Cute and hydrated

[socksuke_uchiha]

Rundown: rpanons is an anonymous community for fictional character role-play related topics. This place serves as a forum for game discussions, canon discussions, RP solicitations (ATP, game ads, open memes), and advice. The occasional off topic comment is inevitable, but please keep heated social and political topics to their respective communities. Posting them here will only get them frozen. Subsequent threads made to bypass a freeze will then be deleted.

Rules:

Do not post pornographic or shocking images.
Do not share private entries, plurks, chat logs, etc.
Do not post personal information. This includes but is not limited to full names, addresses, phone numbers and so on.
Do not use this community as your social/political/hatespeech soapbox.
Do not be redundant. One page does not need three or more threads on one topic/theme. Your unfunny, forced memes also fall under this rule.
Do not treat this comm like your personal therapist. Threads about nonfictional suicide, self injury, rape, and abuse will be deleted. There are better resources out there for you.
Do not treat this comm like your personal Plurk or Twitter. Off-topic happens, but it should be open for discussion and not just a play-by-play of your life. No one cares.
Do not solicit money, Dreamwidth points, or other currency unless you are offering a good or service in return.
Discussion of or soliciting RP for celebrities or other non-fictionalized versions of real people is not allowed.


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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Sneaking this ramble-rant in near the end of a post lol. Anyway, I've just been thinking about DW again lately. I played in the past for years, then took a very long break, then came back and played for a bit and then took another long break. I'm back in that phase of "Hmm, but what if I try again...?"

To clarify ahead of time: I never left because of drama, and I'd be surprised if anyone here knew me.

Rather than that I find my problem is that I join games, start with big dreams of doing things with my characters and shotgun activity, then don't make any connections with my characters and my activity slowly drops off into barely making AC, until I either idle out or drop out to avoid squatting.

Basically, I find my characters not doing anything I can't handwave, because they're not interacting with people enough, and as a consequence it feels awkward trying to engage with people, and we hit the death spiral. This is not a 100% track record of failure, of course. Sometimes the game dies when I'm actually doing pretty well and once or twice I've played for years and just gotten bored. But I always worry about it being the case.

It's my fault, but I'm still frustrated by it.

When I was first introduced to this format I got the impression that CR was made completely organically - you throw a character into a big game, randomly encounter others, and see what stories get spun up from a combination of those random encounters and monthly events. Instead of that, CR is mostly dominated by OOC planning, and if I just throw my character in and rawdog it, not much is gonna happen. This not only causes issues with positive CR, but really causes problems when I want negative CR (both petty and more serious) or if I want my character to be confidently or tragically wrong and ruin experiences, relationships, and opportunities for themselves.

Anyway, I said it'd be a ramble, but I'm not trying to make it a diary. I'm not saying 'I'm so much better, if only everyone were like me'. Charting out CR OOC makes sense, and when I occasionally fell into that it worked out. But I can't seem to break the habit of trying, or of longing for that impression I initially had to be true, and then burning out when it doesn't work out.

So - in short - does anyone else have that similar experience? Are there people who wildly prefer just throwing characters naked into the wilderness and seeing what happens?

Also, are there perhaps good games or genres I should really be targeting for this kind of CR experience? I always assumed the randomness of a jamjar would fit this best, but maybe a story-based game would force interactions better.

Let me tell you, the 18+ smut games where you're supposed to bang someone every week or month are a hilariously poor fit for it. I always think it'll be good for forging random connections, and then my characters end up on life support and I just sweep 'who have you banged lately' under the rug.

I haven't decided if I should come back again, but the siren's call of group RP is there. I'm just in that stage of mulling over whether I think I'll end up with another bad experience, or if I am self aware enough to dodge it this time.

I say it anonymously because I think it would be rather silly to have a long ramble about how I may in fact suck at RP and then immediately turn around and say "hey, x big game, can I come in...?"

[(Anonymous)]

as someone who jumped in after six years of being gone from the platform, things have changed drastically. a lot of it does require a good chunk of ooc communication but it doesn’t if you actually *tag out*. that’s right, if you rawdog into a game and mostly tag out first and make your face known, people will come to you for threads eventually and tag in without needing to do a good chunk of ooc chatter. you won’t be able to escape ooc plotting posts in games but you can actually manage this if you put in the leg work.

so if you don’t think that’s something you want, stick to memes and psls. build a rapport in texting memes and then hit up people you see there on other memes when you do. hit up their open posts and go from there.

[(Anonymous)]

when I want negative CR (both petty and more serious) or if I want my character to be confidently or tragically wrong and ruin experiences, relationships, and opportunities for themselves.

ftr anon it is never going to be a good idea to "rawdog" this sort of cr, so you really do need to just learn how to communicate oocly with others before you do things like this. negative cr is tricky to handle at the best of times even when you're happy for your character to be wrong or to lose out on relationships. you don't suck at rp but you can't keep giving yourself excuses for not doing the necessary work when it comes to being a considerate rp partner.

the best thing to do is compromise. be aware that it's a social requirement not to spring negative cr on people while being open about how you prefer not to plan for positive or neutral experiences. i've met lots of players like this and they seem to do just fine.

[(Anonymous)]

fwiw anon I'd start distinguishing between communicating ooc and planning out cr. Above anon is definitely right about tagging out being the best way of just making things happen, but I think you'll be able to find a balance if you focus on planning out starting prompts for interaction with other characters. OOC plotting doesn't have to be more extensive than "I see your character would be doing x for event y. Since my character will be doing x as well, we should start a thread and see what happens!" And then bringing your own character's active goals to the thread to keep things moving.

But also... yeah, if you're particularly focused on negative CR, communication will be key, because badly executed negative CR can ruin a character's playability, the game environment, and more. The point of ooc conversation in this situation is to prove that you're not going to be selfish about chasing your own fun at the cost of others', and that you're actually capable of keeping the game's tone and format in mind.

I'm a player who loves negative CR, but I've been burnt before by other players who think that negative CR is just their character pulling the same dramatic selfish shit over and over, without consideration for the fact that the IC response to that is eventually going to be dropping them as a social connection when they refuse to change. Or when it comes to things like murdering or attacking other characters, locking your character in a closet forever. Also, while one dramatic duel or surprise killing can be fun, repeating the same exact fight four times is just as boring and frustrating as all the other stuff you end up handwaving. So yes, my initiating negative cr now will always include an ooc discussion of how to deescalate the conflict if needed, and how to continue to make it viable in the long term.

[(Anonymous)]

OOC planning as a big role in RP for a reason. The major one is it does give people an idea of who you are as a RPer. That really does matter. If I'm playing with someone who never talks to me OOC or tries to plot OOC, I'm less likely to prioritize them because I like to think things out and go over ideas with other people. Socializing IS a part of this collaborative hobby.

There are exceptions and you could get by with less, but let's face it, popularity and engagement do in fact play a role in all of this and I'm more likely to play with people I know and trust and already have chemistry with over a stranger I've never talked to OOC.

But you REALLY REALLY need OOC communication if you're going to do anything like negative CR.

[(Anonymous)]

ive had writers block for what feels like forever but rn i rly want to backtag a thread im still interested in. problem is its been a couple years. i know im a terrible flake but here’s a question: would you be pissed if you got a tag that was years late

[(Anonymous)]

years late?? without ooc communication? I’d ignore it, especially if I wasn’t even playing the character anymore. months however? I’d tag back, depending on how meaty the tag is. if it’s a single one liner, ignore.

[(Anonymous)]

no

i would probably tag it back if i still play the character and the thread was good before being dropped

[(Anonymous)]

i'd be crazy flattered

[(Anonymous)]

do any 'plot-heavy' games still exist?

[(Anonymous)]

How old is dwrp trending these days? Are any of the "old-timeys" from LJrp still floating around? Every now and again I revisit the thought of rejoining this hobby, but things feel different now.

[(Anonymous)]

late 20s to mid 40s

it's different if you're expecting everything to be as it was on lj, yes. slower, more insular, more obviously lefty

opinion poll

[(Anonymous)]

no judgment just please answer honestly - nothing wrong with coming into rp with a specific set of things in mind, this is just me trying to be a better player.

1. if you play a canon character, do you want ocs to tag out to you, or are you kind of hoping they won't?

2. do you play a character with castmates/a popular or well known character, or are you a LCW? do you play predominantly m/f, m/m, or some other combination, and does it influence how you feel about being tagged out to by ocs when you're playing that specific character?

3. do you prefer that someone who plays an oc ask you first, or just go for it?

4. does it vary by genre? are there genres of ocs that just aren't appealing to you?

Re: opinion poll

[(Anonymous)]

1. i don't mind tags from ocs

2. usually lcw. m/m is my favorite but ota. i don't think about ocs that deeply

3. they don't need to ask

4. i don't really like high fantasy so i'd avoid d&d, but would still tag them if they tagged me

[(Anonymous)]

Inspired by that other thread, what's the longest someone has taken to tag you back that you still tagged them back after?

For me, I think it was several months.

[(Anonymous)]

two years, lol. i will always pick threads back up and i was pleasantly surprised about it.

[(Anonymous)]

Has anyone had experiences with pre-planning ships in general? Personally, I don't see the appeal in that because I feel it could be diasastrous for all parties involved. Say you and your partner planned for Bob and Suzie to be a couple. Then you find out that not only do Bob and Suzie have little to no chemistry, but Bob has better threads with Mark and Sandy with plenty of fun moments and sizzle between them. And none of that was pre-planned!

Basically, spontaneity works best in my experience.

I'm curious to know if anyone has been successful in pre-planned ships, or if it ended poorly.

[(Anonymous)]

I planned a ship with a cast mate once. Never again.

[(Anonymous)]

I just want to play my character at a game without yet another monster transformation gimmick.

Why do we have so many of those?

[(Anonymous)]

aren't there only 3?

Plurk Question

[(Anonymous)]

Unsure where else to ask: does anyone know if there's a way to disable Likes so other people can't Like my plurks? I've seen that setting your timeline to private automatically disables the Replurk option, but Likes are still there and I do not like it

Re: Plurk Question

[(Anonymous)]

Not that I'm aware of. You can adjust your own timeline view so you don't see them though via css. They'd still be there in your alerts etc though and in the mobile app/mobile view, just not on desktop

[(Anonymous)]

i feel like posting some kind of denny's-like setting meme. any ideas? anything people want to see (or not see)?

[(Anonymous)]

Not sure about everyone else, but I would love it! I've answered all of my tags, and my game is very slow. I've been staring at my empty inbox since Friday )8.

[(Anonymous)]

tell me about your favorite weird cross-cannon ships you've ended up with in games. how did it happen? what makes them strange and magical?

[(Anonymous)]

not in a game but doing a cross canon ship in a psl right now and it's soooo good. to think it sparked from a random meme thread with a stranger!

[(Anonymous)]

notifs borked for anyone else? i was getting five-ten minute delays from dw inbox to gmail, but now i'm not getting any in either inbox.

[(Anonymous)]

yeah, i just browsed a meme and saw that my top level got a comment. no email, no inbox notif

[(Anonymous)]

any advice for someone playing from a rare fandom??

i really love the structure of meme communities like bakerstreet, but struggle to maintain interest in crosscanon threads because i’m so hyperfocused on my specific fandom. i have some PSLs going on with a close friend so i’m not exactly starving for content, but memes with canonmates are very snackable to me, for lack of a better term. they’re like chips!!!

i’ve posted my characters to bakerstreet before, told myself i was gonna engage with crosscanon should it come, only to immediately lose interest once i’m met with it. but i always come back thinking this time will be different, or that i should post my characters so people know there’s someone interested in that fandom bopping around.

what should i do?? simply wait for EMP and post my characters there? specify i only want canonmates despite the lack of them? lurk endlessly, hoping someone will toplevel with a character i recognize? or simply accept i need to get more onboard with crosscanon or dreamwidth isn’t for me?

[(Anonymous)]

posting something will always get more results than posting nothing and hoping other people somehow psychically pick up on what you want. post to emp and keep posting on memes saying you want canonmates. i've seen whole rare fandom casts appear on memes when they see someone posting regularly and decide to pick up old accounts or rare characters.

[(Anonymous)]

I want to play an animated character again, but looking at my old icons, they suck. Her skin tone's different in every one.

But the canon doesn't have any screencap site entries and the only way I can find to watch it is streaming, so I can't exactly pop it into VLC for some auto-capping.

[(Anonymous)]

What's the canon anon? I've had some luck tracking down obscure media before.

[(Anonymous)]

Is anyone else getting 'sorry, there was a problem' when they try to comment?

[(Anonymous)]

I am, but it's usually back to normal when I refresh.

[socksuke_uchiha( as admin)]

Hello, anons!

By request, I've turned on the graphics-based CAPTCHA due to the ongoing issues with text-based ones being down. We never get anywhere close to 5,000 comments on our posts any more, but I got a report that at least one anon is still being shown a CAPTCHA at random moments, so I've switched it over to the other option for the time being.

I realize image-based ones aren't the best or most accessible option, but the text-based ones show no sign of being functional again any time soon, so I hope this will keep the comm usable for the users who are affected until Dreamwidth can find another solution.

[(Anonymous)]

captcha can be shown to people from certain IP addresses or sometimes people who use vpns, dependently! if you were curious about why. sometimes denise has turned it on for entire areas when bad actors though she doesn't like to.

[(Anonymous)]

Are notifs back yet? Can I stop checking the comments posted page now?

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like it's still spotty, because I still can't even check my comments posted page with this character.

[socksuke_uchiha]

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