Don't do that!

[Inerio]

Don't do that! A thread dedicated to all things roleplay that irk you to no end!

Every now and then we run into it, our roleplay pet peeve. You know what it is, and now matter how much or how little it annoys you it still manages to get under your skin.

So what is it? Is it a pesky pretty princess of a Mary Sue sauntering about and ruining an otherwise brutal rp? Is it the token jerk who simply has to god mod in order to show you that his characters are indeed tougher than your own? Minor grammatical errors? Lack of capitalization? I could keep going, but I should save the other options to you.

So, share, we may learn a thing or two about writing from other people's roleplay pet peeves.

Personally, there are two things that irk me.
One, over description regarding your character's looks. I get it she's pretty/ugly/odd. If you described it in the last post, you don't need to describe it in the next post. I don't mind minor mentions of the character's features, but three or more sentences about your character's outward appearance just bores me. Pretty should not be focused on unless it's about to get horribly disfigured, and ugly should not be focused on unless it's about to get miraculously changed. I also dislike god mod and Mary Sues. . . . But who doesn't?

[Adrius Frostglare]

Do not.

Have.

A young character in an elder's position.

I don't care how many battles your guy has been in, there is no such thing as a 27 year old veteran. There is also no such thing as a "teenage village seer".

Period.

I am sorry that reality/logic/common sense didn't quite live up to your expectations. Maybe you should write up your own RP where this is all possible.

And if you even THINK of calling me an "inconsiderate ass" for trying to keep a true, non-Sue infested RP in a thread in which I OP, well then you pack your luggage.

/endrant

PHEW! Good.

[Kalon Ordona II]

Adrius mentioned EXACTLY one of my biggest peeves. I was once in a RP where a character entered who was a thirteen-year-old unstoppable assassin/witch. The RP died soon after she joined. People think these teenagers can be awesome; it just ain't so--sorry to burst your bubble! Teenagers suck. Awesomeness is directly related to number of years of age. Unless there is a VERY good in-character reason. Like the child is possessed by a couple dozen demons.

My other peeve is where players obviously use spell-check, so everything is spelled right, but they get little words wrong. Really stupid things like 'loose' instead of 'lose' or 'they're' instead of 'their' or using possessives for plurals. Another huge one is when they say 'apart' instead of 'a part.' Just irks me reeeally bad for some reason. "Would you like to be apart of our team?" "Uh... no? I wanna join." =P

Alrighty. *sigh* I guess I'm good for now.

[Adrius Frostglare]

Teenagers suck

Damn right we do.

[Kalon Ordona II]

Yup. Just wait till you turn 20. Like me! xD

Allow me to qualify:
RL teenagers don't suck. RP teenagers haven't learned to be awesome yet.

^_^

[Inerio]

And they don't even swallow!

I think we all have valid points. Though, any of our pet peeves could easily be fixed if worked upon(but usually the writer is too lazy to do that). Most of my teenage roleplay characters are snarky sidekicks who's use is more or less comic relief. I don't think any of my characters are ever SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME though.

Child characters annoy me. Anything under 16 makes me cringe. I personally don't want to deal with an eight year old who's the king or queen of something or other land.

[Adrius Frostglare]

Let's see... what else... I'm surprised no one has brought up god-modding. Having a pretty character is one thing. Having a god character is another thing, said thing generally labeled as being "compensatory".

Make some ace-of-all-trades, jack***-of-none and you won't be warned twice.

Maybe not even once if it is painfully obvious and on purpose. I remember once a guy who was RPing with another. This guy's character could read minds and said that he could dodge everything thrown at him. Well, needless to say, the opponent managed to, by the miracle of justice and good writing, hit him once or twice and almost immediately the guy started an OOC rant about how unfair it was.

C;mon, man, even Psycho Mantis was beaten and he was one of -the- psychics.

This mean that mind reading is an OP ability? Not really. It has many disadvantages as well. Godmodding doesn't mean "very strong". Godmodding means "untouchable, unbeatable, and overbearing/dominant".

Opposed to godmodding is elitism. DO NOT confuse "elitism" with "fairness" because an elitist is one who takes the game to the IRL level. Each of us has an idea of what an elitist is, but more often than not it is plainly defined as someone who must control the entire situation into what he/she sees as fit. If that means all characters, his and someone else's, must be weak sausages and die against the will of the character's owner, so it shall be. In ways, they are godmodders. In ways, they are not. It depends from person to person.

Both of these can kill an RP if they are not removed. Hopefully, they'll be detected before they burrow into the story like roundworms and then be far too crucial/part of the plot to really be removed without having to retcon or butcher the entire plot.

[Mydnyte Syn]

One of my pet peeves is when the steam runs out of thread. You can have a fantastic story going and all of a sudden it comes to a dead stop. Either someone just up and vanished, or a writer suffers a major brain fart and can't seem to get into their character or, some jerk has to come along and just ruin it.

Another pet peeve is people being afraid to let their fellow writer's know that they're stuck, are going to be gone, or just aren't interested in the thread any more. Don't hold everyone up, just state the issue and let the other writer's move on if they must to keep the story going. Show some common courtesy and respect toward your fellow writers!

[Zelda]

I don't like group roleplays at all because they feel so unauthentic when you have to 'pretend something didn't happen' or whatever. =/
On that note, I'm peeved by most narration. For example, the underlined sentences are bad in my book:

---
He couldn't figure out why she was angry with him. In actuality, it was displaced.
---

---
The forest was thick and radiant. Little did she know, she was being followed.
---

It makes the roleplay feel unauthentic.

[Seer]

One of the things I hate besides those that have been stated, are when good rps suddenly turn into one liners. I understand if someone doesn't have enough creativity for a day because of writers block, but not every post! If you only give a one liner, the other writers can't really put in too much information. Detail of the area and what a character is doing only goes so far when all you have to work with is just a comment.

Another pet peeve of mine is when someone creates a role play that sounds really good and everyone is jumping to get started, but the GM suddenly vanishes and lets all the role plays die. It sucks the fun out of it! Thats one of the reasons I came over onto this site.

[Guest]

Another pet peeve of mine is when someone creates a role play that sounds really good and everyone is jumping to get started, but the GM suddenly vanishes and lets all the role plays die. It sucks the fun out of it! Thats one of the reasons I came over onto this site.

Guilty as charged. I totally ditched an RP on the site I was recruited from. Then again, I ditched the site, period. I just pulled up stakes and moved here entirely.

Honestly though? Some of the guys in the plot were...I dunno, Mary Sue'ing. So it felt like it was okay to ditch.

[Fluff]

He couldn't figure out why she was angry with him. In actuality, it was displaced.
---

---
The forest was thick and radiant. Little did she know, she was being followed.

That's just bad style. Everyone is annoyed by style significantly inferior to his or her own.

I am absolutely guilty of god-modding, Teenage Wonder Syndrome, and probably a lot of other things. Fortunately, I only do these things when I'm the GM, so it's okay. Also, I have valid, well-thought-out excuses. Excuses, at any rate.

[Seer]

Another pet peeve of mine is when someone creates a role play that sounds really good and everyone is jumping to get started, but the GM suddenly vanishes and lets all the role plays die. It sucks the fun out of it! Thats one of the reasons I came over onto this site.

Guilty as charged. I totally ditched an RP on the site I was recruited from. Then again, I ditched the site, period. I just pulled up stakes and moved here entirely.

Honestly though? Some of the guys in the plot were...I dunno, Mary Sue'ing. So it felt like it was okay to ditch.

Hehe yeah. I am slowly ditching a site I came from as well after being recruited here. I came from roleplay gateway. What about you?

[Adrius Frostglare]

I just realized something...

Age: 756

NO WAI!

What was the Renaissance like?

*cough*

Erm... on topic...

...

Self-pitying bad RPers. Seriously, we get it. You're bad. You want help in getting better, but beyond the occasional tip, we can't really help you much. You have to learn it yourself.

There was this one guy who kept writing bad stories, one after another, all with a Mary Sue character. Needless to say, I was his friend and as such I had to read every last one... halfway. If I told the guy he was doing OK, I had to read yet ANOTHER crappy story, but if I told him he was sucking and needed to get better he'd become very emo and just try to give up until I coaxed him off his feet.

*sigh* Anyway... yeah... if you suck but REALLY want to get better, get better. If you're writing just so people can gawk at how great your work is but it isn't even that, I would suggest you seek a different area of interest.

[Seer]

I just realized something...

Age: 756

NO WAI!

What was the Renaissance like?

*cough*

Erm... on topic...

...

Self-pitying bad RPers. Seriously, we get it. You're bad. You want help in getting better, but beyond the occasional tip, we can't really help you much. You have to learn it yourself.

There was this one guy who kept writing bad stories, one after another, all with a Mary Sue character. Needless to say, I was his friend and as such I had to read every last one... halfway. If I told the guy he was doing OK, I had to read yet ANOTHER crappy story, but if I told him he was sucking and needed to get better he'd become very emo and just try to give up until I coaxed him off his feet.

*sigh* Anyway... yeah... if you suck but REALLY want to get better, get better. If you're writing just so people can gawk at how great your work is but it isn't even that, I would suggest you seek a different area of interest.

Hehe. It was pretty cool actually. I like things now a days. Its more electronic so you don't have to do everything yourself! As for what you said, I completely agree. If you ask help to get better but don't make the effort, just leave.

[Weiss]

I don't care how many battles your guy has been in, there is no such thing as a 27 year old veteran. There is also no such thing as a "teenage village seer".

I'd have to disagree with both of those points. A veteran can be anyone who's served in the military, though it's usually narrowed down to those who have served in a war. Considering you can join the service at 18 and a war doesn't have to last 20 years, you could easily be in the war for three years or so and become a veteran. You just don't become a rambling old man with a billion war stories until you're a senior citizen and a veteran. Unless you were referring only to real life, where yes, it would be impossible for anyone 27 to be a veteran, unless you consider America's current actions a "war".

As for the thing about a teenage seer, a 'seer' is supposed to be someone gifted with extraordinary wisdom or insight, or a person gifted with clairvoyance; a prophet. I see nothing that would stop a teenager from seeing the future, save the complete inability to do so. A seer doesn't have to be some crotchety old woman who rolls bones in a stone-circled sandpit.

On other matters involving teenage characters, though, I completely agree. For instance, a teenager who is abnormally wise without reasonable justification. Like the one who could hear two adults arguing over the state of the world and interject with some ground-breaking, reality-shattering ramble of epic proportions that transcends human wisdom and leaves listeners in a state of bewildered awe. Or teenagers who are small and slender with almost no muscle development who can, no less, lift a 700 lb. boulder and hurl it at an enemy before brandishing their Buster Sword and executing supernatural abilities - all without the slightest hint of justification.

In the OOC world, I'm annoyed by the use of "godmod" in place of "godmode", because I was RPing before "godmod" was first conceived through some failure in spelling and somehow gained momentum to become an actual term. Godmode - very simple concept. It's even explained in the rules of this forum: in videogames, there is often a "godmode", where you become completely untouchable by absolutely anything and can destroy a galaxy with the bat of an eye-lash.

I also dislike people who feel the need to put something completely unnecessary in their posts just to make their character look awesome or heroic; not necessarily godmoding or even Mary Sue-ing, but just performing some heroic feat just because.

Example:

I was in a loosely FFTA-based RP, and there was a fight breaking out in a tavern. So, there are about six of us in the tavern going at it. One of the bandits has since locked the door and is standing guard over it to make sure the two of us don't escape while the other three bandits are trying to fight us. Everyone who was in the tavern vacated with great haste as soon as the fight broke out. So this other guy, in a single post, kicks the door in (didn't bother to see if it was unlocked or anything...), runs in, completely disregarding the bandit with the gun pointed at the door, notices a child hiding behind the bar (yes, a child at the bar, go figure), hops the bar, grabs the child, runs outside and then reenters the tavern, still disregarding the bandit that could have shot him 20 times by then, and ends his post without having done anything worthwhile. It baffled me...

Most instances aren't that severe, but it does happen pretty often. People try to elaborate on their characters, but instead of doing so properly, they just create this scene for their character to look cool/badass/powerful and manage to play out the entire scene without once giving any kind of elaboration on the character him/herself. It makes me wish for a room full of chairs and big glass windows.

I also seriously dislike a complete lack of logic in an RP. For example, placing an RP in the future and then stripping away future weaponry. A Jedi using a metal katana? Seriously? A jet-pack wearing bounty hunter using a pea-shooter? Not likely...

If you're going to make an RP, or become part of an RP, keep logic in mind, for Heaven's sake. Even if it's post-apocalyptic, that doesn't mean you magically revert to an age of ignorance and a complete lack of anything relatively modern. If the apocalypse began in 2500 A.D., it doesn't mean you're suddenly back to using muzzle-loaders and pellets. It just means that you're using weapons no more advanced than what's available in 2500 A.D., and that ammunition might be harder to get your hands on. It would make less sense to use backwards technology, because that kind of stuff isn't in production anymore in the future! How would it magically survive while the billions of modern-styled guns wouldn't? It baffles me to no end!

That's all for now...

[Fate Flyer]

On other matters involving teenage characters, though, I completely agree. For instance, a teenager who is abnormally wise without reasonable justification. Like the one who could hear two adults arguing over the state of the world and interject with some ground-breaking, reality-shattering ramble of epic proportions that transcends human wisdom and leaves listeners in a state of bewildered awe. Or teenagers who are small and slender with almost no muscle development who can, no less, lift a 700 lb. boulder and hurl it at an enemy before brandishing their Buster Sword and executing supernatural abilities - all without the slightest hint of justification.

If you're going to make an RP, or become part of an RP, keep logic in mind, for Heaven's sake. Even if it's post-apocalyptic, that doesn't mean you magically revert to an age of ignorance and a complete lack of anything relatively modern. If the apocalypse began in 2500 A.D., it doesn't mean you're suddenly back to using muzzle-loaders and pellets. It just means that you're using weapons no more advanced than what's available in 2500 A.D., and that ammunition might be harder to get your hands on. It would make less sense to use backwards technology, because that kind of stuff isn't in production anymore in the future! How would it magically survive while the billions of modern-styled guns wouldn't? It baffles me to no end!

Yes -- I agree with you fully here. I've seen these types of things throughout my past, and it's always usually pretty bothersome or irritating for those role-playing with people that do these types of things or have these kinds of characters.


What do you guys think of pretty characters? I kind of think of characters along the same lines as actors portraying characters in movies. For the most part (especially in Hollywood), they are very attractive people.

Personally, not only am I fine with having good-looking characters, but I also do it myself. Frankly, I just am not interested in controlling a character who resembles a troll, which, I think, is understandable for most people. However, I was a member of a Harry Potter message board awhile back ago once that didn't allow good-looking characters. Your characters all had to be approved first, and if they didn't have a good amount of physical flaws, then they were rejected. I had an issue with choosing pictures of people who were pretty that I wanted to use for my character, and they kept saying I needed to give them more flaws. Eventually, I just decided to make my character myself, so I used a picture of myself for my character, and they still said my character wasn't "everyday human" believable enough! So, needless to say, that was kind of it for me there. XD

[Ragter the junior greeter]

Eventually, I just decided to make my character myself, so I used a picture of myself for my character, and they still said my character wasn't "everyday human" believable enough

so I used a picture of myself for my character

wasn't "everyday human" believable enough

I always knew Fate was more then a human.

To be on-topic, what I hate the most is when a partner in an RP abandons you. For example, you're in a mission based RP, and your partner hasn't posted at all, despite the fact the mission is near a close.

Another thing I hate is when people sign up for a canon character in an RP, and then never show up to play it, a-la my Higurashi RP at RPGateway...

Finally, I obviously hate god-modding and Mary Sues/Gary Stus.

[Weiss]

What do you guys think of pretty characters?

I tend to make attractive characters for most RPs, but there are also times when I feel like it would be more fun to make a character who's completely unattractive in every way. How attractive I make my character usually depends on how charismatic I want that character to be. Obviously, attractive people tend to be more alluring to others, so making a butt-ugly character with a good personality seems less beneficial than making an attractive character who has more prominent flaws in his personality.

When I do make ugly characters, I usually try to give them one major aesthetic flaw. For instance, a character with burn scars on one side of his face, or a - albeit typical - mercenary with a scar running through his left eye from forehead to jaw bone with optional eye patch. The exception here is when I'm making "creatures" or characters who are inherently unattractive, like dwarves and orcs.

I think the main reason people jump on 'attractive characters' these days is because they're too quick to assume that any character described as being even moderately attractive is an Anime-perfect super model. When it comes right down to it, the category defining what's "attractive" is actually quite vague and broad. A character doesn't have to be gorgeous to be pretty, pretty to be cute, cute to be alluring, alluring to be inexplicably charismatic, but RP creators are so biased against attractive people that they don't realize how much they're harming their RP by completely ruling out the idea that any character could ever be even remotely appealing on a physical level.

Characters will be interpreted by each reader. If the reader assumes that someone attractive must be perfect, lacking any flaws whatsoever, then of course they'll think that the character is unrealistic. It just shows how narrow-minded they are in terms of judging people by physical appearance.

---

Anyway, another pet peeve of mine that people may recognize by name alone...

The child from the burned down village!

Seriously, this was a huge thing back in the day. Everyone and their mother (well, not really, since everyone was an orphan) hailed from a burned down village. There were so many villages being burned that the forests were in danger due to rapid thinning for reconstruction projects.

[Ragter the junior greeter]

Hm...What about the idea of the orphan having killed the parents, and not too accidentally either? Haven't heard of that coming up a lot...

But yeah, the burned down village thing? I do tend to hate that...

[Kalon Ordona II]

As far as character-making... I really don't like how so many people do the scar-over-the-eye thing. It's actually pretty hard to get one of those, I would think. If you want a scar, does it really HAVE to be over one eye?

And then, on top of that, most of them with one eye--mostly villains--are excellent warriors. I would think it'd be a bit difficult doing advanced combat without depth perception.

[Ragter the junior greeter]

Hm...now that you mention it...

I just tried that, by squeezing one of my eyes shut tightly and trying to poke that flaming ball in your signature Kalon.

It was pretty tough to even manage to hit it, so now I'm on the same boat as you.

[Adrius Frostglare]

Weiss:

Your argument is interesting and convincing, but that is because you've seen it from a different perspective. When I meant "veteran", I meant indeed the gruff and tough kind that stands out from the rest and is a better fighter and had extensive experience rather than having just survived one or two battles. When I meant "seer", I meant the village status such as the elder of the group rather than a gifted individual who was wise from birth as you described, more "realistic". Perhaps if I switched "veteran" with "general" and "seer" with "elder", my point might have been more emphasized and clear. Not only that, but as several have already stated (yourself included) there would need to be logical explanation IF it did happen.

Still, I find people who have grossly young individuals in high positions on a sort of biased distaste... especially after seeing how Mary Sue 90% of them acted.

In regards to pretty characters... I don't care. There's "pretty people" in the world all around here and there and anyone who really puts too much importance on it, whether in an attempt to avoid it or be part of it, is just as unrealistic as the other. "Perfection", "beauty", and "virtue" are all in the eye of the beholder. For example, the "perfect" character may, by another character's view, be disgusting as hell. Hah! I'd PAY to see that!

"Look at my bouncing golden locks-"
"Oh my gods... it's beautiful..."
"Mmmmyes, it is, isn't-"
"That's the most gorgeous hog-cow I've ever seen!"
"..."

X'D a character who finds the "unattractive" as "attractive"... wonderful.

Guilty as charged on the eye thing for one of my characters, but in my defense he didn't get a scar. Rather, he lost the whole thing along with his right cheek. Yes, he is a master fighter, but that was after years of adapting to the loss of depth perception.

*coughs @ Big Boss*

[Guest]

@ Kalus: I don't know if you are referring to Barthon Camlin or not. If you are, the scar isn't over his eye: its above his eye, just barely showing beneath his hair line and stretching back onto his scalp. If I didn't describe that well enough in the bio, let me know so I can fix it.

[vitamin_kitten]

I have two huge pet peeves when it comes to RPing:

The first is profiles. I hate hate hate character profiles. I have never seen the use of them. Sure, it makes sense for the OP to compile a list of who is playing which characters, just because it helps keep everyone organized. But really? Why do we all need to know the physical description, lifestory, and hobbies of every single character you encounter in the RP? If I'm to be perfectly honest, I never read other people's profiles. When I RP, I prefer some semblance of reality, even if it's completely unreal (magic or the future or something). People don't walk around with their stats pinned to their shirts- I want to meet everyone's characters the same way my character is meeting them. I also see the inability to write a character's description IC, and leaving it to the profile for people to read, as not only pure laziness, but a lack of creativity on the writer's part. If you can't write up a decent description of your character within the context of the RP, then you're not worth my time to RP with. It may be harsh, but that's just how I roll.

Which brings me to my second huge pet peeve: IMAGES. Do not post a picture of an anime character/scene kid from MySpace and say that it's your character. It's not your character- it's whatever that character/person happens to already be; you're just too lazy or uncreative or some combination of the two to create your own character from scratch and then write them into the plot. Though, I must say I definitely hate the latter more than the former. Obviously, because I have written profiles for RPs I'm in now. XD

[Fate Flyer]

Something that I notice all too often is the tragic story of an orphan, whose parents died when they were young. It's like, people don't want to either devote time to developing their parents, or they just feel it would be easier to exclude them from their character's life. This kind of ties in with Weiss's comment, as the burning down of a village, which resulted in the character's parents death, is one common way for characters to be orphans.


I've never not done character profiles for a RP, so I've never known different. I feel a little bare if I don't know about my character or my role-playing partners characters. Then again, I've always been big into writing out every detail of all my characters, including for my short stories. Sometimes, I get so caught up in making my characters, that I never even get around to starting the actual story I've made them for. xD I can understand though how character profiles aren't for everyone or aren't always needed.

[Kalon Ordona II]

@ Kalon: I don't know if you are referring to Barthon Camlin or not. If you are, the scar isn't over his eye: its above his eye, just barely showing beneath his hair line and stretching back onto his scalp. If I didn't describe that well enough in the bio, let me know so I can fix it.

No, it wasn't an offender, it just reminded me of the peeve, is all. ^_^ Actually it's really not so much as a peeve as something I noticed as a cliché pattern.

I hate hate hate character profiles. I have never seen the use of them.

The use for character profiles is for reference. You have to be consistent with your character. Also, it's useful for other players to form a master plan. We're sharing authorship by playing with one another's characters.
So, I think, it depends on what you prefer to get out of a role-play. It is the difference between one who wants to experience a story and one who wants to write a story. Of course everyone is both, but I think some lean toward one or the other.

As for images, I'm totally with you there. I see the same anime characters being used over and over for character appearances, and it gets annoying. I'd blame photobucket, but that wouldn't really be fair.

[Adrius Frostglare]

One more thing about profiles: they outline the obvious, too, things you could notice in a heartbeat, like... maybe that woman character is wearing very manly clothes to hide her identity and therefore, even though OOCly we know it's a woman, it would be unrealistic for our own characters to yell out "Hey, you woman over there!". Also, if a character's limbs are missing.

In terms of personality, though, it's really your choice to read the profile or not, but on physical description I'd highly recommend it.

Completely agree with the anime character image, too... but I would make exclusions for portraits/sketches made of that specific character.

For example, meet the real Mr. Frostglare:



But anyway, character profiles are like passports or legal documents on your character: not everyone has them, but they're still there as a source of private information and, as Kalon said, reference.

Also, just because you know it OOCly does not mean your character does, too. If you can roleplay a character in a fantasy world who doesn't know about guns, jet planes, and all the fancy stuff we got in this here universe, I am sure you can roleplay him or her not knowing what's on the character sheet.

[Kalon Ordona II]

Well yeah, I LOVE original images for characters. (You should be on Elfwood.)

And yes, one specific benefit in profiles is character description, though I agree with Viki that one should also describe the character in the RP. The thing is, usually you don't want to give the WHOLE description the first time you see the character. At least it's that way for me. Though perhaps that's just a side effect of having character profiles in the first place.

Again, though, I think the main purpose of Character Profiles is reference. So you know what you're role-playing, and so people don't have to read every word of the RP to know what your character is like. Even though they should read every word of the RP. ^_^ It's still important to have it all there in a convenient location, to plan character interaction.

[Inerio]

I personally need them in any threads I start.
In the places I've been its been Sue central. Profiles were like a firewall for mary sues. If I thought your character was too super speshal awesome or oh-so-tragic-dark-darky-darkness then I could be like "bitch, get out of my thread". Okay, so I didn't say it like that, but you get the jist of it. Now, profiles are just habitual. Plus, they help you as a writer discover the character.

I hate writing my character's history though. That always frustrates me. I usually find myself developing parents, friends, childhood, adolescence. It turns out to be way too much so I crop it.

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