Role Playing Question.

[zorbels]

Let us not forget that it isn't harmful by any stretch of the imagination to type ....

* zorbels sits on the ground and plays with her tail while watching her friends engage in an important conversation.

That still keeps you apart of the roleplay and adds visual, for those of use who like that sort of thing. So ....

* zorbels smells a foul like smell coming from Abominogs way and steps a few feet back "Abominogs, what have you eaten today?"

This lets everyone know where you are coming from and what you are trying to roleplay so that others can join in and it then doesn't seem like we can all mind read. The Abominogs character then has a window of opportunity to change where the roleplay is going if he/she doesn't like it and do something like .....

Abominogs smirks and then lifts up a bag of rotten fish he found laying by the river "It isn't me! I picked this bag up by the river and planned on throwing it out before it attracted some harmful wild life to the water front."

* zorbels laughs "I find it hard to believe that smell would attract anything."

[Peacer]

it seems that this is a common trait for people who just started rp'ing... I did it too after realising myself that other people actually couldn't respond to /me thinks that someone is looking ugly because...... i would strongly not recommend this as it gives no chance to the other person to respond as it isn't in any way physical.

[daehaz]

I don't think it is bad to do it. What is wrong is to respond to that. You know that your character has no natural way to learn what a /me thinks/feels/wonders emote would describe. You can do it to give the other players a clue of what your intentions may be or just to be funny, so as long as the others around the character emoting something like this react in a logical way there shouldn't be no problems. After all, we do think/feel/wonder stuff while having conversations IRL, the difference is that nobody knows about them (so the characters shouldn't reply as if they did). Now, considering the number of players who would call you by your name even if they never met you before just because of the "it's hanging above your head" logic I guess this "non omniscient" RP is harder to do...

Let's just hope for the common sense to be more common...

[tssthorn]

I have actaully thoult of this a few times when I have use somthing like that. It made me think how could they know what I was thinking. Actaully it has gotten to a point where it actaully irritates me when I do that. Sure it can be more informative of what your charecter is really doing ... but, even in RL somone could step to the side and give an odd look but you still don't know the reason ... so in my oppinion RPing the correct way would actaully can that whole "/me thinks" thing. I m sure if you can handle not knowing what somone is thinking in RL then I am absolutly sure you can handle it in RP. Also in my oppinion .. not nkowing why somone say rolls there eyes kind of gives you a better sense of realism and actaully can add to personality of charecters. For example ...

Incorrect

* tssthorn rolls eyes thinking of somthing silly

Response (Incorrect)

* N/A wonders what tssthorn is thinking

Correct

* tssthorn rolls eyes

Response
* N/A's  eyes widen "Why are you rolling your eyes at me!!"


But you see what I mean? It will allow other to think of possibly why that person did what he or she did instead of just knowing. I think that most deffently give a sense of more realism.

[Under the moon]

Ok, as I play a mute Bolia, I have to deal with nothing but emotes when in her shoes. I have never once said what was in her head, yet people always seem to know exactly what she is thinking. Understanding her signs is another thing entirely.

I use "as if" and "seems" quite often, as that leaves the mood open for interpretation. "Is" is also not the best of responses for mood, as people will not know exactly how your character is feeling.

Aeshion is happy.

Aeshion looks happy.

There is a huge difference to those two statements. One is peeking directly into her mind, while the other is surface only. Let me expand on why.

Aeshion is happy.   End of story. people know that you are happy, but have not really been drawn in.

Aeshion looks happy (but is really rather down because she has yet to find any flowers in the hills, but she does not wish to upset the mood, so puts on her smile)

Everything in () is what you know, but can't be seen at first glance. Now, if you want others to ask you about it...

Aeshion looks happy, but you may notice that her smile slips every time her eyes drift to the door, perhaps gazing out at the distant hills.

That tells players that you are interested in talking about what is bothering you character, but does not give awy too much. In real life, you can indeed tell when someone is looking off into the distance, and see small changes in her face. Now, some folks in the room may not have seen this. "you may notice" lets players decide for themselves what their character may see. "Perhaps" gives them some thought on what you are thinking, but not what it is. The entire statement is only what can bee seen by other's eyes, yet gives the same mood as the other example. It also engagues other players more, and draw them into you roleplay, as they, as the player, start to wonder what might be up. Telling them right out detracks from that, and takes out any mystery in the situation. Let's take the first again, and see about a response.

Aeshion looks happy but is really rather down because she has yet to find any flowers in the hills, but she does not wish to upset the mood, so puts on her smile.

That is actually hard to respond to, as you already know what is bothering her. You can ask "Aeshion, what is bothering you?" to which she would respond in handspeak (if you know it) "I hoped you would not notice. I have yet to find any flowers in the hills, and it is making me sad." That is very redundant and hard to make into a conversation. The bad breath smell is the same. No one is going to ask what you smell if you already told them 'mentally'.

So, in this way 'self' messages do detract from RP, as it predetermines the conversation to an extent, and robs the other players of that 'wondering' moment. It is that wondering that I use constantly to draw people into my roleplaying and make them interested. Call it a small form of manipulation, but it works very well. Ask anybody who has met Aeshion.

[Monketh]

I have to say I agree with the sentiment that the thoughts of characters should not be expressed in /me.
Last time I checked (which was admittedly long ago,) Planeshift was not a Shakespearean play in which characters utter asides.

[zanzibar]

I have to say I agree with the sentiment that the thoughts of characters should not be expressed in /me.
Last time I checked (which was admittedly long ago,) Planeshift was not a Shakespearean play in which characters utter asides.

Though unfortunately, today's gamers are more influenced by Yugio than Shakespeare...

[Siteri Kidachi]

I disagree. If that were true, rather than RPing fights, everyone would RP playing card games against their enemies.

"I'm going to destroy the world with my surprisingly ineffectual powers!"
"Not if I lay this card in defense mode, you won't!"

[zanzibar]

I disagree. If that were true, rather than RPing fights, everyone would RP playing card games against their enemies.

"I'm going to destroy the world with my surprisingly ineffectual powers!"
"Not if I lay this card in defense mode, you won't!"

I meant more in terms of internal dialogues.  It seems like a lot of anime shows have a dumb amount of internal dialogue.  It wouldn't be so bad if these characters actually had something to say.

[Monketh]

Actually, upon reconsideration, I have concluded that asides are OK.
...as long as they're in iambic pentameter.

I can second on the large amonts of trivial internal dialogue.  Honestly, it'd be nice if a lot of anime shows had non-trivial dialogue period.  (Standalone Complex forever!)  When one thinks about it, a large amount of the players which visit PS come from a subculture bombarded by exaggerated (or inappropriate) images of how to act.  They may go about thinking out loud in their real lives, too.  They are simply used to it, so it is probably best just to politely inform them that this behavior is bad RP.

[Seytra]

Indeed I second the OP, and I've seen this thing constantly right from the beginning. However, this is something that I don't consider to be as harmful as many other things, and actually I'm quite happy if someone manages to RP well enough so that this is their only flaw. I always ignore these things from an IC PoV, since if my char were trying to read someone else's mind, I'd first /me (if appropriate), then add an OOC explanation and clarification (possibly in /tell) and ask for the results. However, I see that there sometimes may be some use for it, like when a player feels not sufficiently able to formulate sufficiently well to avoid misinterpretations, and it would otherwise have to be said as OOC. Thus, I wouldn't generally flag it as bad RP, just as "use with caution".

This applies to ingame, where it is easy to ask for details, clarify misunderstandings, etc., in short: to interact. When I post in an RP section, then I use curly brackets to designate internal dialogue if I consider it necessary for a significant number of readers to understand why my char is acting that way, because it is completely impractical to ask, inform or clarify in a post, especially if it gets read a year after it was posted. This often goes along with some describing of actions. In fact, I expect the other characters in the thread to not know any of it: it's solely for the readers.

Ingame, I've recently "tested" the value of internal dialogue in cases like "/me ponders whether (whatever)", but have found it to not be of benefit, not even to myself.

This topic is closely related to general noticing: Often it occurs that a player /me's things like squinting or something like this. I have come to realise that indeed the intention most often is to draw attention to this fact, and that there rarely is a case where those interacting with that character do not notice it, even if it is really minor, or pretty unspectacular. Thus I have decided to notice most of the time, and if I don't see reason that my char would notice, not expressly give a "/me doesn't notice <whatever>" as a sompromise to avoid OOC confusion.

My view and use of /me-ing is to try to describe as good as possible what happens, which may easily include things of lesser significance, stated only to add to the atmosphere, more for the other player's benefit than the other char's. I don't /me completely irrelevant things, though.

Also, I'd like to use this opportunity to clarify something that I've seen commented on on some other thread: there are times where I /say a mere "...". This isn't spamming the chat box, it is significant: it means that my char is still closely following the conversation at hand, but decidedly not speaking (in contrast to me being AFK or merely busy) without clogging the chatbox. This seems more pleasant than repeating "/me remains silent" all the time.

[bilbous]

Also, I'd like to use this opportunity to clarify something that I've seen commented on on some other thread: there are times where I /say a mere "...". This isn't spamming the chat box, it is significant: it means that my char is still closely following the conversation at hand, but decidedly not speaking (in contrast to me being AFK or merely busy) without clogging the chatbox. This seems more pleasant than repeating "/me remains silent" all the time.

You could just grunt ... "uh huh", "sure", "ah" and etc. To each their own I suppose.