@Tarquin... and that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how you kill an RP.

Metagaming, don't do it. Otherwise you're a dick.

I think it's because people assume death = losing the game = out of said game (= no credit when mystery is solved).

I think it's because people assume death = losing the game = out of said game (= no credit when mystery is solved).

I'd hate to see them play DanganRonpa. :P

@NuttsnBolts
They'd rage quit after the first try, pfft.

Metagaming is bad. You shouldn't do it. Why do people not get that?

Also, uh... Deadpool. I like Deadpool. He's a fun character. But people either RPing as him or as character based on him (and by "based on him" I mean "randomly breaking the fourth wall because zaniness!"), uh... It gets old, unfunny and really obnoxious faster than you'd think. It's far harder to actually write him well than people tend to realize, and I think I've only seen him written well in an RP once. I've actually seen crossovers that put a blanket ban on Deadpool because of it. But hey...

I think people sometimes meta-game without realizing it, since there may be individuals who find it hard to compartmentalise knowledge.

There are also those who are steering development so that a particular objective they wanted is met. (Like solving a tribulation inserted by a GM, or crowned as a fearsome opponent in the arena.)

I don't know why I'm musing about this but I guess it makes me feel uncomfortable to slam the "u sux" gavel on all offenders of meta-gaming ..?

---

Random rant:

(About myself.) DEVIATION. Oh Lord, forgive me, former partners, when my character doesn't like yours in the end or act awkward in some many parts.

Sometimes when I sign up for a private roleplay listing for specific pairings, I create characters that were honest to goodness designed solely to be the soulmate of my partner's muse.

And then in my head, the character breathes on its own and I realise, at one point, my muse would be turned off or uninterested in their supposed "true love". So I either try to shove in an enforcement plot device to somehow make the initial plan work, or my character starts acting like Cupid hit it in the sun don't shine - painful, awkward, but mostly just painful to watch.

Either ends tragically, just in case you're not seeing the picture here. And it makes me feel like a sudden shower and flash flood when I promised the weatherman I'd be an awesome sunny day.

Random rant:

(About myself.) DEVIATION. Oh Lord, forgive me, former partners, when my character doesn't like yours in the end or act awkward in some many parts.

Sometimes when I sign up for a private roleplay listing for specific pairings, I create characters that were honest to goodness designed solely to be the soulmate of my partner's muse.

And then in my head, the character breathes on its own and I realise, at one point, my muse would be turned off or uninterested in their supposed "true love". So I either try to shove in an enforcement plot device to somehow make the initial plan work, or my character starts acting like Cupid hit it in the sun don't shine - painful, awkward, but mostly just painful to watch.

Either ends tragically, just in case you're not seeing the picture here. And it makes me feel like a sudden shower and flash flood when I promised the weatherman I'd be an awesome sunny day.

I'm a gamer, my psycho ex was a gamer too... amazing how similar interest can be what you feel should build a relationship, but many times that's not the case.

Even though a roleplay can have people playing as lovers, it doesn't always work out because how people perceive the relationship are completely different. That's why many stories that involve love seem to be a bit far fetched with scenes that would never happen. All those movies where the guy and girl are left alone after the crowd vacates the scene for no reason, the moment when they kiss and it starts raining at that exact point in time, when they lie in bed together and... (wait... do people use condoms in Smuts or is there Smut STDs everywhere... Sorry, Off-topic).

Anyways... In order to get a relationship going in an RP you probably have to break the laws of realism a bit to help with that. Purposely forget that important detail that they wouldn't forget so that they end up together, or make it so unreal that it seems real. I know I'm going to hate saying this, but Twilight is a perfect example because it's such a stupid love story that SOMEHOW works, and yet it shouldn't.

It's partly why I personally don't to romance stuff at all. I do like unreal events and characters, but playing emotions and forcing a love story between people is something that I know I can struggle in with reality, so faking it is just pointless task that will sound like teenagers constantly saying "I wuv u!"

@NuttsnBolts
Conclusion: Maybe folks like us should just pick up non-romance centric stuff for the sake of everyone. ヽ（´∀｀）ノ

Random rant:

(About myself.) DEVIATION. Oh Lord, forgive me, former partners, when my character doesn't like yours in the end or act awkward in some many parts.

Sometimes when I sign up for a private roleplay listing for specific pairings, I create characters that were honest to goodness designed solely to be the soulmate of my partner's muse.

And then in my head, the character breathes on its own and I realise, at one point, my muse would be turned off or uninterested in their supposed "true love". So I either try to shove in an enforcement plot device to somehow make the initial plan work, or my character starts acting like Cupid hit it in the sun don't shine - painful, awkward, but mostly just painful to watch.

Either ends tragically, just in case you're not seeing the picture here. And it makes me feel like a sudden shower and flash flood when I promised the weatherman I'd be an awesome sunny day.

I'm a gamer, my psycho ex was a gamer too... amazing how similar interest can be what you feel should build a relationship, but many times that's not the case.

Even though a roleplay can have people playing as lovers, it doesn't always work out because how people perceive the relationship are completely different. That's why many stories that involve love seem to be a bit far fetched with scenes that would never happen. All those movies where the guy and girl are left alone after the crowd vacates the scene for no reason, the moment when they kiss and it starts raining at that exact point in time, when they lie in bed together and... (wait... do people use condoms in Smuts or is there Smut STDs everywhere... Sorry, Off-topic).

Anyways... In order to get a relationship going in an RP you probably have to break the laws of realism a bit to help with that. Purposely forget that important detail that they wouldn't forget so that they end up together, or make it so unreal that it seems real. I know I'm going to hate saying this, but Twilight is a perfect example because it's such a stupid love story that SOMEHOW works, and yet it shouldn't.

It's partly why I personally don't to romance stuff at all. I do like unreal events and characters, but playing emotions and forcing a love story between people is something that I know I can struggle in with reality, so faking it is just pointless task that will sound like teenagers constantly saying "I wuv u!"

I've talked about the 1x1 section before in this thread, and this is one of the critical reasons I've thus far been unable to get into it.

When I'm roleplaying, I can't do romance as the main event. It's easy for it to feel awkward, off-putting, or just plain wrong even if you intended for two characters to be entangled with one another in that way. Forcing it doesn't help the issue, and you never know what it is that will make two characters click. Therefore, planning a story based solely around romance in a roleplaying setting has never been my shtick.

(Though I have been considering trying my hand a bit seriously at it in short stories. That's a different situation, though.)

And I've already said this before: it's not that I'm against the concept of romance in some way. Far from it. It's a cornerstone of our literature and our world's culture. Every civilization on earth has been fascinated with romance, much like every civilization has some intrinsic fascination with violence. But in a roleplaying setting, romance is very difficult to pull off without feeling cheap. It depends on good communication between players, on their chosen characters actually having a spark between them, on the players being able to write that spark... and to write all of this realistically, using two different authors to write the two different main characters, is just a monumental task. If you're going to include romance in a roleplay, you'd best have something else to serve as the "meat" of the story in case the romantic elements fall flat.

So, right off the bat, I find myself largely at odds with people who go into a roleplay specifically for romance. But it only gets worse when folks talk about "cravings" or use other such words, and the way some people use the word "partner" gives the word a romantic, more personal tone. But I, myself, don't want to satisfy some sort of craving, nor do I want to satisfy someone else's cravings, nor do I want to think of the people I roleplay with in any sort of romantic way. And I know: that's not what is meant when people talk about their partners. Yet that's what it always feels like to me: the awkward wording gives the impression that I'm somehow supposed to be attached to the other player in some sort of pseudo-romantic way.

(This is probably just my experience as a Wyrmrest Accord roleplayer kicking in. See, on WoW's Wyrmrest Accord server that was, in fact, one of the norms of romantic roleplay. No, seriously. People were accused of "cheating" OOC if they roleplayed with more than one person in a romantic fashion, and were otherwise expected to be somehow "devoted" to their roleplaying "partners." Yeah, it creeped me the fuck out.)

I'll cut myself short, or else I'll have made the same rant twice in the same thread. (I made it two weeks ago or so.) But my point is this: romance doesn't always click, and I don't want to be expected to be able to make it click. If someone expects that of me, I doubt they'll get what they want. The story has to have a scope and content that goes far beyond romance just in case the romantic elements fall flat. Elsewise, it may not be worth pursuing.

@Shorticus
Fine, no partners for you.

Just pardners. Yeehaw!

@Pair of HeartsI was being a bit too vague there, yeah. ^^; I mean yeah, unintentional metagaming is forgivable. That's fine, everyone makes mistakes, if you realize you did something wrong that's fine. Sometimes you have to make mistakes to learn something properly, after all.

Yeah what I meant there was people who do it intentionally, going so far as to pick out powersets which allow them to metagame in what they see as an "acceptable" way because technically their powers allow them to do so. ...Might be loosely connected to my Deadpool rant there, really, since I've seen people not only be obnoxious and annoying regarding the fourth wall breaking but using it to justify intentional metagaming. ^^;

Circlejerks, where you ever only see one side of an argument and the participants pretend it's a discussion.

Circlejerks, where you ever only see one side of an argument and the participants pretend it's a discussion.

I sometimes worry I do this. It's very easy to fall into.

To put it simply, huge real world accidents, including major environmental accidents, sometimes happen because people just confirm/reaffirm what the others around them believe. So, everyone thinks they've made smart decisions; everyone thinks their facilities are safe. And then the worst happens.

Basically, what you mentioned applies to the real world just as much as it does to roleplay, and any of us can easily fall into this trap.

(QUICK! EVERYONE AGREE WITH US SO WE GET A CIRCLEJERK GOING ON)

...Might be loosely connected to my Deadpool rant there, really, since I've seen people not only be obnoxious and annoying regarding the fourth wall breaking but using it to justify intentional metagaming. ^^;

I really wanna see an example (preferrably a made-up one because let's stay classy); in theory it sounds hilarious.

Aw man, but Circle Jerks are pretty cool. D:

@Pair of HeartsLet's see now... Not quite the apocryphal reference you wanted, unfortunately, since it's admittedly a bit hard to make up one off the top of my head but there was this one time many years ago on another forum I won't name. The character basically had the power to percieve reality as... A bunch of forum posts, basically making them completely omniscient in regards to the RP itself. Also, this character was supposed to be completely serious. Um... Yeah.

New Rant:

When your GM has a backbone, it's good - encouraged, even. When your GM has sass, it's pretty fucking demotivating.

New Rant:

When your GM has a backbone, it's good - encouraged, even. When your GM has sass, it's pretty fucking demotivating.

Then I'm the most demotivating GM of all time!

_{(Which fits my personality perfectly)}

@Mr Allen J
Would you sass a kid in your RP if they commented that your intro is too vague to understand the mechanism of your world?

@Mr Allen J
Would you sass a kid in your RP if they commented that your intro is too vague to understand the mechanism of your world?

Nope. That is a bit dickish, even for my standards.

I'd probably only sass someone because I usually make long, detailed, and thought out opening posts which has everything they need, and people still don't understand it (Probably because they didn't read it tbh).