Great RP; What Makes It?

[Brynhilde]

Hi all,

 

So there's something I've been pondering lately. I'm sure we've all had those moments when we've been RPing with a new RP partner and suddenly you think, "Wow, this person is a really good RPer."

 

For me, beyond the obvious things like excellent spelling, punctuation and grammar, several things stand out in a great RPer;

 

1) Descriptive ability: can they convey a vivid image of their character's appearance and mannerisms without having to do it in two full paragraphs?

2) Dialogue: does it flow naturally? Does their character speak as a real person might, while still accounting for Eorzea's particular slang and dialects? Do they avoid clichés and overuse of ellipses?

3) The back-and-forth: to me, good RP is reciprocal; it offers ample and equal opportunities for all parties to get involved. A great RPer is considerate of their RP partners, and makes openings for them to engage the scene.

 

... I suppose to me, great RP encompasses both technique and ethos.

 

My question to you is; what impresses you in other peoples' RP? What qualities, to you, make a truly great RPer?

 

And in keeping with the spate of happy-feely threads on the RPC of late, if you want to mention any RPers you know as possessing the qualities of great RPers that you mention, go right ahead. It's always nice to get a heads-up on who I should track down for RP.

[Gegenji]

My question to you is; what impresses you in other peoples' RP? What qualities, to you, make a truly great RPer?

 

I just think good RP (not good RPers) is one where all those who participated had a good time, that they got something out of it - whether it's character development, a laugh, or just a feeling of accomplishment. People who can get together and create those sorts of moments? Those are great RPers.

[Warren Castille]

In no particular order, the things I cherish in an RP partner:

 

*Posting speed! Waiting 7 minutes between posts usually ends up with me tabbing out and doing something else.

*Descriptions without being overly verbose. I don't care what region your scarf was knitted in.

*Something to play off of in conversation: If I ask how your day went, "Not bad." is a horrible response because there's no back-and-forth.

*Immersion-approved writing: "Bro, that dragoon just landed a hella sick Spinershatter on those newbs." GET OUT.

*General sense of fairness, someone who doesn't abuse Player Character Knowledge or abuses search comment details

*Fun. If you're constantly moping or miserable or depressed and generally unfun to be around, I'll find excuses to not be around you

*Cooperative! I appreciate DM-PC style plots as much as anyone else, it's also fun to have an overall sense of where things end and then explore the middle ground

[Lekka Meyren]

What I appreciate the most in RP is when a scene develops in such a way that any participant can jump on the many "hooks" presented in a way that makes sense to them.

By that I mean presenting opportunity, rather than outright deciding everything that happens. If my character is heavilly wounded I might act out her symptoms; and a medically trained character might be able to discern the cause.

( In that situation I don't have to decide all the details of the injury, my character only knows her symptoms after all; and ooc I can give some details of what happened, allowing the medical character to play with it)

 

That really is kind of the core tenet of what makes me enjoy RP, and it can even apply in simpler situations like conversations. (Though it really shines in situations where the story develops because of the specific characters, their assumptions and skills impacting it.)

[Alothia]

• Someone who makes my time RPing with them enjoyable. It could depend on what mood I'm in. Sometimes it's someone who doesn't mind doing something goofy. Sometimes it's someone that makes me have a lot of feels.
  
• Someone who is quick, but if they're not quick, someone who makes rich posts. I'm willing to compromise time if I feel like you're enriching the experience.
  
• Someone I can talk to OOCly about what is going on ICly and not feel like I'm being a pain. I'm a communicator. I like to talk out what is going on.
  

I'm sure I have more, but it's lunch time. I'll type more later.

[Maril]

For me, and especially when it comes to plots and story-lines, I really appreciate it if the person you are roleplaying with is able to do so without a script. 80% of what I do in RP isn't planned, it's just improvisation based on the situations that occur which follows the general "ruleset" if you would that exists for my character's personality. 

I have experienced many times when you have someone playing a villain - which I know is not an easy job, where they rely a bit too much on instructions and aren't able to take the role and "own" it. Just because someone else started the idea for a concept doesn't mean you should, well, in essence stop being a roleplayer and be more of an actor. 

 

I appreciate it also when the other person..

- Have well-balanced characters and should they challenge one of mine, they're okay with using my chosen way of dealing with fights (free-form). A gesture I return, if one of my characters challenge someone else, I will be playing by their method (Like, roll-emote) even if I don't agree with it. 

- Plays fair, but also understands that there's no such thing as a fair fight. 

- Keeps a decent emote speed, especially if it's late in the evening. I will absolutely fall asleep if I have to wait more than 5 minutes for a reply. Certain situations are excused from this because they might be more out of the usual comfortzones. 

- Understands that taking roleplay seriously doesn't mean it can't be fun, or that I can't see roleplay as fun. And increasingly, that following lore doesn't make you the most serious person out there. It simply isn't fun for me if lore is violated so much that my immersion gets ruffled. (Insert obligatory "My immershuhn!" cry out here)

- Communicates oocly and never feels like they can't ever ask a clarifying question. When there's no assumptions like "This person is ignoring me! Rude!" When it's a case of me missing an emote. 

- Is about as happy for OOC Drama as I am. Which means not very. 

- Doesn't railroad things. I am not a fan of pre-determining anything when it can be avoided. 

- Keeps OOC and IC seperate. I don't know if this specific thing absolutely makes someone "great" since I see it almost as a minimum requirement, but I will definitely be going in the opposite direction as soon as I notice there being any sort of a bleed. Especially when romance is involved. 

 

One thing that I do not put so much weight on is descriptiveness in emotes. If the interaction is flowing, then it doesn't matter to me if the couch was described as being soft when your character sat on it. Despite the fact that I myself tend to feel very inferior when there's someone doing entire paragraphs near me and there I am with my silly two-lined emote about sipping drinks and peoplewatching.. 

 

I could probably go on but I will leave it at this.

[Nebbs]

RP exists as interaction with others, when people state grammatical correctness I would assume this is just a basic standard they apply to everything and not just RP. RP does not need the written word.

 

Great RP for me is ...

• when I get to have my character think, and react to what is going on
  
• where I as a player get to add to the story
  
• where there is a collaborative outcome that all partake in
  
• where the RP feeds off each person
  
• where there is freedom to take it where it wants to go
  
• where there is trust that you give yourself over to others
  
• when I don't know what will happen next
  

When I feel I am there and it is happening, when I forget I am sat in a room in my house in my slobby clothing eating who knows what.

 

Try 4 days solid of 24/7 LARP , but for on-line just some immersion and improvisation that grows.

[Caspar]

Being needlessly verbose is something I've been guilty of in the past and am actively trying to avoid in this game, thus, while I understand how fun it is to show off your classical education, I don't have the patience to read through it when there's simply too much going on elsewhere.

 

What impresses me is clever dialogue comments that make me laugh or have an apparent double meaning, and I really try hard to do it myself. If I can succeed in that once in a while, I'm happy, but there are some rpers good at loading all their sentences with hidden meaning, and I can say I really appreciate that style.

 

The other thing that impresses me are players who have such commanding knowledge of the lore that they can work setting elements casually into their lines without needing to research.

[cuideag]

I love RPers who, while they might have serious characters that might be in serious scenes, take a moment to drop in a little bit of humor or absurdity. I love RPers who have fun with their characters and share that fun with others. It's a wonderful thing and I feel little moments like that can really add to a character/scene's depth.

[Alothia]

Being needlessly verbose is something I've been guilty of in the past and am actively trying to avoid in this game, thus, while I understand how fun it is to show off your classical education, I don't have the patience to read through it when there's simply too much going on elsewhere.

 

 

I think that this tends to happen a lot in RP. I have some friends who are fantastic at being flowery but with a purpose. Their characters are haughty and educated and it fits with the way that they write.

 

But I also know people who try to emulate that style because they feel that writing too straightforward is frowned upon.

 

I'd like to say that I'm one of those people who appreciates a little bit of both, but I'd rather be engaged in what we're doing than wait for the other person to go and use a thesaurus to see how many different ways they can describe the color of their hair, skin, eyes, their lips, etc.

 

Being verbose can be a good thing, but if it's not something that comes easily, don't focus on it!

[Zhavi]

Practicality, creativity, succinctness (or, writing only as much as is actually necessary, be it 5 words or 5000), style, ability to self-edit, enjoyment.

[allgivenover]

RPing in a way that's considerate towards others, or as I like to call it "paying it forward".

 

Good points by others so far, here's something about what not to do.

Don't do stuff like this:

 

• Injuring your character constantly so that your character's situation is always more dire than other character's situations.
   
  
• Only being interested in RP if it's "about" your character.
   
  
• Ignoring other's hooks or developments, or having your character go out of their way to diminish their importance, or worse, hijacking them.
   
  
• Having your character develop abilities that quickly and obviously overshadow long honed and RP'd abilities of other characters. ("You're a conjurer? Wow so am I suddenly! Except I don't just use small bits of stone, I lift house sized boulders out of the ground and conjure waterfalls from the air! And I just learned how to do this yesterday! We're total conjurer peers now XD")
   
  
• Sudden retcons that impact others severely because it's inconvenient to keep your history. ("Fascists who believe in thought-crime think my character is too young and made me feel bad =(. I know I'll just age them five years without warning.")
   
  
• Canonizing fetish in larger RP circles and hiding it until ties are too deep to back off with ease. ("No one's gonna tell me my futa-baby is wrong! Doesn't matter that I hid it until I was good and involved with others.")
  

 

Some of these may have been the catalyst for my fall out with certain unnamed groups.

[Lamia]

To me, great RP comes in all shapes and sizes. In the end, it's simply when we meet up for rp and the hours just pass away without anyone realizing it, where it finally ends and your left with the feeling of -wow- that was deep.

+ Character development.

 

Rp that allows the characters to -grow- from the interaction, even subtly can often have huge impacts on future meetings, and even that characters interactions with others aside from yours. Characters who are willing to open doors of opportunity for other characters, mentor them, or help them figure things out that may be troubling them can often make the largest impacts. But smaller impacts can also be made simply by making sure the characters have a good time, or even just an engaging conversation about their views, ideals, or passions.

 

+ Immersion

 

Just like turning the pages of a good book, a great rp is one that pulls that players and the characters into what is currently going on. Hours pass without anyone realizing it, you feel yourself wondering 'what's going to happen next' or "I didn't see that one coming!" even as simply as, 'wow, I didn't know that about my character'. it's these surprises that keep a role-player coming back to an rp partner for more, and looking forward to what'll happen in future role-plays.

 

+ Being able to trust your RP partner

 

It's a bit of an OOC thing, but I've found that people tend to hold their characters back less when they know their rp partner can handle that character oocly. Specially if a person is shy, getting to know the player behind the character a bit before role-playing can help make any RP a great one, and a better experience overall for the parties involved!

 

My two cents. I have to bail for lunch now. -fweeeee~!-

[D'aito Kuji]

All the stuff above &

 

RP'ers that don't get mad because I haven't memorized every bit of the Lore.  I do try to learn about the location my character happens to be in but they won't necessarily know about places they haven't been to yet (in-character).  And they left the Southern Sagolii Desert just last year after growing up secluded and isolated from all but a few merchants.

 

So if I don't immediately know what a Duskwight is, try to be patient.  It may also be the case that my character simply hasn't met one yet.

 

(I am trying to learn everything but this is my first fantasy style game and the Lore is gargantuan compared to MMOs I've played before)

[Val]

Trust goes a very, very long way for me. I won't involve myself in a lot of affairs if I can't bring myself to trust the people I RP with, especially when it comes to a relationship/companionship.

 

I also need to have someone that can immerse me in their character, as well as someone that isn't going to try to change their character simply because they want a specific outcome. For that matter, I like people that can create 3-dimensional, believable characters that have thoughts and feelings of their own.

 

I like those that can get involved in stories as well as come up with their own; someone that isn't going to sit on the sidelines and expect RP to come to them or not get involved if no one goes to them. 

 

I think spelling/grammar can play a big part in it as well and, along with this, people that can make posts that accurately describe and convey the scene. They don't have to be long posts, though I tend to be rather lengthy myself when it comes to more closed RP, but the posts need to be more than "So and so smiles at you." I'm certainly guilty of such posts myself, but I tend to only do such in a closed environment. As for spelling, if the person can't spell well, it tends to break my immersion (especially if it's really bad) by forcing me to try to understand what exactly was meant.

 

To sum it up, just believable characters in a living, breathing world with people that you know and can trust. They don't even have to be like-minded, just capable.

[Aaron]

When the other characters not obsessed with meeting in the QS and would actively venture out to do a rp fate or something. 

 

When the replies don't take a year to happen. Though that's a minor issue.

 

When the other character doesn't shut you off at every attempt to a conversation yet has "rper please walk up" in their search info. It's one thing to be a introvert, hell my mains a introvert but he can still hold a conversation and doesn't just give one word replies 24/7.

 

When the character is actually interested in mine and doesn't just try to get him in a fight to prove something (unless they've got a VERY good reason).

 

Probably more but I forgot atm

 

OH biggest one is excellent grammar. I was forced to use commas and such as a kid damn near in every sentence. Someone who doesn't have their dialogue at least look neat IC (the accent of characters are ok) I can't deal with it.

 

OOC? Be as ghetto and txt az u want wit me bro.

[Erik Mynhier]

Something in very short supply these days... acceptance of differences and mutual respect.

[Arelian Solin]

I'm a little shocked at the distaste for para-RP in this thread! Though I can understand the complaint about post speeds, I'm generally more than happy to wait 5-10 minutes for a good, rich post. Especially since I get more shit done that way. Granted, most of my scenes tend to be on the longer side. I genuinely can't imagine doing a 3+ hour scene where the posts were coming in rapid order.

 

A few big points for me, though:

 

• Grammar/Spelling. I make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes! But glaring issues like leaving out punctuation on the regular and/or misspelling words to the point of me not understanding them is a big, big gripe of mine.
  

• Post length. I'll admit it. I'm a wordy bastard. I'm likely not going to be engaged in the roleplay (if it's a longer scene) if the posts are less than a paragraph. Granted, that's moreso for private scenes. In a public venue it tends to shift towards shorter, more succinct posts. Mostly for the surrounding folks' chatbox sake.
  

• I can't stand it when it becomes clear that the player has an agenda for their character and will stop at nothing to achieve that agenda. Nothing makes me nope out faster than feeling pressured into having my character behave in a certain way OR ELSE.
  

 

• The writer's voice is also incredibly important to me. If you can't pound out 2-3 paragraphs while keeping a consistent and engaging voice? Don't! I won't hold it against you if your posts are shorter but entertaining and rich in content. I'm guilty of it as well, but I'll zone out of a scene really quickly if the posts I've receiving are basically just a checklist of what that character is doing in reaction to mine. Give me some meat! A book is rarely just, "And so and so does this and this and then does this!" Spice it up a little bit, and I don't mean by using flowery words.
  

• Posts that take too long. I like having some downtime between posts if the scene's a more private one. I really do! But taking 15-30 minutes for a post is a bit absurd. Tone it down a little bit if you're going to run long. Please.
  

• And last, but certainly not least, when people get OOC upset due to how my character is acting. Everyone will agree with this, and while I genuinely understand being a little butthurt when a scene didn't play out the way you wanted it to. Conduct yourself like an adult.
  

 

What do I like? Honestly, that's an easier thing for me to list out.

 

• Unique characters. This runs the gamut, but in general the best way to put it is that there's some obvious thought put into the character's actions. Not everyone does this, and that's cool! But it's not for me.
  

• Hooks. I love it when people approach me with a hook in mind. It doesn't always pan out the way anyone wanted it to, but that typically leaves more room for interaction later. So long as everything didn't immediately go up in flames. Any RP I've had that lasts any significant amount of time has happened because either myself or the person that approached me had something in mind for how the interaction could begin and/or continue.
  

• Voice. Voice, voice, voice. This is literally the opposite of my above point. I love nothing more than when I get to read something interesting that carries the author's voice with it. It's a nebulous quality that's hard to pin down, absolutely, but it's honestly the most imperative one for me. Y'either got it or y'don't.
  

• Meaty posts and knowing when to use them. You aren't going to be dropping a shitload of prose at me in the bar if we're gonna get along. You just aren't. However, if we're in a private scene I definitely want something I can latch onto. Be it either prosey-ass-prose that gives me ideas for future character interactions or--well, anything that allows me to bite down and chew at it for a while. I've met a lot of people that equate this to extended posts, but it's not that at all. Just know what you've got and work it.
  

I could go on and on about this subject, honestly. Mostly because, to me, good writing and good RP are synonymous with each other. At the end of the day, both are going to posses a certain je ne sais quoi that makes the content interesting to read.

[Ette]

Oh boy I get to make another list. 

 

 

• Someone who knows the time and place for multi-para. I love multi-para. I don’t mind waiting on multi-para. I don’t want to play with someone dropping four emotes worth of para in the bar, however.
  
• Someone who isn’t afraid to make fun of their character, portray their characters in an unattractive light, or have their characters be wrong. I just can't deal with a character who is correct and sexyfine all the time anymore.
  
• Someone who is willing to speak and be friendly with me OOC.I want to feel like I can actually talk to the player. Being BEST FRIENDS isn’t a requirement (though it’s totally a perk) but if I feel like I can’t approach someone about what times they’re on or a problem I have then. . . Well, that’s a problem!
  
• On that note: Someone who will also reach out to me for RP.Chasing people all the time isn’t any fun.
  
• Hooks and hooks and hooks and hooks. I absolutely love people who will lay out things that my character can react to.
  
• Good characterization. I don’t necessarily need characters to feel like people so much as I need them to be three dimensional and interesting. I want my time spent interacting with a character to feel rewarding as I begin to uncover what makes them tick and why they act as they do.
  
• RP that serves to further an overarching plot. The plot doesn’t have to be big, mind you. However I do want to feel that our characters are impacting and influencing one another. Small filler RP is cute but I don’t want all my RP to be fluff.
  
• BE BIG OL’ PARA TRASH JUST LIKE ME. Yup. It’s me. I’m that person. Will you let me throw three emotes with of text at you and still speak to me afterwards? GREAT. EXCELLENT. It’s not a requirement but good golly will I like you for it. 
  

[ChewableMorphine]

It's barely been two days since the last thread that started a flamewar. Hopefully this won't devolve into one.

 

Anyways.

 

• Have fun with it
  
• Don't take yourself so seriously
  
• It's cool to have typos but really crappy sentence structure is just a pet peeve.
  

[Faye]

The most important thing to me is someone whose RP is fun and not half-assed. I'm not really sure how to explain what I mean by this... erm. I have a fondness for newer role-players. They typically try very hard to impress, put in a lot of thought and effort, always try to keep something interesting happening, they're passionate and optimistic and not burnt out. I like that in people. I'd choose someone who can keep a good story going yet who may be a little green and make the occasional faux pas over someone who never metas and has perfect grammar but it boring and bland. So, that's always the real selling point for me, but other things I typically value:

 

- Three dimensional and interesting characters. For me, RP is largely character driven. The characters make the story. I don't like characters who are inconsistent, flat, or the dreaded, self-proclaimed "my character acts just like I do irl!" types.

- Staying true to the character and no random/unnecessary/frequent retcons.

- Good spelling, grammar, and diction. I don't want to get distracted giggling at funny typos or get a headache squinting at my screen as I try to decipher the meaning of a sentence.

- General writing ability. I like to read pretty words in pretty sentences in pretty paragraphs. I like to see descriptions that make me think, "Wow, I never thought of putting it that way before."

- No purple prose. No, that's not what I mean by pretty words. Using big/obscure words or abusing metaphors and poetic language is not a substitute for actual writing ability. There's nothing I hate more than people who try really hard to come across as deeply intellectual, deep, and philosophical by using a lot of superficial language and pretentious sounding words haphazardly strung together in a way that's not even effective stylistically or grammatically correct. "Physiognomy" may mean "face" but that doesn't mean you should substitute it for the word "face" in every sentence. /rant

- Post length. I want substance. I don't enjoy one-liners. But please don't prattle on about useless things. "I can write a lot" =/= "I can write well." They're not the same thing. The worth of someone's post is not determined by its length. It's also important to know WHEN to use lengthy posts and when not to use them. Skype RP may be good for a five paragraph long post--the middle of the Quicksand on a busy night is probably not.

- Description. See the above--moderation is important. I like a vivid picture of what's going on. How many grains of wood are in the table or what someone's character ate for breakfast yesterday do not need to be part of this "picture."

- Immersion and lore accuracy. I'm not a stickler, but I do like for the setting and the laws of the world to feel consistent.

- No IC/OOC bleed. Ruins the fun in RP almost instantly.

- Fairness and etiquette, avoiding taboos. No metagaming, godmodding, autohitting, powerplaying, Mary Sues, etc.

- Post speed. You don't have to cut substance for speed, I just don't want to wait 15 minutes for every post. I've role-played with people who'd write 5+ paragraphs for every post and the writing and substance were actually decent, but not worth a 30 minute wait between posts.

- Someone who's not just after ERP/sex/romance and nothing more. 99.9% of my role-plays won't end that way, so it's a waste of time for us both when someone realizes my character won't date/sleep with theirs and they ditch me and never speak to me again.

- OOC likability and communication skills. Like Val said, trust is important. No, they don't have to be my bff or someone who I would want to be mine, but role-play--especially in depth or long term--involves at least some degree of communication, so it helps if the other person is someone I enjoy communicating with and can with ease.

- Not taking things too seriously. Have fun. Put some comedy into your role-play. Be able to laugh at your characters, or laugh along when others laugh at them. Don't play "omg super cool badass" that everyone else must recognize as super cool, IC and OOC, at all times.

- Thick skin No, I'm not some edgelord, but in an increasingly tumblr-esque society where people are more and more easily offended, some of the content I like to explore and include in RP may be "triggers." That's not to say I will ever include something in RP that I know the other person is OOCly uncomfortable with, I just have a lot more fun not having to censor myself or my characters.

- Believability and logic. Sure, it's a fantasy setting, but I like for it to feel like a real world. I don't enjoy people who role-play like they're in an anime. In an anime world, your character gets a free pass to act like a dick/lone wolf/tsundere/whatever because you're the "chosen one," or one of them, and the people working toward the same goals are forced to be around you and learn to see past your rough exterior. That's not it works in real life or how it should work in RP. If your character acts like a dick, most other characters are going to think he acts like a dick, and want nothing to do with him.

[Verad]

Things I look for:

• Be stylistically interesting. This goes beyond word choice; RPers, like a lot of writers in general, have taken the old chestnuts of writing advice from the late-19th/early-20th century to heart. This means a lot of RPers who are writing in a sort of quasi-Modernist fashion, which is fine if one is intentionally going for that. But I like to see people playing with narration, sentence structures, and rhythm in a way that reflects on their character beyond authentic depictions thereof.
  
• Fill out the little corners of the world. I'm very happy with RP concepts that examine the implications of lore in ways beyond the obvious; such characters help round out the setting.
  
• Dice. I've situated myself pretty nicely in this regard so I don't really require it from people anymore, not that I ever required it in the past. But I like the controlled unpredictability afforded by a good dice system.
  
• An existentialist approach to characters and decision-making. You control your character; saying "But my character wouldn't do that!" as if they have agency over you rather than vice-versa feels like roleplaying in bad faith. It's fine if you don't want a character to do thing X because you've laid out clear boundaries for what your character will and won't do, but acknowledge that you've laid them out.
  

[Alothia]

AdminHat

 

Pruning for tone. Come on, this thread is about positivity. Don't be a jerk.

 

/Admin

[Flickering Ember]

– Actions have meaning

I enjoy seeing how characters grow over time and how they react to certain circumstances that appear in RP. This is what separates role-play from literature for me. You are not reading a story but actively participating and shaping it. If a role player already has all their character's development preplanned out then it takes away the feeling of participation. Is that role player role-playing or are they telling a story that they have already written? I like knowing my character's actions have meaning.

 

– Sharing the spotlight

Role-play is the story of many, not the story of one. Great role players show interest in other characters and get involved in their plots. They also respond to and acknowledge other characters in every day, social RP. In general, sharing the spotlight means just including others whenever possible.

 

– Basic spelling and grammar

It doesn't have to be exceptional, just enough so that my immersion isn't broken. What's really more important to me is:

 

– Passion

I don't care about common or annoying spelling and grammar errors. The writing quality doesn't need to be English college graduate level. I don't mind if you are overly verbose. What I do love seeing is passion. I can tell the difference between someone who really loves their character and puts forth an effort to get to know that character versus a character that isn't fleshed out very well. This doesn't necessarily mean that the role player has a tumblr or a wiki or a long in depth character profile. A role player with passion enjoys talking about their character, knows (or if it is a new character, is eager to learn) their character, and is just genuinely happy about role-playing their character.

 

– Initiative

There are a whole bunch of us who are shy. It can be scary or difficult to motivate some of us into making the first step. However, being scared about what the other person might think means we aren't role-playing. Beyond shyness, a lack of initiative can also be laziness. Often times, stepping up into new role-play can take a lot of effort. Sometimes that level of effort might not feel like it is worth it, especially for those who are just looking to unwind after work. Having a good initiative keeps the role-play flowing.

 

– Lack of 'Winning' mentality

This is something that is extremely common for me to see. Role players can be hesitant to have their characters fail, especially if it would make their characters seem incompetent or less badass. It can often come in the form of godmoding or power gaming but can also pop up in more subtle and less harmful ways. 'Winning' mentalities can get in the way of forging interesting and organic role-play.

 

 

 

There are more, definitely. This is all I can think up for now.

[Kyrio Lamansque]

• Someone who makes my time RPing with them enjoyable. It could depend on what mood I'm in. Sometimes it's someone who doesn't mind doing something goofy. Sometimes it's someone that makes me have a lot of feels.
  
• Someone who is quick, but if they're not quick, someone who makes rich posts. I'm willing to compromise time if I feel like you're enriching the experience.
  
• Someone I can talk to OOCly about what is going on ICly and not feel like I'm being a pain. I'm a communicator. I like to talk out what is going on.
  

I'm sure I have more, but it's lunch time. I'll type more later.

 

I won't lie. This sums it up. With the people I like, I'm in whispers talking stuff out. I'm obnoxious like that. 

 

And like Warren, i'm bad with the alt-tab. Whenever I play any MMO, I always play it in Windowed for my alt-tabbing pleasure. So keeping me engaged might be troublesome for those who slowly pick through their posts. 

 

And the feeling that I'm adding to something is always nice. No issue at all with random encounters, but things that never get past the skin may give short-term pleasure but lacks long-term satisfaction.