Post by Dr. Hendrei Gromsinger on Jun 28, 2021 19:41:14 GMT
This is by no means a complete collection of good RP principles, but a smattering of things I've found to be helpful. It is in addition to this legendary visual. You will find other people who may dispute much of what I have to say.
Posting Order
In a thread, it is often helpful to have a posting order. Suppose Larry, Moe, and Curly are sitting in a room, conversing, the order may be:
1. Larry
2. Moe
3. Curly
Or
1. Curly
2. Moe
3. Larry
Compare this to turn-taking in most board games. It serves to make sure that everyone has a chance to post, and no small group runs ahead with the thread.
A post order can develop organically. Imagine the following:
Moishe opens the thread by walking into a pub.
Herschele joins him and starts a conversation.
Moishe replies to Herschele.
Tevye walks in and joins them.
The logical posting order now would be
1. Herschele.
2. Moishe.
3. Tevye.
This is because Tevye has inserted himself after Moishe, before Herschele.
If Moishe decides that Tevye is lame, and thus leaves, then he is no longer part of the posting order.
An Exception to Post Order: the n-Hour Rule
Post orders needn't be absolute. Suppose now that we have a scene with this post order:
1. John
2. Paul
3. George
4. Ringo
Now suppose Ringo has posted, and John doesn't reply (perhaps he's too busy with his girlfriend). What do we do?
If John gives the others permission to skip him, then they can skip him.
However, in case John is incommunicado, we can follow a convention where after n hours, we can just skip John. For the purposes of Dagestan, I think we will make n=48, so two days of grace, measured from the time Ringo posted.
In any case, if John is skipped, the order must be maintained, so Paul is next to post. Paul, too, gets 48 hours, so if 96 hours (4 days) after Ringo has posted, no one else has, then George can skip both John and Paul.
Dialogue Colors
Old-school RPers hate these, but I love them. Especially when you are using multiple characters in one post, you use a different color for the dialogue spoken by each of them. Take, for example, my sample posts.
This way, it is easier to keep track of who is speaking.
If you're not using NPCs, this becomes a purely aesthetic thing.
Location Tags
This is another contentious thing, but I find it good practice to, at the header of your post, the location where your character is.
For example, if Jean-Luc is on the bridge of the Federation Starship Enterprise, his location tag might be:
[Bridge, USS Enterprise]
When multiple characters are used, you can also include their names. Example:
[Pres. Yulia Meyers & Dr. Mahmoud Gaidarov - Presidential Train, Makhachkala-Derbent Line]
This tag tells you that the turquoise color (that clashes with the site theme) is Yulia's, and the purple is Mahmoud's, and therefore more easily recognize who is speaking when they start chatting later. It also tells you that I will be using both of these characters, and that they are together on the train. Location tags can also establish other things, like that Mahmoud is a doctor (in his case, a dentist) and Yulia is the President.
Consensus
Before you make a dramatic move, even if it is IC appropriate, speak to the GM and your co-players. People don't like it when you suddenly scramble all their plans.
Likewise, before you establish major IC canon, get OOC consensus around it.
Length
One-liners are poor form. We want to know a little about why your character just did what they did.
Long, winding diatribes about your character's entire stream of consciousness are also poor form. We don't care that much.
There's no hard-and-fast rule for this, but find a balance.
Tagging
Ideally, ping people in the Discord server when you tag them in a thread.
Multiple Threads
If you're up to it, I find that it can be a good experience to be in multiple threads at once, even with the same character. However, you must be careful to make sure you do not create temporal paradoxes.
Usually, I set my less impactful threads before my more impactful ones, to conserve the space-time continuum.
Posting Order
In a thread, it is often helpful to have a posting order. Suppose Larry, Moe, and Curly are sitting in a room, conversing, the order may be:
1. Larry
2. Moe
3. Curly
Or
1. Curly
2. Moe
3. Larry
Compare this to turn-taking in most board games. It serves to make sure that everyone has a chance to post, and no small group runs ahead with the thread.
A post order can develop organically. Imagine the following:
Moishe opens the thread by walking into a pub.
Herschele joins him and starts a conversation.
Moishe replies to Herschele.
Tevye walks in and joins them.
The logical posting order now would be
1. Herschele.
2. Moishe.
3. Tevye.
This is because Tevye has inserted himself after Moishe, before Herschele.
If Moishe decides that Tevye is lame, and thus leaves, then he is no longer part of the posting order.
An Exception to Post Order: the n-Hour Rule
Post orders needn't be absolute. Suppose now that we have a scene with this post order:
1. John
2. Paul
3. George
4. Ringo
Now suppose Ringo has posted, and John doesn't reply (perhaps he's too busy with his girlfriend). What do we do?
If John gives the others permission to skip him, then they can skip him.
However, in case John is incommunicado, we can follow a convention where after n hours, we can just skip John. For the purposes of Dagestan, I think we will make n=48, so two days of grace, measured from the time Ringo posted.
In any case, if John is skipped, the order must be maintained, so Paul is next to post. Paul, too, gets 48 hours, so if 96 hours (4 days) after Ringo has posted, no one else has, then George can skip both John and Paul.
Dialogue Colors
Old-school RPers hate these, but I love them. Especially when you are using multiple characters in one post, you use a different color for the dialogue spoken by each of them. Take, for example, my sample posts.
This way, it is easier to keep track of who is speaking.
If you're not using NPCs, this becomes a purely aesthetic thing.
Location Tags
This is another contentious thing, but I find it good practice to, at the header of your post, the location where your character is.
For example, if Jean-Luc is on the bridge of the Federation Starship Enterprise, his location tag might be:
[Bridge, USS Enterprise]
When multiple characters are used, you can also include their names. Example:
[Pres. Yulia Meyers & Dr. Mahmoud Gaidarov - Presidential Train, Makhachkala-Derbent Line]
This tag tells you that the turquoise color (that clashes with the site theme) is Yulia's, and the purple is Mahmoud's, and therefore more easily recognize who is speaking when they start chatting later. It also tells you that I will be using both of these characters, and that they are together on the train. Location tags can also establish other things, like that Mahmoud is a doctor (in his case, a dentist) and Yulia is the President.
Consensus
Before you make a dramatic move, even if it is IC appropriate, speak to the GM and your co-players. People don't like it when you suddenly scramble all their plans.
Likewise, before you establish major IC canon, get OOC consensus around it.
Length
One-liners are poor form. We want to know a little about why your character just did what they did.
Long, winding diatribes about your character's entire stream of consciousness are also poor form. We don't care that much.
There's no hard-and-fast rule for this, but find a balance.
Tagging
Ideally, ping people in the Discord server when you tag them in a thread.
Multiple Threads
If you're up to it, I find that it can be a good experience to be in multiple threads at once, even with the same character. However, you must be careful to make sure you do not create temporal paradoxes.
Usually, I set my less impactful threads before my more impactful ones, to conserve the space-time continuum.