I found a decent article at RPG times I though you might like to read and possibly commnet on. More articles can be found archived at RPG TIMES. This one is by
MRS B SANCTUARY
Posting Tips
I was debating on what to write for this month's column for a while, until I started a conversation with a friend who's struggling to keep her game alive and as clean as possible. Being a more experienced gamer, I offered my assistance in anything she might need, but once I got to see the state her game was in, I just realized I had much more to do than I thought I would have. But since I had committed to her, I kept my word, and the first thing we had to do was analyzing the players and the way they wrote. One thing that seemed recurrent was the fact that most of her players had little or no knowledge of the so-called "hidden role-playing rules", which aren't really hidden, but rarely appear in any game's official written rules.
It will be hard for her to get her game back in track, but, since I had promised to help, we started by rewriting her rules and make them more detailed and more extensive, covering the most number of role-playing aspects as possible, and putting warnings and punishments for those who decide not to obey them. Unfortunately, once I got to read more of the group's posts, I noticed that doing just that wouldn't be enough, because we were dealing with inexperienced players, who sometimes had no clue what they were doing, and whether it was right or wrong.
So that's when I came with the idea of writing a tutorial of some sort. I don't view it as a rule, or as a model to follow, but a helping hand for those players who have just been introduced to role-playing, and can find themselves in a serious state of confusion that would seriously deteriorate the games they're in. No one is supposed to know everything or do everything right if they're new to role-playing, but one thing I've also noticed is that rarely you find people eager or willing to help.
So I've written this tutorial file, called Posting Tips, and I've decided to share it with all you guys. If you're confused about how you should post, or how things work on a PBEM, and you need some guidance, feel free to read this article and use the tips that are written here. But please, make sure you read other people's ideas and instructions, because while what I've written works for the games I'm currently coordinating, it might not work for yours. Either way, I think more information and different points of view can always be useful. So here we go:
1) First of all, remember that if you're in a storyline, people generally situate themselves through the subject. So, please remember to follow the same subject for the storyline you're in, this way the people that are playing with you will know that you're interacting with them. It would be even better to add who your character is talking to, and who's supposed to reply. Some groups use codes, but the important is to situate your post into the storyline you want.
2) Make sure people know what character you're posting for. Even if the character isn't supposed to be known, it's good for us players to know who you're playing.
3) There's always an issue about whether to post in the present or the past tense. This isn't a matter of life or death, but the majority of people tend to like more if the posts are in the past tense. If you're used to writing them in the present tense, it's not that much of a problem. But whichever you choose, make sure you keep it until the end of your post! If you're writing in the present tense, write the whole post like that, and vice-versa. I myself prefer the posts written in the past tense. It's like telling a story to someone else, and that's how it works in my groups.
4) Make sure you write your character's actions, reactions, movements. Instead of just writing:
He said. "I think I can help"
You can polish your post and make it much more pleasant to read if you add how your character is feeling, what his reaction is, what he's doing, how he's looking. Let's suppose this situation above happens after your character saw an injured man on the ground, and a woman in front of him, looking very sad about the situation. It would be a much better post if you included your own character's reactions to that scene. Let's suppose your character also has basic first-aid knowledge. So here's a better way. For example:
He looked at the woman, then his eyes moved to the man on the ground, who seemed badly hurt. He had been alone for a long time, and during this time, he had the opportunity to learn how to take care of his own wounds. Maybe that would be helpful to the man as well. He looked up at the woman and nodded. "I think I can help, if you allow me"
Doesn't it look much better?
5) There's another issue, that sometimes is more difficult to notice, which is about what we call in RPG terms (at least in the groups I'm in) "Bulldozing" a player. What does that mean? It means that in a certain situation, where there are more than two characters interacting, two of them start posting between each other, not giving the third one a chance to interact. That's very frustrating to the player, when he gets to check his email and sees a bunch of posts there in which he wasn't included, or even given a chance to interact. We should always try to respect the players we're interacting with, and give them a chance to react.
6) Make sure you write things that are reasonable. What do I mean by that? Let's get an example. You want your character to interact with character X, who's inside his house. First of all, check if it's possible to do at that moment, cause X might be in another situation with another character. He might be at the library, looking for something in his medical book to find a way to help his sick sister, and he can't be interrupted. Or he might not even be home. So that's why you should read the posts previous to yours so you can know exactly which character is doing what. So, ok, it's no problem, you can interact with X, but your character doesn't know him, or anyone from his family, or basically anyone in his house. So how can he interact with X?
First of all you need to see what your character can do. If he's a demon and can just teleport himself to the house to fight against X, that means you have a way to get in. The thing is, maybe doing this will disrupt a serious storyline that had been going on before. You have to think reasonably and ponder whether you're going to add to the storyline or actually ruin it. If you're in doubt, ask the players about it.
Then, you have to have a reason why your character will perform that action, in this example a demon wants to kill X. Is he receiving orders? Does he want to kill all the family so he can take the reward that was offered? Sometimes you need a good reason why your character does the things he does. It wouldn't be reasonable for a demon to want X dead just "cause he thinks he's annoying". That's a bad reason. If you're confused, contact the moderators for your game or even the other players. I bet they can give you some help.
Those were just some tips that I decided to include. Now, if I were to think of it, I would add ten more, but again, it all depends on what game you're dealing with and what kind of role-playing you have there. Those above are general tips that, in my opinion, can be used in basically any kind of role-playing you might have. So I hope that, if you decide to follow any of my tips, you'll make a good use of it! And remember that the main purpose of role-playing is having fun!
MRS B SANCTUARY
Posting Tips
I was debating on what to write for this month's column for a while, until I started a conversation with a friend who's struggling to keep her game alive and as clean as possible. Being a more experienced gamer, I offered my assistance in anything she might need, but once I got to see the state her game was in, I just realized I had much more to do than I thought I would have. But since I had committed to her, I kept my word, and the first thing we had to do was analyzing the players and the way they wrote. One thing that seemed recurrent was the fact that most of her players had little or no knowledge of the so-called "hidden role-playing rules", which aren't really hidden, but rarely appear in any game's official written rules.
It will be hard for her to get her game back in track, but, since I had promised to help, we started by rewriting her rules and make them more detailed and more extensive, covering the most number of role-playing aspects as possible, and putting warnings and punishments for those who decide not to obey them. Unfortunately, once I got to read more of the group's posts, I noticed that doing just that wouldn't be enough, because we were dealing with inexperienced players, who sometimes had no clue what they were doing, and whether it was right or wrong.
So that's when I came with the idea of writing a tutorial of some sort. I don't view it as a rule, or as a model to follow, but a helping hand for those players who have just been introduced to role-playing, and can find themselves in a serious state of confusion that would seriously deteriorate the games they're in. No one is supposed to know everything or do everything right if they're new to role-playing, but one thing I've also noticed is that rarely you find people eager or willing to help.
So I've written this tutorial file, called Posting Tips, and I've decided to share it with all you guys. If you're confused about how you should post, or how things work on a PBEM, and you need some guidance, feel free to read this article and use the tips that are written here. But please, make sure you read other people's ideas and instructions, because while what I've written works for the games I'm currently coordinating, it might not work for yours. Either way, I think more information and different points of view can always be useful. So here we go:
1) First of all, remember that if you're in a storyline, people generally situate themselves through the subject. So, please remember to follow the same subject for the storyline you're in, this way the people that are playing with you will know that you're interacting with them. It would be even better to add who your character is talking to, and who's supposed to reply. Some groups use codes, but the important is to situate your post into the storyline you want.
2) Make sure people know what character you're posting for. Even if the character isn't supposed to be known, it's good for us players to know who you're playing.
3) There's always an issue about whether to post in the present or the past tense. This isn't a matter of life or death, but the majority of people tend to like more if the posts are in the past tense. If you're used to writing them in the present tense, it's not that much of a problem. But whichever you choose, make sure you keep it until the end of your post! If you're writing in the present tense, write the whole post like that, and vice-versa. I myself prefer the posts written in the past tense. It's like telling a story to someone else, and that's how it works in my groups.
4) Make sure you write your character's actions, reactions, movements. Instead of just writing:
He said. "I think I can help"
You can polish your post and make it much more pleasant to read if you add how your character is feeling, what his reaction is, what he's doing, how he's looking. Let's suppose this situation above happens after your character saw an injured man on the ground, and a woman in front of him, looking very sad about the situation. It would be a much better post if you included your own character's reactions to that scene. Let's suppose your character also has basic first-aid knowledge. So here's a better way. For example:
He looked at the woman, then his eyes moved to the man on the ground, who seemed badly hurt. He had been alone for a long time, and during this time, he had the opportunity to learn how to take care of his own wounds. Maybe that would be helpful to the man as well. He looked up at the woman and nodded. "I think I can help, if you allow me"
Doesn't it look much better?
5) There's another issue, that sometimes is more difficult to notice, which is about what we call in RPG terms (at least in the groups I'm in) "Bulldozing" a player. What does that mean? It means that in a certain situation, where there are more than two characters interacting, two of them start posting between each other, not giving the third one a chance to interact. That's very frustrating to the player, when he gets to check his email and sees a bunch of posts there in which he wasn't included, or even given a chance to interact. We should always try to respect the players we're interacting with, and give them a chance to react.
6) Make sure you write things that are reasonable. What do I mean by that? Let's get an example. You want your character to interact with character X, who's inside his house. First of all, check if it's possible to do at that moment, cause X might be in another situation with another character. He might be at the library, looking for something in his medical book to find a way to help his sick sister, and he can't be interrupted. Or he might not even be home. So that's why you should read the posts previous to yours so you can know exactly which character is doing what. So, ok, it's no problem, you can interact with X, but your character doesn't know him, or anyone from his family, or basically anyone in his house. So how can he interact with X?
First of all you need to see what your character can do. If he's a demon and can just teleport himself to the house to fight against X, that means you have a way to get in. The thing is, maybe doing this will disrupt a serious storyline that had been going on before. You have to think reasonably and ponder whether you're going to add to the storyline or actually ruin it. If you're in doubt, ask the players about it.
Then, you have to have a reason why your character will perform that action, in this example a demon wants to kill X. Is he receiving orders? Does he want to kill all the family so he can take the reward that was offered? Sometimes you need a good reason why your character does the things he does. It wouldn't be reasonable for a demon to want X dead just "cause he thinks he's annoying". That's a bad reason. If you're confused, contact the moderators for your game or even the other players. I bet they can give you some help.
Those were just some tips that I decided to include. Now, if I were to think of it, I would add ten more, but again, it all depends on what game you're dealing with and what kind of role-playing you have there. Those above are general tips that, in my opinion, can be used in basically any kind of role-playing you might have. So I hope that, if you decide to follow any of my tips, you'll make a good use of it! And remember that the main purpose of role-playing is having fun!
