What Bad RP Habits Do You Have?

[Maena]

I've written with a lot of people who had difficulties telling me if there are problems so I find myself stopping, perhaps excessively, to OOC discover if things are going well or if I need to correct anything. Which has more than once just given people the feeling like I'm bored with what they're doing when actually things are going well until I gave them horrific anxiety.

Bad experiences have given me the inability to just jump into an RP with a stranger without extensive talks about the RP or expectations and simultaneously the inability to want to craft a brand new character for something that may only last four posts or a couple weeks. All of which has put off numerous more casual RPers.

Hyper fixating on a story. Like, it feels bad if a story doesn't work out. I know the chances of any RP actually coming to any kind of satisfying conclusion is next to zero (all RPs, I find, end with someone getting bored and moving on to something or someone else) but it shouldn't outright ruin my day. Hell, if it's a blow with the writing partner themself I find myself going back over the discussion/argument days, weeks, or even years later poking at things in my head from different angles like I could potentially make things better now when the whole stupid thing is long over.

Naturally, I have other ones too. I remember a fun word that isn't used as much and have to watch I don't add it two or three times in the same post. Part of me wants to try to narrate my character's thoughts and feeling, but I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be better to try to describe the character's body language to allow people to come to their own conclusions about how they're feeling. Except in settings when telepaths and empaths are involved, of course.

 

[Oraclex]

I never write requests quite as well as I write when I'm actually writing the story. It's such a shame.

 

[Baka]

I can be too lenient and open to things my partners suggest even if I'm not 100% sure if I enjoy them.

I am also really bad at saying 'no' or call the planning-process a quit if I change my mind.

Trying to fix these habits one step at a time, but it's been hard, especially when some people react extremely negatively to rejection of any kind in the places I have roleplayed.

 

[Tempestuous]

I reveal way to many kinks of mine that it can be overwhelming sometimes

 

[Ascensionism]

i'm flexible to a fault when it comes to plots and have a hard time saying no to things that i'm not open to changing.

i've also had a tendency to go on hiatus without telling ANYONE and pop back up in my rp partners' inboxes weeks or months later like "hey bestieee" (actively working on both of these habits)

 

[SoleAccord]

When a particularly juicy story-driven scene is occurring, I can't just choose a single perspective to use, and I bounce between two perspectives by using this:

---

I know I should pick a perspective and stick with it for a scene, but it's tough when there's no wrong answer, and two perfectly right ones.

 

[asmodeus]

revealing too much in the plotting stage, it ends up a bit less fun when (if) we get to it in the actual story, cause... it's not that exciting? i suppose it comes from experiences as a new roleplayer, back when i was younger, and i'd have pivotal character development moments without necessarily informing my partner of what i intended to do, and got accused of like... hijacking the plot? which, in hindsight, i think is pretty stupid. you don't need to know my character's every move, and if you know everything that's going to happen, what's the point of writing it at all?​

 

[blaze gamma]

Staying on task/focused. That or being meandering during smut. Think it's why I got ghosted a lot back on a previous site.

 

[Blackmane]

Dropping the ball on a post, not telling my partner to retcon it, and end up with a ruined story.

Trust me when I say its best to go back a few posts and do a do-over than end up with an unsatisfying story because of a momentary error of judgement.

 

[WinterReaper]

Getting bored of rps when my partners take forever to respond. Dropping them so easily when they original character pairings. Not telling a partner when their post ruins the story.

 

[littlechair]

I get discouraged too easily. Not to say I always give up on things. But I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I tend to have the flawed view that if something doesn’t perfectly all throughout the process or event it’s not worth finishing, that it would be better to give up or start over.

 

[PolterGuess]

I plot too far ahead and then my partner or myself lose focus.

 

[t-mase]

My biggest bad habit, in my own opinion, is writing a reply and not liking it so I write it again and again. I always worry that I’ve said to much, not enough, moved things to far on etc etc. Before I know it, several hours have passed on said reply and it’s likely close to my bedtime owing to doing most of my replies at night. I wouldn’t say I’m a perfectionist but, I’m a perfectionist !

 

[Vallik1309]

The title says it all, what are some of the things that you know are bad but keep falling into, specifically about roleplaying and other related activities? It could be something minor like reusing phrases or plots shamelessly or it could be the ones that we all know about, the constant bumping and waiting for someone to be interested instead of trying to roleplay with the people that you're already roleplaying. Let's be reasonable though and not get into any inflammatory topics here. I'll admit to bumping my threads and waiting for like an hour to see if anyone is interested despite me having plenty of people I'm roleplaying with and it's not necessarily disinterest in my own RPs, it's just wanting to see if anyone wants something else, filling a craving that's not being satisfied by my current RPs. And I know it's a bad habit, it's why I'm posting it here.

Some times I don’t know how to respond so I don’t say anything accidentally killing the roleplay

 

[Exemplary Characters]

I use passive voice formations at times when they're not warranted, and I have a bad habit of using language that isn't committal, such as "Had begun to," "Almost like," "As though," "Almost as if," "Not unlike," etc.

 

[New Moon]

I often catch myself unstuck in time. Starting a post off in past tense, and then somewhere along the line everything is written in the present!

 

[hucow]

I've had a bad habit of dropping the ball when life gets overwhelming (and it has a lot this year) without a heads up.
by the time I have the capacity to come online again, I feel like it's too late to even ask partners if they want to continue.

 

[Vapor Phoenix]

• Being a freelancer – there are periods of my life when I have a lot of time and ones with multiple deadlines. I tell my partners that I will be away. But almost always wrong about estimates. I can say "I'll be away for a week or two". But it takes me a month to deadlines resolved, and then put my life back on track.

Sorry for the whole necro (although this convo is still active but still) but this happened a lot to me. I will be working on a project or two which are a bit intensive so I don't have much time to rp. Or I could have written so much that I am feeling like I got a cloud instead of a brain in my head when I finish. People don't take absence very lightly and/or lose interest if one is gone for 3 days. Like, sure; I get it with all the ghosting but it is a bummer.

 

[Revelations]

I've had a bad habit of dropping the ball when life gets overwhelming (and it has a lot this year) without a heads up.
by the time I have the capacity to come online again, I feel like it's too late to even ask partners if they want to continue.

Same, to be honest. I'm incredibly guilty of this.

 

[MaxMax]

I've had a bad habit of dropping the ball when life gets overwhelming (and it has a lot this year) without a heads up.
by the time I have the capacity to come online again, I feel like it's too late to even ask partners if they want to continue.

I have the same problem, though I learned to warn people (but I'm bad with estimates). But more importantly good at coming back to people, and reviving the RPs.

Obviously most people find new things. But I have some RPs which we continue for 4-5 years with 2-3 month breaks due to deadlines and other problems from the working-life. Don't know your exact context, but I would say – don't worry about coming back to people, worst thing, they'll say they don't have time.

 

[Ekotl]

I sometimes write very little, like only a sentence or two, and I know it makes it harder for my rp partner to continue as they have less to work with. Another thing is that I get easily distracted, sometimes going around 9+ hours from continuing the rp

 

[Vapor Phoenix]

I sometimes write very little, like only a sentence or two, and I know it makes it harder for my rp partner to continue as they have less to work with. Another thing is that I get easily distracted, sometimes going around 9+ hours from continuing the rp

I would argue that sometimes, less is more tho. Especially in situations that require to mimic the immediateness of an actual interaction between two characters. Besides, sometimes longer replies can tangle continuity if you have a partner that replies to EVERYTHING.

Bad Habit from me: Losing interest quickly, but not the way most people would imagine. If we have something going, I am likely to stick around, do some OOC chat and stuff. BUT if I wait too long for a yes or a no when I am applying for an rp, I default to taking it as a no.