Forums » RP Discussion » On reading RP ads throughly

I need to vent a little bit, because this is something I've noticed recently that's really begun to irritate me. This isn't limited to this site, or any specific RP I've done, but I kind of need to see if other people have encountered this.

It seems to me a lot of people do not throughly read RP ads when they are posted. There will be posts that call for realism, the replies seem good, and then once the RP starts, suddenly the other character has magic powers, or they wear a gas-mask all the time, or they were trained by ninjas, and all of that stuff is fine, and it's cool, but when you're replying to a post saying, "This is meant to be realistic" it's not cool to force in, "Oh by the way, my character is a shape shifter." At least ask beforehand, and if you really, desperately want to do fantasy, don't reply for a post that wants realism. This has happened across so many different sites, and some friends of mine irl have complained they've experienced it, too.

On a less specific note, I see posts that say things like, "Play as many, or as few, characters as you like" and there are comments like, "Is it okay if I play two characters?" Or, "This will take place in Cincinnati, Ohio" and comments asking, "Where is it taking place?"

I feel like I'm being mean by complaining about this, because I know English is not everybody's first language, and not everybody has the same level of reading comprehension, so I try to be sympathetic, but I'm part of two different RP specific sites, in addition to Tumblr and Omegle, and I see it all the time. My friends sometimes complain about it, too.

Read the postings as thoroughly as you can, guys. It's polite. The RPs we find here are almost entirely based on text. Also, if you want to do something that goes against what the post outlined (i.e. spaceships in a RP during the 1700s or magic in a realistic RP), ask first, don't just toss it in.

I'm sorry if I came across mean or hateful in this post. I'm just frustrated and needed to get this off my chest.

Yes, I call it the Stupid Hobbit Syndrome. Even if you explain it again to them in a simple fashion, they ask the ultimate futile question...'So were are we going?'

I think the worst ones are those who write that their character is creating some form of magic spell, then have the audacity to continue writing about the reactions of one of my characters being surprised at their incredible power, even after I have stated that my Dark Elves have seen magic, they are magic and they have been using flipping magic for over a thousand years, your party tricks ain't going to impress them. It clearly states in the description and rules, 'Don't write for other peoples characters.'

I then devise something so despicable in the plot, I becomes amusing to watch them squirm. I love being a GM.

It's a real headscratcher. I try to understand why they're doing it, the best I can think of while being forgiving is that they're possibly so eager to write with you that they trip over themselves trying to push out a response. Or they're nervous and would like complete clarification on a question. Yes, despite what you wrote there will be people who come out with seemingly bizarre responses and all I can guess is that, from their perspective, they're doing everything right. It's annoying but I'll bet 99% of roleplayers like that never set out to do it with the intention to annoy you on purpose.
I find this too mean-spirited and it's not going to solve the problem anyway. I'd just eject them from the game if they can't follow rules, eliminate needless potential drama.

I do apologize for my last sentence. It was suppose to be wrote in the spirit of humor. I forgot enclose it in speech marks and stick a smiley face at the end to let folk know their was no serious intention.

Legitimate concerns pandakatiefominz. I have had a few RPs where the brief is this, and the interest is shown by someone based on the brief, then in the discussion in PM all these other things come up. I have a fairly low tolerance of what I call 'divergence' in the RP planning and usually shut it down before it starts if I detect that sort of angle coming from the prospective writing partner. Of course it's worse when it comes in after the RP has started.

One thing that always got me with RP ads is the RP prompt clearly says 'PM me if interested', then someone posts in the thread 'I'm interested, send me a PM'. I may be a bit picky, but if they can't take that simple instruction and take the step to PM, I'm not going to bother PMing them.

I like to try to go into every situation with the thought that they're doing their best, and assume best intentions. When I was younger, I had very little patience for folks who couldn't comply without prompting, and I wound up in a community that was SUPER toxic about it, to the point of creating an anonymous group to grief on players and drag their names. It was incredibly demoralizing to watch various games I liked on that platform get dragged down by drama-wars, players leaving forever because someone found dirt on them and ruined them, or moderators of games stepping down.

Eventually the community sagged under the weight of its own toxicity and vented the cool players. I've learned that as easy as it is to get frustrated or develop red flags for certain kinds of behaviours, it's also important not to mindlessly let a mistake sour me to someone's whole thing. Setting boundaries and keeping an eye out for behaviour that I don't like is cool and all, but I've had to set boundaries on that to make pretendy fun-times remain a fun pastime and not one under which I feel stressed and angry.

lol. I get where you're coming from, I just wouldn't do it myself since it seems like giving them even more material to backfire on you. Being GM sounds like responsibility enough, wouldn't want to add cat herding to the list when they want to bite the hand that (t)rolls them.

I think your points are generally fair, but I also think a lot of it comes down to misunderstandings or that the player responding simply missed something. If a OP calls for a "realistic RP", then I feel like it's very up to interpretation what is realistic and what isn't. I think magic can exist in a "realistic RP", if it is set in a world where magic is part of the realism - but the knight just doesn't have a microwave og smartphone.
If I post an ad for a RP, asking people to respond in PMs, I often give them the benefit of the doubt. I often miss things in ads, especially if they're long and detailed, so I just assume that other people might do the same. I prefer to do a lot of plotting with my partners, so I can usually pretty quickly pick up on whether a partner is intentionally ignoring something or not.

Personally, I also do respond to an ad/prompt where I see a player stating that they want something in a RP that I don't want/are able to accommodate. Then I'll usually write them a PM saying something like "Hey, I saw your ad and I'm interested. I know you said that you would like X, but that's not really for me. Let me know if you'd be interested anyway.", to let them know that I did read their ad. Of course, it's usually things that are/can be minor in a RP - post length, sexual content. I never write them "Hey, I saw your ad for a sci-fi RP, but I don't do sci-fi, so can we do fantasy instead?", because I feel like that might be a tad disrespectful.

I admit that I honestly haven't had this problem, but to be fair, I haven't had any rp ads in several months due to honestly not needing to make any.

That being said, I'll admit to first skimming rp ads to see if they look like they might interest me, but if they do, I will then always thoroughly read the ad to first make sure it interests me, but also to see what the other person expects/wants from their partner(s). Now even then I probably make a mistake from time to time as I'm only human like everyone else, but I do make an effort to least try.

Simply put, it's ok to skim through rp ads, but if it does interest you, then you should take the time to read them more thoroughly to make sure it will indeed be a proper fit for you. After all, in RP, good communication is key!