rpanons | Chicken tendies

Chicken tendies

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going through a bout of insecurity, nothing crippling, but wondering how others measure how good their rp partner is or isn't. is it all about speed and character voice only? do you care about the text in the brackets? what's the line between evocative writing and purple prose?

tbh i don't give a single shit about voice. i probably don't know your canon anyway, so i couldn't care less about whether you're technically the most ic or not. what's important to me is this:

1. tag back frequently. at least a couple times a day.

2. don't write long tags. once in a while is fine, but long tags are a chore to read and respond to most of the time. put an action or two and a couple lines of dialogue, tops, because if you start adding too much then we get in to that weird circle where our characters are suddenly having 3 conversations going on at one time. keep it simple. give me a chance to respond to one thing before you throw three other things at me. don't try to impress me with flowery writing. just move the thread.

3. speaking of moving the thread, do things! give me things to respond to! give me some body language. ask my character some questions. get an attitude with my character. basically provide interesting things for me to respond to, because i promise you i'll do the same.

4. tying in to that, don't be afraid to pick up the hooks i set out for you. i put that shit in my tag for a reason. use it!

5. don't be afraid to bend your character a little bit for the sake of keeping a thread productive. i have this problem a lot with ~antisocial hardasses~... yeah, okay, sure, they're really rigid in their canon and are likely to walk away or shut down conversation at every turn, i get it. but this isn't their fucking canon. that's not fun to play against, and i'm not going to waste my time having my character chase yours for the next 7 months. either make shit happen or bye.

6. dork out with me about our threads and characters on plurk. just a little bit every now and then so i know you're as excited as i am.

these things will make me the happiest camper.

if you start adding too much then we get in to that weird circle where our characters are suddenly having 3 conversations going on at one time.

everyone i know who's praised for their "big, meaty tags" does this and it drives me up the wall

I also hate it when you basically give a reply to finish up a conversation and then have your character say something to move to another topic and the other player turns it into two conversations. No, the point was to move on and my bracket text even nudges that way.

The key to that one is to have an answer that deals with both conversations and moves them in another direction. It's tricky sometimes but doable. If you're struggling, just play a bossy character who commands conversations often. That way they can just change the topics whenever you want, forcing them back into one agai .

i agree with most of these! i'm okay with a couple times a week if the person is busy, though, and while i don't require giggling on plurk about tags to consider someone a good writer, it is definitely nice.

+100 to #2. it's different if it's a heavy scene in a log, but i don't need tl;dr in a network or actionspam thread.

+1 to all of this, with minor exception to 2. i hate useless padding and multiple simultaneous conversations, but don't be afraid of writing long tags if you actually have something of worth to say in them.

all this is good advice, give or take with "long tags". i might even prefer the "multi conversation" style threads if i'm working with a slower tagger, so more things get covered. it is really weird and jarring when you're done and give the thread a reread, however.

another + especially to dorking out about threads on plurk or discord or whatever the kids are using these days. i've been in games where people do it too much (zodion) and it starts to feel insincere, and games where people don't do it enough (trans9 in the end days and sort of cdc) and it feels like no one gives a fuck or that there's some oppressive judgmental cloud hanging over everyone and sucking the fun out of everything.

if you're into it, don't be shy! get excited! it gets me MORE excited! a little bit will go a long way. i want to let you know you're putting a smile on my face and the only way it could possibly get bigger is to know i'm putting one on yours too.

I have a hard time pinpointing it down into a bullet point list, but I would say being IC is important. My favorite people to play against all have/had such a good grasp of their character's personality it, idk, shone in every tag even if it's an incidental action or I'm canonblind. Also being good at keeping track and being aware of what emotions the character was going through, so no repeating a question to something answered earlier in the thread. It's such a mixed feeling to receive a long, elaborately written tag that makes the character come off as a redundant robot because the player forgot what was going on last week.

Not giving unreactable/hookless tags is a given but personally I give more of a pass if the thread is preplanned.

Also agreeing with the last item on above anon's list. Just a little comment about a thread being fun every so often goes a long way.

All of my favorite rp partners have been good at character voice and have given me tags that were rounded out with ic dialogue, actions, and thoughts.

I care about the text in the narrative or brackets in the sense that I like it better when it's all ic and not ooc commentary. My posts tend to be longer or shorter depending on my partner's style, but as a general rule I don't think anyone should feel pressure to match length. I do prefer to get posts that are consistently longer than a sentence or two, but I've seen people get carried away with introspection. It's a real problem when each little thing reminds a character of something that happened before and they have to think about that episode or chapter or whatever in depth every time.

I'd love to receive at least a tag a day on most of my threads. Right now I'm pretty close to that and it's a huge step up from November and December. For me speed's not usually a dealbreaker as long as there's variation and not a long lull between every post. A little ooc interest shown can help, even if it's just a quick pm.

I love people that have such a solid grasp on their character that I can 'hear' the VAs/actor's voice when I read their reply. I love the writers that really plunge into the depth of their character. I love people that bring new twists or advances to a thread and don't just either expect me to carry it all or going through a routine. I do like descriptions, so tell me what they're thinking, how they're standing, what the area they're in is like in little bits and pieces woven through the action and dialogue. Put some flavor into the setting. Basically just make it interesting for me, give me things to work with, write like we're writing a story, not a scene. I love a writer that's so good I feel challenged to be put effort into answering but I'll honesty eat up anything that someone gives me that keeps me looking forward to the next reply by keeping things interesting.

tl;dr give me tags that are interactive/interesting and I'm there

exactly this, hell yeah. i love the sense of writing a story together (not just mashing barbies, but putting thought into a world, a plot, a direction we want the thread to lead to). tags that are so good that i end up sitting around rereading them a couple times, feeling challenged to come up with a great response in return.

Other people have said really good stuff, so I'll just add: write thinking of the thread, not the tag. It's okay if not every tag is individually a work of art as long as they add to the thread. Try to keep a sense of continuity (like not forgetting what happened two tags ago).

this is great advice. sometimes, the tag just needs to heave the characters on past an awkward moment, not be a perfect 3-sentence exhibit of your writing skills that would make anybody want to play with you.

- clear character voice, which doesn't necessarily translate to 100% ic. if i know the canon, then ideally the character would be at least somewhat recognizable, but often times i don't know or really care, as long as the characterization is consistent, distinctive, and interesting.

- a good balance between description, introspection, action, and hooks. i want to know what their character is thinking and doing and why, i want them to be moving around in a world that's not just blank white space, and i want something to react to (and i'll put in all of those things in turn in my tags.) i don't want purple prose-y description just for the sake of description

- consistentcy. i'm not a fast tagger by any stretch of the imagination, so i'd be happy with a tag a day or every few days.

- MOVES THE THREAD ALONG. this is honestly my number one thing. i don't care how great and IC a writer you are, how often you tag, whether your prose could make angels weep, if you aren't making the thread progress and ideally tossing in some twists and turns of your own.

y e p to all of this

nothing makes me want to drop a thread more than no setting description. doesn't have to be every tag, just let me know your character isn't standing still in a void

I don't care about ICness, writing quality, or any of that.

Just move the thread.

Like improv, or a storytelling game. You answer the question posed to you, and then you ask a question of your own.

It doesn't have to be a literal question the character is asking, but just - 'how will you react to this? what does this say to you?'

Think about writing a thread where two characters are fighting. Naruto throws a punch. Sasuke blocks the punch, and...

Because if you just have Sasuke block the punch, things haven't really progressed. You're back where you were at the start. He needs to do something besides block. Punch back, create some distance and throw a kunai, even just go "Nice try, Naruto!" or whatever. It's something to move the thread.

Do your tags. Frequently.

Formatting doesn't matter much, you can find some kind of agreement pretty easily. Characterization doesn't matter much, so long as you're close enough to IC that your character is recognizable from the tags. Tag length doesn't matter much, so long as it's enough to keep a thread going. Everyone has different tolerances for these things, but in general most people are pretty flexible on them.

But tag speed is the number one thing that with absolutely, positively, without a doubt kill a thread. You could be the most IC player ever, with the most amazing tags ever, and it won't mean jack shit if you don't actually do your tags. Most players will just end up dropping threads with you and moving on to something else.

You should be replying to threads at least once a day, if not more. I don't set an amount for myself beyond at least 'once a day', but it is not uncommon for me to tag back in a thread 5 or more times in a day if the person I am playing with is on and tagging me back. Ideally, if you are following this plan, you should be meeting your AC requirements within the first week of the month. And you don't stop there. Keep threading, keep doing your tags.

I find that keeping a small number of threads going at once (5-10 total at one time across 2 characters) and finishing them as quickly as possible keeps me active in my game. Are there slow periods? Yes, sometimes. But if I'm personally on top of my tags and get them done as soon as I get them, then the threads go faster and I accomplish more in a game, which in turn makes people tag me because they know I am active and will thread with them.

TL;DR the absolute best thing you can do to make yourself a good RPer is to do your tags.

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Chicken tendies

ANONS, WHAT MAKES A GOOD RP WRITER?

Re: ANONS, WHAT MAKES A GOOD RP WRITER?

Re: ANONS, WHAT MAKES A GOOD RP WRITER?

da

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+100

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+100000

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+1

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