What CAN'T You Roleplay?

[SandQueen]

@ SandQueen: Interesting to include GMing peeves as well. I forgot that simply writing in character isn't all there is to roleplaying. I'm guilty of playing a few special snowflakes myself, so I'd like to know how you get roleplayers to start working together as a team.

Start killing characters

What happens in every horror movie when the group splits up? People die.
What happened in Jurassic park when the characters went off in different directions? Death

At this point most of my routine players have learned that you either work as a group or I systematically start selecting errant players and either eliminating them or have backlashes so severe that they also effect the people working as team. But I try to never do it explicitly out of spite. If I do it, it's going to be setting appropriate and effect the overall narrative no matter what.

But I've found that the best way to get people to work together and have them come up with some exceedingly clever solutions is to put my proverbial foot down and demand it with full on "adapt or die" situations. If someone's about to do something REALLY dumb I'll contact them privately and strongly advise against that particular course of action. Of course I don't give a reason WHY, that would disrupt the narrative and provide inside knowledge of future events and possible repercussions. But in general I've found the best method to simply be to start expending their resources, maiming or mauling characters, or flat-out killing them off.

And some people have gotten upset over it. I'm not. And most of my players haven't. Because if they want to write fan-fiction about how awesome their character is then they can go do it. But if they want to participate in a shared narrative and tackle setting specific problems then they should be willing to play ball.

[Average Hero]

OH MY A RANT THREAD

-OK sooo to start, I'm former military and I love military style rp, most of my charatcers are based off my own knowledge.
CONTRARY to popular belief Snipers aren't loan wolf hence the phrase Sniper teams which more or less work in two to fours, in military there is no such thing as a lone wolf ever period, people described as lone wolfs are dead, simple as that

-Another big peeve of mine is (I read Sand Queen's)
Deagles and Katanas, heres the deal, YOU DONT BRING A DAMN SWORD TO A GUNFIGHT....not to mention the desert eagle from recollection isnt all to accurate i could be very wrong but I never really liked them so i didnt bother.

-3rd a sniper rper is annoying because he makes himself out to be jesus, (Ive been guilty of it) When sniping in a roleplay its really dangerous because there are like angels never in danger but doing the most damage possible, thing is most snipers are trained for recon purposes too up close and personal stuff, so sitting in the back with a god weapon for the whole rp honestly its just like why bother having other characters?
Snipers can do so much, but only that they are support not the force.

Theres actually a lot on here I agree with, read a few points (Sand Queen, Ru, Luthien)
But I'm gonna try to avoid repeating whats been said.

Anyway on to other things.

I am honestly not the best GM, mainly because I like the rpers to actually have their fingers in the story its boring being the writer, because noone wants to take a little control altar history or anything and to me thats something I've always wanted to see an rper who has the initiative to take control of the story from their own point of view, form plot changes everything! Granted you'd need some seriously good people (btw if anyone is down for this experiment pm me) but a few things about GMs that kind off put me is in alot of rps i kinda see it coming, theres little to none risk taking where a story is concerned though on RPA a lot of GM seem to do that well.
I dont like characters or rpers who cant limit themselves if you see me rp sometime i play a really powerful character but they always have limits, and non human and such (aside from specific sc-fi) it start to get iffy as well with supernaturals, because all powers are based off certain universes so you have to know and limit the power give it a weakness, kinda like Avatar the Last Airbender: when fire loses its power but is the most powerful.

Uhmmm....
Theres quite a few more things but for now ill quit raging

[Sy23]

I personally find I'm no good at playing (a) really nice people (b) high-schoolers or teens or (c) gay males. I don't think it's just that I am not any of these things, since I've also played females, Japanese people and ghouls fairly successfully (as far as my limitations go) and I'm not any of those either.

[X]

First off I can't GM... at all, so that's annoying. I also can't play leading characters, I follow much better.

For some reason I have a strange inability to come up with an original and half decent name for anything... this may be a problem later in life.

I wish I could come up with more well-rounded characters, most of mine are interesting enough to get into a RP, but then I run into walls that I wrote myself into. Also going with this, a lot of my characters end up being the same person, just fitted with some new kit to make them fit in.

Relationships... having never really been in one (Ooo, shocker =P) I have absolutely no clue how to convincingly create a fictional one, not to mention that I am so socially awkward IRL that I have at best 5 real friends and have actually frozen several times in conversation with girls my age. (I'm starting to feel like this is a therapy session, how about you?)

The opposite sex... I think this is covered by the above.

I have been working against this recently, but I hate playing completely human characters. When I see an interesting fantasy RP pop up and in the character or rules sections it says "humans only" that is a big turn off, and if I'm going to be forced to play a human I'm darn well going to try and make him re-animated or cybernetic or something (depending upon the setting of course). On the other hand I don't like to play completely inhuman characters either... this may be from my origins in RP years ago.

I'm not in anyway good at playing characters with tons of emotion, I have noticed my characters are usually either emotionally biased away from the gooey emotions or that are just emotionally gone and heartless bastards.

Well, that's my spiel... I think I have some personal issues to think about...

[Miss Fortune]

First off I can't GM... at all, so that's annoying. I also can't play leading characters, I follow much better.

For some reason I have a strange inability to come up with an original and half decent name for anything... this may be a problem later in life.

I am a pushover GM, it's true, but that's because I'd rather keep my members than going all out Hitler on them for some things. Like X said, originality isn't my strong suit.

• As for original names, they annoy me if they aren't meant to be in the roleplay in the first place. I wouldn't want a character named "Baron Von Hotstuff" when other characters have names like "Mary" or "Jane." You might have an Angel character, but if you are a Fallen Angel, there isn't much need to follow the "-iel" or "ael" name scheme.
• I can't do action roleplays, it reminds me too much of fighting, and believe it or not, I am a pacifist. Sure, I can bs a fight scene, but if you want me to be a main fighter that bounces off walls, doing elaborate slashing with a sword, I can't do it. I know a lot of people don't require an entirely detailed fighting scene, but others do. I often opt out of RP's like that, even if I like their story ideas.
• Mecha roleplays... I love Nightmares from Code Geass, but the chance for me to roleplay something like that would require a lot of information that, face it, humans don't have at this time or don't know the names for some of the operating mechanisms.
• Military roleplays require fighting, and killing, and a lot of other things that I don't understand, but I am in a Military RP right now, so I'm learning. I'll try learning anything new -if it interests me. If I can find someone who wouldn't mind giving me pointers, then I'd join, and wing it as much as possible.
• I can't do superhero's. Superpowers are fine, but people jumping or flying around in tights, saving the world... No. I'd rather be a Villain than someone that makes ridiculous quotes. Not saying people in POWERS do it, but most Canon characters from old superhero shows are known for that kind of stuff.
• Canon characters. Sorry, no matter how much I love a character, I would not be able to roleplay as them. Canon characters suck the originality out of everything if they aren't used as NPC's.

[EXmaster]

i hate chat role playing. it makes me feel like im lazy. im not saying thet people the chat roleplay are lazy. i just endup writeing too much and getting ninja'd x1000. i cant write while geting a good effect without at least a paragraph.

[PinkBandit]

Agreeing with Aequitas, OMG A RANT THRED :D

Okay, so I didnt rp for a very long time yet, but I have some experience. When I start making characters I can never make a nice character. Reason? I have no clue. I tried making a nice character before, and after a few posts I just killed the character off since I couldn't post anything interesting with it. -.-"

Secondly, I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT do sci-fi or non-fiction based rp's like high school life or some random tech thing. By one post, I'm probably out of there. Since life-like situations like school appear everyday, it's sort of boring to redo all the events in writing. In fantasy(my favourite) themes, I guess it's a lot more creative so I like it more.

Then there are the romance in some roleplays. Judging that most of my characters are cold, heartless and cruel(yea... I have a very evil mind o_o), I have no experience in that zone o-o.

Usually I prefer not to make human characters, but rather humanoid characters(taking the form of a human), like a clone or vampire or something-not animals. Humans, like non-fiction, seem too normal to me. Not that I'm against my own race(-.-") but I am a human. So I like to be something else for a change.

--End of Rant xD--

[Ainina]

Just gonna bring back this rant thread. Since I'm too lazy to reply to all the posts again, I'll make a rant/confession of my own.

In opposition to PinkBandit, I usually prefer to play human characters. Why? Well, whenever I go into an RP with more than one playable race, humans are usually the ones lesser in number. I like to balance things out so it isn't just a circlejerk of dwarves or whatever and it usually doesn't impact my planned character too much. Plus, it feels more interesting to be playing the human who can hold their own/not be instantly slaughtered in a group of demons than the demon who can obliterate entire cities.

I don't play humans when I feel a power is too ingrained in a character to consider removing or altering it (e.g. part of a werewolf's backstory/character is his killing of his wife, etc). Even then, I often downplay their nonhuman powers or limit it where I can because I hate to be 'that one roleplayer'.

[Mary Sue]

I really don't think I CAN'T RP anything actually... I'm not physically limited to specific genres/ characters/ styles...

But there are a few things I struggle with.

Romance is a huge issue for me. From the stand point that it's usually written in a different style of writing than I'm used to. I like Sci-Fi. I like dark. I like action. My sentences are often direct and to the point and that kind of makes for bad romance. ON THE OTHER HAND, I do play seductresses well... but maybe it's because what they do isn't considered "romance"....


As much as this may bother some people... I don't do well with 100% realism. That's not fun for me. And what's the point really? If I'm playing in a Sci-Fi or Fantasy RP I don't want to know exactly how my spaceship is working or why some people use spells but others can't. I don't think it matters if someone brings a sword to gun fight.... I think what matters is that the person who brings the sword gets shot a million times though for being an idiot. And while I always do a hell of a lot of research for my RPs/ characters to give me as much knowlege as possible.... I think there's a little lee-way here and there that should be granted.


As a GM, I find it hard to strictly dictate my RPs. I feel like if my player's aren't having fun I'm responsible if I'm too strict. I prefer to work with the players as best as I can, and only put my foot down when it's absolutely necessary.



Over all, I'm not really limited by genre or character type. I've played many many many kinds of characters and have explored most of the genres there are. While I don't like some I won't absolutely ignore it if I think it may have potential. It's most dependent on my writing style too, what I'll join. But if people are willing to work with me I'll join anything!

[Khronos]

i can't stand overly fantasized shit.

if the country has a name i can't pronounce, filled with people whose names i can't pronounce, you can be dead certain my character won't be populating it.

i also don't tolerate threads i've titled, "my character is the center of the universe, everything in this thing that i pretend is a plot, is all about ME." unless the thread is titled khronos and the main character is yours truly. i'll be avoiding this.

also aliens, i don't do shit with aliens.