Roleplay Builds Character(s)

Started by tenpenny, February 03, 2011, 08:32:15 PM

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tenpenny

Fantastic.

I'm glad you came - if you're anything like me, you love writing and you're climbing the walls to share a story with somebody. You'll want that story chock full of emotion, drama, conflict, and humanity. If you're like me, you'll want friendly, respectful (but always anonymous) OOC with constructive and objective feedback. You'll want moving plot and steady characterization, you'll want heavy doses of passionate erotica, and you'll want whatever it is that makes you unique sexually and personally adapted to/included in our cooperative effort. You'll want to rush back to your computer at the end of the day on the off chance there's a new post. You'll have that excitement sitting on your chest, all day long, the candy on your pillow before you crawl into bed.

Fantastic.

When I open a request thread, the first thing I see is a bulleted list of five (give or take) expectations such as literacy, commitment, absence notification... in my mind these are standard expectations. All I know to ask you for is honesty - that's what makes it. That's the one thing that brings these words off the page - engagement is the key. I don't play something unless I'm out of my mind with excitement over it, and you shouldn't either.

Why do we stamp these stories out like cookie cutters? It feels so empty. I hate requests that read like job applications, and I hate prospective partners who talk to me like an expectant employee. I don't just want you to fill a pair of shoes. I don't want to know who you are, day to day.

I want to speak to that creature inside you who's aching to race out and play. If this is just a fun hobby for you, if you're just dabbling, I'm not sure we'll connect. I do this because I need something extra - call me a larger than life guy. This is my outlet, my hobby, my lifeblood. I need to write. It's always been there for me... it never hurts me, not when I do it right. Some people run, or climb mountains, or get drunk, whatever... this is my thing. It's my release valve. I don't like wasted effort.

We are here to expand on the darkest, most intimate recesses of our minds. Any player worth their salt does exactly that. We do this here because it would not be practical to explore these things in real life - many of our roleplaying kinks hold no interest for us in the real world. The concepts themselves hold weight with us because we find them terrifying, or unimaginable, or the very idea that another person would like them is fascinating or titillating to us. We come here to be shocked and soothed by the honesty, humanity and clarity in one-another's imperfection. You could say that we're not here for what makes us placid and outwardly normal. We're here for our flaws, the dings and hangups that make us individuals, and as a result, notably human.

I'll bare myself to you. I'm here to do this. I'm here to give over to whatever it is inside me that needs addressing. I don't know what it is, but my day to day is unsatisfactory. People don't ask to be tied down and whipped, or indeed tie others down and whip them, because they are devoid of issues, have no hangups, no concerns. I don't know who you are day to day and I couldn't care less. There's nothing wrong with putting an imaginary person in an imaginary situation and letting that energy out. I'm not here for sex. I'm here to release the things that everyone else I know lets ride them, control them, drive them to the edge of madness and neuroses. I don't believe that needs to be the case. I believe, as you believe, that there is a very real, attainable, beautiful solution to this unrest. You really can have it all.

I promise: this is a safe place.

With that in mind, I'll ask that you give my On's and Off's thread a peek before moving further.

Thank you. I've yet to break into any play at all as of yet, which is to say my dance card is empty.

Lets change that. Shall we?

GENRES

Gangland
High Fantasy
Supernatural
Modern
Post-Apocalypse


These five are my comfort zone, but suggest anything. I might surprise you. Whatever you throw at me, I'll catch it, that I promise. I'm not at all adverse to a little research if it helps my performance.

PLOTS

I am loathe to set out specific plots like stamps, but if I don't, you can't know how to approach me. I will compromise and put forth basic archetypes you can work with, and all of them are open to interpretation. Historically I've often used very basic pairings (Boss/Employee, Teacher/Student, Neighbors, etc.) and let the personalities of myself and whoever my partner is to define the rest, almostr always to unique and compelling result. If you see something you'd like here, please offer your take on what that would look like, given your interpretation and how you'd like to play it.

Prisoner (in Transport)

Oh, the fun I've had with this. I would typically play the prisoner, a murderer or something equally vile, but I'm more than happy to be your guard, if you'd prefer. 'Prisoner in Transport' is a favorite of mine, like an old pair of slippers. Whether it's some Anthro confined to a cage, or an inmate visited in jail, a working slave or indentured servant restricted to field duty, housework, a gladiator or even a trophy. Bodyguard, arranged marriage, POW, it's all the same to me. Give me the bottom rung of something - let me climb my way up. I don't want to start off in a position of absolute power and stay there throughout. I could be a ferocious demon you've summoned, a pet of some kind you've outfitted with compliance technology. I like to be feared, I like to be held down, and I like to break free.

An easy example of this is Pitch Black, with Vin Diesel. He needed the survivors, and they needed him. A tentative agreement is made, and they make for uneasy bedfellows, united by a common threat. This threat, for our purposes, is irrelevant. When the shoe is on the other foot, our power differential will be drastic, and you can expect to wear whatever constraints you put on me, plus a few extra.

I say again: receiving abuse does not excite me, however, I have rather enjoyed the curiosity, attraction, fear and tentative probings of female characters while in this position. While taking sexual advantage of another person in this situation can turn me off, I find the idea that a woman so interested in him that she would cross this line during his internment enthralling.

Unexpected Guest

What's more classic than this? Your character is thrust upon mine (or vice versa) and neither knows what to do with the other. I love bouncing two people off one another - to give an example, I've done a man returning from prison and into the arms of the organized criminal group that put him there. He was greeted with a woman who owed the gang money, and instead of working off her debt as a street prostitute or personal servant to the family et. al, she is relegated to him, believing his cruelty to know no bounds. He, of course, is surprised at her presence, and decides to play along. It could be that he discovers her hiding from police, or some criminal element, the military, whomever should fit the circumstances. This arrangement could be life-threatening for her, and possibly for him as well, the two forming a bond over whatever her treatment in his hands should initially look like.

Opportunity Knocks

My character would come into possession of something very sensitive - a videotape of your character doing something that would damage her reputation irreparably, or prove her guilt in something heinous. He, no fool, would present her with this information and force a choice.

Choice is important with me. I want her to have the opportunity to leave. She should, at any time, feel free to leave, and face whatever consequences he imposes on her. I don't want to force, as I said previously - I want to see her make the decision to bend to his will, and dig herself deeper and deeper until escaping embarrassment or implication has nothing to do with their relationship anymore.

Need


My very favorite. Often I play this through hypnotism, or imaginary chemical addiction, or anything else I can think of that works for the situation. I love to be needed. It could be simple irresistible attraction. Strong love bonds are compelling, and to see a female character sacrifice and act out to please, impress or prove herself to my male character is a natural aphrodisiac.

As well, when chance throws us together and a dependency on what we have to offer one another takes over to the point of the exclusion of nearly everything else in our lives, well... little else compares, I'm sure most of you will agree.

If you have any questions, comments or roles, please PM me now! I don't need a fully formed idea from you - just an idea, something so simple as a pairing example, or even just a list of things I've mentioned here that appealed to you. We can flesh out the details together.

Thank you for reading.
"I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."  - Robert A. Heinlein