Forums » RP Discussion » Giving up on own RP concepts

Does anyone else struggle with this?

Whenever I come up with a new concept for a new RP, 9/10 times I find myself writing the ideas down but never posting them anywhere, and I'm not 100% sure why...

I have my shitty theories:

1) By the time I've finished writing my concept down, I don't feel the same hype about it as I did to begin with, and thus worry about whether I'll end up dropping the RP early on (if I even find a RP partner for it, that is). So, I don't bother trying, cause I'm worried I'll just lose interest in the RP itself after a short while.

2) To my own experience, when I get an idea for a RP it's broad and it more likely regards the setting and environment, rather than a specific, detailed situation that the characters find themselves in to begin with. When I find someone to RP my concepts with, I feel as though they expect ME to come up with some way to start it off and to further develop what's gonna happen. I bet it's because I'm the one proposing the concept to begin with, and they're "in for the ride". I somewhat get that mindset, and yet I don't. Whenever I see someone looking for RP and proposing ideas that I genuinely like, it's because they get me super inspired and I immediately start visioning how the characters may interact, what could take place and just lots of scenarios in general. And then I'm able to quickly get ideas of how we could start the RP off and how to keep it going. But when it comes to my own concepts, I'm unable to see where I want it to start and how it's gonna start right away. I think it may be because I have no idea about what chatacter someone else might bring to the table. And so, when I'm the one looking at other people's ideas, I mostly already know what character they will be using, cause they're usually explicit about it. But, yeah, then I also lose interest in my concept very quickly (sometimes even before I get to write down my first reply, oof). And then I feel bad for taking up someone else's time and letting them down by bailing before we could even start (:

I give up on my own roleplay concepts all the time, very few people ever actually seem interested in them.

I get exactly what you mean.
Loads of the ideas I have never get any sort of attention whatsoever on here or other sites and considering how much work I tend to put into the world/setting of the rp and the character I'll be using in it, it kinda leaves me feeling deflated and like I'm just wasting my time.
Like, last week I was thinking of an entire story and setting I'd love to try then just...didn't. Felt like it wasn't worth it I guess. So yeah, I know how you feel.
It's so much worse when someone contacts you about the rp you wanted to do and then expects you to do all the work with the story and characters while they, like you said, tag along "for the ride." When that happens, I lose interest right away too.
Sadly I don't know of anything you can do to fix this so sorry about that.

I get ya. I've come across some of your posts, and you've got a lot of flesh on them, so it's no wonder if you don't feel like it's worth it sometimes.

But, yeah, even more, it absolutely is worse when the people who claim to be interested in the RP don't seem to be bothered about engaging themselves with shaping the story at all... To be honest, I haven't experienced having no one "interested" in my RP ideas, but it's so so so difficult to actually get the right people interested, I guess. Goddamn, I get my hopes up every time.

There aren't much to do about it, I guess, other than being even more specific about my RP requirements, which I don't really want to. I'm afraid they might just end up pushing the right people away, should they think they can't be bothered with my RPs if they feel they don't meet my requirements 100%

Honestly that has to be one of my biggest turn offs in a roleplay. When a character spends like 4 paragraphs to describe how they stand in a corner not interacting with the characters, setting, plot, or anything else. People who wait for things to happen to them instead of going out and doing things in a roleplay.

It's not bad to be occasionally reactionary instead of proactive, but pure reactive roleplay is painfully boring.

It's gotten to the point where if someone spends like 5 paragraphs that say nothing, I'll just emote things like, "Ah, yes. The table is tabling, and the wall is walling."

DEFINITELY. Honestly, I think it's always straight out bad to be passive (reactionary), if it leaves no hint of action to the other rper, leaving them nowhere to pick up the rp.

do it lmao. I found way more success and consequently, happiness with RP after I started really digging my heels in on my requirements. Sure, it reduces the overall amount of people you'll get coming through your inbox, but the ones you do get are far more likely to know their booty from a hole in the ground. The more specific your ad is, the better it is in filtering out undesirables. Some people may turn their nose up at - for example - specifying you want a 500 word count average, but chances are you don't want to be writing with those people anyways because you wouldn't feel like your writing needs are being fulfilled.

It really is one of those hobbies where as you make more and more compromises, you get miserable reeaaaal quick. You stop caring because in truth, you didn't really want to do that thing - you just did it because you felt like you had no other options. I learned that the hard way by writing with literally anyone who showed up in my inbox. Sooner or later, enough was enough, and I got real stringent about who I wrote with. I'd say I turn down about 85-90% of the requests I receive these days. Sounds horrible, BUT, I would much rather have 1-2 RPs I am very content with than 7-8 that I find mediocre at best.

Unrelated tangent, but trial periods for new partners is very essential. Keeps you from going all out on coming up with ideas/concepts as you've mentioned, only to either burn out or have it go to waste because that partnership didn't work out. I do bare bones planning with new people for about a good 10-20 posts, and if I have a good feeling about it after that, then the real plotting can begin. Being better acquainted and more comfortable with the person helps keep the creative vibes rolling, too. It can be super difficult to try and plan with someone when you're in the 'awkward breaking the ice' phase of a friendship.

This is the same reason it's hard for me to reply sometimes. sometimes I personally let myself get discouraged too easily and I think a lot "It isn't right yet, I can't post it until it feels right" which then becomes stressful. And running into rp partners that don't really help add ideas in always makes it hard, its very draining. That's one reason I like to talk so much ooc, which annoys a lot of people, but it helps get an understanding of what people are looking for. I think a lot of the time, people don't contribute because they don't know what you already have planned and/or because they don't want to be rude or pushy for lack of a better word. But no, you aren't alone in that at all, hardly any of my rp ideas make it to the serface

I honestly feel people need to ask more questions and talk a lot more ooc in general. It's not uncommon for me to spend 3 days or 10 pages just talking to someone ooc before the roleplay ever starts.

It's not enough for someone to meet requirements if you're on two completely different pages.

YEAH exactly. Thats usually where I lose people lol

I've lost a few people because the roleplay didn't start, though sometimes it's just because we weren't actually able to work things out. But that's fine, sometimes you just have to accept you can't make things work with some people. But if they don't have the patience to make it work or you two don't have the ability to work things out then it's maybe for the better in a long term situation.

Especially if you can't get on the same page.

I cannot tell you how many people I had to turn away because they wanted to seduce things no sane person should ever seduce. Some of you need help.

I will shut down an rp with the other doesn't seem want to talk and contribute, I carried rp for years and I came to the idea of if I wanted to write by my self with no other input I will be a novelist not an rper. we all have lost ideas and paragraphs, opening in the past when finding rp partners. I like to be very open that I expect them to add there own ideas and concepts. I have about 4 rp partners now that we get this rather well and we talk allot about rp ooc, are we happy about it, where do we want to go, whats your ideas about this ect. Another things some one brought up that I seen as well and I some times forget to do in the rp is ask the: W.W.W.W&H who, what, where, when and how. when we ask this questions while we are ic it does open up the world and plot line.
We are going to kill the evil queen!
Why are we going to kill the evil queen? What makes her evil? and When are we doing this.. ECT

Take it from someone who is uncharitable and spiteful in his interest checks. It takes a very very long time to get the right partner if you go that route. I won't lie. You drive off alot of people, but what you need to realize is that some people *need* to be driven off. The cold fact is there is alot of chaff out there and not so much wheat. The people you'll drive off aren't worth your time and never were. It's better, in my book, to be specific and a little scary and land that partner you'll be writing for years with-even if it takes awhile-then give up and try something that'll fizzle out in a month or two.

Don't be afraid to be clear about your expectations and let people know when they're not meeting them, or when they've crossed a line. Don't compromise yourself.
Some people should be physically prevented from putting pen to a page, let me tell you.

Something I feel we aren't addressing though which seems fundamental to this post though.

Given up on your ideas. Trying to put something out there that you really want to explore and engage with and seeing people either not respect it or show no interest in it beyond maybe some surface level ideas and concepts.

I've been on this website for a few years and I can tell you. There are certainly some concepts and ideas that really take priority over other ones. If you want something without romance or smut, well you can pretty much ignore 80% of all roleplay post in the adult section. It's sad but there's really nothing we can do about people not liking our ideas.

It's upsetting but there really isn't any way to make that better, of course we can always try to appeal to other peoples taste and preferences but it can reach a point where the entire point of the original idea is missed entirely. Or maybe they just want something that breaks the fundamentals of the original idea.

It's a shame to give up on your own ideas because no one else cares for them, sometimes the only thing you can do is grab your character sheet and walk to another table with an entirely different community. No saying it'll be any better though.

fr tho. I know certain people take site loyalty waaaay too seriously and like to constantly shove the idea of "THE SITE HAS EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER NEED!!!", but the reality is that no one RP site is going to cater to everyone. Knowing your audience is critical. There's zero shame in advertising the same thing on multiple sites, or even just reserving your niche ideas for a site that you know has a way bigger audience than this one.

For example: I don't usually bother posting my niche dystopian ads here because I know that there's probably, like...two whole people who are 18+, novella writers, don't want romance, and don't want hubbabubbayouknowwhatta. I typically only post all-calls for all the genres I'm currently interested in. Anything more specific goes on my other site(s) that have a wider demographic to view it. Of course, I might get a bite or two if I keep bashing my head against the wall for several months, but that stubbornness doesn't have enough of a pay-off to justify it.

Sometimes you have to take the initiative to problem solve if things aren't working out. Einstein's definition of insanity something something doing same thing many time and expecting different outcome, you catch my drift

I have given up on roleplay ideas, many. Unlike one of my best friends and roleplay partner who can pump out roleplay ideas in his sleep, I however take time to plan and overthink.

1) Sometimes I get a idea then turns out I already made an roleplay like it.

2) There was already an roleplay like it made by someone else.

3) It sounded great in idea but not so much on paper.

I try to get roleplay ideas from the books I read or the movies/shows I watched.

Well then, thank you all for your advice 🙏 Glad to hear I'm not alone on this (sorry, haha).

Don’t feel sorry. It is normal lol

For me, it's more of an energy thing. I'm already in a couple active private RPs I struggle to maintain with my health problems. I've had 3 characters in draft mode that need refits. One of them is ready to go except that I need to replace its placeholder avatar with one I've drawn. (I don't like using Picrew or whatever, I just never find pregens that 'work', my character ideas are too specific in my head.) I can't bring myself to devote the energy to it, so it feels best to not start any new RPs right now either.

What bothers me is less RP ideas, and more, group ideas. I've got a few that I never make because I let my first one die, due to the aforementioned problems. If it were just something where I could spend a week writing lore and making some maps or whatever, then tossing it out there as though it were a finished project, I'd do it, but groups are a bit more like "service games" where you need to constantly do patches and updates to keep them active. If I had the energy for that, I'd be GMing more tabletop sessions instead of one-shots.

Plus, I'm not sure what I want is that typical around here. It's good that I can only handle a few things at a time, because that's about all I'd find even if I had a healthy person's vigor.