Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

[CollectorOfMyst]

And now I'm sad because I've watched that movie and it's just sad.

[The Elvenqueen]

Gotta love non-GM people making passive aggressive demands for faster posting after one has already made an announcement that personal life circumstances mean no posts till later in the week

Terribly sorry that my family is such an inconvenience to you but they come before some stranger on the internet demanding that I POST RIGHT NOW :')

[mickilennial]

Gotta love non-GM people making passive aggressive demands for faster posting after one has already made an announcement that personal life circumstances mean no posts till later in the week

Terribly sorry that my family is such an inconvenience to you but they come before some stranger on the internet demanding that I POST RIGHT NOW :')

@The Elvenqueen

This is why my pacing is fluid and very clearly in my rules.

[The Elvenqueen]

<Snipped quote by The Elvenqueen>
This is why my pacing is fluid and very clearly in my rules.

@Inkarnate

I mean, I would agree if this was a regular thing but it's not, and I had made the post stating I would not be able to post.

I guess what bothered me the most was the demandingly passive aggressive nature of the message. Don't go around acting like you're the GM if you're NOT the GM if the game and one should certainly read the OOC to check for notifications of such nature before one just assumes people are too lazy to post

[Dervish]

Gotta love non-GM people making passive aggressive demands for faster posting after one has already made an announcement that personal life circumstances mean no posts till later in the week

Terribly sorry that my family is such an inconvenience to you but they come before some stranger on the internet demanding that I POST RIGHT NOW :')

@The Elvenqueen

I've always told players in my games that real life comes first. Just let me know if something's coming up and I don't mind letting people take the time they need to get life squared away.

I'm trying something in my new RP where the GMs post approximately every 2-3weeks to keep things moving regardless of player activity without penalizing people who didn't post in that rotation. I mean, if someone vanishes for a month without a word, chances are I'll cut them loose, but keep somewhat active? Everything is kosher.

[casper]

<Snipped quote by Inkarnate>

I mean, I would agree if this was a regular thing but it's not, and I had made the post stating I would not be able to post.

I guess what bothered me the most was the demandingly passive aggressive nature of the message. Don't go around acting like you're the GM if you're NOT the GM if the game and one should certainly read the OOC to check for notifications of such nature before one just assumes people are too lazy to post

@The Elvenqueen

Geez that's awful. It's one thing to disappear without saying, that's not cool but happens but announcing not posting and getting that? I swear some people have no manners. There are a lot of people with terrible social skills lacking empathy out there!

[TheMadAsshatter]

I have been so uninspired as of late. I've voiced interest in three RPs over the last several months, and never got past the character creation phase (I'm really sorry). I'm starting to wonder if I'm just jaded and need a nice long break, or if I'm completely losing interest. I hate to, because I've had some great experiences on here before, but trying to write up new characters is fucking exhausting. Once it's done, the situational writing comes naturally, but thinking of a history, personality, etc. of a character is so damn dull.

[NuttsnBolts]

I have been so uninspired as of late. I've voiced interest in three RPs over the last several months, and never got past the character creation phase (I'm really sorry). I'm starting to wonder if I'm just jaded and need a nice long break, or if I'm completely losing interest. I hate to, because I've had some great experiences on here before, but trying to write up new characters is fucking exhausting. Once it's done, the situational writing comes naturally, but thinking of a history, personality, etc. of a character is so damn dull.

@TheMadAsshatter

Go back to your basics, back to something simple in it's creation.

You mentioned it in your post that you're trying to think of histories, personalities, relationships, motives, and so on and so forth... Yet you haven't even started the roleplay to begin with. You haven't developed the character for that world, only a prop that fits in within the rules and lore of that universe.

This was something I noticed not too long ago in an advanced RP that opted to remove the bio section. For me, that was an odd choice as advanced should be about depth and detail, and yet it actually made the character a lot more easier to design. You didn't have to explain the history of their 5+ years or how they became a masterful mage, there was no restrictions on how the character history could change so you could create that chance encounter with another character, and you weren't writing the IC into the bio section—a section that in all honesty is forgotten by many people.

One of my favourite pieces of my own writing is about two siblings in a train for a Western RP. To be honest I have forgotten the Character sheet completely but when I've shown that one post to people they understand the type of characters I am trying to portray, all without reading that character sheet.

So I don't necessarily think you're jaded, and a break is nice when you're stressed from work and life, but I think the problem may lie in the size of the task that you are looking at. Reduce it down and follow the inspiration of how a movie or book sets up a character. The greatest manipulator of the computer world was a lonely hacker known as Neo, the battle for Middle Earth started off as a Hobbit at a Birthday party, and even Luke Skywalker was nothing more than a boy at his uncle's farm. These people have no history other than basic personality traits and yet their adventure is what we have come to know, not their childhood years.

On the same token I think GMs in some roleplays have pushed and pushed the requirements for their applicants. I've seen some that ask for more and more prior to the RP starting and then wonder why it dies in a couple weeks. Last RP I showed interest in and not joined has only had a few IC posts, and yet there were about a dozen applicants who all posted these long character sheets with depth, detail, and enough info to bring the world to life.

Bit of a long winded reply for the whole KISS principle, but it's just a little advice.

[skidcrow]

<Snipped quote by TheMadAsshatter>

Go back to your basics, back to something simple in it's creation.

You mentioned it in your post that you're trying to think of histories, personalities, relationships, motives, and so on and so forth... Yet you haven't even started the roleplay to begin with. You haven't developed the character for that world, only a prop that fits in within the rules and lore of that universe.

This was something I noticed not too long ago in an advanced RP that opted to remove the bio section. For me, that was an odd choice as advanced should be about depth and detail, and yet it actually made the character a lot more easier to design. You didn't have to explain the history of their 5+ years or how they became a masterful mage, there was no restrictions on how the character history could change so you could create that chance encounter with another character, and you weren't writing the IC into the bio section—a section that in all honesty is forgotten by many people.

One of my favourite pieces of my own writing is about two siblings in a train for a Western RP. To be honest I have forgotten the Character sheet completely but when I've shown that one post to people they understand the type of characters I am trying to portray, all without reading that character sheet.

So I don't necessarily think you're jaded, and a break is nice when you're stressed from work and life, but I think the problem may lie in the size of the task that you are looking at. Reduce it down and follow the inspiration of how a movie or book sets up a character. The greatest manipulator of the computer world was a lonely hacker known as Neo, the battle for Middle Earth started off as a Hobbit at a Birthday party, and even Luke Skywalker was nothing more than a boy at his uncle's farm. These people have no history other than basic personality traits and yet their adventure is what we have come to know, not their childhood years.

On the same token I think GMs in some roleplays have pushed and pushed the requirements for their applicants. I've seen some that ask for more and more prior to the RP starting and then wonder why it dies in a couple weeks. Last RP I showed interest in and not joined has only had a few IC posts, and yet there were about a dozen applicants who all posted these long character sheets with depth, detail, and enough info to bring the world to life.

Bit of a long winded reply for the whole KISS principle, but it's just a little advice.

@NuttsnBolts

NuttsnBolts' inspirational guide when?

[NuttsnBolts]

<Snipped quote by NuttsnBolts>

NuttsnBolts' inspirational guide when?

@Grim

When I can work out how to write up this roleplay design I have had bouncing around in my head for the last month or so.

[skidcrow]

<Snipped quote by Grim>

When I can work out how to write up this roleplay design I have had bouncing around in my head for the last month or so.

@NuttsnBolts

well hey, at least you've got first hand experience on the subject of lack of inspiration!

[PrinceAlexus]

Gotta love non-GM people making passive aggressive demands for faster posting after one has already made an announcement that personal life circumstances mean no posts till later in the week

Terribly sorry that my family is such an inconvenience to you but they come before some stranger on the internet demanding that I POST RIGHT NOW :')

@The Elvenqueen

Aye. I Don, t mind. We all have times we can barely post once a week and others once a day. It's just how it goes.

[Dervish]

Main reason I ask for detailed bios is threefold. First, some ideas people have for their character either don't work for the lore or the setting, or they are otherwise problematic without revision. Second, it helps me understand their inclination to take OOC information into account to make a suitable character for the premise. You can tell when somebody wasn't reading if they're including details that contradict what was outlined or flat out ignores something vital. Third, it helps gauge writing ability. When you are taking on 6-8 characters and there's over a dozen individual applications, it's the smallest details that might give one character a pass over another. I know from personal experience that I almost always get an absurd amount of applications and I even write critiques for each of them, but I cannot as a GM manage too many players without being extremely superficial and unfocused.

Point is, long bios absolutely have a place and aren't pointless. If a game dies prematurely, it's very likely a number of other factors that contributed.

[Dion]

Main reason I ask for detailed bios is threefold. First, some ideas people have for their character either don't work for the lore or the setting, or they are otherwise problematic without revision. Second, it helps me understand their inclination to take OOC information into account to make a suitable character for the premise. You can tell when somebody wasn't reading if they're including details that contradict what was outlined or flat out ignores something vital. Third, it helps gauge writing ability. When you are taking on 6-8 characters and there's over a dozen individual applications, it's the smallest details that might give one character a pass over another. I know from personal experience that I almost always get an absurd amount of applications and I even write critiques for each of them, but I cannot as a GM manage too many players without being extremely superficial and unfocused.

Point is, long bios absolutely have a place and aren't pointless. If a game dies prematurely, it's very likely a number of other factors that contributed.

@Dervish

I'd add that fourth; it also helps out weed out those players who aren't capable of writing a larger post/biography in a set amount of time. Writing slowly is one thing, taking a month to write a 6 paragraph biography of your character is another.

[Dervish]

<Snipped quote by Dervish>

I'd add that fourth; it also helps out weed out those players who aren't capable of writing a larger post/biography in a set amount of time. Writing slowly is one thing, taking a month to write a 6 paragraph biography of your character is another.

@Odin

Also a fair point, although I've only ever had a very small handful of instances where people didn't make the deadline, and that was almost always because they either started their sheet too late, couldn't think of ideas to flesh it out, or life came up.

[Dion]

<Snipped quote by Odin>

Also a fair point, although I've only ever had a very small handful of instances where people didn't make the deadline, and that was almost always because they either started their sheet too late, couldn't think of ideas to flesh it out, or life came up.

@Dervish

The only one I can relate to is life coming up, in which case I'd probably ask myself if I wanted to get involved if my life is so hectic that I don't have an hour to kill and a CS to write. Other than that -> if you can't think of ideas, then you're probably not that inspired by the RP, and that's probably a bad sign from the start, and if you started too late, then as a GM I can only assume that to be a reoccurring theme.

[Dervish]

<Snipped quote by Dervish>

The only one I can relate to is life coming up, in which case I'd probably ask myself if I wanted to get involved if my life is so hectic that I don't have an hour to kill and a CS to write. Other than that -> if you can't think of ideas, then you're probably not that inspired by the RP, and that's probably a bad sign from the start, and if you started too late, then as a GM I can only assume that to be a reoccurring theme.

@Odin

To be fair, I've had players I've RP'd with for years who are fantastic get caught by the deadline. Sometimes all it takes is not seeing a game until the deadline is nearly up. That subscription button is great, but it also means you may never click the roleplay list links for weeks at a time.

I've also had a few times where I myself loved a game's concept and had a pretty solid idea for a character but I wasn't able to just get any of those ideas on paper and fleshed out, or writers block kicked my ass. I definitely know what it's like on either side of the fence.

[Dion]

To be fair, I've had players I've RP'd with for years who are fantastic get caught by the deadline. Sometimes all it takes is not seeing a game until the deadline is nearly up. That subscription button is great, but it also means you may never click the roleplay list links for weeks at a time.

I've also had a few times where I myself loved a game's concept and had a pretty solid idea for a character but I wasn't able to just get any of those ideas on paper and fleshed out, or writers block kicked my ass. I definitely know what it's like on either side of the fence.

@Dervish

Hm, I suppose that the first part of your post is true. But that's more the exception than the rule - and it's more of a matter of GM discretion than anything. I've given people that I know/am friends with a pass if I was convinced they'd fit into the RP. But I wouldn't do that to a stranger, which is ultimately what most GM's will end up dealing with. I generally don't miss deadlines but then I also write CS's fast, and can get a regular sized one up in an hour, maybe two.

I've never had the latter, though. I either love it or hate it - if I love it, I'll be inspired and if I'm not inspired I know I won't last in the RP. But perhaps that's just something I deal with.

[BrokenPromise]

I've found no real correlation between a roleplayer's ability to fill out a bio section and their writing ability. Nor do I see any link between bio length and RP success rates. How effective they are needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis, but it ultimately depends on how the GM chooses to run things.

I don't mind filling out bios, but it's typically not very clear how much or what type of information the GM is looking for. I like to surprise other players, so I usually keep the bios pretty light. But it also depends on how the OOC is written up. Obviously I'm not going to write a 2K word backstory if you're going to describe the world in two paragraphs.

[Dion]

I've found no real correlation between a roleplayer's ability to fill out a bio section and their writing ability. Nor do I see any link between bio length and RP success rates. How effective they are needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis, but it ultimately depends on how the GM chooses to run things.

I don't mind filling out bios, but it's typically not very clear how much or what type of information the GM is looking for. I like to surprise other players, so I usually keep the bios pretty light. But it also depends on how the OOC is written up. Obviously I'm not going to write a 2K word backstory if you're going to describe the world in two paragraphs.

@BrokenPromise

I mean, I find a lot of correlation. Y'know, if your bio is riddled with spelling errors, poor prose, and a disregard for what I wrote in the OOC, then it's probably not much better in the IC.

A light bio doesn't mean it's not well written. I guess that's what it comes down to.