Forums » RP Discussion » Pet peeves - Let's rant about RP stuff we hate!

So this is a forum with a lot of different writers. We have people who are into sci-fi, fantasy, or modern RP, or gradations thereof. People who like lightning pacing, people who like writing miniature books, experienced writers, and... less... experienced writers.

Given this, we're bound to step on each other's toes once and a while, or accidentally push each other's buttons. So I figure, since the only thread I could find about this has been dead for over a year, we could take a moment here to discuss what bugs us about other writers, so that we know what to avoid. I'm new here, and although I write a lot, I'm new to RPing in general too. I'm not always sure what to expect, and I want to make sure I'm not damaging the game for other players. Other people might share the same concern. So let's rant about how much we hate it when a fellow RPer does something dumb.

So, what really pisses you off about other writers? Pick all the nits; nothing it too minor!

I actually find the super ridiculously happy characters to be annoying and boring. There is one line from a manga I read that goes like this. "Happy families are all alike, but unhappy families are all unhappy in their own different ways." I agree with this and I am actually fond of the tragic characters. It's probably partly psychological as I am not a paticulary happy person myself and see more of myself in the angst chracters, but part of it is that I just find the tragic characters to be more interesting.

Personally, most of my characters have tragic back stories, but they are all tragic in different ways.

I don't mind tragic characters so long as there is the possibility of them becoming, well, less so. Perhaps not entirely fixed but at least able to progress forwards and develop as a character. Only with long-term RP of course Nothing insta-fixed, that wouldn't be fun at all.

My pet peeves in RP tends to be fairly short. Taking IC information OOCly, or vice versa. First-person tense in an otherwise third-person RP. And crossing the line between IC and OOC, which often results in nothing but drama. Which ICly is pretty fun. OOC, not so much.

There are certainly things that bother me, but over time I've come to wonder what purpose it has to make a huge list about the things we dislike. If we just rant about them, we might feel a little relieved, but does it help anyone out? Do we make valid arguments or are we just trying to convince everyone that our way is the best?

When people are bad at grammar, have you ever asked why they're bad at it? Is there a genuine reason why they're making a lot of spelling mistakes (think second or even third language)? And most importantly, are we doing anything we can to help these people become better writers, or will we just tell everyone we hate that these people are not skilled enough?

Have we ever approached someone playing an overused theme and offered to take them under our wings and introduce them to different concepts to help broaden their experiences, or will we just complain that people RP these themes too much?

I have written my own fair share of pet peeve lists in the last decade or so and it felt good to get it off my chest, but I also noticed nothing ever changed... until I approached people with a simple message: "I noticed that you frequently _____. Would you like help with that/try something different for a change, see how that goes? "

I can't even put in words how dramatically this changed everything for me. Of course not everyone responded positively, and some people will always prefer their own themes. There will always be things that bother me, but I've realized that actively engaging these issues is much more satisfying to me than writing about them to complain.

Of course you can share your pet peeves with us, there's nothing wrong with discussing them in a nice way, but perhaps this is some interesting food for thought for you too.

I have to agree with this 100%. IC to OOCers bother the heck out of me. I really don't understand it. It's a game, it shouldn't matter so much!

Nowadays, I hate to say it, but my RP list is rather small for this reason, as people seem to like reading between lines that aren't there, so despite that I'd like to be forgiving, at the first sign of OOC trouble, I usually run for the hills.

My other pet peeves? Okay, yeah, I'm a bit elitist, I know, and I'm sorry, but, its...

People who don't read character websites, and then frequently get major details about the character wrong because of this.

I can't tell you how many times my main character has been called a bunny ICly and OOCly (IE, so and so looks at the lapine because he has long ears (he is actually a feline of demon descent...) and despite that I know its just a simple mistake because someone didn't actually bother to read the site, it makes me want to suddenly not RP with that person anymore, because I feel like I've been slighted. Maybe I'm just over-sensitive LOL.

This has happened so much that its now one of the very first correction things ON my website for people to read. The funny part? The ears don't even look even remotely lapine, at all, and I constantly refer to him as feline in all my posts... Wth people, really?

This. I also hate it when people make characters do IC actions that they would not normally do as some sort of bizarre revenge for some alteration that happened OOC. What happened to talking things out, or plain old common sense?

One of my biggest peeves are people pestering me for a response; because I roleplay on a chat-room based game, roleplays are basically done in real-time, replies are sought effective immediately after your roleplay partner(s) have posted. I am dyslexic meaning I'm easily distracted, I easily lose my muse or I occasionally just forget that it's my turn to post, likely because I've become distracted by something. It really bothers me when I see people who have it posted on their character's websites that you must absolutely "not take any more than 5 - 10 minutes to post." Sorry, but real life happens. Sometimes people wander away from their laptop, sometimes relatives show up, sometimes pets can demand your attention. Problems aren't just going stay a mile's radius away from us when we're roleplaying. I usually don't roleplay with people who try to dictate my posting speed.

Yeah... This modified list pretty much sums it all up for me quite nicely. Kudos to the original author, I couldn't agree more!!!

Ah, but that's where the distinction lies. I love a tragic hero as much as anybody. I once wrote a character whose backstory was that they were trying to atone for their past, which involved selling weapons to feed a gang war, triple homicide, and inadvertently causing their brother's violent death. But that was the point - their story was about trying to atone for that. They made progress. They changed. They came out of their shell and became nice and friendly. They weren't angsty and dark all the time.

As another example of tragedy done well, another Rper once created a character with a Batman meets Memento style revenge fix, (Maybe they're a Nolan fan) relentlessly hunting down the person who murdered their parents and disfigured them. But the character was able to recover from that and progress

On the other hand, I once Rped with a guy whose character was a super-emo brooding, overly handsome guy whose backstory, while containing a similar revenge fix, was much much darker than the one above. The problem lay in the fact that they never progressed past that. They liked playing a damaged, brooding, callous dude with no personality traits other than "sarcastic," "grumpy," and "reclusive." The type of character that never shuts up about how dark and tortured their soul is, and spouts ominous one liners like a heavily inebriated whale spouts alcohol. (Do drunk whales shoot beer out of their spout? That would be hilarious!) But god forbid they should lose control of themselves, for a moment. If the cool, angsty guy is anything less than calm and controlled at all times, he won't be cool any more. He'll just be angsty, apparently.
I think I might have exaggerated a bit when I said this thread is here to rant. Yeah, this is a place for Rpers to vent their tired frustration, but it's not like I don't make an effort to help out less experienced writers. (Although being from another country doesn't always excuse an inability to locate a shift key) I love both giving and receiving constructive criticism. I just thought this thread might be a way to make fun of these tropes, without necessarily insulting the writers responsible for them.

Hope this made me look like less of an aggressive, obnoxious whiner, without also making me look like a defensive, obnoxious whiner.

Huh Apparently, I can't resist throwing a few rants in here .

For a start, the "is from another country" and that's why it can't find the shift key annoys me. A lot . I mean, I'm from another country too, and there's no factor in that that differentiates me from other roleplayers. Sure, people might have some occasional grammar errors, but that's no reason to throw in a paragraph of nightmare inducing ortography at will. Shift key, guys! Shift key! And there's an edit button for a reason

Now seriously, taking a longer time to write things because you have another nationality? Sure. That's understandeable. But brutal grammar mistakes? There is google for a reason. Research is good for your roleplay's health.

First, a few counter-points / notes.

While I could nitpick and say that some people don't have access to Google (which isn't entirely true, but say China has some serious restrictions on what one can and cannot do on their side of the 'Net), to be honest I think a lot of people just don't think about it. Nor do they consider using Word or some other program to type stuff out on, lest a power failure or human derp cause it to disappear. It's sometimes the little things that make life un/bearable.

@Vinters: I think you mean ADHD/ADD (the latter of which has been recently phased into ADHD); dyslexia is a writing disorder characterized by inverted written letters/words or not being able to write sentences phonically correct, though it can be distracted, certainly
** has had ADHD since childhoood **

And while I agree that some may just need a guiding hand, Sanne, I've run into quite a few times where people were hostile towards any help whatsoever. Probably thought I was telling them that 'they sucked', when I certainly wasn't. And then there are those that ignore advice altogether and just go off on their own thing regardless. Sadly, as we all are people, ya can't help everyone

Now then, where's my bloody list...
I'll try to avoid repeating as much as possible, but might come out in a moment of sheer frustration.

~~ The 'Mary Sue'/'Gary Stu' has already been mentioned, so I won't get into that. It's a general hate all-around regardless.

~~ People that just stop a thread for no reason. Guys, you can jump on for five minutes and tell your RP partners that you aren't going to be available, or that you've lost interest/the will to continue/whatever. It's possible, and preferable to simply disappearing into thin air.

~~ As well, if I don't respond, don't leave me in the dark; poke me once or twice a week! I may have forgotten something was happening, or I might have been meaning to give reasons for not posting but didn't get around to it because there was a chicken in an orange neon tutu outside my window or something equally distracting. Please, annoy me a little! Just not every couple of hours, please - I have a life too y'know. Might not be much of one, but it still counts ^^

~~ I don't mind having Tragic Hero, as long as it's A) not over-done to a ridiculous degree (aka, so depressed that there's no reason for them to be around at all), and B} doesn't interfere with the story too much. In fact, some tragedy is preferable to none - it gives some motivation. Now when it's dialed up to 11.5... yeah, irritating as all hell, but there are far worse fates.

A good example of a well-done Tragic Hero would be Vash the Stampede. While he has a terrible past, has done some awful things for survival, and has a sixty-billion Double-Dollar pricetag on his head, he never lets any of that define him. He's always trying to be optimistic and upbeat, believing the best in people and the future, even when said people (some of them just normal townsfolk wanting the money to make their lives better/more bearable) are shooting at him. Heck, his defining characteristic - besides being an off-the-wall doofus - is that he never kills willingly, despite having a secret weapon in his arm that can wipe entire cities off the face of the planet in a single blow. The only times he does kill/maim/harm others is when they force him to. And boy you don't wanna make him mad. o_o

~~ Illiterate RPs. I just... no, it doesn't make sense
When your thread has been reduced to SMS language antics, it becomes not only unreadable but vastly irritating to even look at. It might as well be Kryptonite.

~~ Weak replies. Okay, this one needs some sub-catagories.
|~~~ One-sentence replies. RP threads are about building stories. How many stories have been started and finished in a single sentence? Here's a hint: none at all. Lern2paragraf pplz gawd. ** NOTE: does not apply to forum games, as that's the point **
|~~~ Repeat single-paragraph replies (with only 2~3 sentences and none that are very long) to multi-paragraph posts. I don't know how many times it happens, but its irritating. Occasionally, I understand that a single paragraph is all you need/want to put down. But doing it repeatedly - especially when the OP has been working hard to make their posts - is, for the most part, plain lazy, and borderline-disrespectful in some cases. At least crank out a five/six sentence reply, and make me or the OP'er know that their time and effort were not wasted
|~~~ On the other end of the spectrum: posts with a run-on paragraph. A paragraph is generally defined as a segment of writing made up of three to six sentences on average. Twenty sentences clumped together is not a paragraph!! Find the Enter key, and use it wisely.

~~ Some people have noted irritation at the use of ellipsis ("..."). Personally, I find them useful, but when overdone it comes off like that person/character is having an asthma attack. Especially annoying when the character should be deceased, but continues to speak >_<

~~ "Perfect" characters, even if they aren't perfect personality-wise or powers/ability-wise. I'm talking about those that have zero physical defects, no scars or scratches or deformities. It just strikes me as lazy, especially with some. If your character is a gun-totting badass, they need to be carrying some marks from fights. I don't care how fast they are or how invincible; they weren't always that way, or they shouldn't have been. Besides, chicks dig them scars, or so I've heard

~~ Out-of-nowhere character traits/shifts/change in heart/etc. GAWD, BUDDHA, and XENU is this obnoxious. The bad guy should not do an abrupt heel-face-turn for dumb reasons ("the main girl is a cutie"/"the hero talked them into it"/"someone gave them a puppy"). IT DON'T WORK THAT WAY. ARGH.

~~ I don't mind using 1st-person when everyone else is using 3rd. It's hard to do well, but when it is, it can give insight. Now, abruptly switching gears mid-thread, or even mid-post *glares at Loren* is obnoxious and tends to distract from the story. Keep your perspective consistent, even if it's not the same one as everyone else.

~~ I could go into my vast irritation with vampire/werewolf/zombie RPs, but I'm afraid of being mobbed. Besides, not worth getting worked up over - usually just plug my ears, sing out loud, and move along before I start thinking about it...

~~ OP's that refuse to change the course of the thread when it hits a brick wall. Plot convenience has its time and place; this is that time and place. When you can't think of a way around something, feel free to confer with your fellow players! It's alright to jump the rails now and again, if it means the story can continue. Sometimes, it can even save a thread!

So don't feel like you have to be a stick in the mud and stay the course just because that's how it started; as long as it makes sense, many players will be glad you thought up something to move along. And players, same applies to you; don't be afraid to poke the OP and suggest a work-around!

~~ ...On the other hand, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Jumping ship just because you want to is bad and can ruin a perfectly good relationship with your fellow players. And very annoying, unless it's the whole point (case in point, pretty much this thread).


Okay, I think that's enough ranting for now.

My biggest one is bad spelling/grammar. I don't care how many years you've RPed, or if you're brand new, if you can't spell things correctly, if you shorten words to only three letters, or if you have no idea what a period, coma or quotation marks are, then I don't want to play with you. If you've never RPed in your life, but you can spell, I'm pretty patient and I can help give tips and advice for things, but otherwise, it's a no-no.

As for characters, I don't really have any pet-peeves regarding them. I don't like playing with super stereotypical characters that are at either end of the spectrum, but it's not super important as long as you know how to use the character.

I can handle short replies, as long as its reasonable. I understand that not everything can provoke a long response, but of I just typed up a paragraph, I don't want you to reply with a sentence and a half -_-

Ignore this post.

My new pet peeve(my others are on my profile), is when people use *. Like what? This isn't text or talking to a friend. ITS ROLEPLAY AND YOU WRITE STUFF OUT! You don't use *! Its like come on. That's not a good RP, at all.

Some of these may of been already listed... oh well

~One Line replies. I can deal with them on rare occasions. Perhaps if you tell me that you couldn't think of a reply or something I can handle it just that once, but I hate having it where I sit and type paragraphs/ multi paragraphs and all I get are one liners.

~Having me narrate. I hate having partners who want me to come up with every idea and post most of what is going on. It is a team effort meaning it takes two or more to make an RP fun and entertaining and not let it go stale.

~Horrible grammar. Yes some of us aren't the greatest at spelling. -points to self- But having 60% of what you type misspelled is a little to much.... If you don't know how to spell something Google it.

~Dropping out. I hate having RPs that I am enjoying and then all of a sudden the person suddenly stops replying and doesn't even reply when I ask if everything is okay or are we continuing this? Seriously if you get bored with it just tell me...

Actually some people use * to indicate actions. I used to on other sites I used to RP on, but when I found this site I had to learn all over on how to reply correctly.

I don't have any strong RP gripes, though I am very self conscious (and guilty of, at least in mind and not yet deed) about responding to a month old inactive RP or such with but a few words.

Keep in mind there are many different ways to approach a person about these things, and in a lot of cases these approaches are phrased in such ways that the other person becomes instantly defensive. It's got less to do with the unwillingness to try harder and more with the fact that text can sound really rude or demanding. "Your grammar is bad and you need to practice" sounds pretty derogatory, like you're looking down on that person and they suck etc.. It raises hackles so badly and 99% of people will be upset and not hear what you're actually saying.

Now a sentence like "Hey! I noticed you struggle with grammar sometimes. Anything I can do to help? I'd like to help you very much!" is soooooo much better. The chances of anyone getting upset over this are pretty low. It doesn't sound derogatory at all, it doesn't imply you think they suck AND it makes a super friendly offer to help them out without making them feel pressured to do something. If people get upset with you for offering help, consider how you phrased it. It might be that you unintentionally sounded rude or overly demanding/pushy to those people.

I'd never say that offering advice is a bad thing, and I very much encourage people to do it - but it does have to be done carefully. Aside from the issue of offending people, the advice can also backfire and create an opposite problem. An art-related case I can remember was someone who was told that (as is very common, especially early on) he was drawing the heads on people too large. It resulted in him instead making really tiny heads and frequently telling others that they drew heads too big.

Moving on...

I share a lot of the irritations that have been listed, while others (especially character-specific ones) I can easily overlook so long as it's well-executed.

Mixing OOC and IC is something I've actually found frighting at times, not just annoying. The worst (irritating and, in the primary instance I've seen it, somewhat concerning) I've seen is when, in a group setting, certain people who know each other will force their characters to interact in certain ways. A lot of my problem is just generally forcing characters to do things, but it often ends up excluding other people in various ways.

Speed romance. Sure, it makes enough sense for most characters to quickly develop an attraction. But bloody hell, you don't have the earth-shattering love to end all loves after chatting for an hour, especially when a character archetype is against romance to begin with!

My worst experience has been with OP characters (which varies) and people who just keep forcing action and action and action and I don't care about your protections my action is better and nobody ever has a freaking moment to rest!

There was a time when all of those things combined. I eventually gave up and had my character killed off to get away from it.

That's totally fine! Like I said, I've done my fair share of ranting because I grew tired of things as well (and still am).

The problem is that by making fun of these tropes, people will eventually be insulted or feel upset by it if they think they're doing something wrong. Most of these people will never speak up because of a fear of being overwhelmed with poor responses, leaving no room for sensible debate. It's an almost endless pit of negativity with little to no solutions to the problems described, leaving frustrations and feelings of inadequacy in its wake. The last time we had a topic about pet peeves we dedicated 3 whole pages to all the issues that are also described in this thread, but nothing has really changed since then. So I just kind of wonder what good will come from this one, if anything at all - if nothing changes about the way people roleplay with us, we'll just have another topic like this next year. And the year after that.

Also I want everyone just to be happy and feeling awesome, not feeling frustrated and annoyed! Because happy and awesome is amazing.

@Caustic: Lol, I didn't "switch" the POV, lol. Since that particular character is a shapeshifter, he refers to his current bodies as "it" or "he", since its not really him. Sorry if that made some confusion Also, another person with ADHD! Heh. And here I thought I was the only one in RPR