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Roleplay Pet Peeves

Wes

Wes

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🌸 FM of Yamatai
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One of the things that annoys me a lot in the RP is when people rewrite a character's actions in their post. It basically makes everyone read the same thing twice and also jerks around the timeline in the reader's mental picture. It's okay to quote other posts, but please don't re-narrate my character's actions!

As a player, what annoyances do you come across in the roleplay?

Other stuff that annoys me are readability issues such as paragraphs that aren't spaced apart, extra spaces between the end of a sentence and the next, It's errors, or other grammar/spelling issues.
 
When I don't know the lore or environment well and I'm frightened of bumping into other people in the dark or breaking things in terms of whats established and making an idiot of myself.

It really knocks my confidence when I'm roleplaying which is why I was so insanely passive on the Sakura. I'm still coming to terms with the idea that everyone's that way until they get used to things but I still find it really uncomfortable.

To this day, it still bothers me a lot but the wiki has helped hugely. Wow. I've been around these parts that long?

I wish I roleplayed more. I spend most of my time tweaking things and playing voyeur into other people's stories. I do so much reading here its unreal. Unfortunately due to my clinically awful memory, I forget most of it pretty quickly and end up re-reading things or still have no idea what's actually going on in the SARP which further fuels my first point of this post.

I guess its like a feedback loop that makes me shy to roleplay.

tl;dr: I'm the worst part of my experience here, not you guys. You're all amazing.
 
Osaka: My advice is to go where the action is, and think of mistakes as a natural part of human learning. People learn more from them than from being right, and that's why we have OOC discussion for each RP! If you have a lore question, put it in the Your Questions Answered forum and you're practically guaranteed to get answers in less than a day or two.

:)

More pet peeves:

- Suddenly disappearing players and especially disappearing GMs.
- Posts in which I don't know where the character(s) are or which character the post is for, because they don't have names or setting info in them.
 
I really hate it when players just disappear. I've got two who just did that, even though their characters had art done for them. It has forced me to make a policy of buying art for players who have only been around SARP for 6 months or more.

I'm also really annoyed by new players who swan about like they are some kind of demi-god of role play. Not the characters, but their OOC stuff like "I have role-played for X years on Y site so I must be good! What do you mean I can't have a sniper-medic?" It's nice to know your credentials but those have no sway with me unless the player is applying for GM-hood. In case any of my players or potential players read this, none of you (so far) have caused this reaction.
 
Sigma said:
I really hate it when players just disappear. I've got two who just did that, even though their characters had art done for them. It has forced me to make a policy of buying art for players who have only been around SARP for 6 months or more.

I'm also really annoyed by new players who swan about like they are some kind of demi-god of role play. Not the characters, but their OOC stuff like "I have role-played for X years on Y site so I must be good! What do you mean I can't have a sniper-medic?" It's nice to know your credentials but those have no sway with me unless the player is applying for GM-hood. In case any of my players or potential players read this, none of you (so far) have caused this reaction.
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Seconded, early on in the ISC Phoenix I remember a time where I had to auto a good porton of a mission I had planned just for the others...
 
I find it incredibly aggravating when people just vanish as well. Lack of communication, and "I /must/ be better than you" mentalities.

Another thing I don't like is when in IRC chatrooms, there is that one person who has this "Super duper edgy and mysterious character that sits in a corner and doesn't look at anyone" and then spends a half hour complaining about how bored they are, and how no one wants to interact with them even thought they all have a partner and are doing something and frankly their character profile is empty and uninteresting. Like "History: His history is as unknown as he is" or what have you.

Yeah >.>
 
When an antagonist has plot armour, so that they can get more face time and provoke the PCs into attacking them without repercussions, despite not having a real defense to gloat from behind. This also applies when the situation is reversed, and the protagonists are able to get away with the same sort of crude villainous behavior.

Also, when the villain does have a good defense and escape plan, but the players insist on catching them right that moment anyway, derailing all the remaining plot. I guess I'd kind of like people to just relax and not push so hard to escalate conflict beyond a sustainable level in the middle (or the beginning!) of a story.
 
Navian said:
When an antagonist has plot armour, so that they can get more face time and provoke the PCs into attacking them without repercussions, despite not having a real defense to gloat from behind. This also applies when the situation is reversed, and the protagonists are able to get away with the same sort of crude villainous behavior.

Also, when the villain does have a good defense and escape plan, but the players insist on catching them right that moment anyway, derailing all the remaining plot. I guess I'd kind of like people to just relax and not push so hard to escalate conflict beyond a sustainable level in the middle (or the beginning!) of a story.
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Maintai pacing. I had a problem like this on another site. People would play villains who would wind up just turning into good guys because al the heros on the site would roflstomp them if they every tried to actually be evil. As well as how Vilains are usually the ones winning until the final battle. I used to employ a liniar system. If the PC's went somewhere that either wasn't made, make the mission to short, or what have yu, I would come up with something to get in their way, shutting down their plan. Like chasing after a villain only to be met face to face with a Elder Red Dragon and say "You can try I guess..."

Sometimes as a GM you need to totally screw your players to get things right. If the players complain that they couldn't instawin, then as a GM it should be your discretion with how to deal with the problem. After all, you are writing the story.
 
I don't really appreciate it when I see mismatched RP styles, such as when people insert wacky "comedy" stuff into otherwise serious plots. Comic relief characters and full-on campiness are both great elements when used well, but it's really jarring for me to read or keep up with in RP when it's not well executed. It sort of detracts from all the work put into our radi-cool setting, imo. Not like it's hugely prevalent, though.
 
I can't stand characters that are automatically good at whatever they do, and their character knows things they shouldn't know. Also I don't like characters that always want to fight for no reason whatsoever. I don't like the GMing style Edto mentioned where the characters are forced to follow the GM's carefully planned path or die. The GM should have multiple options in place in case the characters decide to take a different path. I think the GM's job is to make sure that the players are having fun even if it's not going according to their plan.
 
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