Forums » RP Discussion » Is it possible to RP without being together?

I've always been confused about this idea. Say for instance if you were doing a 1x1 RP. Is it possible to have a fully fledged RP with a decent plot taking place while your character and your partner's character aren't in the same place?
An example would be if you had a character that lived in America while your partner's character was in Asia. The characters weren't in contact via phone or anything like that so they don't even know the other exists.

Would that be possible?

I don't see why not; you could even do an interesting variant on the traditional story methods. Have you ever read Dracula? A story told in the medium of letters written back and forth might be a very fun change of pace.

I would say you'd need to find a common theme to tie them together though or else the RP would quickly break down for lack of cohesion. A common event, a life situation, something to propel the story.

It's possible. I've done it before, but I have to say it really isn't a lot of fun. Roleplaying does rely on some level of interaction between two characters (otherwise you're really just writing two separate fictions). If that isn't present, it's very likely the motivation to write will dwindle for one or both sides.

If you're going to do this, it definitely has to have something like what DragonShard suggested where the characters communicate. (I'm reading the Dracula novel right now actually!) I can't really imagine a roleplay without interaction, and writing past each other probably doesn't interest a lot of people.

That said, there's nothing wrong with giving it a shot and finding a partner to play with in this fashion. My personal experiences don't necessary reflect everyone's; there might just be someone out there who'd love to do this and has fun doing it!

I actually read a comic that featured two characters that were psychically linked from birth since they were born at the same time -- but one of the characters was born in North America, and the other in Japan. I can't, for the life of me, remember what it's called, but I do remember varying things. They could only see through each other's eyes, and experience what the other experienced when they dreamt, and they both learned English/Japanese as a result without the need to really study it. When they became old enough, they started looking for each other.

Not exactly RP, sure... but the other responses already gave even my own opinion on it. I'm just throwing this up there as an example of what could be a concept.

that actually sounds really cool! i think it'd be an excellent plot hook for a rp.

I believe the comic being referred to here is Dreamless.

But, yes, it's definitely possible to RP without the characters being present in the same place! A common conceit of Livejournal roleplays, years ago, was to have some kind of journal or blog feature that linked characters together, so you'd get posts happening in the first-person and have comment threads happening between a ton of characters that could be talking from all corners of the world. My character Rhaetia got her start on one of these types of games.

This worked out beautifully, sometimes, and sometimes did not. The more successful ones usually had mechanics where characters could meet up with one another, and do more traditional third-person logging formats to capture those interactions. Often, games that had the characters too far apart from one another eventually fell victim to lack-of-plot-moving - it's harder to interact with and influence the world in meaningful ways when the characters are only communicating to each other, and anything more physical (attacks, chases, tracking down that thief, parties, etc!) that happens is occurring off-screen.

I didn't think this topic would get many responses but I'm pleased to say that I'm surprised!

I just find the concept interesting because in most 1x1 RPs, both parties seem to always do whatever they can to have their characters meet up within the first two posts and for me that tends to be a problem.
I do think that it would be good to do an RP in which both individuals display the private lives of their characters as opposed to having them in the same instance.
While I may not be the definition of an RP as it would be more comparable to a side novel, I think the concept would be intriguing. You would both be reading what the other has to say.