RP posts

[child of the night 271]

Hey I was just wondering how people on this forum make their posts, for instance I make my posts like this:

 

*action*

 

"speaking"

 

I also see people who right it like a paragraph and change the color of what their character is saying, so how do you set up your posts?

[Ribbonfree 2,383]

Back when I roleplayed on other sites it depended on the functionality offered by the forum or whatever medium, but I'd usually just go for proper paragraph or script style. Usually I only added color to differentiate between characters if I ran a bunch at once.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I adapt to different RP styles. I start out by just acting. If someone mentions me with their character seeing my OC, I may have my OC go talk to them, and then we go on from there. 

[Ampharos 1,009]

I basically have action how I'm typing now, with no special things to distinguish it, "Since I do dialogue like this" and thoughts like this.

 

The color of thoughts is generally a lighter or darker shade of the speaking dialogue, which in turn is usually the color of either my OCs mane, coat, or eyes. For non-pony RPs, I generally use colors that I feel best represent my character, or if they have an exotic hair color or a vibrant eye color I'll use that, as well as if they tend to wear a certain color I like. I usually don't differentiate between characters outside of the action/dialogue, since I just let the color of their... voices do the explaining. 

Edited April 13, 2014 by Jolteon

[GaleFenrir 281]

The standard here seems to be writing out all your character's actions, expressions, thoughts, and dialogue in paragraph format. But the general rule of thumb, no matter the RP or Forum you happen to be in, is to be consistent with how the others are doing their posts. But, maybe I am just a stickler for consistency.

 

As for the coloring, that's pretty optional, really. I like to do it, and it can be especially helpful if you are playing more than one character. Additionally, thoughts are typically italicized.

[~Chaotic Eddie~ 479]

I have 2 styles - Actions in asterisks, everything else is considered speaking, and story-style with speech in speechmarks.

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

The standard here seems to be writing out all your character's actions, expressions, thoughts, and dialogue in paragraph format. But the general rule of thumb, no matter the RP or Forum you happen to be in, is to be consistent with how the others are doing their posts.

^ This. One thing that gets on my nerves is an RPer who insists on doing their post in say, first person, when everypony else is typing in third. It breaks up the flow of the RP and makes it difficult to interact with them.

 

I do my posts in paragraph form; I find that posting *action* and *dialogue* looks messy. I don't mind colours for different characters as long as it's not eyebleedingly bright.

[mars 4,862]

I do my posts in paragraph form; I find that posting *action* and *dialogue* looks messy.

I agree. It also looks childish and illiterate when everyone else is using a paragraph format. The standard method of roleplaying is to use paragraphs. Unless a particular roleplay is in *action*/*dialogue* format, you should stick to regular paragraphs. At least, in my opinion.

[FractalMoon 378]

Paragraphs. Plaintext for action and descriptions, italics for thoughts (or single quotes if I'm in a rush), full quotes for speech, color if I'm running multiple characters in the same interaction, parentheses for out of character.

[Nameless Knight 1,001]

Character did a thing "Character is saying stuff" Character did another thing. Character is thinking something

[Rift enchanted 380]

I only rp when it's time to rp

 

*no you dont*

 

*shut up*

[Fire Lily 86]

Descriptions are always plain for me

 

*Lily takes a deep breath and goes into very long winded explanation about how she performs her actions*

 

(anything OOC or otherwise goes here)

 

I never really use colors, but I do something kinda weird for thoughts, it's like a (" ") kinda thing, but I try not to use it a whole lot. Since it can be confusing, I just lacked a better way. I might start doing the italics thing. 

[Inactive01 5,299]

I treat an RP like you're telling a story or a novel. Here's an example post that can show you what I do:

 

--------------

 

 

(OOC: Will do!)

 

The Phantom of the Opera had finally arrived. He showed himself at his underground realm... By this time, Sterling was finally able to get cozy on his seat and enjoy the musical. Just in time for the title piece too! When Sterling noticed the misty effect from the sides, he was impressed by how creepy and scary the stage looked. His eyes opened wide as the organ bellowed through the concert hall to everypony's ears, leaving him even more awestruck. When Christine sneaked up on the Phantom and revealed his face, Sterling gasped. His face... it was burnt... 'So THAT's why he wore a mask throughout this musical! Oh wow...' thought a Sterling who had just experienced an epiphany... 

 

Sterling didn't have much time to feel emphatic towards the Phantom from his own experiences because the scene quickly changed to the glamour and posh of the opera house. The Phantom wrote a threat that the opera producers inexplicably ignored... and then... as the opera began... disaster. Not only did Carlotta lose her voice, the backdrop became filled with menacing shadows and figures that haunted the house. To top it off, Duquet, the opera producer who ignored the Phantom's threats, hung above as a mannequin... a corpse...

 

Needless to say, Sterling jumped at all that had just happened. The music merely compounded his fears and nearly made him jump a seat or two. Luckily, Sterling kept himself on his seat after the scene out of fear that he was already disturbing the ponies behind him...

 

Sterling was still frightened by the ruckus, but then... he could hear the soothing violins that resonated in F major and beautifully transitioned to D flat... Sterling could feel his heart race, and yet... he felt relaxed. Comforted. When Christine and Raoul began to sing the world famous tune, Sterling could feel himself descending into his dreams... He looked at Blue Note who was just sitting there looking emotionless... How could she just sit there while this heavenly music was playing... Oh if only he could sing this to a mare someday... If only...

 

------------------------------------------

Sterling was at the roof... with... Blue Note... The moonlight was shining beautifully outside, away from the chaos and discord that ruled the University of Manehattan... They both ran away from all the anger and vitriol... The voices continued to bellow from below, but the orchestra began to envelop those voices... they all faded away as Sterling looked deep into Blue Note's eyes... He approached her slowly... and they both sang together in surprising unison...

 

No more talk of darkness...

Forget those wide-eyed fears...

I'm here... nothing can harm you... 

Share each day with me... each night... each morning... 

 

 

 

(This is a working picture Zhooves made just for this scene. He's working on perfecting it and getting the colours too! This is what Sterling's imagining in his cutsie little daydream...)

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Sterling could feel himself hugging Blue Note warmly in his daydream as the orchestra interlude reached its climax... He curled his front hooves closely to him to show he was hugging something, albeit imaginary... Why it was Blue Note, he couldn't understand, but still.. he felt comfort with her... And he wanted to give some back... maybe he would be given the chance someday. For now, Sterling sat peacefully in his seat as his imagination soared in the romantic music of the night...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First off, brackets for OOC chat. Ideally, it should be placed onto an OOC thread, but brackets are nice if you want to say something quickly on the RP thread. As you can see, I always write in paragraph format, and I try to weave a scene together based on how my character (and I) see it. Thoughts are italicized and colour coded to match the colour of the pony's body.

 

I place ------------- if I'm changing scenes. I don't say whether it's a daydream or another area in the "real" world because I try my best to make it obvious if it's either one. I also add an indent if a character's speaking. I italicize poetic lines and lyrics, adding a new indent when a new stanza is introduced.

[Hypn0ticD 1,213]

As with most others here, I type out actions with plain text, as I find it unnecessary to add anything to it. I handle speech with the standard "quotation marks," along with any punctuation marks that are necessary, and I italicize thoughts like so.

 

Unlike everyone else here, I don't color my character's speech or thoughts, for several reasons:

 

The first is that my laptop's keyboard is pretty messed up, so I have to rely on my phone, which rendering color extremely difficult,

 

And even if I didn't have that issue, I find that RPers say the character's name at least once in the paragraph, making colored text wholly unnecessary.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind if RPers use it, but I don't see the point…

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

I always use ~~~ to change scene. Useful if I'm using different characters in different places. I don't colour my text as a general rule, mainly cuz I can't see the point if I mention the character's name.

 

Oh, and one thing I hate is people who don't use dialogue tags to show who's speaking. Once or twice isn't a problem, but I've seen people post a bunch of dialogue and it's difficult to work out who's saying what. For example.

 

"Blah blah!"

"Who said that?"

"I did!"

 

This way, you don't know who's talking.