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A thought occurred to me some time back while browsing TvTropes - why is it that I've never seen a deiselpunk RP setting? I've seen countless steampunk RPs on Gaia and other sites. I've even seen some "clockpunk" (think Da Vinci on steroids) settings in media, like Wakfu and Avatar: The Last Airbender, but haven't yet seen then in an RP. What other settings appear to be damn unicorns in the RP world?

Hey! First off thanks for dropping in! Hopefully am not the one and only lost soul searching for answers about discord. I'm ridiculously new to discord and have zero clue about how to use its features other then the obvious voice/text chat. I made a discord after noticing the popularity surrounding it on numerous rpg sites and now I have no clue how to fully utilize its use. Which leaves me floundering around like a fish out of water. For example what is a bot? Why are there so many of them? What purpose do they serve? Also how do you get more discord members? Can you advertise your discord serve like you do for RPG sites? What I mean by this is there something strictly designed for discord ads? Thus far I have been following the very mature rule of monkey see , monkey do when it comes to my serve by simply adding my discord link along with my site ads. A few other questions are is there anyway to delete messages as a whole, rather then one message at a time? 😒 Whelp, I think that about covers them for now, not that I won't have more later 😂 Again thanks people for anything you can contribute! -CL

This is an observation I've made based on my current site vs others I've created/participated in over the years. DBD is the first site I've been involved with that doesn't really use post templates. We allow them, of course, but my member base just doesn't mess with them much. I enjoy them, but I don't really use them if my thread partners don't. This is the first site where I haven't had a request studio set up to make graphics for other players for that reason. It does seem, though, that sites which use them prolifically attract more new members; and they seem to bring them in more often. So my general question set is: Do you use template use as a metric for joining a site? Are you more or less likely to join a site that frequently uses post templates and graphics? Why? Does having studios that take graphic requests increase your odds of deciding to join a given site? Have you made similar observations?

So I recently left a roleplay community because an admin was sorta an asshole to me. I got a standard PM that said "we're doing an activity check" and I asked "well do you have a list so I can know if I'm a culprit" to be told "NO!" just to get a message a day later to tell me "yes you're a culprit, stop being a dick". To me I am actually more upset that they couldn't just outright tell me when I asked them to tell me in the first place and it's actually what upset me and made me tell them I was leaving fully in the first place. What the point of this is.... why do we beat around the bush? Why do we sit here and try to make nice when we know what we mean? We mince words when we all are here for direct and accurate words? As an admin do you really tell the people that are upsetting you why/what they are upsetting you on? As a member do you appreciate or get upset when an admin is direct with you? Anonymous poster hash: a77f4...15f

So I'm pretty much the only person on my site right now. Everyone is either taking breaks or vanished. [Side note: If you're one of my members who is taking a break, that's fine. I'm just here for advice, not to blame anyone or make anyone feel guilty at all. Stuff happens.] I have one member who was pretty active until about a week ago, and then she slowed down and hasn't really come around. . . . What do I do? I'm sitting here scratching my head trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Horror isn't the most popular genre out there, but it's not niche. I'm constantly trying to fix things up and keep things going, but it doesn't seem to be enough. I've advertised, I've reached out to new members as they join to offer a hand / offer to RP, I've placed up wanted ads in places, I've asked for site feedback, I've looked for affiliates, I've tried to post my ad in different areas where horror might grab attention, I've posted in RP requests on directories, etc. I have a Discord and there are a few people who chat in there, but most of them are casual lurkers who just chill in this part of the community (which I don't mind). Every couple weeks, I'll get people who join, but then they post their app, maybe make a thread, and then vanish without warning. I haven't really had a new member who has actually been involved in the community in quite some time. I've tried to RP with myself, though I find it exhausting and I can't keep it up for too long. But this is a great site (I think), so I don't want to give up. I just don't know what to do from here. Normally my sites are really super popular so I don't have this problem, or I've already given up, so this is a bit of a new position for me. Is my site not appealing? Am I not appealing, like people are scared of me or annoyed by me or something? Have I accidentally broken some ancient taboo rule that I don't know about? Maybe people need their applications approved to feel at ease. Maybe my activity rules are too relaxed. Maybe I'm too wordy in some regard, or too confusing. Maybe my site doesn't have attractive graphics. I just don't know where to go from here, though I know that I don't want to give up.

When you join a new site, in what manner do you want to be included? Describe the ideal behavior you wish the staff and other members to show you to help make you feel at home.

I've brought my baby back online after four years hibernation. It's super exciting, and I'm ecstatic that so many of our old crew have chosen to come back. It's actually floored me how much support we've got. Naturally, there are those who don't have the time, resources, interest or desire to play the characters they did four years ago. In one case, a player who chose not to return had characters with intimate connections to many of my characters. This meant I had to consider her characters in updating what mine had been up to over the last four years, and how those situations had changed. I didn't want to write those characters out of the histories, as there were still more characters that were coming back and getting the stories straight would just be a nightmare. I spoke to the player and she offered me the ability to have those particular characters adopted by other players. I declined the offer---I feel there's way too much history for anyone to be expected to cover, and I didn't think anyone would do them proper justice. So my question is: Have you ever been in a situation where you had to exit another player's character from your character's story? How did you go about it? I feel... very rotten in situations where I've had to portion blame for an argument/break up on a character that can't defend themselves. I've tried to make both sides as blameworthy as the other, but at the same time I don't want to throw my character into excessive turmoil for the sake of a player who isn't coming back. What are your thoughts?

Good Day, I would like to get some feedback and discussions on RPG management best practices. We have done things a certain way for so long, I feel like my sites are getting stale. I run a western set in Hollywood reality, a fantasy (blend of numerous fantasy genres), and a Hollywood 1980s style action-adventure set in current time. We're a very small group of writers and most of us are at all of the games. The lore is minimal at the western and action adventure but there's a massive amount of reading before joining the fantasy. How do you use Discord for your sites? Especially for Nova since it emails out posts to members so it's easy to see tags and whatnot. Having seen the thread about fast post replies, are tagging or posting requirements a thing of the past? How do you keep your players motivated or is it not an issue? I am hoping this thread will provide me with some inspiration. I can tell from reading the various threads here and participating in some of the discussions that I'm very old school! Blessed Be and Warmest Regards, ~ Stormwolfe

Lately I've been itching, and it's something I've scratched at before. My problem here is that I itch and want, but when it comes down to actually joining another site I just can't ever seem to become actually invested in the people. I'm itching for something new,a different scenery. Somewhere with a new storyline, and atmosphere and genre. I don't want to give up what I have, because I adore what I have, but what I need is ...something...new. How do you deal with these urges? Do you just go out and join something new? Do you make new things? I'm getting itchy and it's driving me batty. Making me antsy and just all around causing a loss of muse.

I'm one of those people who actually loves apps, so it's not the app itself that I find kinda weird, but every once in a while I join (or lurk on) a site that pends literally 99.9% of applications. And I just don't understand. Maybe it's because I was a teacher and from a teaching perspective if all your kids are getting D's and F's (which is in essence what pending is, right?), then something is wrong with either your explanation or your expectations. Since most writers on roleplay sites -- especially not-beginner sites -- know how to write an app/character... Anyway, it just seems like if everyone is getting pended, maybe its time to separate out more sections for your application or make more clear requirements to help guide people towards what you're looking for? I dunno.

Sunny: How many members do you have on your forum? O: 'Souls has about 70, with 177 currently active played characters.

Okay, So I was at my favourite comic book store talking to some fellow nerds today about our usual stuff (aside from comics of course) and someone asked an interesting question with regard to Star Trek in its various forms. (Of course, I suppose this would also apply to any fandom really, but let's not get ahead of ourselves). If the various crews of Star Trek, from The Original Series right through to Discovery, got together and held a karaoke night. What songs do you think each character would sing? I instantly responded with Spock singing The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, backing it up with his Vulcan Lute because Leonard Nimoy! Thoughts?

Music can be great creative fuel, and oftentimes I find listening to trailer music scores help me with general writing. I also find that particular songs remind me of one or two of my characters, and by playing that song or a playlist of songs that reflect my character help me write more. I know others who have playlists for their characters, though sometimes these are more IC playlists rather than ones the writer themselves uses for muse. What's your take on using music to fuel inspiration?

Just curious if anyone has an opinion on this? You do a post... How long do you want to/have to wait before that new reply arrives from your partner? Does someone immediately replying put you on edge, or do they just have to wait however long until you reply again? Does it matter more about platform or board than about speed?

Hello Initiative Fam! Been a minute since I posted a thread. And well, not only was it about time- but I got a thing going on. Mind you, I'm not against pregnancy plots- though I've never done one. And I hate being a plot killer, but I got a bit of dilemma. I have a member who wants to do a pregnancy plot, the outcome being a baby. We are a 3-3-3 site, DC Canons Only (We'll get that right out of the way). We've been pretty strict on aging up character just due to the explicit nature of the site, and unfortunately we had problems in the past, so we are probably a bit more strict on it than most sites based on experiences. Back to the point. We don't allow OCs, so creating a character, even a baby is out of the question. Also using a playable character and making them a baby for two characters that aren't canon-wise the parents, is also a bit too much for the site. This is the first time this has been an issue and the first time pregnancy has been brought up. Any one have any suggests on rules or guidelines for pregnancy plots? Or any of their own experience in this department? I would love to hear! And I'll update this, as staff is still attempting to make a decision of how we should proceed. Thank you! <3 BAMF

So, those who know me in the RP world probably know I have little love for celebrity play-bys, both because I don't like a few associated attitudes and because sadly I understand legalese a bit too well for my own good. However, I also realize that their use is so prominent that a good number of people won't join if they can't use their favorite face or image set. As a result, now that I'm working on a new project, one that I'd hope could reach a decent audience, I find myself wondering if I should follow what I like (that'd be stock photos, original art, or no image), or if it'd kill the project from the start. I don't like compromises for popularity, but it's a shame when you work too hard on something that is doomed from the start. That's why I'm asking for some additional opinion on the point: if you liked the concept, would you join a board that uses no celebs? Do you think that more in general the RP world has some space for such things, or is almost entirely dependant on the celebrity world?

Chatplaying is something I've always found fun to do, so I thought I'd make a topic to talk about it! Chatplaying, for those of you that don't know, is typically just dialogue between characters with minimal description of actions done over some form of instant messenger, like a cbox, Skype, Discord, etc. Sometimes there is some setting which the chatplay takes place in, and on forums that have a chatplay cbox they often are considered to take place in an alternateish reality where villains and heroes alike can coexist in relative peace in some neutral location, like a bar. Those types of chatplays tend to be without much in the way of a plot (though not always) and put emphasis on quick, short replies. In general, it may be similar to some IRC roleplays but is not necessarily the same thing, as some IRC roleplays want multiple paragraphs and writing on them can be as time consuming as posting on a forum. In the forum roleplaying community, there are a number of different opinions on chatplaying. Some people think it's a nuisance, others don't mind it, and others love it. So how about you? Personally, I love chatplaying! It's a fun and silly way to unwind, and can be done if I don't necessarily have an interest in posting in a really intense and emotionally taxing thread, for example. It can also be a fun way to have a character interact with someone they otherwise wouldn't be able to, in a setting that doesn't involve getting killed or mutilated or all other fun manner of things. I also chatplay outside of my main RP with buddies every now and then, just for kicks.

This is a question for people who enjoy (or even dabble in) playing canon characters from various fandoms. It can be any genre or medium. When you choose a Canon, what type of history do you prefer in your choice of character: Do you like to take a character who's series/story is already completed or do you prefer to work with a canon who's story is still "in progress". If you take a character from the "middle" of a series, do you then incorporate the new information in your RP as its released, or try to work the same "reveals" into your RP in order to make the transition more organic? For example, about half way through season 2 I decided to try a hand as RPing Lucifer Morningstar from, well, Lucifer. But now that we're starting season 3, I'm finding myself at odds at whether I want to play him as "current" after the Mom Saga is taken care of, create a new "mom saga" in RP to bring him up to speed organically, ignore the Mom Saga all together for the time being and hope that certain character traits he currently has return for season 4, or ignore the show and treat RPing with Lucifer as an Alternate Timeline.

I think we can agree that roleplaying is for fun and isn't a competitive event. But what about improving one's writing skills or expecting others to be good writers? As a roleplayers, I don't see much discussion or emphasis in techniques and improving writing skills. We talk about making better characters or describing the characters' surroundings or the age-old "quality vs. quantity" argument, but the only time we ever get into being a good writer, it's encouraging things that DON'T make someone a good writer. For example, going in-depth with description doesn't make you a better writer - it allows the other players to understand the setting or character background more fully. Sure it has the potential of making somebody's writing better but it doesn't really improve one's ability to write. Instead it's a blanket statement that is expected to work for every writer in just about every scenario. I'd love to see more emphasis on grammar, diction (making word choice appropriate for the character/scenario), not telling too much, flow of sentences / sentence structure, narrative, etc. These things are incredibly important for writing and they're so often overlooked. There are other topics that are more specific to roleplay (ex: how to make characters important without stealing the spotlight, or how to work on character arc / development through roleplay posts) which would also be really neat. Even though this is just a hobby, we can improve our writing, too. I think people are so quick to brush things off because "it's just a game and people don't want to stress about things" which is true. But even with other hobbies, you still push yourself to become better. No one wants to paint for years and never become any better. Sure, you can switch types of paints and canvases or explore other topics to paint, but you don't dismiss improving your painting techniques because "it's just a hobby" and whatnot. I've considered making documentation for the RP community focusing specifically on writing techniques, but then I fear people would expect me to be a really, really good writer. I'm pretty mediocre, and I try to get better, but I don't think I have the skills to be telling others how to write. It's a pretty tricky topic. I love playing with a variety of people, and with that comes a variety of skill levels. There are level-specific sites, but those are most often based on quantity and how well you can describe your environment, not actual writing skill. We say quality over quantity but we don't talk about how to achieve quality or what it really means. Thoughts / ideas / insight / experiences? It would be awesome if we could explore writing skills in the roleplay world.

How do you feel about the mobile option on sites? I've had issues in the past where the mobile looked nothing like the true skin, or it hide things that needed easier access too. Because of this we've turned off the mobile version of our site for the time being until we can figure a way to have everything pretty easy to find. This has made me curious how everyone feels about the mobile versions. Do you use it? Do you automatically switch to the desktop? Do you even know that's an option for your devices(or computer going into mobile)? I know it helps save data because your device isn't trying to load everything all at once, it only pulls up what is new, considered more important, but you spend more time searching through to find what you are looking for if maybe you're a new member trying to find all the hoopla, or a member who's lost access to a computer, only just found a link for your phone in an old email after a week and all your posts are buried. I've completely lost track of threads because they were hidden and I just couldn't actually get to them without the direct link.

Okay, so this applies more to those of us who RP in a fandom... but does anyone go to communities targeted at your fandom and try recruiting there? I mean, like I run a Star Trek RP, and I'll go hang out on social media with other Trekkies, but they aren't always set up in a way that welcomes RP recruiting without it being disruptive to the group. Anyone have experience with these sorts of groups and how you can recruit without being disruptive? @Morrigan

I propose to you this question: Is roleplaying harder than it used to be? This can, of course, have a variety of meanings. What I'm more specifically looking at is that I've seen people post many places on the Initiative (myself included) about how things are more challenging or more time consuming or more intensive than they used to be back when most of us started roleplaying 5, 10, 15+ years ago. This has been said about being a member and about running a site, so although I had to choose a prefix for the topic title, it could apply to either. In my opinion, I believe it is more difficult than it was previously, and I believe that this perception stems from the overall aging of the roleplay community combined with the onslaught of labor-intensive trends upon which people place so much value. Maybe it's because I myself am getting older (I'm 30 now and I was 18 when I started RPing), but the general age and "maturity" of roleplayers has shifted noticeably on this part of the internet. Those who were 15, 16, 17 are now closing in on thirty. The genres and topics that captivated the attention and interest of teenagers and early 20-somethings are now something of the past, replaced by more mature themes and premium boards and roleplays that don't accept people under 18. Things don't appear to be as "lighthearted" as they were. That's not to say that lighthearted roleplay doesn't exist or that more mature and darker roleplays weren't around before. But the proportion of each has changed, and it seems that there are higher standards held in place for people in order to join and be a part of communities. Due to the fact that we are aging, people's IRL schedules have had to adjust to make way for adult commitments and relationships. Writing a few posts between classes has translated to trying to squeeze time between coming home from work and putting the kids to bed. People are more considerate of their time constraints and are less likely to jump into new sites. This means that they want to know with more certainty that they really want to be a part of the community they join rather than just joining to see how it goes and ending up sticking around because it turns out that they like it. Historically speaking, I used to get a fair number of people who joined because they weren't certain but they had the time, energy, and interest to take a risk by trying something new. Similarly, around RP community discussion forums, I see topics about flakiness and how to handle people who go MIA and how irritated people are when members vanish. Quite understandably, this can be very irritating for a staff member. But at the same time, if you're not certain you want to join a site, you don't have tons of time, you have matured a little bit over the years, and now you are also aware of the impact that hit-and-run members can make on a site, you're probably going to be less likely to join because you don't want to be that person. People have also become much pickier. Which might be somewhat subjective, especially because people have always been pretty picky to some extent. To some extent, I think it goes hand-in-hand with what I've already mentioned. People have matured, they know what they want, and they don't have the same amount of time that they used to. However, I think there is another component in here, in that people really have become finicky about what they want, and they're not going to settle. Instead, they search and search and search in order to find something that caters to whatever long list of stuff they desire in a roleplay, which means that overall they're joining fewer sites to try things out. Compromising and trying new things is becoming less of an option, which is a pity because sometimes you end up missing out on cool opportunities. The trends, as mentioned, have become more labor intensive. We used to know basic skinning, but now that people have extended their skills, the few elite have set new standards and now we need to have super cool fancy skinning skills. The amount of time and energy that goes into making all of the fancy codes and html templates and whatever else is absolutely insane, and though I don't think anyone is actually insane for doing it, I do think it's a bit silly that all sites are expected to be fancy to the extreme in order to be competitive. Even if you use a pre-made skin, the installation process is quite intense. It used to be that you could drop in the HTML/CSS and a few graphics and you were good. But now you also have those things plus mini-profile templates, HTML templates, do-HTML / BB code post templates, etc. And that's just for getting the board started. Members need to now sift through do-HTML applications and other coding, provide a plethora of images for their character (which may or may not include moving gifs), use templates on sites for just regular posts, etc. It's so time consuming in order to get involved in a site, that if you were uncertain about a board, you might not join just because you don't want to slog through all of this crap. It would be easy for someone to say, "If you don't like the trends, don't do it," but I also don't think it's a realistic mindset if you want to capture people's attention. People have become used to seeing the visuals and judging sites based on their visuals . . . it's hard to turn off that part of the brain that has been trained to "judge a book by it's cover" because that's what covers are for - to give you insight into the book you're about to read. Further, I find that when previous trends were going around, it was easier to say no to them. For example, word counts used to be all the rage. Sure, people might pass your site up if you didn't attach a word count, but there were still plenty of people willing to join said sites. Nowadays, you find fewer people making "non-pretty" sites than you used to find people making "no word count" sites back in the heyday of word counts. Possibly things will change, and I hope they do. (After writing all that, I should probably switch my major and write my thesis about the rise and fall of roleplay communities or something.)

Many of us can agree that exploring outside your comfort zone is a good thing. I'd like to hear your stories and your general advice. Did you experience successes, or would you have considered your adventures into the "unknown" to be failures? If you're someone who prefers to stick with what you know, in what ways would you like to explore your limits? It's been a bit since I've really challenged myself, so I decided to take a leap into the (mostly) unknown. Recently I watched a documentary on the Quiverfull movement. (For those who don't know, it's an extreme conservative Christian denomination that believes children are a gift from God and reproduction should be frequent. Purity and submission to authority are also huge components, and just about every other Christian is like "wtf?" about it. It's pretty much what the Duggars believe, though I think they claim to not follow it.) From that, I decided to make a character who was a part of a Quiverfull family, and then I decided to open it up for all my members if they wanted to join. I'm not certain I've ever taken on a character who has such a significant mental impediment. I've played characters who have had anxiety or other mental disorders, but nobody who is so utterly brainwashed that he/she can't function normally while at the same time looks like he/she functions normally. It's such a complex range of emotions to be battling what one is taught to believe is right with what the character feels, the whole time knowing that any thought out of line could be a straight ticket to eternal damnation, thus resulting in suppression of emotion and guilt. I'm sure that many of us can sympathize with conflicts between what's "right" and what "feels right" within our worlds, but these particular characters will have to struggle with natural desires and thoughts. The hardest part, I think, is portraying it realistically. Making it convincing. The few times that I've seen people play super religious characters, they seem to be reduced to a caricature of what society tell us a super religious person looks like. So my goal is to make something that really portrays the psychological reasons for living this lifestyle while not blatantly relating everything back to "I have to do this because God will punish me." That's what's going to challenge me the most.

How do you feel about lurkers in your rp? I'm talking about the members who joined the forum (or other form of rp), but never really made the effort to create a character or join in the community. Members who login every few days and just sort of...sit there. Maybe they're reading threads, maybe they're not, but they're just kind of...there. What do you think about them? Or ave you ever been an rp lurker? Have you liked an rp so much that you wanted to be a part of it without actually writing in it, so you joined it and just let your account sit? What would make you do this? I ask because we recently had one on our site, and now we might have another, and I'm not sure how I feel about them! Should I feel flattered that we write content worthy of having lurkers who actually register? Should I be concerned that maybe they're stealing content? Maybe they joined so they could get alerts when topics they follow get new replies! Or maybe they're taking codes and content that aren't available to the public. It's impossible to know for sure, so I don't really have an opinion, but I'm curious about what others think!

This topic has been floating around in some way, shape, or form in various threads recently, so let's talk about it. While I like that the roleplaying community tries to be inclusive and understand that people have different experiences and lifestyles, I find the overwhelming "trend" of political correctness tiring. (Why, then, did I start a thread about it? Because talking about things is good, okay.) People have taught me many things I wasn't aware of years ago, and sometimes I sit there and go, "Huh? I didn't think about that. Neat." But more often than not, I find myself rolling my eyes because there are so many hypocrisies associated with it. Hypocrisies such as "Be who you are because you're wonderful . . . unless I don't like who you are, then you're a bigot." If you don't believe exactly what these "inclusive and accepting" roleplayers believe, you're going to be labeled as being hateful and mean. I have seen conversations in which these so-called accepting folk gang up on someone who has very similar beliefs--but not exact--and tear this person to shreds. I have seen people not give a new member the benefit of the doubt and destroy him within his third post on a site because he said something that didn't fall into the "politically correct" sphere of acceptable speech, even though his post did not break rules, nor was it offensive by general standards. As for myself, I remember a thread in which people who claim that all sexualities and lifestyles are acceptable turn around and rip out my throat because I stated that I wasn't attracted to [insert sexual preference here]. To me, it seems to be a trend of aggression and arrogance, and it's a bit upsetting to see that people are using such tactics to bully folks into believing what they believe to be correct. (Which may or may not be, depending upon the situation and one's personal beliefs.) Unfortunately, people are giving into this bullying and are changing their sites and their ideologies to match the ideologies of these "politically correct" people in a couple of ways. The first is that we've seen a trend towards catering to everybody's specific sexualities and pronouns and whatnot to the point where people are treading gently on glass in an attempt to not offend people. You can't assume somebody's pronoun because that's apparently offensive; instead, you have to ask for others pronouns and outright state your own. You can't get pronouns wrong, either. You have to think about the folks who might be offended, even though most people would be like, "Hey, you called me 'he' but please call me 'she'" and that's the end of that. The second--and the one that I, personally, find more problematic--is the political correctness that has to take place in character. Characters can't be racist or sexist or whatever-ist, even subtly, because players don't know if other players will find it offensive. And because people have trouble separating IC from OoC (which is an issue not related to political correctness), you really risk having people think that your character's beliefs are actually your beliefs. And if somebody does have an -ist character, it's usually a big -ist that's noticeable and comprises the personality of the character. Such characters need tags and warning and whatever else so that other people can avoid them if they want, rather than having characters find out through gameplay that they don't like the behavior of the other character. I know that there is a character I wanted to play, but I couldn't ever really play him because joining a site and making a racist character right off the bat freaks people the hell out. So I'd have to water him down, which really just wasn't the character I made. The third issue goes along with the hypocrisy. It's disheartening to find people who say, "I'd never roleplay with somebody who voted for [insert politician here]!" And if you say, "Well just don't talk politics," the response is along the lines of, "But they're horrible if they voted for that person and I just don't want to be around them." What the everliving crap??? You, who claim to be so inclusive, have just excluded half the country. You, who ask people to understand your struggles and to be sympathetic to your concerns, are unwilling to understand that people have their own concerns and their own reasons for voting for a different political candidate. You don't try to be sympathetic to the reasons that person voted as they did. You don't want to know about the struggles they have. Instead you call them all hateful bigots and shut them out of your lives. What a dangerous attitude. People pressure diversity and inclusion, but they're not really willing to help out. I've always scratched my head at the whole "We need more black characters!" and if you ask how to play a black character, they say, "Oh, they're just like playing white characters, duh." But then at the same time there are conversations going on about how white people don't understand the struggles that black people go through, and how white people can never understand even if they tried. But if you try again, you'll get the same "No, really, they're just like white people. Play them all the same." That said, I really like some of it, too. I enjoy people telling me about different cultures and lifestyles and disorders and whatever. It makes one realize that people come from such different background and have different experiences, and these help form why they make the decisions and live the way they do. I've learned so much about people's religions and cultures and societies by spending time with a variety of folk and asking questions (when people are okay with it) to find out more about their lifestyles. Discussions about PB race made me realize that while most people use white PBs, some folk do want to variety, so I try to include more diversity in site adoptables. I've been made aware of different topics, and I'll go and look up documentaries about different lifestyles or situations to learn more about these topics. I just fear that people are so concerned with being politically correct and not offending people that they are unable or unwilling to open themselves up and explore different topics and ideas and experiences. And that's why I made this thread. What are your thoughts and experiences?