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Berrod Armstrong · **09-21-2015, 03:53 PM**

(09-21-2015, 03:33 PM)Ignacius Wrote:
(09-21-2015, 03:23 PM)Berrod Armstrong Wrote:
(09-21-2015, 03:13 PM)FreelanceWizard Wrote:
(09-21-2015, 03:07 PM)Ignacius Wrote:
(09-21-2015, 03:03 PM)Warren Castille Wrote: To summarize: Make your actions display intent, but make sure you do it correctly otherwise its your fault for leaving things open to interpretation.

Or, you know, don't pick fights with strangers.

That's just generally good advice.

If you do, though, talking about it OOC is probably a good idea.
THIS. THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. It is possible to talk to strangers OOCly and come to an agreement/compromise instead of doing tense gymnastics. Whether John Doe stabbed Berrod in the heart ten years ago or if he's woulding into the sun, a quick discussion between John and Berrod's players can make things flow well with each one sticking to their style/tense. If John and Berrod don't want to communicate, then...then they're not going to gain much by roleplaying with each other.

That seems a bit harsh. Â I get along fine with plenty of people who started out trying to kill a character of mine for some reason, mostly without asking. Â I always found it somewhat... I don't know, unprofessional I guess is a good word, to seem to drop character as soon as conflict reared up and start making some kind of OOC script. Â I certainly didn't need it to get into trouble.

I mean, if my character, Heaven forbid, calls someone a rank amateur in the course of a conversation, and that character decides to take a swing at him, I'd feel it a bit rich at that point to then pause the whole scene to OOC out with the character how we were going to handle it. Â I prefer OOC to be the last refuge when things aren't working.

I'm more than willing to talk it out if someone really wants to, but I'd never assume I need to start making demands on how this combat should go or end up, especially since I might just as easily not end up in combat. Â Or that we'd end up in combat with something else. Â RP can go a million different ways, and I'd rather keep my options open on that front than to start locking up mechanics.

That may be different for other players, but I try to be flexible to keep the RP going as best I can so that we don't get bogged down in OOC. Â Again, that's a personal preference rather than a piece of practical advice; you all should know what you're capable of performing ICly as far as how to manipulate a scene. Â Still, I don't think it's good policy to say that people can't hash out combat ICly without predetermining it OOC without having anything to RP about.

The richness of your RP proliferates by the amount of people you can effectively RP with, I find.

On the note of seeming unprofessional...I can't really be bothered with anything close to the pretense of being professional when I'm sitting in my boxers** playing pretend on the internet. I do agree that the last part of my statement -is- a bit harsh, because I too, have met a few strangers and bounced off good fight scenes with them without OOC communication. I attribute that, however, to how open I tend to be regarding the other player's writing, and my love for rolling with the punches (and getting my character bloodied).Â

Regarding 'pausing a scene ooc' -- it's not a movie, it's not running and then STOP. There's always a pause between posts, and if part of that pause involves me whispering the other guy to ask if his punch is coming faster than my character's position affords him to block, then so be it! It can only help the scene for me, not harm it. If the other person reacts unfavorably to this, then I know that this is someone I don't want to invest any time in.Â

I don't make demands on how the combat should go. I don't script anything (most times...! Sometimes there's an idea another roleplayer and I are bursting to deal with and we plan and play). I simply clarify things that may or may not happen, sometimes ask what the other player would like to see, and at times ask their permission to allow this to happen. I have done roleplay combat with a few of people on here, they know how it goes, and I would like to think that it's a very comfortable process (when undertaken) that only results in a clearer, more enjoyable depiction of conflict/combat. Nothing's locked up. Everything is open. Communication is not a sudden lockdown onto one path. It's just...communication! It can serve many purposes.

I do not think it's mandatory at all for people to have to work things out OOC rather than hash it out IC. I do that, a lot! However, I believe if someone is -incapable- of or unwilling to do so when the need arises, then there's a problem.Â

If the richness of my RP proliferates by the amount of people I can effectively RP with, I think that what I've been saying and doing has some definite merit!

I do understand the quoted view on things (and can relate to it on some level), but as it works one way, so does it work the other. It's always good to be open to the idea of having to communicate with a stranger instead of wrestling with prose. Your characters may be fighting, but as writers you're supposed to be working together to build a scene that is enjoyable for you both. Sometimes that may involve working with each other's odd tense preferences!Â

Sometimes. In the end, to each his own, always.

**Berrod's player usually sits in a towel because he is lazy trash who doesn't like to get dressed when he's at home

The Usage of Future Tense

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