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What exactly are the rules on people who want to rp as themselves/already do?

I've seen several profiles and characters that are suspiciously looking like it's people making characters that are straight up just themselves.

I've had several approach me on rpr in the last year, where it was obvious there was no seperation between author and character and that wanted to play as their real life selves in first person on top of that.

Is that something I should report or just delete and ignore?

I've typically just been rejecting and deleting, but I'm seeing more and more of it lately.
Rogue-Scribe

These sorts are instant red-flags. I’ve had a few hit me up since I joined. I just delete and move on. Having dealt with someone who blurred the fantasy/reality lines before, it is pretty creepy.
I don't have any experience with those kind of roleplayers. I think it's best to ignore them though
Sanne Moderator

I think what they do is considered persona play, where you RP a fictional version of yourself as an insertion technique into stories.

It's a legitimate form of RP and not wrong or reportable anymore than one liners versus paragraphs are.

The thing that gives me red flags is that persona play goes hand in hand with a lack of personal boundaries more often than not. That canbe troublesome with romantic and sexual RP, since they end up equating feelings in RPs with feelings in real life. It's not necessarily wrong, but often that's not what we're after. I think as long as you strictly communicate your boundaries, they'll respect them, but you might be mismatched.

I personally am uncomfortable with it for a number of reasons, mostly bad experiences though.
GalaxyStar2

I don't understand role plays where you play as yourself...it's odd to me
MercyInReach Topic Starter

Sanne wrote:

The thing that gives me red flags is that persona play goes hand in hand with a lack of personal boundaries more often than not. That can be troublesome with romantic and sexual RP, since they end up equating feelings in RPs with feelings in real life.

I personally am uncomfortable with it for a number of reasons, mostly bad experiences though.

This is the issue - I thought I saw that it's like, not allowed on RPR to make your characters too much like yourself and feel the actual things your writing? Something along those lines - so it confuses me how RPing as your actual self, even a fictional version of yourself is allowed. Because even if it's a fictional version of yourself, it still seems way to intimate and like it usually crosses boundaries like you said.

It's a little off putting that persona play is allowed here because I feel there's already enough issues with people getting OOC and IC mixed up that it makes it even worse when people consider OOC and IC the same thing because they are playing as themselves.

But alas, I just wanted to know if it was a thing I should be reporting or not. Since it isn't, I'll just continue ignoring and deleting and occasionally blocking because I'm very uncomfortable with even talking to people who do persona.
Sanne Moderator

damnationfromafar wrote:
This is the issue - I thought I saw that it's like, not allowed on RPR to make your characters too much like yourself and feel the actual things your writing? Something along those lines - so it confuses me how RPing as your actual self, even a fictional version of yourself is allowed. Because even if it's a fictional version of yourself, it still seems way to intimate and like it usually crosses boundaries like you said.

It's a little off putting that persona play is allowed here because I feel there's already enough issues with people getting OOC and IC mixed up that it makes it even worse when people consider OOC and IC the same thing because they are playing as themselves.

But alas, I just wanted to know if it was a thing I should be reporting or not. Since it isn't, I'll just continue ignoring and deleting and occasionally blocking because I'm very uncomfortable with even talking to people who do persona.

I don't think there is such a rule, I'm going to guess what you're thinking about has to do with copyright and ownership of someone's appearance (such as an Instagram user who didn't give permission for their photos to be used by character profiles to RP in their likeness). Since you own yourself, there's no rule that disallows you from RPing as yourself or using your own face/images.
MercyInReach Topic Starter

Sanne wrote:
damnationfromafar wrote:
This is the issue - I thought I saw that it's like, not allowed on RPR to make your characters too much like yourself and feel the actual things your writing? Something along those lines - so it confuses me how RPing as your actual self, even a fictional version of yourself is allowed. Because even if it's a fictional version of yourself, it still seems way to intimate and like it usually crosses boundaries like you said.

It's a little off putting that persona play is allowed here because I feel there's already enough issues with people getting OOC and IC mixed up that it makes it even worse when people consider OOC and IC the same thing because they are playing as themselves.

But alas, I just wanted to know if it was a thing I should be reporting or not. Since it isn't, I'll just continue ignoring and deleting and occasionally blocking because I'm very uncomfortable with even talking to people who do persona.

I don't think there is such a rule, I'm going to guess what you're thinking about has to do with copyright and ownership of someone's appearance (such as an Instagram user who didn't give permission for their photos to be used by character profiles to RP in their likeness). Since you own yourself, there's no rule that disallows you from RPing as yourself or using your own face/images.

I'm definitely not thinking of that - there was definitely something I read when someone gave writing advice that was to "make your character like yourself and feel what they are feeling" and several people, I think even including you, mentioned that this was bad advice and not recommended on RPR. Not to say there is a specific rule, just that I remember reading that it's not typically supported.

Part of me is kind of wondering how that's different from this, you know?

But first and foremost I just made this to ask if I should be doing doing something other than what I have chosen to do - no one is required to explain anything else to me so don't feel pressured to do so. That isn't my intention.
Sanne Moderator

damnationfromafar wrote:
I'm definitely not thinking of that - there was definitely something I read when someone gave writing advice that was to "make your character like yourself and feel what they are feeling" and several people, I think even including you, mentioned that this was bad advice and not recommended on RPR. Not to say there is a specific rule, just that I remember reading that it's not typically supported.

I'm just wondering how that's different from this, you know?

Huh, I'm not entirely sure what that was or what it was about. I wonder if we can find it again!
MercyInReach Topic Starter

Sanne wrote:
damnationfromafar wrote:
I'm definitely not thinking of that - there was definitely something I read when someone gave writing advice that was to "make your character like yourself and feel what they are feeling" and several people, I think even including you, mentioned that this was bad advice and not recommended on RPR. Not to say there is a specific rule, just that I remember reading that it's not typically supported.

I'm just wondering how that's different from this, you know?

Huh, I'm not entirely sure what that was or what it was about. I wonder if we can find it again!

I can't find it, in my posts or in search, it might have been deleted or something. I know the title was "character advice" something or other.
I think I know what you're talking about when it comes to RPR mentioning that IC and OOC separation must be enforced, so to speak. I found a help topic about that right here. Even though it says that a line must be drawn, it doesn't actually say in stone that it's a rule to be followed and people should be reported for it. It's more of a guideline to help new RPers out than a definitive rule that is cause for punishment. I could be very wrong though, or that's not the topic you were looking at!

On the subject itself? Like Sanne said, it's persona play, and it's a perfectly valid form of RP for some people here. They like the intimacy it provides, and others love that it gives them the courage to be more of themselves than they would be in real life for whatever reason. Kinda like a more fantastic version of a typical chatroom, where you can give yourself powers and abilities to attract attention while still being you. Some of us might even discover the world of RP as a whole via persona play first before moving on to separating themselves from their characters.

Even though I recognize why they do it as such, I can't participate in it myself. I've also had some terrible experiences with the dangerously blurred line between IC and OOC, via being a former persona player without even knowing it in my youth, to having other persona players knock on my PMs as I grew as a roleplayer. Too many bad memories stem from it, and as most people have said, it's outright uncomfortable when it crosses into romantic and sexual territory, especially when it's sprung on you at random.

Overall, I say it's better to just ignore, delete, and block since it's not against the rules. I hope that helps!
MercyInReach Topic Starter

LightSide-Lucree wrote:
I think I know what you're talking about when it comes to RPR mentioning that IC and OOC separation must be enforced, so to speak. I found a help topic about that right here. Even though it says that a line must be drawn, it doesn't actually say in stone that it's a rule to be followed and people should be reported for it. It's more of a guideline to help new RPers out than a definitive rule that is cause for punishment. I could be very wrong though, or that's not the topic you were looking at!

On the subject itself? Like Sanne said, it's persona play, and it's a perfectly valid form of RP for some people here. They like the intimacy it provides, and others love that it gives them the courage to be more of themselves than they would be in real life for whatever reason. Kinda like a more fantastic version of a typical chatroom, where you can give yourself powers and abilities to attract attention while still being you. Some of us might even discover the world of RP as a whole via persona play first before moving on to separating themselves from their characters.

Even though I recognize why they do it as such, I can't participate in it myself. I've also had some terrible experiences with the dangerously blurred line between IC and OOC, via being a former persona player without even knowing it in my youth, to having other persona players knock on my PMs as I grew as a roleplayer. Too many bad memories stem from it, and as most people have said, it's outright uncomfortable when it crosses into romantic and sexual territory, especially when it's sprung on you at random.

Overall, I say it's better to just ignore, delete, and block since it's not against the rules. I hope that helps!

Like I said, no need to defend it. Not what this help post was for. I don't feel like airing my personal opinions on whether persona is 'right' or 'wrong' because it would rub people negatively most likely, so I will not be commenting on you nor sannes mentions of persona rp being 'right' or 'wrong.'

I just needed to know if it was a thing that I could report for - I get it now. It's not. I'll just continue how I have been.

But no that's not the topic I was referring to.

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