RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

... or the ultimate guide on How To Annoy Your Storyteller.

I haven't found this on the board yet, so I though to post them. If you have about 50 minutes time and like a good laugh watch The Gamers. The second part takes about 90 minutes, if you want to watch that too.

Someone posted it up on youtube with a playlist. However, since I am not sure how green Dead Gentlemen Productions is with their stuff being on youtube (you can as well order it on DVD) I am a little hesitant about linking directly to it.
Either way, I strongly recommend to watch it and I had a ton of fun with both movies.

In this sense:

ALL HAIL THE BANDIT KING!!!

In a similar vein, there's also...

The 1825 things Mr. Welch (aka. the Loony) can no longer do during an RPG.

Here's a sample:
#9: My monk's lips must be in sync.
#106: I do not have weapon proficiency in cat.
#391: A starting paladin has no conceivable use for industrial lubricant.
#1002: Foam Finger of Death is not a real spell.
#1500: I will not convince the dragon to eat the elf instead because he's organically grown.

Oooh yeah. =|b

"Florescent."

Don't emote your thoughts. That's meta behavior.

DAISHI Wrote:Don't emote your thoughts. That's meta behavior.

You can't blame the writer for what the other person decides to drag from writer narration or inner monologue to knowing and responding to verbally. That's just ten degrees of Cheet-o's Brand Cheesy.

Then again, some people look at what they write more in the scope of writing a book (albeit as a team project, it being RP and all). And last I checked, books are chock full of writers narrating what a character is thinking, or adding flavor beyond just their physical actions and verbalized words.

Satisiun Wrote:

DAISHI Wrote:Don't emote your thoughts. That's meta behavior.

Show Content

Spoiler

You can't blame the writer for what the other person decides to drag from writer narration or inner monologue to knowing and responding to verbally. That's just ten degrees of Cheet-o's Brand Cheesy.

Then again, some people look at what they write more in the scope of writing a book (albeit as a team project, it being RP and all). And last I checked, books are chock full of writers narrating what a character is thinking, or adding flavor beyond just their physical actions and verbalized words.

If you have a thought, and you want others to know it, you speak it. If you emote what you're thinking, I have to treat it like I never even saw it.

Different RP styles are different.

DAISHI Wrote:If you have a thought, and you want others to know it, you speak it. If you emote what you're thinking, I have to treat it like I never even saw it.

That is so black and white, though. Are you telling me that ... hold on, here's something from an RP I was taking part in earlier:

Quote:(Satisiun Desain) had by this point given up on keeping track of how many unusual remembrances of
(Satisiun Desain) things kept cropping up, though he felt a similar pang of memory as he looked at the water
(Satisiun Desain) mill. "Aye. Anyway, let me show you one of the little alcoves nearby. 'tis nice."

... so you're telling me that I should not have expressed any sort of hint at what he was thinking in this? That just seems silly, and cuts down on what I believe is good additional depth of description or narration ongoing in the scene.

The posted example is out of context, I admit, but it should be enough of an example.

Satisiun Wrote:

DAISHI Wrote:If you have a thought, and you want others to know it, you speak it. If you emote what you're thinking, I have to treat it like I never even saw it.

That is so black and white, though. Are you telling me that ... hold on, here's something from an RP I was taking part in earlier:

Quote:(Satisiun Desain) had by this point given up on keeping track of how many unusual remembrances of
(Satisiun Desain) things kept cropping up, though he felt a similar pang of memory as he looked at the water
(Satisiun Desain) mill. "Aye. Anyway, let me show you one of the little alcoves nearby. 'tis nice."

... so you're telling me that I should not have expressed any sort of hint at what he was thinking in this? That just seems silly, and cuts down on what I believe is good additional depth of description or narration ongoing in the scene.

The posted example is out of context, I admit, but it should be enough of an example.

If you're writing a book that's fine. If you're RPing, then the only thing my char got was what you actually said.

DAISHI Wrote:If you're writing a book that's fine. If you're RPing, then the only thing my char got was what you actually said.

Listen, DAISHI. I think you're a cool bro, and we'll always have our fond, wonderful, loving memories of playing a little "YOU CAN'T GET YE FLASK" on the announcement board (and being chewed out for it, too )...

... but the thing is, that perspective seems very me-centric, and a little short-sighted, in the "I can't react to it, so it's worthless" sort of way. Yes, your character can't see or mind read any of that. But narration is there for a reason. Inner dialogue is there for a reason. It adds to the experience for the people playing, even if the characters themselves can't do much about it.

Satisiun Wrote:

DAISHI Wrote:If you're writing a book that's fine. If you're RPing, then the only thing my char got was what you actually said.

Listen, DAISHI. I think you're a cool bro, and we'll always have our fond, wonderful, loving memories of playing a little "YOU CAN'T GET YE FLASK" on the announcement board (and being chewed out for it, too )...

... but the thing is, that perspective seems very me-centric, and a little short-sighted, in the "I can't react to it, so it's worthless" sort of way. Yes, your character can't see or mind read any of that. But narration is there for a reason. Inner dialogue is there for a reason. It adds to the experience for the people playing, even if the characters themselves can't do much about it.

That's fine, it's just a difference of opinion on what roleplaying should be.

Knowing the thoughts can also paint how emoticons and actions are done.

(Seville Meville) raised his eyebrows thinking, "What the hell is wrong with this girl?"
(Seville Meville) waved up his hand dismissively at Waka Malakala.

(Seville Meville) raised his eyebrows thinking, "S-She's interested in me?"
(Seville Meville) waved up his hand dismissively at Waka Malakala.

Two entirely similar actions but the significance, type, and how it's performed is entirely different depending on what an "unspoken" thought that Seville Meville was thinking. =)

You know, actually. Let me just toss in something after chewing on this, and also talking to a fellow RP friend on this.

It should be noted that such description or narrative doesn't work in all settings or scenes. Group events, for example. Situations in which there may be a certain number of players at the same time. You can't waste time just droning on and on about how your character is thinking about kittens, while never adding anything to the scene itself that other people can respond to. It's rude, boorish, self-centric, and annoying.

Also, it really depends on how you do it, too. Bleating out blunt things in the emotive/narrative parts of an entry such as "He is lying" or "He lied" before or after a character says something is just asking for trouble. Like many things, it involves a subtle touch. It involves adding something without making the other player feel as if they are obligated to respond to it, but still adds some depth to the scenario.

Having said that.

Having said that, when you are "trolling" for someone to play with (so long as you don't go and inundate the entire damn chat window). Or when you are with just one other person, or even two other people who you are able to bounce stuff off of with ease despite being a "group" per se, that is a different story. You're able to spend more time fleshing out the narrative, without having to worry about either being left behind while everyone else gets in two, three, four inserts in to what is happening, and in turn finding yourself interrupted over and over.

And that's all I got.

Satisiun Wrote:....narration is there for a reason. Inner dialogue is there for a reason. It adds to the experience for the people playing, even if the characters themselves can't do much about it.

I agree completly.

The problem is that the people behind the keyboard tend to cherry pick what their character will pick up on when another role-player uses thought-emotes to get a point across.

Another reason I dislike thought-emoting is that people can't be misunderstood if you can read their thoughts, misunderstandings make things more true to life, at least to me.

Finally, the 80~ish character limit really discourages being overly wordy. That might change in the future though.

It's fine if you use them, but unless you include some qualifier about a character making an expression that blatantly gives away what they are thinking I have my character completely ignore thought emotes.