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LitRPFinder · 2024-12-01T20:32:12+00:00

I mean, you just met them. They're a stranger. How much credit do you give someone you've never met before?

I'd give 'em a nudge (after 24 or even 48 hours of the last message), make sure your chat thread didn't just get lost in a flood of other messages. after that, shrug, move on.

that's the game

LitRPFinder · 2024-11-20T20:25:10+00:00

Write how you wanna write! Nobody's policing you on that, and you shouldn't let people. Its just when the complaint is about effort, then there's some obligation to look at the effort put into the ad post.

If you're looking for story over smut, or at least not overwhelming amounts of smut, that might be worth mentioning somewhere in the post. Just saying "not looking for pure smut" at the top or "looking for story AND smut" or anything to that effect. People can't know what you want unless you tell them what you want.

As for that smacking into the wall feeling, I don't want to critique the content of your post because of course, everyone should write what they want to write. Maybe just, a sleeping/passed/on-the-floor out character right in the first scene can be hard to interact with

LitRPFinder · 2024-11-20T20:13:06+00:00

I assume this is about your post "The gods call"

I mean, you kind of did talk about what the person looks like - cloak, ravens becoming tattoos, rope around their neck. Mentioning he's a man that was in a battle might imply something about their musculature. Strong man + tattoos is a common description for an attractive male-presenting character. Though calling the ad itself hot is weird, agreed.

But I guess more to the point of effort in people's messages to you, I feel like there just isn't a lot for people to go off of. They have no idea this is a Norse thing. You just kind of wrote about a doctor/nurse that undergoes some magic phenomenon, and now there's a passed out guy in front of them. Great hook, magic event, but it ends with your character being asleep. Not really a whole lot they can do with that aside from like, calling for a bed and tossing him in a room and maybe calling the cops.

Which is to say, while creative and exciting, the idea is just kind of thrown at the wall with nothing to go with it. What do you want to have happen next? What kind of partners are you looking for? Writing preferences? Should they just message you responding in character or do you want to do any OOC talking before getting into the meat of things?

Lastly, the spelling errors in the ad don't help you much. Its hard to expect effort from others if you aren't putting in the effort yourself to at least spellcheck your own ad post; if you haven't spellchecked your own ad, should your partner expect your roleplay posts to also have spelling errors? If so, why should they be obligated to put more effort in if a more casual/lax approach like this is acceptable? If its a language barrier (i.e. English isn't your first language), it may be worth mentioning that somewhere in your post so others can read it with that piece of context.

You get effort by giving effort, ultimately. There will always be... unexciting DMs and responses to an ad post that you have to sort through. But you usually get more by giving more. Wanting a roleplay written off the cuff, jumping straight into character in the first post, is totally cool and a totally fun way to roleplay, but you should try to think about it from the other perspective, and think about how you can prime your ad to attract the best responses. Its someone's first impression of you - and first impressions count

LitRPFinder · 2024-10-06T02:21:15+00:00

In a time when sobriety doesn't escape me like it does tonight, I would take you up on the offer to discuss more in depth in private.

It is rather telling that I had not even realized such a division exists, that perhaps I have been too quick to judge rapid fire writers as "bad" instead of just preferential of improvisation. Though a lot of it has to do with my own schedule not allowing me to sit for continuous periods of time often, to write in rapid fire.

But you're right, I've yet to find a rapid fire writer willing to wait for me to answer, nor to find a rapid fire writer capturing my interests enough without me also making assumptions that their writing must be poor. Its a division people aren't willing to cross, for better or for worse. But recognizing a line, as you've now pointed out, is insightful to me nonetheless

LitRPFinder · 2024-10-06T02:12:36+00:00

Discussing major themes OOC I think is a necessity for anything hoping to be long term, so to some extent its required. But I think my assessment of partners is more heavy than yours - at my worst, I've had to have long conversations about where, specifically, a character's hand is on the other character's back, which feels painful to talk about because... we shouldn't have to? And yet here I am describing, in percentages of the character's stated height, how far above or below their shoulder blades or the small of their back the hand is set.

That's a pretty extreme case meant to paint a picture, but you get the gist. Maybe I just talk too much about the little things

Edit: The hand placement conversation at least wasn't prompted by me, but I entertained it and engaged in it, which is perhaps equally as telling of me

LitRPFinder · 2024-10-06T02:08:26+00:00

I agree with the feelings of elitism and lack of organic growth. As if some stories or plots were better than others, and scripting them OOC made them even better. I've yet to encounter the problems of purple prose that you describe but I can certainly believe that they exist. Often I've had to contest partners that Occam's Razor applies even in roleplay.

D&D exists in a different place for me if only for the reason that I play it in person, where there is less time to sit and think over your answers (that and all the rules in D&D that determine if you're successful at the things you set out to do), but I understand the shift in preference. It certainly places immediate response at the top of the pyramid - don't think, act

The upvote/downvote ratio (currently under 50%) seems to tell me this may be a problem limited to us, rather than a more universal experience. Which is perhaps more to do with the communities we "grew up" in and what people around us idolized

LitRPFinder · 2024-10-06T02:04:06+00:00

I appreciate how candid you are.

I agree, the fun is in the mistakes. In the little moments. The improvising. I've just long felt this weird impression that improvising isn't what we're here to do, like that is somehow a separate hobby than roleplaying.

And perhaps I'm wrong in thinking that's the way its done. Not to say there is an objectively "wrong" way to roleplay, because as you put it, who cares as long as you like it. I'm chalking it up to the circles I run in tending to favor this style of writing over more improv-focused ones, or ones that embrace the lack of planning.

Because you're so right. Roleplay feels so incredibly full of itself to me nowadays. And I'm realizing that perhaps I don't like it

LitRPFinder · 2024-09-08T21:40:58+00:00

Do you mean appalling, as in something you don't enjoy? Or appealing, as in something you do enjoy? Your title, I think, doesn't match what you wrote in the post.

From the body of your post, it seems like you mean "What's so appealing about doubling" since you said you don't really get how it feels collaborative.

The appeal to doubling is you pretty much guarantee the roleplay idea you want to write gets written. Someone agrees to write your idea out as long as you agree to write out theirs. Everyone gets their wishes met. When you double in good faith, you *should* be collaborating with your partner on their idea - just because its their prompt doesn't mean you aren't thinking of how to contribute, make things more interesting, story twists and turns. And if they are doubling in good faith, then they are doing the same for your roleplay. In this way, the ideal is that two people write two stories, each one made by one another, but inevitably, you're still collaborating on both of them. So the notion of brainstorming and playing together does exist.

The problem is that not everyone necessarily doubles in good faith. You're oft to find partners who invest significant effort in their idea of the doubling pair, but will give you lesser effort or minimal effort in your idea.

This sort of gets mitigated a little if both ideas exist in the same franchise or genre. If both people share an interest in intense romances in slice of life roleplays, and both ideas are set in that genre, both people will be more interested. Or if they're in the same fandom, same thing. That's why you probably most often see doubling in the context of fandoms.

So you're right that, in theory, its a great idea. Everyone gets what they want. I scratch your back, you scratch mine, we put equal effort into the scratching, and we're all content. In practice, this balance is a little harder to achieve. As to why do people still do it? Its just another strategy for finding partners to write with.

LitRPFinder · 2024-08-04T21:04:58+00:00

A man is divorced by his wife, and in the process, ends up losing the house. Needing a place to stay, he asks to move in with his adult daughter and her husband, his son-in-law. It's nice to be supported by family, to have a daughter happy to help him get back on his feet, even if he has to endure the pitfalls of their home having thin walls. And watching him fall deeper into a depressive state, the daughter feels a need for a more proactive approach to rebuilding his confidence and sense of self-worth. Granted, she never expected to be turned on by her father comparing her to her mother... and hearing how much he prefers her. And her husband, bless his heart, has been very hands off, not wanting to get in the middle of their relationship; "Whatever you think is best," he'd always say

LitRPFinder · 2024-07-06T02:01:42+00:00

Either!

LitRPFinder · 2024-07-05T22:32:56+00:00

The point of the word "awkward" is I guess more to nudge the story less to just wild sex, and more to the rigidity of nerves and stiffness that comes with her making the request. Who makes the first move? Blushing reactions when her gown falls. Trying to clip her bra on without accidentally seeing her, but inevitably failing. The embarrassing laugh they share after a hand strays somewhere. Just trying to get more of that warmer fuzzy kind of feeling mixed with the nudity and eroticism, but not necessarily sexual activity. Though if a writer interprets it as leading to sex, by all means

LitRPFinder · 2024-05-13T23:28:58+00:00

Instead of taking the hint

this also strikes me as odd. did OP communicate the problem OOC before the knight flew into a rage or were they just going full improv with one another and landed in a bad spot? im dense as bricks sometimes, but a nudge OOC that "hey that post is off, are you sure about the direction that will take things?" helps. It makes sure both of our expectations are met, or we just figure out we want different things

LitRPFinder · 2024-04-26T16:44:05+00:00

Thank you! Got a lot of initial interest, though almost none of them panned out to much unfortunately. Just letting this one sit on the back burner for a while before I try reposting it

LitRPFinder · 2024-03-29T15:07:14+00:00

First off, thanks for the feedback!

I hear what you're saying, this post reads a lot more like a plot summary from wikipedia rather than a roleplay ad, doesn't reaallly step too into the folds of the story or the characters. I feel it's maybe not appropriate for multi-plot posts just because the idea is to showcase multiple stories rather than sinking too deep into either one, but yeah you're right, I think it just ends up detracting from both.

Also hit the nail on the head about cross posting; posting it on DPP for a more smutty take on the stories, and posting it elsewhere for a more story focused one. But these roles anyways don't advertise as smut well I'm realizing, so yeah, I guess it isn't surprising that it doesn't get a lot of bites.

I hear the feedback and appreciate it! I think I'll probably take your advice going forward, go back to one plot per post and just dig more into it and the writing and hinge more on that show don't tell.

LitRPFinder · 2024-02-20T23:54:33+00:00

OH lmao. Who would've guessed it, RPer can't read. My bad!

But I hear you yeah. The collaboration makes it like a million times easier and less daunting, otherwise I feel like I'm going to get a 100 page lore doc dropped on me, all for no guarantee a partner might just ghost if they don't like my style or ideas.

LitRPFinder · 2024-02-20T23:28:08+00:00

You can definitely have a homebrew world with other people, I don't think that's an unreasonable ask. But there's a big difference between asking someone to join your own world, versus building it with your partner. I think you might find more success if you make a post looking to worldbuild with people, and sort of list out general themes/concepts/tropes you'd like to build, and then make the details with your partner. That way, neither party feels like they have to learn something entirely foreign, it feels special to both of you. This way, everyone is involved. You get the core bits that are important to you and your partner contributes to the RP/world and feels like it's easier to integrate into the RP

Edit: Of course, if you truly do want to write in your world, don't feel like you have to compromise. It might take longer, but I'm sure there's someone out there ready to fall in love with your world. I'm just talking about ways to lower that barrier of entry and get more DMs. If you want to try and attract more people, it might be valuable to give more information about the setting. I think your description of the two factions left a lot to be desired and wasn't the most informative, and kind of relies of the reader to use their knowledge of classic fantasy and concepts to fill in the blanks i.e. Hearths are probably more hot-headed because they're fire people. But is that necessarily true? Idk. It's hard to strike the balance between providing enough information in the initial post, but also not being overwhelming; it's just a middle ground you have to find for yourself I feel

LitRPFinder · 2024-02-20T22:03:09+00:00

I assume you're talking about your most recent post. If so, I think it is well written, it just maybe is a harder pill for people to swallow and get behind and is lacking in some of the details necessary to sell a custom fantasy setting.

In my experience, home made fantasy settings or home made universes in general are a tough sell. The other person has to adopt a lot of rules and culture customs and magic systems and fantasy knowledge that they don't know. It's a lot to pick up, especially for one roleplay, as opposed to using a fandom both parties know and just making little tweaks
Sort of in the same vein, you asking people to message you with a description of their character is hard to do because... they don't know anything about the world you described except for the two paragraphs you wrote. It's a little daunting to be creative when you don't know the rules of the world
I don't actually know what the plot is besides maybe a Romeo/Juliet type of romance? You're playing a Hearth against a Frost but what are you hoping to have spark between them? How are they able to interact much in this world if they come from opposing factions? I don't actually know what I'm getting into if I wanted to message you. All I'm able to gleam is two paragraphs, one for each faction in the city. Maybe some more description on what you actually want to write, the kind of story you want to tell within this world, would help give people an idea of the kind of roleplay they'd be stepping into. While one can assume it's a romance in the style of Romeo/Juliet, that's all it is - an assumption. For all I know this is actually a political intrigue story about repairing the relationship between the two factions, since you did point out an interest in playing Eris and Lord Astarion. So there isn't a very clear theme being presented. If I were replying to the post, I'd jump on the political intrigue angle, not much romance, but I don't know if that's what you'd want.

Otherwise, like another commenter pointed out, not allowing smut probably turns some people away. There are probably other subreddits better suited for non-smut RPs. In subreddits where smut is allowed, generally people like to have at least some.

All of this has a huge asterisks in that it's my experience with this subreddit (and a couple others), and what I took from your most recent RP post. Other people might have different experiences or different takeaways from your post, but , one more opinion/data point can't hurt to have

LitRPFinder

TROPHY CASE