Jump to content

Do you Pre-ship?


Morrigan
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Admin

So I've been roleplaying for.... lets just say a really long time.

 

As it stands one of my biggest pet peeves of RP is sometimes "expected ships". You have this PB so you must be my XYZ!!!! Normally XYZ is my significant other. So the person has no idea what your character is about, if your characters are compatible or hell..... anything more than you used a face they are, in fact, in love with.

 

For me its a daunting thing. I don't choose a lot of PBs that people see and by default demand a romantic or similar relationship with but when I do.... its like they expect me to drop everything and fill their fantasies.

 

As such, over the past few years I've developed RP partners and tactics to avoid this.

 

How? you may ask?

 

Well for me I utilize my RP partners as exclusive ships for particular reasons. So I don't leave romance up to "OMG YOU'RE USING THAT FACE!" I additionally choose to have most of my characters in an existing relationship, even if the character is an NPC. It limits the crazy of people trying to ship with me based on nothing more than a PB it also makes my characters easier to play because I'm not there to jump on someone sexually in every thread.

 

So... for me... Do you pre-ship? Do you have RP partners that you exclusively or mostly exclusively ship with? How do you get around the "I want to bone your PB" dilemma but still get to enjoy your RP?

  • Fuck Yeah! 1
  • Love 1

0_mainsignature.jpg

image.png

Profile set made by myself and original Artwork by Fae Merriman, my daughter.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not pre-ship, every time I have, it ends up failing after a bit.  That being said, most of the characters that have anything close to a romantic partner have ended up being the same person, though not by design.  Honestly, I have no problem with people wanting to RP with my character because of the face that I might find for them...but I make it clear that any romantic things are going to develop at the pace of the RP and through writing, not because it is forced.  Every time I have forced shipping, it really does either kill the muse or break the character.

 

Your solution seems rather smart though, putting them in a relationship with a NPC as that would then let anything happen more organically and take the pressure off you to make it happen.

Co-Founder|Adminspacer.png - Multiparagraph RPer/freeform writer - Genre Preference - DARK like my heart....Bwahaha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends.

 

The answer can be yes, if I'm rping with certain characters and certain partners who I've written with before. We may have characters that were built to be shipped together, or that get along super well and so the ship is natural (we may know this from bringing them from another site/setting or from light verbal or chat banter). It's never yes just because two playbys are in a relationship on screen. It's rarely yes just because two canon characters are in a canon relationship (though I'm more likely to accept a pre-ship with a stranger in a case where it makes sense for our canons to be in a relationship. ... Even then I rarely make promises because sometimes someone's interpretation of the canon character removes the ability for me to ship with them).

 

More often the answer is no, I don't plan for a ship. Because... doing so tends to end up messy. If I don't know someone I don't tend to like to agree without multiple threads to test the waters and see how I get along with the player, and how the characters get along. I've gotten a bit picky over the years about who I'll ship with because the number of times i've said yes to one ship and had that person then try to take over every ship opening I might have... 

 

It's not ideal by any means. 

  • Like 1
  • Fuck Yeah! 1

affiliatebutton.png

Some must be warriors that others may live in peace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin
5 hours ago, Yume said:

the number of times i've said yes to one ship and had that person then try to take over every ship opening I might have... 

 

That's actually a good point. I've been a culprit of picking up a lot of wanted ads but I often talk it out with the player first and its not always a ship (though it might be) sometimes its family members etc. But I've had people get obsessed with my writing and just start taking up all of my wanted ads making some of my characters unplayable.

 

A favorite tactic of some people I see (pun included) is that you have a wanted ad up for a character that they want the playby for and they pick it up and ignore your wanted ad. But that's a whole other bunch of bananas.

 

Banana Potassium GIF

 

  • Agree 1

0_mainsignature.jpg

image.png

Profile set made by myself and original Artwork by Fae Merriman, my daughter.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A handful of times.

 

I'm not especially risk-averse. Perhaps I should be. Oh well.

By Wit & Whitby

[Plot] | [Rules] | [Wanted] | [Discord]

18+ | Victorian Era | No App | No Word Count |

PoC & LGBT-friendly | Newbie-friendly
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only preship with certain people. It’s too weird when you don’t even know the other person or their expectations. So what happens if I ship with a stranger and the characters don’t click and the writing doesn’t mesh? I’m not getting trapped in that mess. 

Reality is an illusion. 


 
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With certain people I will write pretty much anything. I need a trial period of writing non ship threads first usually though. Like 6 months trial period... 

 

I also have been having a fun time jumping into some plotted ships with new people recently. Way out of my comfort zone but I don't feel like it's going to burn me. And if it does, it's not the end of the world.

 

I'm not into face shipping though. If we are shipping based on a pic and not on personality it isn't gonna happen for me. Sure it might work with faces but there's more to discuss than them just looking cute together. If I'm pre shipping with someone we have to talk about how these two will mesh, what they agree and disagree on, and what our story direction is. 

  • Agree 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello!

 

I have a few partners that we do tend to pre ship I supposed  ( relative, freinds, lovers ) This has nothing to do with face claims- just we have written about each other for years and we think it might be an intriguing match up - or they want to get their new charrie a leg up and I end up with relatives, which are fun because we do not pre plot a lot but let it organically happen once we begin.

 

However I avoid those who do the OMG WE MUST- because of a certain FC. That would make me get hives. I think that is the worst possible reason to tailor make characters.  That is another pet peeve- tailoring too much of your characters to one persons characters thus locking them into stories without the open thread possibility.  Cock blocking the character basically.

 

But i dont mind if one of my long time partners says ' hey lets see if this might work' and we enjoy the  thread no matter how it plays out

623de32ccbe3e666561967.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It all depends on the RP, the Player interactions on 'ships that I've seen in the RP, and who I know - if anyone. For example, at a Marvel game I'm in, I have a couple of pre-planned 'ships with someone I know to defend against the whole CRAZY aspect of writing in a canon RPG universe. 

 

Ordinarily, though, I like to go as far as discussing if characters can meet or up or at least know who one another are and see where the whole thing goes or if it goes anywhere. In one or two games, I've approached someone that has a character I really like and looks like they'll click with one of mine and have asked if they'd like to see if something more can develop between them. No harm, no foul if it doesn't or we try writing it and it just doesn't go anywhere. 

 

Since I am much older than most RPers, my character faces tend to be unknown to them or, if known, of an age that doesn't interest the masses. Likewise, most of my characters tend to be of an age that actually makes it hard to find other characters that would be a good match even though I am not adverse to May/December romance plots, the characters' stories have to work really well for me to go for it.

 

Great topic!

Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive.
Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive.
We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear.
And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here.
~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~

 

sagas-button1.png.467e9214ee1a2d2a24c0030301948c27.png 

 

RPG-Initiative

*your one-stop RPG resource site!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have on occasion, but it's never anything I force in character. Usually, pre-ships don't work out for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, StormWolfe said:

It all depends on the RP, the Player interactions on 'ships that I've seen in the RP, and who I know - if anyone. For example, at a Marvel game I'm in, I have a couple of pre-planned 'ships with someone I know to defend against the whole CRAZY aspect of writing in a canon RPG universe. 

 

Ordinarily, though, I like to go as far as discussing if characters can meet or up or at least know who one another are and see where the whole thing goes or if it goes anywhere. In one or two games, I've approached someone that has a character I really like and looks like they'll click with one of mine and have asked if they'd like to see if something more can develop between them. No harm, no foul if it doesn't or we try writing it and it just doesn't go anywhere. 

 

Since I am much older than most RPers, my character faces tend to be unknown to them or, if known, of an age that doesn't interest the masses. Likewise, most of my characters tend to be of an age that actually makes it hard to find other characters that would be a good match even though I am not adverse to May/December romance plots, the characters' stories have to work really well for me to go for it.

 

Great topic!

 

 

I also ( probably why my writing partners are long term buddies ) have FC that are not always known- age wise I am probably pretty close to you. And I dont believe in the threads where they meet shake hands and begin carnal knolwedge. I want substance 

 

But now that you mentioned it- Some of us who are (cough) older do tend to have sometimes unmateable characters do to that very ideal FC we choose because we like the facial character and it fits. 

  • Love 3

623de32ccbe3e666561967.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't pre-ship unless I'm taking a wanted ad or a canon where it's mentioned they have a significant other, but have had it happen to me based on the playby I chose for the character - which I'm not opposed to so long as the other player's character sounds as though it could mesh with mine romantically. Whenever that has happened I tell the other player that I'm cool with it but keep in mind my character is my character, not the person I selected for a visual representation of them. I also tell them I don't do picspam or gif hunts, but it's no skin off my nose if thy want to.

  • Agree 1

spacer.png

Come and join us in Ancient Rome!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends for me, as well. If two characters seem like they'll get along, I might tentatively plan something--but not forcing anything ICly.
If it works out, it works out. I try to let characters go with the flow as much as possible and not think about that kind of thing, because my concern is that the meta will influence IC.
I don't really look at PBs and make any judgments from those. They're just a reference point and I never understood why people cemented certain shoes onto them.

  • Agree 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I don't normally pre-ship but I've got one in-progress relationship that was sort of pre-shipped. On the game I play, we don't use face-claims so we dont have to worry about wanting something just because of the PB. The one relationship I'm working on now, it started as a bit of a joke -  "wouldn't it be cool if my character fell in love and then later it was revealed he was evil!" ... because he's an undercover spy. I had another player message me and joke around about it and they volunteered their character. We both decided just to have them meet and see how it went from there, without forcing anything. The characters get along pretty well so far.  But yes, I sometimes get annoyed if people try to force themselves into a relationship before hand. I had an older character of mine  I wanted to bring back. His girlfriend's player immediately was like "oh, they should have this big romance plot again" and wanted to bring her into the game, but it had been so long since I'd played this character, I wasn't really looking for a romance plot at that point. I just wanted to get to know my own character again. 

akadvert-rpgd.png.29201138138b142b94adb2f11d501051.png

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I preship.  Usually with RP buddies, but it is 100% because of the *characters* and not the faces.  Or I might try and slip a half sneaky ship partner in there if I'm really digging a character. Otherwise I am pretty open. I am leery of preshipping romance plots with people I'm not familiar with. Especially if they seem hot for the smut. I enjoy writing smut, but only with people I'm comfortable with, for various and obvious reasons.

 

Charging at me with an omg this pb is so hawt lets ship in a way that is totally opposite of my oh so hawt *character* makes me run the other direction. And I'm a pretty decent runner lol. But really, I find being direct and honest "that won't work for my character" and maybe some redirection "but i do have this character" works just fine. Sometimes people get excited and come off like crazy pants. I know I can, so I try and give everyone the benefit of the doubt and work with instead of against them without sacrificing my happiness or my characters integrity. 

 88x31buttondandy.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use, Guidelines and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.