Pet Peeves

[Medena]

There have been other threads with this title, I'm sure. I couldn't find one that was just right though so I am starting this one.

Its purpose is for unloading about something that bothers you and has arisen in another thread.  You don't want to derail that thread and you don't want to start a new thread as the point you want to make may not really warrant a whole thread.


May the venting begin!

Me first.

[Medena]

I get really irritated whenever a couple of opinions on how northern bards ought to be played come up. These views, which I think are just wrong, seem to surface every couple of months -- 1) that you have to know a lot about music in real life, including being able to play an instrument and 2) that you have to be able to write good poetry because it is bad, Bad, BAD to ever, ever adapt other sources for Zalanthas.  It makes me irritated because it's just another bit of elitist crap that may well scare people away from trying something that they are quite capable of doing.


1) you have to know a lot about music in real life, including being able to play an instrument

Why?  This is role playing, after all.  I don't think anyone has ever suggested that you need to have actually fought with a sword extensively in order to play a sword-toting mercenary. Just as having used a sword would really help in doing sparring emotes, so would having played an instrument help in emoting it, BUT neither are absolutely necessary.  You can always do research to get info on what precisely an instrument looks like or how you'd go about playing it.

2) you have to be able to write good poetry because it is bad, Bad, BAD to ever, ever adapt other sources for Zalanthas

With one exception, I really doubt that any of the adaptations I have used would ever be identifiable as adaptations (unless of course I posted them on the bard board as such). You just need to choose well and adapt judiciously.  The exception would be an adaptation of an Irish drinking song, "The Wild Rover", which has the distinctive refrain "no, nay, never, no, nay, never no more" which I kept in my adaptation.  Otherwise, the song was completely Zalanthasized and instead of the other part of the refrain being "will I play the wild rover" it was "will I drink and fall over". Since the piece was written to be performed in a rowdy Kuraci bar, I thought the piece was a good match and had a nice sing along element.  And though the song is well known, there was no fear of infringing copyright.

I liked to use the drinking song style of "poetry", with its repeated chorus, for that particular PC because it suited his comical and often bawdy style of performance. Even when I wrote original pieces, I often stuck with that kind of form.   Though I did use adaptations less and less through the months of playing him, it was mainly for the fact that the pieces I needed were for a very specific purpose and therefore just had to be original.  I'm not very good at writing poetry but grew a lot better as time went on with that PC.

All this having been said, there -are- a couple of requirements for playing a northern part, in my opinion. You probably have to be a bit more creative than is required for most roles.  And you have to enjoy writing and be willing to spend some non-RP'ing time on writing up stuff for your bard to perform.

[Maybe42or54]

I agree. Maybe Zalanthans enjoy a different kind of poetry and music than us earth people do?


It kind of irks me that you have to eat like 12 roots just to get full when you aren't even starving.

They are like earth roots, aren't they? Some sound just like potatoes and potatoes are filling.

[bloodfromstone]

I really hate it when people refer to things by their descriptions, even if they aren't something anyone would ever say in casual conversation. Sure, there's some that aren't so bad. You have a serrated sword? Great. Anyone who knows anything about blades will call it serrated. You have a saffron kank? Don't say "The saffron kank is mine." Your kank is orange. It's the orange one, not the saffron one.

Not really a big deal, but it will annoy me every time.

[Larrath]

My biggest pet peeve is guild sniffing.  I absolutely detest it.

After this, I get annoyed by PCs who are lazy at doing their primary 'function'.  For instance, if your PC is a crafter, I wouldn't look at it badly if you went to the Sanctuary, bought wine in a bottle, drank it, stood up and left without emoting.  However, I would be upset if you then spam-crafted without emoting once.
Or magickers that don't emote their casting - you have the karma, put on a show.  It's fun.

Third, I get very annoyed by seeing half-elves played poorly.

Finally, lazy bards.  Now, I came out as harsher than I meant to, which is what I believe Medena is talking about.  I'll clarify - I don't mind if a bard's player takes another song as an influence or even as a template and only alters a few words.  I do mind, however, if the finished poem makes no sense at all.  Like if a bard's song included someone seeing between the lines - what lines?  They're illiterate!  And I do expect some bards to try and slide in just a -bit- of politics into their arts.  A great deal of what being a bard means to do propoganda.  I'd like to see more bards do that, and I'd rather read one good, realistic and political poem than three lazily-Zalanthansized (turning dogs into gortoks and that's it) ones.

Oh.  And I hate true love and when people are nice.  Down with love, down with niceness.  Up with tearing out a kid's intestines and using them to hang his dad.

[Delirium]

Negativity.

[jhunter]

People who type out long and flowery emotes, and take FOREVER to do so.

People who spam hunt.

Tribals whose primary concern is NOT their tribe.

People who target pcs to pk specifically because they notice that it is a new pc.

Poorly played half-elves.

Poorly played dwarves.

The damned change of "break" to "cease" when using psionics. EVERY time I type "break" the first time.

[LauraMars]

People who try to figure out what guild you are...

It makes me want to go up to the next person who says, "So...you have, some furtive skill with the blade, then..." *shifty emotes* and say, "ARRR, I FEEL LIKE PRACTICIN' ME BACKSTABBIN' TODAY!"

I'll post more when I think of more?

[Manhattan]

people with karma that don't emote. you have karma for a reason! i've seen way too many half-giants and magickers who rarely emote beyond 3 words. and that brings me to my next pet peeve. NOD. nod you, nod him, he nods, she nods, nodding, nod, nod, nod. unless absolutely necessary, or unless your pc has a compulsive disorder, then i dont see any reason why you should be nodding to everything. ESPECIALLY without extra emotes attached, and the nod is just by itself. when you stand up from the tavern and are about to bid farewell, smile to the people and vocalize a "shade." you don't just stand up, nod, then leave.

[mansa]

My biggest pet peeve is lesbian characters.

[jmordetsky]

Oh yes, I'm going to do it.

My biggest pet peeve are whiny pet peeve threads.

[Xygax]

People who post on GDB threads withing having read them.

Especially those who apologize for it up front and then proceed to mercilessly derail the thread with their off-topic follow-ups.

-- X

[Elgiva]

NOD. nod you, nod him, he nods, she nods, nodding, nod, nod, nod. unless absolutely necessary, or unless your pc has a compulsive disorder, then i dont see any reason why you should be nodding to everything.

I was watching people in place where I work today. I think they all nod way too often. Nodding to each other, nodding every other second, nodding even without any real reason while listening. Highly annoying, isn't it?

[SewerRat_inTheOpen]

Your kank is orange. It's the orange one, not the saffron one.

I guess I finally found out what saffron really means. All of them big words for colours bugs me sometimes, especially for pcs.

Guild sniffing is one of mine too, except that in most cases, people just want to use it to generate more topics to talk about and play with.

Guild guessing/elimination is even worse. A noble talking to his crafter for example.

Q:So you like hunting?
A:No
Q:You good at bartering?
A:No
Q:You good with weapons?
A:No.
think He must be a sneaky type.

Maybe the person has only been a armorsmith all his life, even if we all have a main guild and a sub guild.

[bloodfromstone]

I guess I finally found out what saffron really means. All of them big words for colours bugs me sometimes, especially for pcs.

Yeah, me too. I often end up associating an image with the character before I get a chance to look up what color their thesaurused keyword means. That verdigris-haired man will be forever visualized as, say, a brunette in my head, rather than an anime character.

[Cale_Knight]

People who just won't say eyes. Every time someone emotes about their "orbs" I have an image of two massive bowling balls where their eyes should be.

And flowery, overdone emotes in general I guess. Some people really overuse the metaphor.

But they're just peeves. Nothing to get worked up over.

...stupid orbs.

[Anael]

I was watching people in place where I work today. I think they all nod way too often. Nodding to each other, nodding every other second, nodding even without any real reason while listening. Highly annoying, isn't it?

*nod nod*

My biggest pet peeve right now is probably... people who say Tuluk sucks because people who play there suck, and take it as a reason not to play north. C'mere and help make it better!

[JollyGreenGiant]

PCs who join a clan, interact with the other PCs for a bit, log off... and are never seen again.

[LauraMars]

People who just won't say eyes. Every time someone emotes about their "orbs" I have an image of two massive bowling balls where their eyes should be.

Oh god, me too.  Such obnoxiousness.

[Maybe42or54]

Half giants.
They're either smart or -annoyingly- stupid.

They are never "just" copying the people around them without trying to be funny.

[marko]

People that either purposefully or through innocence play contrary to the documentation for whatever region, guild, clan, race or tribe that they are in.

[Cale_Knight]

Half giants.
They're either smart or -annoyingly- stupid.

They are never "just" copying the people around them without trying to be funny.

Agreed. The only half-giant I ever enjoyed playing around got killed way too quickly.

[Halaster]

people with karma that don't emote. you have karma for a reason! i've seen way too many half-giants and magickers who rarely emote beyond 3 words. and that brings me to my next pet peeve. NOD. nod you, nod him, he nods, she nods, nodding, nod, nod, nod. unless absolutely necessary, or unless your pc has a compulsive disorder, then i dont see any reason why you should be nodding to everything. ESPECIALLY without extra emotes attached, and the nod is just by itself. when you stand up from the tavern and are about to bid farewell, smile to the people and vocalize a "shade." you don't just stand up, nod, then leave.

Not directing it at you personally, Manhattan, but my pet peeve is when people think emote = roleplaying.  Many times, someone is given a mage/half-giant/mul/etc karma role because we TRUST them in that role to play it realistically and not abuse it.  Not because they're great emoters.  Yes, emoting has its place and goes a million miles in making the world seem more alive and such.  But just because some mage doesn't emote some fancy thing before every spell doesn't mean they're a bad roleplayer.  They are not (for that reason).  I agree that emoting can help us gauge if someone knows how to play a role, but it's by no means the defining thing.

I like to see mages and giants and muls and all those karma folks emoting and stuff too.   But if some mage just simply casts a fireball on you with no emote that doesn't mean he's not roleplaying, at all.

[WarriorPoet]

My largest pet peeve would be lack of -visible- roleplaying. It doesn't have to be long winded emoting, dramatic monologues anything of the sort, but I, as a player, appreciate a bit of effort on the part of whoever is on the other end. Emoting does not equal RP. That's fair. But, to me, neither does "think Ok. Here I go.;w;hide;backstab man;". Even if you -are- emoting/thinking it up in the other room, all I see from my end is nothing. I might as well have walked into the silt sea, for all the fun I get out of it. Hell, something simple like 'Someone's foot scrapes on the street as he lunges, thrusting his blade at you.' would turn me on just fine. That's about four seconds worth of typing, or less if you set it as a temporary alias. Emoting does not equal RP. I'll agree. But, it -does- show a bit of consideration for the enjoyment of other -players-.

Another pet peeve? People who are not afraid of death. I've played and played with a few hardass characters and most people would treat them with the proper respect. However, there is often the character who is simply unafraid. "Oh, there is so much death, why should I fear it?" Because death, for you, is the end of all your shit. No future. No plans to be realized. DEATH. I guess player's attitudes about character's lives sometimes slip into the character's behavior, which I think sucks.

-WP

Edited. Still sleepy.

[amoeba]

- People complaining just to complain or hear thier own voice, and not bringing a viable solution to the table.

-  Holy than thou RP'ers. Often not a good as they think they are, but quick on the trigger to complain about everyone else.

- Gripe threads.