Seriously, at its worse, I think she was inducing minor panic attacks in me. So many times I'd go to work or be somewhere else and a fellow player would message me of "She's in the infirmary. AGAIN" or tell me something else had gone wrong, and I hated it because there was nothing I could do about it. Since we stopped role-playing I actually had a small wig-out at a perfectly nice player who happened to mention to me via PM at work that their character had been stabbed.
It took me a good few moments to remember that this other player is not an attention seeking pain in the ass. But when your RP is giving you psychological scars, it's time to get the fuck out of dodge.
Seriously, some years back I had a similar experience with an rper who played a majorly depressed and angst-filled character. She always had horrible things happening to her. Dead father, abusive mother, sexually-abusive brother, eating disorders, love triangle, self-destructive patterns... Everything was just sad, sad, SAD!
It was interesting at first too. It had merit and relevance to the overall plot... but no matter what happened, what character development had occurred, what new trick the GM had pulled in order to save her form her horrific circumstances... it would all just COME BACK! She couldn't be happy! NEVER!
And boy do I remember the feeling of "omg, what has she done NOW!?"
The sad thing is these players don't usually pull this crap for character development. I bet in 99% of the cases it's just pure attention-whoring and pity-partying.
No, it was never character development. That was the problem - nothing DID change. It was always same old, same old, never happy - which was why my character left hers, he realised she would never, ever allow herself to be happy and that she'd destroy him with her. The paranoia about it and gut-wrenching sensation of 'what NOW?' got to the stage where I think once I got home to find my friends there with cake for me because something had happened.
Or they brought cake to me because something had happened. I don't recall. Either way there was cake and my friends are awesome.
Cake always makes EVERYTHING better... that or icecream, mmmm icecream...
I completely sympathize with RP-related stress attacks. This character I mentioned above was hijacking the RP like WOAH!, taking up all the GM's time to solve her eternal angst and leaving everyone else in the sidelines. Mind you this was a chapter-based RP, so every week everyone wrote a chapter for their characters and BOY do I remember the stress of trying to come up with something that would be heard amidst the overwhelming ANGST ANGST WANGST! of certain players.
You totally did the right thing. Fortunately you didn't have to leave the RPverse to stop rping with her and you have friends who supported you and kept playing with you after the batshit crazy fest.
I think one of the saddest things about these players is the storylines and the characters they ruin with their escalating shenanigans. You start playing with them thinking your rp is going to go somewhere but noooo, they're stuck in their angst and your story gets stuck with them too.
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Seriously, at its worse, I think she was inducing minor panic attacks in me. So many times I'd go to work or be somewhere else and a fellow player would message me of "She's in the infirmary. AGAIN" or tell me something else had gone wrong, and I hated it because there was nothing I could do about it. Since we stopped role-playing I actually had a small wig-out at a perfectly nice player who happened to mention to me via PM at work that their character had been stabbed.
It took me a good few moments to remember that this other player is not an attention seeking pain in the ass. But when your RP is giving you psychological scars, it's time to get the fuck out of dodge.
Reply
Seriously, some years back I had a similar experience with an rper who played a majorly depressed and angst-filled character. She always had horrible things happening to her. Dead father, abusive mother, sexually-abusive brother, eating disorders, love triangle, self-destructive patterns... Everything was just sad, sad, SAD!
It was interesting at first too. It had merit and relevance to the overall plot... but no matter what happened, what character development had occurred, what new trick the GM had pulled in order to save her form her horrific circumstances... it would all just COME BACK! She couldn't be happy! NEVER!
And boy do I remember the feeling of "omg, what has she done NOW!?"
The sad thing is these players don't usually pull this crap for character development. I bet in 99% of the cases it's just pure attention-whoring and pity-partying.
Reply
Or they brought cake to me because something had happened. I don't recall. Either way there was cake and my friends are awesome.
Reply
I completely sympathize with RP-related stress attacks. This character I mentioned above was hijacking the RP like WOAH!, taking up all the GM's time to solve her eternal angst and leaving everyone else in the sidelines. Mind you this was a chapter-based RP, so every week everyone wrote a chapter for their characters and BOY do I remember the stress of trying to come up with something that would be heard amidst the overwhelming ANGST ANGST WANGST! of certain players.
You totally did the right thing. Fortunately you didn't have to leave the RPverse to stop rping with her and you have friends who supported you and kept playing with you after the batshit crazy fest.
I think one of the saddest things about these players is the storylines and the characters they ruin with their escalating shenanigans. You start playing with them thinking your rp is going to go somewhere but noooo, they're stuck in their angst and your story gets stuck with them too.
Reply
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