I am new to this site and while I have been writing quite some time, roleplay in and of itself has been something that came and went for me for years. So while I have not yet had to drop an rp, and still have not reached a point in any of my current rp where I feel it's time to drop it, I am certain the day will come where I have decided one of them is not working.
To be clear I have a tendency to be bluntly honest at times and do not have a problem mailing someone about dropping or altering an rp. I find open communication in a roleplay important, so the opinions I am seeking are not how to approach a player, but rather the rp itself.
How do those of you who have experiences this deal with ending it? Do you just agree to stop posting and part ways? Or do you find some way to reach a resolution in the story itself? I feel like I would have a very hard time just walking away from a built story I was helping to create without coming to something that felt like an ending. Does anyone else feel that way?
To be clear I have a tendency to be bluntly honest at times and do not have a problem mailing someone about dropping or altering an rp. I find open communication in a roleplay important, so the opinions I am seeking are not how to approach a player, but rather the rp itself.
How do those of you who have experiences this deal with ending it? Do you just agree to stop posting and part ways? Or do you find some way to reach a resolution in the story itself? I feel like I would have a very hard time just walking away from a built story I was helping to create without coming to something that felt like an ending. Does anyone else feel that way?
I hear you. Too many group RPs Ive bene in fave just faded due to people stopped contributing. On 1x1, I usually talk with the co-writer about the end-game and how they would like to see it end. I have on more than one occasion just killed my character. I am in a couple RPs now where the long term plan for me is to have my character die. It isn't a reflection on the health of the RP writer-relationship, just a part of it.
https://www.rprepository.com/community/forumthread.php?t=56702
This topic might help you.
This topic might help you.
Sometimes a story isn't working out, sometimes two player's styles don't mesh or it just isn't clicking and often that's the point where you have to just say "okay this isn't working" and walk away.
Though I would suggest if it gets to that point, trying to talk about and fix any problems first would be a good idea. Communication is really important in rp and if it's not working for you maybe it's some small thing that can be changed or tweaked?
I always try to ask people when I start rps with them what their expectations are as well as their limits because knowing what a person hopes to get out of an rp helps you bend the story to fit. If say they wanted romance and you didn't but that was never communicated, you're gonna end up with a problem (And I had a game end for that reason. We're now doing a different rp after having a serious chat about expectations and understanding what we each want from the story so it's working out a lot better heh. She just unfortunately chose one of my ace characters the first time so yeah... whoops? )
Sometimes two characters don't work together. Sometimes two players don't work. Sometimes your own character isn't working for you (I've had concepts i've had to just abandon or totally rework because they're not gelling in my head)
there are so many reasons an rp might not work out but there's no shame in just stopping without wrapping things up ic. Sometimes you just gotta.
if it really bothers you, you could always write the ending in your own head lol.
I've had a few rps stop mid scene before now and it sucks, but ultimately pushing forward was going to cause more pain than good. I admit I have trouble letting go of some of the character development from long term rps that then fall apart but what I tend to do is keep the bits I liked and just kinda tweak it and write an ending haha.
It becomes slightly more complicated in group rps when a player drops out because I don't like the "they cease to exist and never existed" thing, particularly not if that character was a major character for other players. If they're a background person who seldom interacted with people or it's very close to the start when they drop out it's not such a problem but a while back we had 2 people (the game's actual GMS!) drop out of an rp after a YEAR of rp and had to disentangle their characters from our own to move forward.
We couldn't just "wave a wand and have them cease to be" because several of those characters were too heavily linked to our own (one was my character's fiance for example, another was responsible for a lot of character development and revelation of other player characters, several of them were very very important to the plot which was still left hanging in the air.)
So we sat down and carefully wrote out endings without the original players (who had long since left in a huff). We used our knowledge of the characters and wrote something we felt was satisfying but made a plan not to kill any but rather leave it open in case those players ever came back. (now as it stands we don't want either of them back now because of some rather nasty behaviour but we felt it was important not to just kill all their ocs out of spite) and we also wrote an ending together for the plot that was left hanging. We knew what we all wanted to happen and what had been already set in motion so the final battle we'd been working toward we did. (and if i'm honest, it was way more satisfying because we could do it the way WE wanted it done and not the way the GM wanted it done, so our characters got to shine and it was glorious and beautiful)
Some things were a lot easier than others to disentangle. It took a lot of brainstorming but we got there. It gave us a degree of closure on that chapter of our characters story and let us move forward.
these characters are still mentioned sometimes and the aftermath of being left by his fiance is still hurting my character but hey, they had a toxic relationship anyway, he's way better off without that crazy woman. But we NEEDED that closure to continue the stories we'd built as well.
I'm glad we took that route and decided to continue without the GMs because a whole year or more of character building is a lot of story to lose otherwise.
I admit though, I haven't had many long term rps come to a real conclusion. They just sort of.. stop. Once all the stories you think you can tell are told it sort of just... stops. A bit like a sitcom where they just wander out into the sunrise and the credits roll. No real ending, just a "stop".
Most of my long term rps though are a bit more like a soap opera where new characters come in, old characters leave and eventually you end up with a whole new cast anyway.
Though I would suggest if it gets to that point, trying to talk about and fix any problems first would be a good idea. Communication is really important in rp and if it's not working for you maybe it's some small thing that can be changed or tweaked?
I always try to ask people when I start rps with them what their expectations are as well as their limits because knowing what a person hopes to get out of an rp helps you bend the story to fit. If say they wanted romance and you didn't but that was never communicated, you're gonna end up with a problem (And I had a game end for that reason. We're now doing a different rp after having a serious chat about expectations and understanding what we each want from the story so it's working out a lot better heh. She just unfortunately chose one of my ace characters the first time so yeah... whoops? )
Sometimes two characters don't work together. Sometimes two players don't work. Sometimes your own character isn't working for you (I've had concepts i've had to just abandon or totally rework because they're not gelling in my head)
there are so many reasons an rp might not work out but there's no shame in just stopping without wrapping things up ic. Sometimes you just gotta.
if it really bothers you, you could always write the ending in your own head lol.
I've had a few rps stop mid scene before now and it sucks, but ultimately pushing forward was going to cause more pain than good. I admit I have trouble letting go of some of the character development from long term rps that then fall apart but what I tend to do is keep the bits I liked and just kinda tweak it and write an ending haha.
It becomes slightly more complicated in group rps when a player drops out because I don't like the "they cease to exist and never existed" thing, particularly not if that character was a major character for other players. If they're a background person who seldom interacted with people or it's very close to the start when they drop out it's not such a problem but a while back we had 2 people (the game's actual GMS!) drop out of an rp after a YEAR of rp and had to disentangle their characters from our own to move forward.
We couldn't just "wave a wand and have them cease to be" because several of those characters were too heavily linked to our own (one was my character's fiance for example, another was responsible for a lot of character development and revelation of other player characters, several of them were very very important to the plot which was still left hanging in the air.)
So we sat down and carefully wrote out endings without the original players (who had long since left in a huff). We used our knowledge of the characters and wrote something we felt was satisfying but made a plan not to kill any but rather leave it open in case those players ever came back. (now as it stands we don't want either of them back now because of some rather nasty behaviour but we felt it was important not to just kill all their ocs out of spite) and we also wrote an ending together for the plot that was left hanging. We knew what we all wanted to happen and what had been already set in motion so the final battle we'd been working toward we did. (and if i'm honest, it was way more satisfying because we could do it the way WE wanted it done and not the way the GM wanted it done, so our characters got to shine and it was glorious and beautiful)
Some things were a lot easier than others to disentangle. It took a lot of brainstorming but we got there. It gave us a degree of closure on that chapter of our characters story and let us move forward.
these characters are still mentioned sometimes and the aftermath of being left by his fiance is still hurting my character but hey, they had a toxic relationship anyway, he's way better off without that crazy woman. But we NEEDED that closure to continue the stories we'd built as well.
I'm glad we took that route and decided to continue without the GMs because a whole year or more of character building is a lot of story to lose otherwise.
I admit though, I haven't had many long term rps come to a real conclusion. They just sort of.. stop. Once all the stories you think you can tell are told it sort of just... stops. A bit like a sitcom where they just wander out into the sunrise and the credits roll. No real ending, just a "stop".
Most of my long term rps though are a bit more like a soap opera where new characters come in, old characters leave and eventually you end up with a whole new cast anyway.
You are on: Forums » RP Discussion » Best ways to end an rp
Moderators: Mina, Keke, Cass, Auberon, Claine, Ilmarinen, Ben, Darth_Angelus