How do y'all stay interested?

[Cinderella]

TL;DR: Running out of steam and losing interest in my characters. Feels like a chore to post as them. Kinda wanna start over. Anyone else ran into this problem? Any ideas on how to deal with it?

Kinda thinking out loud, but also looking for advice/help.

I'm finding myself running out of steam/inspiration a bit, and kinda losing interest in my characters after only a couple weeks of submitting them. I kind of want to start over from scratch but I hate to bother the admins, plus I don't want to just fall into the same hole again with new char's.

Does anyone else run into these issues, and if so how do you deal with them?

I'm still interested and invested in the site and overarching story, but I've been more interested in following other ppl's characters than rp'ing with my own tbh. Wondering if I should take a break and just volunteer to DM for folks for a bit.

I think the thing is, after posting my characters and beginning to rp with, only then do I start to realize they're not very fun to write as perspective characters. I'm wondering if I should write some prose with them before submitting them to test whether they're fun to actually write or not. And maybe adding an intent/purpose/goal and/or an intended character arc with characters so I have a guide for motives and something to focus on.

Looking at my characters specifically:

Drussk - made him with the intention to create an origin story for my long line of Trandoshans that I've used since childhood. Unfortunately, he seems to be more of a tool to hit specific intended plot points (that have nothing to do with or add to the rp) than an actual living organic character, and he just hasn't been fun to write and I have no real desire to continue with him sadly.

Isaac - Originally I meant to do a similar thing with Drussk, but for a different family line of characters, but ended up basing him off of Duncan from Dragon Age. Duncan's a great character, but I've quickly realized he's a very boring protagonist, at least boring to write idk. He would be cool as an NPC probably, but writing from his perspective feels like I'm writing War and Peace. Nothing wrong with that if that's your thing, but it feels like a chore everytime I've made a post with him.

Maybe it's just my ADD making it hard to focus on one character, idk (I've noticed I do the same thing in video games a lot). Does anyone have any ideas or experience with this? Tbh, this is probably the main reason I've come and gone over the years. Just finding it hard to make a character I'm really invested in. I really wanna stick around this time.

 

[Raven_41]

Oh yeah, I've made quite a bit of characters over the course of my RPing over multiple RP sites
Usually, I get them deleted/change them to something else.

I tend to think of characters I want to read about and make them to RP with
Often I take inspiration from media, movies, tv-series, games, board games or even books.

You could make a workshop, in the workshop area, and test RP scenarios out if you feel that would help.
Also, I've found, making a cool or interesting character profile, can sometimes help my inspiration.
Lastly, some sort of negative traits, like suffering from some dysfunction, maybe hearing voices(like my sith Irolia do) or maybe suffering from Pyromania, which could be something the character would have to live with and you could use in threads.

These examples might be a bit on the extream side, but the point still stands, some sort of faults or negative traits to a character can give RP value.

But really, sometimes we might just hit that writer's block and not feel for doing RP with our current characters.

 

[Cinderella]

Yeah, I just feel bad having the mods take the time to go over my chars and approve them, just for me to delete them 2 weeks later.

I'm definitely gonna try the workshop idea, and let ideas sit for a while before I submit them to see whether I lose interest or not.

So far I'm thinking, archive my currents, and just read and DM for now and spend some good time focusing on just making one character, and not posting them until I'm sure I really want to use them for the long run.

 

[Nefieslab]

Yeah, I just feel bad having the mods take the time to go over my chars and approve them, just for me to delete them 2 weeks later.

I'm definitely gonna try the workshop idea, and let ideas sit for a while before I submit them to see whether I lose interest or not.

So far I'm thinking, archive my currents, and just read and DM for now and spend some good time focusing on just making one character, and not posting them until I'm sure I really want to use them for the long run.

The workshop idea is a decent one and I think it might work well for you in the long run but the best piece of advice I can give you really is to let RP inform you who your character is; your character profile is the start but every action, every situation and every encounter should shape them beyond that you know?

So while you might have a character who starts out venomously against the Dark Side but also a bit of a manwhore, they might very well end up as a Sith Lord who's happily married - all because you were happy to let them take on a life of their own

You know the expression "no plan survives first contact with the enemy"? Well no RP character should survive identically to their profile after contact with RPing in my opinion :D

With that being said? I'm also very happy to hear you're thinking about DMing! There's a few plots that need DMs these days and I would love to have you working on some of them with the other players as DM :D

Drop me a DM if you're interested and I'll link you :D

 

[Loco]

It's a real struggle sometimes, keeping in it with any one character. Oddly enough, I've always had the best luck with total accidents.

My first really fun character I was able to stick with, way back in 5th TL, was one that was meant to be a throwaway and was intended to probably die in her first thread, then survived through a total twist of circumstances. Since I didn't really have a plan for this character beyond a sudden brutal death that never happened, I just sort of winged it in her first couple threads after that, reacting how I thought a survivor of that sort of trama would react. It actually turned into a really fun character in the long run, and I went through a couple of solid character arcs and ended the TL with a certain sense of completion.

My next good character was another total accident. I was being so wishy washy and indecisive, couldn't settle on any one idea I liked, and was generally waffling all over the place. @Sreeya finally berated me into just actually RPing for a change instead of just whining about not being able to pick a character. Fennex, my Jedi, ended up lving out the whole timeline and playing a fairly major role in the dawn of our new site canon.

The biggest commonality I've noticed between my more successful characters is the lack of a rigid idea of where the character is going. I set up a bare bones framework of the character- species, age, very rough background and archetype ideas- and then just ran with it. I let the finer details of the character develop naturally through RP, along with their greater goals and character arch ideas. Natural developments was the key part, I think. Every character I've developed with a strong starting concept, thorough background, and intricate development arch concept has failed utterly. It's the accidents that have survived and turned into something really memorable.

So I guess, if anything, my advice would be to not get too invested in your ideas. Don't over develop your concepts. Let you surprise yourself.

 

[Sreeya]

I was being so wishy washy and indecisive, couldn't settle on any one idea I liked, and was generally waffling all over the place. @Sreeya finally berated me into just actually RPing for a change instead of just whining about not being able to pick a character.

^ Fun fact this is also incredibly similar to how he became admin.

 

[Loco]

^ Fun fact this is also incredibly similar to how he became admin.

Actual summary of the conversation:

Me: Tech sucks.
Sreeya: Do it yourself.
Me: I don't wanna.
Sreeya: Do it.
Me: No.
Sreeya: You won't do it.
Me: Fiiiiiiiine.

 

[Cinderella]

That's actually a great point. Now that you mention it, all of my favorite characters I've written or played have been off the cuff, one-shot characters, or nameless npc's that took on a life of their own completely by accident.

 

[Zanna Black]

I’m currently loving my one character and trying to come up with another that’s just as unique (though I’m pretty attached to the one). Not all characters have to be badass edgelords. Sometimes it’s fun to play someone who freaks out the moment someone points a blaster at them or flubs an attempt to hustle someone in a card game.

Flaws are fun.

 

[Hammerham]

If you're uhm... DM'ing and stuffs, may I ask you to maybe DM for me? Since I literally have no one to RP with, that makes me sad. xD

Well, I'm currently adding in the stuff that I wrote about in my book type of dealios, and I'm going to be adding in the Sodality of Fire, the Arbiters, Zara, Zulu, General Solarius, Dax Techmenn, Johnny Reacher, William Reacher, Abraham Blast, Red Marksmen, the beginning of the Nirvanos Mercenary Group, the starts of the rebllion, and the Jedi Order type of dealio that I'm working on for the Ooon, so I'm hoping to maybe do a training arc, or maybe something along those lines.

Well, just asking if you'd like to maybe tag along in this story? Add some things that you'd like to see and stuff.

Hope you could get back to me! -Mae.

 

[Cinderella]

Oh hunny, of course I'll rp with you! Let me see your character you want me to rp with and I'll either whip up a friend for them, or DM something.

...Mom mode activated, writer's block overridden...

 

[Cinderella]

Oh hunny, of course I'll rp with you! Let me see your character you want me to rp with and I'll either whip up a friend for them, or DM something.

...Mom mode activated, writer's block overridden...

Hmm, gives me ideas, maybe a droid would be fun to rp

 

[Hammerham]

A droid? OwO

ACTUALLY~

I am working on something I like to call the "Arbiters", they're Ooon intergrated with cybernetics, who are enslaved to become weapons, they usually have two handlers who usually work in intelligence, and they usually assassinate, or capture a target, if you'd like to do something like that, it would be freaking coolbeans!! x3

 

[Pontus]

Everyone else seems to have done a great job of mentioning the rest, so I figured I'd focus on just one thing.

Every character needs an interesting hook, but often enough that ends up as little more than a new car smell. While it's there it's great, but it goes away and there's very little you can do to stop it. Thing is, that's not a bad thing. Characters ultimately develop and change in ways you hadn't thought of, because if they didn't it'd be boring. You'd be spending endless amounts of hours writing setups to punchlines you already know. So, while an initial concept that makes it interesting for you is great to get rid of that initial bout of inertia, it probably won't get you through the daily grind. What you want then is other people. RP Characters can't exist in a vacuum. Interaction truly is the name of the game.

When you're considering creating a character, speak to people you enjoy writing with. Make a character with/around someone else's (with their consent), and start off with or immediately get to work building actual, lasting relationships with dudebros that aren't written by you. That's what'll keep you going, in the end.

The TL;DR version (which is still a little long): RP is all about everyone other than you. So build characters around the types of interactions they might have with people, not how cool you think they'll look on paper.

This is the reason why more extroverted, out there characters (which often start out as fun little throwaways that you'd never really consider sticking with for more than a few threads) often end up as all-time favourites: Unlike their iceberg cousins (deep, but all that depth is tucked away well under the surface), there's no need to carefully consider every twist and turn. You just go in, do something silly, and have fun. Which is why we're here. To have fun.

So, while a really interesting concept is a neat little medal you can pin on your chest, try to focus on your dudebros' ability to do banter and develop rapport, and in finding people you can have fun writing with. Everything else will come with time.

Hope that helps!