So I've decided to bring this thread back and move it to the 'Off-Topic Discussion' forum where it seemed more appropriate. Less like spam and more like mini discussions.

For those who haven't played before:

Answer the above question and then ask your own.
Alternatively, after you answer the question, you can then pass that question to the next person with "sq" (same question).

As this is 'off-topic' the questions do not need to be related to roleplay and can be about anything so be creative or if you're really curious about something, ask it here and maybe we can help.

I'll go first.

What was your longest roleplay dryspell?

About 2 years. I had been role playing on a private forum, largely with close friends and a sibling here and there. Without getting into specifics, things gradually became toxic and not fun as they use to be. It turned me off to the hobby for a long time. I didn't really get back into it before coming here and trying it again with a bunch of new people. Sometimes doing the same old thing with new faces is enough to resurrect your interest in something.

If you could own any animal as a pet, what would it be and why?

About 2 years. I had been role playing on a private forum, largely with close friends and a sibling here and there. Without getting into specifics, things gradually became toxic and not fun as they use to be. It turned me off to the hobby for a long time. I didn't really get back into it before coming here and trying it again with a bunch of new people. Sometimes doing the same old thing with new faces is enough to resurrect your interest in something.

If you could own any animal as a pet, what would it be and why?

Honestly, if I could own any animal as a pet it'd have to be a small bird of some sorts, something interactive and active to work with. I like animals that are fun to hang around and ones that can form a bond between, though that could really be anything. Plus an avian is one of the few things I've never owned.

What are new writing genres you want to work towards or experiment with, once you get the chance?

Horror honestly. And I've had the chance, probably could experiment right now but just haven't taken it. Horror is the one genre that interests me the most but I have zero experience writing and very little reading. I do aspire one day to be able to write horror well enough to maybe run a horror themed rp.

Maybe. Also have to work on GMing more.

What is your favorite drink? Can be alcoholic.

What is your favorite drink? Can be alcoholic.

Iced tea, hands down. A super American thing, apparently? A very sweet, cold iced tea is just the best in my opinion. Emphasis on sweet. I don't generally enjoy "tea" in general, a sin to certain people I know, but a sweet fruity tea on ice is very nice~

What's something from your past some might consider embarrassing but you have fond memories of, or are proud of? A project or art piece maybe? Or an awkward first meeting with a friend, something like that?

@Yankee So this is kind of long. I'm so sorry.

Around high school I met this girl, who we'll call Jessica, at a party who I thought was incredibly attractive. I had a type and she was pretty much it. As luck would have it, we ended up playing a game with everyone there and I was randomly placed next to her. I forget the game. Something about being made to do a specific activity with one of the people to my left or right but the game itself wasn't actually important. You might ask why given the context but the party was being held in a Christian home.

During the game, we chatted each other up and it was just too good a thing. Down to Earth. First thing she said to me was "I'm so sorry you have to sit next to me and stare at the hole in my sock." to which she fingered it so I could definitely tell there was a hole there.

We end up connecting over myspace. Chatting each other up a bit but, despite my interest, I never try and pursue anything so nothing serious happens.

Winter Formal is approaching and I forget how I get here but by chance I'm at this place where people are practicing for a dance and all of a sudden, she's there, on stage, dancing. I recognize her immediately even though she's dyed her hair with reddish highlights or something. I don't know the exact color or style. Anyways, in my excitement, I turn to my younger brother who's sitting next to me and blurt out "Hey! You see the cute girl with the red hair? I know her!" Now it's not loud enough for Jessica to hear but it's loud enough for a lady I don't know to pick up and she immediately turns to look at me. I see this out of the corner of my eye but dismiss it as surprising her by talking a little too loud.

Also my mom picks it up.

She asks me later to invite her to the dance and I tell her "No. I'll wait."

So she does what any loving and caring mother would do and disregards my need to work up the courage to do something properly... and asks for me. I remember watching in curiosity as she walked over to the woman who I noticed earlier, watched them talk for a minute and then watched in horror as that woman TURNED TO ME before walking over to her DAUGHTER.

Then I hear: "LIKE A DATE?!" And that wasn't the sound of joyful surprise. She said that out of morbid fear. So I run away to die somewhere.

Later, I'm told that I was extended an invitation to their house and so I end up going over and meeting some of her family. Afterwards, Jessica pulls me to the side, hands me a Hershey's bar and says "You could have just asked me. I would have said yes."

Fast forward to the dance. I can't drive yet so I'm in the back seat with her and we're talking about all the things we share and don't share. She's asking me how I beat Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts. I'm asking her what comic con is like... and freaking the fuck out cause I forgot the dance tickets... and also because I know she dances with a group of other dancers and sometimes I forget how to walk around her.
We spend the rest of the night doing the dances our PE Class taught us our Freshman* year and bumping into each other a couple times. It was by far the best dance of my life.

_{*Kind of important because it's interestingly coincidental but my PE class my Freshman year taught us the Salsa and Square Dancing, etc. I left the school my Sophomore year to go to another and that same year I left, she arrived as a Freshman and learned the same dances.}

---

Story time over. Reading over your question again, I think that fits the criteria. It certainly reads as embarrassing but what came of it was definitely fond.

What's your strangest fear?

Strangest fear? Well I think out of all the fears one could have but this would be personal for me but big dogs is one of the strangest fears I feel outside of the lot. I know dogs are supposed to be man's best friend and all, but those of that size i really question the intention of and one bad childhood experience with one from my older cousin kinda sealed the fear into me.

What is your favorite attire that you can wear almost daily?

Tennis shoes, jeans (or sweats, can't be arsed cuz corona), t-shirt, and a jacket/hoodie. Been repping this style since middle school.

Since someone mentioned tea earlier, what's your favorite tea? If you don't have one (or don't drink tea), I guess you can change it up with coffee or whatever.

I only drink unsweet tea. Did like trying a mocha tho, even if it gave me the shakes.

SO! Got any characters you wanna try again with too?

Nah fam, not really. I usually get my character ideas from reading OOC posts and then decide what to make from there. I've had nothing but bad luck when it comes to making a character I want to play and trying to shoehorn them into an RP. unless I make extensive changes, which often alters the character so much they don't even feel the same to me. Having said that, there are arch types that I would like to try again. I also wouldn't mind breathing life into some of my older, never-before-rped characters. I've also wanted to continue the story of a character. But to hit the reset button or do a comic book style reboot? Nothing of the sort.

How about you, poster below me? Do you have characters you want to try again with?

(sq)

Plenty of them. For basically the exact same reason as what was posted above. Having almost nothing but bad luck when it comes to the character creation process eating up so much of my time, only to then scarcely use the character sheet in any meaningful way. It's so much wasted potential. Using and randomly modifying the same character for someone else's world or RP? That would feel a little cheap and artificial to me. But then again, I've thought of retooling my failed group endeavors into solo stories countless times. In fact, I've nearly made a campaign and written an entire RP itself to fulfill that dream of giving good creations of mine their due. Perhaps, one day that will be realized...

So, to give someone a meaty question worth answering. How's about we continue down the roleplaying avenue...

Have you ever had a single in-game moment that completely changed an RP that you were apart of? Whether it was something that heightened it to greatness, or ruined it all. If so, what happened and why was it so impactful?

Yeah.

Our GM got sick. Very sick. The sickness apparently was cancer and in the thick of it all, one of our closest friends and GM of many years never came back. I still think of his passing every year. We carried on the best we could, but eventually it changed how a lot of us involved looked at a particular genre. In this case, it was a franchise, or at least in terms of role-playing it. It was a pretty basic Knights of the Old Republc-style Star Wars plot and we weren’t all the greatest writers… but it put us off from role-playing Star Wars for many years. For me in particular it wasn’t until a few years ago where I was “ready” to move past it.

I can’t imagine anything more impactful than that. At least, not negatively.

To move things along, here's my question: What genre or fandom has interested you but you personally haven't had much luck in role-playing particularly? You could not know how to GM it personally or you just haven't had the luck in finding a GM for it that fits your needs.

Yeah.

Our GM got sick. Very sick. The sickness apparently was cancer and in the thick of it all, one of our closest friends and GM of many years never came back. I still think of his passing every year. We carried on the best we could, but eventually it changed how a lot of us involved looked at a particular genre. In this case, it was a franchise, or at least in terms of role-playing it. It was a pretty basic Knights of the Old Republc-style Star Wars plot and we weren’t all the greatest writers… but it put us off from role-playing Star Wars for many years. For me in particular it wasn’t until a few years ago where I was “ready” to move past it.

I can’t imagine anything more impactful than that. At least, not negatively.

To move things along, here's my question: What genre or fandom has interested you but you personally haven't had much luck in role-playing particularly? You could not know how to GM it personally or you just haven't had the luck in finding a GM for it that fits your needs.

Definitely high fantasy (Sci-fi being a close second). I probably haven't been able to get neck-deep into it because a part of me feels a tad...out of place when trying to write it. I'll read a bunch of novels within those genres but I can't necessarily write it, which amounts to not having any luck with them.

For the person below me, in relation to the question above, what is a fandom or genre you'd like to try your hand at again and why?

In terms of fandom, well, there's not really much to try my luck again with perse, since there's barely any fandom-based stuff on here. (Not that that's a bad thing!) I have thought of doing something Hazbin Hotel based, or a mix of SCP/Lobotomy Corporation. Or Hollow Knight even.

Though for a more concrete answer...probably Steven Universe or Homestuck.

...What?

Anyways, favorite tv show(s)?

Gun to my head I'd say my favorite tv show is LOST, but not strictly for the show itself. While I love the show (most of it, anyway) what really elevated it for me was the weekly discussions with friends and co-workers and fellow forum posters as the show was airing. Everyone sharing theories and trying to unravel the mysteries, arguing over who was right Jack or Locke, it was a hell of a time and it's something that hit at the right time for me because I'd never been part of a fandom quite like that before. It's sort of a lost (pun intended) benefit in the wake of binge-able streaming programming and social media reactions. Or maybe I'm just showing my age. LOST is a show I can always rewatch, it was truly something special. And the score for it was phenomenal. I even like the ending.

Okay next question: do you collect anything? If not, is there anything you would like to collect?

I collect so. much. shit. I love collecting. I am not a "hardcore" collector but I do enjoy having something cool, or rare, or just a lot of something and pointing at it and saying "look! I have the most boring hobby of all... collecting!"

I have two collections I am quite proud of it. One is a collection of character merch of one specific anime character. Will gladly post photos if asked, nothing risque so no worries. My true pride and joy is my "money" collection. I phrase it like that because while it's primarily coins, I do have some foreign bills too. I have some cool coins I've gotten a hold of! Nothing insanely expensive but I like it. My most valuable piece is an old Canadian coin worth about $40-50.

What's your favorite vine/tiktok/funny viral video? The one that never gets old for you?

I don't really have one but I do have a video that kind of interestingly popped back into my life unexpectedly.

It originally went viral years ago when a part of it was taken out of context. I got a good laugh and so did everyone else who watched =3 (that's not me using an emoji). Then maybe a handful of months ago, my sister asks if I heard about some guy who fought off a bear. I told her no but I'm super interested and ask her to tell me about it. She opens her phone and proceeds to show me a Tiktok video. This is what plays.

So weird seeing that one hop a generation.

What is something you desperately want but can't have?

Financial Stability.

I’m thirty-one-years-old and I don’t think [as an adult] I’ve ever experienced it. I know it’s a very non-roleplaying related answer, but it’s the most on my mind. I don’t have a large or lavish education to fall back on, so my experience at this point has been chasing opportunity where I can find it. It’s always dead-end, temporary engagements and I’d just like a little bit of a stability so I can start planning around my life a bit better. I don’t want to be forty and still doing temp work with no security. Especially, so if one day I’d like a family proper. I am not chasing dreams anymore, but rather reality. Seems to me that I can never have that stable reality. It sucks, but I just need to work harder and hopefully I'll get lucky.

My next question would be, hm, What keeps bringing you back to role-playing as a hobby and how do you sustain your interest in it?

My next question would be, hm, What keeps bringing you back to role-playing as a hobby and how do you sustain your interest in it?

Hmm... I grew up all over the U.S., going to 10 schools during my K-12 years and living in California, Texas, Kansas, Wisconsin, parts of New England, and eventually Oregon. There was little to no consistent familial presence in my life, and my classmates changed about once a year.

Long story short, most of my friends were made over the internet. As someone who read voraciously and played video games, roleplaying became an activity I could participate in with my friends no matter my current location. As a child, it allowed me to explore worlds not so drab or cruel as the one I inhabited then, and as an adult it acts as both a social and creative outlet for me. My interest is sustained by the cyclical nature of my hobbies - months of intense reading, followed by a dive into old video games I haven't played in forever, then looking up a nifty forum for roleplaying online, etc.

Query 'o mine: What is a weird habit of yours that you enjoy in the extreme and is not something you share with others? Doesn't have to be due to its shameful nature, could just be quirky or superstitious.

Query 'o mine: What is a weird habit of yours that you enjoy in the extreme and is not something you share with others? Doesn't have to be due to its shameful nature, could just be quirky or superstitious.

I'm not even sure how to answer that.

I don't really have anything that fits that description. Closest I can come is how I go autistic when it comes to planning out certain aspects of an RP. I like planning things, and sometimes the details are so small that nobody notices them. Sometimes things change and I need to go back to the drawing board, or cut away things that might have seemed important at the time. But I enjoy it and that's all that matters. Does that work?

Another question: What is your favorite card game and why? Or if you don't have one, what is your favorite game?