What is the toughest aspect of roleplaying for you?

[Shell]

For me, it is making my character do something that I know is a bad idea. I really want to stop them from doing it, but I know that it is what they would do.

Anyone else have this problem?

In any case, I would like to hear what everyone else thinks the toughest aspect of roleplaying is, so please, speak up.

[Amaril Torrun]

I actually like letting my characters act how they would normally act. It makes them more real.

I do have a bad habit of making my dialogue too formal for many characters though. Even as I do it, I know I'm making the mistake, so I'm able to catch myself some of the times.

[Saxon]

I agree with Amaril, dialogue for me is quite tough sometimes. I'm not quite that clever when it comes to conversation, and when I read my work, I often see Saxon and my other characters caught in a cliche'. I'm gradually getting better at it, but nonetheless I'd like nothing more then to drop the George Lucas Curse of wooden dialogue. :rolleyes:

[hamnat]

I have a hard time reminding the reader of the environment when in the midst of a battle.

[Elijah_Morendale]

I have a hard time making either of my characters stand out as everymen, and I've noticed that Madison is a touch too melodramatic.

On the flip side, dialogue comes very easily to me, since I sharpened my writing skills on radio drama, which is ALL dialogue.

[Xos]

For me, its just opening up. I put personal parts of me into each character, and its so hard to open up to the outside world and showing the personal parts of me.

[Karuka]

For me, it's figuring out how the storyline of the character is supposed to fall into place, and then driving the plot in that direction with every quest.

Also, setting. It's really hard for me to interact well with setting, because my writing is very introspective.

[Christoph]

I'm not sure what the hardest aspect is for me. Based on my judgments so far on Althanas, my weakest points keep rotating. AAAH! :eek:

I guess that means the hardest thing for me it balancing the overall story and keeping the setting vivid without forgetting about the characters themselves, or vise-versa.

[Massacre]

Emotion.

It's a hard thing to describe and make interesting to read.

[Empyrean]

I actually really love writing dialogue. Not exactly sure how good I am at it, but I always relish the idea of writing conversation. To keep it from turning Anakin-Skywalker-cliche, I usually just run it through my head and think, "Would someone really talk like this?"

There's usually not too much trouble. My characters end up doing what they want despite my objections anyway. :)

The toughest aspect....I guess it's battling slow action, for me. I have a habit of feeling as though I have to write down every little thing the character is thinking and feeling and doing, and sometimes it drowns the story. Keeping realism and a good pace is always a challenge.

[Tiberius]

Dialouge comes quite easily for me, my only problem is getting it all into context. =/

Describing environments is quite easy, I just have the problem of making the desc's a little too long.

Other than that, it's just finding the time!

Rawr.

[Artifex Felicis]

Personally, the hardest part for me is format. In terms of story lines, I often think much more visually then in words, and almost like a graphic novel at times. I focus on action, and in prose I actually find it tough to break off into something Leon said. Even in non high action moments, I tend to fall into things like "the cat boy thanked the man" rather then saying "'Thanks' the cat boy said to the man." At times I only want to try with dialog, but then I feel like the post itself is getting far too sparse. Still, it's more something I just need to work on I think.

[Breaker]

Dialogue and emotion can both be tough. Once I get going on dialogue I normally do it pretty well, but it's easy for me to write an entire post and then realize Josh didn't say anything. For some reason I just forget to put dialogue in sometimes.

Probably the altogether toughest part of RPing though is when a thread I'm proud of scores low. Doesn't happen that often, but when it does, it hurts the confidence.

[Letho]

Writing solos is probably the hardest thing for me to do. You'd think that the fact that you control every aspect of the story would be rather liberating, but I realized that I write better with other people. Which blows at times because sometimes you just need to tell a certain story on your own. In all my time on Althanas, I wrote a grand total of two solos and they weren't my best work.

[Breaker]

Just think of the NPCs as characters being played by other people. Develop a split personality if you can. That makes your solos good and makes you a ward of the state!

[Siren]

I hate solos so much. My threads with other people take priority, so when I write solos, either they turn out like A Wyrd Sort of Dharma -- important, but neglected, or they turn out like Transitions -- rushed, "I need this to happen so let's do it and go."

[Thoracis]

I'm with Letho. I have tried a single solo. I put more work, thought and preperation into it then anything I ever tried to write. I had a post-by-post outline of what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. When it came time to actually fill in the gaps and write the story I just couldn't do it. I have the same problem making the first post in a battle.

I'm quite sure it's totally a mental thing, but I need other people to respond to. More then often when trying to post off of nothing I just can't think of anything, but on the other hand if I'm posting after someone I can just go and go, even if my post doesn't have all that much to do with the other player's post. Just the fact that I have anything to respond to opens up the flood gates for me. I've been having a hard time in the Gisela because of this. Writing army battles is my favorite thing to do but in this format where you have to make a few posts before you actually get to anyone else has been quite difficult for me.

My other biggest problem is more of a writing format issue then it is a roleplaying issue. I've fixed it mostly but I have a tendency to make numerous small paragraphs to try and emphasize my points and actions more clearly even though molding many of them together would accomplish what I want and make my work far less choppy.

Most other things, dialouge especially, just come naturally to me. I think that has a lot to do with you and your character. I've had Thoracis has a character in some fashion or another for 12 years so writing as him takes little effort for me. I garauntee if I started a new character I wouldn't be half as effective as I am now. Characters grow not only from the completion of threads and gaining experience, they grow with your own personal experience with them as well.

[Amaril Torrun]

Yeah, I think writing with other people is much easier than writing a solo. It is much easier to interact with a character developed by someone else rather than an NPC created by you. Writing with other people keeps the creative juices flowing because it makes you read another person's perspective on what is going on in the thread.

EDIT: Thoracis said it perfectly. "I'm quite sure it's totally a mental thing, but I need other people to respond to. More then often when trying to post off of nothing I just can't think of anything, but on the other hand if I'm posting after someone I can just go and go, even if my post doesn't have all that much to do with the other player's post. Just the fact that I have anything to respond to opens up the flood gates for me."

[Elijah_Morendale]

My problem with solos is finding the motivation to actually work on and finish them. I've got one going on with each character... But, when it comes time to work on it, I find myself saying "meh" and getting off to play some NES or something.

[Chronokitty]

the hardest thing for me is convincing myself that I don't suck. Pretty simple, eh?

[Massacre]

I think this goes for anyone...

Even if you think you're sucky, write anyways, you can't improve if you don't!

[Elrundir]

It's hard to say... for some reason, I think it varies with each character. With Elrundir, I've often had trouble with dialogue in the past. Of course, that's probably because I'm so out of touch with the character. (He may just be on the chopping block. >_>;; ) After all, when writing with Christina, I've been complimented a couple of times at the end of quests on her dialogue. I guess it depends on the character.

A little more prevalent is my descriptive abilities. I'm fine with describing how characters are feeling, or why they're doing what they're doing, but when it comes to the physical description of a setting, I find I'm a bit lacking. I don't think I really have trouble with it so much as I just get carried away with the rest of the stuff and end up forgetting about being descriptive. ^^;; (That's my secret to success when writing with Letho: he kicks ass at it and makes up for me. ;))

[Saxon]

Developing storylines, seeing the action, and writing it seem to be where I shine the brightest. I roleplay with a few friends now and again, and it has become so mundane that I've jumped off the bandwagon and ran outside the box to stories about alien worshipping cults in westerns or a man who can bend reality to his will by staring at a person's ear.. it's often off-center at best. I don't know about the rest of you, but I often compare writing to painting. Your brain and fingers tend to be the brush whle the words are the colors. You need to sit back and watch what your doing at first, then gradually when you get the idea you sort've relax and lapse into thoughts of how to fit the pieces together or how to connect this or that, that sort of thing.

Solos for me are hit and miss. Some of my best work is when I write alone, and it tends to be because I consider it more of a writing experience then a game. While writing with others lessens the workload and the stress, it's harder for me to adapt my style to someone else without compromising some of my work. I don't doubt that over time this'll change, but when it comes to doing this all by text, I'm still a bit green behind the ears. I'm planning on finishing my other solo by the start of december and possibly start pooling people in for regular quests to see if I can develop Saxon & Fibonacchi from a different perspective.

I'd also like to point out that when I made Jack as a hitman I didn't entirely think it through. Although I commend people on Althanas for keeping their characters alive through ressurection and things of that nature, it is a real crushing blow financially and reputably for a Hitman. They are designed to play for keeps, and to see their target walking away the next day like nothing ever happened has to be infuriating ICly and OOCly sometimes. True, that does create rivalries and other stories down the line, but it just sucks for when your trying to make money off of killing people.

I suppose assassins would be more feared if death wasn't so easy to distract and elude. ;)