Here's a question to those who dislike face claims.
If someone does happen to use the image of a popular actor/some other well-known celebrity, but they don't make a point of their character looking exactly like that and no more or less, rather just using it as a general guideline/inspiration/visual aid for a fuller verbal description, would that bother you so much?
If someone does happen to use the image of a popular actor/some other well-known celebrity, but they don't make a point of their character looking exactly like that and no more or less, rather just using it as a general guideline/inspiration/visual aid for a fuller verbal description, would that bother you so much?
Subtleknifewielder wrote:
Here's a question to those who dislike face claims.
If someone does happen to use the image of a popular actor/some other well-known celebrity, but they don't make a point of their character looking exactly like that and no more or less, rather just using it as a general guideline/inspiration/visual aid for a fuller verbal description, would that bother you so much?
If someone does happen to use the image of a popular actor/some other well-known celebrity, but they don't make a point of their character looking exactly like that and no more or less, rather just using it as a general guideline/inspiration/visual aid for a fuller verbal description, would that bother you so much?
Yes, because it's still kinda creepy to take a person's face and slap it onto your oc. Imagine how you'd feel if you were stumbling through the characters and saw your own face used for some character? Wouldn't it kinda squick you out massively?
Now, sure, celebs have to deal with this a lot (fanfiction for example) but it's still WEIRD and kinda violating. (that said, just writing in a description "He's told he looks a little bit like *insert celeb here* would work)
Better I think, to just learn how to describe using words. I mean, think of any book you've ever read, did they come with a picture at the front to show you what the characters looked like? Unless you're still reading preschooler books, no, no they do not.
Or better yet, see if you can get someone to doodle you up something or use one of the bajillion "doll creator/avatar creator" things?
I admit, I also find really vuaaaage descriptions drive me insane. I hate when you go to a page and it's like "she has blue eyes and blonde hair that is long" and then the rest of the description is just about her cute croptop and super hot jeans. Like.. does she not have a face? Does she have a nose? a mouth? a jaw? Or is she literally just two floating eyeballs and a wig?
lol.
I dunno, as an artist it irks me. Especially when someone asks you to draw their oc and you're all "okay cool, what do they look like?" and you get literally "blonde hair, blue eyes" and that's IT. How the heck do you draw that? Do you just give them all the exact same anime no nose and line mouth? hahahah.
seriously though, rp is a written format, I think it's good practice to learn how to describe a character with words. Now if you think they look a little bit like someone else, it's fine to mention that as mentioned above, like i'm fairly sure one of my guys would quite regularly people telling him he looks like Professor Snape to the point it'd start to really annoy him (lol) but that's not the same as using a photo of Alan Rickman and being all "yeah that's about right".
Does that make sense?
just my own personal take anyway.
Actually no, I wouldn't mind if they used my face, as long as I knew about it beforehand and they didn't, ya know, actually tell people it was me. Being a celeb, imo, kinda implies publically taken photos of you (at things like photoshoots at least, or images snapped from movies you are in, etc) are public domain and therefore implied consent is given.
I always include what I believe you would consider a thorough verbal description, but a picture is nice to include to give people some idea beyond just the specific details one mentions--as no matter how thorough you are (unless you go like, five full paragraphs that include the smallest details too, such as the length of their arms proportionate to their height, or the exact length of their hair, size of their nose, feet, etc), there's always going to be some ambiguity to the matter. A visual aid severely cuts down on a lot of that ambiguity, and the verbal description sums that up and fills in the bits not covered in the picture.
Basically my philosophy can be summed up with, 'A picture is worth 1000 words--but a caption still immensely helps.'
So basically, while I can understand your position, no, I don't agree that a blanket frowning on face claims is warranted. When I run an RP, at most, I'll ask people to not use the same appearance for two completely unrelated characters--I don't generally even care if the picture is a realistic/photo thing, a drawn one, animated, whatever. And in such things (at least on the RP site I come from) it's always been generally understood that the picture they use is not something they themselves own, they aren't trying to make money off it, and they are not trying to use it beyond this one specific character.
I always include what I believe you would consider a thorough verbal description, but a picture is nice to include to give people some idea beyond just the specific details one mentions--as no matter how thorough you are (unless you go like, five full paragraphs that include the smallest details too, such as the length of their arms proportionate to their height, or the exact length of their hair, size of their nose, feet, etc), there's always going to be some ambiguity to the matter. A visual aid severely cuts down on a lot of that ambiguity, and the verbal description sums that up and fills in the bits not covered in the picture.
Basically my philosophy can be summed up with, 'A picture is worth 1000 words--but a caption still immensely helps.'
So basically, while I can understand your position, no, I don't agree that a blanket frowning on face claims is warranted. When I run an RP, at most, I'll ask people to not use the same appearance for two completely unrelated characters--I don't generally even care if the picture is a realistic/photo thing, a drawn one, animated, whatever. And in such things (at least on the RP site I come from) it's always been generally understood that the picture they use is not something they themselves own, they aren't trying to make money off it, and they are not trying to use it beyond this one specific character.
Winters_Fury wrote:
- People who try to force their OC, or sometimes canon as it has happened before, into my own OC's backstory. - Oh heck yeah. This ties I think into my annoyance with people taking your world building and rejigging it without permission to fit THEIR personal story. It's rude and presumptuous. If you want character histories to be tied to one another, you need to decide that ooc. Likewise if you want to tweak a piece of established lore/world building that isn't YOURS, you need to clarify that's okay too.
- People who claim they have read my OC's bio, but havn't. - Oh man, right? I have a vampire character who for so so long people would constantly fawn over and be all "oh he's so hot" and i'd be all "have you READ his bio?" because omg, there's like 4 paragraphs describing how horrifically scarred up and totally NOT attractive this guy is! Half his dang face is melted! COME ON! What the heck?
Likewise I had this player who INSISTED upon playing a character who was a member of a species I created. I was fine with this until it became clear she'd made no effort to actually read or remember the important details of the species. She kept forgetting that they were obligate carnivores, that they were completely colourblind and dayblind and that they're true communists who drink the blood of their dead and sacrifice those who are a burden.
I dunno, maybe it was too dark or something, but yeesh, if you wanna play a species, why would you ignore most of their lore?
- People who assume outright that my male OC's are bi and or gay. - Or straight! hahahah. I actually recently added to my sheets those always/never charts and made sure to add "MxF" to "never" for the gay characters and "MxM" to the straight ones hahah.
I admit, I kinda dislike this trope that bisexuality = will sleep with anyone and that every male character played by a female MUST be gay or bi or something.
Now i'm quite happy to play with a one sided thing if you want a girl crushing on my gay character or a guy crushing on my straight guy (bwhahaha) but don't expect it to end happily ever after. Likewise, you aren't gonna magically convert my Ace characters, sorry. Now a couple aren't aromantic but even so, relationships with these people WILL be a bit of a challenge. And the ones who are asexual AND aromantic? Yeah, you aren't so amazing you'll magically change that, it's not happening. They aren't broken, they just are who they are and they don't really wanna hook up so, yeah... don't expect it.
I try to make this clear on my character bios though, but sadly you still get those people who don't read don't you?
- When I've done m/m relations, I've had to always be seme. It would be nice to once in a while be the uke. - I've noticed here there's a disproportionate number of submissive sorts in both straight and gay rp, forcing you to play dominantly in order to get any dang rp done. ESPECIALLY if you play male characters (come on, where's my dominant strong willed ladies at?) It's a shame because while I have a fair few ocs who ARE dominant sorta people, I also have several who it'd be interesting to throw up against someone with slightly more uh.. force of personality. I agree, every so often it'd be nice to be able to flip the script. Plus sometimes throwing two dominant people at one another creates an interesting power play dynamic right? Not just "bed" rps (ahem) but just in general. Sometimes it's really fun to have characters butt heads hahaha.
- When someone has something so vague for their OC's backstory - I'm not so irritated by this because i'm one of those "throw something out and rp to develop character" kinda people. I assume if there's not much info it's probably a WIP character they're trying to flesh out. But i'd expect them to tell me that before we started so I could be prepared for the slight ropiness that comes with a brand new unfleshed out idea haha. I don't mind playing against characters who are being fleshed out, sometimes it can be quite interesting but i'd expect to be forwarned of that fact.
This first one isn’t a pet peeve so much as it is something I never considered could happen until it did, and something I’d like to avoid in the future if possible. The general concern is a familiar one:
Joining an RP with a character so far removed from everyone else that they are impossible to interact with.
I’ve seen the small-scale version of this before: a player has their character enter the story across the city from where the action is happening, or puts them outside of the tavern where nobody can see them, or has them so inside their own head that they don’t acknowledge the other characters. But I never considered the opposite end of the scale: a character so large we shouldn’t be able to percieve each other, different enough that we can’t communicate, and out in the vacuum of space while we are ensconced in a space station. Inaccessible in, like, every way.
I wasn’t irritated or upset that such a character entered the game, but I was confused about the logistics and worried for the player. We had to focus the RP after that on moving our characters to a spot where they could try to communicate, and since we were playing in rounds and there were several peeps to wrangle, there were several turns where the player could only have their character move a little, or focus on us, or wonder something.
Ultimately, I don’t think a situation like this is unworkable... but I think there has to be a lot of discussion! It can’t be a surprise for other players, and you should probably have a plan with regards to how to eventually mush the characters into the same scene, haha.
Now, for something that is my pet peeve? When other players don’t read your post and it’s obvious based on the way they respond to you.
It feels bad enough when you can tell they didn’t read a profile because they don’t seem to know anything about your character... but it’s a really special kind of disappointing when you take the time to acknowledge to what they’ve said or done, being careful to include details about their actions and to leave clear avenues of response, and instead of seeming to read it at all they decide your character actually did something different and they respond to this assumption instead.
I’m the kind of person who agonizes a little about the balance of details in my responses. I’m nervous by nature and I don’t want to accidentally have railroaded someone or to make them feel like I’m not interested in what they’re doing. So it’s just kinda hurtful to feel like your RP partner isn’t even paying attention to you, haha!
Honestly, though, I’ve been really lucky. The people I’ve met in the past year have been wonderful, thoughtful, creative people who want to tell stories together as much as I do. I almost never run into problems like this anymore and it’s kind of heartwarming, if I’m being honest. Communication has really made all the difference!
Joining an RP with a character so far removed from everyone else that they are impossible to interact with.
I’ve seen the small-scale version of this before: a player has their character enter the story across the city from where the action is happening, or puts them outside of the tavern where nobody can see them, or has them so inside their own head that they don’t acknowledge the other characters. But I never considered the opposite end of the scale: a character so large we shouldn’t be able to percieve each other, different enough that we can’t communicate, and out in the vacuum of space while we are ensconced in a space station. Inaccessible in, like, every way.
I wasn’t irritated or upset that such a character entered the game, but I was confused about the logistics and worried for the player. We had to focus the RP after that on moving our characters to a spot where they could try to communicate, and since we were playing in rounds and there were several peeps to wrangle, there were several turns where the player could only have their character move a little, or focus on us, or wonder something.
Ultimately, I don’t think a situation like this is unworkable... but I think there has to be a lot of discussion! It can’t be a surprise for other players, and you should probably have a plan with regards to how to eventually mush the characters into the same scene, haha.
Now, for something that is my pet peeve? When other players don’t read your post and it’s obvious based on the way they respond to you.
It feels bad enough when you can tell they didn’t read a profile because they don’t seem to know anything about your character... but it’s a really special kind of disappointing when you take the time to acknowledge to what they’ve said or done, being careful to include details about their actions and to leave clear avenues of response, and instead of seeming to read it at all they decide your character actually did something different and they respond to this assumption instead.
I’m the kind of person who agonizes a little about the balance of details in my responses. I’m nervous by nature and I don’t want to accidentally have railroaded someone or to make them feel like I’m not interested in what they’re doing. So it’s just kinda hurtful to feel like your RP partner isn’t even paying attention to you, haha!
Honestly, though, I’ve been really lucky. The people I’ve met in the past year have been wonderful, thoughtful, creative people who want to tell stories together as much as I do. I almost never run into problems like this anymore and it’s kind of heartwarming, if I’m being honest. Communication has really made all the difference!
MainlyPango wrote:
Joining an RP with a character so far removed from everyone else that they are impossible to interact with.
I’ve seen the small-scale version of this before: a player has their character enter the story across the city from where the action is happening, or puts them outside of the tavern where nobody can see them, or has them so inside their own head that they don’t acknowledge the other characters. But I never considered the opposite end of the scale: a character so large we shouldn’t be able to percieve each other, different enough that we can’t communicate, and out in the vacuum of space while we are ensconced in a space station. Inaccessible in, like, every way.
I wasn’t irritated or upset that such a character entered the game, but I was confused about the logistics and worried for the player. We had to focus the RP after that on moving our characters to a spot where they could try to communicate, and since we were playing in rounds and there were several peeps to wrangle, there were several turns where the player could only have their character move a little, or focus on us, or wonder something.
Ultimately, I don’t think a situation like this is unworkable... but I think there has to be a lot of discussion! It can’t be a surprise for other players, and you should probably have a plan with regards to how to eventually mush the characters into the same scene, haha.
Now, for something that is my pet peeve? When other players don’t read your post and it’s obvious based on the way they respond to you.
It feels bad enough when you can tell they didn’t read a profile because they don’t seem to know anything about your character... but it’s a really special kind of disappointing when you take the time to acknowledge to what they’ve said or done, being careful to include details about their actions and to leave clear avenues of response, and instead of seeming to read it at all they decide your character actually did something different and they respond to this assumption instead.
I’m the kind of person who agonizes a little about the balance of details in my responses. I’m nervous by nature and I don’t want to accidentally have railroaded someone or to make them feel like I’m not interested in what they’re doing. So it’s just kinda hurtful to feel like your RP partner isn’t even paying attention to you, haha!
Honestly, though, I’ve been really lucky. The people I’ve met in the past year have been wonderful, thoughtful, creative people who want to tell stories together as much as I do. I almost never run into problems like this anymore and it’s kind of heartwarming, if I’m being honest. Communication has really made all the difference!
I’ve seen the small-scale version of this before: a player has their character enter the story across the city from where the action is happening, or puts them outside of the tavern where nobody can see them, or has them so inside their own head that they don’t acknowledge the other characters. But I never considered the opposite end of the scale: a character so large we shouldn’t be able to percieve each other, different enough that we can’t communicate, and out in the vacuum of space while we are ensconced in a space station. Inaccessible in, like, every way.
I wasn’t irritated or upset that such a character entered the game, but I was confused about the logistics and worried for the player. We had to focus the RP after that on moving our characters to a spot where they could try to communicate, and since we were playing in rounds and there were several peeps to wrangle, there were several turns where the player could only have their character move a little, or focus on us, or wonder something.
Ultimately, I don’t think a situation like this is unworkable... but I think there has to be a lot of discussion! It can’t be a surprise for other players, and you should probably have a plan with regards to how to eventually mush the characters into the same scene, haha.
Now, for something that is my pet peeve? When other players don’t read your post and it’s obvious based on the way they respond to you.
It feels bad enough when you can tell they didn’t read a profile because they don’t seem to know anything about your character... but it’s a really special kind of disappointing when you take the time to acknowledge to what they’ve said or done, being careful to include details about their actions and to leave clear avenues of response, and instead of seeming to read it at all they decide your character actually did something different and they respond to this assumption instead.
I’m the kind of person who agonizes a little about the balance of details in my responses. I’m nervous by nature and I don’t want to accidentally have railroaded someone or to make them feel like I’m not interested in what they’re doing. So it’s just kinda hurtful to feel like your RP partner isn’t even paying attention to you, haha!
Honestly, though, I’ve been really lucky. The people I’ve met in the past year have been wonderful, thoughtful, creative people who want to tell stories together as much as I do. I almost never run into problems like this anymore and it’s kind of heartwarming, if I’m being honest. Communication has really made all the difference!
As for the second one, I'm in the same boat as you, all too often worrying about railroading a person or plot, especially if I am playing a character meant to be powerful so I can help drive the plot (this one usually because I am playing a villain or at least an antagonist). When I put that kind of thought and detail on it, I'd like for the writer, if not the character, to acknowledge some of that and not just outright contradict any of it because they didn't read it.
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