BrokenPromise

Do You Have RP Pet Peeves?

While it's not a pet peeve of mine, I would like to chime in on the use of the word "dark" as a descriptor for an RP.

Symphony on High is a dark RP that I'm running. The good guys are facing overwhelming odds where just surviving an engagement is worth celebrating. Often, they are only able to partially achieve their goals or end up settling for a Pyrrhic victory. Even setting aside the cruel and cunning foes they need to fight, they have to engage in all kinds of moral quandaries where they are forced to live with choices that they had to make and often under less than ideal situations. One of the characters slew a monster that was assaulting their dreams, but in doing so he orphaned a child who will want revenge. The entire premise of the RP is built upon a problem that has no clear cut solution and that the individual players are powerless to affect in a meaningful way. It's a despair simulator, effectively.

Tsundere Gekido is also a dark RP that I run. Most, if not all of the characters had pretty messed up pasts and have very selfish ambitions. But it doesn't go as far as the other RP does. As selfish as the cast is most of them don't want to screw anyone over. The players fight tough battles, but there's no moral dilemma most of the time. It's possible for everyone to complete their goals, and most problems can be solved by beating someone up or using the power of friendship to bridge a divide. Someone who thinks Tsundere Gekido is "peak dark RP" would run away screaming at the sight of Symphony on High.

And then of course there's people who think dark just means dealing with tabboo or adult topics. That works too I guess.

Dark is just too broad a word to use as a descriptor anymore. There's a reason my interest checks are so verbose, and it's always because I want potential players to know what they are getting into. It's a spectrum, with edgy/grimderp on one side and babycool on the other.

As someone who's gone to the status bar more than once? This actually has me engaging in some needed reflection... -_-U

@RickyG85

It's easy to forget that the forum sees a lot of visitors, and your status updates are visible to a lot more than just a small circle of people. People should be allowed to grow and change over time, but I feel like rampant cancel culture has made everyone afraid of their own mistakes. Even I have posted about things I'm less than proud of. The upside is that most people aren't going to remember your status update in a day or two. Just keep it to a minimum (or completely stop) and you'll have nothing to worry about.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Who says that?”

— Suki Oyama

No one present was really equipped to present a plan. Rei was able to do it, but she had appeared only sporadically over the summer. Now that the cooler weather was here, maybe she'd show up again. Suki could hope. As much as she didn't like Roche, she had been trying to hold things together. At the very least, she seemed to be the only one who had Nyxia's respect. At least that was how it appeared, as she actually acknowledged the rule keeper's presence once she sat down. If the only dower one in the room was Roche, she might have let her continue to feel sorry for herself. But Tsubomi and Shuuko didn't look too hot either. But while Shuuko looked like she had seen a ghost, Tsubomi looked distracted. It was an unusual look for someone who had no emotions.

"I would think the light girls could fight giga miseria.” Suki was rather pleased with the opportunity to pivot the discussion away from Nyxia and Kiyo, who were only getting agitated with each other. "But why five? It took a lot of effort to summon just one on a full beach. And weren't we told that the ones that come out at night are even stronger?” Then Tsubomi got really distracted and started talking to herself. "A letter? Kiyo said? Oh, are you talking about Rei?” Her eyes shifted from side to side. "I thought someone said she was going to be here. Did Roach talk to her already? she better not have scared her off...”

She looked to Shuuko. The temptation was to say something to her, but maybe it was best to let her reboot her systems on her own.

---

The night belonged to the dark girls, but the day belonged to Hizuki.

There were only a few hours of daylight left, but Hizuki wisely surmised that the dark magical girls were still tending to their club activities. It didn't make much sense for them to be patrolling the streets this early. Barring special circumstances, miseria only came out at night, and the only reason why dark girls even bothered with them was to selfishly squire power. Often times, they would cause hardships that would yeild more despair, and that despair would call more miseria, and then the farmers would reap their crops.

Hibusa town was pretty big. It was still a town though, and paled in comparison to the city of light. Few buildings were higher than a couple stories, and there almost wasn't enough room for an uptown and downtown area. Hizuki was invisible to the pedestrians on the ground, though if she used enough of her magic, she might become one of the town's many urban legends. But listening for a few desires shouldn't be too risky.

Many of the people had desires, but they were either far outside of Hizuki's capabilities, or were being taken care of. A man wished for a drink before entering a bar, a young man hoped his crypto investment wouldn't bankrupt him again, a store clerk hoped she had enough money to leave this town, a mother wished to see her dead child, it was a lot of requests. They all seemed to be coming from middle aged people. The children had to be home or in school, and who knew where the elderly were.

Then, almost cutting through those desires were ones that Hizuki could actually help with. The first one was coming from the direction of the school, but it was moving away, very gradually.

Why...Won't...They...Listen...

That was a little obscure, so it had to be a magical girl. If that was a member of the detention club, that might not be worth interacting with. But there was another desire coming from the school's direction, but it was moving much faster. Perhaps they were in a car, or riding on a bike.

It's not getting built fast enough. It's not coming together. How will I get it all done? I haven't been able to practice my archery, and my grades are slipping. Then there's the lawsuit. This isn't good.

That was definitely a school girl. What was homework to the Daybreak? She could help with some of that surely. But that wasn't the only desire she sensed.

Dulled by pain... Muted by screams... Devoured by darkness.

Another obscure one. It must be a magical girl, but it's not coming from the direction of the school. It was the closest signal, but was either unaware of her position or not willing to approach. They were a few blocks away at the same level as Hizuki.

But now was not the time to be indecisive. She needed to pick a course of action.

How Do You Deal With Writer's Block?

Writer's block is a symptom that is caused by a problem. Rather than trying to target the writer's block itself, target the cause.

OP isn't looking for advice on their depression, but I'll put it here for anyone who is interested anyway. Depression is something that can be overcome. It's hard, because it requires a lot of self discipline and, in the case of seasonal affective disorder, it's only something we can really work on when it shows up. Phototherapy can help, especially if you spend all day inside. Certain lights have been known to improve mood, like certain types of florescent lights. It might also help to have some sort of physical hobby, be it a work out routine or tinkering with your car. Cleaning the house works too, it doesn't have to be physically demanding.

If you insist on attacking the block itself... talk with your RP group/partner? I find it surprising how in a social hobby like this everyone insists on going at it alone as much as possible. Writer's block means everything you write looks like shit to you, so have someone else there to confirm it's not, or at the very least, help guide you to something that's not shit. People love giving their input on things and this is a resource you should be making use of.

Celestial Duel — Shinny Vs Anshin

Yea wrap this up. Shinny needs to focus on the toyale!

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

@Chevaleresse Magical girls are girls with magic.

The original RP was pretty lax as for what counted as a magical girl. If you look at the character tab you can get an idea for what's in the RP already, but we have just about everything. Tacticool girls, cyborgs, yokai, professions, folklore, moeification of anything, etc. So long as it's a girl and her abilities are granted by magic, it's pretty much allowed. They just need an emblem, sweet arm, and a theme for her magic and she'll fit right in.

EDIT: As for powers, I recommend being a bit nebulous with the exact destructive potential of your abilities. Things aren't quite city buster level yet, but there is a bit of a power creep, so who knows what will happen?

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

@Chevaleresse Other than the first OOC post? not really. This RP has been going on for the better part of a decade at this point, but the plot itself is pretty basic.

An issue you might run into though is that we're in the middle of the "final battle" so to speak, so it might not be the best time to join. Things move slow, and with the battle going on there might not be a lot of people to interact with.

Though you are in luck, because there's a lot of magical girl RPs on the forum. It feels like a new one crops up every other week.

If you still want to join this one, the only thing that's going on right now is a meta entity wants to kill the grand magistrate (basically the GM) and is rallying the forces of wonderland to wipe out Penrose (a city that's central to the RP. In fact 99% of the RP has taken place inside of Penrose) But that plan is being thwarted, because the Penrose magical girls learned that there are these giant eggs they plan on seiging with, so they're attacking wonderland's factory to destroy the eggs and set back the forces of wonderland. There's also a diplomacy mission ongoing, but that's kind of a side thing right now and with everyone being mad I don't think it's going to get very far.

If you're still confused, that's okay, most of us are too.

The interpersonal stories are a lot more complex, but also totally unnecessary to participating in the setting. The try hard banners aren't necessary either. Some of us just like making them, but others just use forum BBC and call it a day.

Post deletion please

I could use a post deletion too. roleplayerguild.com/topics/192370-kur…

I edited a post and the forum weirdly made a second post with 99% of the content. Anyway, it's taken care of so please just kabosh that one.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

“The lady of the house should always know her place. Now make me a sandwich.”

— Rei Ishiko

Roche chose to talk back to the most powerful dark magical girl she had ever seen. One so powerful that even a demon like Ashbringer turned tail and ran at the mere sound of her bounding across rooftops. A dark magical girl with so much power that she could hold, if only barely, an entire club of dark magical girls together without killing each other. A dark magical girl that authored the rules that the rule keeper herself tattooed onto her heart like the ink on her skin. Such insubordination could lead to an "attitude adjustment" at best, and excommunication at worst. Was it her position in the club or being fed up with Rei that made the stoic rule keeper feel so rebellious?

The air around the taller, more athletic looking woman felt cold.

“You've forgotten your place, Roche.” Rei's tone was reminiscent of a parent who didn't have the heart to scold their child.“You misunderstand my concern. Why you left does not matter. Light girls wander into Hibusa town from time to time. They spout their annoying platitudes and we show them the door. This is a cycle that will never stop so long as we operate here.” She slid a hand into her pocket. “When you venture out of Hibusa town and destroy property, even if it's not your fault, you make them angry. They build resentment and find common ground with one another. We are a small club but we always outnumber the light girls because they are unable to organize against us. Destroying that beach might have been the linchpin the Gems needed to rally against us. Is something so basic beyond your understanding?”

Rei placed her hands around Roche's neck. Her touch was like the northern winds, or that of a corpse. But all she did was straighten out Roche's shirt before slipping her hands into her pockets.

“But you are right. You are going to fix this. And you're also going to make sure nothing like that happens again. No more vacations that happen to involve such widespread destruction.” Rei was about to walk away when she stopped in her tracks. She looked back at Roche, hesitated, and finally spoke. “I had thought that you could hunt miseria without my supervision, but very well. Perhaps I can make time to hunt with you tomorrow.”

It wasn't as if Rei ever did more than perch on some elevated platform while her underlings laid waste, but it was going to be essential now, wasn't it? These weren't normal light girls, they had managed to tick off the Gems. That meant that they'd likely need Schrade to avoid getting totally bodied by the opposition. It was a hassle, but it was also a little interesting too, wasn't it?

"My first and forth, fifth, and sixth favorite people in the club!”

— Suki Oyama

"Yea... Some parents...” Suki's eyes glazed over. She remained as stiff as a board until Kiyo tried to shift the focus back on to Rapunzel herself. "Yea, I really don't get the whole parent thing.” A bitter grin crossed her face when she looked back at the page. "Like, all the mom does is just complain all the time. Like she gets pregnant and just refuses to eat anything but one plant? I kind of picture her as this bloated tick that sits in a cave, existing only to suck the happiness out of the people around her. She's too big to leave the cave and just sort of exists to be a drain on everyone else. And the dad...” Suki laughed. "What a piece of crap! I mea what's he even doing this for? He can't love his wife. He's willing to decide what happens to their child without their consent, so you know that's going to divide them. But the entire reason why she's suffering right now is so that she can deliver a baby. So by giving up the baby it's almost like he's saying what she's gone through isn't even worth considering. I can't imagine they lived a happy life after that. I think Rapunzel's better off having never known her parents.” She pointed at Rapunzel's hair. "But what the hell is with her scalp? If I had hair that long you know I'd be able to tell the difference between an old witch and a big burly prince was crawling up my braid. Provided I didn't get yanked out of the tower. Rapunzel had to be a magical girl.”

And then came the idea of summoning a giga miseria in town. Like, what? It might have been an idea worth entertaining if the last one hadn't leveled a beach when it died. At the same time, Suki couldn't totally dismiss it. "Uh, maybe if it was a really small one? And we fought it on the mountain somewhere? But I think that would be a little dangerous with the light girls around. I mean, were'nt you-”

Tsubomi and Shuuko came through the door.

"Hey Guys!” Suki gave the newly arrived her traditional flamboyant wave and smile. "Roach is still MIA, so we're talking about how Rapunzel might have been a magical girl and giga miseria” After a pause, she clarified. "That's two different topics. Rapunzel is not a giga miseria.”

Battle Toyale — Christmas Rumble!

Oh boy oh boy I wonder when the next post is going to come.