A very valid concern

[Swinzlager]

I'm sick of people wanting to join rp's
and then making the creator of the rp do all the damn work.

I'm not talking about a few "Hey, I have questions."
I'm talking about how someone enters the room and first asks you this most asinine question,
"Hey, what characters do you really need?" When you have a list of unfilled characters.
Or they hit me up with the ""There's just too many. Can you choose?""

Then they go on to
A) Have you find a picture for them.
B) Have you assign the personality for them.

'B' is usually done in a sly manner, like "Hey, I want to fit in with the rest of the rp so like,
how should I act?"
or in a not so sly manner, "Hey, what does your character like? I want them to like me."

Maybe I'm just being a grumpy old sage here, but this really puts my knickers in a right twist.
Did I NOT just make a comprehensive world for you to rp in? I was even nice enough to throw
in plenty of character roles so that you can pick and choose, and not have to think too hard
about making it.

When this happens it makes me feel as though they aren't joining my rp because they want to
really be a part of it, they are joining because they are bored. And 'bored joiners' are proverbial
Whores to a rp.

They come in, take up your characters, wreck the system and leave through the back door never to be seen again. You secretly wish they would come back and fill these empty spaces they left behind, but a part of you never wants to see them again because the experience wasn't a good one.



More from me later TK.
With love, Swinzlager.

[Rosery]

Uhm...How is this a concern? I am not quite sure this is even in the same realm as a concern. A concern I think would be someone hacking into your accounts...or spending all there time harassing you on 20 different names and the mods not doing a thing about it (Hypothetically, Mods I know you would the moment such info hit your ears.) This is more of a fact of roleplay life, yea I hate it too I've run a few Bleach RP's with this problem people join take the most powerful role they can find, beat up someone that's like a noobie and then never come back again, or take the role never rp and never come back again. You remove them from the role, re-cast it and watch for that name and ban it the next time you see it should they not have a valid reason.

Yet seriously how is this a concern? Your not asking questions or asking for anything to be done, the fact is your just bitching which while it's your right I imagine you'll be flamed pretty hard here <.<

[Xachariah]

Yeah, this is more of a rant than a concern, man.

[KitDreamer]

as a side note I actually get where the guy is coming from.
In any roleplay, if the players aren't pulling their weight, then it makes the whole task a chore rather than fun. I've so far found this place somewhat non-condusive towards detailed, involved RP mind you. :/ A large portion of the users are just general dross. I've been lucky in that I've occasionally found people willing to actually put some effort into RP, but... really, this is why I do pretty much all my roleplay out in real life with friends of mine, every week, on a table, with rules and dice and stuff. Heck, we're making our own setting and system itself right now.

[Pink]

I get where he's coming from, so don't counter-bitch him out, Rosery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQiSgWGAc24

I'm sick of people wanting to join rp's
and then making the creator of the rp do all the damn work.

I'm not talking about a few "Hey, I have questions."
I'm talking about how someone enters the room and first asks you this most asinine question,
"Hey, what characters do you really need?" When you have a list of unfilled characters.
Or they hit me up with the ""There's just too many. Can you choose?""

Then they go on to
A) Have you find a picture for them.
B) Have you assign the personality for them.

'B' is usually done in a sly manner, like "Hey, I want to fit in with the rest of the rp so like,
how should I act?"
or in a not so sly manner, "Hey, what does your character like? I want them to like me."

Maybe I'm just being a grumpy old sage here, but this really puts my knickers in a right twist.
Did I NOT just make a comprehensive world for you to rp in? I was even nice enough to throw
in plenty of character roles so that you can pick and choose, and not have to think too hard
about making it.

When this happens it makes me feel as though they aren't joining my rp because they want to
really be a part of it, they are joining because they are bored. And 'bored joiners' are proverbial
Whores to a rp.

They come in, take up your characters, wreck the system and leave through the back door never to be seen again. You secretly wish they would come back and fill these empty spaces they left behind, but a part of you never wants to see them again because the experience wasn't a good one.



More from me later TK.
With love, Swinzlager.

Seriously, I get fairly tired of writing characters for people. I write the world, you do the rest with it. It's typically worse with players I don't know. But it seems like people sometimes want you to hold their hands---other people legitimately don't want to ruin your shit so they ask to accomodate you. It goes both ways.

Although sometimes I wish people would ask more about what I need as far as filling out a roster~

Anyhow, thanks for bringing it up. It's cool to talk about RP gripes and not LOL U BAN LOL U MAD every once in awhile. That stuff is fun, but we can't eat cake all of the time.

[Lugh]

I suggest compromising - maybe come up with a skeleton concept for the player to flesh out?

[KitDreamer]

Actually that's a really good idea, Lugh. Nice job.
Have a pie.

[Sophistafunk]

You'll be ok, I'm sure.  In a few hours, you'll move onto the next rp and have something completely new to complain about.  It's the cycle of e-life! Enjoy it while it lasts!

[OBorg]

What I'd like to to is post a Lolcat at a table with character sheets and dice and the caption "Freeform roleplaying in an unstructured unmanaged environment? U're doin it wrong!", but I haven't got an uncaptioned picture and it would take too long to get another cat and train it to play D&D (or even Savage Worlds), so you'll just have to imagine it.

[Pink]

What I'd like to to is post a Lolcat at a table with character sheets and dice and the caption "Freeform roleplaying in an unstructured unmanaged environment? U're doin it wrong!", but I haven't got an uncaptioned picture and it would take too long to get another cat and train it to play D&D (or even Savage Worlds), so you'll just have to imagine it.

Had to give a pie for that.

[Lugh]

An additional suggestion is to not have a hissy fit that other people have different expectations, interests and desires than your own.

[Ytts]

I notice a lot of people have a tendency to expect others to do all the hard work for them.

If you want to, you could always make a single, multi-purpose "character package" much like companies put up a "media package" that contains all the pictures, general info and detail people who are interested in them might need.

[Pink]

I notice a lot of people have a tendency to expect others to do all the hard work for them.

If you want to, you could always make a single, multi-purpose "character package" much like companies put up a "media package" that contains all the pictures, general info and detail people who are interested in them might need.

WOAH WHAT

That sonds cool. Got any examples? (Don't go out of your way to find them)

[MadMusician]

Or you could just tell them to stop playing Xbox 360, use their own vast imagination, and create their own char. Usually, from my experience, if you do all the work for someone, when it comes time for them to actually do something, they either get offended, suck at it because everyone else did all the work for them before, or they suddenly disappear into thin air.

[Pink]

Or you could just tell them to stop playing Xbox 360, use their own vast imagination, and create their own char. Usually, from my experience, if you do all the work for someone, when it comes time for them to actually do something, they either get offended, suck at it because everyone else did all the work for them before, or they suddenly disappear into thin air.

truth.

[B[ M ]K]

I've found one of the best ways to inspire users to, first, want to join, and then to actually create their own characters, is to set up a world in which they will be playing. You can make it simple, or very elaborate, but give them a foundation, rules, something in which they can map our their creative process but not make you do the work of creating characters for them.

Another option is using a pre-created character sheet that lists options for them to pick for their character. You can give them open-ended options, or give them a list to choose from.

Keep in mind that not everyone who shows interest in your game are people you will want to play with. A good role-play game is only as rewarding and fun as those involved in it.

[MadMusician]

Or you can actually make it open ended, without obvious slots needing to be filled, which might be half the problem. Once you throw all the "Positions" up there, which equates to a total of 70 open slots for people for dedicated roles, they get confused and wonder if you WANT them to play a char a certain way. Even if their char isn't on the list, they may still feel like they are on a leash. Considering this is for the most part, free form RP, and not a D&D campaign, you likely still should not tell them that they have to play an elf, they have to be from a certain region, or for that matter have any other form of absolute death grip upon the RP, which would end up stifling their creativity.

And if they still come in and ask you to create a char, tell them to stop playing Darksiders and do a bit of typing, no matter how fun it is.