Roleplay Pet Peeves

[BrandX]

1 hour ago, TheOtherTed said:

Not at all!  So long as your immortal characters don't automatically assume they're the only immortals in town.

Pffft...most of them (probably 99%) don't even realize they are ageless/immortal yet.  😛

[Coyotedancer]

My Oranbegans would say they're ageless. 

Because "immortal" just... doesn't work... like, at all... when you're a spooky-ass body-snatching ghost.

 

It's tough to convincingly claim that you can't die when you're technically already deader than a proverbial door nail. 🤣

[Ironblade]

20 hours ago, TheOtherTed said:

Not at all!  So long as your immortal characters don't automatically assume they're the only immortals in town.

Yeah, but that greeting, "Greetings, mortals."  That's role-playing an asshole.  It's like someone with a 200 IQ arriving at a party and saying, "Greetings, stupid ones."  Or a multi-millionaire showing up and saying, "Howdy, poor people!"

[Arctique]

21 hours ago, Ironblade said:

 Or a multi-millionaire showing up and saying, "Howdy, poor people!"

I mean to be fair there are probably plenty of multi-millionaires out there that would greet a room full of people like that.

[TheCorvus]

On 11/17/2020 at 6:53 AM, Furiant said:

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.

This list, this one right here, this perfectly outlines why I don't RP in MMOs.

 

"You find yourself oddly attracted to.."

 

Stop right there. No I don't. Next.

 

"You can't help bu..."

 

Stop right there. Yes I can. Next.

 

"*strokes your arm*"

 

Stop right there. No you don't. Next.

 

"Yes I can. I have superspeed."

 

Stop right there. You're level 2. No you don't. Next.

 

"Well I'm gonna have superspeed."

 

Great. Let's talk then.

 

"I'm a Kryptonian."

 

No. No you're not. If you want to play as a Whateverian, a made-up race that is similar to Kryptonian, I can go with that.

 

I'm not here to say "you can't do that". What I am saying is do what you want, but if that's how you play, I won't be joining you.

[Grindingsucks]

Ah, yes.  That's what we used to call Powerposing, back during my old MUSHing days.  Quite annoying.

 

Another thing that can be quite jarring, if not quite as intrusive:  Typing out internal monologues.  I mean, I can appreciate it if it's done tongue-in-cheek, during a particularly funny moment, just for a laugh.  But those to people that do it regularly, as a form of RP... do keep in mind, unless our characters have telepathic powers, we can't read your thoughts.   🤷‍♂️

[Arctique]

I guess I should add more to the topic than a single snarky comment.

 

My biggest pet peeve in roleplay is people with the mindset of it being some sort of competition. Their character always has to be the best and they can't bear the thought of them not coming out on top of a given situation. To me, roleplay is just one big collaborative narrative (at least in the case of something like CoH), and I try to focus more on what will make for a fun and exciting story for myself and others. A lot of the time though, somebody with that more competitive mindset can really undermine that story you're trying to tell.

 

For instance, say you and your friends have an RP storyline you're building and you've established some imposing big bad waiting at the end of it. Some galactic emperor getting ready to invade Earth, or some powerful archdemon king that's causing all sorts of trouble, or maybe even some horrible lovecraftian elder god that is trying to be summoned. Some large scale threat that, within its own story at least, is nothing to sneeze at, and the people already on board with the story have agreed to treat it as such. You and said friends are talking about some recent plot development and Mr. Competitive in earshot just goes:

 

"Pfft, that emperor/archdemon/elder god would be no match for me. I eat chumps like that for breakfast."

 

Now granted, they're not part of you and your friends' story and haven't agreed to treat its antagonist as a credible threat, they're just some random bystander overhearing you talking about it. It's entirely possible the character themself is just supposed to be egotistical and make comments like that as part of their personality, which hey more power to you if it's just a character's personality flaw. The pet peeve for me is just how disrespectful to others' RP that sort of thing can be. When it's clear that it's only being said to make their own character look better than anyone else's. What it comes across as is just "your characters aren't as cool as mine". Sure you don't have to treat somebody else's RP plotline as a big deal if you're not involved in it and don't care to be involved in it, but then in that case it's best to just leave it be and let others have their fun instead of using it as some opportunity to make your character sound "badass". It always falls flat anyway.

 

Then even worse can be if somebody with that mindset does actually get involved in whatever storyline you're trying to tell. God forbid you try to roleplay some kind of climatic boss fight while Mr. Competitive is in the party. A text-fight can make it really easy to fall into that mindset of having to "win" because, well a fight is a competition right? But unless there's something like dice rolls agreed upon as a way to decide the action, I always feel it should still be treated as a purely narrative thing. Choosing actions based more on what will tell a more engaging story through the fight. Being willing to take hits and even lose the fight when it's dramatically appropriate. Mr. Competitive doesn't believe in that, and will instead use the creative freedom of a purely text based encounter to just dodge and no-sell every attack thrown their way, constantly trying to one-up everyone else's actions or just constantly putting the enemy into situations where the only way out is some god-modey ass pull of their own and nobody wants to get into that sort of back and forth.

 

Tl;dr: Roleplay is just playing pretend to tell exciting stories, it's not a competition on whose character is the best and coolest. Don't let a competitive mindset ruin somebody else's creative vision.

 

All that said though? I haven't encountered this kind of player much if at all on Everlasting. People I've met here have been in most cases super open to playing along with each other's roleplay plotlines and treating their stories with respect. This is more of a pet peeve regarding a type of player I've encountered a lot in the past back on the old servers, other MMOs, and other roleplay settings in general. Plus I don't think people who approach roleplay that way are bad people or worse roleplayers, I used to be that kind of player way back when I first started RPing. It's just when a competitive mindset towards roleplay clashes with a creative mindset that it makes me feel hairs turning grey.

[TheCorvus]

20 hours ago, Arctique said:

A text-fight can make it really easy to fall into that mindset of having to "win" because, well a fight is a competition right?

Yeah. It's hard to get good role-players that will "let" their character get defeated, or even killed, to advance the story. 

[Arctique]

1 hour ago, TheCorvus said:

Yeah. It's hard to get good role-players that will "let" their character get defeated, or even killed, to advance the story. 

Personally I never have any expectation for anyone playing along on a story to go as far as killing their character off, or at least I'd never force anyone to kill off their character for the sake of the story. If they commit to something that extreme with their characters to advance a plot I definitely respect the cajones it takes as a roleplayer to do that, but it's a decision ultimately in the hands of that character's player.

 

At the very least though, I think a good roleplayer knows to let themselves take some hits and lose some fights. Unless you're Saitama, a story where the protagonist never struggles is bound to be a boring one.

[TheCorvus]

38 minutes ago, Arctique said:

Personally I never have any expectation for anyone playing along on a story to go as far as killing their character off, or at least I'd never force anyone to kill off their character for the sake of the story. If they commit to something that extreme with their characters to advance a plot I definitely respect the cajones it takes as a roleplayer to do that, but it's a decision ultimately in the hands of that character's player.

 

At the very least though, I think a good roleplayer knows to let themselves take some hits and lose some fights. Unless you're Saitama, a story where the protagonist never struggles is bound to be a boring one.

I was running a Werewolf campaign when one of the players took me completely by surprise, sacrificing themselves to rid the planet of a Wyrm Caern. It was an amazing moment at the conclusion of a long, emotional chronicle. 

 

That's the only time in my decades of RP where one of the players made such an intentional sacrifice.

[Starforge]

1 hour ago, Arctique said:

I think a good roleplayer knows to let themselves take some hits and lose some fights.

Bingo.

[TheCorvus]

17 minutes ago, Starforge said:

Bingo.

You and Arctique are both right. A good roleplayer will take the hits or let someone else get some hits in.

 

Simply, a good roleplayer isn't selfish...much like many other roles we play in life. The good ones aren't self-absorbed.

[Arctique]

A key component is definitely always communication between the person playing DM for a big roleplay storyline and the other RPers along for the ride. If for the sake of the story being told the party needs to get defeated, I'll say something going into it like "Hey, there's going to be a boss fight with the big bad coming up but it's one where they're going to get away/be too powerful for us to beat until the party learns their weakness." At least in the circles I've roleplayed in here on Everlasting, that simple bit of communication always goes a long way in avoiding those scenarios of somebody always thinking "I gotta win".

 

Though of course, even in those situations the rule of "a good roleplayer will take hits" still should apply to whoever's DMing the event as well. Unwinnable boss fight doesn't mean that big bad needs to be invincible. Set the party up to know they're not going to win, but still let them get some good shots in on the baddy as well. Nobody likes to walk away from a roleplay feeling like they accomplished nothing, win or lose.

[Ironblade]

On 1/2/2021 at 2:22 PM, Arctique said:

I mean to be fair there are probably plenty of multi-millionaires out there that would greet a room full of people like that.

And they're not even role-playing being an asshole.  🙂

 

On 1/5/2021 at 3:20 PM, Arctique said:

My biggest pet peeve in roleplay is people with the mindset of it being some sort of competition. Their character always has to be the best and they can't bear the thought of them not coming out on top of a given situation.

I wonder if Captain Mediocre is taken.
I just logged in and checked.  It's taken.

[CrudeVileTerror]

Why settle for Captain, when you could be Admiral Mediocre!?

[Arctique]

Commander Average!
 

Lt. Middle of the Road!

 

General 5 out of 10!

[TheCorvus]

Midshipman Adequate

[Coyotedancer]

*laughing* Mr. Coyote named his Roman brute Mediocrates. 🤣

[Flashtoo]

Re "overly flirtatious during missions:"

 

If any of you ever happen to run into my Carnival of Light character, yes, I 100% concur, he should do some significant time in Horny Jail. He's supposed to be more or less the "standard slutty bard" character archetype, at least on the surface, so on my part, this is done consciously. Guy is completely devoid of shame and would wolf-whistle at Ghost Widow. I apologize in advance.

[Shuma Gorath]

Seeing someone roleplay a character of a different ethnicity or nationality when they obviously have no idea what that ethnicity or nationality is like. It's obnoxious and in some cases borderline offensive. I'm not going to name names but there's one toon in particular on the server I mainly play on that fits this to a tee. And I see them all the time. Their bio is like some poorly researched, culturally misinformed train wreck. Seriously, if you're going to convince me that you're from X country, you're going to have to do a better job than re-hashing in RP a phrase you learned from Rosetta Stone.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Shuma Gorath

[Tiger Shadow]

Me writing bios...

 

Week 1: Ugh, I hate writing Bios.

 

Week 2: Ugh, I really hate writing bios.

 

Week 3: Fine, I'll write a bio. (almost immediately hits 1023 character limit a quarter way through bio)

[Tigraine]

The other day I ran into two pet peeves in one bio, and an a third from chat, all from the same character.  First, the bio stated that the character came from the world of another MMO, and that it was from a particular culture within that world.  This 1) made no effort to adapt the character to the world and lore of CoH (which frankly doesn't take too much effort to do, so avoiding it is colossally lazy), and 2) put the onus on others to know the history and culture of another game in order to know anything about the character.

 

Second, the bio stated (within (( )) tags) that they are "100% RP" and would not respond to any (( )) messages because they "take away from the rp".  I don't appreciate dictating how others communicate, and refusing to accept OOC messages that are flagged as OOC messages is just ridiculous; if you can't handle separating those from IC conversations, that's your problem, don't put it on others by refusing to acknowledge OOC communication.  Some OOC communication is often critical to ensuring smooth and cohesive RP.  Add on top of that the hypocrisy of refusing to acknowledge communication tagged with (( )) while using (( )) tags.

On top of the bio, the character only spoke in intentionally and horrendously misspelled and barely legible chat that appeared loosely based on phonetics (with frequent mispronunciations).  Since the character was "100% RP" and wouldn't allow OOC clarifications of their chat, communication was hopeless and there was just no incentive to interact with the character.

So if I could sum up all of this as a single pet peeve:  don't make it too difficult to interact with you or your character!  A little bit of "flavor" is fine, but there is such a thing as going overboard to the point you chase people away.  If it's not worth the effort, I'll just ignore you and move on to RP with someone easier to talk to.

[Grindingsucks]

Quote

On top of the bio, the character only spoke in intentionally and horrendously misspelled and barely legible chat that appeared loosely based on phonetics (with frequent mispronunciations).  Since the character was "100% RP" and wouldn't allow OOC clarifications of their chat, communication was hopeless and there was just no incentive to interact with the character.

I'm often baffled by this tendency- that of people who identify as dedicated role players, but are unable, or unwilling, to post legible dialogue in a game that uses the written word to communicate.  I confess that this a HUGE pet peeve of mine.  If you aren't a native English speaker, that's perfectly fair.  Simply let me know (you can put a little blurb in your bio field to this effect, or just send me a tell before you initiate RP). 

 

I will bear patiently with you.

 

But, if not, is it too much to ask you to make a token effort at correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation?  I'm not perfect.  I do make typos.  But I also make an effort to communicate intelligibly, and anyone who does so should be able to make a readable emote.  It's very discombobulating if your super scientist or fearless leader talks like a poorly lettered third grader.

 

Please, JUST SAY NO to word salad.

 

Thank you very much.  😛

[TygerDarkstorm]

Been noticing some people RPing lately who emote a thought and then people respond to it.

 

For example: Player thinks that the person in front of her is cute.

Person in front: "Omg thank you!"

 

Unless you're some sort of psychic character that projects their thoughts to other people, posting what your character thinks and expecting people to respond to it is silly and makes no sense.

 

@Grindingsucks I agree with a lot of what you have said, even though there's an RPer on Everlasting that I adore, who has a mythological creature that they RP that I accept the misspelled words simply because it seems to be a feature of the way this species speaks.

 

But in general, yes, please, RPing should not be like texting or whatever. Please make an effort to speak clearly and in a way other people around you can understand. Nothing wrong with your character having quirks in the way they talk, but it should still be done in a way that people not only understand what you're saying/doing, but be able to properly react to it (see also, the above regarding RPing your thoughts).

[Tigraine]

3 hours ago, Grindingsucks said:

I'm often baffled by this tendency- that of people who identify as dedicated role players, but are unable, or unwilling, to post legible dialogue in a game that uses the written word to communicate.  I confess that this a HUGE pet peeve of mine.  If you aren't a native English speaker, that's perfectly fair.  Simply let me know (you can put a little blurb in your bio field to this effect, or just send me a tell before you initiate RP). 

 

I will bear patiently with you.

 

But, if not, is it too much to ask you to make a token effort at correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation?  I'm not perfect.  I do make typos.  But I also make an effort to communicate intelligibly, and anyone who does so should be able to make a readable emote.  It's very discombobulating if your super scientist or fearless leader talks like a poorly lettered third grader.

 

Please, JUST SAY NO to word salad.

 

Thank you very much.  😛

This "misspelling" was clearly done intentionally to mimic how the character was supposed to speak; it had nothing to do with the player being a native English speaker or not, or any other grammatical deficiencies.

Here are a few choice phrases pulled from the chat log:

Lazee humies pikun nozes
Dem sturt et !!
uu freekz er sew week !!
gu bak tuu sturt

Edited February 1, 2021 by Tigraine