[eldritch]

out of curiosity, what do you guys consider as bad roleplaying? also, since it's related, what do you guys consider good roleplaying? it could be anything from the actual person's writing style to posting habits.

like do you consider someone who averages less than 200 words a bad rper? someone who uses too many non-descriptive words? likewise, do you think anyone who lets say, averages 1k words ic a good rper?

or do you think that anyone who uses asterisks (*) to indicate action is a bad rper?

or maybe you think writing itself is good but what the rper is trying to do just too extreme? for example, say that you and member x are rping on a small town setting with a relaxed site plot free from drama then member x starts rping how their character is actually a clone from the future sent to kill your character? to you does that mark a good rper or a bad one?

ngl, I was a snobbish little shit when it came to rping when I was younger. I used to be able to average 600-700 words per post and i thought i was a skilled rper and that anyone who still rped in size 2 font and didn't blockquote their post or only averaged 200 words was bad.

but looking back on my old posts, i realize that my 600-700 word posts were shit. I mean it was all pointless inner monologue and prose meant to sound deep but with no real substance, y'know?

now i personally think that word count doesn't really matter as long as you write out enough stuff for your partner to reply to and don't make redundant, overly descriptive sentences about something no one gives a shit about. like i remember one time where 2 out of the 5 paragraphs in a post described nothing but clouds. like wtf was the point of describing those clouds?

[Deleted]

i consider a bad post one where you sit there for half an hour like " there is nothing to respond to what is this shit " ( not going to lie, I probably do this more than I should ). I also describe a bad post as one that basically rewrites everything you wrote but doesn't move forward anymore. i don't like being the only one carrying the plot kthx

[redox-kun]

ngl i didn't even know that the asterisks were a thing

[darth vader]

i consider bad writing bad rping, and good writing good rping.

this means a really short post could be good or bad, same for a long one.

i've never really thought about it that much, i just know it when i see it (like porn)

[pascaline]

I consider bad role-playing to be a number of things:

1. Bad writing. Not amateur writing but overall just bad, incomprehensible, out-of-character, out-of-sync writing and plotting. Use of purple prose is annoying and is not considered good writing in general.

2. Being a bad site member, such as not helping those in need of learning how to role play, exclaiming your character and/or writing is better, talking badly about the site behind the owner's back, trying to take over the site on the sly from the original admin, etc.

3. Bad plotting, such as someone wanting your character to do something completely out-of-character for them to do or for their character to do something to yours that you express you don't want to happen but they insist on letting happen. When you plot with someone else, your character should always be supplementary to the character you're plotting to. You should never suggest someone else's character will be supplementary to yours.

4. Being unable to accept the course of the role play. There's one thing if something is unfair, a complete other if no rules are broken but the person decides to throw a tantrum any way because of how the story turned out. For example, if you join a site where your character could die and the death is logical, you need to be accepting of that course of the story. Not throw a bitch fit, saying it's unfair, when you joined the site KNOWING this would happen. And of course, I understand if the death was perhaps not kosher, but I'm talking about fighting the death even when the death is obviously kosher.

For me, a good role player doesn't have to be an amazing writer, but they have to know how to write something interesting and are in search of their own style. They also are good with trying to plot with everyone, are willing to offer their character up that doesn't always put their character in the best light or even as the main protagonist of the site, and don't stick their nose up to people they think are beneath them in skill but rather offer to help them with their writing by role playing with them.

I also think a good role player is also someone who can roll with the tide of the story, and even find ways to know how to make a story or plot more interesting and exciting. Not everyone can do this, so anyone who can't isn't exactly a bad role player, but I do think it's definitely a mark of an excellent one.

A good role player will also strive to make realistic, interesting characters that fit with the site's world and will not try to alter the site's world just for their character.

[gimmick]

Jul 6, 2013 13:59:13 GMT -8 darth vader said:

i consider bad writing bad rping, and good writing good rping.

This.

Also, when people keep repeating the same thing over and over again either in just one post or in every reply.

And if they completely ignore (or just don't notice) something vital in your post when they reply. For example say it's a fight thread, A attacks, and then B's post is like nothing happened.

[THE LEVIATHAN]

When people are constantly forcing themselves to use really elevated language and to seem super eloquent. It's not too hard to tell when someone is actually able to use the words correctly and coherently and then when they're just throwing them in there to seem intelligent.

I don't care if you use big words or not, I just care that your stuff makes sense..

[konya]

to me, bad RP is tedious RP. Inability to plot, move a scene forward, are all pretty standard although to me the ability to create a decent character is also up there.

if you don't hold your characters accountable for their actions - bad RP
if your characters are a 12 year olds idea of cool - bad RP
if you can't separate ic and Ooc - bad RP
deciding what my character thinks of yours without interaction - bad rp
using disabilities, 'tragic past', rape etc as something that makes your character cool and not as a part of their larger personality - bad RP
also a personal pet peeve - if your characters are 'suave' or 'dashing' or anything of the like, you better be able to show it and not just say it because guess what, bad RP.

I couldn't care less how much my partner writes or what style they use, if it's readable and their characters are well thought out and engaging, it's good enough RP for me.

[Zozma]

It's not the writing. I've written with RPers whose first language isn't English (many of my Tellius RPers are native Spanish speakers/writers) and they're still very fun to write with because they're so full of ideas and interesting plots. Of course, somebody who writes indecipherable chatspeak or something is bad, but that's just bad writing in general.

For me, roleplaying comes down to the ability to actually write with your partners to tell an interesting story together. The worst RPers to me are the ones who are all about "me me me" and don't care about helping you also develop your characters. Who wants to be a part of a plot that's not even going to effect or develop your character in any way? Even small developments are good. Nothing at all bores me. Now, that's not to say I don't have fun little threads but if their whole plot is just one big happy thing, I admit, bores me.

Bad RPing to me is also when somebody does nothing to help with the plots. They just sit back and make you do all the work. It annoys me when somebody asks me for a plot and then gives nothing in return. I don't want to sit there and do all the work. If I did, I'd be writing a novel, not RPing.

And as an added peeve of my own, I really don't like what I call "backseat RPers." Those are the people who tell you what to write in your post. Don't even suggest to me what to write in my post. It's my character and my post so I'll write what I want, thanks.

[SEADRA]

i consider something bad rping when you can't keep a thread moving (as in nothing interesting happens at all ever), and just writes out everything i did just in a different way. a good rper should be able to move the thread along and keep adding interesting little tidbits along the way...nowadays, i end up bored in my threads and they never get done (or that person up and leaves the site but w/e). i haven't really finished a thread in aaaaaaages so...yeah. a good rper has that ability and passion for their character(s) that just keeps you interested -- nothing really to do with word count or anything you listed above.

[OJOUSAMA]

bad:
- when a person uses the same vocabulary over and over again
- when a person makes a character on the border of being a mary-stu but try to pass it off as some bamf but really they aren't
- when someone tries to shove their character into everyone else's face cause they think they're so cool
- when a person writes extensive description on shit i don't care about. like how the weather looks or what they're wearing. i don't need anymore than a paragraph or even a sentence or two for that
- when a person says they're going to do something to spice things up in the thread and i end up disappointed because they don't do anything
- when people say "ok" to my plot ideas rather than give input and suggestions
- when people make characters for the sake of making a character or using a specific face claim rather than making one to plot and develop
- when people make a character with a pre-determined plot with another character and that is all they are there for - one other character
- when people make their character practically like their face claim
- when people don't know what a face claim is and just grab random images from google or something and don't know how to resize an image /personal pet peeve
- when people don't know how to read the friggin rules or boards or anything at all and have to ask others in the cbox to link them and where everything is and what the answer is to everything when the information is right there

wow. i could go on and on. i'll just end it there.

[Egao, Egao Everywhere]

Jul 6, 2013 15:08:01 GMT -8 gimmick said:

Jul 6, 2013 13:59:13 GMT -8 darth vader said:

i consider bad writing bad rping, and good writing good rping.

This.

I don't think this is necessarily true, though it depends what exactly you consider is good writing. Writing is very broad. Poets are writers and if roleplayers are good poets, do you think they're good rpers too?

I've rped with people who are good and not as good in writing and they're ability to roleplay varies. Writing skill definitely comes into play but if you don't know how to utilize it properly when it comes to roleplaying, it doesn't matter because the structure of rp is different from writing.

My criteria of good rping is as follows:

Character understanding. I'm surprised no one's mentioned of this though I guess people have been more specific on what actions/behavior they think is bad roleplaying. To me, the most important skill in roleplaying is an rper's ability to understand their own character AND someone else's. It's pretty much the start of roleplaying. If you don't have a very clear idea of your character, it's likely to confuse other people, too. And if you can't give a damn about other characters besides your own, you shouldn't be rping.

Imagination & enthusiasm. You guys have mentioned a number of things under imagination so I don't need to elaborate. But laziness is often the barrier stopping the creative. If an rper has a very good imagination but lacks the enthusiasm to execute them - no point. So I believe those two should go hand-in-hand.

Patience & management. Stop getting more threads and characters in a short amount of time when you know you can't keep up. Yeah, I consider it as bad roleplaying to be eating more than what you can because of the mindset behind it. A lot of rpers take too much of the moment. Because threads don't often get posted a couple of times each day, they pass the time by occupying themselves with other rp stuffs. If you somehow can't in quality and see how amazing your current characters are, that's not a good sign.

Plot execution. It's important that you're able to somehow maintain in your head the plot discussed no matter what changes there may be in the thread. As the thread flows, the thing in your mind should as well.

No parroting/repetition. Being able to write the scene accordingly to your own words (in a FEW sentences, not a paragraph) is good rping. If there's one thing I despise is when people copy paste what I wrote and react to each of them.

Timing/dialogues. Dialogues require timing. When you just say immediately what you think your character would say, you can ruin the thread, ic or not. There are a number of ways your character can react on a certain situation, so don't make it a reason that, "oh, well, they're blunt and mean so." You need to save some of the actions on another time or else you could be repeating the same kind of behavior, losing its impact, or you could be ending the thread before it even builds up. Just the same, if you're able to manipulate your post into not having more than one conversations at a time, that's very good rping.

----

I've seen a lot of people comment about how others would badly rp with them, but I think it's also that person's obligation to try and adjust. No one's perfect. I don't think it's right to be too unforgiving of some faults others have and if possible, you should try and help. Sometimes, these people don't just really know, so a couple of tips wouldn't hurt.

Jul 6, 2013 16:02:26 GMT -8 THE LEVIATHAN said:

When people are constantly forcing themselves to use really elevated language and to seem super eloquent. It's not too hard to tell when someone is actually able to use the words correctly and coherently and then when they're just throwing them in there to seem intelligent.

I don't care if you use big words or not, I just care that your stuff makes sense..

Haha, yeah. It's annoying when the person tries to do it ooc too xD Vocabulary is important but vocab's not in how many people would know the word but in how appropriate they are for what you mean. When you see a bunch of rare words in a post, you know someone's just trying too hard. And it's really more of a nuisance when you have to look at each of them in the dictionary - really, most articles would give you context clues but this kind of person used a thesaurus so.

[spring]

wow, almost everything i was thinking of was said/listed out. i've done a couple of these things myself, but i try not to. i'm also not a native english speaker, so it bugs me when people complain about that sort of thing. i mean, i think i write good english, but i suppose that's up to the people i rp with /shrug

i also really don't like it when people 'show off' in their posts, with either their characters or their writing, because why would you write as if you're competing in a poetry contest. i rp because i want to play out interesting plots and have fun, not to stare at your fancy words (that often don't even make sense) and be intimidated. a little bit of it is fine, but if your entire post consists of purple prose i won't even make an effort when replying.

and a pet peeve of mine: when people include your own dialogue in their posts just to make them longer. idek. i don't have a problem with it, and i can reply just fine, but it just .. stirs me.

[Zozma]

Jul 6, 2013 23:58:17 GMT -8 Egao, Egao Everywhere said:

Character understanding. I'm surprised no one's mentioned of this though I guess people have been more specific on what actions/behavior they think is bad roleplaying. To me, the most important skill in roleplaying is an rper's ability to understand their own character AND someone else's. It's pretty much the start of roleplaying. If you don't have a very clear idea of your character, it's likely to confuse other people, too. And if you can't give a damn about other characters besides your own, you shouldn't be rping.

Patience & management. Stop getting more threads and characters in a short amount of time when you know you can't keep up. Yeah, I consider it as bad roleplaying to be eating more than what you can because of the mindset behind it. A lot of rpers take too much of the moment. Because threads don't often get posted a couple of times each day, they pass the time by occupying themselves with other rp stuffs. If you somehow can't in quality and see how amazing your current characters are, that's not a good sign.

Plot execution. It's important that you're able to somehow maintain in your head the plot discussed no matter what changes there may be in the thread. As the thread flows, the thing in your mind should as well.

I agree with two of the points above but not with the last.

I've written with people who clearly don't know their own character. I know one player in particular who often adjusts her character to mirror others. I don't know if it's a conscious decision or not but she does it constantly. If she senses that a character doesn't like hers or that the relationship she's trying to forge is in jeopardy, she doesn't accept it and let her character roll with it. She tries to force the thread or character to go the way she wants it to by morphing her character to be like somebody else's that has already interacted with the character, probably thinking if it worked between that character and somebody else, it will work with hers. It never does because her character's inconsistency makes them awkward and unlikable. It's not for me to tell somebody their OC is not IC, but... When you portray a character as a silent tough guy in one thread with a close friend and then have him poking and teasing somebody he barely knows in the next... It's really jarring.

As for caring about others' characters, I agree. I want to fall in love with my partners' characters. I want to love seeing their development. When I'm actively seeking out that character's threads, even when I'm not in them, I know I've got it bad. I love to love others' characters but when people pull the one-man act and it's clear they only love their own characters, yeah... It's off-putting. I don't want to RP with people who don't appreciate my characters, too. That's too one-sided and it makes me feel like I'm just an accessory to their personal fiction and not an active partner in it.

I agree with management. I don't believe you can have too many characters but that's because I don't believe in having to play every character at once. I go back and forth with mine and so do my players. But I do believe that if you're a serial thread starter but never finish anything that you need to manage your threads a lot better. I like to actually finish threads so it irks me when somebody asks me for a new thread when they're already taking a week or two to reply to the current ones. No, I don't want to start something new with you. I want you to freaking post to the threads we've already got running. If they're boring you, just say so but, to be honest, if they're constantly starting new threads and never finishing any of them, I'll probably cut down on RPing with them.

So for the part where I don't agree: I don't think the plot must go the way it was originally planned. I can't even count how many times my partners and I have planned something ahead of time but when the time came, it didn't happen as planned. Why? Because roleplay to me is very organic. If the characters wouldn't respond a certain way or the way we originally thought they would, I'm not going to force them to in order to stick to the original plan. When that happens, we discuss new ideas or we find alternate paths to the same route. I have very rarely been disappointed when plots derail because they often take unexpectedly fun turns that turn out even better than the first plan.

[Egao, Egao Everywhere]

Jul 7, 2013 3:25:12 GMT -8 Zozma said:

Jul 6, 2013 23:58:17 GMT -8 Egao, Egao Everywhere said:

Plot execution. It's important that you're able to somehow maintain in your head the plot discussed no matter what changes there may be in the thread. As the thread flows, the thing in your mind should as well.

So for the part where I don't agree: I don't think the plot must go the way it was originally planned. I can't even count how many times my partners and I have planned something ahead of time but when the time came, it didn't happen as planned. Why? Because roleplay to me is very organic. If the characters wouldn't respond a certain way or the way we originally thought they would, I'm not going to force them to in order to stick to the original plan. When that happens, we discuss new ideas or we find alternate paths to the same route. I have very rarely been disappointed when plots derail because they often take unexpectedly fun turns that turn out even better than the first plan.

Yeah, it doesn't. No sense in forcing your character to act in a way that s/he wouldn't. In the end though, you guys discuss the development again so same thing. You keep the plot in mind to guide you throughout the threading.

I mentioned about plot execution because I've always found plotting to be very useful and motivating. When people seem like they're just throwing it out of window and doesn't even make the effort to discuss it with you, I'm =/ and it's just terrible when the character is roleplayed differently from what you thought. It's like, ahhh, everything's crashing.