Imagination: A brief summation of my roleplaying dilemmas

[Misaek]

Roleplaying, oh dear roleplaying. Now lets get this out of the way, I love roleplaying, I love pretending, I even pretend in real life from time to time, but I have one constant tragic dilemma; no one else shares my interest and my imagination.

Now to open with an issue I'm sure all of us have, not taking the roleplay seriously. Here's the scenario, you get two or three of your friends to pretend in real life, or roleplay in a game or whatever, and either they begrudgingly agree or you force them to, or they willingly do it, whatever, or you don't get them to play, any of these work, and they don't take it seriously. To put it simply, either their roleplaying is just them, they make jokes and do things that don't make sense to the roleplay, they're either, as I said, being non-sequiter to the roleplay or just not roleplaying at all. I think I've had these problems with my friends, I tried doing DnD with them and none of them took it seriously when it came to roleplaying, and I don't think the people I have in mind for my next roleplay will either. But once you've gotten past this issue you're home free right? Right? Ha ha you poor fool.

Listen, I'm not going to lie, anyone can be a roleplayer, but not everyone is good, you have to have feeling, imagination, which bring me to my second point, Imagination and Contribution. Here's the scene, you get them all together and start, the seem to be taking at serious enough, and you are ecstatic at this, but none of the freaking contribute! All you get is unimaginative responses and tons of "I agree" "Yes" "Lets do that" "Okay". Roleplaying does NOT equal going along with the GM, or whoever started the roleplay, or whoever happens to be talking the most, it means giving your own unique responses, all too many times when I finally tell someone enough to be serious, they just do this. And then with imagination usually if you bring this up and say they need more imagination and feeling, either they'll just have an imaginative response ONCE or TWICE or they'll just stop taking it seriously again. But finally once you've gotten past this issue you are golden yeah? Not quite.

Now this paragraph will just be some brief issues most roleplayers have. Trenchcoating and Mary Sueing, one of my friends in particular I foresee having a serious issue with that. Now if you're not familiar with the roleplaying world, trenchcoating is where you make yourself unnecessarily, unrealistically and stupidly badass, and Mary Sueing is when you make yourself perfect in nearly every way, sure you have issues but they only accentuate your perfection. Here's the deal, some people are right out there with their Trenchoating and the likes, and they are easy to deal with because you can just tell them "Hey you are trenchcoating, cease and desist." but some people are subtle with it, these people are truly dangerous to your roleplay. This is because these people can actually find loopholes to their Trenchcoating, reasons why they make sense, they can either be actual reasons that make sense, in which case you must tell them "Okay it makes sense, but it is still trenchoating" or reasons so stupid you can't possibly argue with them, in which case...I actually don't know what to do then.

Anyways, this is a working list and I posted it for advice and to perhaps relay the dangers onto you, discuss, add to the list if you like, put something there I missed, modify something I said, anything really, thanks!

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

I have pretty much exactly the same problems. None of my friends seem like they would like roleplaying, and even if I got them together and forced them, your points would just repeat themselves. There's ONE who I thought would like it, and would be really good at it too, but he has his own unique way to combine Trenchcoating and Mary Sueing like he's a pro.
Honestly, I don't even have that much of an imagination, which is all the more reason I want to try roleplaying, so I can have some medium to actually get some imagination out of there, but somehow it seems everybody I know has either even less, or too much and refuses to have any boundaries, which makes setting up a structured roleplaying set rather difficult.

I might try forcing someone again in the near future, but I don't think it'll really get anywhere. You're not getting any hints from me, but I'll keep an eye on this thread to see if I can find some myself.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

Both of you should come join my pathfinder game, where the rule is if you're sitting at the table you are in character, if you need to speak ooc you stand up. Not all of the roleplaying is good, but we have quantity!!!

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Yeah, you can't really force people to roleplay. Sounds like you've got people who are grudgingly going along with it because they are your friends but at the end of the day don't really give a crap about it. Some people want to act, others just want to play Halo with dice and others just want to play Halo. You need to find people that want to play the same way.

Also you need a decent GM, a poor GM will suck the life right out of a game, no ones going to want to roleplay if the game and GM are just flat out uninspiring. (Not saying you're a crap GM, just pointing out that aspect of RPGs)

Trenchcoating? Never heard of that before, although it sounds a lot like munchkinism to me. I don't begrudge people such things as long as it doesn't piss off the other players. Feel free to make a combat drone if that's your interest as long as said combat drone doesn't ruin the rest of the show.

Mary Sues have always been a GM trick in my experience, players don't really have the power to be Mary Sues. They might want to be perfect but "reality" often slaps them in the face with a large axe or a 12 guage, depending on the game.

 

[Naheal]

Play some D&D or some other Pen and Paper RPG one of these days. If you have a problem with someone making a Mary Sue, the game system will fix that shit for you.

 

[Clockwork Scarecrow.]

-snip-

You left out Meta-Gaming by the way.

I can see where you're coming from, the only solution is to find other gamers the same as you. That's how I was initiated and I've had no problems.

Also, if someone is trench-coating or Mary Sueing you have to remember that you're the GM, throw problems and puzzles and other frustrating things at them until they stop acting the bollocks. For example, if someone statted out an all-combat character put them in a situation that needs lots of Intelligence or social stats. If nothing else it may cause them to use lots of Willpower (or the equivalent) which may help speed-bump them.

 

[Misaek]

Gah! Many a person to reply to!

Snipitty!

Yes indeed Mis, I'd give a more in depth response but I ranted to you even before I posted this so it would be kind of useless.

Snipperton

Actually these people play DnD, and have long before I started, they just aren't avid roleplayers, they roleplay, but if you want to get a satisfying experience out of them you're on in the wrong place, I have a bit of a real life roleplay planned but I just doubt they'll seriously go along with it.

Snippenstein

Yeah that pretty much it, as I stated above these people do play DnD and do roleplay, to extent, just not seriously.

-snip-

You left out Meta-Gaming by the way.

I can see where you're coming from, the only solution is to find other gamers the same as you. That's how I was initiated and I've had no problems.

Also, if someone is trench-coating or Mary Sueing you have to remember that you're the GM, throw problems and puzzles and other frustrating things at them until they stop acting the bollocks. For example, if someone statted out an all-combat character put them in a situation that needs lots of Intelligence or social stats. If nothing else it may cause them to use lots of Willpower (or the equivalent) which may help speed-bump them.

Hm, you know that's not a bad idea, yeah, I'll definitely implement that next time I try, also, I'm actually not familiar with Meta-Gaming, care to explain good sir?

 

[Epic_Mushroom]

I've had similar problems, didn't find anyone to do pen 'n paper RP with until I was twenty. My suggestion to you is to look at your nearest large city, and find if there are any role-players holed up there. I found a bunch near the centre of the city in which I live. Ask the local role-playing shop, they should know.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Actually these people play DnD, and have long before I started, they just aren't avid roleplayers, they roleplay, but if you want to get a satisfying experience out of them you're on in the wrong place, I have a bit of a real life roleplay planned but I just doubt they'll seriously go along with it.

Well, then I guess they be the 'playing Halo with dice' type. They want to destroy the enemy and overcome the obstacles in the way but its not about roleplaying its game to be won or lost and likely have some bone headed laughs on the way. You can get a satisfying game with that type of group as a GM but you have to be on the same level.
I don't know these people but I have a feeling you are right about the LARPing.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

Not all of the roleplaying is good, but we have quantity!!!

Quantity > quality.

That's not what I meant, I was pointing out that the players in my group, where out of all of us, only 2 or 3 are amazing role-players, they are all willing to at least put some effort into it.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

I'm actually not familiar with Meta-Gaming, care to explain good sir?

When Player knowledge takes over for character knowledge, ie; when the character's see a troll for the first time, the first thing the players do is light torches and start tossing fireballs, cause they know that's the only way to kill the troll, even if the actual characters don't

 

[Erana]

Oh, roleplaying. It was fun as a child, but it always got a bit awkward after 2nd grade or so. I tried roleplaying a few years ago on the internet, but found that I can't get into the head of anyone but myself in a story that was actually trying to be serious.
I tried, but at 15, I couldn't fit into mature or adult topics, and in roleplays with younger participants, "Started college at 14- no understanding of Highschool or a teenage mentality at all" didn't go over very well.
I mean, I got called out for my character having duct tape, an exacto knife and a telescope in her purse, when I based a character's possessions off what was in my handbag at the time, 'cause I was out of ideas. -.-

I'm too weird for bad roleplays, and not a good enough writer for serious material.

Good roleplays are really off the cuff novels. Most people these days haven't read a book in years, unless it was required of them. People aren't straight-faced when roleplaying 'cause they're only interested in fluffy, immediate-gratification in their free time.
Or they're just bad at it, like me.
I don't think you'll get much more than you're already getting from the people you're currently trying, sadly.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

Not all of the roleplaying is good, but we have quantity!!!

Quantity > quality.

That's not what I meant, I was pointing out that the players in my group, where out of all of us, only 2 or 3 are amazing role-players, they are all willing to at least put some effort into it.

I was just kidding.

Hell, I enjoy a bit of LARP, and I suck at it, lol.

See I never participated in LARP, though I have gone to a park with a cooler full of beer and sat and watched, that was an interesting experience, a few of the players even referred to me as The Dwarven(I was bearded at the time) God of Hops

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

See I never participated in LARP, though I have gone to a park with a cooler full of beer and sat and watched, that was an interesting experience, a few of the players even referred to me as The Dwarven(I was bearded at the time) God of Hops

Oh my god, that needs to be your custom title!

If I ever upgrade to the preferred members thing or what ever it's called i'll do it

 

[Anah'ya]

/snip

Don't have any friends who would do table top with me, apparently. Never had and probably never will, so I had to get my fix somewhere else.

So here comes the recommendation:

Step One: Find an MMO in a setting you enjoy.
Step Two: Pick an RP server. If none exist, go back to the drawing board and find another MMO.
Step Three: Research RP hotspots and Guilds
Step Four: Throw yourself into the fray and put effort into your RP
Step Five: Enjoy.

Now this is by no means the solution to your problem, as it will put you into an environment that you cannot control. People will seek to disrupt your joy and you will bump into plenty of Mary Sues with Trenchcoats on, BUT it is an alternative.

I personally had some amazing months in DDO (Dungeon and Dragons Online), as well as Age of Conan. Previously to that were many a year of glorious RP in Ultima Online.

You just need to be persistent and find a community that will facilitate your needs.


Oh. Yeah. Failing all that: Ditch the RP. Write a book. There you can be as imaginative as you want and will have no one Marrying their Sues to Trenchcoats.

 

[Bihac]

Well from what I call of my own TT group, we were all laid back about it.

I admit I fulfill the trench coat person, but that's because I like "Halo with Dice" as someone worded it, and... quite frankly, the rest of the people in the TT group never went combat roles, someone got to cover their backs. I do miss my TT escapades...

At the end of the day though the mary-sues and trench coats only have as much power as the GM / ST allows them to have.

Anyway depending on what your looking to do or play, there are several Java / Flash chat's that run for games like NWoD, and I know a a DH game that runs almost every week online. If anyone is interested feel free to PM, and I shall provide the site(s).