I was playing on my usual MUD today . During a rather interesting scene some players did some things, that made me think "That really gets on my nerves - why in heck do people do that?"

Here's my list:

*Players  treating typos as IC speech. - Well, since these are text based games, typos are bound to happen.  Although I try to type slow, and read over my words before I hit enter. Some peoples fingers are a tad bit faster than their brains.  I"m just talking about a typo every so often, but if make a mistake with every other word you type, you may have a tiny problem.

*Players using tells to advertise.- This one is new to me.  I started playing this game that is fairly new. The other players ranted and raved about it on the OOC channel and on games sites, etc.  So, I"m actually in the game and I get a tell from other player "Vote for XXXMud!"  or "Tell your friends about XXXMud!"  How annoying is that?

*Too much use of color. I like color as much as the next gal, but too much can give me a headache.  I don't mind color as emphasis on a word in a room or character  description, but when every letter in every word in your description is a different color, you are going a little far.

*Ask around IC!.- This one is just an annoyance to me. But it seems like in some games, you try to find out some info like where is Lord's Soandso's Keep, or what's so special about a glowing bone necklace. The only answer from some folks is "Find out IC!". While sometimes this is good for interaction and such. Half the time its a completely lost newbie asking. Or, sometimes it may be something that the character should already know, and would silly for asking.

What about everyone else?

Some of my RPing pet peeves...
Regarding Realedazed's reference to the whole "Find out IC!" stuff - totally with you on that, though I'd use completely different examples. The examples you mentioned, I would definitely prefer to find out IC.

If I know that something can -easily- be found out IC, and that the "something" is an IC something (as opposed to ooc syntax, or stat info, or that kind of thing) I would hope the player at least -tried- to find out IC before asking for OOC help. If they're not even trying to find out IC, they get no sympathy from me. If they did try, and failed, then rather than tell them the answer, I would probably help guide them in the direction that would lead to their discovering the answer for themselves.

Such as - "You can "talk" to the shopkeeper, and he often has information about the kinds of things you're looking for." or "You found that thing on the west side of town, but if you look in other parts of town you'll find references to it that will help."

Telling someone "Find out IC" is useless and annoying. But giving someone the answers to IC info in an OOC way is not going to help the player learn and won't inspire them to find their own way. The compromise - guiding them to IC resources so they can find out for themselves without going crazy in the attempt - seems the answer here.

Another RP pet peeve - F-Me PCs. Man are there not enough of those types already? Some people just make ya wonder if the only reason they show up in the game is to play the one-handed-typing game. Even if they aren't..well jeez, if that's all you know how to RP, people are going to conclude that you're on the prowl. And maybe some people like that. I don't.
Just keep them sticky fingers at your crotch and away the heck from me, please.

Another RP pet peeve - people who don't even attempt to take their surroundings into consideration. Example:
It is night. Sue is at the bar. The room description says it's a HUGE bar, always crowded at night, and the bar is up against the southern wall.
Joe walks in from the entrance at the north wall, all the way across the room from this huge, crowded bar. Immediately upon entering, Joe whispers something to Sue, without any emotes, socials, nothing. Just - walk in, whisper. BOOM.

And I gotta wonder - how did this guy get all the way across the room, see that Sue, who was facing the opposite wall and therefore had her back turned to him, was who he wanted to talk to, and do all this in less than a single second upon entering?

I mean - even just a momentary pause, with maybe a "emote looks around and heads to the bar" is enough to satisfy. In an RP game, there's no reason to -not- at least remind yourself that the room descriptions exist for a reason, and take them into consideration.

I'd agree with you on treating typos as IC speech. Though I know where I play there are a few with accents. Anyway, the logic I understand for treating typos as IC has to do with the concept that we don't all speak perfectly. I've been known to pose 'character seens to struggle as he says, "blah" if I feel the need to go into that territory. I speak English daily (being in the US) and while I might cut myself off mid-word at times, saying my typos are suddenly IC is like saying that if I take a long time to respond to you because I'm a slow typer that my characters are all really slow.


I haven't experienced the advertising via tells.

Too much color, I can deal with a bit of color but I've never dealt with too much.

The Ask Around IC! Part I'm split about, like you probably are, Dazed. On one hand, I'm with you if it's something like 'where is the tavern I see everyone hanging out at?' While generating RP could be interesting for that, on the other hand, if there's no one around it kind of sucks. Public knowledge is something I'm more willing to not say that. If someone who's character is military asks 'what does this kind of gun do?' and it's rather common, there isn't an issue in answering. Where I would have a problem at is more sensitive info. Like 'When are the bad guys going in invade?' Generally I follow the rule of IC/OOC separation.

My own peeves?
*Slow posers who spend time chatting. I have no problem if you take your sweet time RPing, but if I see you haven't done anything for the 10 minutes it's been your turn to pose and you've been idle for 20 seconds or something and I see you chatting on public channels, I won't be real happy. That's disrespectful to those you're RPing with. If you want to chat, that's ok, but keep in mind you are RPing with others and the chatting can usually wait.

*Too much OOC chatter: While OOC chatter can be ok when it's just OOC friends RPing, it gets really annoying when there are 6 people there and there is constant OOC: Player waves. OOC: Waves back, and on and on for half a screen. If you want to chat between emotes/poses, use some other means to talk that doesn't spam all of us.

*People who always are idle, IC, and never seem to RP. These are worse than those who chat and RP and slow everyone else up. These are people that you try to RP with and they're like 'I'm idle/AFK.' A one time thing: No problem, things happen. If it's consistant, it just puts me in a bad mood.

*People who are extremely cliquish. A clique is cool, it's reliable RP for some people and it gets over the 'getting to know you' with everyone. However, some take it way too far, and only RP with those people. They hide away from any other interaction, and if they are out RPing with friends in a public area, you might as well not be there, because the acknowledgement is nonexistant.

*The above point goes into my next. Those who don't acknowledge other characters in any way at all. Perhaps your character won't interact with another for whatever reason. That's just fine. However, if they try to RP sitting/being somewhere and you don't even bother acknowledging it irritates me. If I pose 'Bob is sitting at a table near the door.' I don't expect everyone to talk to me, what I think would be nice is if someone might pose 'Bill walks into the building, past Bob as he heads elsewhere.' Sure, Bill isn't really interacting, that's fine, but he is acknowledging I am there, and existant, and that's good.

I don't come across these too often, but those are some of my personal issues that just grate on me.

Jazeula:
*applause* I was hoping I wasn't the only person who got annoyed by that. It's so easy to pick those people out, too, and usually its the same couple people behind all of the characters. No matter what race/class/guild/align whatever their character is, they're always described as being some kind of Playboy centerfold. Anytime I see anything in a desc about supple breasts or long legs or swaying hips, I get tweaked out.


The ask around IC bit: It depends on the person and situation and what they're asking for, really. I have no problem telling someone where a place to RP or a newbie shop or a basic teacher is, if they're trying to get adjusted to the game. But I wouldn't want to give someone directions to the Hidden Keep of Hardtofindness, or tell them who teaches the Kill Everyone In One Word spell. Those things definitely should be kept IC.


My personal pet peeve: RP drama queens. These are the people who've decided their character has some sort of supernatural powers, or has found some kind of great power, or is the only person who can save the world from Tragedy X, or is just somehow more special and significant than the rest of the players in some way. It gets annoying when these people invent their own plotline to make their character some kind of hero. It gets really annoying when they start RPing this plotline out in their clique, and excluding anyone else from even knowing what's going on. And when the IMMstaff starts sanctioning these kinds of things and lending weight to the whole thing, people on the outside tend to feel less favored. That sort of RP drives me away from a MUD faster than anything else.

#1. Theme Brushoff

What I hate is when theme for a race is utterly ignored and a wild story made up for why you can totally disreguard what the makers of the game have spent hours, if not months, writing.

Example:

Player 1: I can play this race any way I want, the theme is just there if you 'want' to use it! I can kill if I very well like!
Player 2: But your race is pacifistic.
Player 1: Oh, well, he was raised by <warrior race> and so fights alot!


#2. The Giver-Upper

A barbarian or some such mean fighting character comes up and attacks someone. The someone tries to fight back for a few moments but the barbarian is much more skilled. The player will then give up, and lie down, or turn their back on the slayer, yawning or doing some other such thing to show their contempt. Now tell me you would sit down and be still and silent as a sword is dividing your organs from their blood supply or your beating beaten to a bloody pulp by a club?


#3. NPC Slaying

In various MUDs that claim to be mandatory RP they will still allow the consistent abuse and slaughter of NPC's that represent a living sentient. Your character should not be able in any way to know the difference. In real life do we have manikens walking about that look, feel, and seem real in every way possible except for an extended conversation deficiency?


As for the mention of 'find out IC'. I believe in that whole heartedly. If its something you could only find out IC, then if your really into RP, how would you be able to find it out? If you went into New York for the first time what special ability would allow you to find a McDonalds several miles away without prior knowledge of its direction or even existence? I was told 'find out ic' when i played my MUD for the first time and excepted it because it made sense. Those who aren't mature enough to except it can just stay out of the game.

*prepares himself to be flamed viciously*

Well, now that I think of it, my examples for "Find out ICly"  aren't that good.  But when I say that is my pet peeve, I'm talking about the ones who never even try to help and that's their only answer.  Most of the time, I think its ok to talk OOCly if its something a character *should* know.

For example, there's a race called the Avaians. All Avaians start out in the game as full adults as they have just passed there coming of age ritual.  OOCly a player asks about this riltual. Asking ICly would make this character look dumb and clueless, when it something that all peoples of that races should be familiar with.

*nods*

I agree with all of that. People who whine about IC concequences should not be playing, IMO.
Think about it: you go up to Jabba the Hutt and insult him ten ways from Friday. Do you honestly believe that he'll just sit there and take it?
Get real; he'll have you flayed fifteen ways from Friday for it or worse.

As for "Ask IC'ly!"...if it's something that they could find out easily ICly, I'll tell them - or at least hint at it. But otherwise I'll try and steer them towards asking people IC'ly.

1) Drama queens. Ohhh yes. The ones who'll blub some harrowing back story to any stranger in a pub. Now, I don't know what sort of pubs you visit, but if you were to do that in my local, you wouldn't get sympathy, you'd get the police in.

2) Anybody whose character has sapphire or emerald eyes. Please, please, please, just come up with something new? Same applies to anyone decsribing themselves using the word "pert" or "sensual". Please, both hands on the keyboard, lads.

3) Superman syndrome. Typical of drama queens, they'll have some harrowing back story, so if challenged, they can say, "oh, but I do have flaws, look, I hate my father for throwing me out when I was sixteen, but I'm better now", then go on to be good at everything they rp doing. And I mean everything. They'll be good dancers, acrobats, fighters, diplomats, they'll be a bloody brain surgeon/rocket scientist and prize-winning football player, and all without breaking a sweat. Honestly, people, being bad at things can be fun!

4) People who don't take the time to do even some basic research into the background they choose. For example if playing a pirate, I'd go out and look a few things up, and not just rely on my drooling over Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean as a suitable research technique, enjoyable thought it is.

5) The word slightly. Please don't use it. There are so many other words to use.

6) The word "okay", used in a fantasy setting. It just really throws me off, as though they'd said "railway" or "radio".

7) Unnecessary spammage of OOC info. "XXX tells you: I've got 1000 hp and a hitroll of 32!". Well, bully for them. Please don't tell me, I don't want to know info about the mechanics of your character. Worse yet, to do so IC, with the numbers. A slightly less wanky way to do it is to be a little more vague, "I am very good at using daggers", instead of "my dagger skill is 100%!"

8) People who use notes/messengers/whatever other system there is in order to blatantly make up plot, which really couldn't have happened, shouldn't have happened, or worse yet, implies your own character was involved as well. There are RP message boards for that kind of thing. If you can't realistically do it IC, don't send notes about it. Allow failure, which can't be done in notes. Goes back to Superman syndrome, above.

Ah, in the case of the ritual, yes, they should be told... though not over public channels. In my MUD info like that is just given to them by a private message by one of the Eternals or they are told to ring for a mentor. The reason for this is that though he may should know about it, the rest of the players shouldn't neccessarily.

And that thing about body builder men and playboy type woman characters... I'm so sick of that i could puke. While my MUD was down i tried a mush where you played animal creatures that had been risen up to sentience by their human masters... the masters killed themselves off so the animals took over... everyone was either a cat, weasel or fox person with rather... extensive descriptions about their, err, mammary glands. And none of them wore anything but skimpies. I was a little annoyed with this, since the theme of the game sounded great so i made a character thats ancestors before being genetically manipulated from gooseneck barnacles. I had great fun with it but finally one of the creators of the game asked me why in the *blink* I'd want to play a gooseneck barnacle... and made me get rid of it. I found out later that it was soemthing called a 'furry mush' and all it was for was people who wanted to make out using animal bodies. I pretty much ended that game in disgust.

Oh, and what about those Mu*s that don't have permadeath...(this is a great one)...and the character's just reincarnate over and over in the morgue or whatever. Ok and so a character dies (all his/her equipment stays whereever he/she dies likely), and then they lost their stuff in a room full of aggros and they start complaining and whining to the staff!! That is a great one. RP mud here folks...

Overall pet peeves...."RP Enforced" muds with a Hack-N-Slash attitude...right

*cringes* at the tought of naked furries...

*cringes* at the thought of naked gooseneck barnacles...

Oh! that's another one of my pet-peeves.  A RP mandatory MUD that's basically a hack and slash. Sometimes I don't have a problem with them, but from my past experiences with them, I found that there's more mob-hunting/level-gaining/PKing than RP.

Also, I think its wierd when people come to RP muds and -not- RP. There way one guy on the MUD I used to play who didn't like RP, yet he was -always- in the game hacking and slashing. He made no effort what so ever to even try to RP and made it know how much he didn't want to.

The IC/OOC thing:

In an RP mud IC and OOC must be separated. If they are not the totall RP environment get polluted and your ability to stay in character gets compromised. Using OOC knowledge ICly is the worst. If there was no way your character could ever know that then they don't. I have helped out countless newbies and we even have an area in the game where you can interact OOCly to help out new players (ie. demonstratin IC actions, items, etc.) without being a distraction to those trying to RP. If a newbie has a question about the game mechanics, stats, etc. I help them out. If they ask about the IC aspects of the game like, "Where can I get the 'Sword of Power'?" then I tell them thats IC info and I'm not allowed to give it out. That is often followed up with an explaination about why OOC and IC info needs to be separated and how you can tell.

My peeves:

*Correcting a mispelled word with a cough then repeating that word. We all make typos, if we knew what you meant with it leave it alone. If its spoken speech we heard the sounds not the spelling anyway.

*F-off attitude. Come on now, there HAS to be someone who actually has a fear of something or someone else. Why does every character you run across always seem like they are invincible and they don't care if anyone threatens them?

*Super Powers. Unless you're a cat your eyes can't glow (then its only the appearance of a glow). Beams of light can't shoot out of your eyes. The list can go on and ong but leave the super powers at home. How embarrassing is it when you the "super" powerful one gets beat down by the guy that looks like a beggar.

*I'm so pretty. I have nothing against wanting to live out your fantasies and being a built beautifully sculpted person...but come on now. Eveyone has radiant blue/green eyes, long flowing hair, fair blemish free skin (thats right not ONE single blemish anywhere), and the body of a Greek god/goddess. I applaud those who build flaws into their descriptions or just make a normal (depending on race) one.

*Back to the OOC/IC stuff. When someone asks in game about OOC stats. This drives me nuts. How many of you have ever been asked "What level are you?" or "What's your hitroll?" Wether its in a tell or worse asked ICly its just annoying. Knowing that information give you an advantage over me, but more so its breaks the RP setting. It now seems like we're describing a piece of harware instead of a "real" being.

** The bigest one ** I realize that we get multiple multiple reincarnations when we die (at least on the mud I play) but please please please take your death at least somewhat seriously. I cannot stand when I hear someone say "Oh man, I just died...yeah it sucked, it took me five minutes to get back to that mob to finish it off" YOU JUST DIED!!! Shouldn't you be at home recovering? Or better yet, why would you immediately after gaining the gift of new life from the gods risk it again with no thought? Single-death muds don't have this problem, cause when you die you're gone, but if you get killed for some stupid reason (or computer freezing so you can't flee) its gets really annoying real quick. If you think you wouldn't do "this" and currently play a single-death mud I encourage you to play a mult-death one. We'll see how easily you type "delete char" after you die.

I think thats it for now, thought it may seem there are a lot of things I don't like, there are infinitely more that I do enjoy. If I tried to post all the features I enjoy I would run out of posting space.

Heh, I usually RP completely sinister and malicious characters. And typically they *at least* have a very evil demeanor, if not having a completely twisted appearance due to the evil that flows within them (I do play other types as well, but I just keep coming back to the nasty guy). So, typically my characters are *not* that attractive...yet I have had no problem (in RP) attracting the opposite sex (in game of course)...*shrug*. Not everyone has to have the perfect physical appearance *nods sagely*

I think most of us have the same peeves. Interesting isn't it.

Hmm, i think ya'll pretty much captured it all there.

F-me anything, imms, players, imm players, *barf* Im not a hormonal teen looking for my first wet dream so just uh..go away. Heh.


Inconsistancy. Man that ****es me off. If im standing there and suddenly something COMPLETELY off the wall happens with a plot, a character or whatever. Yech! Im not talking about months of character development leading up to the fact, im talkin'...Hi! I think ill do a 360 now cause im bored and i have no where else to go but a ****ed off psycho or a melodramatic crying victim of society...every time i make a character..... Yuck:P



Then there is called what is called in the circle "Wouldn't it be cool if...?" Syndrome. People decide to just screw all background and any RP base given as a means to an end so they can get what they want. Bleh. My advice is, take that website and give it a nice scrubdown and update. Cause if that's totally not what you read about, your falling victim right now to the syndrome, players or imms at fault, it don't matter that kills a mud dead. Baby steps, as one coder i knew told me, muds go in baby steps. Smartest thing he ever said.;)


Off the top of my head thats about it:) Have fun people, its what recreation is about:)

I'd think that gooseneck barnacles might do rather well on a furry considering certain aspects of their anatomy....*cough*
Anyway, my pet peeves. They aren't all very reasonable, but that's why they're pet peeves.
-doing things twice. You see this especially with sitting/standing and enter/exiting. The person does the regular command and then emotes it all fancy. I just read it and think, 'Twins!'
-combining simple emotes into one big emote. I think an emote should only be long if it is descriptive. Too often I see something like 'So and so picks up the glass, swirls the wine around, takes a long gulp, and wipes off his mouth on his sleeve.' That's like four actions. It should be four emotes.
-drow.
-characters with totally uninteresting personalities and complex backstories.
-that girl...you know, she usually has red hair, and either green or violet eyes, is very slender, but with big boobs. She's very sweet natured and gentle, a natural healer. Oh, and there are two men in love with her, and they are bitter enemies--a terribly emotional situation which causes her to shed many an artful tear. You know that girl. There's like 5 on every mud.
-characters of a race or from an area/culture/dimension or having powers that are not part of the game.
-people who call me rp-snob (or worse) for refusing to accept their extra-dimensional backstory and mystical powers.

A few things that bug me are....

1 global IC channels. They never make sense. Ever. That means you, RPI-Mud on the front page that doesn't have permdeath either.

2 Non perm-death. What. The. Heck.

3 "IC" tells. *sigh*

4 No way to gain experience from RP.

5 No pk

6 Pure PK

7 Enforced ethos. I've never met anyone who is pure evil or good. Have you? I've met anyone who can't change either.

8 Imm-Gods. Deus ex machina. Cliche

9 Cookie cutter classes... class don't usually make much sense in RPIs IMHO.

10 Storylines that dont make any sense. You know who you are.

11 No OOC channels. It works kinda like prohibition... drive out OOC communication, it goes underground through MSN and AIM, and scheming ensues.

12 Intruisive OOC channels.

13 Tight pants. I hate wearing tight pants.

Good fer you. What's that got to do with RP pet peeves? *peers at Geras*

Some of my rp pet peeve is when ppl don’t use emotes or indicate how they got where they are. For instance you are sitting at a certain place in the forest or in the city and *poof* they start talking to you. I mean wow, is it mental? Is it that difficult to just use a simple emote that states you were walking in the forest?

My biggest one is OOC knowledge used as IC. I would be rping and ppl call me by my name, when in fact i never told them my name. They call me by my clan and frankly I don’t have anything on me that could possibly show them that I’m in a certain clan.

Godly players is also a big peeve. You can’t touch them, you can’t hurt them, they are just so magnificent that you will probably fall over and play dead if they walk in front of you. Don’t even mention attacking them, cause you will just never win. Even though you are one big mean tarrasque and they are a tiny tiny pixie (just an example).

People who quest while you are roleplaying with them. We have a questmaster (not talking about imm run quests – we have those 2) where you can go request a quest and do it. Now rping at the qm and suddenly someone says brb and leaves is just not good enough for me. Either you rp with me, or we drop it all together.

The whole act of because i’m evil, i’ll be killing you, or because i’m a witchhunter and you are a mage, i’m going to kill you. Come on ppl, is that really the best you can come up with?

Lastly people who rp so exclusively that you can never get close enough to talk to them. They are mostly the people as well who complain there are no rping going on.

1. Not being able to go one smidgen outside your stereotypical class role in a supposedly RP-friendly MUD. If I saw a pretty ring, and I was sorely tempted to try and steal it, if I wanted to even try I would have had to have created as a brigand or a thief instead of a "warrior". Agh.

2. The wisdom stat. I can live with intelligence as a stat (there are things that even the dumbest player could know "behind the curtains" of their character's mind), but really, what's the point of having wisdom as a number? If the player has a good idea of what his character is, he'll know when his character breaks down, when the player's character is fooled while the player is not, etc. Besides which, some players aren't terribly wise themselves, with ultra-wise characters, and then they look silly.

3. Mob-killing for the majority (or all) of your XP.

4. Ethos and alignment, especially when static.

5. Players who try to force you into their little RP scene. Most of the time, I'd not get involved with the characters who do this anyway. My character sometimes just doesn't care about saving a patch of forest outside of town. I personally care about conservation, but my character may not.

6. Weather not affecting anything beyond a few spells. This is more of an uneasement, as it is difficult to RP something that no one else even seems to notice, and something which _doesn't_ affect your character, but then there's supposed to be a raging thunderstorm around us at the same time. How am I supposed to act? Colds from wandering outside for hours in the rain, having to shout over thunder or wind (or having a few words blended out because of it), and a bit of damage from hail could be nice.

7. Bits of areas where it's out of theme, or even based on real-life. Funny sometimes, yes, but it's unnecessary and degrades the overall feel of the MUD for a few giggles.

8. "Look at me, I'm RPing" type people. These will try anything to bring your attention to their awesome RP prowess. They might be bad at RP, they might be good at RP, but it's still abnoxious.

9. Over-harsh law penalties because normal penalties just aren't enough, or aren't possible. Death to all thieves, vagrants, and trespassers! Heh.

[Edited a bit for grammar and clarity]

Back on DR, bad weather (snow, sleet, rain, etc) would wreck your musical instruments if you had them outside of containers. The damage was reparable, if you had the skill or knew a Bard who did, though. I don't remember if it really did anything else. I think fog made it difficult to see what was in the room...but I'm not sure and I could be wrong. I never really looked outside the Bard class though, so I haven't the faintest clue what else weather might've affected.
Moon Mage spells, maybe?

Eagleon, do you know any muds that dont violate those pet peeves? Thats pretty much what I look for in an RPI mud

1. I hate roleplaying with anybody who doesn't know how to roleplay. Sometimes I will be willing to sit down and explain what roleplay is, but I usually only enjoy RP when people know what they are doing. The concept of rp'ing isn't that difficult...

2. People who completely underestimate their power IC, or people who totally overestimate it. Supercharacters are annoying as heck, and so our newbies who just seem to die instantly. I was doing this thing where all the players on the mud were having like a combat tournament with emotes and what not, and i went up against a newbie, i did my first emote, and he did his which he died.... that was stupid.

3. Closed emoting "Bob steps forward, and stabs you deep into the throat." no... don't do that. "Bob steps forward and makes to stab you into the throat." that's more like it.

Though all of my own peeves have been more or less covered, I do want to rebut this. I'm not sure I understand the problem with IC tells. The first MUD I seriously played used IC tells, and these were backed with a logical reason and methodology for existing. In fact, these were a sufficiently significant part of the game for another MUD's policy of only OOC tells to strike me as - initially - absurd.

Though I suppose it might be a matter of "high" fantasy, I personally have a hard time considering that in a world where magic (or psionics or miracles or...) is pervasive, nobody comes up with a communication spell (or equivalent). It's fantasy's cellphone. So I'm a bit at a loss as to why it's a peeve - and I've seen the idea of IC tells knocked in places besides here. As long as it has a logical reason for existing, though, I'd guess it would do more to support the idea of a persistent RP world than detract from it.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why it might be otherwise?

1. People who take 4 lines to emote something that could've been said in 6 words. (As a side note, I detest those long, badly-written stories people will occasionally come up with, thinking it makes them cool or something.)

2. People who rp every little twitch and sneeze. Some things IMO just aren't important enough to RP. My motto is, RP the things that might make a difference, not EVERYTHING.

3. People that think if you DON'T use 4 line emotes or RP every little twitch and sneeze, that you don't know how to RP at all. If a simple pre-coded emote such as smile serves my purposes, I'm not gonna go to all the effort of typing something out just to look cool. Deal with it.

4. This has been said before, but it can't be stressed enough. People who are either so clueless about RP, or who like bending the rules to their own purposes so much that they can't separate IC/OOC actions properly.

I never consider "tells" IC.  Some people consider everything not on the OOC channel as IC, which I think is wierd.  But to each their own, I guess.

Well I have a few more pet-peeves to add.

In Non-permadeath, Role-Play mandatory MUDs:

- The super heroic character that will race into ANY type of danger, because "he'll just come back"

-People who break character to complain about loosing a level due to dying.  Then complain even more about how much experience they to level back up.

-Pking, just because you can - with zero RP.

-and I think that's it. Since most of my others have been covered.

So if you were playing a mud with a telepath class, or a futuristic mud with mobile phones (or "cell phones", or "handy's", or whatever you call them in your country), you would simply treat the "tells" as OOC?

Tells are the universal OOC channel for -most- muds. I know in a few (particularily Arm) that tells are merely a variant of sayto, and thus are IC, but there are other OOC channels that for all purposes, are tells.

Your point makes little sense, if you're using one of hte afformentioned means of communication, then it would be IC. But tells are something different entirely and have no IC restraints except where reasonable.

I deleted my post. Nyril pretty much said the same thing as I did.

SOrry for the double post. I'm not sure how I did it.

Tells are simply a means of sending a message to another player in the mud.  Whether or not they are OOC depends entirely on the mud and implementation in question.

And that was my very point.  A 'tell' can be IC or OOC and - like many of the points raised here - how appropriate it is to a roleplaying mud depends entirely on the theme of that mud.

Thus going back to the 'telepathy' example I gave previously: In a high-fantasy mud where the player classes all possessed powerful telepathic skills, even a stock 'tell' command could very reasonably be considered IC.

And even if you want to try a really tacky argument like claiming that the definition of 'tell' is 'an OOC message' (which it isn't), I think I should point out that the original poster specifically stated '"IC" tells'.

I know that in my mud we can easily tell the difference between an IC tell and a OOC tell. I mean, - XXX tells you, "Might you assist me in finding a place as to where I can purchase a well crafted sword?" -  It isn't hard to tell this is an IC tell compared to - XXX tells you, "dude, ya wanna help me find a neat sword?" - In my mud if the tell is IC it is usually interpreted as a note/letter that has been given to you.  
So IC tells aren't bad RP, they can be used for very good RP if you use them right.

                   --  Raevan.

back to the "IC" tells, by tells i mean the tell command that everyone gets, not some psion skill. If it makes sense for some class/race/group of people to be telepathic, fine. But tells aren't a skill, and they don't require any magical ability whatsoever. The magic-hating warrior/barbarian can still use these "IC".

The issue isnt with differentiating between IC tells and OOC tells, its that the tell itself makes no sense - that you can communicate with anyone, anywhere, regardless of any other factors. That does not make sense, especially since you can't tell someone when they're logged of, but ICly they'd still be around... and sleeping can't account for 100% of your OOC time.

Don't split hairs with me on this "implementation" stuff, because honestly, you know what I meant. If it's actually represented as a skill, then it's a psion/mage/whatever skill, not a tell. We've all played a stock mud here at least once, so we all know what i mean by tells. The kind where you type tell XXX <message> and there is no "tell" under prac/skills/slist/whatever.

You're still over-generalising.  What is wrong with these scenarios, for example?

Scenario 1: Standard medieval/fantasy setting.

> tell bubba hi there, how's it going?
You scribble down a note to Bubba which says 'hi there, how's it going?'.
You take a carrier pidgeon from the cage across your back and tie the note to its foot.
The pidgeon springs from your shoulder and flies off.

Scenario 2: Standard medieval/fantasy setting (based on Raeven's post).

> tell bubba hi there, how's it going?
You scribble down a note to Bubba which says 'hi there, how's it going?'.
You pass the note to a nearby messenger boy along with a copper coin.
The boy runs off through the crowd.

Scenario 3: Fantasy setting where PCs all possess telepathic powers.

> tell bubba hi there, how's it going?
You send a telepathic message to Bubba saying 'hi there, how's it going?'

Scenario 4: Modern day setting.

> tell bubba hi there, how's it going?
You send Bubba an SMS on your mobile phone which says 'hi there, how's it going?'

Scenario 5: Futuristic setting.

> tell bubba hi there, how's it going?
You send Bubba a message through your cybernetic modem, asking 'hi there, how's it going?'

That's a different problem entirely, and one which relates to numerous aspects of the mud.  It can be handled reasonably well with tells, although parts of the game are not as easy.

I've never played a "stock game" that had a OOC command called "tell", and had no idea what you folks were talking about. The only game I've ever played that had -any- command called "tell" is Armageddon. The tell command there lets you address a specific person when you're talking to them in the same room.

Sitting on the couch beside him, the red-haired girl tells the green-eyed man, "It's good to see you again, uncle!"

That is the -only- tell I have experience with.

As for global OOC chat channels, yeah I agree. Since the thread is asking about RP pet peeves, and not non-RP pet peeves, I think global OOC chat channels totally distract and detract from RP. We have an OOC command that sends your message to the room you're in. It's distracting, but it's currently the only way a new player can get help in the game from other players.

Some of us have been pushing for OOC to be directable, so when the newbie asks.. OOC I'm not sure what to do next, can someone help me?.. whoever answers can ooc (red-haired) Yeah..let's go somewhere else so I can help you.. and the only person who would see the OOC response is the red-haired guy.

We don't have global channels, and therefore have no need to turn them off. It's a RP-intensive, RP-enforced, RP-hardcore game. Global channels have no place in the game, and so we don't have them.

The OOC command is seen only in the room where the person is using it. It's not too distracting most of the time, but can be annoying if a newbie who hasn't spent 20 minutes reading the main documentation shows up asking where he can get eq or how does he lvl.

I've come up with a few pet peeves of my own..

1) People who do stupid things and then bitch about the concequences after.
I mean, how difficult is it to realize that if you walk into the Sarlaac's mouth/insult or attack an Imperial trooper/insult or annoy a Hutt/annoy Vader or other Sith you're in Deep Trouble™.
And the sad thing is...there are people who've walked into the Sarlacc and then bitched that they got eaten and asked to be brought back. It's only happened twice that I know of, but each time the Admin - and the playerbase - have all said that, since the PC who got gobbled didn't pay attention to the room descs, they don't get the right to be brought back.

2) People who try and make their char the prettiest/strongest/handsomest/etc whatever.
People. We can not all be pretty or strong or smart or brave. It'd be nice if we could be - but we can't, in real life. So why do you think things would be much different in a MU*?
Besides, it's more interesting to play a char with flaws; perfection is boring.

3) People who assume that just because no PCs are around, no one at all is there.
Generally, I find that people like this come from a Hack-'n-Slash MU* where, if there wasn't any player in the room with them, it would hold true that there was no one at all in the room besides them.
On RP MU* this is not true. NPCs are everywhere. And even if they aren't in the room with you - and odds are that they will be, normally - they're still somewhere nearby a lot of the time. You can't just walk into an apartment and pick up the stuff there without the cops getting called by a neighbour.
And yet...everytime one of these guys gets caught in the act, they say "But there wasn't anyone there!"
Think, bucko. What are the odds in Real Life that you'd be able to walk into a store and just take the cashbox or whatever you want without getting in trouble for it sooner or later? That's right; pretty low.
So why the bleepin' blue blazes do you assume that in an RP MU* things would be any different? I mean...if you're out in space on an abandoned ship, it's reasonable to assume you're the only one there. Or if you're in the wild or something. But in a city? Fergeddit!

4) People who use OOC info IC'ly or try and do that.
If there's no way at all for someone to know something IC'ly, even if the player knows it, then the player shouldn't RP the char as knowing it.

5) Twinks and powergamers in general.
You are not Superman. You cannot kill at a hundred paces with the glare of your eyes alone; you can be killed; and the odds of you being able to throw people through solid steel walls are very low (unless, of course, you're of a race that has the strength to do so). And you cannot kill people before they have time to react - or at least very, very rarely can you.

6) Inconsistancy in general.
Pick a storyline. Stick to it. Do not deviate from this storyline, even if a hundred flying monkies come into your house and threaten unspeakable things unless you do so.
Don't for sanity's sake, waver between saying your parents were killed by an assassin and saying they were kidnapped and you never saw them again. Not that this has actually ever happened to me or anyone that I know of.
But still..

7) People who try and go against the theme and/or canon.
You are not God, where the MU* is concerned. Only the Head Admin is the god. Only they get to say what the theme is.
Therefore, you have no excuse to run around as a serial killer if your race is IC'ly very, very pacifistic (unless your char goes nuts, in which case you're the exception not the rule). If you do in fact do this, don't be surprised when the Admin smack you down as hard as they friggin' can. Or even just not approve your app.
Yes, being original is good. But stay within canon, please.

8) People who try and be Mary Sue/Marty Stu.
You know the person. The one who's a poster child for all the cliched items on any Admin's list of what not to approve.
The orphan who has a dozen stories for how her parents vanished. The pirate who never misses a shot or fails to seduce a woman. The Good Guy who always, always, always wins (in his mind) - and complains when he doesn't.
Please, if you're one of these people, take thyself to a therapist and get help. You can't always be perfect, IC'ly or otherwise. whether it's perfectly helpless or tragic, perfectly sexy, or perfectly...perfect. People won't believe it - and sooner or later, they'll get ticked and shun you as best they can. And I honestly don't blame them.

9) PCs who don't participate when you try and get an RP plot going.
Maybe this happens to every Admin sooner or later. But there's only so much one can do before you have to get the players actually participating rather than just reacting.
And when they don't, the plot collapses like a dirt wall in a torrential downpour.

10) People who bitch about the lack of RP when they have IC means of going and interacting with others.
Okay, there's a few of these people at my home MU*. One or two of them are on the wanted list IC'ly so they don't want to go out and risk their hides.
What, you want us to bring the RP to you? This is not take-out-and-delivery! You must put in a minimum of effort to get RP - meaning you have to haul yourself out of whatever hole you're hiding in and take the chance that, yes, a bounty hunter will see you and capture you. But if you aren't willing to make that effort, then stop your whining already.

And looking back over this, it sounds more rant-y than I meant it to..

The people who should be arrested for aggravated melodrama. You know the ones. EVERYTHING happens to them. All the time. They’re like that woman in the silent movies who gets tied to the tracks. EVERY WEEK.

It is important that players take responsibility for making things happen. And tension and conflict are good. But sheesh! Camille! Wear a sweater for goodness sake. They are dying of plague and they’ve been robbed and they’re about to give birth, and they want you to stop your political intrigue and machinations to comfort them because their lover left them for another man/woman/orc/pair of earplugs.

It’s not that they’re rping too much. It’s that instead of rping with you, they’re rping at you. And it’s annoying.