i find it weird that people are willing to be so possessive and attached to designs but aren't willing to pay an artist any money to design their characters for them so they can own those designs and have a right to be possessive and attached.

Maybe I just lack empathy but I just cannot understand why people in the roleplay community are sometimes so obsessed with ascribing malice where none exists.

I probably didn't explain my point eloquently enough, so I get where the confusion comes from. One of the mindset differences we have is that I consider most roleplayers to come from a place of inherent goodness, i.e. they do not set out to change the entire setting to their needs, but they may introduce details that you hadn't thought of.

From that point, if you create vagueness in a setting, you either have to run a tight ship, or just accept that writers collaborating means new creative ideas get introduced. There's nothing wrong with that. If I create a fictional town and don't specify it doesn't have a bakery, I shouldn't be upset if someone writes a bakery into the setting.

Exceptions to the rule are the lifeblood of many stories, so it's not weird to consider there are roleplayers who will introduce exceptions to the rule as their focal character.

You can either take a prescriptive approach ("you can only write what is specifically in the setting"), or you can just...chill out a bit, assume some good on people, and let them introduce new things to the setting or bend things a little. If all nobles are spellcasters, let someone play the magicless noble. If monsters are ferocious demons, let someone have a monster that's docile for some reason. When everyone woke up with a super power on 17 July 2025, what's the harm in letting someone wake up with them on 21 July 2025 instead?

If it's important, define your setting, explain why a particular detail is set in stone. All nobles are spellcasters because the king immediately confers nobility on anyone who can cast magic, and he has a magic device that pinpoints magicians. All monsters are ferocious demons because they are the embodiment of chaos and are driven by this singular force of destruction. People woke up with their super powers on that specific day because aliens unleashed an experimental device that modified people's genes on that exact day, and its effects are instantaneous.

Most sites don't have an overarching staff-ran plot anyway and run with "character-driven" (i.e. we provide the setting, you provide everything else) plots.


It's fine, you know? Trust other writers.

At the end of the day, the grief is a sign you truly loved your dog, and if you feel such grief and guilt, then you've probably drawn out your very best to give your furry family all the love you have.

Find solace with your loved ones. Let yourself grieve.

one of my dear friends is going through the same thing as you. her cat was given to her when she started chemo as a child, and she lived to be quite old. in her last few years of life and my friend was newly an adult, she was struggling a lot with her cat's health, as her parents had never even taken her cat to the vet outside of getting her fixed. she went through a very long, arduous and expensive trauma trying to do the best she could for her cat, and eventually, it became apparent that no matter what she did, it would never be enough. her cat's health just wasn't getting better, and in the end, she was able to have a vet come to her home and put her to sleep. it was sad, but ultimately she knew that it was the right thing to do for her beloved pet. she said she didn't feel better, and for many days after her cat's passing, she was understandably, an emotional wreck. not because her cat was gone, but because she felt guilt for feeling relieved that it was finally all over.

i don't know you like that, obviously, on the other hand: possible de , but be kind to yourself. you did what was best for your dog, and while you might not feel like it, know that choosing to euthanize our pets when it's their time is the kindest thing we can do for them. i've had pets come and go, and it never gets easy. there's something about the childhood family pet dying that just destroys you, and i think it's important to let yourself feel those feelings. it's understandable, and natural to have complex feelings about the person or creature you're caring for when you're their primary caretaker. it's fucking exhausting and often a thankless job. you care about your dog, but the financial and emotional stress that comes with caring for an aging pet is just a lot.

that's all to say, it's okay to not just feel sad. it's okay to feel guilt (though you have nothing to feel guilty for, obviously). the good times, and the love will come back, i promise.

Follow-up: I now have no idea how to make it work when there are multiple bbcodes at play.