Things You Look For In A Roleplay?

Just curious for everyone out there, what are your standards in such things? Curiosity, along with a few other things provoke this question. More so so I know more about our community in this kind of area. Also we can go off into some tangents as long as you can relate it to roleplaying.

Um.... I norally I am just looking for someone to do whatever idea I have at the time... besides that i dont know... tthere are probably specific people i prefer to rp with...

No standards or anything, like post length and what not?

Nope i just go with the flow..... i would prefer it (though well writen, shorter post are better than long posts with useless stuff)

Makes sense. Not overburdening but with details.

I think it's best to keep things short but sweet, so a paragraph at the very least to like two paragraphs at the most are the best in my opinion. When you go to far and write out entire pages you lose me, I'm not willing to read that much for an rp post and I'm not going write that much. If you think of it, you both are and are not writing a novel.

You are in that you're are writing a story with other people contributing a piece of that story a paragraph (hopefully ;P) at a time. If you over contribute you leave the other writers at a loss. So it becomes rather selfish in an rp to go into these immense details about your own characters actions.

As with everything it should be a balance, because while you don't want to over detail your posts you also want to reward he person you respond to for their post. So, short sentences are not a good thing either, because it makes the other party feel like you just don't care, or that there was something wrong with their last post.

So yeah, with rping, you have to be considerate and think about one another and I've found a paragraph to two is the best length to stay balanced.

In all honesty it depends for me. If I write extensively that's either because I'm using multiple characters, or using character development of innermost processes. It's not writing a book, well sort of. It's like a roleplay fan thing. Anyways, it even depends what you define as a paragraph. ^.^; quite honestly to me it depends on the style of that post. I've read really good short posts and very good extensive posts. It sorta depends on what you want. Details are needed when needed. Most times for opening posts or setting up the stage. Foreshadowing is usually when I use such things. Or introducing another person. Again, it really depends on the situation for me.

Correct, it does depend on the situation and a lot of things, like playing multiple characters involved in the same situation but the problem as I see it is an rp is a two person (or more) story. So keeping that other person or people in mind is always a good thing to do. For me, I'm always wanting to impress them and make people go: "NICE!" when they read my posts. More then anything I want to inspire their next post and I just think after a certain post length you lose people or intimidate them.

Really though this is just my personal opinion on the subject I'm sure its not true for everyone.

Very true, two people or more does create a story. And that is something I enjoy. For me, it’s very hard to keep a plot going with only two people. That’s why I try to digress away from those kind of one shots. If not, I’ll have the main people involved and then have some fillers to move the story along. Even though this sounds contradictory, in my roleplaying guide, I have premade plots that have a lot of them. I try to incorporate enough plot to give the people a general idea, but even so that can be challenging at times.

Yes, I know, post length can be quite intimidating. But I enjoy reading large posts WHEN they are appropriate. If there is an epic fight scene, then yes, I want details, I want that feeling of being there, the enthralling moment of exhilaration. Even conversations can be intriguing. However, when you write up one thousand words just on clothes that isn’t relevant to plot or doesn’t use any type of foreshadowing; used as a self-centered thing, that’s where I have a problem. As long as it’s relevant I don’t usually have a problem. It’s when things are added that aren’t really needed, that’s what annoys me at times.

Fight scenes I've always had more trouble with post length wise in role plays, because even one swing of your sword needs a response from your opponent. I remember when I first started roleplaying in the bleach thread my posts were usually condensed to two sentences where I'd try to make the most of my actions during a fight. (note my posts were only this short during fights) and usually those fights felt so much more epic to me. I tried to throw dialogue in there as a way to increase my post length after a while and that's when I ended up with Gunder Havok a mouthy villain who never shut up during a fight. ;P

With fights it often ends up better when the players involved collaborate on it to decide the sequence of events in the fight. Like who's going to lose, who takes the advantage when, stuff like that, otherwise you end up with a lot of: "I swing!" "I dodge!" "I swing!" "I dodge!" or in even worse cases: "I stab you in the gut making you bleed out!" "Its just an after image! I dodge!" Which by the way, never fun for anyone if your the instant hitter type. In a fight, you have to be willing to take some blows and just keep coming, think of something clever. Maybe you do take a hit to the gut or some other part of your body, maybe then you take that sword right out of their hands with your body or kick them in the face or something!

You can be so much more bad ass in a fight when you take those hits and keep on coming! That said, remember to be a good sport about it, I've been guilty in the past of getting frustrated by someones auto hitting and going right back at them with it. Sometimes its better to talk it out, you don't like a post? Voice your dissatisfaction to that person in a nice way, if they aren't willing to work with you... then they suck! D:

Yeah, I know what you mean. But most times a lot of fight scenes depend on who’s controlling the person. For example, in an IM roleplay I’ve been doing with HItsuga, a lot of the fighting was controlled by him. Simply because of the amount of characters he controlled and what the conflict was over. While my character was unable to fight (due to the anxiety, fear, paralyzation, etc) she watched for the most part. That meant Hitsuga had the freedom to let whoever win in those fights. But yes, when someone got hurt, or when I saw a chance, I healed them etc, if not tried to stop the fighting. But getting off topic. When there are fight scenes between two characters, like in the Crisis Core.

Like you said, taking hits and knowing what to do.

“…he saw and struck at Kura with his stun rod.”
“Kura was in fact caught off guard…Kura cringed, "Owwww...!" she yelled as she got the jolt and it hurt.”

That’s an example of what happened.

Now a lot of other examples are much much more complicated. There are set notions that take place, and the person can react on whatever they choose. Sure, sometimes it may be slightly unfair, but it seems logical enough for it to work. Plus they’re part human, so they might have that extra strength etc. The confusing part is when someone speaks and then actions follow, leaving the person to respond to the words and then the action. The order is then messed up as you almost have to go back into the past to add on. BUT most times those parts are separated making it into mini arcs.

Of course I’m sorry if none of this is making sense, XD it’s usually better to see than tell. But yes, there are many frustrating mechanics that can come into play, and I admit, it can be quite annoying at times.

Mostly I want something that will keep me entertained, a game that makes me want to post more than a few lines. From there I look at who I am role playing with and how they like to RP. Do they do actions between asterisks or include them in the sentences? Do they only do OC's or do they like cannon characters? Is this person better at sexually driven Rp's? What is my relationship with this person?

That is basically what quickly look for when I go to RP.

Pfft then we should roleplay.

Kura wrote:

Pfft then we should roleplay.

If this was directed at me (not 100% sure or not) maybe when I am feeling more into RPs - right now Im in a dry spell of any writing creativity.

It was .

Also, back onto topic now. The personality of the roleplayer also is something that is indirectly related to what I look for in a roleplay. If someone has an unbearable obnoxious personality the answer is no. I don't care how good of a roleplayer that person is, it's a no. There was someone I was thinking of roleplaying with in the past, until I realized he used people to the extent where I thought I could probably call the police. (He was really, really bad.)