What're your red flags?

[Flick 10]

When it comes to prospective partners, my biggest red flag is what I call 'inward' RPers. They're the ones who write post after post of their characters thoughts, and then when they actually engage another character in conversation, it's a commentary on themselves. No questions, no desire to actually make a real connection. I'm sorry, but your character is boring the living snot out of me.

 

When it comes to sites - not being able to see all of the RP boards or subforums.

[Shades 676]

People who are all about the story, just roll with whatever gets thrown your way... but only when it suits them. When it doesn't, everything must be discussed or they'll ask you to change that post you just wrote because 'we didn't talk about that!'

[Zelkova 12]

• In OOC talk, when people refer to their chars with "I" and refer to my (or other peoples') chars as "you/your." Even after repeated reminders like "no, my character is my character; he isn't me." "But you play [Character Name]." "Still not me." Tells me they can't differentiate IC versus OOC (which always causes problems in my experience).

 

• When someone gets so competitive about certain characters/plots that everytime I (or someone else) mentions the character/plot with my chars/plots, that person has to make their own character/plot centre of attention every time. (Please let me plot in peace. This is not about your character. Thanks. XD)

 

• When someone gets so possessive about someone that they pretty much try to take up all the plots, all the ships, all the everythings and virtually prevents (or disallows) said person to plot/post with anyone else whether unintentionally or deliberately.

 

• Partner never reaches out for plots/threads (it's usually me doing the initiating)

 

• Partner's character(s) never initiate anything, doesn't give much feed. (Yes, characters might be shy or withdrawn... but the player him/herself can still find ways to make it more engaging. I have a selective mute who usually tries to stalk off from people, but I bring in NPCs or other circumstances to make it more engaging.)

Edited December 5, 2019 by Zelkova

[Shades 676]

3 hours ago, Zelkova said:

• In OOC talk, when people refer to their chars with "I" and refer to my (or other peoples') chars as "you/your." Even after repeated reminders like "no, my character is my character; he isn't me." "But you play [Character Name]." "Still not me." Tells me they can't differentiate IC versus OOC (which always causes problems in my experience).

 

So much this. More red flags than a Communist Party parade right there. It's one of my run for your life cues.

[NFT47 40]

The red flags for me is anyone that makes characters back to back, but doesn't take time to develop those characters at all on the board or post with them. Literally there is just an application, and maybe 2 posts before they are on to the next. I have character caps for these people in particular. These tend to be players that just app characters over and over, but never actually use the stories or characters that they create.

In addition to that, those that tend to expect handholding through the creative process or plots are red flags to me. I expect members to have a level of independence, that they can create characters and stories without  having to be walked through the entire process. Sure there are times where there is no harm in bouncing ideas around with others, but when a player is basically wanting staff/members to create said character with "feedback" that is troubling. I also tend to see red flags in those that state they are bored or have no plots, but yet they don't make any efforts to plot with members on the forum. These members expect plots to come to them. Rule of thumb for my board is you get what you put into things.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Toastie

[Never 16]

People who join 5 plots a day. More often then not, if you dig even a little bit, you'll see they also drop 5+ plots a day.

Also, people who complain if you or their partners haven't replied in like half an hour even though you're online (some of us have other things to do and we don't live for THAT RP)

[akakios 14]

People who promise you things that never come to be. This goes beyond the rp world of course. 

[Rugs 63]

When someone's character reads the script.

 

How does your character know this relatively obscure thing about my character like two minutes after meeting when it's never come up in conversation between them?

 

Who told them? It sure wasn't my character.

 

Do you do this often?

[Redalia 3]

For me, players who write either only angsty and negative or only legitimately crazy characters that progressively develop backwards no matter how much you try to build them up. I actually get seriously concerned that my buddy's mental state might be suffering because they can't seem to write anything but said described characters.  

[Grimscythe 181]

8 hours ago, Redalia said:

For me, players who write either only angsty and negative or only legitimately crazy characters that progressively develop backwards no matter how much you try to build them up. I actually get seriously concerned that my buddy's mental state might be suffering because they can't seem to write anything but said described characters.  

This. But in both regards. I find the inability to RP something different to be extremely frustrating. I’ve played good and bad characters, and I intentionally play the good to outweigh the bad—my OC’s mind is a very dark place and I don’t like to stay there too often with her. I cannot exclusively write her, otherwise it messes with me. (Yes, she’s that cruel and terrible.)
 

Simultaneously, re-packaged characters are the worst. It’s one thing to adapt a character to fit a game. It’s another to adapt the same character over and over and over to fit the same game. 

[Grimscythe 181]

The permanent tease. The kind of person that will sit there and tease your characters with theirs, even go so far as to have romantic RPs that lead up to things, and then the moment you have a slump and can't RP every day, they retreat and throw their character at someone else. Bonus points if they then continue to whine at you about how horrible the relationship their character is in, expecting you to do something, and then repeating the process all over again. (In my case, it was more than five years of this, over and over before I said enough.)

 

The shippers. I prefer things happen naturally, but something I've experienced where I came from, is an admin supporting a ship and that becoming the expected outcome for your character. When someone reads my character bio/history and their knee-jerk reaction is OMG LET'S SHIP, I am more likely to flee for the hills.

 

 

 

 

[Onii 3]

On 2/12/2020 at 9:58 PM, SithLordOfSnark said:

I'm sure this has been  said before, most likely by me, but I really hate when people want their character to be the most powerful being on the planet and constantly make comments to that affect.

Infinitely this, but I'll add to this in a general sense and say that a huge red flag for me is when it's clear they want their character to be objectively viewed as some token trait that it becomes just a giant "show, don't tell" issue and is a huge turn off. 

For instance, someone may talk a t o n about how their bad guy is so evil, scary, and objectively intimidating. Sure that's possible to be true, it's not like they're saying they're the m o s t evil etc, but through their constant reiteration of those facts like that's their character's token personality trait, you get the sense that you're almost being pushed into writing something where your character is afraid. I've been in situations where my characters didn't even react in the way they necessarily wanted (which was completely realistic to my character's personality but I guess they didn't read up before threading), and people like this have legit gotten snippy about it. I've found that 6 really popular "traits" to encounter this issue in are powerful, badass, evil, beautiful, innocent and intelligent. The powerful one you mentioned is one of my biggest issues.

At the end of the day, people can talk about character personalities but the way characters respond to those personalities is completely subjective and based on the characters themselves. People who don't realize this are easy to spot, and I stay away. 

[Grimscythe 181]

On 2/15/2020 at 9:25 PM, Onii said:

Infinitely this, but I'll add to this in a general sense and say that a huge red flag for me is when it's clear they want their character to be objectively viewed as some token trait that it becomes just a giant "show, don't tell" issue and is a huge turn off. 

For instance, someone may talk a t o n about how their bad guy is so evil, scary, and objectively intimidating. Sure that's possible to be true, it's not like they're saying they're the m o s t evil etc, but through their constant reiteration of those facts like that's their character's token personality trait, you get the sense that you're almost being pushed into writing something where your character is afraid. I've been in situations where my characters didn't even react in the way they necessarily wanted (which was completely realistic to my character's personality but I guess they didn't read up before threading), and people like this have legit gotten snippy about it. I've found that 6 really popular "traits" to encounter this issue in are powerful, badass, evil, beautiful, innocent and intelligent. The powerful one you mentioned is one of my biggest issues.

At the end of the day, people can talk about character personalities but the way characters respond to those personalities is completely subjective and based on the characters themselves. People who don't realize this are easy to spot, and I stay away. 

Yes to everything here. And I’m saying this from the point of view of  someone who plays a character that is evil, has been, and probably always will be (okay I don’t actually know that because she’s been brought close to redemption several times before and each time my RP partner abandoned me—another red flag).
 

I’m cool if a character is powerful and there’s a history of roleplay that backs it up. But the ones that are just created and instantly more powerful than the one you created 17 years ago? The one with absolutely no roleplay behind it, when I’ve got that many years of RP logs that I will gladly link my partners to? Yeah, no. I encountered this recently with someone on my own game, and just no. 
 

Also, characters that are just inherently evil simply because they exist. With demons, I understand this. But I prefer baddies to have a history. How did they get to where they are? What made them evil? Were they twisted since the start of their life, and simply followed that dark path their entire life? I want to know what happened, and if you can’t tell me that, it’s a red flag. It tells me that there’s probably no development in the character up to the point we are currently at. 
 

As someone who plays a baddie, I too am warned away when other baddies come along. Because of this exact issue. Characters with little to no history are instantly scarier and more terrifying than mine, and I should cow down to them. No. No. No. Give me a reason my character, who is headstrong and fearless, who presses buttons and puts herself into situations where she may or may not die because she loves the thrill of danger, should be afraid of yours. She doesn’t know what fear is, or she wouldn’t be where she’s at and survived the things she has. In fact, her lack of fear is what led her to the incidents that twisted and shaped her. 

[snowbird 4]

My biggest red flag is when people seem weary about the admins, like if you're plotting and they think admins who won't like certain characters/plots. 

[Never 16]

The GMs that deny most player ideas because "it's their story". 

Yes, it is. The GM has a world to build, a story to tell, a vision. They have a story planned, and not everything will fit within the setting. And this is OK, this is natural. 

H O W E V E R

When somebody uses this sentence (or a variety) to deny most player ideas, it's telling me the GM isn't a teamplayer and would probably fit better in a 1x1 or even solo setting. They are much more likely looking for a harem while their character hogs all the glory.