The Chicken Soup Meme (V.2)

[wineandcheese7]

The Chicken Soup Meme (V.2)

- AKA The Helpful RP Advice Meme -

This is a meme created in the spirit of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. People can talk about what's bothering them anonymously or logged in,  and get helpful advice, etc.

[How To]

1. Post comments about anything that's bothering you, anon or non-anon. It can be about anything, as long as it's RP or fandom related. 

2. If muns want to ask for RP advice about their specific characters in this meme, they may do so. In this case, please log in, and use the usual format one would use in a HMD meme or a RP Love Meme. 

3. People offer helpful advice and/or words of comfort, etc, etc. This can be anon or non-anon, too, as the muns wish. Please try to make sure the advice is helpful and polite,  not hurtful and rude, etc.

3. No flaming, bashing or wanking, please.

4. Negative namedropping of muns, characters and games, etc, is not allowed, either.

Comments

Plots

[(Anonymous)]

What kind of plots do people like to play?

Re: Plots

[(Anonymous)]

According to my checking--

smut and romance.

But some without plots. Like that "two truths, one lie" meme seems to indicate a simple yet fun scenario. I was thinking riddles or HAIKU some day...

Re: Plots

[(Anonymous)]

I ship with only one mun for my OTP, so I'm not looking for shipping or smut. Makes open play really hard with the recent trends.

I like Hurt/comfort, and I love playing out slow-burning friendships.

Re: Plots

[(Anonymous)]

I will admit I like to play romance and smut, the latter less frequently, but that doesn't mean that those can't have a plot either. Sometimes it's fun to have a first meeting, when nothing has happened yet, or do scenes where they are totally pissed off at each other or breaking up, some other bit of angst.

The one plot guilty pleasure I seem to have is that... I love making my muses go through horrible, horrible things from sickness to death to being stuck in the middle of a room filled with zombies.

Bakerstreet Open Musebox / Dressingroom

[(Anonymous)]

I really wish a Bakerstreet Open Musebox / Dressingroom existed.

Is anybody else interested in something like that?

[(Anonymous)]

Like you'd repost the memes and expand them into a Setting Of The Moment That Actually Builds CR or...?

Re: Bakerstreet Open Musebox / Dressingroom

[musemods]

We've just opened wayswithwords that is exactly that. We're affiliated with Bakerstreet and BS mods are going to post an advert for us. Our three comms are affiliated, but wayswithwords is a dressingroom, open play comm and anyone is welcome to join up. We're working on getting more interest and activity there. New things are hard to kick off, though.

Re: Bakerstreet Open Musebox / Dressingroom

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of these exist. The problem is activity, honestly.

thedressingroom
crosspoint_hills
thepillowfort
scribbledress
wayswithwords

and that's just off the top of my head.

Good crit, bad crit

[(Anonymous)]

What is good crit and what is bad crit, in your opinions?

Re: Good crit, bad crit

[(Anonymous)]

Good crit takes samples from RP threads and compares them to canon to make their point, while remaining respectful and keeping in mind that some things are open to interpretation. While it's not required, it's nice to soften the blow by mentioning a few things you feel the player's doing right while you're at it.

Bad crit is basically poorly-disguised flaming. Telling someone they suck or need to quit, or that that their voice is "off" without bothering to explain why or even point out threads that gave them that impression. The goal is improvement, not to make somebody feel sad or pressure them to drop.

Re: Good crit, bad crit

[(Anonymous)]

Good Crit - Aim to help the other person improve. Bring examples to back up anything you say, stay respectful and civil. Be open to the fact that some things are based on interpretations and the possibility that you may be wrong/the other person doesn't have to listen to or take your crit. Be current too. If they have a journal HMD, bring your crit there. Don't sit on it for months just so you can post to a game wide or HMD Meme.

Re: Good crit, bad crit

[(Anonymous)]

Good crit happens in the form of PM's, after-comments, etc. In open conversation.

Bad crit happens anonymously. On memes. Period. Because I know I can't be the only person who finds themselves scrolling through an anon-thread (a mistake in and of itself, I know...) and stumbles upon something that kind of vaguely sounds like it was meant for you. You'll never know. You don't want to know. And chances are, it wasn't. But you can't help feeling a little hurt by it anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

How do you handle a panfandom mod who is making your life/your muse account a living hell?

[(Anonymous)]

What exactly is happenning?

[(Anonymous)]

What do you do when you're playing with someone who says they're busy (but still very interested in tagging old threads) but keeps tagging into new things? And when asked if they want to drop or maybe do something different they insist that isn't necessary.

I don't want to bother them, but when there's three months between tags, and I see them tagging other people on new memes, I can't help but feel a bit unwanted.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly?

It's really, really hard, but eventually. You just have to give up.

I'm in the same situation right now. Someone I used to wait on the edge of my seat for tags from... doesn't tag me anymore. They were always slow, but I sort of moved into "non-existent." They're not the most reliable anyway, but that was always okay because, well. The tags were good enough to be worth it.

But then I see them talking about everything else they need to tag and how excited they are for new stuff and posting to new memes. And it hurts. Sure, rp is for fun, rl is more important, people can respond or not respond as they choose, but we're all people, and being ignored sucks. A lot.

But eventually? You have to move on. It's not easy, and it's not fun, but you have to try and distance yourself from them. Just a bit at a time.

[(Anonymous)]

COMMUNICATION!

You seem like you're doing a pretty good job of asking them about plots and whatnot. But I'd let them know that you don't mean to be pushy, but you'd like to get tags back more quickly than they've been tagging, or that you'd prefer to just have them drop you.

It may be that they want to just drop and are trying to be polite to spare your feelings, or it might be that they do want to continue and think their pace is somehow acceptable.

Letting them know that you'd prefer to, say, go no more than a week or two between tags, but are perfectly fine to drop those threads if they don't want to play them anymore, isn't either being pushy or PA or anything like that, IMHO.

[(Anonymous)]

I think that it depends on what they owe you and what they're tagging. As a player, I find it far simpler to tag a quick meme than to write a three-paragraph-long tag for a PSL. One or two lines for a nonexistent storyline =/= continuing a plot in a verse, and having to write a considerable tag for it.

If this is a consistent problem with somebody, IMO, you might want to find somebody who's more of a fit for you, unless you just really really like this person/their character.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a castmate. She's really very nice and a good player, but she has RP ADD. She gets really into something, loses interest, and drops while going over to something new and shiny. Recently, she's implied she's interested in apping a (different) castmate. I'd love to meme with her, but having to deal with her inactivity and dropping a month later in game doesn't sound fun.

Is there any sort of polite way to tell her this??

[(Anonymous)]

Just be blunt and upfront about it.

"Hey. I'd really like to meme with you and (castmate), but I'm honestly kind of put off from doing it because I feel you flake out too quickly for it to be worth my time. Or yours. I'm not trying to say you're a terrible player or person or anything like that. When we do play, it's great and I look forward to it. But you jump into something else really quickly and I'm left there with this other character that you've lost interest int, which makes me feel like you're losing interest in me."

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like everyone I like playing with enjoys playing with one another loads more than they enjoy playing with me. Every time I bring this up to someone they tut about how much it's not true, they'd tell me if it were, but then things go right back to how they were before no matter how much extra effort I start pouring in to be available and try to engage them.

If I dropped, though, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't be playing with anyone at all.

I know that beggars can't be choosers but this really is making me unhappy and I don't know what to do. I don't know how to make them want to play with me more. I'll be miserable in either situation that's available to me now.

[(Anonymous)]

Here's the thing, Anon. They may, like playing with each other more than they like playing with you. (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people aren't out to get you.) There's nothing you can do to change that. And there may be a host of reasons outside of your control for why this is the case:

It could be the characters you play. It could be the canon point you have your characters. It could be the fandom you play. It could be the group knows each other oocly better than they know you occly.

So, you need to decide: is the anxiety this association is creating worth the rp you're experiencing with them?

If it is - great, then what are you worried about? If not - then it may be time to explore other rp groups.

[(Anonymous)]

There's this player-- let's call them X for simplicity-- whose characters absolutely must come out on top, no matter the situation. If there's a fight, they must win!!1!111 despite only having a normal gun and no powers to their name and going up against a mutant or a god. If there's some kind of intelligent debate, X will throw in some Insane Troll Logic (look up TV Tropes if you don't get it) and use that to confuse others in order to win the debate.

This also extends to OOC chats, wherein X will just jump into a conversation and say "No, no, [X's character] will win because [character trait]". It's starting to get annoying, and somehow I feel like I'm the only one who notices this trait despite X showing it to everyone and anyone who would listen.

How do I deal with this kind of person?

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, so, while I love memes and all that, I think their inherent nature is sort of quick and dirty - that is, half the joy is that we (as players) don't usually have to come up with a plot or idea on our own. There's already something to build off of and it's great that way.

But I really like PSLs, or plots that are advanced through memes. Is there any specific place to go to find others who might be interested in PSL stuff?

[(Anonymous)]

There's musemostwanted where you can advertise for a specific fandom or character and state specifically you want a PSL or you could go to the RP With Me (http://rpanons.dreamwidth.org/19273.html?thread=60675913#cmt60675913) thread on rpanons and post there for what you're looking for.

Those are the only places I can think up off the top of my head so I hope they help, anon!

- player that plays only in PSLs

I'd like a dictionary, please.

[(Anonymous)]

I see a lot of acronyms thrown out all the time, but I don't know what they mean.

I've figured out that HMD is 'how's my driving' but what's CR? What's PSL? What other lingo do I need to know to get around? I've tried to ask before, but I either get laughed at or ignored.

Re: I'd like a dictionary, please.

[(Anonymous)]

CR=character relations,
PSL=private storyline.