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First, Second, or Third Person?

I tend to like all three, but then each one has a different place for me in terms of roleplaying.

Second works perfectly if you are GMing - I find it gives a lovely old school vibe, like one of those 'Turn to Page 82 to ask the Ancient Wizard about his Staff of Power [gigidy]' and a lot of my partners really respond to it. Plus, you can reply to second in either first or third person and it makes sense.

First, as other people say, can be intimate. But can also work for action - years ago I had a very long-running RP set in a zombie apocalypse where first-person helped move the action along at an exciting pace.

Third, of course, is the bread and butter of BMR.
 
I strongly prefer writing in third person. I used to find novels that wrote in anything but the third person to be annoying, as I like a narrator to be able to just tell me about a world. But now I’m much more flexible.
 
Third for any and all roleplays. For a solo story I may go with first.
 
For overall roleplay I prefer 3rd, though naturally if a character is thinking to themselves I write 1st person for that. But generally 3rd person works best, even when in GM situations. 2nd has never really flowed for me. Though I confess that I have written 1st person, that is more with people I have a different sort of interest in than with writing partners. ;)
 
Third person. I feel like you can create scenes easier than if you told it solely from first person perspective. Haven't really tried second because I think I'm pretty happy with third person.
 
Always third person, have never found first person to be entertaining.

Has anyone ever tried 2nd person? Sounds like a trip.
 
Third Person most of the time, unless I roleplay as a special character of mine then I go for first person
 
Generally I do prefer the third person perspective when roleplaying because it gets a lot less confusing, especially when there are multiple characters being played but multiple players, but I find that in some cases first person works better, for instance when you are playing against a narrator rather than another character, this also means that when you narrate a roleplay rather than playing any main character second person can work if you are playing against just one character.

Also I'd like to say regarding the first person perspective that it holds quite a few interesting possibilities depending on how closely you identify with your character. It can also be a rather interesting writing exercise to take a text written from the third person perspective and put it into a first person perspective because no matter how fictional the original text is when you rewrite it in the first person perspective it quite simply and very literally becomes about you and that changes everything about the text more often than not.

One of my all time favourite authors, the late Kathy Acker, often used this technique in her work. That said I also feel I should point out that in no way do I advocate for plagiarism but as an exercise and to break through a writer's block it can be quite effective.
 
HeroicDeviant said:
Has anyone ever tried 2nd person? Sounds like a trip.
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I've only ever read one book written from the second person perspective: If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, and it sure was trippy since it meant that you become the main character in the book you are reading which is exactly what the book is sort of about.
 
I prefer third person as it is what I first learned to write in. I think it fits well with stories that have many characters. I've never really tried writing in any other perspective, not for long anyway.
 
Solo said:
Third, 100%. I've found that writing in first person, especially with smut involved, tends to get taken a bit personally, and I find it a bit creepy to read "I" and "you" in regards to our characters doing sexual things. Feels a bit too much like cybering, which isn't what I'm about, lol.
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Monochrome said:
Third. I like to think of it as through my character's eyes and not my own. Although I'm writing for said character all the things happening to them, their reactions, emotions, etc it's all for the character. gelidAtelier did touch on a point about using first person if sex is involved which is another reason I only use third. Something like that would make me feel uncomfortable.
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You two sum it up best.

I am not my character. Rp is rp. Real life is real life. It feels too awkward and weird to have that line blurred at all.

Also, writing third is naturally easier for me. I can look into the mind of, watch, and act out all aspects of my characters in third. First is limiting.
I don't fault people for writing first person, and if someone truly feels more comfortable with first, I'll let them. But me personally, third person 100%
 
My preference lies with third person, though I'll definitely do first person too. I'm more familiar with third, and it'll be what I default to, as it feels more natural. First person, meanwhile, feels a bit more... Idk, intimate? It gives the entire RP a different feel that I don't always want, though I'm not particularly likely to object if whoever I RP with wants first person.

Second person, meanwhile, is a little weird? I've got experience with it, but it's definitely not something I enjoy using.
 
Exclusively in third person for me. It feels weird and almost too personal to write any other way. I've been that way since I started writing 20 years ago and I don't see it ever changing.
 
I've done first-person and it never felt too weird personally but well, I also very much separate myself from my RPs. I generally do third person, though, and I'm suspicious of people that do first person that aren't accomplished writers. I think I can do first-person well because as an actor I know how to draw from myself while also keeping my roles very separate from myself. I can take from experience without letting it control me...yet a lot of writers can't do that.
 
Thid person for roleplatying.

But that's because I'm a gutless coward.

In all seriousness though, there is room in roleplay for all manner of creativity. I've seen it show in different ways. Had a friend who roleplayed with a lot of edited images. Sometimes literally the roleplay content you would be replying to was depicted in the image in the form of dialogue. Given that my roots in roleplay are very traditional, when I first encountered that friend, it came off like the sort of thing that was a little too eccentric for my taste. And for the tastes of others! I've always been more laid back, however, so while some of my friends were inclined not to engage, I stuck through and saw first hand that strong story telling and good characters can be conveyed in the most creative of ways. He played a character that was in a symbiotic relationship with a sentient octopus stuck to his head and he was communicated to me wonderfully through some of the silliest literature that I have encountered as a roleplayer in all my years.

Even this question here, of if whether first, second or third person is preferable, is subject to that train of thought in my opinion. For example, someone can send a letter in roleplay to another character that is written in first person. Don't know about you guys but letters in first person can be wildly engaging story telling experiences. So in essence, all three of these could feasibly have a place in roleplay! Especially if you have an open mind.

In my case, I've recently shifted away from where I usually roleplay to somewhere where text aesthetics are very common in roleplay. Things like bolded words, or spaced out words, or large quotation marks. Lack of capitalization. All things that can make the writing itself just p r e t t i e r.

The hilarious part is that I ended up writing with people who write more traditionally, without extra aesthetics, and I was the one looking perhaps a little crazy. Still stuck to it though. Because I went there to try something different. Fun times.
 
Third person for stories of R and X rated nature. I've done and will do 1st person if it's PG13, otherwise, it feels off.
 
For roleplays, I almost always use third person, which is odd, now that I think about it, since I tend to switch between all three for my personal writing. For roleplay, it seems like second person would be hard on your partner, making reading your posts a confusing affair of perspective switching. First person seems like it could work better, but again, I feel like the shared nature of roleplays makes it hard to use language that focuses on the internal monologue.
 
Third person only.

I am writing about my character, not about me.

Similarly, I am writing to your character, not to you.
 
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