Overplotting

[Cydaea]

I've seen it. Iny my mind it depends how you plot, and how you think. There are details you can cover that don't strictly say how you're going to write something, preserving the charm of writing. There's the contrast where sometimes people think about a idea, plan it out including practical details (perhaps even not) and that is psychologically as good as writing it with none of the juicy prose. It's very real, but who it affects and how much is not a universal rule.

 

[LunarStar]

It's definitely a balancing act between having enough of a road map to know you are both compatible as partners and know the general direction your headed in as opposed to just jumping straight in and not having a clue or your partner takes it in some crazy detour.

I have tried doing RP's with minimal set up and at times when they started I realized my partner (who was keen to start) didn't tell me the name of their character let alone age, description etc Not good when YC and their character are supposed to know each other!

Exactly. It's also alright for a either partner not to know each others character under the right setting, but as you mentioned, if they already knew each other, character sheets. Or at least enough info should be put in the opener.

I've had more grief with minimal detail regarding certain plots that people wanted to take to things I didn't want it to like the good old classic "Oh an alien plot? Lets try to make it into the kind that the alien visits earth for the sole purpose to create a sex army! Because that's totally original and interesting."

 

[Poise]

Part of the thrill for me in roleplaying rather than writing my own stories is that I don't know everything that's going to happen in the roleplay. In fact, I mostly prefer it that way. Plotting and setting the tone, limits, boundaries of writing is necessary - especially when building rapport with a partner - but then plotting every single detail of the scenes takes away the element of surprise and the back and forth that you can have with a roleplaying partner.

 

[Silvered Sutures]

I think it's kind of like a joke; when you explain it, you understand it, but it ruins the punchline.

 

[NightFairy]

It ruins the element of surprise for me. If we have written down every detail, what else is there to write? It's far more enjoyable with general guidelines and filling the gaps as we go.