Welcome to Aurora Sky! We are a Sword and Sorcery roleplay. Check out the area above this box if you're interested in making a character, and check out the cbox below if you have any questions! Hope to RP with you soon!
The main purpose of this RP is to have fun, so if everyone you're roleplaying with is happy then you're fine.
That said, keeping in mind the tips below will help make that happen!
Give Players Something to Work With: A common issue occurs when someone writes a post that doesn’t leave the next person anything to respond to. To give a very simple example:
A: “Do you want a drink?”
B: “Sure.”
The onus is now on A to figure out how to continue the plot, since B didn’t offer anything for A to build on. If this keeps up A is going to start feeling like they’re hauling a boulder up a mountain. Dragging someone else through the plot isn’t fun, and being dragged through a plot generally isn’t much fun either.
Describe things well enough for other players to make informed decisions: In a novel the author controls every character. This means they only have to give enough description for the reader to understand what is going on, which is an advantage as too much description can hinder the flow of interaction between characters. If Bob uses attack XYZ in a novel, then certain minor details can be assumed regarding the positioning of the characters. But you are not writing a novel – you only control one character (or a subset of them, if you are running NPCs as well)! That means you also need to give enough description for the other characters to decide what to do. You and Bob’s player might not have the same view of what’s going on, after all. The staff cannot tell you how many times they’ve been through “OOOh, you imagined you were standing there. I thought you were >somewhere else<. Right, that changes everything” in past RPs with each other.
This is particularly important when describing a scene, such as when you are running an adventure and the characters have arrived at a new location. You’ll generally notice such posts tend to be much longer than usual since noting such things as “the sunny field was still wet from the morning rain” might be critical down the line. It’s also better to describe things when they first appear, since otherwise you might find yourself in a conversation where a random aside on what the weather is like would feel out of place.
React to things other players include: Let’s say player A’s character is at a bar, and they write an initial post internally monologuing about how they believe a person’s choice of drink says a lot about that person. It’d be a little rude if player B just walks over and says “hi” without noting their drink, or their lack of drink, or their internal opinion on drinks, or even just ordering a drink on the spot! B doesn’t need to match A’s lengthy description (nor would we suggest they do so, since the focus is probably on their interaction rather than back-to-back monologuing) but ignoring it entirely isn’t nice. If B keeps that up player A is going to start feeling like their contribution is pointless, since B is just ignoring them anyway.
It's like holding a RL conversation with someone, basically. It feels good to know they were listening, even if they don't have much to say about whatever you were talking about.
Excessive Asides and other Issues
If you stopped reading this page right now we’d still say you’ve covered the most important points this page has to impart – working with other players is really critical. This is a group hobby, after all. We think this is why a lot of sites have strict word/character/sentence count minimums. Basically, they hope that if they force everyone to write a certain amount they'll achieve the above points through random chance (at least, this is our understanding of such rules). We’d rather you focus on what should be in a good post, since there are plenty of times when a short post can get the job done and do it well.
This brings us to the second most common issue, the one most common among more seasoned RPers: stuffing a post with too much detail, internal monologuing, dialogue, and action.
Avoid Excessive Asides: Remember what we said about the advantage a novel writer has? They can get by with less description whenever the flow of “what’s going on” would benefit from it. When two characters have a conversation in a great novel chances are good you don’t have to slog through 7 sentences of not-talking between each line of dialogue. Sure, sometimes that is the case, but certainly not always or even most of the time. Heavy descriptions and lengthy internal monologues are generally good for highly emotional, dramatic interactions. But they generally cause issues when it comes to interaction-based humor, action, and even regular small talk. It’s all too easy to ramble endlessly about what a character is thinking about, their past, their relationships with others, etc, but is that really necessary? Unless the plot is all about that specific character’s (or group of characters’) soul-searching after some big event, probably not.
So think about what’s going on, and look at your post. Do you have lengthy asides that don’t really relate to anything that’s happening? Maybe cut that and save it in a word document for another time, or slim it down and mix it up with things that DO have something to do with what’s going on. Poetic writing isn't inherently bad, after all. That said, reading long posts takes a lot of time - if most of that is spent reading about things that don’t relate (or only barely relate) to anything the other characters are doing people will probably start skimming your posts.
Give Other Players a Chance to Respond: When performing actions or writing dialogue, it’s generally a good idea to give people a chance to respond after each point.
For action, if your character does *something*, give other players a chance to respond. For example, maybe your character kicks off a wall and swings a sword. That’s pretty much one action, albeit a complicated one. Casting a spell while running towards an opponent is pretty much one action as well. But running 30ft, kicking off a wall, and swinging a sword isn’t really a single action even if the PC’s motions are fluid – their opponent surely could have done something during the 30ft charge! Granted, if the other character already noted they’re going to wait until your PC reaches them that’s an entirely different matter.
For dialogue, it's generally better to avoid having a character bring up one topic then immediately switch to another one – what if another player had something to say about the first topic?
Now, if you know a group of players really well you might be able to predict when someone is going to decline a response (particularly with dialogue). Example: If Eizen the thief has been looting everything that isn’t bolted down for several posts and no one cares, then having him pause between looting the old chair and taking the rusted lamp is probably pointless. But even then, it might be a good idea to word your character’s actions as what they do if no one stops them, and to have that be the last thing they do in the post.
Don't Continually Repeat Yourself/Others: If you/someone else described the sunny field already, don't keep describing it if nothing has changed. Everyone reading the thread probably remembers! (and if not, a short OOC note can fix that).
