You Know You Overthink RP When....

[Juromaro]

...When you create a bunch of characters to add to your character story and spend months working on a backstory only to never RP cause you get to nervous.

[Maril]

- When you have tried to (and failed) make a conversion from gil into real money 

- Because you thought it would be a good idea to make a budget for your character

- So as to properly reflect states of hunger, soberness etc. when there's no money to spend. 

- And then contemplated making a budget for the whole company too.

[Shoshopu]

When…

 

…you have to create a schedule to explain how and why your character manages to show up to RP locations around the globe within their timeline.

 

…you wait a long period of time between hairstyle changes for your hair to "grow".

 

I feel these two particularly. It's part of why I'm never just sitting around in the Quicksand and it kinda makes it harder on myself to try and get myself "out there" or whatever

 

 

-When you've named and developed four older siblings and parents for your characters

-And their pets/mounts

-And try to RP them

 

-Every time you try to make a joke character they turn into serious/kinda depressing characters the minute you start considering a backstory

[Marcy]

 

-Every time you try to make a joke character they turn into serious/kinda depressing characters the minute you start considering a backstory

 

Oh no, this is me. This is every character I ever played. There's no escape.

[Caspar]

You've decided on events within an otherwise perfectly workable self-contained story just to explain the identities and motivation of NPCs your character may only meet once or twice. And there are enough of them to start a swing band.

[Dat Oni]

 

-Every time you try to make a joke character they turn into serious/kinda depressing characters the minute you start considering a backstory

 

Oh no, this is me. This is every character I ever played. There's no escape.

 

Yep. Every goddamned time.

[Leggerless]

You create a mathematical model of an RP event.

[Parth Makeo]

When you make a villain the root of all evil for each of your characters and having them have a personal reason to kill da big badz...

[chaoticsleepy]

...when you're creating a new Xaela and you don't jive with any of the existing named tribes, so you create your own.

...when what starts as a super simple head cannon for said player-made tribe steadily grows and evolves.

...when that growing idea leads you to spending a week doing research on other cultures and writing out an extension compendium of lore for the player-tribe you have created.

...when super small, inconsequential details come up in the course of casual RP and you have to stop and think really, really hard of a legitimate, character-developing story for why you added that detail.

...in fact, pretty much every small detail about your character has a deep and development-driven reason for existing, and you've probably written a drabble about it. a very detailed drabble. for what is literally just a very small detail that will probably never have any significant bearing on any RP ever.

[Aysun]

OH my god, all these things.

 

 

...When you share a mental disorder with your character, but omg the character had it for legitimate reasons before you were even diagnosed don't judge me.

...When you have a goddamn believable reason for every. thing. they. do. period. Either in backstory or RP.

...When you can't wear certain (unique, slutty, badass) gear OOC because it just looks wrong on your character.

[Gegenji]

...When you can't wear certain (unique, slutty, badass) gear OOC because it just looks wrong on your character.

 

... I can't have Gogon without glasses because it looks weird.

[U'roh Tia]

You have a hand written in character journal that describes their personal thoughts and feelings about factions and individuals they come across. Also sketches in a completely different art style then your own.

[Kaiya]

You spend hours hoping and praying that the next tidbit of confirmed lore doesn't crush your entire backstory with one sentence.

[Kurt S.]

...When you're sitting on the drawing board planning out every minute change to your character should something happen.

 

...Trying not to let the existential dread sit in that you've so many ideas. Poured so much time and effort into the character that no one (senpai) will probably ever notice them. Or that little quirk of theirs that doesn't even happen in actual rp because no one's triggering the right conditions spontaneously. Yes that obscure. 

 

...Put a name to their parents' pirate ship and or sundries shop located in Gridania. That no one ever mentions or even goes to. A family that's supposedly wealthy and is a player in the Ul'dahn markets but bad decisions make your OOC gil hit only as much 6 digits. THAT EVERYTHING OOC IN THE CHARACTER HAS TO BE IC AS WELL THIS i210 GEAR LOOK DOES NOT MAKE NAH LOOK LIKE NAH IT BETTER SETTLE WITH THE i160 GEAR INSTEAD OF GLAMOURING IT! RAMEN/RAMOMO/REI HAS TO BE SITTING ON AT LEAST ENOUGH GIL TO BUY 5 LARGE GOBLET HOUSES! KURT WHY YOU NO HAVE PETTING ZOO?!

 

That it just eats you on the inside that you don't have the OOC resources to put IC locations up or otherwise IC aspects up. Oooh Amariyosities would look nice in the Lavender Beds.

 

Then you just sort of sit there. Trying not to let the existential dread sit in on the thought of the months of your life that'll go into making all of that a reality because you only have that one crafter that has a handful of glamour stuff on sale and some HQ i115 gear. The slow pace sets in...And the realization that maybe some of your plans may not happen. A personal relic that'll probably be even harder than all of the steps combined. 

 

Then you try to find alternatives and spend weeks sorting through plans B-Infinity then go back to plan A because it feels right. Again the dread sets in and you start questioning what you're doing with your life. 

 

Realizing you'll be putting for all that effort when you don't know, for example, how to OOCly run an IC shop that deals with all manner of stuff. A shop that no one will probably even be visiting. Two offices of characters who could sort of afford one that has no one in it not even yourself because you've other places to be like the Quicksand and no matter how much your character ICly prefers Gridania or Limsa they still end up staying in Ul'dah, complaining about the heat because most of the rp happens in Quickie Sands anyway.

 

The futility of your resistance sinks in.

 

The Quicksand pulls you deeper into its embrace as you struggle to stay away from it. All manner of crazy people hitting on your midlander guy and moonkitty in particular. Shh it says as it advises you to go quietly into the good night. Your raging against the dying of the light only making the demise quicker.

 

There is no escape... Momodi rules all rpers the same way Rowena rules all adventurers, raiders and pve'ers no matter how much they deny the glorious revolution. To the point that ICly your characters also acknowledge the true authority that dwarfs even the sultana. The House of Splendors is splendid indeed.

 

tl;dr OVERTHINKING THE THINGS. ALL THE THINGS, THE EFFECT THINGS, THE PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE THINGS, THE CAUSE THINGS, THE FAR REACHING THINGS, THE IMMEDIATE THINGS, THE TYING PVE AND RP THINGS. MY GOD I AM SORRY FOR THIS RANT.

[SanguineSins]

When you spend two real-life weeks working out a part of your character's backstory that if you don't mess up or get an absolute perfect group of individuals to roleplay with nobody besides you will ever know of.

 

So true it bloody hurts.

 

 - Spending weeks researching lore to make SURE that the backstory you created makes perfect sense and will never be questioned.

 

 - Still research more because you want to know exactly everything that your character might know from their origins.

 

 - Continuing to search the internet for lore because gods damnit there must be more indepth lore about Gridania!

[Chompie]

... you find yourself brainstorming one-liners that suit every possible future character development. Even the ones that just plain won't happen.

[Aaron]

...When you're sitting on the drawing board planning out every minute change to your character should something happen.

 

...Trying not to let the existential dread sit in that you've so many ideas. Poured so much time and effort into the character that no one (senpai) will probably ever notice them. Or that little quirk of theirs that doesn't even happen in actual rp because no one's triggering the right conditions spontaneously. Yes that obscure. 

 

...Put a name to their parents' pirate ship and or sundries shop located in Gridania. That no one ever mentions or even goes to. A family that's supposedly wealthy and is a player in the Ul'dahn markets but bad decisions make your OOC gil hit only as much 6 digits. THAT EVERYTHING OOC IN THE CHARACTER HAS TO BE IC AS WELL THIS i210 GEAR LOOK DOES NOT MAKE NAH LOOK LIKE NAH IT BETTER SETTLE WITH THE i160 GEAR INSTEAD OF GLAMOURING IT! RAMEN/RAMOMO/REI HAS TO BE SITTING ON AT LEAST ENOUGH GIL TO BUY 5 LARGE GOBLET HOUSES! KURT WHY YOU NO HAVE PETTING ZOO?!

 

That it just eats you on the inside that you don't have the OOC resources to put IC locations up or otherwise IC aspects up. Oooh Amariyosities would look nice in the Lavender Beds.

 

Then you just sort of sit there. Trying not to let the existential dread sit in on the thought of the months of your life that'll go into making all of that a reality because you only have that one crafter that has a handful of glamour stuff on sale and some HQ i115 gear. The slow pace sets in...And the realization that maybe some of your plans may not happen. A personal relic that'll probably be even harder than all of the steps combined. 

 

Then you try to find alternatives and spend weeks sorting through plans B-Infinity then go back to plan A because it feels right. Again the dread sets in and you start questioning what you're doing with your life. 

 

Realizing you'll be putting for all that effort when you don't know, for example, how to OOCly run an IC shop that deals with all manner of stuff. A shop that no one will probably even be visiting. Two offices of characters who could sort of afford one that has no one in it not even yourself because you've other places to be like the Quicksand and no matter how much your character ICly prefers Gridania or Limsa they still end up staying in Ul'dah, complaining about the heat because most of the rp happens in Quickie Sands anyway.

 

The futility of your resistance sinks in.

 

The Quicksand pulls you deeper into its embrace as you struggle to stay away from it. All manner of crazy people hitting on your midlander guy and moonkitty in particular. Shh it says as it advises you to go quietly into the good night. Your raging against the dying of the light only making the demise quicker.

 

There is no escape... Momodi rules all rpers the same way Rowena rules all adventurers, raiders and pve'ers no matter how much they deny the glorious revolution. To the point that ICly your characters also acknowledge the true authority that dwarfs even the sultana. The House of Splendors is splendid indeed.

 

tl;dr OVERTHINKING THE THINGS. ALL THE THINGS, THE EFFECT THINGS, THE PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE THINGS, THE CAUSE THINGS, THE FAR REACHING THINGS, THE IMMEDIATE THINGS, THE TYING PVE AND RP THINGS. MY GOD I AM SORRY FOR THIS RANT.

The scope of this is amazing

[C'kayah Polaali]

It's not when you've created an entire fictional society for your character. Surely we've all done this.

 

It's not when you've created a language for them. That's not uncommon, either.

 

Nor is it when you sit down and work out just how they live - what they do to make money, to eat, etc.

 

But when you're working out just what kind of liquor they might drink based on the nature of their society and the things that manage to grow in their barren little pocket of the world? And how it tastes? And you photoshop bottles of it? Maybe then, yeah.

[Delilah Scythewood]

...When you have a goddamn believable reason for every. thing. they. do. period. Either in backstory or RP.

...When you can't wear certain (unique, slutty, badass) gear OOC because it just looks wrong on your character.

 

Yeeeeaaaahhhhhh. Certain stuff will never grace my characters' forms. Ever.

 

• When you overthink all the insignificant detail of a character's appearance from a dimple on their ass to a birthmark in their hairline no one will likely ever see but you have to add it anyways otherwise it feels wrong.
  
• When you can't RP a new character in public until you get them down PERFECTLY either on your own or practice RP with close friends who won't judge you for the derps they don't even notice you doing because it's all in your head.
  
• When you grind for a medium for your character because a small is just too small for a family of 6+ and the friends and free company mates that either bum it with us ICly and it kills you to think about all of these people and pets crammed in such a tiny space.
  
• When you need to organize a detailed family history regardless of whether it'll ever be relevant to RP or not.
  
• When your OOC classes all have to be glamoured into shit your character would actually wear.
  

[Nodem]

...every item they own has to be explained how they got it.

...you want to use an item in RP but can't explain how the character got it.

...you figure out how to make a firework launcher (or flare gun) within lore.

...you write out what ingredients were used in a dish, using only Eorzean items.

...any and all changes to the character have a deep personal story behind them.

[Warren Castille]

...when you spend considerable time trying to justify why something exists, but doesn't completely change the world for existing, even if the item in question is fluff for an event.

[Dravus]

...when you spent an immense amount of time planning out how an injury is going to affect your character not just on a physical level but on a mental/emotional level as well.

[Kurt S.]

When you've got a one shot alt for whatever reason. That you give it the same treatment as your main character that they eventually become characters in their own right. Usually even more detailed than your main.

 

Also when you end up going to several aesthetist visits because the hair reflects what happens too. I.e. your femme char put her ponytail down. So you run to nearest jandelaine and pay him the 2kgil for the change and pay him 2k gil again to change it back. When you have so many outfits for them they have at least 2 or more casual looks as well as ensembles for when they're working. So many variations to their outfits because they also change clothes too. Like you have three pairs of the normal lvl 5 caster sandals dyed differently and assigned to different outfits. Each set a part of their IC wardrobe. So they have some alt outfit wear if one of them's in for dry cleaning.

[Miss Gaz]

You know you overthink RP when...

 

Each article of clothing has some form of story.

Think of phobias that no one might not ever see.

Character is into some things you decide to try.

When your character is playing an instrument you do so as well.

[Nodem]

Adding more...

 

..you walk between Ul'dah and Gridania to see how long it would take your character to walk that path. Complete with math.

 

...you bring food to offer people to increase immersion.

 

...you bring food to eat because your character is eating it.