This is a wild post but I’ve seen multiple TRP3 profiles (and some other RP addons) that have features that allow for custom categories. I was curious what you all thought of what is considered “acceptable” in putting in one’s profile.
For example, I’ve noticed a large influx of people starting to put the character’s sexual orientation down. I know some people would argue this shouldn’t be worth mentioning, whereas others would say it doesn’t matter. I’ve also seen entire categories devoted to a character’s history of war (using the expansions as campaigns), family members, so on and so forth. All of these are beneficial, sure, but are they necessary?
What’s too much? What’s too little? What’s a good medium for filling out your RP profiles in your eyes?
There’s really no right or wrong, whatever you prefer.
I typically keep mine short and brief, maybe toss in a few details like how you might know Versca or Juspion, something like that. Yet I generally keep things simple and to the point because I feel like at the end of the day, the only people that’ll care the most about your profile is going to be you.
At the same time I think RP to find out is lame, at least toss in a few interesting hooks.
Character in stormwind guard armor with the profile that says RP to find out.
Pfft boring
Character in stormwind guard armor with the profile that says: you might know me from that time I got really drunk at that party and went skinny dipping in the Darnassus moonwells and now I can never go back.
Personally, I’m of a mind that it’s more interesting to show why your character might be interesting than expecting someone to read your detailed backstory right out of the gate. Give them little hooks that wouldn’t require OOC knowledge, or at the most, a few broad “if we have [x] in common, you might know [y]” details
But for things like orientation, I can also totally understand wanting to make things clear up front so you can narrow things down a bit, since if you’re playing an LGBT character, it can be a risky move to rely solely on putting that out there and hoping someone doesn’t freak out.
Too much is anything that causes the reader to go TL;DR. This varies from person to person and character to character. Some people like having their character’s background out there as a display of their writing style and preferred kind of content or as a reference. Others prefer to RP to find out.
Most of the sliders/categories are there with the intention of helping people make better informed decisions about the kind of RP they might be in store for. TRP has sliders and checkmarks for whether you do roll vs emote battles, accept character death, your relationship status and how frugal/spendthrift your character is. Which gender they’re generally attracted to can matter very much as far as romantic themes apply.
It’s part of being transparent and communicative OOC, which can really enhance the RP experience.
It depends character to character for me. My hunter’s relationship is very important to him, he’s out as gay, so I put it in the box as well as noting he’s taken. Generally I only do what might be public knowledge. It’s meta to know his orientation if he’s never said it to strangers, but if he’s open with it, it would realistically be heard of somewhere and it can be a hook. Same with war history, if it’s something that can be used as a hook, then I put it, otherwise it’s just fluff.
There’s a big difference between “I played in Mists of Pandaria” and “my character is an ex-Kor’kron who has committed crimes they try to atone for” and while you wouldn’t put that information in the profile section, it can be gleaned or even set up as a hook if instead of war history, perhaps they’re wearing an old Kor’kron medallion that’s struck through.
For me it’s all about the finesse and presentation, if it’s more than information for information’s sake. Everything in a profile should be something to give insight, and TRP even has a hidden notes tab for you now so you don’t have to put your notes in the public one.
Beyond a physical description and some general info I personally determine the value of information by how easily it could be used to generate rp or if it informs readers about the kind of person their character may be interacting with.
To use some of the examples mentioned in the op, an entire space for family members provides little for me to strike up or maintain a conversation. If one of those family members was particularly well known however, that would be more worthy of mention; as well as require much less space to convey.
A history of war, alternatively, could be of use to other characters who are war veterans or have loved ones who are. Someone can look at that and configure a means to use that information; perhaps discuss possible uses with the individual ooc. It could become extraneous however, if details as to the individual’s participation in these conflicts is included. If there’s no chronological break in these campaigns mentioning every single one could also be extraneous.
Sexual orientation is iffy to me. On one hand I feel as though it’s the kind of thing that’s best shown or dynamically told rather than written in a profile. It could also still have value in a profile, especially if one is concerned about how others would receive it.
I personally think anything you feel is acceptable and reasonable is fine to put in an RP profile. I’ve seen everything from “RP to find out” to full on character profiles that look like a novel. I don’t think either is wrong. But they also might not entice others to want to RP.
As far as what I like to look at in someone else’s TRP, my list is probably something like this:
Good grammar and spelling. If the TRP is sloppy, the RP is probably going to be as well. I don’t want to be pulled out of my RP zone by constantly noting the other person is using the wrong form of “too.”
Basic info on who I’m looking at. If the person is a soldier and is dressed as a soldier, I want to know so that I don’t assume they’re a rogue because their OOC class is a rogue.
This does not include stuff like, “There stands before you the most beautiful elf you’ve ever seen, with long, flowing red locks of-” Yep, stop right there. Unless your IC description varies radically from your avatar, I don’t care to hear how beautiful you are, that your locks flow, etc. As far as IC descriptions varying, things like, “Left arm is broken and in a sling” or “hem of her dress is caked with mud” are what I’m looking for.
Is the character lore friendly? By that, I mean I want to know whether or not your character “could” exist in Azeroth so that I know ahead of time whether or not I want to RP with you. Things that could exist (for me) are dragon, dark ranger, San’layn, etc. Things I won’t think are lore friendly are people from entirely other worlds (ESO, Star Wars, etc.), or character archetypes, magic or technologies that don’t exist in WoW. I don’t want to see someone using their Alexa. If they want to make an IC something resembling Alexa, that’s cool. But don’t call it Alexa.
Things I absolutely don’t care about on someone’s TRP (your mileage may vary):
Your face claim.
Your kill count.
The link to the artwork you had done for your character.
Your theme song.
Your fake family lineage (unless these are actual characters that figure into your RP because they exist somewhere other than on your profile).
A million titles that sound clever to you, but mean nothing to the rest of us. I really don’t care if your character is “The Cheese Loving Petter of Cats.” But if you’re a General, a Sales Clerk, or Captain of the Defiant Belle, that could interest me.
Things I love to see on someone’s TRP:
The name of their mount or ship.
The name of the pet that’s following them around ICly.
The name of their weapon (if it has one).
What the character is doing right now (and please change this - if you’re doing walk up but your TRP says you’re sleeping, that’s pretty useless).
Any hooks I can use to talk to you.
A brief description/history.
Whether or not you’re looking for relationship RP (this is moreso because when I’ve done walk up with random characters before, when they find out I’m not looking for relationship RP, sometimes they just walk off abruptly and I’d like to save everyone the time and effort).
And just to show how different characters/peoples’ tastes can be…
I love seeing people’s artwork. I love seeing which characters are related to who. Face claims are relevant too. I enjoy seeing what self given titles your character has. That kind of stuff tends to be relevant to Tam’s RP as she’s a superficial person who likes to schmooze and socialize.
The name of your character’s ship, weapons, and pets are less useful to me. Tam is not an adventurer or warrior, so these things won’t interest her or apply to her daily life or RP outside of being curious topics for idle conversation.
Tam’s also not much of a scholar of history, magic, politics, or any of that, so if you’re character is a Jedi with a lightsaber who fights the Sith, that means about as much to her as you saying you’re one of the Valarjar that wielded a Strom’kar against the Rakeeshi. I don’t tend to disqualify characters based on their adherence to lore.
A character profile that catches my eye and would result in a walk up would probably be less appealing to Kirsy and their character. And vice versa.
I can go either way on titles depending on how they are being presented. If they are supposed to be actual, in-lore honorifics that your character goes by… you get one. Anything beyond that, and it starts to feel excessive in the worst possible way, like you aren’t inhabiting a character so much as you are collecting as much Cool Guy cred as possible.
But then there are titles that function as nice little summaries to give people an idea of what you are before approaching. “Sentinel Commander”, “Knight of the Argent Crusade”, etc. It’s a nice little shorthand to cast your character in a certain light for people to react to without having to explain yourself every single time, since we are all working from such limited character models.
And finally, there are parody titles of people trying to be quirky, which I find more obnoxious than anything. Nothing against them personally, I’m sure they can be a lot of fun once you know them, but it always strikes me as presumptuous when someone forces that kind of humor.
I might be in the minority here but I love big flowery self-indulgent writing for character profiles and descriptions. I get that it’s not everyone’s thing, but I enjoy it because it’s clear the player had fun.
Taking your character too seriously can be a sign of rigid attitudes ooc, but I find more often than not it’s a signal that the character in question has a rich personal story.
I am forced by the hobgoblins that pilot my brain to give all of my characters titles like “Living Train Wreck” and “There But For The Grace Of Elune” and “Purple IS A Character Trait”
My favorite TRP of my characters is bound to be my monk Claire Silvertide.
I modeled her TRP off an Si:7 file regarding her military record. It puts the artwork of her in a very tangible IC sense while providing information about her that would be fairly easily accessible in character.
For me I like to use TRP to provide hooks for people to interact with and her profile epitomizes that without giving all the details away.
In the end though, thats simply how it works for me. You have to find your own pace or groove and establish your own comfort.
I usually keep it pretty simple when the character starts. Physical Description, Public Background (stuff people could have looked up or learned by word of mouth about the character IC), and Rumors/RP “Hooks” to give reason why someone could maybe want to approach the character. After that I tend to add on to the Public Background by detailing things that several characters have learned about the character, and RP-based things the character has been involved in or done. Sometimes huge pages end up on characters that had maybe 3 paragraphs to start, and it can become a TL;DR situation, but it’s really to each their own.
I know you’ve prefaced this as an opinion, but I want to emphasize the fact that roleplay is sometimes one of the only ways people in the LGBT+ community can feel welcomed and free to express themselves as they wish. I don’t see how your example is particularly “silly” either, unless you’ve got a negative connotation to “silly.”
People still list “LGBT+ Friendly” in their profiles because people can (and will) be incredibly hostile to those in the community.
This is like the only thing you bring up in the four posts you’ve made on the forum. I’m trying really hard not to judge you but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t side-eyeing. People stating their orientation in their profile isn’t hurting you. It has nothing to do with you.
Like Selowen said, this is often a safe place for LGBT+ to be out and open about their identities because they will be physically harmed otherwise. C’mon.
Well it’s not like sexuality doesn’t come up in RP or the game itself. There’s plenty of NPCs that flirt, pair up, get intimate, and even have children together. Even more RP characters. Plenty of people mention their spouse (and their gender), and children in their profiles too. TRP even has an “accept character romance” option right under the part where you can designate if people can kill your character without your consent.
Language, explicitness, and tone absolutely need to be taken into account when writing stories and interacting in public, but the simple fact that people get romantically involved and intimate is not something that necessarily needs to be swept under the rug.
As for why someone might be more specific about their characters orientation? It’s if they don’t, they tend to be treated like the shirt says “I’M STRAIGHT.” This can understandably lead to misunderstandings that some people wish to avoid.