When to speak - A pretty simple rule of thumb here is to ask yourself what you would do or what would be appropriate IRL. Sometimes we may talk to ourselves or mumble things aloud, but we don't speak out our every thought or talk to ourselves at length in public, because it just makes you look like a crazy person. Unless your character is a crazy person, when it would be logical for your character to speak, or when you want to clearly convey an idea directly from your character is when to speak.
When to think - I guess I'm going to break the mold here and say that internal monologue is okay. I'm really not sure why MMO RPers have such a stigma against it. Sure, we've all run into people who ramble on for paragraphs in thoughts we can't respond to, or who have used internal monologue to get in passive aggressive OOC inspired jabs, but people misusing the idea doesn't make the idea itself bad.
You insert your character's thoughts into the RP when you feel it adds something meaningful to the RP--something funny/witty to entertain the other RPer, some important detail that gives us more insight into who your character is as a person, etc. You'll need to clarify whether your character's thoughts are potentially being broadcasted via their expression and body language, and you'll need to make sure that there's some more substance to your post. The other character can't respond to your character's thoughts alone, so you'll need to give them something more substantial to reply to in your post. I'd also be cautious about sharing any negative or rude thoughts your character has, as this can be used as a way to toss around insults while pretending it's all IC yet also being immune to the any IC consequences from it. Even if you're not using it this way, it can be mistaken for it if you aren't careful.
Use thoughts when you want to convey something about your character (usually for purely meta value) that is too complicated or abstract to get across simply with body language, and that your character for any reason would not speak aloud. Don't use thoughts when you expect the other character to pick up on them and react to them (they might, if you make it seem like the thoughts or obvious and/or if the other character is intuitive--or they might not). Use thoughts sparingly and impactfully, and try to avoid using them when you could simply use description instead, which brings us to...
When to describe - Always! Whenever possible! Description is good! You can show us how your character feels. Put your character's feelings into their body language. The better your character is at hiding their feelings, the more subtle and subdued you can make the cues. The flaw here is that sometimes it may be unclear what the body language is supposed to mean--misunderstanding and miscommunication do happen. Sometimes that ambiguousness is good--in real life, you don't always have a perfect insight into someone else's feelings based on their facial expressions. But sometimes, you may want to convey something more clearly, in which case...
You can also tell us how your character feels. You can outright state that your character is happy, sad, etc. The flaw here is that, much like with thoughts, unless you specify, the other role-player will not know if these feelings are visibly obvious to their own character. It's a lot more impactful and makes the scene feel more real for your RP partner to have an idea what your character looks like, what they are doing, what they sound like, etc. That being said, imo the most effective thing in most situations is to show and tell. You can combine the two to tell us how your character is feeling is clear to see ("Her expression was forlorn.") or you can use both at once ("She jumped up and down, ecstatic.").
The only time I would avoid using description is when it's something you don't want the other character to pick up on (i.e. don't say your character frowns or that she is upset if you don't want the other character to have a sense that your character is unhappy). Otherwise, description is almost always useful to have, and only best left avoided when it's a scene that calls for short, quick emotes and/or doesn't involve much complex emotion to need described, like a casual conversation at a crowded place.
When to think - I guess I'm going to break the mold here and say that internal monologue is okay. I'm really not sure why MMO RPers have such a stigma against it. Sure, we've all run into people who ramble on for paragraphs in thoughts we can't respond to, or who have used internal monologue to get in passive aggressive OOC inspired jabs, but people misusing the idea doesn't make the idea itself bad.
You insert your character's thoughts into the RP when you feel it adds something meaningful to the RP--something funny/witty to entertain the other RPer, some important detail that gives us more insight into who your character is as a person, etc. You'll need to clarify whether your character's thoughts are potentially being broadcasted via their expression and body language, and you'll need to make sure that there's some more substance to your post. The other character can't respond to your character's thoughts alone, so you'll need to give them something more substantial to reply to in your post. I'd also be cautious about sharing any negative or rude thoughts your character has, as this can be used as a way to toss around insults while pretending it's all IC yet also being immune to the any IC consequences from it. Even if you're not using it this way, it can be mistaken for it if you aren't careful.
Use thoughts when you want to convey something about your character (usually for purely meta value) that is too complicated or abstract to get across simply with body language, and that your character for any reason would not speak aloud. Don't use thoughts when you expect the other character to pick up on them and react to them (they might, if you make it seem like the thoughts or obvious and/or if the other character is intuitive--or they might not). Use thoughts sparingly and impactfully, and try to avoid using them when you could simply use description instead, which brings us to...
When to describe - Always! Whenever possible! Description is good! You can show us how your character feels. Put your character's feelings into their body language. The better your character is at hiding their feelings, the more subtle and subdued you can make the cues. The flaw here is that sometimes it may be unclear what the body language is supposed to mean--misunderstanding and miscommunication do happen. Sometimes that ambiguousness is good--in real life, you don't always have a perfect insight into someone else's feelings based on their facial expressions. But sometimes, you may want to convey something more clearly, in which case...
You can also tell us how your character feels. You can outright state that your character is happy, sad, etc. The flaw here is that, much like with thoughts, unless you specify, the other role-player will not know if these feelings are visibly obvious to their own character. It's a lot more impactful and makes the scene feel more real for your RP partner to have an idea what your character looks like, what they are doing, what they sound like, etc. That being said, imo the most effective thing in most situations is to show and tell. You can combine the two to tell us how your character is feeling is clear to see ("Her expression was forlorn.") or you can use both at once ("She jumped up and down, ecstatic.").
The only time I would avoid using description is when it's something you don't want the other character to pick up on (i.e. don't say your character frowns or that she is upset if you don't want the other character to have a sense that your character is unhappy). Otherwise, description is almost always useful to have, and only best left avoided when it's a scene that calls for short, quick emotes and/or doesn't involve much complex emotion to need described, like a casual conversation at a crowded place.
![[Image: NCtCate.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NCtCate.png)
