#i’ll say it it’s kind of bad rp etiquette no matter which way it ends up

[whitmore]

hoping and praying the stealing chestplate via command and robbing etoiles’ body of his shield has good lore reason, and wasn’t just bc it’s ‘op’ for him to have bc not only did he attain them via the admins in the first place but it’s not like the server has issue w players being unfair to each other or (to further individualize the situation) etoiles using those items to ruin the vibe or other people’s experiences on the server . if it is genuinely bc the items are overpowered it doesn’t make much sense story-wise or at all

[yesfxckyxu]

munday asks // accepting

@princely-etiquette​ asked: 

4, 19

4. What is your favourite thing about your muse? Why did you pick them up, what do you want to explore?

I would have to say a mix of Jack’s unpredictablity and abiltiy to temporarily cure his chronic boredom. It’s something I do have to note though, about why I ended up picking him for my project and constant development for his book is mainly because of how complex he is when it comes to those reasons. 

Despite that I did create him and that he is a minor part of me, when he chooses the things he does - it literally is just something you wouldn’t expect and it’s hard to describe that as his writer. I love Jack, not because he is mine and that I am proud of him as a creator - but because of how much change I’ve seen with him over the years and how I get to see people get to know him as a character. And that goes for both negative and positive reactions. 

I don’t expect people to see him as a purely good character, just as I don’t always expect people to see him as a purely bad character. I picked him because like with creators I admired, and still do, want to give what I got with characters that you can delve into and learn about and may even get to apply aspects to yourself as your own version of character development. 

I want to explore the realism just as much as the fiction of Jack, be able to explore the ideas of redemption and how hard it can be to go through things you had to grow up with and how that affected you growing up. Jack going through something that was out of his control just the same as it was with his parents - despite choices that were involved. For Jack to make mistakes, being faced with choices that can either make or break his future. 

Being able to explore an idea, of someone who is still young and still figuring things out - and yet end up having to grow up much too fast and much too soon. Side effects and the aftermath, and to share that with everyone to give a wide new perspective of that.

19. What kind of writing partners do you tend to merge well with? Do you like people who communicate, or more impulsive personalities?

Uhhh... Well I’ll be a bit blunt. I don’t know what sort of people I merge well with, other than that we are able to get along no matter our differences. 

I like people that are able to be themselves, though I don’t expect people to get that comfortable with me off the bat. I love seeing people that are willing to be open, to be goofy - to just be giving that chance that ‘hey, this is me’ kinda way. Yet, I know it takes time and I’m willing to spend that time if they do the same for me too. I like making friends, despite that I suck at keeping in contact due to personal reasons that will never be their fault. 

I adore communication, and I also adore people who randomly hop into my messages because they thought about me and our interactions. I also understand that some people are like me and can be a bit reserved, and I am also aware people can be shy and don’t want to overwhelm me either. Which is why I don’t mind being the one to reach out at times. 

But, if I were to pick the main thing out of this: is that I need communication most of all. Roleplaying in general is communication based in my opinion, there has to be a line of what is wanted and needed in order to make things work. 

I don’t mind surprises in a thread, but I also wouldn’t want a major surprise that puts my expections in the gutter because now the thread is reaching an area that was never discussed because of its content. Like, take an example: We are aiming for two characters to get together romantically, but the surprise in the thread was an undisclosed pop-in of one of the character’s exes because that ex wants to get back together with a prime character. 

It’s those sorts of things that kinda put a sour taste in your mouth because now it leaves you wondering what may have changed or what the other person has in mind now. I will never be upset if my rp partner has more or is lacking energy than me, or if they are this or that. My only issue would be how they treat me as a person. Other than that, I’m always open to whatever personality you may have and if we can communicate the basics with understanding of each other’s wants and needs. 

[impassiveesper]

What was your first impression of the roleplay community on Tumblr? And what’s your impression of it now?

Mun’s Asks: RP Edition

1.) What was your first impression of the roleplay community on Tumblr? And what’s your impression of it now?

[OOF STRAP IN INTREPID]

I’ve been on this hellsite since the beginning but I really only started RPing here after a few years.  Probably in 2012 or 2013? I can’t remember exactly when but I remember being very intimidated by the idea of RP on this platform in particular. There is a bit of a steep learning curve in terms of etiquette here that is even steeper when you factor in the near requirement for tumblr-literacy.  Like you basically need xkit to RP and you need to understand what kinds of asks get eaten and when/how cuts work and what behaviors do and don’t cause notifications and how ask posts work and how the block/blacklist features do and dont work and what tags tumblr will and wont index etc etc.  When you’re a tumblr old head it’s easy to forget newcomers don’t immediately know things like that. It’s part of the reason why I tend to be very basic in my approach compared to what is popular at the moment. I was one of those fabled newcomers at one point.

I don’t really think that tumblr RPC is any better or worse now than it was back then, just different. A lot of what’s popular now was a thing back then, but now it’s more commonplace in a much smaller population of RPers. I wouldn’t say that the RPC has many new problems as much as I would say the old problems have intensified.

When I started out I was in a fandom that was very cliquey and made me feel like shit a lot and those spaces probably still exist on tumblr but the difference is I know what my boundaries are and what behaviors I will and wont tolerate on my dash.  Overall the RPC is much better at talking about things like that than it used to be imo. That same fandom I just shit on was also a lot of fun and taught me that it was okay to not take RP too seriously and not be too worried about if it looks pretty enough or was fancy enough. I’m really grateful for people who would RP with me back then even though I unknowingly broke a lot of tumblr RPC’s unwritten rules.  

That’s why it’s very important to me as a seasoned RPer to be as approachable a blog as I can possibly be. In this the lords year of 2020 I still feel myself being set in my ways and avoiding trends that are ultimately harmless, but there is an extent to which I have to participate in order to be courteous to others so I do my best to be open minded about Neo RPC Trends. I end up being of two minds just about everything that’s popular right now. 

Take for example reblog karma / I AM NOT A MEME SOURCE type rules. I think that’s shits dumb, you guys can reblog anything you want from me, in fact reblogging it from me heightens the chances of me sending you one whether you sent me one or not. I’m not gonna get mad at you for using the website as it is intended by the devs to be used, but also if somebody else’s rules say it bugs them to have memes rbed from them, then I think their feelings are more important than my opinion on the matter. People are more important to me than policies in cases like these, so of course I’ll reblog the meme from the source instead of you or w/e.  

But at the same time, that idea about feelings also includes the feelings of people who are new to RP and maybe don’t even know the etiquette well enough to know they’re messing up.  There’s a lot to get mad about in the current state of tumblr RP but even when I agree that I want this particular tedium done, I don’t really agree with the idea that I should make it a rule that forces other people to stay away from me. Yes I dont want to be ponging an ask post back and forth. Yes I want our posts cut.  But also, I wont get mad if you rb an ask instead of putting it in a new post. I’ll just put in a new post myself. I wont get mad if you dont cut a post, I’ll just cut it myself. It’s not hard to do.

Take also graphics, banners, and all manner of fancy formatting. RPC has really really leaned into that a lot more than back in 2013. On the one hand, I think that’s great. People are so creative. Their stuff looks so pretty, and I really like the work people put in. I don’t think it’s a bad thing necessarily, but on the other hand it does heighten that already steep barrier for entry imo, especially in circles that require it and judge based upon it. For me it’s more important to avoid looking like that’s an expectation of mine. Like, I can do that stuff. I do sometimes, actually. I make icons in batches of hundreds, I take commissions for RP graphics, don’t tell anybody. I’m a freelance illustrator and I know my way around the adobe creative suite-- I CAN make these things and I do for other people, but I can’t be called to do it for myself in most cases. When I see a blog with very nice graphics I immediately assume they don’t care to interact with me. In fact I still tend to unfairly think this even when they’ve shown me otherwise. If we don’t have a long term rapport and you’re a blog with nice graphics and I reply to your posts, what you’re seeing is a neurotic prey animal that is afraid of you signaling alarm.  For whatever reason I tend to interpret very fancy looking blogs as confident and happy in their own existing bubbles with no particular interest in newcomers. I know that’s not always a fair assumption to make--it’s a problem with me that I need to work on--but also I know other people deal with similar feelings. That’s why I don’t feel particularly called to make much beyond the most basic of graphics most of the time and I’m highly avoidant of anybody who seems like graphics are a requirement for interactions with them. Not everybody has photoshop. Not everybody is skilled at that sort of thing. I don’t want people to think that I will judge their style based on what my own style looks like, so I don’t invest much in it. Again, there’s nothing wrong with graphics, but it’s more important to me than anything else that I am approachable and I make other people on the dash as comfortable as I can. I’m glad that it seems like a requirement for cohesive graphics has waned over the last few years.

But, yea. I’d say this duality--the “this is cool but also I have reasons I feel I shouldn’t participate”--is how I feel about pretty much everything that’s big right now.  And like don’t even get me started on the anxiety RPC has around things like soft blocking and mutuals and multiples and “quality”. These things in particular aren’t that new, but a lot of Neo RPC etiquette and trends surrounding those types of anxieties represent a whole quagmire that I try to avoid as much as I can, often to a fault, and lately I’ve realized that in my blanket avoidance I am actually missing out on some things I really should consider doing. My icons could do with some light color retouching. I do want to get my tags together eventually. Permanent starter calls, interests checkers, banners to make asks more easily rebloggable-- these things are functional and can be fun and make RP easier and help people feel emboldened to approach. Like, there are a lot of newish things that are actually cool and I should maybe consider trying them out, but being an oldster has really made me slow to adapt.

So yeah, idk if that was clear at all lol. Take these many, many unnecessary words to say that again, I don’t necessarily think that the current RPC is better or worse in an objective sense, but I do think a lot of the anxieties and trends that were starting in the old RPC have really caught fire now in a way that makes them hard to abstain from even if you want to. Since the RPC is so much smaller now than it was in 2013, you really do have to play ball on these things more than you used to have to in order to find partners. There is a lot of etiquette and anxiety that goes unspoken in the RPC and so I often avoid fairly harmless RPC trends as a means of mitigating that anxiety and clarifying the unspoken as much as I can. Tumblr already has a barrier for entry by being a broken website that hates its rp users, I don’t need to pile on any extra factors to make that barrier to entry look any taller.