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Generic Roleplaying Guide

From ATS Wiki

Although a lot of people who join ATS are already familiar with MUSHing etiquette, there are also a good many who are not. So here are a few handy tips for new RPers:

• Although it can be frustrating waiting several minutes for a pose, don't make several poses in rapid-fire succession and then ask if the person is still there. Maybe their cat barfed, they paused to take a drink of water, or any number of things out of their control that prevents them from immediately typing out a response.
• One longer pose is, in general, better than several short poses. ATS is not a chat room.
• The longer a pose is, in general, the better. This is not a hard and fast rule, but there should certainly be enough in your pose for the other person (or people) to react to. If all you're doing is "Human1 nods.", there is nothing to react to.
• On a similar vein, don't powerpose. What's powerposing? It's when you say your character does something that nobody else is able to stop. For example:

Cynthia takes a flying leap at Willamina and kicks her in the chin, sending her flying backwards into a stack of empty crates as Willamina's bones crack with the force of the impact.

While this works in literature, this doesn't work in a cooperative environment like ATS. Cynthia can take a running leap at Willamina, but it's up to Willamina to pose what happens after Cynthia's blow lands... if it lands at all! In case of disagreements, there are dice on ATS to roll.

• Spelling, spelling, spelling! Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. But if your poses are littered with a dozen errors, it makes it difficult to concentrate on and understand what your character is saying/doing.
• Good grammar and/or punctuation is important. Why should you care, in a casual environment like ATS? Just remember: it's the difference between telling others you helped your uncle, Jack, off a horse and telling that you helped your uncle jack off a horse. Wildly different meanings there.
• Everything your character says should be enclosed in quote marks.
• Thoughts your character is having usually shouldn't be included in poses. Most characters aren't telepathic, so there's nothing in a pose composed entirely of thoughts for others to play off of. A couple of examples:

Cynthia considers the last time that she sat here. She had just come from watching a movie with Robert. Robert was sweet, but he never bought her popcorn when they went to the movies together. All he ever got was one small box of Red Hots for himself, selfish jerk! Still, he had a nice personality and she was sad when he moved away. The guy sitting next to her now looks a lot like Robert; maybe he's as interesting as Robert was.

That is bad. There's a whole flashback there, which any characters in the room cannot react to. It will make the next round of poses more difficult. On the other hand, something like this is much better:

As Cynthia settles into her seat at the bar, she looks thoughtful. Those who frequent the place would know that it's been a long time since she came for a visit. As she glances around, her gaze falls upon the man sitting next to her and she studies him intently. Wistfulness and anger both cross her face as Cynthia seems, for a few moments, to be lost in her own thoughts.

See, isn't that much better? Now the guy sitting next to Cynthia can ask why she's staring at him... and maybe she'll tell him all about Robert and his love of Red Hots. This could start a whole discussion on the merits of Red Hots versus Hot Tamales. Or, whatever. The point is, there is much more to react to in the second example than in the first.