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Are one-liners ever acceptable?

valariee

valariee

Meteorite
Joined
Jan 18, 2025
I love long paragraphs and 1000+ replies from time to time. Are one liners ever acceptable? Sometimes I use them in short speech or sudden moments. What do y’all think? :)
 
it really depends on the flow of the scene and the expectations of the writers involved. long paragraphs and detailed replies are fantastic for deep storytelling, rich character exploration, and immersive worldbuilding. they give scenes weight and meaning, especially in slower-paced or highly descriptive roleplays.

that said, one-liners have their place too! quick dialogue exchanges, snappy banter, or sudden, high-intensity moments (like an unexpected realization or reaction) can benefit from short responses. a well-placed one-liner can add to the pacing, making a scene feel more dynamic and alive.

ultimately, it's all about communication with your writing partners. some people love the variety, while others prefer to stick to longer responses for consistency. as long as it fits the scene and respects everyone's style, there's room for both!
 
I've found that if you're in a very dialogue heavy part of the RP, to keep up to the momentum of the RP you can just do a bunch of one-liners in a seperate PM of the characters talking back and forth, and then one partners takes all of those and posts it in the main thread, that's pretty much the only time I tend to use one liners! Helps to keep the RP moving forward when all you can do is back and forth dialogue.
 
I'm okay with them if, obviously, my partner and I agreed to them; sometimes, super short form RPs are fun for pockets of time! Doing it out of nowhere can derail things a little, and be potentially upsetting if one partner made a far larger post and unexpectedly received a very short, even outright tiny post in turn; that's understandable. Lashing out about that, though, isn't the way to go either.
 
Theatrics are a natural part of a roleplay for me and sometimes dramatic one liners can change a plot but I'd be a little disappointed if I were to have a one-liner without any real momentum shift behind it.
 
If you agreed to them beforehand I don't see why not. For me personally, I can never see a situation where I'd be okay with one, I definitely prefer the consistency of longer replies even if those replies themselves vary in word count; I like to stick to a certain range. Everyone's different though, but I think they're controversial enough that you should definitely talk about it with your partner before just up and dropping one on them when the other posts have all been paragraphs or more. I know it'd throw me off for sure if someone did that.
 
If you're going to be a GM I think it's very reasonable to accept one liners from players. Without the ability to control the setting and NPCs sometimes a one liner is just appropriate. And maybe they really want to find out what happens after they open a door or whatever.

That's not how most games here work, but there are some.
 
I have been burned and spurned of one liners. I feel, my opinion, they do not contribute at all to the rp. A paragraph is honestly the shortest amount I'd accept from an rp partner as well as the shortest you would receive from me; given my typical most is two paragraphs. I suppose if you are conversing in chat it would be far more acceptable; apart from that, if it is in rp, no, for me it doesn't offer enough to go on.
 
If the partnership is happy with one-line responses, then yes, they're acceptable.
 
I think it really depends on the people writing together. For me, the way I write now it wouldn't be acceptable for me, I can't think of any way it would be. Basically because I write enough, that especially I make sure there are things for my partner to reply to. So if someone just gave me a one liner after I spent time writing a post, making sure to give them things to reply to. It would really show me that they don't care what I am writing, and they have no consideration for me at all. It would really be for me something that would put a stop to writing together, especially if it came out of nowhere. Of course depending on who I am writing with and for how long, I might just reach out to see if they were ok if it just came out of nowhere.

But really if that is how you want to write, and how you intend to write you should be bringing it up at the beginning so the other person can decide if that is something that they can work with. You shouldn't just drop it on them on the first post, especially if they put in a lot of effort into their post.
 
It depends on the context of the story. If long descriptions are required, then long posts. If there's rapid action, then one liners might be appropriate. I mean:

"Run away!, that woolly mammoth is going to crush us!"

or

"Run away!, that woolly mammoth, an extinct mammal most closely related to the Asian Elephant, lived through the end of the last ice age, the final survivors lasting until a few thousand years ago on Wrangel Island in Russia. These mammoths survived on the steppe of Asia as well as North America, their demise attributed to climate change and human predation."
 
I think it's just a matter of time mostly. If you're waiting for several days and it's only one line, it can be kind of a turn off. If you're responding on a frequent basis or even chatting, I think it's more acceptable. Outside of that, I can only imagine a one-liner being used as cheeky. It seems like there could be even just a little more details added to a one-liner.
 
If you're doing some quick back-and-forths, it can be fine, but you have to at least make sure that what you're saying is moving the story forwards in some way!
 
acceptable? debatable. . . easy to work with? absolutely not.

i honestly don't understand how roleplayers manage to respond to one-liners when there is nothing that moves the plot forward. when there is nothing to react to but maybe a piece of dialogue (in that case, i can understand how you can go back and forth for a while, but beyond that ~ one-liners make it extremely tricky to move the story forward as your character doesn't really have anything to react to) and also ~ i prefer plot and character development, and that is hard to work with if you can't write what your character is feeling or thinking. so even tho one-liners work, in theory, it doesn't add a lot of depth to your story or the characters in it ~ which is why many of us like to write / roleplay in the first place.
 
Short answer: No

Longer answer: Hahaha, hell no. Unless it’s mutually agreed upon-then that’s fine.
 
I think that’s entirely up to the expectations of the people who are roleplaying and writing together.
 
As a post that is meant to add to the RP, there are some small circumstances where I'd find it minimally acceptable.

My reaction upon reading it though will not be very positive; "Really? That's it? Seriously?" and I'd question whether we're the right fit.
Exceptions exist as always... If we're long time writing partners and this one liner happens after many other posts of substance, then I probably wouldn't even notice.
If it's early on in the story or early on in our writing together, I'd again question whether we should be writing together at all.
One further exception I can think of is, if the author is telling a joke and the one liner is the punch line.

In OOC chatter, the rules change - one liners in planning and discussion are a big no for me. It gives the impression that you're not interested in writing the RP, so why even bother at all?
 
Anarchia said:
I've found that if you're in a very dialogue heavy part of the RP, to keep up to the momentum of the RP you can just do a bunch of one-liners in a seperate PM of the characters talking back and forth, and then one partners takes all of those and posts it in the main thread, that's pretty much the only time I tend to use one liners! Helps to keep the RP moving forward when all you can do is back and forth dialogue.
Click to expand...
This is genius! I really like this idea - sidebar conversation, almost like simulate a back and forth texting conversation! I am going to shamelessly steal this. (Please?)
Great alternative approach. I'd say this is where using something like Discord - not saying it's better or worse - with it's different channels would be super useful.
 
A.Storey said:
This is genius! I really like this idea - sidebar conversation, almost like simulate a back and forth texting conversation! I am going to shamelessly steal this. (Please?)
Great alternative approach. I'd say this is where using something like Discord - not saying it's better or worse - with it's different channels would be super useful.
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Go for it! I stole it from Ryees who's on the WC, he calls it 'drafting' and they don't necessarily have to be true oneliners or just a few words, but short paragraphs kinda thing, otherwise some times back and forth dialogue can be bit grating if you're both expecting 500+ word responses when all you can really do is 'X shfits in her chair and waggles her eyebrows' kinda thing! But yea I've found it really works.
 
I think it really depends. I don't need super long posts, but I need something to work with, especially for first posts and things meant to move the plot along.

All that said, though, I feel weird trying to stretch out a quick dialogue line into an entire paragraph. Usually, though, that kind of post comes in far along in the RP and there's already been plenty of material to work with by then, lol.
 
I mean if the character suddenly dies, I suppose so. If your response is entertaining to your partner and gives them space to respond, your limits are your own. I'd personally like a bit more, but a character dying suddenly and unceremoniously can be absolutely devastating and impactful.
 
reverie. said:
acceptable? debatable. . . easy to work with? absolutely not.

i honestly don't understand how roleplayers manage to respond to one-liners when there is nothing that moves the plot forward. when there is nothing to react to but maybe a piece of dialogue (in that case, i can understand how you can go back and forth for a while, but beyond that ~ one-liners make it extremely tricky to move the story forward as your character doesn't really have anything to react to) and also ~ i prefer plot and character development, and that is hard to work with if you can't write what your character is feeling or thinking. so even tho one-liners work, in theory, it doesn't add a lot of depth to your story or the characters in it ~ which is why many of us like to write / roleplay in the first place.
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as much as I despise the term "ditto" it fits with this post here.

I came here to write and if I am fed one liners, my Muse withers away... I would rather not have that happen, as it is an elusive creature already.
 
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