Interacting with other characters in a role play story can be a tricky undertaking. In the past, many inexperienced RPers have resorted to controlling other characters without respect to the proprietary preferences or intentions of that character's creator. Such action is a common form of god-modding among novice role players.
A simple solution to this problem is commonly to discuss the direction and details of the plot as it involves one or more characters interacting with one another, and giving RPers the permission to control each other's characters within certain limitations to initiate and progress such characterization. This eliminates the god-modding violation, however it can limit an RPers control over the stylistic and creative details that describe and build one's character, sometimes undesirably so, by surrendering that control willingly to another RPer. Also, it can become confusing if multiple RPers are controlling another RPer's character as well as other characters simultaneously.
For those who prefer to maintain total control over all the descriptive elements concerning their character, this tutorial will demonstrate an alternative method through which multiple RPers can discuss, organize, and translate communication and cooperation between each other's characters without the need to permit other RPers to execute such interaction autonomously.
This method of character interaction involves overlapping, or chaining, your post with the post or posts of one or more RPers, depending on how many characters are included in a particular plot scenario. The concept of overlapping posts is fairly simple. Think of it as similar to a turn-based RPG battle system. One player attacks, and the other player responds to that attack (by deflecting the attack in some way, or incurring damage, status ailments, etc, and then reciprocating the attack with their own).
Applying this approach to RPing: one character performs an action and/or cites dialogue, and another character, or characters, controlled by their respective RPer(s), acknowledges this action/dialogue, and responds to it with their own. The first character then follows in line, acknowledging and responding to the actions/dialogue of any characters in between his current and previous posts, and so on.
The result is an interconnected chain of overlapping posts which allows every character to communicate and interact which one another in an organized and efficient manner...but how does one overlap their post with another?
The overlapping of posts refers to the reiteration of character actions and/or dialogue by another RPer. You use the description from the RPers post above you to understand and visualize the movement, speech, emotions, etc. of a character you intend to interact with. With this knowledge and understanding, you reiterate, and essentially reanimate that character through your own description, and quote the dialogue. You are basically repeating a section of the above RPer's post through the eyes, ears, and other perceptive senses of your own character. This is the first, and most important half of the 'post chain' character interaction method: acknowledgment; recounting the actions of one character through another.
The second half is the response. This is more or less self explanatory. Now that your character has observed the actions of another character, you can formulate how your character will react accordingly, through whatever descriptions and/or dialogue you see fit.
Example: This is an excerpt of a post from Bex, and subsequent post from me from the Relek RP, demonstrating post overlapping.
The green highlighted text in my post directly corresponds to the green highlighted text in Bex's post excerpt. This shows my characters' acknowledgment of her characters' actions and speech through personal observation and analysis. The blue highlighted text in my post shows my characters' consequential reaction, or response, to what I have acknowledged from her post. The white text is any material that is independent of the direct character interaction.
Thus it is easy to see how the correspondence between posts creates an overlapping connection, or 'chain link', which enables efficient character interaction while keeping individual characterization distinctively separate. It is important to note that everything follows a fairly strict chronological structure, that is to say any responsive actions or dialogue generally take place after what is acknowledged. A single RP post can be simply composed of acknowledgment and response, however it is encouraged that independent RPing material is employed (and can be added at any point before, in between, or after the general post-chain structure) for added creativity, originality, and insight.
I hope this tutorial was helpful to those of you who were unsure of how to go about communicating with other RP characters. If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to pm me, or contact me via msn, and I'll be happy to make any necessary changes.
A simple solution to this problem is commonly to discuss the direction and details of the plot as it involves one or more characters interacting with one another, and giving RPers the permission to control each other's characters within certain limitations to initiate and progress such characterization. This eliminates the god-modding violation, however it can limit an RPers control over the stylistic and creative details that describe and build one's character, sometimes undesirably so, by surrendering that control willingly to another RPer. Also, it can become confusing if multiple RPers are controlling another RPer's character as well as other characters simultaneously.
For those who prefer to maintain total control over all the descriptive elements concerning their character, this tutorial will demonstrate an alternative method through which multiple RPers can discuss, organize, and translate communication and cooperation between each other's characters without the need to permit other RPers to execute such interaction autonomously.
This method of character interaction involves overlapping, or chaining, your post with the post or posts of one or more RPers, depending on how many characters are included in a particular plot scenario. The concept of overlapping posts is fairly simple. Think of it as similar to a turn-based RPG battle system. One player attacks, and the other player responds to that attack (by deflecting the attack in some way, or incurring damage, status ailments, etc, and then reciprocating the attack with their own).
Applying this approach to RPing: one character performs an action and/or cites dialogue, and another character, or characters, controlled by their respective RPer(s), acknowledges this action/dialogue, and responds to it with their own. The first character then follows in line, acknowledging and responding to the actions/dialogue of any characters in between his current and previous posts, and so on.
The result is an interconnected chain of overlapping posts which allows every character to communicate and interact which one another in an organized and efficient manner...but how does one overlap their post with another?
The overlapping of posts refers to the reiteration of character actions and/or dialogue by another RPer. You use the description from the RPers post above you to understand and visualize the movement, speech, emotions, etc. of a character you intend to interact with. With this knowledge and understanding, you reiterate, and essentially reanimate that character through your own description, and quote the dialogue. You are basically repeating a section of the above RPer's post through the eyes, ears, and other perceptive senses of your own character. This is the first, and most important half of the 'post chain' character interaction method: acknowledgment; recounting the actions of one character through another.
The second half is the response. This is more or less self explanatory. Now that your character has observed the actions of another character, you can formulate how your character will react accordingly, through whatever descriptions and/or dialogue you see fit.
Example: This is an excerpt of a post from Bex, and subsequent post from me from the Relek RP, demonstrating post overlapping.
The green highlighted text in my post directly corresponds to the green highlighted text in Bex's post excerpt. This shows my characters' acknowledgment of her characters' actions and speech through personal observation and analysis. The blue highlighted text in my post shows my characters' consequential reaction, or response, to what I have acknowledged from her post. The white text is any material that is independent of the direct character interaction.
Thus it is easy to see how the correspondence between posts creates an overlapping connection, or 'chain link', which enables efficient character interaction while keeping individual characterization distinctively separate. It is important to note that everything follows a fairly strict chronological structure, that is to say any responsive actions or dialogue generally take place after what is acknowledged. A single RP post can be simply composed of acknowledgment and response, however it is encouraged that independent RPing material is employed (and can be added at any point before, in between, or after the general post-chain structure) for added creativity, originality, and insight.
I hope this tutorial was helpful to those of you who were unsure of how to go about communicating with other RP characters. If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to pm me, or contact me via msn, and I'll be happy to make any necessary changes.