Forums » RP Discussion » Life and RP - Finding a good balance

I've been seeing on a lot of reddit forums comments about rp burnout, posting while having creativity issues, neglected rp's, ghosting, time management, work getting in the way of rp's, relationships, family, rp partner too busy just to name a few. There were many more but i won't mention them all.

I'm seeing more and more that the balance of rp and life is incredibly important.

I think this probably happens to everyone. Sometimes you have plenty of time to rp. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you're not feeling it. Sometimes life is just too busy and sometimes there are other things going on.

So here's my take on it. Anyone can get busy. Could be for bad reasons or could be for good ones. Anyone can have rp burnout. Any can have moments where they just cant. Maybe it's health stuff. Loss of someone important. And sometimes maybe it's something personal (private). Or maybe it's just life in general, spending more time with family, going to events, dates, trips, vacation, other hobbies etc. Any reason is valid for a bit of a rp break or just changing up how much or little you rp.

I say this because getting overwhelmed would take a way from what you enjoy. It's always important to take care of yourself. Rp as you like and how you like, but always take care of you.

You can be as open or as discrete about it as you are comfortable with when informing your rp partner (just be honest even if vague). Value privacy, give a brief vague explanation. More open? go into how much or little detail as you like. In the middle. Give a simplified version. .

Really all i'm saying is try to keep a balance and when you need time away, take the time you need. Got more time for more rp then go for it. Just always, always take care of you.

I'm curious to how others feel about balancing rp and life.

simple: take a month to write a response

....or hell, maybe even a year, if you're feeling spicy

"But Saturn," you say. "Nobody would ever wait a month, let alone a year for a response. Such words are but the mere ramblings of a madperson." And perhaps I would agree, were I not speaking from personal experience. It's entirely possible that everyone else I write with is just goddamn old as dirt like me, but RP is a less of a consistent thing and more of a "throw shit at the wall whenever you feel like it" deal. Sometimes I shoot out six posts in a week. Sometimes I take a month and a half to write just one. Sometimes I leave an RP alone for a year and a half and then pick it up out of nowhere. Who cares how long it takes. It's not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon.

Only as stressful of a hobby as you make it. Set the expectation low early and you'll never worry. (;

☝️ ☝️ ☝️ I wasn't feeling an rp all of a sudden. Not my partner's fault, the muse randomly dropped. I told them, they were totally chill about it, we proceeded to just chat and check in on one another once in awhile. two years later (aka: this year) I randomly hit them up like "hey remember that RP we paused indefinitely? do you care if I fling a post at you?" and resumed it like no big deal. I felt like I unlocked a core memory. the level of casual patience and friendliness- with no strings attached- meant a lot to me.

Something I've been high-key conscientious of this year is limiting myself. I'll tell myself I want to take on 30 RPs when in actuality I can handle 3. As much as I really want to say YES to every cool plot proposed, by limiting myself, I'm able to give those few scenes more attention. This makes my posts more fullhearted and doesn't demand too much of my time away from other hobbies

I am completely chill with my RP partners taking however long as their muse takes to reply.

I have one ongoing campaign that is actively at least daily, then I engage in another client-based method of RP that is active whenever I log-in (usually daily, work depending). RP over RPR private messages and over servers in Discord allows for flexibility in terms of inspiration and time zones. Balance is definitely possible.

Different role-plays, different expectations, energy doled out accordingly.

It's an eternal endeavor trying to keep the scales from tilting all the way one way or the other. Too far one way and real life buries you in all its seriousness and stress, leaving no time or muse to play in our RP worlds. Too far the other way and RP becomes all time-consuming and itself assumes so much of real life that we become irresponsible. I find that with me it does tend to tilt slightly one way or the other, but I endeavor to keep the scale-pointer within a certain range. If I find it tilting too far one way or the other I step back and 'recalibrate' myself.

The other side of this question-coin is sometimes I find myself with time to relax and write but end up staring at my roleplays and draw blanks as my muse has wandered off somewhere. Likewise I can find myself in the middle of my day-to-day business and I come up with thoughts of replies and such for various roleplays. The challenge is to capture these thoughts and use them when I am in front of the roleplay screen later.


Yes, I agree. My writing partners seem to be very patient with me and I extend the same courtesy to them. I really don't have a 'shelflife' on my RPs and they happen at their own speed.