What am I doing wrong?

I want people to read my roleplays. Those that are continuing, and the one that is locked. I wish you could read my PMs that have been dropped. Every single person who has left, and that already fills up both hands, have done so without telling me why, or worse yet, have ignored my PMs. This is why in later bumps of my threads, I have said be serious and understand my limits. If I am never told how to get better, how can I learn? Ignoring me without telling what I did wrong? That hurts.

Unfortunately, it's an endemic problem to a community like this, I've found, with no real solution. The thing is that nothing encourages any kind of accountability with duly informing someone of a dropped RP, nor is there anything to discourage a lack of accountability. Sad fact is the majority of RPers will drop RPs without a word, often simply because they're bored, and won't say so (and in some cases, don't feel obligated to answer querying PMs from someone wondering why they're dropped). It's more a laziness/no incentive issue (but you can at least check if it was a likely IRL issue--if a partner goes silent in your RP, but is still active and picks up new ones, yeah, they kinda suck. But if someone vanishes off the face of the forum and doesn't log in, or doesn't respond to -any- RPs, it's more than likely something IRL got in the way and not their fault, or they can't work up the mental energy to post).

Really, there's not much you or anyone can do except personally blacklist such people (not that they're ever likely to RP with you again anyway) and move on and try and find someone else.


One thing I do note from your RPs is that you seem to do short/bullet-post RPs. -Generally- speaking (not an absolute truth), it seems to me people engaged in bullet-post RPs tend to be flighty and drop things as quickly as they pick them up. My reccommendation would be to stop posting with your cell phone and only post on a real computer, and find RPers who write longer posts at a slower pace. Sometimes, people willing to do that stay engaged longer.

That I can understand. Three have given me the courtesy of letting me know if RL gets in the way. I think I may have to get their permission to specifically name them. Two are currently off for this week, and the other just got back. Once the long-terms are over, I'd gladly play with them again. I doubt they'll end soon, though and that's fine too.

Well, I haven't read your threads, but here are a few things that turn a lot of players off (from what I've noticed):

Lack of interaction--there's not enough back and forth for it to be a fun roleplay. They need to be able to make responses to what you post. That means that you need to post something for them to respond to. Give them more than just actions and dialogue. Give them thoughts to work with, perspectives of characters, etc.

Too much interaction--Ironically, there can be too much of a good thing. You can't just post two or three sentences and expect to get a quality post in return unless someone just died. And even that kind of groundbreaking event is no guarantee.

Lack of spell check--It's super annoying to put effort into a roleplay only to see that your partner doesn't even take the time to make sure that they haven't made any glaringly obvious typos. I understand that sometimes there is a need for speed, but glance up and fix a mistake once in awhile. If I have to guess what you mean, it's not a good post, and it will definitely weaken my desire to play with you.

Really bad grammar--This is a personal pet peeve of mine because I'm an English teacher. That's what I do. But this is a problem for a lot of people because grammar often sets tone or actual meaning. If you do it wrong, your message won't get across well, and you'll have a partner who is less willing to post because they would rather play than try to decipher what you've written.

These are the things I've noticed most in my experience that people do to kill rps, and they're the most common mistakes that the widest variety of people make. I hope it helps.

Interesting. I held off on thoughts because they weren't spoken. I will definately incorporate that more often... Thank you.

I'm still new to RP on forums (but not to RP itself) and I have also found that some will just drop a RP without saying why. I can though see why RP's are sometimes dropped as I have dropped some myself.

- Chemistry, this is probably the most important element, how well do you get along and "mesh" style wise with your partner, are you giving each other what you need.

- Being polite, it is hard to say "Hey I'm bored etc" easier to just ignore sadly enough.

- Is the main part of the RP over with nowhere left to go? Has it run it's course?

Just some more possibilities as to why RP's die sometimes.

it just about has with Bionic, I think, rooster. I want to check to be sure; if it is, we'll hurry up and nab the final general. The others were just underway in most cases, so I have to go with what two of you said about no reason at all. (which really sucks, by the way.)

simpleroleplayer said:

Interesting. I held off on thoughts because they weren't spoken. I will definately incorporate that more often... Thank you.

Click to expand...

I wondered about this as well but the thing is if the two characters are in a room together they might be able to pick up a vibe etc from each other and therefore have some ability to pick up what each other is thinking.

The other thing is it allows your RP partner an insight into how you are building your character and what type of person they are and how they react to your character.

Just makes it all a little more real.

Adding in thoughts as well as description of setting is vital. Often people who roleplay aren't just roleplaying, they are building a story with you, description is something that simply makes for a good story. I can almost garentee you you have not read any novel that does not include more than just actions, there are thought description, description of setting, sometimes forshadowing of things to come etc. So If you only include actions this could be why your threads get dropped. Keep in mind I have not read any of your posts, so I don't know what your style is really like, I am only going off of things you have said in this thread. So try adding more depth to your posts, give your partner something to work with.

It was a few months back when I first commented on this thread and I was still new to RP on a forum. Thinking about the topic now I think some of the reasons why RP's get dropped have little to do with the style or ability of the writer(s) at all.

1/ One person gets bored with the RP, the suspense or interest has gone for them. Or the main idea of the RP has been played out and they have no other interest in the story even if the story has only just begun.

2/ One person feels the other isn't "getting the rp" the way they do.

3/ One person has writers block, or gets busy with their "real" life and drops it.

It is a shame that people can't let others know why they don't want to continue, perhaps they know there isn't really a reason anyway. I find it most frustrating when a RP is only getting started and they pull out!