Forums » RP Discussion » What can kill an rp for you?

I guess for me what kills an rp is... well when the other player offers you no help at progressing the plot. I get tired of always doing all the work and I will ask for your character to contribute... but you can't think of anything. It just really drains the inspiration out of me if you can't add anything to the story.

Another one is, I put out an advertisement for RP, you say you're interested. I message you asking about your character and what you can bring to the table... and you just ignore the question all together (Its happened before.) or you just say you'll figure it out as you go. No, please show me you have some idea of things you want to happen in the timeline. Even if its small. Something about your characters past... SOMETHING. I need to know that I am not going to be carrying all of the weight.

Characters who ask to rp but then have nothing on their page.

Finally, another pet peeve I have is when I ask for paragraphs and all they can give me is three sentences. I send out an opening post that is 3 to 5 paragraphs (5+ if your character is very descriptive and I have a lot to touch on) that I put a lot of love and effort in and all I get back is a few sentences... no descriptions of what the character looks like, nothing about why they're here... nothing useful for me to learn about their character...

It just kills my mood. At least try to do these things... If someone sent me 8 paragraphs in their opening post I am going to do my darnest to match them.

see my post lengths vary depending on the person I am rpign with and how long a post they give me is, if its short I tend to have short posts and I always try for a para minimum, but i my muse gets shot it will show, but it don't happen often

Thats fine. You can't always give a big paragraph as a response if it doesn't call for it. Writer block also happens to all of us, just let me know. But... your opening post? At least describe your character at the very least lol.

that I do lol, and I add things I forget in following posts, but they will always be tiny details that really wouldn't impact the story

A lot of the things that rustle my jimmies have been said before, so I won't turn this into an echo chamber. However, there is one thing that makes me grind my teeth to dust, and that's when you and your RP partner agree on a certain system, and they ignore it after a while for some reason.

For instance, I like using dice rolls sometimes to judge the outcome of a certain event or to see if an action succeeds or goes wrong. I suppose I'm suffering from D&D addiction and can't live my life without rolls, though I don't often suggest this. However, when I do, most people seem excited over this and agree to using the system.

For a while it goes well, but as soon as the rolls are not going in their favour, some people just simply flat out refuse to use the system and pretend it was never there, automatically succeeding at everything they do. Now, I honestly don't mind if people want to disregard whatever system we agreed on. If they're not having fun with it, what's the point of continuing on? But what I absolutely hate is when people stop out of the blue and don't even feel the need to let me know, despite the fact I would gladly give it up if it's not working out.

I guess this situation boils down to a lack of communication, come to think of it. But it's one of the few things that makes me lose interest in an RP rather quickly.

Yes, I'm going on my own tangent, but I think I have a point to raise.

Roleplay Hijackers.
In simple terms, people who just waltz in and join any roleplay they feel like without permission.

Back where I came from, 3dsplaza, the roleplay hijacking was so bad that eventually the mods deemed it against the rules. Seriously, we had this user (I won't name them) that would hijack to godmod and kill people's characters. And while it's ignorable, it's annoying as all hell.

got a new one.. I hate i when two people are setting something up or trying too then that one asshole swoops in and thros his chara into the idea unannounced

I think one topic that really burns me, and HAS been burning me for a while: standing up for yourself. I make a few assertive characters who always stand up for themselves, and often times they get into a fight with a bully type character and that bully type character pulverizes them, and when my character stands up for himself and fights back, the owner of the bully character is like "Wah! Stop throwing baby fits!" This is something I have grown to hate in general about life itself: it's SO important that people don't give up their ability to be complete jerks, so when someone stands up for themselves or others, then they blame the VICTIM instead of themselves. I get enough of that online, but it really makes me NOT want to partake in an RP when it happens there.

Besides that, all the usual stuff, people have already said everything else.

People who easily get angry if you wish not to RP with their character. I don't RP with Sonic characters, because it feels awkward. If they get angry about it, they need to learn what "no" means. I seen it more on Tumblr and AniRP.

Since god modding was mentioned. People who have characters who have all these powers and say that abilities rival skill. Just because your unicorn can fart bullets and can't die doesn't mean your character is highly powerful. I feel like people who have god mod characters feel like they are rookie Rpers. I can understand if the person is new, but allot of us do learn to get better.

Simple droning and one lining when a plot goes no place can get pretty boring as well.

Not so much as what kills it, but when people over use "said". That's more of a nit pick on my end. Same goes when people go "Okay...................................."

but I agree, skills and powers don't make someone powerful because you say they do, and if you do use a 'god' character, then they should be held to the fact they can NOT involve themselves in the affairs of creatures considered below them, or give up the title god, My mains people have people that are called gods, but they are really nothing more then champions of these gods called Paragons that are gifted powers like the gods, but they are not as powerful/can kill the user if they think they can just use them willy nilly, I don't mind a character to be strong or 'powerful' BUT EVERYTHING HAS A WEAKNESS OR DRAWBACK and that is what people forget

When someone doesn't take the time in to get at least a basic understanding of my character. And I'm talking things like... basic physical attributes which are distinct/noteworthy enough to get some sort of reaction in-character or mention within the narration. It's very obvious to me when someone hasn't even glanced at my character's page prior to roleplaying with me, and extremely insulting as I always make a point to look at theirs. Of course I don't expect you to know their full backstory and it's cool if you forget something or get something wrong but at least try to pretend like you're interested?

The other is when people write their characters extremely unrealistically. In the sense of how they interact with the world and interact with other characters. For example, a character who just came from a war-torn country and has seen horrors beyond imagining, who is completely unphased by it -- and not in a dissociative way. It just doesn't effect them at all or ever come up and is merely something to throw in their backstory. Not to get too ranty here but... I'm sorry, I just... can't. Tbh that very thing is what's really taken me away from roleplaying recently.

I can understand this one to a point, but I have a few characters that are like that, but this is after a good long time after the war was over, but if you had met them right after they where a mess and was scared of people for the longest time

God characters can still be defeated. I feel like rookie Rpers want to make their character super special and not have it get killed. I can understand if the Rper was really young, but someone who is older, maybe around 17 to their 20's should know better.

Flaws makes a balanced character.

God characters could work better as NPCs.

I agree, but some people think the word god means unkillable.. but I have to bring up the godslayer class of weapons, they are out there and they can be used in an rp so god moders beware, you are in for a scare!

Poor communication. This tends to be more or less at the core of most of the problems listed on the thread, because if one person has an issue that the other is just not listening to or doesn't get (intentionally or otherwise), then you are talking to a brick wall.

A one or two-line post isn't always necessarily a roleplay killer, because in some situations anything else added to the post other than the main events and actions/lines is filler and becomes extremely annoying to read. When someone initiates a pointless event just to have something to write and make the post longer, or notes the character's surroundings for the n'th time, it may ruin the roleplay for others, because the event forces them to write out an equally pointless reaction from their own character.

While poor quantity may equal poor quality, it isn't always like that. A proper conversation between two people, for example, is mostly lines rather than paragraphs worth of meaningful actions to note. Sometimes writing little is best. Poor Q & Q ruins things, yeah, but Quality's more important and its lack is an even bigger rp killer.

This is more of a nitpick on my end.

When people's characters feel so flat and sound monotone. I dunno. It irks me to no end.

Allot of people, including myself RP as canon characters. What kills it is when people RP a canon, but role plays them insanely OOC to the point they aren't the character anymore. That really bothers me, allot. Some OOCness I can let slide.

Oh jeez... Well, to contribute at random for no reason, I'd say the big one that kills an RP for me is a complete lack of attention. You post clear detail about, hypothetically, the time of day only to have it disregarded entirely in the following post.

Poor grammar and spelling really mess me up too. I just can't hang in an RP with someone who is short-posting and still making half a dozen errors per post. A few typos here and there is fine, but it can't be constant.

well sometimes people have issues that make it hard for them to post properly, I for one know my grammar sucks ass but it is due to having my head bashed against a rock wall as a kid so I do not always use the right words.

I don't mean to come off as a grammar Nazi or anything. I make mistakes too. When it's a constant issue obviously spawned from years of using netspeak, I have a problem with it.