If there's definitely one type of roleplayer that pisses me off more than any other it's people who show up to a roleplay. Show interest, and even go to the OOC. Then drop out without so much as a word unceremoniously. It's bullshit. It's especially disrespectful to the gm who's going to be expecting you to be in it. Like it is so god damn asinine that you can't even drop a comment, OR A PM to someone and let them know you're not interested anymore.

It's the equivalent of signing up to help a charity, it's free, and only requires you to put some effort into it...and then not coming to your shift.

Yeah, that defs sucks. Really disappointing after you get all pumped to finally put the game up and end up down a player without any explanation. Though in my experience you run into that less in smaller communities than in big ones.

But here, have I got one for you. Its one that doesn't come up to often, but sometimes you have that one player that goes full weeb, EXTRA weeb, and it's not even really fitting for the setting, they just decided, man, you know what this RPG needs, the Ultimate Nippon Steel in character form. I've seen it once in a blue moon but when it comes up, boy howdy is it something else.

@Oddsbod I dunno about your situation, but what frustrates me is that the most weeaboo of characters are usually also the ones who are designed as if they were the main character of the story.

My character's name is [insert first name of well-known anime character]. His parents were tragically killed by EvilGuy, so now he travels around with his father's soul-stealing katana to avenge them. He's also a powerful fire mage and he's destined to master all four elements and save the world from certain doom. Any girl he meets seems to fall in love with him, but he's too awkward to deal with it. Can my cosmically-important character join your much more grounded and balanced group?

I don't mind weeaboo too much, but this seems to come along with it a lot of the time.

THIS is Katana. She's got my back. I would advise not getting killed by her. Her sword traps the souls of its victims.

(The one I had to deal with recently was an old man character and presumably not really gonna get involved with anyone romantically, but he was also an ancient angel who had secretly been basically every other significant figure from Japanese mythology and history, like the father of the first emperor(?), three different legendary samurai(??), and the General of Imperial Japanese forces in the Pacific during WWII(????????). Like, a) why are you doing this the angels in this RPG are foot soldiers not ultra-deities who shape world history and b) why are you getting an angel, divine protector of humanity, involved with one of the very few sides in a war that's Actually Historically The Bad Guy Side??)

involved with one of the very few sides in a war that's Actually Historically The Bad Guy Side??)

Also the side that lost. In fact, as general, he was almost entirely responsible for said loss. So much for Mr. Super Divine Badass Senpai-San-Sama. If only I could have been there to point that out.

@Oddsbod See, it's I'm-cosmically-important syndrome. I suspect that's the true reason why weeaboos have a bad name, rather than their excessive reverence of Japanese culture. Though they might be very closely linked.

It can be summarised as tunnel vision. They see what they don't wanna see through anime and jrpgs and fail to understand that these forms of entertainment are just that... Entertainment.

This can be applied to most things as well, not just Japan. Take a look at any roleplay and someone will either have Nippon Steel, a family massacre, or some abilities that make no sense for the character. Rather than writing an engaging story they'd much rather write a self indulging experience.

(That's not to say all tropes are negative. It depends on the RP.)

I think that cliches can be done well if you're willing to have fun with them and not go down the same safe road everyone takes.

"My family was tragically killed, and their souls were infused in a katana... but that seemed kind of morbid, so I attacked bristles to the scabbard and use it as a broom now. Also I try to spread happiness, because being a total edgelord all the time makes no sense. My family is always with me. <3"

"An angel told me a prophecy. One that clearly stated I would save the world... But since it's prophecy, why bother working towards a goal that's essentially going to wind up in my lap anyway? I think I'll be lazy and procrastinate instead. Not like that angel was lying to me or anything!"

I think that cliches can be done well if you're willing to have fun with them

Fully seconded. Bad writers have nothing to do with “anime” aesthetics; bad writers are among all corners of the artform. Period.

Oh yeah, for sure. You can break any and every rule you want as long as you know why you're breaking it and do t with confidence. Even when it's played straight, the "my entire family was killed and I'm the chosen one" cliche can be done well on the hands of a good writer, though it probably comes down to, are you writing a character with this backstory, or are you writing a power fantasy with this backstory.

I probably shouldn't complain too much since this player was very open towards changing the sheet to go with whatever suggestions and critiques me and other GMs suggested with no hassle.

Then again, when I tried explaining to him why describing a character as "Well built for the Asian Arts" makes both zero sense, sound dumb, and is just unhelpful since Asia is, y'know, an enormous contienent with multiple different cultures and countries, he responds with:

"I'll focus down to one or two martial arts. Despite them being so similar in all. I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, I know the differences."

????????????????????

Roleplaying with yourself. Long paragraphs of dialog between your own characters. From start to finish having no context to the current situation.

"I'll focus down to one or two martial arts. Despite them being so similar in all. I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, I know the differences."

????????????????????

I guess they're similar compared to Scottish claymore fighting or Greek phalanx combat.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"I'll focus down to one or two martial arts. Despite them being so similar in all. I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, I know the differences."

Allow me to be a pretentious cunt for a second. I have a black belt in Tang Soo Do, the historical predecessor of Tae Kwon Do, and eh, literally all martial arts in Asia are super different. Even my own sport, which is supposed to be traditional Tae Kwon Do, has become suuuuuuuper different to Tae Kwon Do. And they're fucking related with a single generation gap. Wing Chun is incomparable to Thai boxing is incomparable to Shotokan Karate is incomparable to Indian martial arts is incomparable to pencak silat is incomparable to...

etc. You get the point. This might just be the dumbest thing I read all day.

Also how the fuck is anyone ''well built'' for Asian arts? You have to be small and nimble for most of pencak silat but that doesn't work for Shotokan Karate as much as you'd hope it would, so that's totally vague and an awkward thing to write.

Boring characters who don't change. In an rp, I get invested in the story that involves my partner's characters and mine. But... It's so hard for me to get into people who only write static characters that they have no intention of developing. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I work really hard on trying to make multi-dimensional characters that aren't perfect and have contradictions, just like normal people.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with writing static characters. But it irritates me and makes it very hard for me to stay invested in an rp if someone doesn't write chars who are going to change with their experiences.

Also, boring characters... Man. Again, I'm not saying I'm perfect but please give me something different besides 'weak looking guy who is actually strong' or the typical like, protagonist who just jumps into rescuing whatever without being scared or nervous, nope, they're just BRAVE!

Pls give me something that I will enjoy reading... Lol

Yeah, I think that ties into the whole power fantasy thing, a character won't change if they're already idealized.

So, I've never really noticed this before outside this forum, but I've seen a few character sheets where the writer notes down bra size in the middle of the standard physical description. Like, is it just me, or is that not really weird? Is it a thing in some RPGs where bra size is somehow relevant to the character's progression through the story? I dunno, I've just literally never seen it before I started up here, so it feels a bit jarring.

...bra size in the middle of the standard physical description...

Seen it before. Had a Co-GM (She was the overarching GM) and she wanted to have it in the character sheets til I questioned "why?".

If it doesn't add any important information to the world of the RP then it is not needed. The only time I can see it ever being in a roleplay is if it's a smut... and even then chances are no one will know the difference between a '36D' and the word 'busty'.

So, I've never really noticed this before outside this forum, but I've seen a few character sheets where the writer notes down bra size in the middle of the standard physical description. Like, is it just me, or is that not really weird? Is it a thing in some RPGs where bra size is somehow relevant to the character's progression through the story? I dunno, I've just literally never seen it before I started up here, so it feels a bit jarring.

I'll give you the simple answer:

titty

Also, there is a fine line between coloring your text, and creating a visual clusterfuck out of them. If your sheet/post has like more than five different clashing colors, it probably looks like a picasso painting if he wanted to eyefuck people even harder.

Man you guys get pretty crazy over here with the sheets. Back in my country, in a far off and foreign land, our character sheets are literally just Name // Age // Gender // Personality // History // Things unique to their role based on the RPG.

But then I start looking around the guild forums and you've got huge titles in special colored fonts and paragraphs in every color of the rainbow and theme music and like all the text is centered—wild times.

Also, some much longer posts. The crazy sheets can be a lot of fun to read, but I don't really like that a few places around here kinda conflate longer posts with better, more in-depth writing. Like, 90% of the time in my experience it's better to just say what you need to say, and often you need a lot less words to say it than you think you do. Sometimes you need to post, but all you really need is two well-written paragraphs, and I think when RPG communities crack down on low quality posts they can also sometimes encourage some bad writing practices. Things like padding your writing with unnecessary description to hit word counts, or thinking that writing short and to the point means you're not putting in enough effort. Like, giant posts filled with unnecessary fluff just make it really hard and a bit of a chore for players to read through and catch up on and incorporate into their own writing, especially when a lot of the stuff going on in the post is interaction between one player and an NPC they're puppeting.

Shorter posts do not equate to being quality posts, all the same.