Writing

[Fuzziebunny]

How do people feel about other characters writing about their character?

So, I want to first say that this is NOT directed at anyone. And to make sure no one feels targeted I will go ahead and pretty much let it be known what I want to do.

I want to start writing about events that happen in character. Anything written will be my character's impression of your character or what my character perceives your actions to be on an IC level. I don't want to offend anyone. Some peeps are a little touchy about this stuff. So I thought I would post it here and try to get a general feel.

[Tupoun]

How do people feel about other characters writing about their . . .

. . . about this stuff. So I thought I would post it here and try to get a general feel.

Hi,

for me - if it's longer than your article, I don't read it. I don't mind correspondence though. Usually.

Cheers.

[GodBeastX]

I don't write too much if people aren't reading, that's my feeling. Some people might read a great deal, but sometimes I just don't have context for the writing to know what it's even talking about.

[Doubtful]

Go for it, it's always nice to see the thoughts of a character, hearing what they were actually thinking during an exchange or how they feel about about certain people or places.

So long as the events depicted with other characters actually happened in game or everyone agrees to an offscreen depiction then there shouldn't be any problems. Over the years there have been many cooperatively written stories that have been successful.

Just steer clear of god modding (writing NPC characters thoughts and actions that weren't depicted IG) or playing other peoples characters.

[sonuvalich]

As one of the reigning champs of tl;dr (goddamn Aniril...you brought the A-game) I am always in favor of more writing. The only qualm I have could be accidental metagaming, because now you "know" someone's true thoughts on you. I am not saying people would do it intentionally, but sometimes the RP is easier when you are unsure exactly what is going on in the other person's head. This is a risk with any of the Roleplay posts though, so I say go for it.

Otherwise, Doubt said it as well as I could. Much like how books are always better than movies because you can get internal dialogue, so too would the characters of Sundren be richer if we could hear more of their thoughts...and many of those thoughts would logically be directed at the other PC's with whom you interact.

[Fuzziebunny]

I don't write too much if people aren't reading, that's my feeling. Some people might read a great deal, but sometimes I just don't have context for the writing to know what it's even talking about.

This is such a good point, and I often forget to "set the scene". Thank you for this. I will make sure to try to insure their is a frame of reference to things.

[Jhickey]

I never mind if anyone uses my character in their stories. I am not sure if I am compelling enough to be in someone's story, but I don't mind one bit.

[ManUtd4Ever]

I enjoy when a player writes about their character's in game exploits. Events that really happened and how they felt about them. This enables me to better understand their RP, e.g. mannerisms, actions, attitudes, etc. I agree with Sonavulich that there is a risk of metagaming here, but I steer clear of this and feel the gain outweighs the risk.

I rarely read beyond the second sentence if it is knee-deep in thought and hypothetical introspective character actions. If it is not happening in Sundren, then I do not feel I need to know.

Finally, as someone who plays this game on this server for a bit of fun and distraction from my RL... I pay zero attention to any romantic endeavors between characters. I have the real thing at home and need no fantasy here.

When I first joined this server in 2008, I found that there were certain players that recorded all of their exploits on the forum. As a new player I found these posts to be invaluable. I used them to better understand the world that is Sundren and the adventures that could be found within.

I suspect the reason I enjoy these posts so much is because Sundren is a global server. There is someone on the server nearly 24 hours a day. I like to log into the forums before I log into game. It is really nice when someone writes a kudo post or an RP post about something that happened hours before I logged on. This way, when someone at the fire approaches me about the event I can act IC like I don't know... but it doesn't take countless tells and other OOC actions to bring me up to speed.

Cheers!

[cmosier]

As a player who has a character who interacts with Kindra on a semi-regular basis, I've no issue with this. Hope he's special enough to get a mention. :-)

[Mournas]

Go for it, it's always nice to see the thoughts of a character, hearing what they were actually thinking during an exchange or how they feel about about certain people or places.

So long as the events depicted with other characters actually happened in game or everyone agrees to an offscreen depiction then there shouldn't be any problems. Over the years there have been many cooperatively written stories that have been successful.

Just steer clear of god modding (writing NPC characters thoughts and actions that weren't depicted IG) or playing other peoples characters.

I have to completely agree with Doubt on this one. A lot of the stuff I write that is not shared on the forums is written on other characters from Andelain's PoV. Plus writing it out lets you really get a feel for how your character views another, it is like laying a solid foundation rather than just having thoughts floating around.

[Lotus]

Roleplay Central has a ton of long-running stories that share all sorts of details, from in-game happenings to in-character perceptions of other characters' actions.

[Elusa]

As long as the writing is merely about my character, and not writing for my character, I'm cool with it. Things my character did, you're free to write about. Extrapolating from there, however... no. Don't go there. This is a good general rule I borrowed from a message board RPG:

Play your own character only. Don't post actions or reactions for other characters; don't post for their possessions or creations. Control only what you create.

EDIT: Also, if you're going to write about events, enable chat logs and save them so you can reference them.

[Laurk]

For my part, I only write about things that are common knowledge or were done in public, and I never read people's bios until I know their PC very well IC and have already heard whats in it. I don't ever like to have OOC info, because it ruins the mystery, and sometimes I forget what I know vs. what Abby knows.

The one exception is that I do write a bio generally, but this is really more for the DMs to use. I don't really like to even post my corispondance publically since its really not something anyone would know. Even though we are in general ethical, I think that OOC info "does" color people's RP. How could it not?

[Fury]

I personally am an absolutely voracious reader, and many of the people here on this server are fabulous writers- so I'm all for it. I don't mind my character appearing by any means- to introspect on your interactions with others is perfectly normal, after all. Naturally you don't want to write about something that didn't happen, and puppet the characters through actions they wouldn't do, but that should be an understood.

One scenario where you might want to do that, and what I would consider to be acceptable, is the dream sequence. In a situation like that, it'd probably be polite to drop a note to the person you'd like to have involved, and just give them a heads up on what you are wanting to do. Ask permission.

While River doesn't really move within Kindra's circle very much, and isn't likely to appear, I as a player know you and your style of play well enough to have utmost faith in anything you want to do. I look forward to reading what comes of it! (Please feed the reading machine with more writings. Please... it hungers so)

[OnyxTigress]

I always love to see how people interpret my characters, so I have no issue with it at all.