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Roleplay Post Length

What length post do you prefer?

  • Very Short (1-2 Sentences)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Short (2-4 Sentences)

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Semi-Para (4-7 Sentences)

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Para (7-10 Sentences)

    Votes: 5 17.2%
  • Strong Para (10-14 Sentences)

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Multi-Para/Novella (15-25+ Sentences)

    Votes: 10 34.5%
  • Flexible/Varies/No Preference

    Votes: 11 37.9%

  • Total voters
    29

Shovel

Supernova
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
A few years back, I used to write really long detailed posts and would play out long complex stories in roleplay. But lately my post sizes have shrank significantly to the point where I am lucky if I can squeeze two paragraphs out as a starter and average about one paragraph per post. And I find that if I try to go beyond that threshold, I get stressed/overwhelmed, find it mentally too taxing, and experience a loss in enjoyment in the roleplay.

I think a lot of it has to do with my time constraints, mental energy, and expectations that I get out of roleplay. In the past I had A LOT more free time and could put in more effort in my writing. But with having a job, social life, and trying to stay healthy, I don't think I have the willpower to do those size posts anymore. That is not to say the quality of my posts have suffered; I just can't push out big posts like I used to.

My view of the role of roleplaying in my life has also changed. I find roleplaying a fun relaxing time passer these days. A chance to dive into a fantasy world and experience different sides of myself (and other people) for a bit. If I have to make long elaborate posts that stress me, then that defeats the purpose (for me).

With all this in mind, I fear that if I tell potential partners I prefer shorter length posts, they will have a bias against me and assume I am a shitty writer/roleplay partner. I must admit I used to have this bias myself.

Anyway, I feel like I am rambling here. SO! What is your preferred post length in roleplay?
 
I have always had the view that rping, for me, is an exercise of writing basically a novel with someone else. In recent years my view has taken on amendments of the absolute crucial nature of characters and interactions, so, while I used to pride myself in 30 page long(in Word) posts, I feel like that is a bit of a self-aggrandizement that takes away the life and the point of a mutual fantasy escapism between two people. Who wants to sit through basically a novel, have to process it, and make their characters reply/react to it? A lot of times, that length of post, I'd split it between 3 different characters POV, filling it with not only character thoughts but also dialogue and actions. But when you shit out something like that EVERY post, looking back, you realize not only have you, in real time, the time frame passing that exists in the rp world, has only gone by less than 5 minutes but you've thought the situation to death. It slows the action down, it's not interesting to read when you step away and then come back to the rp several days later, starting at page 1, and it's needlessly repetitive.

A lot of my old posting style was also made up of "reactionary" posting. Like, Person A writes their character saying and doing something and then Person B, before they move things forward, they go back and step by step react internally and externally to what Person A's character did, before finally saying stuff and doing stuff of their own. Which is also annoying to read from a standpoint of starting from post 1, then post 2 is a rehashing of all the action in post 1 before we finally move forward to new actions being performed.

Now, with the crucial part being the emphasis on character interactions and the "story" having a narrative and linear flow to it, I try to curb that desire to stroke my own ego and throw up a diarrhea of exposition and internal dialogue that basically amounts to "both our characters are standing here staring at each other while we wait for you to finish reading his thoughts about every fucking thing and remembering backstory points that may or may not actually have pertinence right now."

Rule of thumb: Reading the post should not take longer than the "in role-play" time that is passing. If it takes you 30 minutes to read my post and only 5 minutes in the actual rp have gone by, then something is wrong and I need to shut the fuck up. They need to be balanced and proportionate. Sometimes, stuff happens very quickly and your characters have memories and flashbacks or thoughts about it and it is okay... but to a degree. It's like a comic book fight scene. You got to have a pacing with the panels; the more panels you have for the eye to process and look over, the longer and slower it generally flows, depending upon the size and details portrayed. Doubly so if you stop to put word bubbles or boxes full of long internal dialogue. It stops the eye movement which is your meter for how fast things are moving in the story. So, if actiony stuff is happening in real quick succession in your story, stopping to insert a memory or a character's internal exposition slows it down needlessly.

I try to imagine putting the entire thing together like a book. Narratively, chronologically, if we took all of our posts and slipped them together into one long document, how does it read? Is my character talking over yours? Asking questions that either 1. don't get answered or 2. after rehashing action, your character finally answers those questions and it's less a conversation than a jumble of sections of dialogue, then something is wrong. So, you gotta stop. You gotta stop, slow down and give the other character time to react. You can't have your character say something or ask a question and then walk away, unless you either don't expect the other person's character to answer, or you want to give the narrative a feeling of being rushed or pushed or bullied.

Generally, to give myself room to move around and keep things flowing, I give myself a 3-5 paragraph window but don't really hold to that. Particularly if there is a conversation going on, I think of it as an overall picture rather than two people standing side by side laying independent objects onto a table. We're sitting across from each other, playing chess, or dancing across a floor together. Our movements depend upon one another.

As such, I depend very heavily upon a partner being able to give back. I don't like a passive character to join with mine, although in some ways it works. Someone has to lead the story, otherwise we step on each other. But it is nice to find somebody who can follow a lead, then lead on their own. The point with that though is I don't like a story that ends up looking like a tug of war or a fight for spotlight on paper. We have to agree on a goal, agree on a track and show cleverness and ingenuity within that joined focus. So, generally, it doesn't bother me to get less from a partner than I give as far as length. So long as I'm not interacting with a cardboard cutout, who cares how long it is. And on the other side, I'll often walk away from writers who want to drown me in text. Good for you, you know how to write. Have fun. Bye.
 
It varies with me but I prefer at least two if not more strong paragraphs. I have a good friend who I've been role playing with for nearly four years now and our posts for each other are smaller than they used to be, but that's only because we're in tune with the others writing style and are comfortable making assumptions. We know how the other plays their characters and what to except. We also talk out of character for hours each day and our role plays are our favorite topics. We plan, talk about characters, etc...

With people that I'm not this comfortable with, I like longer replies because I get more to provide feedback on. The room, the atmosphere, their character, my character, things that were said, thought, almost said... The whole shebang. The longer I role play with them, I'll sometimes let my post length drop, but I still love long replies and giving them in turn because I love detail.
 
When I started RPing up to about 3 years ago, my posts were 2-3 paragraphs [Sometimes a bit longer depending on if I'm opening, and whats all going on but average was 2-3 paragraphs.] and I didn't mind it but I had a lot of these smaller post RPs and they'd demand replies fairly quick.

I ended up burning myself out. Even though I had the time, i just didn't want to do it. It had become a boring, tiresome and repetitive act. It was going "Wash, rinse, repeat." It became such a chore I didn't even want to log on, I ended up dropping every RP I had.

I ended up finding a partner I meshed well with, but his posts were waaaaaay more than what I ever wrote. And I didn't think it would work because I felt intimidated and wasn't sure if I was gonna like the longer posts or not.

What I've found honestly....is I love longer posts. I love the detail, the information, glances of what the characters thoughts may be...just all that. There is a point obviously but if you do enjoy longer replies, the best way to keep from feeling overwhelmed/pressured....find a partner with patience. That is the fucking key. I also enjoy shorter replies, I mean...as long as its written well and isn't fulled with 50 tons of fluff, I'm good. I still do have a preference for well written long replies, can't help that. Never 1-5 liners though. I couldn't get into the story with so little to work with.

My partner has the patience of a saint and because he was, I didn't feel pressured to post. I posted when I could and had time which...sometimes I'd have to save it as a draft and come back later. But he'd never pressure me about posting, always told me to take my time and that made things more enjoyable. But honestly, if you have the patience and you have a patient partner, you can do any length RP without feeling stressed or overwhelmed. I can't write those big posts with any speed but because my partner is patient we have a RP that'll be 3 years old in a few months.

Patience.
Its important and valuable.

Especially since some people start bitching because it had been a whole "hour". Thats a major killer for me. RP is for enjoyment, and when you start pestering for a reply it makes your partner LESS inclined to post. Theres no need to be a speed demon about it, enjoy the story you created with someone else. Take the time to appreciate it, talk with your partner a lot. If you can't be friends with your partner, you probably shouldn't RP together. Communication is a big thing too.

Even if I can't write, I'll just talk to him about different things, about our RP, come up with new side stories, tweak ones we've already discussed just a lot of things and that also takes some stress from it.

But thats me >>;

Also; please be nice. I'm in at 2 days and some odd hours without sleep and a lil stoned ><;
 
I posted this a LONG time ago, but I feel it still holds up. Call me unoriginal, but I'll post it again.

The following is my views and ideas on Role-Playing, and may not apply to all.

Consider the nature of the posts: What is an introductory post, and what is a response?

With an introductory post, the writer is setting the scene, introducing characters, and writing about what that character is currently doing. It directly sets up the current event, and has a large impact on many of the details that would naturally form further events and scenarios. Anyone that enjoys writing will use as many words as they see fit to achieve the above. Granted, some writers are less skilled than others, and my not have a long and/or interesting introductory post (it can be short and interesting). This is writing at it's purest (in regards to role-playing), and allows the role-player to freely exercise their creative ability.

Once the role-players have established their characters, the setting, and acknowledged the current event or scenario, the posts may get smaller.

Most posts after the first or second post are responses. In a response, the role-player is obviously responding to the post before it. They acknowledge everything that is possible for their character to acknowledge, and have the character take reasonable actions. However, we have already established beforehand all of the details that make the scene. It is these details that have made the introductory post longer, so to state them again would be entirely redundant and uninteresting to read. To avoid this, we cut a lot of those details out. The writer has no need to constantly remind the reader about the size of the room, the clothes a character is wearing, or how dirty the bar is. When you take these details out, the post is reasonably smaller. The role-player may then add a few newer details to showcase new information the character has noticed as time passed. These details are fewer than before (everything important ought to be written already), and usually help to more strongly establish the scene, and/or bring the various characters into interaction with each other.

After that point, one may notice the posts get even smaller. This happens because the details are even more extraneous and have less reason to be mentioned. One switches focus from the scene around the characters, and instead focus on the interaction between them. One is left to have the character notice details about the other character(s), and to write about what they are saying or thinking. This ought to take fewer words to accomplish, otherwise the post may seem too cumbersome for an interaction. I've always found it unreasonable for a role-player to rattle off a dozen actions and dialogue tags in a single turn of a conversation. It ruins the pacing and flow of the conversation and creates a timeline issue.

  • From Time 1 through Time 10, Role-player A has stated the order of events.

    If Role-Player B contradicts this, it disrupts that order of events.

    Consider if Role-Player B replied to every action and dialogue through Time 1 to 10.

    What you have is two people interacting, where Role-Player B is responding to everything, and Role-Player A is ignoring them.

    It is already established what Role-Player A is doing through Time 1-10.

    So, in the following response, Role-Player A is forced to backtrack their character, and have them doing multiple things at once.

    You get a timeline that makes no sense whatsoever.

    On the other hand, Role-Player A can just continue to ignore all of the responses that Role-Player B made from Time 1 to 10, and instead respond to the actions taken at Time 11 and later. However, does that feel like a natural interaction between people to you?
In other words, to make a more natural, flowing character interaction, fewer actions and dialogue should be written. It allows for the responding role-player to properly respond, or even interrupt, agree, or disagree with what the other character is doing. Consider how real life interactions work. If someone is talking a bunch and doing a bunch of stuff, you're stuck listening and watching, unless you interrupt. One cannot logically interrupt (in most cases) if the other person has established that they go on to say and do other things-- the interruption is ignored.

Role-Player B can also just write his responses to the actions from Time 1 through Time 10 in a way that fits naturally, but that's an awful lot of work, and gives Role-Player A complete control over those events-- might as well just co-author a short story or novel.

As a conversation between characters continues, there are fewer and fewer details to write about. The focus is mostly on the words that are being spoken. To continue to mention the characters same emotional state, same gestures, or the same smile or frown, becomes silly. The reader already knows the character is smiling, and will continue to smile until the writer mentions otherwise. It is also silly to have a character swing from mood to mood. If the character goes from happy, to upset every single post (during the same conversation), it's ridiculous. Wouldn't that character stop talking to that person? Maybe attack them? Hug them? Flip flopping between emotions for the sake of dragging out a conversation is not good writing, and it is definitely not good role-playing.

What eventually happens is that the role-players are left with a never ending conversation, or they stir things up, and move the scene forward. They make a new introductory post to introduce a new scene. The length of the post should start to vary here. As you introduce another character, event, or scene, the post should get longer to reflect this. There is something new to explore, something new to write about, and there should be adequate description.

Basically, if the role-players are good writers, and good role-players, they will have an inconsistent post length. The length will reflect just what is going on in the role-play, and not the word count a particular person wishes to achieve.
 
I agree that post lengths should fluctuate as the story progresses. And its never a good idea to try and force yourself to write more....forcing a reply tends to make it kind of...bland. Sometimes it makes it completely horrible. There is nothing wrong with shorter replies.
e with
The length can be influenced by the number of characters in a specific scene since a lot of people do play multiple characters.

For me, I feel that there are a lot of different variables and this could get tossed around with a lot of "well, what about this?" Theres a lot of things that go into a RP and each one is unique; from the writers themselves, the characters, the settings, personal likes/dislikes, goals, idea and a lot more I'm sure....but I can't remember them right now ^^;

Each RP has its own set of problems and complications that can arise which will affect the length of the post and what not. I don't think you should ever try to write to a certain length or match your partners post in term of size. Just start writing, don't pay attention to those trivial details. Write until you feel you've said/done what you needed to, to progress the story. If its only a paragraph long, so be it. If it ends up being 10 pages, so be it. People are too concerned with post size instead of whats actually important, that being the RPing itself. I know I said I have a preference for longer posts and I do. But I'd take a short post written very well over a 15 page piece of crap thats all just fluff.

I may have repeated things Mitsu said. Not sure. I have a headache so this is all I'm gonna say here >x<
If I did repeat you, sorry. Its not intentional. I'll come back later once I've slept and read over them and fix the mistakes and what not.
 
Mitsu said:

  • From Time 1 through Time 10, Role-player A has stated the order of events.

    If Role-Player B contradicts this, it disrupts that order of events.

    Consider if Role-Player B replied to every action and dialogue through Time 1 to 10.

    What you have is two people interacting, where Role-Player B is responding to everything, and Role-Player A is ignoring them.

    It is already established what Role-Player A is doing through Time 1-10.

    So, in the following response, Role-Player A is forced to backtrack their character, and have them doing multiple things at once.

    You get a timeline that makes no sense whatsoever.

    On the other hand, Role-Player A can just continue to ignore all of the responses that Role-Player B made from Time 1 to 10, and instead respond to the actions taken at Time 11 and later. However, does that feel like a natural interaction between people to you?
In other words, to make a more natural, flowing character interaction, fewer actions and dialogue should be written. It allows for the responding role-player to properly respond, or even interrupt, agree, or disagree with what the other character is doing. Consider how real life interactions work. If someone is talking a bunch and doing a bunch of stuff, you're stuck listening and watching, unless you interrupt. One cannot logically interrupt (in most cases) if the other person has established that they go on to say and do other things-- the interruption is ignored.

Agree and love the way you paint the picture of time and character interaction. It was what I was trying to get at describing the post taking up time to "rehash" the action of the previous post and how you want the posts to flow together in quicker action scenes like the panels of a comic, rather than stopping a fight scene or an action scene to insert philosophical thoughts that slow things down or get in the way.

Bottom line: it is writing. It is interaction between two people for wish fulfillment fantasy. A lot of times, people's personal preferences can take it away from the flow of a book, by giving very sparse replies or over-expository scenes with huge posts but I consider those a departure from the core of what it is: storytelling. That's kind of the beauty of it though, is every person can find validation for their specific needs in this art form.
 
I always love this theory discussion. Makes me think of my background in competitive fighting rps, there details were a weapon to be wielded and exploited. Posts would also shift tense mid way through since the first half would always be a reaction by countering what the other person posted and then an attempt to force some new condition on them with the follow up.

Good rpers eventually learned that winging it and going with the flow sometimes was a better way of doing things other wise you'd end up with pages of flamewars. Oh the idleness of youth.
 
Oh this discussion is become really fascinating! ^.^

Mitsu said:
In other words, to make a more natural, flowing character interaction, fewer actions and dialogue should be written. It allows for the responding role-player to properly respond, or even interrupt, agree, or disagree with what the other character is doing. Consider how real life interactions work. If someone is talking a bunch and doing a bunch of stuff, you're stuck listening and watching, unless you interrupt. One cannot logically interrupt (in most cases) if the other person has established that they go on to say and do other things-- the interruption is ignored.

. . .

As a conversation between characters continues, there are fewer and fewer details to write about. The focus is mostly on the words that are being spoken. To continue to mention the characters same emotional state, same gestures, or the same smile or frown, becomes silly. The reader already knows the character is smiling, and will continue to smile until the writer mentions otherwise.

I agree with what much of Mitsu and Rudolph Quin have said. I notice that my own post length tends to grow and shrink as needed. My Intros are always bigger, then once the scene is set up and the interaction begins, shrinks down, until a new scene needs to be made and grows again. If I am forced to make posts that are bigger, I end up just rehashing or adding trivial details that do nothing to move things forward. And I don't believe that's enjoyable for either party involved. After the scene is set up, I want to focus on character interaction/dialogue while moving the plot forward.

I guess I treat my roleplays less like a storybook and more like an improv comedy. ...well, maybe improvational theatre would be a more accurate term. Though its just an audience of two in this case.

Karameida said:
Patience.
Its important and valuable.

Yes, I would definitely agree with that. I hate being pressured. It usually causes me to shut down mentally and not want to reply. Having an understanding and supportive partner is also important to me. But I have noticed that those sorts of partners are few and far between.



Great insights guys. ^.^
 
Sadly, this is true. I think some people it just takes time, they eventually learn. That is how it was with me. I was impatient but the longer I Rped the more patient I became.

Still there are way too few. Too many people want the instant gratification and that...admittedly does annoy me quite a lot. I've been RPing close to 10 years and in that time...I've only met 3 people who were patient, understanding, supportive and fun. Its sad really. People have no idea how far it goes and how many RPs they'd stop losing if they just stopped trying to pressure posts out of their partners.

It isn't a job and it isn't a requirement, RPing is for fun. Funny how many people seem to forget this and think they are owed something.

Sighs.

I've seen people who would literally come in and start bitching because they had posted 1 hour prior and had not received a post back. I was like "...Get over it. This is an ADULT site, people here have LIVES and RESPONSIBILITIES. Jobs, families, schooling....any number of things to deal with. Your RP is relatively low on the list of needs."

That too. RPing is for fun but the people here are over 18, life isn't such a nice thing as to not fuck with people. There are so many things that can call them away. It really shouldn't be that hard to understand. Messaging your partner once in awhile to check on them is one thing....but a lot just do it for selfish reasons. It might take me a long time to post but I talk to my partners whenever I can and I keep them updated. If they ever message me first, their first question is how am I. Their follow ups are usually about how things at home are and what not...just...little things that show they care about me because we're friends...not because they want a post.

It is very easy to tell the difference. Thats something you shouldn't do because when people have done that to me in the past, I dropped the RP. I refuse to RP with someone when I don't like who they are and what they do.
 
I post what I need to. No sense in trying to add in six paragraphs of fluff or doing a bunch of stuff my partner can't react to unless they post retroactively which is a real pain in the butt.
 
I’m flexible. I do one liners, yes, and I rather enjoy them. They do offer that instant gratification factor. There is still a direction the rp travels. My partner and I discuss where we want to go often in fact.

The other side of that coin is the more literate rps. I do have rps that are considered semi-lit, but I have done lit rps in the past. In fact, I got a starter post last night that I classify as the “oh my gosh he wrote a novel,” length. It’s not the amount of words that matter. It’s the actual words themselves. You can so say much with so few.
 
Back in the ol' days of Gaia-Land (GaiaOnline - WHERE Y'ALL AT?), there were labels for roleplayers who wrote certain post-lengths, which I'm sure carries over to BM, too.

One-liners: 1-3 sentences.
Semi-lit: Paragraph or two.
Literate: 2+ paragraphs

These were the three categories. And until this day, I have ALWAYS been a "literate" roleplayer. I write anywhere from 2-15 paragraphs depending on the plot, the characters, and of course, my partner. This is due to many factors, such as my passion for writing - but actually a big portion of it, I have to credit the fact that I write in first person. This sounds like a bit of a lame excuse, but I put a lot of complexity and detail into my character and her respective mindset, so writing in first person allows me to explore her conscious and subconscious. This tends to tag along a lot of length and detail into the roleplay.

I try to never include any details that are insignificant to my character or the plot, though. Because then that just falls into "filler" and I fucking LOATHE filler.

So, in my opinion, there are two types of "literate" roleplayers:
Fillers, and non-fillers.
Fillers are generally producing poor quality replies/post, because they are essentially just bombarding you with nonsense. It's my least favored type of roleplayer. I would rather shorter posts, and better quality.

Of course this brings up the whole "does quantity = quality" debate. For this, I have to say, definitely circumstantial. Sometimes length does add an extra flavor to a post, but other times, it just floods the partner with unnecessary and often boring material.
 
Beautiful Disgrace said:
I post what I need to. No sense in trying to add in six paragraphs of fluff or doing a bunch of stuff my partner can't react to unless they post retroactively which is a real pain in the butt.

Admittedly, I often roleplay slightly retroactively.
It's just how I learned to roleplay. Some players do it that way, others don't.
So I usually just try to follow the lead of my partner, and hope they are fine with the style of roleplaying.

Actually, most roleplayers I've RPed with who wrote several paragraphs always roleplayed dialogue retroactively.
 
Exactly as how much is required to describe my characters thoughts and actions in evocative detail. And possibly to describe scene details if it is necessary. Rarely will this be more than a paragraph in a scene where others are present.

Depends on the nature of the RP too. In a 1-on-1 RP, I more down with looong posts where more is happening, where more description is made, because you have only two people contribute to what's happening. I slam on the whole "pro-long posts, anti-one-liners" but just realized that is strictly from a group standpoint.

Part of this is because I see writing just as a necessity of the medium of online roleplaying, so I don't approach it in the same way as I do writing otherwise.

Actually, I have to wonder... I see the major complaint being a single line does nothing to further the plot, and I wonder if that's a symptom of not discussing where the plot is going enough out-of-character. I think doing some meta-coordination is definitely necessary.



Still want to do an art-based RP sometime and bypass the writing necessity altogether. ^:;
 
Victorian_Virtue said:
I think you write what you receive. That is why the first post is so important, you get to set the scene and parameters and what YC is about. After that I generally give back what I get back. Even when I find I try to break the cycle, I am reduced to a death spiral in the roleplay.

Seriously, I think you need multiple paragraphs to keep the action moving. Ernest Hemingway would tend to disagree.

What you are able to respond with is only limited by your own imagination and ingenuity. While I wouldn't say Asphodel Terrarium's statement is necessarily true, that one liners are sometimes best, a decent writer should be able to come up with content regardless of how sparse the preceding response was. A poor response does nothing but hurt motivation; it has no real effect on a person's ability to keep the action moving. Not wanting to write a response is an entirely different matter than not being able to. That being said, I find it perfectly reasonable to drop a role-play if one is in the position of putting forth the effort, while each response in return is entirely inadequate.

Role-playing is a cooperative effort where selfishness can sour any endeavor. Anyone along for the ride is selfish. Anyone that wants to use a role-play for one-sided wish fulfillment is selfish. These are two types of people I have absolutely no desire to ever write with, no matter how long and verbose their posts are. I'd rather have a partner that puts forth an earnest effort, but can only produce a measly paragraph a post.
 
Victorian_Virtue said:
I think you write what you receive. That is why the first post is so important, you get to set the scene and parameters and what YC is about. After that I generally give back what I get back. Even when I find I try to break the cycle, I am reduced to a death spiral in the roleplay.

Seriously, I think you need multiple paragraphs to keep the action moving. Ernest Hemingway would tend to disagree.

I personally agree, simply because this also follows my personal style of writing.

All of my best, most in-depth and dramatic roleplays have been with roleplayers who provide multiple paragraphs per response.

Granted, the paragraphs have to be of decent quality, and not just repetition or filler. That's the absolute worst.
 
Temptationist said:
Victorian_Virtue said:
I think you write what you receive. That is why the first post is so important, you get to set the scene and parameters and what YC is about. After that I generally give back what I get back. Even when I find I try to break the cycle, I am reduced to a death spiral in the roleplay.

Seriously, I think you need multiple paragraphs to keep the action moving. Ernest Hemingway would tend to disagree.

I personally agree, simply because this also follows my personal style of writing.

All of my best, most in-depth and dramatic roleplays have been with roleplayers who provide multiple paragraphs per response.

Granted, the paragraphs have to be of decent quality, and not just repetition or filler. That's the absolute worst.

I personally don't agree with the second part. Most of my best roleplays have been with people who don't even care about their length. I've posted 650 words to a 50 word response, before.
 
I agree with Mitsu's theory that actions and conversations should be kept to a minimum. At least actions that constitute replies from the partner. This actually, in the past, drove me into asking people to treat RPs as co-authored stories where we both share control of every character. Few people appreciated that, sadly :(

I also feel that my satisfaction with the story is not a function of the word count. I don't mind my partner writing one or two paragraphs if there is creativity involved. If they had already described the scene and the environment in an earlier post, I wouldn't expect them to elaborate and repeat their descriptions just to achieve an impressive post length. I care more about the creativity. I hate it when I'm the one tasked with leading the story, setting up the events, and shaping everything for the opposite character to merely experience. It is the quality of the content that matters, not the size of the content.

To me, the quality is mostly graded in a creative basis not a linguistic one. I like fancy words but it is not imperative. I need a creative mind, not a dictionary. Surprise me with a twist and have your character run away during sex and get hit by bus.
 
SithLordOfSnark said:
Temptationist said:
Victorian_Virtue said:
I think you write what you receive. That is why the first post is so important, you get to set the scene and parameters and what YC is about. After that I generally give back what I get back. Even when I find I try to break the cycle, I am reduced to a death spiral in the roleplay.

Seriously, I think you need multiple paragraphs to keep the action moving. Ernest Hemingway would tend to disagree.

I personally agree, simply because this also follows my personal style of writing.

All of my best, most in-depth and dramatic roleplays have been with roleplayers who provide multiple paragraphs per response.

Granted, the paragraphs have to be of decent quality, and not just repetition or filler. That's the absolute worst.

I personally don't agree with the second part. Most of my best roleplays have been with people who don't even care about their length. I've posted 650 words to a 50 word response, before.

It's definitely a personal preference.
There is no right or wrong way to roleplay, of course.

I totally understand how short responses are appealing, objectively.
I just personally prefer bigger posts with lots of detail. And, like someone said before, slight retroactive-roleplaying.
 
Awesomist said:
Surprise me with a twist and have your character run away during sex and get hit by bus.
This.
LOL

- Though, I have to add, adding in plot twists often lengthens a reply. At least when I do it, it does. When I throw it a twist, I throw it in with great detail and motive.
 
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