What Not To Do, EVER! aka The Roleplaying Sins
This list is a group of things you should 100% never ever do. Things which will automatically make you the Forever A loner of your roleplaying crowd. These are the #1 ways to kill a roleplay, unless the roleplayers you are playing with are fairly dense or very very easy going. These are things that have proven time and time again to be the worst thing you can do forever. Please don’t do them.
Don’t assume relationships.
One of the worst problems We seen in roleplay is when someone joins a roleplay and having never roleplayed with anyone there before, starts claiming relationships that have never happened. Claiming things like that a canon character has been in love with you since day one, when the person playing the character has never seen you? That’s a terrible idea, especially with Established Characters. You are not the long lost sibling of a Wolf Brother character who has for all intents and purposes been described as an only child. You were not raised by the canon character, and you were not their second cousin twice removed, nor their ex-lover unless they specifically talk with you about it and say yes to the idea..
It’s annoying to deal with, and it makes people pretty uncomfortable. It’s a bad idea in general to not work out things like this before a roleplay, or without checking with people to see how they feel about it. Everyone should be on the same page before you start, or you’ll have to backpedal and come up with a reason why it wouldn’t be true anymore. Would you walk up to a stranger and tell them that you are now married with kids? No! That’s stupid!
Don’t force Roleplay styles on others.
If someone has stated in OOC or otherwise that they aren’t comfortable roleplaying with someone then do not force your play upon them.
If you just simply cannot live without roleplaying with them, you are the guest in their house asking permission for RP! You should change what you do to suit what they want so you can get what you want in return. It’s all about compromise to get to a place where you can both enjoy yourself. If you simply can’t change what you do, then you two are better off not roleplaying together. Respect their wishes, and leave them alone. It’s not the end of the world if one person doesn’t RP with you.
The person asking for roleplay should be the one to compromise. You’re asking someone else to take time away from what they are doing to do something you want. If they do something you dislike, you should tolerate it for the session, and make a note not to do it again. It’s your fault for asking, reap what you sow unless you can ask in a nice manner if they maybe possibly wouldn’t mind kind of not doing something maybe?.
Don’t flirt with/molest non-smut-characters to extreme extents.
If your character is just there for sex, in a roleplay created for the plot, you don’t belong. Don’t push it, there’s plenty of places online to get your rocks off, you don’t need to ruin the roleplay of those who enjoy romantic, subtle, and serious roleplay over cybering.
It’s not a bad thing to want to have sex online, it is a bad thing to try and push it on people who don’t seem to want it. If a character politely turns you down, or doesn’t show interest at all, or even seems to avoid your character, don’t continue. Let them be, let them have what they want. There are plenty of fish in the sea, and messing with people will just earn you a reputation as someone to avoid.
If a character has OOC stated that they do want “no smut”, then you should seriously knock it off. What’s wrong with you? People have limits, respect them or you’re a callous moronic fool. If you don’t you’re going to get reamed by angry roleplayers, and not in the way you wanted.
When you have a character who is a constant flirt, It’s all well and good if you have a right because “canon says so” but if you’re making the people behind the characters leery, avoidant, and sometimes outright hostile then you’re clearly going too far even with canon reasons. Make sure the mun is okay with things, don’t be too aggressive. It can come off like a creeper, or a stalker. Tone things down if your partners avoid you, and make sure they’re OOC comfortable with how hard you’re pushing their character.
People have a right to say no, or that they aren’t comfortable, and if you keep trying to make the roleplay all about sex when in a public area where they can’t escape you, or when they keep having their serious RP devolve because of you into yet another orgy/flirting session where they are clearly uncomfortable, they will likely leave. The point of roleplay is to have roleplaying partners, and if you scare everyone off no matter how “right” you are, you’re kind of out of luck for anything but one-player mode.
Learn To Spell And Use Proper Grammar.
You are how you appear in your writing; people look for roleplayers who can spell well, and write sentences that make sense to a reader. You don’t have to be the best at either, but if your post looks like someone a teenager would text her boyfriend in class you aren’t playing up to snuff for a lot of people.
Different people have different levels of what is acceptable, some people won’t roleplay with you if you have any typos whatsoever. In fact they will correct you constantly, and then get frustrated and leave. These people are pretty elitist, you’d best leave them to each other. Some people are semi-literate or something to the effect of the term (although it has suffered heavy degradation through overuse). These people can handle a few typos, and are generally more casual about writing. They aren’t completely insufferable, but they do like it when someone can write well enough to get things across. They’re generally more friendly to creative phrasing
It keeps going down from there, just find a group who types like you do, and figure out what you’re comfortable with. If people complain, do better, if you can’t do better, play somewhere else and let them have their fun without flinching every time you make a post. Remember to reread your post real quick, even a quick skim, and hit major typos with the nice red wriggly line of correction.
The one time you can ignore these things is when you are typing for a character who does it in character. Small accent changes, like missing g’s replaced with apostrophe’s and stuff like that. No one will complain about a little bit of quirkiness, but don’t overplay your hand. Be readable, there is nothing worse than trying to roleplay with someone who says “*i wlkd inta teh bsuilin.8” seriously.
Don’t Walk Off/Leave On A Roleplay.
If a roleplay scares you maybe you can suddenly log off, block them, and run. But unless it’s so terribad it’s actually causing you to break out in hives and your eyes to boil, show a little respect for your roleplaying partner and at least say “Gotta go bye!”
If it’s a long term roleplay, tell them you’ve left. It sucks to be stuck in a scene only to find out that the character you’re waiting on has left the entire site and gone on a 8 year hiatus. Get your character out of the way, tell them you’re leaving, and don’t leave them hanging. It hurts, it makes people feel like shit when their partner just up and leaves without a word. You ask “What did I do wrong?” or “Why’d they go?” Sometimes it breeds anger and resentment. You don’t want a good roleplayer you want to talk to again to hate you for forgetting to say bye in a big old painfully serious mid-climax RP, or for someone to complain to their friends only to spread the rumor that you’re a bad roleplayer. A simple “GTG Bye!” will suffice in most cases. It’s better than staying online for 4 hours hoping for another post that will never come.
Of course if your internet cuts out what can you do? Just apologize when you get back. Keep things smoothed over with good manners.
Keep The IRL Drama Out Of RP
There are people out there who have screwed you over, people who you have dated, or been angry with. These people might roleplay with you, but unless you have a problem with how they roleplay, or with something else that directly effects roleplay, either shut up and deal, or walk away.
Do not make your character hate them for no reason, don’t attack them, don’t try to stop them from playing with other people or cause issues because of it. Just stop and breathe. If you can’t handle it leave. Don’t spread gossip, don’t start rumors, don’t be a jerk. Things happened, and if you mess up the good time other people are having because of it, then you’re a jerk too.
Don’t Reply To An Extremely Long Post Without Effort.
Unless you’ve agreed beforehand that you understand that your roleplaying partner isn’t that great at longer posts; having a roleplay with someone where you’ve posted evenly large things back and forth and then suddenly getting a single line out of no where is pretty rude. Especially with no explanation.
There’s always room for an OH NO my kid just ate an entire box of rat poison, and oh shoot I have to shower before school, but try not to spring it on people too often. Someone who regularly just doesn’t have it in them to post a good healthy amount tends to make a larger poster lose interest, almost as if they sense that you aren’t really into it. Especially true when the roleplayer suddenly posting less has proven in the past to be robustly worded when interested. It makes you seem a bit distracted and uncomfortable, and can kill a roleplay. It’s not a serious sin, unless you do it to the point that it makes the other player frustrated with you.
Don’t Be A Mary Sue/Gary Stu.
For the love of all the things you have ever loved, please for the sake of those close to you, do not roleplay a Mary Sue. This is a simple rule okay, it hurts, it literally burns a good roleplayer to have to deal with a Mary Sue. You are not perfect, wonderful, not everyone likes you, and not everyone who doesn’t are enemies.
Click this link for more information on MarySue/Gary Stu
Mary Sues and Gary Stus
Don’t be a Godmodder.
Please don’t play a Godmodder. It’s generally just as bad as a Mary Sue. There are people who will outright tell you you are one and walk away from a roleplay. Some of these people don’t know what they’re talking about, but if a competent roleplayer complains take it to heart. You need to not do this, it is the biggest pestilence that anyone in any roleplay has to deal with and it really really sucks.
God Modders exists purely to show up how pathetically weak the rest of the world is, and how badly they need his or her help. They show up, save the day on his or her own at least twice as easily as they usually do when working as a team, and doesn't get his or her ass kicked at all. Then he or she stands around and wallows in their praise a bit.
Click this link for more information on God Modding
How Not To God Mod
Don’t Play Your Characters Waaay OOC.
There is some lenience for head-canon characters and GM’s, and some for situations that change how your character acts, but if you are playing a character too different from the norm, doing things no one could imagine, you are a bad roleplayer. There’s just no other way to say it. If your character is depicted in play as a calm peaceful shy retiring sort, playing them a flamboyant oversexualized friendly type who assaults everyone for attention is not going to go down well.
I’m thinking of say, playing Thor as much shorter than usual and chubby and cute, wearing soft delicate dresses, disliking beer, fighting, and armor, and hiding behind people with a stutter begging them not to be loud because it’s scary and then claiming you’re trying to RP them as canonly as possible. You think that’s stupid.
If a character is changing due to actions in RP or backstory, keep their basic personality, and adapt, but never, and I mean never, ever make a character so different as to be unrecognizable. You will find people who have a tolerance for some changes, here and there, but to completely warp a character you’ll need serious back-story and explanations or you can just get a new character to do what you want with them. You will find people who tolerate a character played so badly that it gives them a bad name, these are bad roleplayers, keep looking for a community who has some taste. This may sound rude, but more often than not groups who allow this are also havens for God-mods, and hidden-smut RPers who will ruin a roleplay for you sooner or later by coming out of the woodwork and simply making things terrible. If you like this sort of business, by all means enjoy yourself, just don’t expect it to be accepted elsewhere.
Show Respect To Fellow Roleplayers.
For one thing, showing your fellow roleplayers respect can mean the difference between friends, and a room full of enemies. Do not judge people without at least talking to them a little. Everyone thinks their character is the best, the strongest and the one who owns everyone. Consider everyone your equal, or be willing to accept others as better than you, and a whole new world opens up. A lot more people are going to respect you for when you show your prowess with simple roleplaying, instead of trying to bluff your way around saying you are the best of everything.
OOC is a topic that comes up often, and some people don’t do them and that’s fine, but I’d like to take a look at the ideas behind them. When you separate your aimless chatter from roleplay by some sign, you’re showing respect to other roleplayers. It’s like giving someone the right of way, and showing them you see their posts as legitimate. You are pulling yourself out of the way of a roleplay to let the roleplayers enjoy themselves without worrying if what you say was supposed to be a roleplay post or not.
It also helps keep a roleplay going; if you keep shouting over top of someone trying to make a speech they might become angry or stop. (Your parenthesis are a step out of the way shows them you’re trying to whisper a good idea while allowing others to enjoy their roleplay. You’ve gotten out of their way, and they can easier ignore the posts.) This seems silly to think of people performing better because of a couple parenthesis, but just showing them the respect of not getting in the way of roleplay is an amazing confidence boost that makes roleplay seem more legitimate for roleplayers who may be a little more shy, or self-conscious.
Pay attention to what is said, and “listen” to the mood of the room. It’s not just text on the screen, roleplay has moods. If the roleplay has become serious, or is serious, do not jump in with random joking jokes. Don’t keep laughingly chatting it up, especially with the characters involved, if the mood of their roleplay is serious. It’s rude to be discussing your character’s painful self-awareness of death and have someone joking grab their shoulders and yell “OMG MONKEYS!” It is rude, obnoxious, and will give you a bad name among your roleplaying group.
Also, don’t let OOC flood out roleplay, if they are slow posters and you’ve managed 2 pages of OOC between posts, it may be time to take it elsewhere. Depends on the roleplayer, a few posts are okay, but if you make their roleplay disappear under OOC post you aren’t being very mannerly.
Don’t Try To Change How Someone Else RP’s A Character Due To Personal Preference Only.
Asking them is one thing, it’s fine to ask them if they wouldn’t pretty please do something you’d like more, but if they say no; you drop that idea like it’s a hot potato. You might debate it depending on the person, but if you try to force it on them by roleplaying it against their will you are a jerk my dear.
If they roleplay a character as having blue eyes, and you want them to be red, and you roleplay “She looked into his red eyes!” when he has clearly stated blue in previous posts, you are being an jerk and need to back down. Do not roleplay things contradictory to what a character wants or suggested in roleplay simply to fill your own likes. Do not enforce your likes or thoughts on others through roleplay, by saying things like they were being “obviously upset” when a character has stated they were “cool as a cucumber.”
One thing to keep in mind, roleplay with people you know is going to be different than public, stranger fueled, RP. With some people you can just unthinkably bend or break these ideas, with an unspoken agreement. If you have this kind of relationship with a roleplayer, good on ya, you probably deserve it. Be aware you might catch some heat off others, but don’t let it shake you from a nice comfortable relationship with someone. Be happy you can have what you have.
Other extenuated situations, such as a roleplay literally modified to be made for a group of Mary Sues played well, or a roleplay that demands you do one of the above sins, are of course reasons to break the ‘rules’ so to speak. Sometimes these can be a ton of fun, and remember these are just general “sins”. We are not trying to rule your life, just give you an idea of things that cause widespread agony amongst roleplayers.
As always, once you know the rules well, you can break the rules safely. Backstory, explanations, details, and extremely well done roleplaying can safely destroy all these rules and still create a likable character and a great roleplayer
Where Do I Go From Here?
Simply chose a link below that best suits your next step you want to take.
Don’t assume relationships.
One of the worst problems We seen in roleplay is when someone joins a roleplay and having never roleplayed with anyone there before, starts claiming relationships that have never happened. Claiming things like that a canon character has been in love with you since day one, when the person playing the character has never seen you? That’s a terrible idea, especially with Established Characters. You are not the long lost sibling of a Wolf Brother character who has for all intents and purposes been described as an only child. You were not raised by the canon character, and you were not their second cousin twice removed, nor their ex-lover unless they specifically talk with you about it and say yes to the idea..
It’s annoying to deal with, and it makes people pretty uncomfortable. It’s a bad idea in general to not work out things like this before a roleplay, or without checking with people to see how they feel about it. Everyone should be on the same page before you start, or you’ll have to backpedal and come up with a reason why it wouldn’t be true anymore. Would you walk up to a stranger and tell them that you are now married with kids? No! That’s stupid!
Don’t force Roleplay styles on others.
If someone has stated in OOC or otherwise that they aren’t comfortable roleplaying with someone then do not force your play upon them.
If you just simply cannot live without roleplaying with them, you are the guest in their house asking permission for RP! You should change what you do to suit what they want so you can get what you want in return. It’s all about compromise to get to a place where you can both enjoy yourself. If you simply can’t change what you do, then you two are better off not roleplaying together. Respect their wishes, and leave them alone. It’s not the end of the world if one person doesn’t RP with you.
The person asking for roleplay should be the one to compromise. You’re asking someone else to take time away from what they are doing to do something you want. If they do something you dislike, you should tolerate it for the session, and make a note not to do it again. It’s your fault for asking, reap what you sow unless you can ask in a nice manner if they maybe possibly wouldn’t mind kind of not doing something maybe?.
Don’t flirt with/molest non-smut-characters to extreme extents.
If your character is just there for sex, in a roleplay created for the plot, you don’t belong. Don’t push it, there’s plenty of places online to get your rocks off, you don’t need to ruin the roleplay of those who enjoy romantic, subtle, and serious roleplay over cybering.
It’s not a bad thing to want to have sex online, it is a bad thing to try and push it on people who don’t seem to want it. If a character politely turns you down, or doesn’t show interest at all, or even seems to avoid your character, don’t continue. Let them be, let them have what they want. There are plenty of fish in the sea, and messing with people will just earn you a reputation as someone to avoid.
If a character has OOC stated that they do want “no smut”, then you should seriously knock it off. What’s wrong with you? People have limits, respect them or you’re a callous moronic fool. If you don’t you’re going to get reamed by angry roleplayers, and not in the way you wanted.
When you have a character who is a constant flirt, It’s all well and good if you have a right because “canon says so” but if you’re making the people behind the characters leery, avoidant, and sometimes outright hostile then you’re clearly going too far even with canon reasons. Make sure the mun is okay with things, don’t be too aggressive. It can come off like a creeper, or a stalker. Tone things down if your partners avoid you, and make sure they’re OOC comfortable with how hard you’re pushing their character.
People have a right to say no, or that they aren’t comfortable, and if you keep trying to make the roleplay all about sex when in a public area where they can’t escape you, or when they keep having their serious RP devolve because of you into yet another orgy/flirting session where they are clearly uncomfortable, they will likely leave. The point of roleplay is to have roleplaying partners, and if you scare everyone off no matter how “right” you are, you’re kind of out of luck for anything but one-player mode.
Learn To Spell And Use Proper Grammar.
You are how you appear in your writing; people look for roleplayers who can spell well, and write sentences that make sense to a reader. You don’t have to be the best at either, but if your post looks like someone a teenager would text her boyfriend in class you aren’t playing up to snuff for a lot of people.
Different people have different levels of what is acceptable, some people won’t roleplay with you if you have any typos whatsoever. In fact they will correct you constantly, and then get frustrated and leave. These people are pretty elitist, you’d best leave them to each other. Some people are semi-literate or something to the effect of the term (although it has suffered heavy degradation through overuse). These people can handle a few typos, and are generally more casual about writing. They aren’t completely insufferable, but they do like it when someone can write well enough to get things across. They’re generally more friendly to creative phrasing
It keeps going down from there, just find a group who types like you do, and figure out what you’re comfortable with. If people complain, do better, if you can’t do better, play somewhere else and let them have their fun without flinching every time you make a post. Remember to reread your post real quick, even a quick skim, and hit major typos with the nice red wriggly line of correction.
The one time you can ignore these things is when you are typing for a character who does it in character. Small accent changes, like missing g’s replaced with apostrophe’s and stuff like that. No one will complain about a little bit of quirkiness, but don’t overplay your hand. Be readable, there is nothing worse than trying to roleplay with someone who says “*i wlkd inta teh bsuilin.8” seriously.
Don’t Walk Off/Leave On A Roleplay.
If a roleplay scares you maybe you can suddenly log off, block them, and run. But unless it’s so terribad it’s actually causing you to break out in hives and your eyes to boil, show a little respect for your roleplaying partner and at least say “Gotta go bye!”
If it’s a long term roleplay, tell them you’ve left. It sucks to be stuck in a scene only to find out that the character you’re waiting on has left the entire site and gone on a 8 year hiatus. Get your character out of the way, tell them you’re leaving, and don’t leave them hanging. It hurts, it makes people feel like shit when their partner just up and leaves without a word. You ask “What did I do wrong?” or “Why’d they go?” Sometimes it breeds anger and resentment. You don’t want a good roleplayer you want to talk to again to hate you for forgetting to say bye in a big old painfully serious mid-climax RP, or for someone to complain to their friends only to spread the rumor that you’re a bad roleplayer. A simple “GTG Bye!” will suffice in most cases. It’s better than staying online for 4 hours hoping for another post that will never come.
Of course if your internet cuts out what can you do? Just apologize when you get back. Keep things smoothed over with good manners.
Keep The IRL Drama Out Of RP
There are people out there who have screwed you over, people who you have dated, or been angry with. These people might roleplay with you, but unless you have a problem with how they roleplay, or with something else that directly effects roleplay, either shut up and deal, or walk away.
Do not make your character hate them for no reason, don’t attack them, don’t try to stop them from playing with other people or cause issues because of it. Just stop and breathe. If you can’t handle it leave. Don’t spread gossip, don’t start rumors, don’t be a jerk. Things happened, and if you mess up the good time other people are having because of it, then you’re a jerk too.
Don’t Reply To An Extremely Long Post Without Effort.
Unless you’ve agreed beforehand that you understand that your roleplaying partner isn’t that great at longer posts; having a roleplay with someone where you’ve posted evenly large things back and forth and then suddenly getting a single line out of no where is pretty rude. Especially with no explanation.
There’s always room for an OH NO my kid just ate an entire box of rat poison, and oh shoot I have to shower before school, but try not to spring it on people too often. Someone who regularly just doesn’t have it in them to post a good healthy amount tends to make a larger poster lose interest, almost as if they sense that you aren’t really into it. Especially true when the roleplayer suddenly posting less has proven in the past to be robustly worded when interested. It makes you seem a bit distracted and uncomfortable, and can kill a roleplay. It’s not a serious sin, unless you do it to the point that it makes the other player frustrated with you.
Don’t Be A Mary Sue/Gary Stu.
For the love of all the things you have ever loved, please for the sake of those close to you, do not roleplay a Mary Sue. This is a simple rule okay, it hurts, it literally burns a good roleplayer to have to deal with a Mary Sue. You are not perfect, wonderful, not everyone likes you, and not everyone who doesn’t are enemies.
Click this link for more information on MarySue/Gary Stu
Mary Sues and Gary Stus
Don’t be a Godmodder.
Please don’t play a Godmodder. It’s generally just as bad as a Mary Sue. There are people who will outright tell you you are one and walk away from a roleplay. Some of these people don’t know what they’re talking about, but if a competent roleplayer complains take it to heart. You need to not do this, it is the biggest pestilence that anyone in any roleplay has to deal with and it really really sucks.
God Modders exists purely to show up how pathetically weak the rest of the world is, and how badly they need his or her help. They show up, save the day on his or her own at least twice as easily as they usually do when working as a team, and doesn't get his or her ass kicked at all. Then he or she stands around and wallows in their praise a bit.
Click this link for more information on God Modding
How Not To God Mod
Don’t Play Your Characters Waaay OOC.
There is some lenience for head-canon characters and GM’s, and some for situations that change how your character acts, but if you are playing a character too different from the norm, doing things no one could imagine, you are a bad roleplayer. There’s just no other way to say it. If your character is depicted in play as a calm peaceful shy retiring sort, playing them a flamboyant oversexualized friendly type who assaults everyone for attention is not going to go down well.
I’m thinking of say, playing Thor as much shorter than usual and chubby and cute, wearing soft delicate dresses, disliking beer, fighting, and armor, and hiding behind people with a stutter begging them not to be loud because it’s scary and then claiming you’re trying to RP them as canonly as possible. You think that’s stupid.
If a character is changing due to actions in RP or backstory, keep their basic personality, and adapt, but never, and I mean never, ever make a character so different as to be unrecognizable. You will find people who have a tolerance for some changes, here and there, but to completely warp a character you’ll need serious back-story and explanations or you can just get a new character to do what you want with them. You will find people who tolerate a character played so badly that it gives them a bad name, these are bad roleplayers, keep looking for a community who has some taste. This may sound rude, but more often than not groups who allow this are also havens for God-mods, and hidden-smut RPers who will ruin a roleplay for you sooner or later by coming out of the woodwork and simply making things terrible. If you like this sort of business, by all means enjoy yourself, just don’t expect it to be accepted elsewhere.
Show Respect To Fellow Roleplayers.
For one thing, showing your fellow roleplayers respect can mean the difference between friends, and a room full of enemies. Do not judge people without at least talking to them a little. Everyone thinks their character is the best, the strongest and the one who owns everyone. Consider everyone your equal, or be willing to accept others as better than you, and a whole new world opens up. A lot more people are going to respect you for when you show your prowess with simple roleplaying, instead of trying to bluff your way around saying you are the best of everything.
OOC is a topic that comes up often, and some people don’t do them and that’s fine, but I’d like to take a look at the ideas behind them. When you separate your aimless chatter from roleplay by some sign, you’re showing respect to other roleplayers. It’s like giving someone the right of way, and showing them you see their posts as legitimate. You are pulling yourself out of the way of a roleplay to let the roleplayers enjoy themselves without worrying if what you say was supposed to be a roleplay post or not.
It also helps keep a roleplay going; if you keep shouting over top of someone trying to make a speech they might become angry or stop. (Your parenthesis are a step out of the way shows them you’re trying to whisper a good idea while allowing others to enjoy their roleplay. You’ve gotten out of their way, and they can easier ignore the posts.) This seems silly to think of people performing better because of a couple parenthesis, but just showing them the respect of not getting in the way of roleplay is an amazing confidence boost that makes roleplay seem more legitimate for roleplayers who may be a little more shy, or self-conscious.
Pay attention to what is said, and “listen” to the mood of the room. It’s not just text on the screen, roleplay has moods. If the roleplay has become serious, or is serious, do not jump in with random joking jokes. Don’t keep laughingly chatting it up, especially with the characters involved, if the mood of their roleplay is serious. It’s rude to be discussing your character’s painful self-awareness of death and have someone joking grab their shoulders and yell “OMG MONKEYS!” It is rude, obnoxious, and will give you a bad name among your roleplaying group.
Also, don’t let OOC flood out roleplay, if they are slow posters and you’ve managed 2 pages of OOC between posts, it may be time to take it elsewhere. Depends on the roleplayer, a few posts are okay, but if you make their roleplay disappear under OOC post you aren’t being very mannerly.
Don’t Try To Change How Someone Else RP’s A Character Due To Personal Preference Only.
Asking them is one thing, it’s fine to ask them if they wouldn’t pretty please do something you’d like more, but if they say no; you drop that idea like it’s a hot potato. You might debate it depending on the person, but if you try to force it on them by roleplaying it against their will you are a jerk my dear.
If they roleplay a character as having blue eyes, and you want them to be red, and you roleplay “She looked into his red eyes!” when he has clearly stated blue in previous posts, you are being an jerk and need to back down. Do not roleplay things contradictory to what a character wants or suggested in roleplay simply to fill your own likes. Do not enforce your likes or thoughts on others through roleplay, by saying things like they were being “obviously upset” when a character has stated they were “cool as a cucumber.”
One thing to keep in mind, roleplay with people you know is going to be different than public, stranger fueled, RP. With some people you can just unthinkably bend or break these ideas, with an unspoken agreement. If you have this kind of relationship with a roleplayer, good on ya, you probably deserve it. Be aware you might catch some heat off others, but don’t let it shake you from a nice comfortable relationship with someone. Be happy you can have what you have.
Other extenuated situations, such as a roleplay literally modified to be made for a group of Mary Sues played well, or a roleplay that demands you do one of the above sins, are of course reasons to break the ‘rules’ so to speak. Sometimes these can be a ton of fun, and remember these are just general “sins”. We are not trying to rule your life, just give you an idea of things that cause widespread agony amongst roleplayers.
As always, once you know the rules well, you can break the rules safely. Backstory, explanations, details, and extremely well done roleplaying can safely destroy all these rules and still create a likable character and a great roleplayer
Where Do I Go From Here?
Simply chose a link below that best suits your next step you want to take.
