General roleplay-shaped query...

[Minxie]

( And by that I mean about roleplay in general, not THIS one )

What entices you towards a roleplay? What can put you off? What are your thoughts/feelings about original-storyline (non-fandom) games?

I ask because I'm debating rebooting a couple of old games of my own, and I'd like to make them more user-friendly if I can.

Also, if this post makes no sense please forgive me! It's gone 4am and I'm a bit kooky on codeine...

[ShadowedFlames]

This is my point of view; I make no claims that these represent other people's opinions.

First, it has to be on a subject I either know or can fake reasonably well. You won't find me in anything resembling Evangelion, InuYasha, and so forth because I'm not familiar with the base material and how the background is laid out. True, the same could be said for alternate universe Sailor Moon stuff, but the base cosmos gives me enough to work from, and I can adapt to the rest. Same goes for fantasy-based games.

What puts me off is having pretty much everyone else doing stuff and basically finding ways to eliminate any quirks or traits I want to use for my character. It's no fun being a swordsman, after all, if everyone else shoots magic lazors and takes out enemies before I can even make a move. Same token, I like developing characters as I play; having to mesh histories around characters whose players may not want to cooperate with ideas makes things frustrating. I prefer a blank slate, with an idea as to how I present the character, and let the relationships, alliances, rivalries, and story be made as we go. (LotM is about the only exception as everyone here is real open about meshing backstories together, the token male excluded. -_-() )

Regarding non-fandom games...I have played Dungeons & Dragons off and on since the mid-1990's. I'm used to coming up with ideas from scratch and not using any existing worlds like Forgotten Realms or the Wheel of Time. While they may not be very good to start, everyone has to begin somewhere. As long as you give a basic idea of what you're looking for, some guidelines about what is and isn't acceptable--after all, if you tell us that the setting is landlocked, it defeats the purpose of designing a sailor, for instance--and how you want to present the game, I'd be interested in looking.

The other factor I have to consider is time and mental effort. I'm not as young as I used to be; I can't keep up with multiple RPG's without the use of notes or a binder or something. Not to mention other things that take my time (a weekly bridge game with friends, Sunday football, a full-time job, the urge to still play my XBox 360 now and again); the more projects I have the more likely I am to get burned out and just give up altogether for a while.

[Shuu]

NOTE: This post is very tl;dr and a bit ranty XD Just a warning!

I've become really picky about joining RPGs. I love doing them, since I enjoy collaborating with people and making characters, but I don't do it as often as I used to. Most RPGs these days turn me off, and I only do personal RPs with people I know and trust, due to a llllootttt of bad experiences in the past.

I tend to mostly go for SM RPGs, because it was the thing that introduced me into Anime and it's probably the easiest thing to make an RP out of. Although there are LOTS of other fandoms I'd love to roleplay in...I don't. Prime examples being DBZ (everyone would be grossly over-powered and one-hitting) and Kingdom Hearts (EVERYONE HAS A FUCKIN' KEYBLADE + the fandom is just insane). Plus most SM fans these days tend to be older.

Things that tend to turn me off are: Face claims. UGH, I really, really hate these. I'm terrible with actors and only have a handful I actually follow passionately (most of them too old to feasibly face claim with to boot), plus I feel it leaves you absolutely NO creativity...WHAT SO EVER. I have to give them those eyes and hair, that facial features, ect. I can't make stuff that comes out of my head, and I feel it is a complete cop-out in RPGs (same with RPGs who allow anime faces/re-colors/stolen artwork). I thing the most fun in an RPG is making your own character. Now, some of my characters have turned out looking like some celebs in my mind, but only after I've made them. I don't mind people using them, but I hate it when it's a requirement.

on that same note, I tend to avoid ANY RPG that allows canon characters. It's not so much I have something against canon's...it's that 99.9% of the time, NO ONE PLAYS THEM RIGHT. This bugs the heck out of me, since I try my best to always, always stay IC with canon characters. I've joined RPGs that allow them and usually end up leaving due to people butchering canon characters. One of them even used one of my all-time favorite characters (no, not Saturn) and completely bastardized her, and I probably RAEGED for hours about that.

Another thing that turns me off is elitism. I know I suffered from it in the past of LotM (probably before the last reboot before this one), but dear god. I was NOT as bad as a fist-full of SM RPGs a few years ago, where you had to have THE most perfect profile ever, list off every. Single. Detail. of your character, ect. I joined one of these RPGs and my accepted profile was around 22 pages long in word (longer then most of my fanfiction chapters, WTH!).

Some other less pet-peevey things: I also hate it when you can have NO similarities between characters, so they can have no common interests or similar hair colors/styles. Or RPGs that require a word count (also joined one where you had to have 400 words per post...WTFS, man). Or RPGs which have NO limit. I was also in an RPG that someone once posted "She landed on the street." And like 75% of the posts were like that (and I'd be gone for work for like a short shift and there'd be 2 pages of posts like that).

PHEW! That was a long rant. Now onto the positive things!

As for other RPGs, it really depends on what it's about. I like fandom ones better just because I know the world better, but I did join this really cool one ages ago that I can't even remember the plot to anymore, but it was fun. I have fond memories of cross-over ones, and one of the best RPGs I've ever been involved in was with my BFF, which crossed-over everything and the kitchen sink, but had completely original plots...just with various fandoms and original characters.

Good news about original RPGs is that there's no canon characters to screw up. REJOICE! ^___^

[sylver]

The biggest thing that can draw me into a game or send me running is the story itself. This includes background, plot, setting, everything. If it doesn't feel like it would make a good story, then I don't even see the point in even trying to join the game.

Most of the games I've done have been Sailor Moon, but not all. I've been in games based on Evangelion, X-Men, Sanctuary and several others that were original story. Like Shuu said, the SM ones seem to do better. I guess that's because there are more fans. I, however, don't mind using canon characters, as long as they're not supposed to be in the middle of any season of the show. If they're supposed to be adults, I can see them changing from the way they acted in middle or high school. But, it is better to just get rid of the canon characters altogether. Having been in a game where they were NPCs, it made game play awkward when they were played different ways by different people. This applies to villains to, for the most part.

Cross-over games are also fun, but only if the players have enough knowledge of the different universes to make them work. And only if the universes work well together. [Ran a game, several years ago, with a friend (well, we planned it all out, but it never officially got started) that was basically Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing and Harry Potter.]

That's another thing, you have to have a good GM. One who will at least listen to their player's ideas. If you don't have a good GM, you won't have a good game, no matter what the story. (Not that you have to worry about that, Minxie, I know you're a good GM. ^_^ ) Had one GM once that got very upset with me for not having a profile done in a set amount of time when they were holding back needed info. (Personally, I think they were wanting another player to take that character.)

As for character profiles, I personally prefer smaller versions that can be added to later or changed. Because I find that the more I play a character, the better I know them. And having to limit them to a set of standards written before they really got a chance to express themselves can be difficult. (LotM's profile is better than most. There's still plenty of room for the characters to grow.)

Original Story games are good because they can allow you to be a little more creative, I think. But there is always the risk that the players won't understand the setting. I have been in several of these, some with more info provided than others, and have always felt that more info was better then less. (Then again, I love useless information.)

[Minxie]

Thanks guys! Brilliant information I was very curious because I've really only been in one game (can you guess which one? ) in which I've not felt that my character(s) is/are being shoved aside for those played by the mods/admin/their BFFs.

Sylver, thank you I'm hoping to reboot C7 with a variant on the plot and setting, and without allowing RL friends dictate characters etc to me (time to get a spine!)