sincere | Further RP Stagnation

Just as a public service announcement: August 31st is the US release of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Mid-September is the release of The Sims 2. Mid-November is the release of a Gamecube RPG called Baten Kaitos. January 11th is the US release of Suikoden IV.

I will spend my senior year buried in games.

The main topic:
I'd really like to branch out in RP. I'm currently contained within a circle of people who are always doing the same characters over and over, and I'd like to see some new types. There's nothing wrong with those people or those characters, I love them, but the nth time Neesama played a sarcastic self-possessed tough girl I didn't want to see any more of those, especially since she so subconsciously identified with them that she let them affect her mood and vice versa; I interacted with them every day just talking to her. I know weird people who always play weird characters a lot like them, and sweet people who always play sweet characters, and smart tactful people who always play smart tactful characters... I know one or two RPers who branch out, but in the end, I'm itchy to RP and I'd like to try playing with people I've never played with before, especially since QPQ and The Geranium Society are dying.

Also I'd like to RP with new people, meet and get involved with new friends. I don't talk to my friends from the Internet fandom period of my life anymore, but nobody's yet filled that place, no new friends from the Internet original fiction period. I do have Rachel-san, but she's never around anymore, and even when she was around we hardly ever played anything, like literally once every few weeks. Kinda lonely online these days when the only people I can talk to on a daily basis are Jason about video games we both are playing.

The MUD was almost good at filling that, but in the end it all came down to the cliques I complained about before, and nobody wanted to play with the newbies; they all had their cliques, and they're all so much better, they can't really be bothered to play with you. I was just one among dozens of people on the game at any given point in time, and that wasn't what I wanted.

But it's hard to find what I want, hard to find original-character RP. A fandom RP is an okay substitute, but it doesn't give me much room to find pride in psychoanalysis the way I do with Bailey and Rhys and the other originals. I'd almost like to find another journal game... But decent ones aren't that common.

Where are all the people who create their own characters and like roleplaying with them? Ah, well. *brood*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sorry that's going on. I will be around (you don't have to believe me, I don't blame you) and if you want to RP, just ask... I often assume you don't want to and would just be going along with it to please me. Unless you're bored with my character type, which I can understand. I think everyone does that to an extent, though.

You're certainly not stuck in a character designing rut. ^^ I think those of us who write stories with ensemble casts get the benefit of the doubt; compare Killelan to Psyche to Leo. You could probably RP any of them, but that doesn't mean you're Killelan, and it doesn't mean Psyche is either. ^_^

But on the last part, I disagree. I mean, yes, it's easiest to play characters off your own traits, but that doesn't even mean they always have to be the SAME traits. I made Bailey a coward and I'm certainly a coward but that's not the only trait I possess, he doesn't reflect my moods, and meanwhile I've got dozens of other characters who aren't cowards; instead of Rhys, for example, being a coward, he's prone to second-guessing himself later, eating away at his self-confidence, and I do that too, but Bailey doesn't, and meanwhile Rhys is totally not a coward when the time comes to act. And Rufus probably doesn't have an ounce of cowardice in him, and scorns the very idea of letting something like that hold back his goals. I like to flatter myself to think it isn't the same. Meanwhile, there are some characters I have who aren't much like me at all, such as most of the Aria Anima characters. ^^;;

I don't think anybody's limited by what they ARE when they RP. You can be shy and introspective and still play a loud domineering jerk with no respect for anyone's feelings. (I want to play the argumentative type next time... Unless I play a Hardin-type. And don't think you've escaped the second half of the Vagrant Story lecture, although I know you're running from it!) I think a lot of misunderstandings happen because people feel too deeply CONNECTED to their characters. Your character's opinions and actions DON'T have to match your own. Just because I like anime doesn't mean Bailey does, and I don't owe anyone an apology if he bashes anime, because it's NOT my opinion. He could, and probably would, do it if the topic ever came up.

It's one of my pet peeves.

At any rate, RP is almost never an inconvenience for me. This time last year I was literally RPing for hours every single day and I had the time of my life, excepting those occasions when Neesama tried out one of her less flexible female characters and it wound up an emotional mess. I thought I made it clear last time we talked about RPing, because I was trying to explain why we SHOULD RP more, but apparently not. ^^ You do not have the physical stamina necessary to make RP obnoxious for me, woman!

I do love the variety of your characters - and it's certainly striking to compare your cast with certain other people's. Still, I think we are all limited, partly by the writing styles we've chosen, partly by our own psychology. When I read your RP dialogue, just as when I read a piece of your writing, it has you written all over it. I can immediately go, "Oh, that's such a Kay character." Variety can exist within that, but there are limits. That's all I'm saying.

You can be shy and introspective and still play a loud domineering jerk with no respect for anyone's feelings.

Yeah, that's why I love playing Leo (the loud part, anyway). XD RPing gives people the opportunity to say and do things they would never do, whether out of fear or because it doesn't fit with their characters/circumstances. And I think that good RPing always pushes that boundary, makes the characters farther and farther from you. BUT on some level you still have to start somewhere. I think that's the real meaning of "write what you know" - you can write someone who's completely unlike you, but you need to know enough to give them emotional authenticity.

No matter what good writers we are, how much we try to detach ourselves emotionally from our work, I think there's always an element of escape in it (and much more in semi-pointless RPing). The problem arises when people let escapism rule, when they let their own comfort with the characters matter more than realism.

Your character's opinions and actions DON'T have to match your own.

You're so right. It astounds me that some writers/RPers won't do this... All the good guys hold their opinions, and all the bad guys disagree. *shrug* It's a pet peeve of mine too.

A funny example of this distinction is the response I got to Vlad's comment justifying vampirism by comparing it to eating meat - I'm a vegetarian, as you know, but several people said, "Right on!" I was like, "Er, oh well..."

As a final note on the two of us RPing - if you want to, ask. :P I'll try to heed my own advice too.

Further RP Stagnation

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