Die Shize

Only under an umbrella can one be saved from the rain.

@Deus Ex Aizen All I know is that I'd be dandy and delighted to dance a roleplay with you. I don't think we've ever actually roleplayed together for as long as I've been around these here parts, though my back is aching and my knees are weak and my gums are in my glass o' water but

It doesn't particularly annoy me to have my characters mentioned in other threads. If the PC mentions my character in an incorrect way, I'll chalk it up to the PC not having their facts straight. The only time it annoys me at all is if there's no reason behind mentioning my character to begin with, and rather they're being mentioned because mentioned. It's similar to the "All PC Tavern" effect. There's a tavern full of people, but each roleplayer posts their playable character spotting only everyone else's playable character. The NPCs are basically ignored and if someone else's PC is at a location in the tavern that your own character probably wouldn't bother looking at, well, your character is going to look at it anyway. "Jack spotted the assassin [PC] in the dark corner, even though he was talking to the bartender. Jack also watched the elf [PC] as he sat down at the table, even though Jack really didn't care what the elf was doing." I mean, there's just no need for the acknowledgment unless a definable purpose is provided. PCs in a tavern, PCs mentioned in threads they're not active in... You name it. If there's a good reason, then okay. If not, don't bother.

That’s the thing about writing and roleplay in particular. Many different writers in the world may have never met each other, never mind written together. In roleplay, we meet each other and we write together. So we’re essentially fusing our different styles together, different proses, first person colliding with third person, author POV vs character POV. For the most part, I’ve encountered few issues with this soup, but common ground can help. For instance, as I learn to tone down on how much I describe a person, place or thing, I might start a rp thread with some meat in the details of the overall environment, fleshing it out. But I limit how descriptive I get after that. Reasons being because anyone can refer to the first post if need be, and can describe bits and pieces together as the thread goes on. But so much still boils down to personal preference. Like Kitty, I often enjoy the purple prose, read or write. Other times, I’m after something quick and less meditative. Whether “a lot” is ever “too much” is subjective, but I do believe in a time and place for detail. A character in a cozy cottage, where most of the story takes place, warrants some bread and butter in the description of the environment. I want to read flowery words on what makes the cottage so homely, what smells emanate from the kitchen, what grows in the garden. But if the setting is a city street where a melee duel is taking place, description means less to me. I don’t so much care about who is watching or what stores flank the street. Unless the fight is PVP, then “he swung his sword horizontally from his left to right, attempting to slash across his opponent’s stomach” can be shortened to “he slashed across his opponent’s stomach”. Let the reader picture the scene and determine for themselves how the attack actually goes—if they want to. There’s no other rper who needs to know the orientation OOC at that point, so who cares?

That sounds like nothing I would ever do. Kidding. ; ) One of the few statements I would select to characterize my prose is that I never roleplay like I write and I never write like I roleplay. Where Kitty tones the purple down for roleplay, I do the reverse. Purple drips from my roleplay prose in shimmering violet and dark purple, because for me there’s a paradoxical difference in “roleplaying” and “writing” even though both rely on text (for the most part). Though it usually depends on what character I am using. I generally don’t get so wackily metaphorical or adjectival with a more serious character, like Vadrian over in Orisia. Certos, my mercenary with a conscience the size of a grain of sand and a sense of humor that escaped from a mental asylum, well, the prose there is a whole other story. I’m also not saying any of my proses actually work, but purple is certainly one of my favorite colors. @HotPizza I’ve found, both in reading and writing, that the best description is action. You can describe a lamp as beautiful, antique, polished, but those words really don’t do anything for the reader on their own. Now, if you say that the lamp’s light bathed the room in a warm yellow, silver lines coiled around its black body, its shade looked like something that had just crawled out of grandpa’s attic, then to me that’s always been a more immersive route. Adjectives are so often based on the eye of the observer, too. What is beautiful for one person might be ugly for another, and unless you’re writing limited point of view, where the character narrates instead of you and the reader is basically inside the character’s head, then you’re otherwise forcing “beautiful” onto the reader. I’ve also learned the hard way that it’s easy to forget descriptions if they’re not directly tied to what’s happening. Three pages describing a bedroom, even with wondrous prose and discriminatingly beautiful furniture, will probably be forgotten about three pages later. When readers can absorb themselves into what’s happening, into the action, then it’s already getting described to them. Provide description, yes, as it’s needed, but act out more than you describe. Show them what’s happening. They can piece everything else together. When it comes roleplay, they can do more: they can piece it together with you.

Sorry, I didn't get that. Please say again. I said I need to eat the buttered donkey, you said sorry you didn't get that and I said well how about a kiss on the beak? But noooo, everyone's still flying around Venus like it's some sorta circus maximus for the space monkeys. Tell ya what. Take these two bundles of bundles inside a bigger bundle and turkey feathers inside that, take it to Uncle Zoe--my uncle, not yours--and ask him if he's got my Sword of the Merry ready yet and I'll let you pick my cabbage and sell it back to me. There's one flaw in your schiltron of a plan, master, which is that I'm all out of pastries and Jack van Danvers has buried himself inside the sewers again. Hmmm... that crafty sasquatch, m'ya say? ...N-No, no. Not a sasquatch, m'lord. But a big bard better than Beethoven on a summer's eve when your grandmother has just heated up the kettle. Ohhh? Ohhh... Ohhh! So you're saying I can finally fly inside a cupcake?

I am so pleased that you addressed this. I have experimented with a handful of different styles. Some didn’t work for me, some worked for me, some worked for me but didn’t work for others. But the whole point was to experiment, experience and expand. I tried first person narrative. I found that I only enjoy reading/writing first person if it fits the context. In my experiment, I was roleplaying as myself from IRL, so first person felt warranted. I’ve tried a crazy/comical flair for writing, with even the narrative designed to be clownish, but I’ve only met one person who could successfully roleplay under a wacky writing style. I’ve tried breaking the fourth wall. It was a fun failure, and I got some grief for it, but I don’t think people realized that it was simply to experiment and that I don’t usually do it. I agree overall that constructive criticism, not grief, should be granted those adventurous folk who experiment with different writing styles. Not everyone likes to be tied down to the same prose, and improvement often results from experimenting. However, it’s important to remember that it’s ultimately a group setting, and those experiments need to work within the group, and not necessarily upon the group in any adverse way. I learned that lesson a few hard times in a few different threads by roleplaying a drunk character. The intention was for him to be obnoxious comic relief. The outcome was that he was just obnoxious lol. But there you go: lesson learned. I experimented and discovered one hundred ways of how not to rp as a drunk. Yet, the experiment affected the group in an overall negative way. So, yes, such endeavors are exhilarating, but they are also essentially calculated risks that should factor in the group of individuals, rather than a group of lab rats.

Best word to describe eyes is “eyes”.

I haven’t experienced that as much as a rper making their char smirk to make their char appear cool and tough because smirking is cool and tough and all the cool tough kids are doing it.

Take it all with a pinch of parsley, friend. Some of the things mentioned in this thread are pretty blatant no-no’s. On the other hand, some are totally down to personal preference. ”Smirking” isn’t something I do IC or OOC, or “grinning” for that matter. But there are occasions where it’s warranted and, personally, I’d rather read that your character simply grinned than 50+ words of your describing how your character’s lips pulled and twisted and turned and spun. I see this thread as a teaching tool but also an outlet for pet peeves, so tread carefully as far as deciding what to improve on. Graphics in IC posts, as another example, is not inherently right or wrong. I’ve seen a rper include flash and gif and vid and etc in his posts and it was just stellar-kellar and a blast to read. A nice change from just text, since roleplay has always been more to me than mere words. I only want words if I’m picking up a book to read, but roleplay is its own beast. I also tend to include youtube music videos in my IC as like a theme song, spoiler’d, but even that’s just down to personal pref on my end and whoever hates looking at spoiler’d youtube music videos on theirs.

Certos once helped Dredge attack a village, but Certos is a sociopathic mercenary in it for the money, a guy who was amused when Dredge killed a vile bandit that Certos didn’t like. So already a bit of EvE dynamic there. If Dredge or any opposition can offer the right price, Certos is for hire, though neither of us are super active these days.

Actually, I don’t want your recommendations. ❤️

Good point. I should have mentioned at the outset. For PC, mainly looking for RTS, 4X and such. Total War is definitely on my list. But I also enjoy mods, so I could even play something like No Man's Sky or Mass Effect on PC. I'd only really do MP if it's like an MMORPG like WOW but I hesitate to get that game.