These are all fantastic examples, and many of them raise red flags with me when I see them.
However, I think, at the end of the day the big ones for me - and by that I mean the sort of red flags that will make me want to not RP with someone in a significant way - are RPers who say "no" instead of "yes, and...", and RPers who are completely unwilling to have any OOC discussion about how a scene/event/approach might work.
The "no" vs "yes, and..." thing is straight out of improv. When we RP, we're doing improv. We're putting on an unscripted show for our own (and hopefully other people's) entertainment. There's a cardinal rule in improv that you should try to respond to the other actors in a way that builds upon what they do. Your actions should say "yes, and...", instead of shutting them down with "no". In my experience, RPers who shut down RP with "no" tend to be the ones who are unduly focused on "winning" the RP.
The "no OOC discussion of approach" thing is probably a little more controversial, but let me explain. When I'm bored, I tend to hang out in places like the Quicksand looking for RPers. I examine people's search text, I look for characters who are walking or are dressed in appropriate outfits, and I'll send them /tells saying things like "Hi, what sort of RP are you looking for?"
Some people get very insistent that they don't want to discuss anything like that at all, that they want to let RP develop naturally from the approach. I can understand that, but in my experience many (if not most) of those approaches devolve into simple "Hot, isn't it?" conversations that are soon over. If someone doesn't provide anything for you to get traction with, then the RP won't develop anywhere. There's another slice of "no OOC discussion" players who fall on the extreme opposite of this. They want the stories to happen to their characters without any control on their part. It sounds good in principle, but it tends to become hard to RP with those people because their characters are constantly getting into terrible binds. I think there's something about players like that where they're attracted to players who want to force actions on others, and those players are attracted to them as the ideal victims. I have no problem with people wanting that, but I really don't want to be caught in the middle of that.
However, I think, at the end of the day the big ones for me - and by that I mean the sort of red flags that will make me want to not RP with someone in a significant way - are RPers who say "no" instead of "yes, and...", and RPers who are completely unwilling to have any OOC discussion about how a scene/event/approach might work.
The "no" vs "yes, and..." thing is straight out of improv. When we RP, we're doing improv. We're putting on an unscripted show for our own (and hopefully other people's) entertainment. There's a cardinal rule in improv that you should try to respond to the other actors in a way that builds upon what they do. Your actions should say "yes, and...", instead of shutting them down with "no". In my experience, RPers who shut down RP with "no" tend to be the ones who are unduly focused on "winning" the RP.
The "no OOC discussion of approach" thing is probably a little more controversial, but let me explain. When I'm bored, I tend to hang out in places like the Quicksand looking for RPers. I examine people's search text, I look for characters who are walking or are dressed in appropriate outfits, and I'll send them /tells saying things like "Hi, what sort of RP are you looking for?"
Some people get very insistent that they don't want to discuss anything like that at all, that they want to let RP develop naturally from the approach. I can understand that, but in my experience many (if not most) of those approaches devolve into simple "Hot, isn't it?" conversations that are soon over. If someone doesn't provide anything for you to get traction with, then the RP won't develop anywhere. There's another slice of "no OOC discussion" players who fall on the extreme opposite of this. They want the stories to happen to their characters without any control on their part. It sounds good in principle, but it tends to become hard to RP with those people because their characters are constantly getting into terrible binds. I think there's something about players like that where they're attracted to players who want to force actions on others, and those players are attracted to them as the ideal victims. I have no problem with people wanting that, but I really don't want to be caught in the middle of that.
