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Post by 'The Shine' Brent Alpine on May 24, 2016 15:33:54 GMT -5
Sorry if there's been a similar thread - if so feel free to merge.
What makes a roleplay truly great for you?
How much do you read of others work? What are the sort of things that hook your interest? What things lose your interest (i.e. if the formatting is not to your tastes, does it make you want to avoid the RP regardless of writing/narrative quality?)?
Curious for people's thoughts.
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Post by Stuart Slane on May 24, 2016 15:54:26 GMT -5
The best roles plays to me are the ones that
1. are funny
2. demonstrate the character's nature through example instead of exposition
3. have certain meta/fourth-wall breaking elements to them (if done creatively)
4. show that the writer knows what's going on in the fed and with his opponent(s)
5. are about the wrestler being an actual wrestler
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Post by 'The Shine' Brent Alpine on May 24, 2016 16:34:26 GMT -5
To answer this myself...
1) Innovation - where the character is taken out of their natural environment. The Pantheon guys always used to do this amazingly and seemed to be in new places and settings every week.
2) Storytelling - take us on a journey.
3) Relevant shoot - we've probably all been guilty of just tacking a shoot onto the end of a character/story piece. Really high quality RPs tend to weave the shoot throughout and not just feel like a bolt on. Also I love it when I see someone has really read and understood their opponent then appropriately formed a meaningful attack on them beyond a generic 'I'm gonna kick your ass'.
4) Balance - concise but 'lovingly crafted' description, dialogue scattered in but not huge blocks of dialogue or description without breaks.
5) Subtlety - reward the reader for reading thoroughly. Recurring 'Easter Eggs', clever hints to do with angles, things about your opponent that make them think 'wow I forgotten I'd written that' etc.
6) Protect the internal reality - I want to feel some element of belief in the character and this little world we call WCF. That's why too much fourth wall breaking and too much zany, unbelievable stuff puts me off. I'm also not a fan of explicit stuff just done for the sake of being explicit.
Despite my last RP going above 5400 words, I tend to like RPs between 1000-2000 words. I don't read every single RP as I'm a notoriously bad reader. I usually read my opponents stuff (often I read all their RPs on the week I'm facing them), key people whose stuff I like, newbies and smaller ones. In this new season of WCF, I'm trying to make an effort to read more thoroughly.
I am quite judgemental about formatting. I find multiple coloured RPs naturally more appealing and tend to be put off of ones with too many big blocks of text or, oddly too few big blocks of text.
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Post by Henry Spearman on May 24, 2016 18:00:34 GMT -5
For me it's something that is short enough that I can read through fully in 5-10 minutes. I enjoy reading others roleplays but I'm not as invested in the character as you are and I lose interest quickly.
I also want something that reads like a vignette would appear on TV, to me that's a roleplay. It's not a short story about your character. It should definitely build your character but ultimately it should read like a wrestling promo, not like a book.
I suppose I could break it down into a few bullets.
1. Short enough to read quickly
2. Long enough to not feel half assed
3. Should feel like a wrestling promo
4. Should be relevant
5. Should use minimal profanity (this is just personal taste. Profanity makes it sound childish to me)
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Post by That Brad Kane Guy on May 24, 2016 18:59:25 GMT -5
Tits
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Post by Seth on May 24, 2016 19:22:45 GMT -5
It should be like a chapter of Women by Bukowski.
-Can probably be read and understood totally by itself, but is enhanced by the other parts
-Entertaining to read; not just funny but interesting language, written well
-tells us something about the character, and at best something about human nature or at least the characters thoughts on something in that ballpark
-the book is named Women and every single chapter has something to do with a woman. A roleplays story would be "Wrestling" so every roleplay would focus around a wrestler.. the opponent(s)
This just happens to be the last book I read but i think the comparisons are pretty appropriate
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Post by Gemini Battle on May 24, 2016 20:09:04 GMT -5
It should be like a chapter of Women by Bukowski. -Can probably be read and understood totally by itself, but is enhanced by the other parts -Entertaining to read; not just funny but interesting language, written well -tells us something about the character, and at best something about human nature or at least the characters thoughts on something in that ballpark -the book is named Women and every single chapter has something to do with a woman. A roleplays story would be "Wrestling" so every roleplay would focus around a wrestler.. the opponent(s) This just happens to be the last book I read but i think the comparisons are pretty appropriate Your opinion doesn't matter  |
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Post by "The Black Dragon" Alex Jones on May 25, 2016 0:11:53 GMT -5
oh how I wish he was trolling |
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