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Pre-Established Relationships


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So I have a question for you RPers? How do you guys feel about creating Pre- Established Relations with other characters? What are your thought on peeps that do it? Do you think it can be helpful to new or shy rpers? Does make it worse? Do people even do it and if so is it frowned upon? I've been wondering if I should do it or not because it can be easier to to skip all that introduction and instead of thinking of a way to just have a first meeting you can just get right into without all that awkward first time talk, but just curious on your thoughts

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I've seen it happen several times. Both romantic relationships and platonic ones. I think it can be hit or miss because as the characters progress in their own way the two characters might grow apart. 

Personally I don't mind it if there are folks that do magic behind the curtain stuff to have some sort of pre-established relationship, hell it can be used to have siblings or other family members which can offer some fun times.

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It requires a lot of OOC communication but can be very rewarding. Personally, I've only done it as my characters family members or best friends, as half the fun of rp for me is finding out who your characters SO, adversaries, and circle of friends is going to be.

 

ESPECIALLY if you're playing a shy character, it can be extremely beneficial to establish a pre existing friendship with a social butterfly character, who can help introduce your shy wallflower. Again, OOC communication: I'm looking for a socially active friend who will help my shy character get involved' should help you find what you're looking for.

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Saw this as a tumblr post just a few days ago... My response was that I love to build up relationships from the ground with people, RP'ing out their first meeting and then go from there. And you're missing out on that if you're making pre-established relationships.

 

So it's not something I've dabbled with alot.

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Hell yeah, give me all the pre-established relationships. However I only reserve them for people I know already, so I know they don't fuck my characters up.

 

For example, I got someone RPing another Fist of Rhalgr from Ave's temple. I could never ever have that be a thing if we didn't talk about that on beforehand. It's been a blast so far and super rewarding RP.

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I think they are a great thing to have around as unless you are by some twist of fate entirely severed from all ties, someone has to recognize your character in some way or another. They don't have to be really close friends, just someone you might have worked with before or a person you talk to from time to time. Very good RP stories can come from them as more things are present to bond from rather than meeting someone off the street.

 

Pre-establishment is also something that works better for emotionally shelled characters (shy, cynical, nervous-wrecks, anti-socials) as they give a launch point for said character.

 

Also, not to mention it can set something up much faster than random walk-ups since it can take even up to weeks sometimes to create a considerable relationship.

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I actually like them platonically. A lot, in fact. I'd have to know the person and player if it's romantically just because of needing to understand the character I'm working with. I'd say it's semi-normal, I personally would highly recommend it if you were thinking of giving it a go. :D

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Even small pre-established contexts can help push characters to interact - it doesn't always have to be "our characters were childhood friends all along". It can be as simple as "my character saw yours at [place] last week", because then that means my character knows yours is a [profession related to place], and can strike up a conversation about being/needing/etc a [profession]. It's nice to mix and match "missed connections" introductions like that with the more typical "cold call" introductions.

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I agree with the above, that these sorts of "we already met" situations can be rewarding and as complex or simple as you like without taking away from the fun of the characters' interactions. One of the things I really enjoy is, coming up with interesting but logical ways my character could have met another, so that it gives the right relationship and emotional value between the two.

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I typically don't do pre-established romantic relationships because watching that stuff develop organically over time is genuinely fun for me. But connections for family, friends, enemies, work, etc.? It's a great way to kickstart RP and can be really rewarding, provided the people you're doing it with are respectful and have a good understanding of how you operate (or are willing to learn).

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I'm definitely in the see what the RP brings up and where it goes.. let the cards fall as they will, person. This tends to be how I like my RP, and I tend to avoid too much OOC meddling in it.

 

In relationships I love the "will they, wont they" part too much to try and fix the outcome.

 

But I can appreciate where you want some degree of definition it could help to set something up. Maybe keep it as a strong intent and let the RP grow to fill the gaps as a best of both world approach?

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If we're talking friends from the past, I strongly encourage it.  I think it takes the right sort of relationship between the players, because you have to be on the same page about just what sort of things the two have lived through together, but it adds a sense of depth and immersion to the world that's hard to get with the "I stepped off a boat six months ago and the only people I know are those I've met since then" approach (not that there's anything wrong with it, if anything that is the standard way to go!)

 

With regards to romantic relationships... that seems like trickier territory only because there is so much about chemistry that you just wont' know until you get into RPing :)

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Nothing wrong with pre-established relationships, platonic or romantic.

 

With regards to romantic, my wife and I always pair up our characters to just flat out avoid any issue other players may end up trying to cause with IC/OOC bleed. Not because our relationship is that fragile, but because people be cray cray and we'd rather not deal with it. It happens far too often to even want to bother with it... so we just take our characters off the market from the get go (or at least plan for them to be an item eventually).

 

*shrug* Perhaps we're weird for doing that, but eh... keeps us happy.

 

Edit: Fix'd typos due to phone fingers.

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I like them! For example Chi has three siblings, 2 sisters and one brother. I feel it can help flesh out a character rather than have everyone in their past as a NPC. 

 

Romantic wise? I do like that more organic. But at the same time I hear horror stories. My first RP romantic partner went fairly well but at the same time there was concern on thier end that I didn't get to spend enough time with my SO. At this point I am only romantic relationships with my SO, he took over my old partners character so my old partner could do something else. And he was already with one of my characters. Maybe weird, but I hate OOC drama and this spares us from potentially having that

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