Conventions for Live Role-Play
Conventions, besides being events that you attend, are a certain way of doing things that become ‘the norm’. Typically they are not policies or hard rules, but over over time they become the accepted way to do something. Text base RP sites each tend to develop their own conventions to help players better visualize what is happening in a live RP setting. Lydia Loran has submitted a nice introduction the basics based on the conventions in general use at Dragon’s Mark;
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In a live RP chat room, one of the main points and goals, if not the main point and/or goal, is to interact with the others in there. To make it easier there are certain universal ‘rules’ and ‘guidelines’ to adhere to that help promote this and make communication possible. You can’t very well interact with people you can’t communicate with or understand.
In live role play, there’s the narrative, which includes character actions and descriptions; and speech, words spoken by your character. In a room that may be scrolling quickly, it’s important that people be able to easily tell the difference in narrative and speech as they read the lines you send. For example, the following might be hard for people to pick up on easily, and may require multiple readings. This is especially true with longer sends.
Sally: With a smile on her face, she skipped across the room. Today is such a good day!
Bob: Battle ax slung over his shoulder, Bob upnodded the bartender. I’d like an ale please.
Sue: That’s it! I’m sick of this, you’re going down! Scowling, a knife was pulled from the hilt on her hip.
While one may be able to tell the difference between the narrative and speech in those lines, in a room that’s moving quickly it’s a bit harder, and if some cannot easily tell what you’re trying to do, you may be overlooked.
There are two methods of separating narrative and speech. The first and most common is to encase the action with double colons (:Smile, though some use one (Smile or even three (::Smile; or use different symbols entirely. No way is really improper, but the most common and widely accepted is two. Which would look something like:
Sally: ::With a smile on her face, she skipped across the room.:: Today is such a good day!
Bob: ::Battle ax slung over his shoulder, Bob upnodded the bartender.:: I’d like an ale please.
Sue: That’s it! I’m sick of this, you’re going down! ::Scowling, a knife was pulled from the hilt on her hip.::
The second method is to write in prose, where speech is enclosed in quotation marks(” “).
Sally: With a smile on her face, she skipped across the room. “Today is such a good day!”
Bob: Battle ax slung over his shoulder, Bob upnodded the bartender. “I’d like an ale please.”
Sue: “That’s it! I’m sick of this, you’re going down!” Scowling, a knife was pulled from the hilt on her hip.
By separating your narrative and speech for easier reading, even if you have the occasional typo or if your grammar and punctuation aren’t perfect, there’s a good chance people will be able to understand you, and most are willing to play and interact with people they can at least understand and communicate with.
Symbols and abbreviations used in live RP chat are not limited to colons and quotations, however. Another common one are OOC (Out of Character) brackets, which are double parentheses: (( )) They’re used to talk of OOC things. Things that have nothing to do with character or the game. It’s not recommended to use them in a room, since most consider it rude. It can also be vexing in a fast scrolling chat, since it contributes to the scrolling, and breaks the ‘illusion’ of things IC (in character). As a general rule of courtesy, if you have something OOC to say to someone you should instant message them instead of saying it in a public chat.
Whispering is something that’s done commonly in RP, and there’s a variety of ways to go about it. The safest way is to IM whatever was whispered to the player of the character being whispered to. That way, you don’t risk having anyone ‘overhear’ the whisperings, or risk someone not catching it as a whisper and playing off of it as if it weren’t one. Another way is to include an abbreviation in parenthesis before the spoken part. It’s generally done when actions are encased in colons, rather than being written in prose. There’s a few variations of the abbreviations, such as whispers (w), whispers softly (ws), whispers quietly (wq), whispers very softly/quietly (wvs/q). It would look something like the following:
Bob: ::He finally pulled an empty hand from his pocket, the expression on his face one of embarrassment. He leaned over to speak to the tender:: (w) I’m a bit short on funds, can I simply pay you back later?
Another method is to just include the fact that whispering is happening in narrative, like so:
Bob: ::He finally pulled an empty hand from his pocket, the expression on his face one of embarrassment. He leaned over to whisper to the tender.:: I’m a bit short on funds, can I simply pay you back later?
Or if in prose:
Bob: He finally pulled an empty hand from his pocket, the expression on his face one of embarrassment. He leaned over to whisper to the tender, “I’m a bit short on funds, can I simply pay you back later?”
None of the methods of whispering is incorrect. So, it’s just a matter of personal preference and style how you go about it.
Another symbol with multiple purposes is the tilde (~). It’s commonly used for two things. The first is to denote a sing-song voice. The second is to denote when characters communicate with their mind. The second should be done with caution, as some players consider mind reading, mind speaking, or anything related to it to be powergaming if not done with permission. It’s a good idea to look over a profile first to see if there’s a note about the character having protection against people affecting their minds in any way, or to IM the player and ask about it first. Examples of the tilde in action, the first singsong voice, the second mind speak:
Sally: ::She laughed a little before moving towards Bob, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet.:: Guess what happened to me today~
Sue: ::Her gaze locked on Sally’s as she was spotted.:: ~Hello little one.~ ::She smirked faintly, tilting her head ever so slightly as she projected her voice into the young girl’s mind.::
So long as you keep the basics of the mechanics of live RP in mind; playing, communicating, and interaction should be a breeze.
