"Handy Dandy" Tutorial

As per request from Taegan here be a handy dandy tutorial for posting in an RP. It's the same crap that I said for Taegan and look at him now!

Actions can be done in asteriks * (it's what I've been doing since like day one), but they don't have to be, it just makes it easier to read.

And of course speech is in quotations.

Not sure how it works with other places, but where I come from inner monologues are done in square brackets while whispering is done in normal brackets.

An example of all would be...

Quote :

~X and Y are in third period english~

*X is sitting at the back of the classroom not really paying attention to what the teacher is saying, scribbling on his desk with a marker.*

[This is boring. Who's Kurt Vonngut?]

~Someone else posts~

(Hey! Hey, X!)

*Why throws an earse at Y trying to get his attention*

"Hey, X wake up!"

Any further questions, talk to Neon.

Tildes (~) are often used to signify something, such as rewards or time skips, as such:

~2 hours later~

~X has received item Y!~

~X is afflicted with status effect Z!~

Other characters' speech can be done in a variety of ways. Let's say the characters' names are Greg & Sue. You might do any of these:

Greg<Blahblah.>

S<Blah.>

G"Blahblahblahblahblah."

Since {} are not used often, they're sometimes used to signify a special sort of speech, such as from a radio, a television, or a supernatural entity. Something that doesn't come from an average person. Mixing brackets is also possible. Let's say, you have a telekinetic in the group. The conversation may look like this:

[<Hi.> Shut up.]

Where the <> is the other character's speech, as usual, but it's inside the brackets to indicate that the conversation is going on in the person's mind.

Moving away from speech, we typically let everyone who is on at the moment & in the RP post before the originator posts in response. It's just easier. We have no set order or anything like that, though.

When it comes to icky stuff, definitely don't control another person's character. It's frowned upon. Godmodding isn't as bad, just try to keep what you're doing around the same level of "wtf" as everyone else. Oh, & try to let the character react to what's going on. Instead of saying *X punches Y in the face & knocks him into a wall,* say *X punches at Y's face,* & if they don't move out of the way or something, then send them into a wall. If it's that kind of RP, of course.

Often, particularly for the person running the RP, the post will be separated into a line of equal signs. For instance:

Response to Tae.
========================
Response to Optimis.

Those can be further subdivided with ------ or ____ if need be.

OOC: This signifies that you're talking outside of the RP. For example, a post may look like:

"Huhn."

OOC: I'm so talkative!

The only thing we ask here is that you don't overdose on that, but it's usually fine.

Often, RP forums require you to have a certain amount of sentences in order to post. We don't do that. I figure, if a person likes it that way, they can do it that way. Simply as a result of them doing that, we might have bigger, more detailed posts overall, without forcing anyone to comply. I don't want to constrain anyone to a certain style. Still, please don't post entirely in 1-liners. It's annoying.

That's all I can think of for now. Anything else?

Seems good.

HarleyThomas wrote:

Not sure how it works with other places, but where I come from inner monologues are done in square brackets while whispering is done in normal brackets.

I feel it extremely necessary to point out that there are no "normal brackets" or "square brackets". There are brackets (the square ones), and then there are parentheses (the ones I'm using right now). Normally I wouldn't care enough to point this out, but you'll confuse the children around here, and next thing you know we'll be ass-deep in people talking about "normal brackets" and "square brackets" and "the little period with a tail" and "the curvy exclamation mark". And that would be horrible and I'd blame you forever.

I'm reasonably certain that only Harley is that stupid.

And then you showed up.

Neo Bahamut wrote:

I'm reasonably certain that only Harley is that stupid.

Never, ever underestimate the number of stupid people on the internet. It's a fatal mistake. You'll just be boppin' along, then WHAM, blindsided by an idiot.

GD wrote:

Never, ever underestimate the number of stupid people on the internet. It's a fatal mistake. You'll just be boppin' along, then WHAM, blindsided by an idiot.

Quoted for truth, you're living proof of it.

This topic is full of people who think they're witty.

And it just got a tiny bit fuller right there.

Indeed.

As the newest member to these forums and this RPing style, I say...
Thank you ^^

I got worried when Tae invited me here because I've always RPed in story style not action style. So this will be an interesting change and now that I know the basics, I feel better coming in.

Great, you're up in Tales of Mysteria!

Azena wrote:

I got worried when Tae invited me here

That's enough to get anyone worried, right there.

Reading this, I just realized something I apparently didn't at the time. It's not wrong to say "square brackets", because that's what they're called. And parentheses are a type of bracket (they're called brackets in BrE too.), as well as those other curly ones {} and the ones we use for NPC speech <>, can't remember the name, and others. («», etc)

Point is, only "normal brackets" is wrong.

The entire way of posting is wrong, but that is besides the point.

Nonsense.

It is nonsense. His whole argument is "you can't write in a style other than prose, or it's wrong" even though this is literally done all the fucking time in literature.

That reminds me of this book we're reading in class, "Baltasar and Blimunda". The author only uses periods and commas, it's like the dialogue is part of the narration. Anyway, it's like Neon said, I don't see the problem with a more practical style of writing. It's nothing uncommon, and you aren't really in the position to say it's wrong.

It's culture in the making. Deal with it, for one day, it will more famous than fucking prose!

Didn't get carried away at all there.