RPG - Curiosity

[featherxquill]

So, lately I've been seeing a whole lot of ads for baitandbleed RPG popping up all over my flist, and like anyone with a penchant for intriguing RP worlds and few powers of resistance, I wandered over and took a look.

Damn, it looks interesting. Fascinating premise - a world you could really flail around in. Characters who seem solidly written, well-thought and not over the top drama. Age-appropriate and not all heroin-chic supermodel PBs (an important thing for me. Nothing makes me run away from a game faster than a fifty-year-old character played by a thirty-year-old PB, or a post-Azkaban Deatheater who's all chiselled-sexy without a grey hair to show for his imprisonment). I decided I probably didn't have time for a game, then left the tab open, then went back to peek at what the minimum posting requirements would be, and read the rules. Everything looked awesome and totally do-able.

Until I came to the part about posting format, which is in the form of present tense,

*actions inside asterisk*

and dialogue in plain text.

And immediately I cringed, because that would drive me insane.

I know it's something that is fairly common in RPG writing, and lots of people seem comfortable with it, but it made me curious about whether I am in a minority. They have a suggestion box over at baitandbleed, and I'm considering leaving a comment about it, but I don't want it to sound like 'I don't like this one aspect of your game so you should totally change it for me, because I'm a special snowflake'. The Mods have created an awesome premise, and what looks like it will be a fabulous game, and they are entitled to run it in whatever way they and their players wish. The only reason I am even considering posting a comment about it is because I am wondering if other people might be like me and put off by something like that, and then they just don't apply, and the Mods never have any idea that this might have been an issue for some people that stopped them from applying.

So. Curious. Is it just me, or are there people on my flist who would also be put off by playing that way? I know there are RPers from all sorts of places on my flist, who play in all kinds of different ways, so I am curious about your opinions. Would you be put off? And, if not, would you be put off by a 'paragraphs and quotation marks' fic style of writing?



Also, Firefox, where is my squiggly red line spellchecker? You can't give me that most of the time and then just, not, today, for some reason, because it makes it look like an over-enthusiastic monkey typed my LJ posts. I am used to the red line telling me when I spell a word wrong, so I forget to check when it does not appear. Please return it forthwith.

Comments

[beguiletosmile.livejournal.com]

Why don't you just write normally? I've RPed with tons of people who use the asterisks format, but it's not like I was forced to do the same. I just typed up posts like I always have. Everyone's writing style is unique after all.

[beguiletosmile.livejournal.com]

Oh wait, I didn't read the post properly. The asterisks format is a REQUIREMENT?

Now, that's just absurd. And to use such a crappy format, too ... I don't know. That would drive me insane too. I like the freedom to decide how the Hell I want to write my RP posts myself. To have the board administrators set up specific rules about that just seems pretty ... Elitist, really.

And not even the good kind of elitist, since it's asterisks. XD

Yeah, I think you should leave a suggestion for them to make it voluntary. Third person, past tense, standard format. What could possibly be wrong with that?

[angrboda]

Is that really common? OMGWHY??? What's wrong with a normal set of punctuation with either "" or a - for speech and plain text for everything else? And what about the characters thoughts and feelings? Are they more action-like or speech-like? Is the writer not supposed to be inside their character's head?

I know I'm not all that experienced with RP. I did it a couple of years and only in 2½ games, and I've stepped away from it entirely by now (it's not good for me, mentally. Triggers all kinds of insecurity issues for me), but if I were looking for one, that would be a deal-breaker for me.

I know I use the *action* in posts and comments and what-not but I think that's different. For one thing, they are not whole paragraphs and for another thing, it's not FICTION. Fiction, unless you're trying for pretentious and/or poetic, should follow the general rules of writing, which includes proper punctuation.

[an-fhanai.livejournal.com]

Not just you. That makes me cringe just thinking about it. Why would they make that a requirement? Have we butchered our language and grammar so thoroughly that we have to start in on punctuation? Think about how much that would condition a person after a while. BLEAH.

[lessthanpie]

Wow. That would drive me NUTS. (I mod a largeish and long-running panfandom game and we're pretty lenient about tenses: first person, third, past, present, whatever. But formatting like that is hard to read and so we don't allow it. But that's our game, and we decided a long time ago that it doesn't work for us. I can see other mods deciding that they're okay with it, but making it mandatory would be a dealbreaker for me.)

[ink-smudged.livejournal.com]

Actions inside of asteriks make me insane. Seriously. I don't mind it so much when you're fooling around over AIM but in game as a requisite?

I'm also a PB snob and have been put off by games simply because of their pbs.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I would be completely put off by *action* roleplay. That's what I did when I was, oh, 13 - and gave it up by 14. It keeps roleplay from really flowing as writing should. I would be really disappointed if the setup for a roleplay sounded excellent and I then found that to be the roleplay format! Total turnoff. Definitely leave a comment if you're thinking other people are skipping over it for the same reason. (:

My Firefox spellcheck has also given up on me. Which is probably good since it was US and I type UK, so I had to ignore it a lot.

[miss-bowtruckle.livejournal.com]

My first game was like that so I didn't know there was anything better out there, but now? no WAY I could go back.

[norwegianne.livejournal.com]

It would drive me insane.

Maybe I should start that RPG thing I was thinking of years ago. I would actually have time for it now, and it would be good to get back to writing again. Plus, I'm an insane planner...

[velmaneuwirth.livejournal.com]

The Kit Kat Klub has always been like that so I'm in the minority that doesn't find it annoying. lol

BUT, People on there did start switching to your way a little while ago and I do think it's better. So.. *shrug*

I think if I was creating an RPG now I'd do it with the more flowing, proper, way of writing. But I don't find the ** annoying just because I'm used to it.