Role Playing and Chat

[Lancer30]

This should be kept at the top of the list, for new players. Being one, I found it quite useful.

[SniperDM]

I just want to note that while I mostly agree with your intended use of action, I disagree with the syntax you suggest. Yes action should be used to show player intent for rules-sensitive actions, whereas emote should be used only for flavor, but when using action, you should phrase your sentence normally instead of writing in the third person.

For example, instead of typing:

/action jumps over the very wide chasm.

which comes out as

Princess Daphne: jumps over the very wide chasm.

you should type

/action I'm going to try jumping over the chasm.

which comes out as

Princess Daphne: I'm going to try jumping over the chasm.

The reason for this is that action puts that little colon after your character's name, designating that the output text should be like normal speech. Writing it like an emote ends up looking awkward whereas using it like I suggest sounds like something you'd say over the table. It also helps to differentiate it more from emote, which again, should be used only for flavor.

I don't recommend replacing action with emote, because if you write everything as an emote, you will often end up declaring that you do something only to end up failing when the dice hit the table. Typing

/emote mightily bashes down the double-locked, reinforced steel, magically sealed door.

is probably a recipe for making your character look foolish.

Additionally, I'd suggest using action for rules questions to the DM instead of OOC. In fact, think of action as a 'rules' channel for chat. Anything that requires DM adjucation should put input as action text. Instead, OOC is simply used for banter, jokes, setting up times for the next session, announcing afks and so on.

As for my group, we use voice chat so the chat window is unfortunately unused. If we didn't though, that's how I'd divide up the channels.

[SniperDM]

To clarify my previous post, and because I really feel strongly about this stuff, here's three example lines for each kind of text the chat box accepts, as I would have myself and my players use them. These are of course only suggestions, to be taken with a grain of salt if you have your own methods.

In-character (This is the player default, or when a DM is controlling an NPC personality):

Hail, barkeep. What's the special today?

Foolish orcs! You have no idea who you're dealing with!

Listen guys, I have a plan on how we can save the farmer's daughter.

Emote (used for flavor actions that the DM doesn't have to approve or require any dice. Used only by players or by the DM when controlling an NPC personality. Because of the special nature of the phrasing for this chat type, I will include the command associated with each of these lines. Remember that instead of typing /emote you can hold down SHIFT+CTRL when you send the line.)

/emote draws a long tobacco pipe from his pocket and lights it.

Lothox the Knife draws a long tobacco pipe from his pocket and lights it.

/emote taps her foot impatiently.

Annah taps her foot impatiently.

/emote wipes the sweat from his brow.

Bragus Quickfoot wipes the sweat from his brow.

Mood (This of this as a combo emote/in-character line. The ultimate in roleplaying chat lines. Syntax is

/mood (emotive text in quotes) What your character says.

This is used by players or by a DM controlling an NPC personality)

Farrikus (to Alyssa): Get the wizard!

Peasant girl (screaming): No! Get it away!

Vodo (laughing): Well said my friend!

Action (Rules-sensitive player chat. You can either use /action or hold CTRL when you send your line. The DM never has access to this channel, instead using his own default text to respond to player action text. If the DM holds CTRL it becomes Story text instead. ((See below)) Phrase action sentences normally!):

I peer around the corner. What do I see?

Could I hang onto the rope while I draw my wand of fireball?

I attack the orc with my battleaxe!

DM adjucaton (This is the DM default, when he's not controlling any NPC personalities. Used primarily for responding to player action text):

The corridor stretches off to the north for 20 feet, then slopes downward out of your line of sight.

You'll have to make a climb check to see if you can manage it. If you fail by 5 or more, you'll fall.

Your axe strikes true! Roll for damage.

OOC (Used by both players and DMs for chatter not relevant to the current game, or for announcing afks and similar talk. Use /ooc or hold down ALT when sending the line.)

Pizza's here! AFK.

LOL! None shall pass!

I won't be able to play next time, I'm going to be out of town.

Story (DM only. Descriptive, sometimes pre-written text used for narration. Also works well for room descriptions. Type /story <text> or hold CTRL or drag boxed text from an encounter page.)

The trip goes well. In less than a week you've already covered more than half the distance to Lake Town, with nary a sign of goblins nor spiders.

Beyond the door to the north is a dark room littered with bones. The pungent stench of mildew emanates from the rough dungeon walls.

It's been twelve moons since the death of King Ferdinand. The lands are in disarray, and monsters prowl the countryside. This is a time of darkness and danger, but it is also a time of heroes.

[Tropico]

Brilliant thread.. should be a sticky..

I agree about the actions. To me it seems natural for the 'action' color to represent that slight change in tone you get when declaring your action to the GM in a face-to-face game. That 'final answer' kind of thing.

I think it depends on what type of atmosphere you're going for; if you want it as close to the PnP experience as possible, declare your actions just as you would face to face. But some people prefer to take advantage of the text medium so they can watch the game unfolding more like a novel or a story, in which case the first person thing can fly too.

Also if you've played MUDs a lot you would be used to seeing everything in first person anyway.

(Of course by 'you' I mean 'the GM', as he/she is the one who gets to decide that).

[joshuha]

Correct, I do heavy editing of the logs so I prefer my actions to be done like an emote but only for things that need game resolution. It makes the logs (once the colon is taking out) read like a story and no metagame information is present.

[calvinNhobbes]

One more good use of /m is for designating speech in other languages.
/m dwarvish
/m elvish
etc.