Sometimes it's easy and other times it's really really hard, but it always makes nice close friends very happy so it's a useful skill to keep in shape. : >

I agree it's still a nice skill to have, met some friends through roleplaying in the past too

I know exactly how you feel. I'm still kinda going through this situation. My advice would be to keep looking and trying. My ideal rp partner is someone that actually thinks sbout and describes what they are saying. It's not fair when your the one doing all the work. Also, someone that you can trust with knowing the details of your kinks helps ADMICELY. More fun like that~

Oh boy the one-sided RP, it's hard to type out anything meaningful when all you get is a 2 word response. But to be fair, even the good roleplaying can start out with the quick lil responses and build up to more detailed and engaging content. But thanks and I'll keep looking around when I have the time to.

My best roleplays have started with one sentence teases!

But again here's when I think "role play partners" plays in. When it's strangers, there's no inherent reward to doing something one sided, and you may never see each other again; when it's a long term partner, you may do it all for them now, and then months later they'll do it for you. I've had RPs I've remembered for years and I barely participated after the story gained momentum, it was all them, and me being incredibly grateful and really only commenting in parenthesis how overwhelmed I was. Of course I've also been the one doing the ride.
It's great.
But it won't work if there's no connection long term, and a kind of agreement to scratch each other's back.

Same here, even a simple back & forth of ideas has lead to fun RP sessions, but the most important part is that "scratching each other's back". That (more the absence of it) has sadly killed my interest in roleplaying faster than most anything and makes typing out turns feel like a chore.

I tried my best to keep up with rp's for a long while, as I was looking for a sorta long term, world building sort of rp, but I could never find someone who actively wanted that. Nowadays, I do verbal & VR rp, as it's much easier, and forces the other person to at least engage in some way

I've tried long term ones too but either party getting too busy with life tended to kill that; it is very ambitious and rewarding but takes a lot of time commitment from both people. I think there's a time and place for that and RPing that doesn't require a whole lot of worldbuilding elements, but either way both can be as fun or as stale as the the roleplayers make it

The RPing spread distribution goes:

Subs/Victims >>>> Switches >>>>>>>>> Doms >>>>>>> Good Doms >>> Good Subs/Victims.

Just like the Tupperware cabinet, a million bottoms and no tops 😛

But yeah I've noticed a very similar trend from my experience too. Not a fan of most seemingly falling into the same types of "personalities" but it is what it is I guess.

It's very difficult: as hard to find as a good long term sex partner, probably.
You're looking for someone with skill, imagination, motivation to engage, and enough in common with you so that you can get deeper into each other's tastes to keep going on for years.
Also, at least personally, the friends I've found who RP with me are among my closest. It's really like being fantasy lovers. Not because the fantasies are very sweet (but they can be) but because they're a labor of love, even if they are about crushing your bones, and you withstanding the pain, so that you don't interrupt their enjoyment.
Anyway those are my two cents. Depth over breadth!

Really appreciate the comment! That would certainly be ideal but but as you said that is quite challenging, especially considering all the various conflicts like life stuff, interests, skill, and all the other things. Depth is something I really enjoy but in general I just haven't seen much of it; there's always exceptions but the lack of it to me makes responses read like a school essay then actually trying to play a character. I should probably be more on top of making my expectations clearer when things potentially transition into roleplaying.

> responses read like a school essay rather than actually trying to play a character

NAILED IT!

You can tell when someone is passionate about it; and what's a school essay but someone trying to fill as many pages as possible talking about a topic they don't care just so they can get the chore done? If it feels like a school essay, they're not into it; I'd actually try to politely interrupt the RP or switch into meta conversation to explain why it's not going the way I expect it.

I tend to talk a lot about interests before I try to RP, because I need to know the person, and know what gets them going. It can't be a chore! And if I'm going to type out a whole story for them, I want something back; if they're not going to scratch my back, at least I want to see their excitement, whether in meta-comments (in parenthesis or marked with OOC like in the before times), or by seeing them put the passion back into their writing, however short it is.

That said, making expectations clear from the get go also makes roleplaying less likely (but better if it happens). Mmm...

...yeah, what can I say, finding a roleplaying partner is like dating. Some time ago I went out looking for RP partners, and BOY is it hard, you really have to be friends first. As we just discussed here, casual RP is generally just like...

you: *You type a book*
them: "murr, so hot"

Xd right?

Or...

you: *passionate introduction*
them: *school essay*

Last but not least, skill can be improved, provided there's motivation ~v~

That's true, a little nudging can go pretty far in encouraging improvement. I definitely need to improve some things on my side and thanks a bunch for all the help