Dr. Jana's Field Guide to ERPers for Everyday Folks Like Yourself

[Devereau]

Phrasing, phrasing, mind you!

[Seriphyn]

gtMBuJkgiNw

 

... I did not know there was a youtube channel just for roleplay advice. o_o

 

/mindblown

 

Yeah holy fuckballs! IKR?

[crowmeleon]

gtMBuJkgiNw

 

... I did not know there was a youtube channel just for roleplay advice. o_o

 

/mindblown

 

Yeah holy fuckballs! IKR?

 

Unfortunately there aren't many videos on the channel. However there is a tumblr where people ask questions and she answers. She's very pro-communication and I like that. I think a lot of drama and hardship could be avoided if we all were open to the kind of discussion she promotes.

[Jana]

This got quite a few posts; I'm glad lots of people have so much to say and that things didn't get too heated! I don't really have much to add, but I will say that I've never really asked players their ages in-game because that, to me, feels creepy. I'll have to keep it in mind in the future.

Thanks to you guys for keeping things civil!

[Blue]

Very interesting read. This brings me back to something that always kind of disappointed me about sexy roleplay: why does it seem impossible to RP a fail-casanova?

 

For one of my alts I had in mind to RP a sort of flirtatious jerk. The type who avoids commitment and prefers one-night adventures with the ladies, while keeping a rather male chauvinist demeanor with ladies, with kinds of rude and dirty jokes. In his background I had decided that his cold and rude attitude often made him hopeless at getting ladies on his side, and that he'd have to often resort to prostitutes.

 

However I was rather baffled to see that no matter how rude, jerky and overall asshole-ry my character would be, he was never refused by anyone I'd ICly hit on; more often than not, I was the one being hit on, even.

 

I do am opposed to scripting other roleplayers' reactions to my character ("be scared" "be shocked" "be offended"), but I have been trying in every possible way to push the right buttons to get rejected by other roleplayers (because I OOCly do NOT want to ERP, nor get physical really. I am far too shy for that), with all the opposite results. I ended up having to find an IC excuse and walk away before things would get to a point I couldn't bear.

 

I've eventually abandoned open RP with this character, and now use him only with close OOC friends that know my limits. There is just no joy in playing with fire if you always get scorched after all.

 

But it really is puzzling how in so many months that I have been trying to RP him in the open world, I couldn't find one roleplayer that would reject my character. Does anybody else RP a fail-casanova? If you do, how do you handle it?

[Jana]

Very interesting read. This brings me back to something that always kind of disappointed me about sexy roleplay: why does it seem impossible to RP a fail-casanova?

 

Sounds like my first DnD character! :cactuar:

 

Generally, other people's reactions aren't always going to be in line with yours. The easiest way to get your true intentions across might be in how you're emoting. If your character is a failure because he's creepy instead of outright ugly or stinky or something physical, the adjectives you use will help a lot when you describe his actions (a boorish laugh, or how his eyes wander to certain parts of a lady's anatomy followed by a heavy breath). Pen and paper RP can't be compared to MMO RP, especially since my character's targets were mostly NPCs controlled by the same GM, but I find these kinds of things go a long way in turning people off!

[Faye]

Very interesting read. This brings me back to something that always kind of disappointed me about sexy roleplay: why does it seem impossible to RP a fail-casanova?

 

There's a fail-casanova in my FC right now! It's intentional... I think... I hope...

 

The problem is most people either A) Somehow fall for it and negate the "fail" part!? or B) Blur IC and OOC and OOC get fed up with the character's antic and avoid RP with him.

[LiadansWhisper]

I remember when I was RPing on this very serious, very strict little private server in Neverwinter Nights, and they were just...draconian about ERP.  There was this huge stigma if someone was caught, and sometimes DMs would harass the players, etc.

 

I spent a long time in that mindset.  You know the one, "How dare someone have sexy fun times in a game I'm playing!"

 

Somewhere along the way I figured out that what other people do in the privacy of their own tells or Party chats is none of my fucking business.

 

Not my circus.  Not my monkeys.  8-)

 

People who ERP in public in this game are just asking to be banned, so I find them quite honestly amusing.  But I have been on private servers where ERP was public, open, and pretty constant.

 

I have stories - amazing stories - about miss-telled /shouts (in NWN, if you /shout something, it hits the entire server module instead of just the people around you, so...) of the most terrible ERP...

 

I feel like I'm okay in spite of this.  My brain didn't rot out and I didn't turn into a nymphomaniac.  :bouncy:

[Michelleswain]

The OP laid it out pretty well (no pun intended). She beat me to the punch since I was planning on making a similar post. My definitions of the various styles pretty much being the same as hers. Except the title of my post was going to be; "ERP, the 800lb gorilla in the room"

 

ERP to me comes in two flavors; ERP the noun, and ERP the verb.

 

ERP the noun; has become synonymous with Cyber. Basically the days when folks would get on the AOL/CompuServe/Prodigy chat rooms (teen to 35 year olds) have moved over to MMOs. MMOs providing an additional layer of anonymity plus visual elements that chat rooms of old did not provide. Not only can you get your gaming on, but some cyber as well.

 

The statement; "I'm an ERPer" to me means; "I'm not a role player. I just like to cyber between duties/grinding/boredom." Option 3 in the OP's definition. In my many years of role playing in MMOs this has slowly become the dominant type of so called "Role Play". Often times they will masquerade as legitimate role players but a few clues (blushing at any action you do for example) quickly tips me off. These are the people I have the most problems with. In so far that I now blacklist them or ignore them soon as I identify their intentions. This has caused issues where I've blacklisted a legitimate role player, but that is something I can live with.

 

Then I have the traditional role player, that is open to an ERP encounter as a facet of their role play. As a serious role player who gets pretty involved with her character (including wanting to add a little grit or spice), I'm ok with this, so long as the hard line between IC and OOC is maintained. I'll go all the way in developing my character to be as dynamic as possible using the lore when able. If I need a little ERP just to spice things up (an example being my castanic character in Tera) then I'm open to it (typically in the form of alluding to an encounter or fade to black).

 

Unfortunately do to issues with IC bleeding into OOC, I've slowly begun to make characters that don't subscribe to ERP. This isn't a prejudice of mine, but rather I got fed up with players that either took things too far, or suddenly associated me with OP's Option 3 or someone who cybers. As a result I no longer use ERP as a facet of a character but instead write it into the background. "She's feisty, a little naughty, but rather licentious." Would probably be on her background. Or she may be a bit flirtatious when socializing, it really depends on the character. In other words, most of my characters are now PG-13.

 

In the case of my character in FFXIV, I railroaded her meta into a dead end when it comes to relationships. Although she may take a liking to your character romantically, the criteria for that to happen is extremely narrow. Additionally any form of date would go as far as a dinner or perhaps going out to some romantic place, that being the extent of it.

[ArmachiA]

HEY My character blushes at everything.