For elves, the neat part about taking human lovers is the relatively short time of commitment. After reaching 300 years of marriage, you’re starting to get suspicious of your spouse.
Alright RPC – We Gotta Talk About Passive Replies.
This is one of my worst pet peeves in Role playing or doing any collaborative writing with other people. It’s something I myself have been guilty of, especially if my muse is running low and I am forcing out replies. It’s something I see a lot of even from very good writers. It’s a widespread problem, that is exhausting for an RP partner to deal with in threads especially if it’s every reply.
And just like any problem – the first step in resolving it is looking out for it and realizing it’s there to begin with. Being conscious about this I personally believe separates a good RP partner from a great one.
I’m talking about passive replies.
Passive replies come in various forms. They can be anything from a novella sized reply – to a one-liner but they all share a similar trait. They do not contribute to pushing the action of a thread forward. They tend to be a summary of the reply preceding it through their character’s eyes with a small verbal or nonverbal reaction to the character they are interacting with. They do not add any new information for the other character to react to because the reply is pure reaction without any proactive elements.
This means your thread basically becomes the equivalent of a conversation like this:
Hey, you!
Oh, Hey!
How are you?
Oh, I’m good.
What are you up to?
Nothing much, really.
Have any plans?
No. Not really.
It’s a functional conversation – sure, but it’s one-sided and relies on one person driving the action while the other simply responds. It is exhausting for one mun to constantly be the one driving the action of a scene forward. It makes things harder to respond to because you’re giving your RP partner fairly little to work with. The example above is obviously an extremely simplified example - but I hope you can get the gist of what I am getting at.
Even if your character is shy, or anti-social, or maladjusted in someway – your replies can still play and active role in the situation. Being an active participant in a thread doesn’t meant that your muse has to be crazy and outgoing. It means that you have to do more than simply react to what is happening. Every reply should add at least one new thing for your partner to react to.
This can be anything from adding to the conversation – not just reacting to what was said prior. This can be your character doing some non verbal action. This could be and NPC or outside situation or the weather doing something to react to. No matter what the situation is – there are things your muse can do to be an active part of the scene, and not just a reactionary prop.
If your replies or even your starters are one of these two things:
1) Expecting someone to find or stumble upon your muse in someway. Or relies on your partner to initiate some action between your characters.
2) Is just a summary of what happened in their reply through your character’s eyes without adding anything new.
It’s a passive reply – and by nature harder to respond to. It means you should consider looking over your reply and tweaking it to give the other character something more to work with to take the pressure off and your partners should be doing the same for you. After all a conversation like this:
Hey, haven’t seen you in forever!
I know right? What have you been up to?
Honestly – nothing much. Work’s been murder. What about you?
Ah that’s unfortunate. I’m the same, but I’m going out for drinks later want to come?
I can’t tonight, have to wake up early tomorrow. Maybe we can catch up later?
Is a much more interesting conversation because both parties are doing their part to drive the action forward.
It’s easy to say that passive replies are spawned from laziness or poor writing. But they’re not (the vast majority of the time anyway). Even good writers who make beautiful replies do it. I personally think it spawns from equal parts insecurity and good intentions. People don’t want to rock the boat, or take risks with their writing in case they accidentally step on any toes. Not realizing of course that they are putting strain on the writer they are working with by letting them drive all the action.
It can be exhausting.
Roleplaying is a collaborative writing experience. A great RP partner is someone who works with you as a team to tell the story of both your characters. Each person should be putting forth new things to react to and being an active part in building something awesome. It makes for a more interesting read and more dynamic plots and quite frankly more chances for characters to build genuine chemistry.
Otherwise, you end up with a lopsided plot and a burnt out RP partner. No one wants that.
imagine if at a christmas truce party the ghosts discover that danny has a second obsession of space
Wrote a fic~ *does a little dance*
.
"Here's your invitation to the truce party," said Skulker, dropping the letter by Danny's head, "and here's the duty list. Pick something." He shoved a piece of paper into Danny's face.
"You know," said Danny, testing the rope Skulker had tied him with, "you get a lot better at chasing me when you're doing it for non-murder purposes."
Skulker scowled, but Danny knew better than to take his apparent facial expression as a sign of his true emotions. After all, the face Danny could see wasn't really Skulker's. It was a mask. One the tiny green jellybean inside could manipulate as he pleased.
"What do you mean, 'duty list,' anyway?" Danny blew the paper off his nose.
"It's a list. Of duties. For people who want to attend the party. You can't possibly imagine that one ghost does it all on their own, do you?"
"I don't know. Some living people are really into the holidays. Wouldn't surprise me if there was someone over in the GZ Obsessing."
"There are," said Skulker flatly. "But going to those parties is risky."
"Oh. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. So, is this, like, a potluck deal, or white elephant, or do I have to come set up, or what?"
"Read the list, whelp!"
"I would," said Danny, "if you held it far enough away for me to see what was written on it. "My eyes don't focus that close."
Grumbling, Skulker adjusted his position.
A lot of the things on the list were already checked off. The rest looked dangerous (fighting the Krampus), time consuming (holly acquisition, with a stupidly high number of branches listed next to it), expensive (providing new holiday table settings), confusing (Danny didn't know what a 'consoda' was, or why he would fetch offerings from it), or simply extraordinarily unappealing (after party cleanup). Except for one.
One that caught Danny's eye because of a very specific word that was included.
"Why's the star all by itself?" asked Danny.
"Because the star is important," said Skulker. "Adding the star to the tree is what starts off the real celebration. A star needs to be impressive. Dramatic! Not one of those little dinky tinsel things you can find at human stores."
Part of Danny knew he shouldn't- But when had he ever listened to that part of himself?
Actually, that wasn't really fair. He listened, otherwise he'd be fully dead instead of just half.
Still.
(The idea of making a star made his skin feel sparkly and fuzzy, like his whole body was half an inch from the surface of freshly poured soda, but all over.)
"I'll take it," he said.
"Humf," said Skulker. "Don't screw up, or you'll be in for a beating as soon as the truce is over." He made a mark by the name and started to fly off.
"Hey! Aren't you going to untie me?"
"Nah."
.
"He's late," said Desiree, sharply, glaring at Skulker as if he had any control over what the whelp did or did not do.
She wasn't the only one.
"He's not late yet," defended Skulker.
"You shouldn't have given him the star as a choice," complained Technus, his voice squaking like a poorly connected computer speaker. "You should have just told him what he'd have to do. Something that wouldn't ruin the party. He's a teenager! Teenagers are easily distracted."
"I didn't know you were a teen, techie," drawled Spectra, who really shouldn't have been at the party at all, seeing as she wasn't, and never had been, invited. Skulker was hoping someone would find a way to throw her and her little minion out before midnight.
"It's TECHNUS, MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY, CONTROLLER OF ALL THINGS ELECTRONIC AND BEEPING."
"I am sure Sir Phantom is on his way," said Princess Dora, softly, ignoring Technus's continuing rant with the ease of long practice. She would not be here the whole evening. Her kingdom had its own, separate celebrations, but they wouldn't start for well over half a human day. "He is a very responsible person, and he was speaking to me about stars just earlier this month." She frowned, slightly, swirling the darkly luminous wine in her glass. "That is, I think he was talking about stars. The conversation was somewhat difficult for me to follow."
"Oh, no," said Desiree, putting one hand delicately over a smile.
"What?" growled Skulker.
"It always bothered me a little, you see, but I hadn't realized quite why until just now." She was barely even trying to hide her delight. "The second time I fought him, it was during a meteor shower."
"So?" asked Amorpho.
"He was rather cross with me during the fight. At the time, I thought it was because he was missing that girl's party, or because of the whole memory wiping thing, but in retrospect..."
"Just spit it out already," said Skulker.
"I do believe you gave the task of making the tree star to a ghost Obsessed with outer space."
Inside the suit, Skulker's true hands slip off his controls for just a moment. "Oh, Ancients," he groaned.
"We're not getting a star this year, are we?" asked Ember.
Phantom chose that moment to barrel through the door. "Sorry!" he exclaimed, looking and sounding more like a little kid than Skulker had ever witnessed. "Am I late? No, I'm not. Never mind. I'm not sorry. What do you think?"
He held out the... thing in his hands for the assembled ghosts to view. It was... It was definitely a star. A round blue star. Complete with solar flares and sunspots. Animated flares and sunspots.
"How the hell?" whispered Walker in the background, despite the fact that he and his pink prison really had no room to talk.
"Is it no good?" asked Phantom, managing to shift his weight even though he was floating. "I turned the brightness way down so that everyone could see the details, but I think I could turn it back up again without too much trouble." He blinked up at the other ghosts, and Skulker noticed with some unease that his pupils were currently shaped like crescent moons. "I mean, the other one exploded, but I think I've got it, now."
All of the ghosts slid back, just slightly. Not that they were afraid of explosions, but, well, being cautious didn't hurt.
"Er," said Dora, "what is it, exactly?"
"A star! A blue giant, specifically. Well, a model of one, anyway, but I think it's a good model. I mean, it's a blue giant right now. I've got it set up so that it'll go through the whole life cycle of a massive star. Or, not the whole life cycle, because that would include the nebula, but the life cycle from this point? It'll change color and expand as the night goes on and it uses up its 'hydrogen'- I've scaled the expansion, though, don't worry, it won't take over- and then the core will collapse and the outer layers will be ejected, and- BOOM!- supernova!"
"Ghost child," said Technus, in a more strangled than usual voice, "are you telling us that's a bomb?"
"No, it's a star," said Phantom, blankly. On closer inspection, the crescents in his eyes were not the only modification to Phantom's appearance. He had pale green and silver stars scattered liberally across his nose and cheeks, and similar shapes in the black of his costume.
In the background, Desiree was dying of laughter.
"Don't you think a supernova might be... dangerous?"
"Oh, a real one, sure. But I tested one before I brought this, and all it did to me was singe my eyebrows off, and I was standing really close."
"Whelp," said Skulker, searching for some reason to reject Phantom's 'contribution,' "how is that even supposed to stay on the tree? It's just a ball."
"Oh, it'll float wherever I tell it to, don't worry, I've tested it!"
.
It perhaps said something about ghostly parties that the sudden detonation of the tree topper several hours later, the subsequent glee of the supposed superhero in attendance when the room was filled with star-shaped glitter and confetti, and the attempted homicide on the part of several glitter-unfriendly ghosts was not the most exciting series of events to occur that night.
Ive been wanting to explore the idea of just how some ghosts are made in the ghost zone (and maybe some cool character backstories too.), I thought it’d be interesting if the little blobby ghosts had some type of ability to sense when a soul is near and would help build the ghost from the ground up so to speak. They’re dormant most of the time, and only congregate when this kind of event happens. Furthermore! I think that ghosts form near other ghosts, maybe not the nicest ones, its more like a dice role, and unfortunately for Johnny he roles with some bad luck.
This is a test comic to see how much I get done and finish it! :D
Ive wanted to redraw/expand on this ol thing for a while, abt Ultimate Enemy Vlad being a very unreliable narrator. Boy oh boy drawing DP comics is still fun
ps NO i did not rewatch the episode for reference <3 <3 <3
And this goes for ALL fandom RPCs. These are all things that I have observed at many different points throughout this year. From many different people from many different fandoms. I’ve done my part to be better about some of these myself already. It’s never too late to correct old, bad behaviors and build a community that’s happier and safer.
Confronting people about unfollowing you. Regardless if you were long time mutuals or not, if someone unfollowed you, they probably had their reasons. And they don’t need to justify their choice to you nor do you get to decide if their reason is “good enough” for you. Let people unfollow/soft block/hard block however they want so that they feel safe in the community.
The habits of begging for things from others while not reciprocating. People will exhaust themselves of things to constantly shower upon you if you’re not doing the same every now and then. If you are constantly reblogging memes, constantly asking people to send your muses questions, to write your muses starters and never being the one to do those things yourself… It’s unfair and everyone knows it, yet it keeps happening year after year. If you’re going to ask others for things, be willing to reach out on your own every now and then.
Acting like other people’s rules don’t apply to you. If someone says they don’t RP with a specific fandom/genre that is their choice and you neeed to respect it. If they say they only write a specific way, you need to respect that. If they say they are mutuals only, YOU NEED TO RESPECT THAT. No one needs to justify their rules to anyone. Most people have those rules because someone in their past did things to them they didn’t like and they are trying to prevent it from happening again. It doesn’t matter if you’re a new follower or a long time mutual. Follow each other’s blog rules. If you view yourself as the exception to the rule, you’re part of the reason that rule exists.
Vague blogging about your mutuals. Just. Stop it. Confront people in private or take your hands off of your keyboard. Be a good person and talk to someone if they do something you’re not okay with or just unfollow/block them. Vague-ing on the dash just fills everyone who sees it with unnecessary anxiety and a fear that “Oh god are they talking about ME? Did I do something wrong??” and they have no way to know because you chose to make it everyone’s problem instead of confronting the issue directly.
Emotionally manipulative posts to get people to respond to your stuff. No more making a scene to get people to send you a bunch of stuff. Even worse is when people do this and then delete the posts where they did it as if it never happened. There are better ways to get people to interact with you than cussing at your mutuals. These are your rp partners. They deserve your respect. and tying into #2 up there… Especially don’t do this if you’re not sending things to others as well. This breeds an unhappy and unhealthy RP environment
The lack of respect for RPers of all ages. No one is too old or too young. Stop treating new, young RPers like they aren’t as good by default. Or older RPers like they’re out of touch and don’t belong in the community. And by that same notion, respect if people aren’t comfortable RPing with people outside their own age groups. If a blog is 18+ only, that should be respected- Especially if there is graphic content on their blog. If a minor isn’t comfortable RPing with the 30+ community, we should not be pressuring KIDS to interact with strange adults online.
Pressuring people to leave their safe spaces and RP with fandoms they don’t like or just aren’t in. If someone isn’t comfortable rping with a specific fandom, a specific genre or a specific type of character, they are allowed to have those preferences. Do you have to like it? No. But you do have to respect it. We need to stop this “Just treat them like an OC if you don’t know/like the fandom” stuff because there are always more factors you don’t know. And the ties to the source material that is probably making them uncomfortable will always be there in your muse’s portrayal. Because they are not your OC that you made up. They will ALWAYS be a character from a fandom. No one can just shut off the part of their brain that recognizes something that potentially triggers them and view it as something brand new. Stop expecting people to set aside their boundaries for the sake of your muse(s).
Feel free to add more if you feel the need.
2020 was terrible for a lot of people. There’s no reason that the thing we do for fun to escape life has to be terrible too. Respect and be good to each other in 2021. It’s the least we can do.
How the humans see Phantom: Mysterious protective entity. Strange and inhuman. A little scary. An otherworldly being of unknown power and origin. Hero that only appears in the moments when he’s needed before vanishing again.
"Thanks." He was glad, to have somewhere he could always come when he needed a break. He couldn't go to Sam or Tucker's because Tucker's place was all decorated for Christmas, too, and Sam was busy today. But Clockwork always seemed to have his back, even if in cryptic ways sometimes.
"New happy memories are coming slowly. Maybe in, like, a few years. And reading? You did not just suggest that."
He paused at the mention of Timeless. "Oh, how is all that going, anyway?"
Shitty au where everything’s the same but Danny took one look at the portal and like any smart person decided not to go in, so his “ghost form” is just him wearing a bedsheet. He still fights the ghost coming through the portal he just isn’t half dead. Everyone in Amity Park is always trying to figure out who the person beneath the sheet is. His parents are still trying to kill him
RPThreadTracker Community Support Follow-Up and Other Announcements
Holy mackerel, you guys.
I asked for your support to keep RPThreadTracker running and you guys came out in force, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
So far on Patreon, we’ve blown past my first goal and well on the way to the second. I don’t know how to thank you all for the support cropping up in my notes, my inbox, my Patreon, and over on GitHub where I’ve been contacted by several of you interested in contributing to development. It means a ton to me that this little project of mine has been worth enough to you all that you want to give back to supporting it.
What’s Next
New Site Updates
The aforementioned support woke up a lot of my motivation that has been beaten into the ground by 2020, and over the weekend I got a number of updates pushed live. The main feature addition at the moment is the ability to delete your account, which some people have messaged me about in the last year asking for and which I was incredibly delayed in getting around to, but which I’m finally getting out the door. So that is now available if you would like to close out your account on the site and remove all of your data.
Other smaller updates that are now available or will be available sometime this week include:
Highlighting rows when they are selected in the thread tables
Persisting the left-hand navbar being open/closed between page refreshes
Fixing an issue causing certain elements of the site to look funny/unreadable in light or dark theme
Removing the “Contact Me” form in favor of a link to GitHub, where you can open an issue and make it easier for other contributing devs, as well as myself, to see any suggestions or bug reports.
Ongoing Patreon Campaign
While, as I mentioned, we’ve hit my first goal on Patreon, further support is always welcome. With higher levels of monetary backing, I can bring in further resources to help refine the site’s behavior and usability. And honestly, I would love to reach a point where I can turn community-based site-building like this into (at least a portion of) my full time work, but that’s a very long-term goal.
https://www.patreon.com/blackjacksoftware
This is, of course, not required; RPThreadTracker will always remain free to use. And I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has reached out to contribute.
Welcome, New Developers!
A number of people have messaged me stating interest in working on the dev side of RPThreadTracker. Once again, the codebases are available at:
I have started adding items to the “Issues” section of RPThreadTrackerV3.FrontEnd and will continue doing so throughout the near future; if you’re interested in grabbing one, feel free to assign yourself to it. If you have any questions or just want to chat about it, hit me up on Discord!
If you’re not a developer, but have a suggestion for a new site feature, improvement, or bug fix, head to https://github.com/blackjackkent/RPThreadTrackerV3.FrontEnd/issues/new and give us the info! :D
—
And I believe that’s all the news I have at the moment. Thanks again so much to everyone for your support. Happy writing!
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
titsay
romaincrisis
2087
stormborns
dailybridgerton
kaledo-art
discoholicmusic
