not, people don't even try to come up with reasons of why these teams are forming together, or where the heroes and villains come from, or even what they're doing. It's like they're just an avenue for people to shout HAVE AT YOU while another guy goes PINK UNICORNS FOREVER, because reasons. Did you call us on all our telephone? Flyers around the streets? Like, why am I supposed to be coming to help you fight council in an office once again? And then the whole mission is just blowing through enemies like normal. No stopping and planning, or breaks, or conversations about whatever. Just task, finish task, move on to next task. 

 

Give me some STORY man. This is why I haven't joined an rp team in a long time. Feels the same as any other team, just with gloating and death messages. 

Edited July 18, 2020 by Pizzamurai

[Coyotedancer]

Some of us who like RP mission teams like them BECAUSE there's no elaborate set-up... no standing around emoting at each other... no listening to Brittany rail Chaz for dating Lisa instead of her.

 

We're (*gasp* *horror*) fond of the casual nature of them.

[Crater Kate]

One of my favorite things to do is lampshade the hell out of the setup. 🙂

 

"Hey guys, uh, this might be a weird question, but does anyone ACTUALLY know what we're doing? I just got a call from Ghost Widow and she said meet these guys in this place and... look, if I'm being honest, I've just been following you guys around for the last half hour trying to blend in."

[General Idiot]

For radio or paper missions I generally assume the LFG message was broadcast over the same police radio or encoded in the same newspaper the missions themselves come from. Or that my character is just responding to the same message the others are and chooses to team up with this other bunch of random people there when they arrive. It's not that much of a leap to make, in my opinion.

[Ironblade]

Not so much a 'peeve' as a decision based on the limitations of the format.

I've played pen & paper RPG's.....  yikes, since 1979.  When I'm playing an RPG in person, I role play my characters.  Almost every word is in character.  Any OOC comment is prefaced by that to make it clear.

 

Playing online - I don't role play.  Being restricted to text is so limiting and annoying (to me) that I just don't do it.  My characters have back stories and their backgrounds inform their choices regarding powers, costumes, mission decisions, etc.  But that's the extent of it.

[Furiant]

Late to this but I have a few.

• Obsession with/worship of trivial rules
• Unnecessary OOC bracketing
• Secret Scripts: where I have a whole scene prepared and I just need you to fill the gaps between my lines 
• Editorializing (/me wonders if she should ask about your origin)
• Puppeting (/me winks, and you can't help but wonder why)
• Personal Boundaries (/me climbs up onto your shoulder and starts braiding your hair)
• Physical Boundaries - someone 'tosses me a beer' when we're miles apart, as if the chat channel is some kind of alternate dimension lounge
• RP walking everywhere at all times regardless if it's appropriate
• Standing 300 feet back crafting a witty comment while your team dies
• Off-the-rack characters (the cockney pirate, the purrrrfect cat, the Sir Lancelot...)
• Characters that are designed to be the center of attention

 

I mean yeah, everyone does their own thing. These are just peeves that make me not want to do things with them.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Furiant

[Alchemystic]

Trying to follow RP while club bots spam the channels.

[Moka]

I echo Furiant's statement, though I don't mind 'off the racks' so much. I'd rather have a cookie cutter character to RP with than an absolutely over bloated concept.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Moka

[Furiant]

On 7/21/2020 at 4:05 PM, Ironblade said:

Not so much a 'peeve' as a decision based on the limitations of the format.

I've played pen & paper RPG's.....  yikes, since 1979.  When I'm playing an RPG in person, I role play my characters.  Almost every word is in character.  Any OOC comment is prefaced by that to make it clear.

 

Playing online - I don't role play.  Being restricted to text is so limiting and annoying (to me) that I just don't do it.  My characters have back stories and their backgrounds inform their choices regarding powers, costumes, mission decisions, etc.  But that's the extent of it.

So much. I also began LARPing prior to MMOs, early 80s. Then for many years in ICQ, then games like Everquest, I tried to apply those live mechanics to online formats, but I could never find the same groove. Avatar movement, animations, NPCs constantly shoulder checking you... everything just looks so goofy to me. I tried VOIP awhile too, but it was also clunky. Not to mention the groundhog day nature of MMO content, and absurdities that must be ignored like swimming in plate armor or a quest giver asking literally everyone who walks by to do the same task, or dungeons full of mobs just standing there in groups doing nothing. Eventually I realized I just can't make this medium immersive enough for my tastes. There's a limit to how much distraction I can filter out. Maybe I just don't have the imagination.

 

These days... I have a concept at character creation. Their costume, name, etc. all reflect that as far as I can make them, and I'll spend hours trying. I can't not do that. I'll usually write a bio of sorts. But it pretty much stops there. I like being around RP in video games, so I play on RP servers. I just don't like trying to do RP in them anymore; I find it more frustrating than rewarding. I see people RPing in games now and I think, "That's nice; they're not burnt out yet." 

Edited November 17, 2020 by Furiant

[Moka]

I suppose I started with friends outside back when I was little, but I started online roleplay when I was eleven years old on IRC chatrooms and older games. So in a way, I've grown up with this format, but I can see why it'd be limiting to a lot of people. I'm also someone who likes to elaborate on their posts a little more so when I see people just responding with /e smirks and that's it in response to a like paragraph it can be disheartening lol.

 

I should also note I'm more akin to online tabletop roleplay than I am MMO RP.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Moka

[Moka]

48 minutes ago, Krimson said:

RP Pet Peeve #1: Joining a group for comic book RP and the comic book ends up being Archie. Dating sims disguised as RP is the reason I moved most of my toons to Excelsior.

Ugh. So much this : (. 

[AerialAssault]

"This character would be alluring to everyone~"

 

Don't tell me who to be horny over, thanks. I can make that decision myself.

[Safehouse]

So I haven't really RP’d much at all, in part because I’m nervous and a bit shy about it even though I so badly want to. But I HAVE sat in Pocket D and observed a ton of RP and have gotten a strong sense of what my tastes are.

 

I think my biggest thing is: people telling their whole backstory within seconds of meeting.

 

“Nice to meet you. I’m Clark Kent. You may know me as Superman out on the streets.”

 

”I’m Bruce Wayne. *wipes away a tear* When I was a boy, my parents were murdered right in front of me. The event traumatized me, and now I’m determined to...”

 

And so on...

 

You don’t spill your entire life story when you meet somebody. That’s the sort of stuff that folks earn over time as you bind with them and become friends. It’s the same way with characters. Let that relationship grow! In Pocket D you might not even know if you’re talking to somebody of the same alignment. Have your character build a rapport with that character before you spill your guts.

 

Unless I guess part of your character’s  schtick is that they overshare.

[hyena69]

On 7/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, Pizzamurai said:

I have one REAL pet peeve. The rest is just minor stuff that I ignore. 

 

Roleplay teams. More often than not, people don't even try to come up with reasons of why these teams are forming together, or where the heroes and villains come from, or even what they're doing. It's like they're just an avenue for people to shout HAVE AT YOU while another guy goes PINK UNICORNS FOREVER, because reasons. Did you call us on all our telephone? Flyers around the streets? Like, why am I supposed to be coming to help you fight council in an office once again? And then the whole mission is just blowing through enemies like normal. No stopping and planning, or breaks, or conversations about whatever. Just task, finish task, move on to next task. 

 

Give me some STORY man. This is why I haven't joined an rp team in a long time. Feels the same as any other team, just with gloating and death messages. 

This very much. At least I make the effort to stay in character when I start up a team as "Anybody want to come along and party with the Freaks, as in trashing their hideout" (OOC info like lvl which side and zone and so on)

 

As somebody else also mentioned people insisting that you use the "Walk" power in RP-situations (We just went through a mission where the mobs watched their mates moved down one group at a time, and you say that it breaks immersion if I don't "Walk" /eyeroll)

 

People who started out early on Homecoming and have with their menagerie of alts been through ALL of the content and insist that since they been through for instance the clone factory arcs nobody else can use them as basis for storytelling

 

And as a side note a shoutout to those that do it brilliantly like Jarnac and others who have helped out some of my alts in difficult missions (Entropic Horror & Karl the Cactator). If any of you guys read this, two thumbs up. An in character reply to the call for assistance, an incharacter comment or two before mission starts, maybe another while someone rests up, and a short in-character chat post mission. I loved it 🙂, and it was enough to give me a solid feel of the other characters in the middle of the inherent chaos of a PUG

For instance

Pre-mission

 

Helpful Villain "Want all of them dead?"

Karl the Cactator "Only need the scientists, otherwise, suit yourself"

 

Post mission

Karl "Thanks for helping, let me know if you ever need a clone done"

Helpfull Villain  "Nah, I wouldn't want a clone to upstage the real me"

Karl "I understand, I'm only planning to use it for cloning my carnivourus plants"

Helpfull Villain "Why don't you just buy a greenhouse instead?"

 

I laughed out loud. Highlight of the evening 🙂

[Ironblade]

7 hours ago, Safehouse said:

You don’t spill your entire life story when you meet somebody. That’s the sort of stuff that folks earn over time as you bind with them and become friends. It’s the same way with characters. Let that relationship grow! In Pocket D you might not even know if you’re talking to somebody of the same alignment. Have your character build a rapport with that character before you spill your guts.

 

Unless I guess part of your character’s  schtick is that they overshare.

Hi!  I'm No Boundaries Man!  Let me tell you about my recent doctor visit.

[CrudeVileTerror]

Is "Overshare" available as a character name on Everlasting still?

I'm thinking  . . . Sonic Blaster?

[Safehouse]

2 hours ago, CrudeVileTerror said:

Is "Overshare" available as a character name on Everlasting still?

I'm thinking  . . . Sonic Blaster?

Question is... are we talking a hero or villain? The closest character I can think of to this concept is Flambeaux from the Shining Stars storyline and I find her alignment suspect...

[Slithershot]

2 hours ago, Krimson said:

That's why I suggested having macros set up to spew one liners in RP teams. No one is even going to notice you are using canned RP.

Spewing one liners doesn't change the fact that nobody knows or cares why they've just joined this random team though. It's like teaming The Green Lantern up with Wolverine to go save Iron Mans cat. Why? Why have they teamed up? Is Iron man best buds with Hal? Why are they working together to do this? 

 

It's really hard to care about roleplay when you don't know why you're doing something, or even worse your character doesn't fit with what's going on at all. 

 

All I ask for is a little story 😛

[Moka]

Usually people will put out an IC call to a hero communication channel for PUG teams and I think that's a decent enough excuse for people to team up. My only question is why are there so many fascists in the sewers? I suppose that is where they belong.

[America's Angel]

Settling RP conflicts in the arena is the one that bugs me the most. Especially as those who insist on it seem to have backwards-rationalised their character concepts from the strongest PVP sets.

Edited November 23, 2020 by America's Angel

[Ruin Mage]

RP conflicts solved through PVP is perhaps one of the funniest things from live. It's the worst way to solve conflict in experience, and yet it's the only surefire way unless you trust one another to not be knobs.

I say that as someone who had a Dark/Shield scrapper try to fight a Fire/Regen scrapper on live.
It did not go well, because fuck you Regeneration and extra fuck you Fire Melee.

[Moka]

I like PVP but I don't really like RP PVP much unless it's a friendly spar or two consenting parties. 

[Ruin Mage]

Big agree.