Reply RPs: Acceptable? Or a Big No? | Community Chat

[Jeremy King]

Hey all.

Expect some regular 'Community Chat' posts from me, as I aim to delve into the minds of the fantastic handlers who play here (either bravery or stupidity on my part, this). Also, feel free to post some yourself if there are any topics you're curious to discuss with the handlers here.

This particular topic asks the question: Are reply roleplays to your opponent acceptable or never okay?

I'd love to hear reasons why people think that reply roleplays ARE acceptable. I'd also love to hear reasons why people think that reply roleplays are NOT acceptable.

Is it lazy? Does it promote a good back and forth? Does it show lack of creativity/originality? Does it show that your opponent is listening to you?

What are your thoughts and/or feelings on this subject?

Let's discuss!

[Deleted]

I miss these types of roleplays. The back and forth days where people could go 4 or 5 roleplays easily because it was just back and forth trash talk/attacks. My greatest feuds involved back and forth rps.

[Deleted]

Yes and no.


Championships deserve 2
PPV deserves 3

I think 2 promos each is perfect. Reason why.. If someone post early then the opponent(s) does some amazing promo work. I think its OK to respond. Only thing I hate is people holding promos til opponent post to get an advantage by using opponent against them which leads to people fighting OOC.

I think there should be a deadline to post the first promo, if you don't get one up by that deadline.. you can't post a 2nd. This stops those deadline huggers.

Plus I think some people do amazing work and love reading em. 

[Deleted]

Once upon a time I had a big problem with handlers that would primarily “reply” within their writing.

Generally speaking, by replying to what I’ve written, you’re telling me that you prefer to be reactive than active. Some of you may be getting a flashback of an Evan Wolfe promo, but hear me out:

By replying, you surrender most of the creativity and tell the reader that, without the assistance of your opponent, you wouldn’t have much to work with. It also shows a lack of initiative. I’ve never been a fan of it and only reserve replying to someone when I know that I can make them look silly. But I think the real key in using this tactic is to sprinkle it in and not douse your work with it.

[Deleted]

My opinion is that you always RP blind on your first. After that, anything is fair game. If you don't have back and forth going, it takes away from the match build. However, if you only write and reply, you're doing it wrong. I was very successful with a character for a while then the ol' writing bank went dry. Turns out, I didn't realize that I was reading no one's RPs at all. I always wrote two RPs a cycle without reading anything from my opponents, past or present. I only read RPs that people wanted feedback on.

tl;dr - No replying in your first, reply after that.

[Deleted]

I’m not one that usually needs to reply to a person, I think I can think of enough material on my own, without using another’s roleplay to gather my ammo. Most times if I do reply it’s because I found something in your roleplay that I just had to respond too, but most times I’d rather not. In Micro feds, you can gather enough information from results, timelines, bio pages, and the grilled section to gather enough material to defeat your opponent.

But do I care if people reply, not really unless the same person never posts first and constantly replies. Gets a little old fast.

[Deleted]

Jun 23, 2016 22:05:12 GMT @dickdevereaux said:

I miss these types of roleplays. The back and forth days where people could go 4 or 5 roleplays easily because it was just back and forth trash talk/attacks. My greatest feuds involved back and forth rps.

This. That having been said, one of the great arts in this type of roleplaying is 'setting the table', the idea where you, by posting the first RP for a match, can force an opponent to eat up valuable words reacting to points you've raised, limiting their ability to steer the back-and-forth in another, possibly more damaging to you, direction. It's a tactic I've used for years, and it sometimes is remarkably effective.