I do enjoy roleplaying quite a bit. I don't think I'm a great writer, but it's fun nonetheless.
Usually what I look for in a RP is a nice community with enough leeway for my shit, interesting premise, and not-too-railroaded, though I will be fine with railroading if it is necessary.
I don't actually try to prioritize either, but I do prefer characterization. After all, what's the point in a good plot when all the characters are a snoozefest?
I prefer open-endness, but I understand that in some cases that's not possible, and could break the narrative.
My priorities as a GM -although i've only done a single plot ;._.- are to make sure the players are having fun. If they don't like a particular thing, I'll adjust, change, or even retcon if necessary. Of course, I do like telling a story, but I don't want to do it at the expense of others.
And I really prefer any atmosphere! Except for ERP but i doubt thats a concern, really. Though I find myself struggling with prose, considering I have to type up a good amount of words fast enough so I don't get ninjurred, because getting ninja'd in prose is literally the worst.
I like making a story. Sometimes, that involves making my character batshit insane, other times, having a normallish character who has a chance to grow. Etc. most of all, I just find interacting with other people and their ideas to be more fun than making a story on my own.
Sorry short response for now. Mobile.
I think I've got to say some of the most fun I ever had with RPing was with the old MERPs. In every technical sense, they were terrible, or at least the first two were for sure. But exactly the right group of players joined, don't ya know? We all gelled, we made up our own memes (LSDrell! Una x Anyone!) and we sort of became almost like our own little club. The RP was shite and it was the best RP ever.
and I guess that's what I like. I love writing a story as much as the next guy, but improvising, cutting loose and having fun has such a charm to it too...
Curse the ill fortune that led you to me.Right now is a bit of an odd exception, but RPing is pretty much my only source of writing practice that I get, and that's how I generally treat it. And considering that more plot-heavy fantasy/Science Fantasy is my main love, that's where you'll find me, on the rare times that picky little me actually gets into her RP moods.
Character-wise, though, they do tends to be similar in physical ways: They're femalenote , they're around average height, and they're always some kind of Asian, often mixed race (most likely because I'm Russian-Filipino myself). Probably the place where I have any kind of variation with them is in their sexuality—my characters are never (completely) straight, and I make the effort make sure that each one is some different kind of LGBTQIA. I've also been trying to make their personalities vary more than I usually do too.
"I do not approve of the fact that my favorite quotes are too long for this character limit." - MeWell, for me of course, there is the Arena plugged in my location line, but that doesn't really have any plot in it, thanks to my best efforts. The bosses in v3 mostly had simple motives that seemed in-character for them (to me), but that was the closest. As far as GM'ing it, I've tried to above all make sure that as few pairs of characters as possible will have a drastically uneven fight. I mean, if a fight's one-sided, the one on top's bored and the one losing's frustrated, so neither is having any fun note . Of course, though, that's PvP.
EDIT: Second on the priorities list is freedom of the player to do whatever he deems awesome. :/ V3, with all its restrictions, was of dubious success in this, thanks to the first priority; OP was not a hard thing to be.
I've only actually GM'd one thing with a plot in it and in which the players are all on the same team, and that was a one-shot DnD campaign while the usual DM was taking a "hiatus" from the regular campaign to write ahead. In that, I tried to make the rails path straightforward, while including both well-used elements and a new mechanic; specifically, a chase sequence (I told of the whole thing in the Funniest Tabletop Story thread, here
).
I like the opportunity given in tabletop games to improvise and throw stuff together; I'm big on homebrewing stuff. I especially like that there seems to be more room for that in 5th edition DnD. As for plot, well, the way I see it a given table should know whether they're gonna be more about the game, as in combat and tactics, or more about the roleplaying, as in staying in-character (not metagaming) and looking for ways to influence the plot, as opposed to sitting back and letting it play before them like a cutscene. ...Like I'm afraid I tend to do. :/ I'm used to playing DnD Encounters, which usually tends to the latter, and am caught off guard when it turns away from it.
As for characters, well, I guess I tend towards quiet in the extreme. :/ My characters rarely have a well-defined desire in life, and even when they do, they kind of lack in drive or passion. I pretty much never have them speak up in the party, barring the rare occasion I have an idea that could work. Physically, they've thus far all been male, human, elf, or halfling, and mostly inclined towards dexterity above all else. I will play a caster, but mostly tend to prioritize A: a good AC; B: decent skills of perception; and C; decent ability to carry their weight in a fight, and more importantly look after themselves (usually by keeping themselves far from the fight).
It's probably telling that the first character I made (as whom I never got to actually play, since the game never started up) had among his starting gear a Ring of Sustenance
(The DM was starting us off with around 6000gp, so we could afford a couple magic items).
edited 2nd Aug '14 10:13:08 PM by Knowlessman
i care but i'm restless, i'm here but i'm really gone, i'm wrong and i'm sorry, babyI usually RP in either crossovers that are interesting or in stuff that has some other stuff worth looking at like the cyberpunk game I'm in now. My characters are usually Asian, are in military or law enforcement and armed mercenaries. Though there are exceptions.
As for G Ming, I usually do it with the aim of having lot of details in to not leave out any missing information.
PS - First time I heard of someone being of Fil-Russian origin.
edited 2nd Aug '14 10:20:15 PM by Ominae
Well, these are different from that chatroom R Ps I'm used to, which forces me to adapt. There, I'm outgoing, joking with the other players OOC, and... infamous for my puns. Here, I can't really do that, so I'm much more reserved, and I run a more generalist playstyle since plotting with the other P Cs is difficult. I haven't GM'd yet, but I've got a few ideas running around, and once I'm done with the campaign I'm drawing up for my chatroom group, I'd like to start a second chat RP group here, if people don't mind.
Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!Personally, I used to be a bit of an overly silly roleplayer, until I had a bad incident with my particular group that earned me a "what the hell, NES?". Nowadays, I'm kinda varied on what the roleplay is, and am more averse to humor as a player.
As a dungeon master, I regrettably can not say too much of it, due to how little I did.

Everyone's got their own preferences to how they RP, whether they stick with certain genres, play certain character archetypes, or what have you. I've seen players sticking with what they know, and others trying things more varied, but that got me wondering. How do you enjoy RPing? What do you look for when you join an RP? Do you prioritize characterization over following the plot, or vice versa? Do you prefer open endedness or a path to follow? If you're a GM, what are your priorities? What kind of atmosphere do you prefer your RPs to have? Etc., etc.
Rather than a critique thread, this thread should mostly be about how you personally enjoy RPing and GMing your games, not necessarily looking for a universal "This should work for all RPs" rule or anything. We got all sorts of different players with all sorts of different ways of seeing and doing things, so I'd like to hear what y'all like to do.