discussion Red Flags in RP/RP Partners?

[xelliexell]

Tap-dancing back to the topic of my own "Red Flags," I think my perspective may be a bit skewed. I've been the leader of an RP guild for a number of years, and I've screened hundreds of applicants in that time. It's unavoidable that I've noticed certain patterns over this timeframe which invariably lead to members with some bad juju. I'd say my mental list of Red Flags is a bit exhaustive, so I'll just quote a really broad one that I have kind of a chuckle over.

 

Namely, when someone badmouths their previous guild during the screening process for entry into my guild, that's a Red Flag. I'm not talking about lamenting a poor RP experience -- we all have those, I'd say, and I think it's perfectly understandable to share at times. When I say "badmouthing," I'm mainly talking about taking an active campaign against a former guild over an objectively personal dispute. Calling for boycotts, trashing them on Tumblr, repeatedly bringing up how terrible their former guild is in public chats, that sort of thing. In my view, those antics don't really make one's former guild look bad - it just makes the potential applicant seem kind of unhinged and obsessive. So there's my Red Flag for the Red Flag pile!

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Emoting one's thoughts that are hyper-critical/rude of their RP partner. Has this been mentioned? (I'm not keen on RPing with folks who do the emoted thoughts thing, but that's just a writing style difference.) I've seen this in action and it was really horrible for all of us present since we just had to watch this person write this shit and no one was able to respond ICly.

 

That's the thing, right there - if someone's meant to be able to reply to it, then yeah, they definitely need to be given something to reply to. That said, emoting thoughts alongside actions can sometimes lend a tone to the action. Consider:

 

Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins.

 

...differs in tone from...

 

Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins. It was his youth in occupied Ala Mhigo all over again, and his mind raced in a battle of will to resist fleeing for his life as he'd done when a boy.

 

And of course, there's also internal posts which aren't actually meant for anyone to respond to at all, which could be said to be wholly unnecessary if that's the case, but in most novels you'll also find a lot of functionally-unnecessary inner monologue stuff which serves only to give the readers insight into the character. 

 

Franco drew a swig from his mug of mead as he idly contemplated the old man at the bar who was flirting with his mom. Had he truly just said his name is Dick? Old though he may be, surely he wasn't unaware that he might be better off going by Rick or Richard, all things considered.

 

A post like that does nothing for anyone's RP - but nor is it meant to. Neither Dick nor Franco's mom were interacting with Franco, so he's done them no RP disservice by giving them a response to something which hasn't substance for them to react to. However, Franco's player did just give Dick and Franco's Mom's players some insight into his character, which isn't inherently bad.

[ExAtomos]

[align=justify]I'm learning so much about this community...

To be fair, I'll admit that I only read the first page of comments/replies. I saw a few that more or less grind on me, but don't necessarily stop me from engaging in RP with someone "guilty" of that particular peeve.[/align]

[align=justify]So, onto my personal red flags. 

 

My number one red flag for potential RP friends is who they associate themselves with. I am aware of how much of a prejudice this is however, over the years and numerous games I've come to learn that birds of a feather flock together and you can learn a lot about someone based on the company they keep.

          That being said, I won't immediately write the person off as being problematic, but I do find myself a little more vigilant around them -- especially if they rub elbows with a number of people I consider to be problematic. 

 

Second on the list of enormous red flags are people who, right off the bat, want to get to know more about you on an out of character level. If it's the first time we're interacting and I'm suddenly under fire from a barrage of questions asking the personal stuff (generally, my gender, my timezone, etc) I tend to get a little queasy. [/align]

[align=justify]          I much prefer people to wait for a consistent dialogue to be present before starting to get to know me as a person. 

 

The third highest flag for me gets a little more "personal" (for lack of a better word) and is in regards to someone's search info. Generally speaking, I always read a characters search information before attempting to interact with them; it often gives me an idea of what to expect without having to scroll through whatever is clogging my chat log to read through their emotes. [/align]

[align=justify]          I've come to find that Balmung specifically has a very direct line between search information and the kind of RP one can expect from that person. Most people I've come into contact with (again, I have to emphasize that this is my experience) who use an excessive amount of auto-translate tags, any version of "E" RP and (as Warren pointed out) "Para" (specifically this word in my experience) aren't usually long-term story seekers. For me, it lets me know to be wary of them as the chance for them sticking around long-term aren't exactly in the double-digits.

          I was going to make this it's own "thing", but decided against it. It should probably be a lot higher on the list, if I'm honest. The phrase "D-MRP" or "Dark" or any combination of that particular "genre"/"trope". This is something I have encountered in a number of games and it's almost always lead to characters whose sole purpose is to be a bad-ass as possible. I believe many communities use the label "Edge Lord"; they're often villain characters whose only real form of torture is adult in nature. They tend to ignore in character consequences and simply prance around attempting to "torture" and maim and murder anybody they don't like. I don't find them to have a lot of substance, or haven't I suppose would be a better statement. 

 

As far as language and using a thesaurus, I don't mind either. There are a few "triggering" words, but the forums are no place for those. Generally speaking, I don't mind waiting an eternity for people to respond unless I waited twenty minutes and your response is, "...". Then I want to bash my face into my keyboard and uninstall the game in its entirety.[/align]

 

 

Hi... I can't see your post to read it. ; ; Font is too small and there is little contrast of the rose against the grey of the background.

[Verad]

"I'm writing a novel based on what happens to my character in roleplay."

[ExAtomos]

Emoting one's thoughts that are hyper-critical/rude of their RP partner. Has this been mentioned? (I'm not keen on RPing with folks who do the emoted thoughts thing, but that's just a writing style difference.) I've seen this in action and it was really horrible for all of us present since we just had to watch this person write this shit and no one was able to respond ICly.

 

That's the thing, right there - if someone's meant to be able to reply to it, then yeah, they definitely need to be given something to reply to. That said, emoting thoughts alongside actions can sometimes lend a tone to the action. Consider:

 

Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins.

 

...differs in tone from...

 

Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins. It was his youth in occupied Ala Mhigo all over again, and his mind raced in a battle of will to resist fleeing for his life as he'd done when a boy.

 

And of course, there's also internal posts which aren't actually meant for anyone to respond to at all, which could be said to be wholly unnecessary if that's the case, but in most novels you'll also find a lot of functionally-unnecessary inner monologue stuff which serves only to give the readers insight into the character. 

 

Franco drew a swig from his mug of mead as he idly contemplated the old man at the bar who was flirting with his mom. Had he truly just said his name is Dick? Old though he may be, surely he wasn't unaware that he might be better off going by Rick or Richard, all things considered.

 

A post like that does nothing for anyone's RP - but nor is it meant to. Neither Dick nor Franco's mom were interacting with Franco, so he's done them no RP disservice by giving them a response to something which hasn't substance for them to react to. However, Franco's player did just give Dick and Franco's Mom's players some insight into his character, which isn't inherently bad.

 

True. But while it does give your RP partners more details, it is not something they would actually see icly. If your dude is hiding due to trauma, rather than from wrongdoing, how am I at that time able to tell the difference? If, however, you were to type something along the lines of: "Franco dashed behind the pillar at the sight of the oncoming Imperials. Sweat popped out on his forehead and he shook with fear. His eyes seemed to be unfocused, as though reliving nightmares of his past." All of this is stuff your RP partner can actually see ICly.

 

But, back to the internal monologue being a problem thing... it would be more like "Franco took a drink of his ale. 'Dick? Really? Only someone as ugly as this guy could be given a name that would make him the butt of jokes at every bar. And he seems nervous... what a useless coward.'" There is nothing for their RP partner to respond to and they just got insulted without being able to say anything about it.

[Verad]

Emoting one's thoughts that are hyper-critical/rude of their RP partner. Has this been mentioned? (I'm not keen on RPing with folks who do the emoted thoughts thing, but that's just a writing style difference.) I've seen this in action and it was really horrible for all of us present since we just had to watch this person write this shit and no one was able to respond ICly.

 

That's the thing, right there - if someone's meant to be able to reply to it, then yeah, they definitely need to be given something to reply to. That said, emoting thoughts alongside actions can sometimes lend a tone to the action. Consider:

 

Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins.

 

...differs in tone from...

 

Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins. It was his youth in occupied Ala Mhigo all over again, and his mind raced in a battle of will to resist fleeing for his life as he'd done when a boy.

 

And of course, there's also internal posts which aren't actually meant for anyone to respond to at all, which could be said to be wholly unnecessary if that's the case, but in most novels you'll also find a lot of functionally-unnecessary inner monologue stuff which serves only to give the readers insight into the character. 

 

Franco drew a swig from his mug of mead as he idly contemplated the old man at the bar who was flirting with his mom. Had he truly just said his name is Dick? Old though he may be, surely he wasn't unaware that he might be better off going by Rick or Richard, all things considered.

 

A post like that does nothing for anyone's RP - but nor is it meant to. Neither Dick nor Franco's mom were interacting with Franco, so he's done them no RP disservice by giving them a response to something which hasn't substance for them to react to. However, Franco's player did just give Dick and Franco's Mom's players some insight into his character, which isn't inherently bad.

 

True. But while it does give your RP partners more details, it is not something they would actually see icly. If your dude is hiding due to trauma, rather than from wrongdoing, how am I at that time able to tell the difference? If, however, you were to type something along the lines of: "Franco dashed behind the pillar at the sight of the oncoming Imperials. Sweat popped out on his forehead and he shook with fear. His eyes seemed to be unfocused, as though reliving nightmares of his past." All of this is stuff your RP partner can actually see ICly.

 

As she mentioned, the purpose is to give the player something to read rather than something to react to in an IC fashion. If you are of the opinion that if it can't be acted upon by a character in response, it shouldn't be there, then it will be inappropriate regardless of how directly or obliquely it's described. 

 

Your own alternative would lead to objections on the grounds that it assumes an interpretation on the other player's behalf. I've seen that argued as inappropriate on these forums in the past, to the extent that even vague descriptors like "beautiful" shouldn't be used because every character will have a slightly different conception of beauty.

 

This has the unfortunate side-effect of annihilating most potential uses of dramatic irony in posts, but that's apparently a small price to pay for ensuring total player agency.

[Aya]

"I'm writing a novel based on what happens to my character in roleplay."

As usual, Verad sets off his own Red Flags!!!

[ExAtomos]

True. But while it does give your RP partners more details, it is not something they would actually see icly. If your dude is hiding due to trauma, rather than from wrongdoing, how am I at that time able to tell the difference? If, however, you were to type something along the lines of: "Franco dashed behind the pillar at the sight of the oncoming Imperials. Sweat popped out on his forehead and he shook with fear. His eyes seemed to be unfocused, as though reliving nightmares of his past." All of this is stuff your RP partner can actually see ICly.

 

As she mentioned, the purpose is to give the player something to read rather than something to react to in an IC fashion. If you are of the opinion that if it can't be acted upon by a character in response, it shouldn't be there, then it will be inappropriate regardless of how directly or obliquely it's described. 

 

Your own alternative would lead to objections on the grounds that it assumes an interpretation on the other player's behalf. I've seen that argued as inappropriate on these forums in the past, to the extent that even vague descriptors like "beautiful" shouldn't be used because every character will have a slightly different conception of beauty.

 

This has the unfortunate side-effect of annihilating most potential uses of dramatic irony in posts, but that's apparently a small price to pay for ensuring total player agency.

 

Aha, so at this point it's just differing RP styles regarding the use of description in emotes.

 

I'll still hold that insulting someone via internal monologue is a bad thing.

[Charce]

For my, it's always mostly been about the separation of IC and OOC. There's been a number of people now I had to dump because that line was crossed. And it wasn't just someone developing romantic feelings for me. I had my character call another character an idiot and that person felt personally insulted that my character said that to them. 

Also...not respecting OOC boundaries is another thing. Like I know someone who had to deal with not feeling comfortable about something happening ICly and the person got mad at them for that.

 

Intentional meta-gaming is a HUGE pet peeve of mine...accidentally remembering something said OOCly as IC is one thing. But like...controlling my character, consistently using OOCly known info, etc. It's just...bleh

 

Another thing that actually kind of annoys me, just because I'm so OCD about scheduling my time, is setting up a time to RP and it constantly being deferred or "Ten more minutes" for hours until ten more minutes becomes the next day and that becomes the next week, etc. Like...unable to keep plans made with you and I'm not talking about for IRL reasons. I'm talking about they decide to RP with someone else instead or decide that POTD is what they are gonna do instead. I'm also not talking about it happening like one time. But consistently blowing you off...I donno. I feel like my time is more valuable than to wait around for someone else constantly?

 

Another reason I became iffy about someone was because of their attitude OOCly...like bad mouthing my friends to me as though I would casually side with them?? Also like...if you're a racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic, etc, etc, etc piece of crap OOCly, I'll drop you like a sack of bricks off the side of a mountain.

 

Another personal thing would also be not feeling like a person is matching the effort I'm putting in to something? I am a paragraph RPer. I can post 6-8 posts no problem (and none of it is internal thoughts). For most situations, I cut it down to two-to-four when it's one-on-one unless I KNOW the person I'm RPing with is up for that kind of other RP. But when it's one-on-one and I'm seriously trying, typing up those two-to-four posts and giving a person a lot to work with and I get like a two word response...it's not something I want to put up with.

 

I know some people have things against becoming friendly with their RP partners OOCly and consider that a red flag, but I think it helps to be at least amicable/on talking terms with them. You gotta plot and at least be agreeable with them, right? If you both are friends OOCly, it makes working through RP a lot easier than someone you treat like a stranger. I wouldn't call that mixing OOC and IC even. Most of my RP partners are set up to be enemies even. I've found that being friends or at least friendly with those people makes discussing and working through potential problems or roadblocks in RP a lot easier.

 

Quick Edit: One thing I'd also add is people who put in their LFRP posts stuff like "looking for a relationship." But that's also just me...people who do this tend to be the types of OOCly get too attached/possessive and/or are RPing for different reasons than myself. Pre-planned romance is hella boring in my opinion

[Verad]

"I'm writing a novel based on what happens to my character in roleplay."

As usual, Verad sets off his own Red Flags!!!

 

That's more of an accident of RP, I'm not trying to get it published! I haven't run into this in a while, but pre-FF14 I would run into at least one or two poor souls a year who were convinced the imitative adventures of their character in an intellectual property they didn't own would make for the next fantasy bestseller. Some even claimed to have a publisher, apparently unaware that a vanity press didn't count.

 

 

Aha, so at this point it's just differing RP styles regarding the use of description in emotes.

 

I'll still hold that insulting someone via internal monologue is a bad thing.

 

Agreed on that. I remember that, back in the dark days of AOL, players would have entire narrative comment strings acting as a separate, quasi-OOC conversation in emotes mostly about gossiping and insulting other characters. It was ridiculous then and ridiculous now.

[Kage]

I would say I dislike people who over gratuitously use 'would' in their roleplay as they tend to be more interested in power play than actual roleplay and having fun.

[Kieron Lohengrin]

- people who make excessive ooc backtalk and sniping while something ic is happening

 

- people who unilaterally end long-term storylines or relationships without consulting or informing other players involved for their input

 

- people who don't know how to use private chats for ostensibly private plots, something even erpers figured out ages ago

 

- people who expect you to know or care who they are, or expect you to acknowledge their plagues and city devastation and whatnot that actually isn't reflected ingame

 

drama queens, basically

[Maril]

For me, the biggest red flag is when IC interaction is taken to the OOC sphere and used to generate a problem or uncomfortable situation. This could be people pulling the "I have a crush on you because your character is nice" to metagaming, emoting in "me/you-form" and assuming that because a character dislikes yours, then the player does too. All three of them will lead me stepping away from the roleplay, wrapping it up or otherwise find a way to move on that is respectful but firm. Another red flag is if people end up in drama-llama situations a lot and do not visibly handle it well, and it's simply because I don't have any interest in getting dragged into anything drama. 

 

I've become a touch careful with people who put an emphasis on finding one solid "RP partner" (I really dislike the word, overall, but that's another rabble) - It ties in with the IC/OOC bleeding, especially if a person is obsessed with finding a roleplay partner that they can have a character relationship with, I simply end up questioning if they're not just out to fill an OOC need. Secondly, because I've seen and heard of so many stories where this kind of roleplayer turns abusive, needlessly controlling or a good combination of both - leaving their "partner" with low self-esteem and guilt for not being able to meet the roleplay needs of the abusive person. It's a kind of thing that's bad in a simple friendship too, but can really be amplified in the roleplay world. Thirdly, and this is sort of a style-issue as well, but personally I wouldn't want to become someone's only source of roleplay, or end up in a situation where I can't RP or play the game without the other being around and always being involved. It's not a big red flag, but it could (especially if anything of the abusive-type-traits show up) be a smaller red flag. 

 

Otherwise it's all down to style differences, but I wont include those since that doesn't really belong in this topic.

[Charce]

I would say I dislike people who over gratuitously use 'would' in their roleplay as they tend to be more interested in power play than actual roleplay and having fun.

I'm curious why you think that is powerplaying in RP?

If I am doing non-roll combat that was plotted OOCly with both people agreeing on the outcome, I give options for attacks and openings by denoting things with "would" or "would try to" since I can't control what the other person is doing with their character.

[Warren Castille]

I would say I dislike people who over gratuitously use 'would' in their roleplay as they tend to be more interested in power play than actual roleplay and having fun.

I'm curious why you think that is powerplaying in RP?

If I am doing non-roll combat that was plotted OOCly with both people agreeing on the outcome, I give options for attacks and openings by denoting things with "would" or "would try to" since I can't control what the other person is doing with their character.

 

Counterpoint: Does "/em would..." actually add anything to a post that couldn't be conveyed otherwise? There is a difference between painting intentions and using "would" as a means for it.

 

Concession: I see regular events and "/em would" is one of the things that always pricks my immersion bubble.

[Charce]

I would say I dislike people who over gratuitously use 'would' in their roleplay as they tend to be more interested in power play than actual roleplay and having fun.

I'm curious why you think that is powerplaying in RP?

If I am doing non-roll combat that was plotted OOCly with both people agreeing on the outcome, I give options for attacks and openings by denoting things with "would" or "would try to" since I can't control what the other person is doing with their character.

 

Counterpoint: Does "/em would..." actually add anything to a post that couldn't be conveyed otherwise? There is a difference between painting intentions and using "would" as a means for it.

 

Concession: I see regular events and "/em would" is one of the things that always pricks my immersion bubble.

I think it's most appropriate in situations when you are attempting something that needs to be countered via rolls or in open combat. "Would try to"/ "would attempt to."

 

I wouldn't call that a red flag in RP for someone is potentially problematic? It's just a personal preference.

[Kage]

I would say I dislike people who over gratuitously use 'would' in their roleplay as they tend to be more interested in power play than actual roleplay and having fun.

I'm curious why you think that is powerplaying in RP?

If I am doing non-roll combat that was plotted OOCly with both people agreeing on the outcome, I give options for attacks and openings by denoting things with "would" or "would try to" since I can't control what the other person is doing with their character.

Most of the time I see this, the people are always attempting to one-up the other instead of actually worrying about honest god-modding.

 

Or it is "Rose would say, "Hello!" in which the case is more of a preference. As I said, it tends to be the former which just tells me that it's not going to be fun and there is no give and take. It's just a contest of "I teleported behind you!"

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Aha, so at this point it's just differing RP styles regarding the use of description in emotes.

 

I'll still hold that insulting someone via internal monologue is a bad thing.

 

Agreed on that. I remember that, back in the dark days of AOL, players would have entire narrative comment strings acting as a separate, quasi-OOC conversation in emotes mostly about gossiping and insulting other characters. It was ridiculous then and ridiculous now.

 

Oh! Yes, it wasn't clear in my post, but the assumption I was running in the example was that Franco, Franco's mom, and Dick are all being written by players who are friends (and thus the comment regarding Dick's name would be received by them as good-natured ribbing rather than genuine instigation). That'd definitely be inappropriate among strangers.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

I would say I dislike people who over gratuitously use 'would' in their roleplay as they tend to be more interested in power play than actual roleplay and having fun.

 

Agreed x1,000. I've seen some players do this in darned near every post, and I've even sometimes tried to explain to them that it's flat-out grammatically incorrect unless there's something preventing them from doing it and they're including a subsequent explanation of what happened instead.

 

Franco would verbalize his thoughts regarding Dick's choice of nickname, but his mom really did seem to like the old fellow, and thus he merely sat with his mug and watched the pair with an expression of passive disapproval.

 

 

Even then, though it's technically correct, it's awkward phrasing compared to:

 

Franco opted not to verbalize his thoughts regarding Dick's choice of nickname since his mom really did seem to like the old fellow, and instead he merely sat with his mug and watched the pair with an expression of passive disapproval.

[Charce]

I would say I dislike people who over gratuitously use 'would' in their roleplay as they tend to be more interested in power play than actual roleplay and having fun.

I'm curious why you think that is powerplaying in RP?

If I am doing non-roll combat that was plotted OOCly with both people agreeing on the outcome, I give options for attacks and openings by denoting things with "would" or "would try to" since I can't control what the other person is doing with their character.

Most of the time I see this, the people are always attempting to one-up the other instead of actually worrying about honest god-modding.

 

Or it is "Rose would say, "Hello!" in which the case is more of a preference. As I said, it tends to be the former which just tells me that it's not going to be fun and there is no give and take. It's just a contest of "I teleported behind you!"

Ah, I see.

Yeah. I guess in that case it could be annoying. My characters aren't really meant to be combat characters, but it's strange to me when someone's character is constantly trying to be like...one-upping your own constantly? Like...

/em waves hello, and sits down.

/em would do aggressive thing.

/em is some calm thing...

/em would do an even more aggressive thing.

/em still some calm thing...

/em would do an EVEN MORE aggressive thing.

 

Like...pushing that sort of "would try to" constantly for no good reason is weird. It kind of gives off the thing that that person doesn't know how to RP anything but one-upping everyone they interact with, even when the situation doesn't call for it. Also, in that case I'd rather they just god mod instead of constantly try to intimidate my character Let me have a reason to pull the plug sooner xPP

[Arashin Kujqai]

My red flags are pretty simple but I'm usually pretty patient/open minded depending on the individual(s). I at least give people the benefit of the doubt give or take about 1-2 things or I'll ask OOCly just to make sure I understand some things.

 

ICly-

 

-RP'ing as something against lore or as something not of FF14 universe lore

 

-Generalized not-really RP'ing RP. Ya know, like being as generic as can be with no substance to a character other than 1-2 sentences of their background/plot. More specifically, characters that have just 1 dimension as a basis for everything and didn't go further than that.

 

-SUPER Snowflakes. I don't mind if you want to have your character have something unique happen or maybe something even unheard of(especially if you actually have lore to back it up to at least some degree of reasonable understanding) but please... You're not a succubus/voidsent/demon queen/princess all combined into one character. At most, pick one and move on with the session.

 

-Inner monologues. I can't do anything with 5 pages of your character's deepest thoughts, they're just thoughts

 

-When a character makes having specific genitalia apart of their "plot".

 

-Over-cursing. I don't mind those salty lominsians but you don't have to include "fuck" every sentence. I would much more enjoy if they were clever with their wording and actually used words we could expect to find in game, like shite-eater and the like we've seen. I might just be picky on that one but it kills my immersion to read something I would find on "reality TV" when I'm in a fantasy mmo.

 

-Actual NPC's. Idc who you are, you're not SerAymeric/Magnai/Y'shtola/Minfillia/etc canon >_>. Cosplay is cool, but actively RP'ing as this is boring/uncreative to enjoy imo. Even worse then it's played off as their character as being nuts/crazy just as a loophole to do everything I just mentioned. The most I'm okay with this is if you wanted to act out your character's backstory that happened to include major NPC characters and wanted to enjoy some RP from your character's own lore. Usually for generic purposes though like the Admiral personally ranking you in the Maelstrom or something... Just so long as you're not rewriting current happenings and marking it as canon to expect everyone to uphold. 

 

OOCly-

 

-ERP that isn't really RP at all. Most ERP is just cybering/sexting than including any form of substance like a courtesan trying to seduce people out of their gil/information, or families having drama with spouses or etc. Usually people who have specific search comments I won't describe here that walk up to you and say something like "You come here often?" as their first sentence of dialogue or send you tells like this. Had an experience like this and after my character's first dialogue in return to hers, she gave up any further and moved along. Likely with other intent in mind given the level/search info/outfit.

 

-bigots

 

-Overlapping OOC/IC or people who don't quite know the difference between a "nice person" and a "bad guy character".

 

-Using RP as a scapegoat to get something else out of someone or to misuse for ill intentions.

 

-Cocky roleplayers. Everyone RP's how they want and we can all have an opinion on it. No one has to diss anyone or go on and on about how superior someone is in lore knowledge or writing to them. Help them learn something in lore or improve if they want/ask or think it could be useful? No worries there... Gloat about someone's writing and lack of savvy-ness  to lore? Leave, we wanna have fun.

 

-Lore/RP police.

 

 

A lot of these have some grey areas here and there in them for me. Like I said above though, when in doubt, I always try to OOC communicate just to confirm misunderstandings. Otherwise if they're 100% obvious to spot, I tend to stray from certain sessions or from certain players depending on the happenings of it all. I try not to condemn players for their specific tastes though even if they come up as red flags. In the end, these are all just my personal preferences that I'm comfortable with. Just because you don't fit some of my RP/IC preferences doesn't make you my enemy OOCly. Only if you're an ass OOC of course would that be the case .

[Delilah Scythewood]

I'll keep mine vague, short, and brief based off over a decade and a half of MMO RP and RP experiences in general. Some of these have been listed already but never hurts to have a repeat for the people in the back:

 

- OOC Clinginess (if it's IC and stays there, don't worry about it)

- Unapproved Possessiveness (some RP partners like to be possessive of each other's characters and time and when it's agreed upon and goes both ways? Coolio)

- Roleplay Exclusivity (when one person doesn't like when you go and RP with someone else be it another character, player, group, or even on another game)

- Belittling Everyone Else You RP With (whether it's about their character, OOC habits, or otherwise this tends to be a large warning sign. Keep in mind, however, that if you complain to this RPer/RP partner about only the bad things about people then they'll only know the bad sides and not the good. Check that you aren't unintentionally making them biased)

- Creeping On Your Other RP (parking near where you're RPing with another person, not saying anything, and just lamping. This can be an especially big warning sign if they hunt you down in the open world and park nearby to watch you RP even if you didn't invite them. If you invite them or they ask to lamp? That's different)

- Passive Aggressiveness (this can sometimes be tricky because tone doesn't always infer well via text)

- Guilting You (making you feel guilty over not RPing with them enough or RPing more with others than them)

- Mixing IC And OOC (this one speaks for itself)

- Metagaming (also speaks for itself)

- Controlling Tendencies (like coaching you to post/write a different way to please them, making you change your character to appease them, trying to micromanage your time for you, etc.)

 

These are only a few. But they tend to be some of the bigger ones to watch out for.

[Arashin Kujqai]

- Creeping On Your Other RP (parking near where you're RPing with another person, not saying anything, and just lamping. This can be an especially big warning sign if they hunt you down in the open world and park nearby to watch you RP even if you didn't invite them. If you invite them or they ask to lamp? That's different)

 

 

Could you elaborate a lil more on this one? I'm not sure I quite understand it fully. I often go IC and just park wherever and RP sometimes picks up around me. Sometimes I read it, but usually I'm scouting around to see potential walkups or if anyone's interested in doing the same with my character. Not trying to creep on anyone specifically , Ul'dah just has a lot of RP'ers lol. Or someone I happen to know ends up finding me and either talking OOC with me or just starting a session right there. Or would that imply they're the ones "lamping"? <.>

[Charce]

- Creeping On Your Other RP (parking near where you're RPing with another person, not saying anything, and just lamping. This can be an especially big warning sign if they hunt you down in the open world and park nearby to watch you RP even if you didn't invite them. If you invite them or they ask to lamp? That's different)

 

 

Could you elaborate a lil more on this one? I'm not sure I quite understand it fully. I often go IC and just park wherever and RP sometimes picks up around me. Sometimes I read it, but usually I'm scouting around to see potential walkups or if anyone's interested in doing the same with my character. Not trying to creep on anyone specifically , Ul'dah just has a lot of RP'ers lol.

I think they mean intentionally creeping on one of their partner's one-on-one or group RPs but not participating/involved in that scene at all.

I know someone who does this. It's really off-putting. People I know felt like they couldn't RP in certain locations anymore 'cause that person would always be there watching them.

[Aoi Fukiku]

Asking you if you have an F-list for your character.