RP Emotes and IC Communication - The Basics

[UnidessGaming]

As of late there has been a new influx of people who approach MMO RP for the first time and ask about how communication and writing is handled while ingame, so I thought of putting up a little basic guide on the general conventions used, regardless of MMO, for anyone to reference!

 

 

While RPing ingame in real-time, usually two main channels are used: Say (/s) and custom emotes (/em). Say is mainly (more about it below) used for characters speech while custom emotes are used for actions and characters/situations descriptions.

 

 

About using custom emotes, there really isn't anything complicated about it, it's more about getting used to it. Especially if one comes from written-only RP formats ^^. I'll give you some practical examples on the basics.

 

Let's start with how one would describe a simple scene in a written-only format:

 

As he walked on the doorsteps of the local watering hole, the Miqo'te dusted himself off. The trip had been a little too long for his own tastes. He was tired, and most of all his throat was so dry he felt like sand was grinding down it anytime he would swallow. He took a look about the room, then marched straight up to the counter.

 

Now, to represent the same scene while RPing ingame, the real-time description would be a little different and of course mixed in with actual movements with the character. There's also a couple of ways to go about it.

You could describe everything in one emote while standing on the doorstep and then walk up to the counter, or separate the description in two emotes giving time to people who might be there to notice your character and possibly interact with you before you move to the counter. I will give you both examples writing them as you would in chat:

 

1. /em dusts himself off on the doorstep, looking visibly tired and with a look of discomfort on his face. After a moment he takes a look about the room before heading for the counter. (at which point you actually walk up to the counter and continue on).

 

2. /em dusts himself off on the doorstep, looking visibly tired and with a look of discomfort on his face. (then wait a moment to see if anyone would react to that before typing the rest)

    /em takes a look about the room as he finishes dusting himself off, then walks up to the counter. (at which point you actually move).

 

After you enter the emote, in chat it will read (using my char's name):

 

1. Jhuxohr Steelstorm dusts himself off on the doorstep, looking visibly tired and with a look of discomfort on his face. After a moment he takes a look about the room before heading for the counter.

 

2. Jhuxohr Steelstorm dusts himself off on the doorstep, looking visibly tired and with a look of discomfort on his face.

    Jhuxohr Steelstorm takes a look about the room as he finishes dusting himself off, then walks up to the counter.

 

 

And that's pretty much how it goes every time you have to describe your character or something they're doing. If you have to type both action and dialogue, the convention to avoid clogging the chat is to type everything either in /say or in /em.

For example, continuing the same scene once at the counter you could go either:

 

1. /em waves to the bartender to get his attention. "A pint of your best beer, thank you."

 

or

 

2. /s *waves to the bartender to get his attention* A pint of your best beer, thank you.

 

Which then in chat would read respectively:

 

1. Jhuxohr Steelstorm waves to the bartender to get his attention. "A pint of your best beer, thank you." (in the usual emote colour)

 

2. Jhuxohr Steelstorm: *waves to the bartender to get his attention* A pint of your best beer, thank you. (in white, in the /say channel)

 

I myself mix both solutions depending on the situation. Usually, if I have to write more action than dialogue I use the custom emote channel, and type everything in /say if my character is speaking and then does something while talking. But it all boils down to personal preference at that point.

 

 

That's pretty much the basics about it! If you have more questions, feel free to ask!

Edited May 7, 2019 by UnidessGaming
Typoes

[yhvh13]

I usually, for the sake of organization, reserve /em for when there's actually long actions being described with a lot of "Dialogue here"... And /s for when most of the action is speaking with the occasional <action here>.

 

Also when /s in crowded places, I almost always start the sentence with a /s <to UnidessGaming> "Dialogue is here...", this bracket to grab the attention of the other person, because sometimes the place can be so spammy that the other person might not spot your entry.

 

I wish we could customize our name colors though, for a better visual organization in the chat box. Also player chat bubbles would be SO useful to spot chat in a crowded place.

[Koti Nexus]

Thought I add into this, as I see many new folks who don't know of this trick!

 

When you like to use an animation in your poses, such as a bow, but don't want that pesky text (I know I hate that text, cause I sometimes use facepalm to remove masks/helms), all you gotta do is /wave motion

 

By adding the word motion to any emote, it will do the animation, but not the text.

[Leezil]

On 6/21/2019 at 11:12 PM, Koti Nexus said:

Thought I add into this, as I see many new folks who don't know of this trick!

 

When you like to use an animation in your poses, such as a bow, but don't want that pesky text (I know I hate that text, cause I sometimes use facepalm to remove masks/helms), all you gotta do is /wave motion

 

By adding the word motion to any emote, it will do the animation, but not the text.

 

There's also an option in the Emotes menu to turn off all animation text I think!