Membership A roleplayers peeve moments

[Death Kitten 200]

1 minute ago, Blackjack Bart said:

 

Most settings seem to have a use-by-date, so once the novelty wears off the latest film franchise or tv series, people move onto the next shiny thing, and a few loyal fans stay behind.

 

I can see how people would expect ST to only revolve around fleets, because to them the fandom might seem too big: and besides, all the Exciting Plot Opportunities only happen to high-ranking officers or what have you. Who wants to play a lowly citizen, after all? /captain sarcasm. It's bloody frustrating. RP isn't about being the best possible character. It's about playing characters who can interact fairly well with a wide range of others~.

 

For as much as I hate running games, I do enjoy them, because I know what it is I want. There's no available outlet for Fandom X, so I make a sandbox for it! Games have to have a general premise / set up, otherwise.. what's the point of making a Skyrim game, if catgirls and giant mecha demons can join? >( Having a snazzy mod title doesn't give anyone the right to degrade other people, let alone act as literal puppet-master and micromanage every itty bitty plot and IC decision. Which is another peeve-- staff who literally need permission for absolutely everything from every character. There's collaborative stories, then there are fanfics with beta readers. An rpg is not one big fanfic where the head admin gets all the 'credit'.

 

OMFSM, yes. Micromanaging plots drives me up the wall. I got a player that I had literally never met before she signed up, and at first she's really finding it difficult to get herself involved, and then when I just pointed out that I try to frame my plots with bullet points of events I want to happen, and flesh out the NPCs really well... then just react to how the players handle it, she just opened right up. I think a lot of Trek players are used to the micromanaging of plots simply because it's harder to subplot on a ship because of how one action affects everyone else so easily in the closed environment of a starship crew. After I had a particularly bad experience trying to run a pre-written module for one of my favorite tabletop games, I have an allergic reaction to attempting to railroad players. I try to only step in to push things if no one is doing anything on their own.

[Red Star 6]

This happened to me a few months ago, before I poofed out of RP world.

 

When you ask the admins if you can do X or Y plot, pointing out that it'd be pretty large scale (a major villain becoming the mayor of the city the RP takes place in, for example), and then after the OK it, like... nothing happens. They have a "NEWS!" forum where they post IC news but they don't post anything or let me post anything, and seems like no other writers/characters are even aware of the change, so that my world-conquering scheme is somehow just .... completely ignored by the rest of the IC universe. It's really awkward. Mind you I'm not expecting everyone to bow down to my character to worship him, but when the person playing said villain's MAIN NEMESIS hasn't even ICly acknowledged that their most hated villain has taken over the city, there might be a minor problem. 

Edited April 10, 2016 by Red Star

[Morrigan 1,826]

19 hours ago, Death Kitten said:

Benjamin Sisko (Best Captain, go ahead, fight me)

+1

[Honorem 219]

Being in large group threads with post orders. I hate sifting through seven other posts full of dialogue and trying to respond to it all. Characters seem like robots just beeping at each other. And personally, it becomes like a chore rather than something enjoyable.

 

And when players misinterpreting your character's meaning, then an IC shit storm occurs. Uh no, read my post again, my character NEVER said that.

[Rune 1,099]

2 hours ago, Honorem said:

Being in large group threads with post orders. I hate sifting through seven other posts full of dialogue and trying to respond to it all. Characters seem like robots just beeping at each other. And personally, it becomes like a chore rather than something enjoyable.

 

And when players misinterpreting your character's meaning, then an IC shit storm occurs. Uh no, read my post again, my character NEVER said that.

 

About every three months or so my site gets some random newbie showing up and asking/demanding/begging for giant group threads. Bear in mind that our biggest rule is that real world comes first. We're 18+, meaning we've got people working multiple jobs, people with kids, people that can only post on weekends, etc.

And yet they want us to drop everything and shove THE ENTIRE SITE into 1 thread. 

 

Even after explaining that giant group threads never progress, they continue to do the But whyyyyyy and eventually leave because they get told a stern no, not happening. Nevermind that everyone else on the site has been very much so against this, its always just some random new guy that thinks they're offering a good suggestion 2 days after joining.

[Elena 546]

Unlike @Rune and @Honorem, I believe in group threads. They make the plot advance quicker... and they are realistic. Battles and parties don't happen in groups of two by two. Neither work scenes. And it helps interact characters who didn't interact before, sparking later new threads and new relationships.

 

My peeve in relation with group threads is when people don't make them first priority. Your one-on-one partner in another thread can wait, but by not replying in the battle thread, you are blocking 10 characters or more...

Edited April 16, 2016 by Elena

[Death Kitten 200]

1 minute ago, Elena said:

Unlike @Rune and @Honorem, I believe in group threads. They make the plot advance quicker... and they are realistic. Battles and parties don't happen in groups of two by two. Neither work scenes. And it helps interact characters who didn't interact before, sparking later new threads and new relationships.

I can argue both sides of the coin. If you have a group of players who are quick to respond, or if there's a set order hit the thread and people are prompt to say when to skip them if it hits their turn and they have nothing to add, they *can* be useful. But I've also been stuck in too many dog pile logs in my star trek sims where people just don't hit the log when it's their turn, or two people run away with it without giving anyone else a chance to hit it, or someone tags without reading what's already there and contradict something that's established.

 

Like anything, there more complex something is the easier it is to go totally fubar.

[Elena 546]

@Death Kitten, people who don't pay attention happen everywhere (and they are asked to rectify). Yes, we have less order and people usually say when to be skipped.

 

And yes, I second you with a pet peeve of those who don't read carefully what was written before... COme on, boys, it's all part of the story, you wouldn't skim 3 pages when reading a novel!

[Rune 1,099]

I can see both sides of the group thread coin, but I've never been in a group thread that has actually progressed. Maybe because I tend to favor chill games and avoid combat based ones (for personal reasons that are related, but not to his exact topic, I'll rant momentarily.)

 

All the group threads I've participated in have been slow, chugging things with one impatient person that either skips someone and throws off the order or interest is lost and the entire thread collapses because no one cares anymore. However, my definition of "group" in this sense is 5+ people. I can manage 3 or 4, but after that its just too many people for me to enjoy.

 

Fighting. There's always that one douchenozzle that refuses to lose. Which, I get, no one actively wants to lose but FFS. Take some hits, lose some. Godmodes his way into victory then whines that no one ever wants to fight with him.

 

Edit: I should add that newbies want giant group threads and my board has over 20 people and over 100 characters. And the past couple times it's been brought up they wanted ALL OF THEM in one thread.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Rune

[Elena 546]

The biggest group threads I had lasted 8-10 pages and were for 25+ characters and NPCs. The writers were about 6-10, I think. Maybe more, but with some participating sporadically and the 6-10 constantly writing. (And yes, they were slow, but they progressed and things happened. Sometimes really unexpected, creative twists). We vote each year, upon our anniversary, a toplist, including the thread of the year. And every year, the thread, selected through vote, was a collective one (battle or party which changed something radically). 

 

Who loses and who wins is determined before, in the plotting session, so that everybody agrees that x faction makes sense to lose in y conditions, but they will get their revenge next time. In duels, we do this too, so that the writers write towards the same goal, not one against the other. Only the characters are one against the others. And winners or losers, each has the shining moment and the opportunity to be a hero. This also gave opportunity for some epic death scenes which were afterwards featured in the monthly chronicles...

 

 

Speaking of peeves: people who refuse to communicate or to contribute, and you feel like talking alone when it is COLLABORATIVE  writing , and collaborative implies communication...

[Death Kitten 200]

2 minutes ago, Elena said:

The biggest group threads I had lasted 8-10 pages and were for 25+ characters and NPCs. The writers were about 6-10, I think. Maybe more, but with some participating sporadically and the 6-10 constantly writing. (And yes, they were slow, but they progressed and things happened. Sometimes really unexpected, creative twists). We vote each year, upon our anniversary, a toplist, including the thread of the year. And every year, the thread, selected through vote, was a collective one (battle or party which changed something radically). 

 

Who loses and who wins is determined before, in the plotting session, so that everybody agrees that x faction makes sense to lose in y conditions, but they will get their revenge next time. In duels, we do this too, so that the writers write towards the same goal, not one against the other. Only the characters are one against the others. And winners or losers, each has the shining moment and the opportunity to be a hero. This also gave opportunity for some epic death scenes which were afterwards featured in the monthly chronicles...

 

 

Speaking of peeves: people who refuse to communicate or to contribute, and you feel like talking alone when it is COLLABORATIVE  writing , and collaborative implies communication...

 

Planning ahead of time where the thread is going would help a lot. I feel like in the Star Trek sims, there's a taboo against *gasp* planning ahead before writing. >.< Maybe that's just the shitty fleet I used to be a part of... but they basically treat it like some game where they're supposed to surprise the person they're writing with, with everything that's going to happen. It's one thing for the command team to drop surprise events on the crew to further the plot, it's another to go into a log writing against the people you're supposed to be telling the story with.

[Honorem 219]

I'll say I can too see both sides of the coin as well. I don't hate group threads all together, I just don't like when they follow a strict post order. I don't hate post orders either, I use them 99% of the time, so I'll explain myself here.

 

Say two characters in the group thread have broken off from the main group, or they're specifically asking each other questions, and no one else. Then I don't see it wrong if the character being asked the questions posts next, responding to the one who was addressing them.

 

If it's more easy going (and the posts are briefer and to the point rather than walls of dialogue from several characters), I don't mind it. I just find it slow when a group of eight characters sit around, taking turns to say a lot of dialogue, and there's no interjection or quick back and forth responses. xD!

[Death Kitten 200]

19 minutes ago, Honorem said:

I'll say I can too see both sides of the coin as well. I don't hate group threads all together, I just don't like when they follow a strict post order. I don't hate post orders either, I use them 99% of the time, so I'll explain myself here.

 

Say two characters in the group thread have broken off from the main group, or they're specifically asking each other questions, and no one else. Then I don't see it wrong if the character being asked the questions posts next, responding to the one who was addressing them.

 

If it's more easy going (and the posts are briefer and to the point rather than walls of dialogue from several characters), I don't mind it. I just find it slow when a group of eight characters sit around, taking turns to say a lot of dialogue, and there's no interjection or quick back and forth responses. xD!

The wall of text thing is perhaps what drove me the craziest in the old fleet. I swear, any time someone tagged, they either gave me two words or five paragraphs, and both would say about the same amount. Or when the five paragraphs actually added anything to the log? They were commenting on the last five tags before them, so they'd be making you do mental gymnastics to figure out who they were talking to.

 

...and any time I'd try to encourage quick back and forth, or rearranging/splitting/editing for flow? They'd either act like I was Zaphod Beeblebrox with two heads and three arms, or they'd get indignant. Occasionally they'd let me fluff to make it flow better, but when they never learned and kept tagging the shitty way and waiting for me to edit into it to fix flow (and boxing my characters in on what they could do at the same time?) it gets old. >.<

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

Peeve: when someone doesn't contribute to the conversation, be it IC, OOC; a plot, a quick IC decision, anything at all! And you can tell that the other person is avoiding the question because they want something very specific, but they know if they bring it up... they'll be 'outed' as just being there for a very selfish reason.

 

Aka, players who only want  to play the Best Most Important IC Role and Nothing Else Can Come Close. >( If they can't emerge as the winner of the fight, the saviour, the one who discovers XYZ and so forth... then what's the point of the RP, waaaaahmbulance, cue them sulking and pouting.

 

Peeve #2: Having things to do but not the time or the energy to do said things! FDSFASFSDAFSAGASDG.

[Rune 1,099]

This is probably more of an MMO thing but I've seen it happen in a different sort in forums...

 

People that show up to the RP then do nothing. They're just there. You acknowledge them and nada. Do you continue to acknowledge their presence? Do you ignore them? Are they there ICly? Do they just want to listen in? You don't know because they just went AFK and will come back without warning after you leave and complain that everyone left them.