@sahin said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
Nonverbal communication.
Yeah but that's a MUSH thing more than anything.
I suppose though intricate plans discussed OOC between players then put into play almost immediately in IC time is very similar for table-top.
@arkandel In one of the last campaigns I did for D&D, we had a drow in the party that taught everyone the Drow Hand Language. Like, we legit spent skill dots on it so we could have a nonverbal communication. We had a group chat that the DM was not in and used that as a means to convey quick nonverbal signals to one another.
@too-old-for-this Totally off topic, but signal boosting Inspirisles, the TTRPG that strait up teaches you Sign Language as you play. I am thoroughly upset I missed out on the Kickstarter for this, because it's hella neat!
@carma said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
I think I traced it back to @boop's post here.
Abelard, Brigid, Camille, and Darren appear to be the most common names used in posts referencing example names since then.
It was this post. Clearly Abelard, Brigid, Camille, Darren (and to a lesser degree Euphonia, Frog, Gillian and Henri) are the best example PC name convention.
ETA that it was @Derp who added Darren, and @boop tragically used Joshua and Sam when it was Euphonia and Frog. What a world.
"... you'll find the story doesn’t end how you think, and the most important characters aren’t who you expect.” - Penny 40 to Derek, The Magicians S04E07 ‘The Side Effect’
@il-volpe said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
ETA that it was @Derp who added Darren,
How could I have missed my chance to add Darius to the list of names, instead of Darren!!! Ugh, I will never forgive myself!
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
@derp I shall begin using Darius and tell no one.
I definitely prefer 'Darren' to 'Darius' in that spot.
I might even have gone with 'Dave'.
The way people RP conversations is incredibly unrealistic.
You have people monologuing without room for others to interrupt or prompt with a few questions, nor telegraph their disgust/disinterest which would normally make the person talking pause and start to feel awkward.
And, you have the thing where someone is trying to be as inclusive as possible, so their pose includes a sentence of dialogue directed at every single person in the room, addressing every topic that's been raised, leaving nothing out, lest others feel ignored.
I have a regular RP partner I annoy on these fronts because he'll consistently drop a paragraph of text with 5 different talking points and I just have my character react to the very last thing he said. Usually the quip portion instead of the actually important stuff. And then he gets frustrated I didn't comment on the actual plan or whatever, to which either my character replies, 'sorry, that was a lot to take in' or I tell him OOC that he needs to give my character room to respond if he actually expects me to.
These are two people talking! It's not an email exchange! There are no paragraphs and subheaders in a normal conversation.
It's so weird, too, because that's how we would talk if we hadn't been groomed to do it in this weird paragraph style meant to avoid the dreaded short poses.
I can't help but think this is the same as people using passive voice to try to sound smarter, even though it just makes things harder to understand.
We did this to ourselves. Now we have to work to heal the damage.
It's much more common to write dialogue in a more realistic manner on RPIs from my limited experience on them, since short poses aren't only encouraged, they're a good idea, as there is no pose order and things tend to happen in real time, such as combat.
Honestly, I am all for paragraph, even multi-paragraph RP. But I tend to prefer at least 90% of that to be action, body language and scene setting with just one or two lines of dialogue. And I prefer realism over inclusion, meaning that with people I'm comfortable with I may not respond to everyone in the room, and trust they'll know it's a matter of what makes sense in the scene right now rather than purposeful exclusion. (But like most people I'll adjust for etiquette around strangers and newcomers.)
I don't think there's a right or wrong way here, mind you. The person I mentioned in my previous post is, after all, one of my regular RP partners for a reason. I rib him about this with sporting respect and affection.
Meanwhile, reading Kurt Vonnegut fills me with a bitter sense of shame and inadequacy because it shows me a perfect example of a writing style so very different from mine which I can't at all match. He's a master of snappy dialogue and years of exercising my writing skills on MU* have taught me the opposite skill (though I feel I'm good at descriptive nonverbal writing).
@carma In Ares, I really wish there was more cultural acceptance of, "Joey filled in Susan on the events of <link to log>last night," instead of having to do direct dialogue.
Or, honestly, on all MU*s, a little more acceptance of, "Joey spends some time explaining the benefits of this arrangement," <roll for relevant skill>, rather than poor Joey having to come up with specific points of an arrangement that relies on bits of the setting that haven't been explained or operationalized, but PROBABLY exist, but don't really matter in the details. Not every conversation needs to be verbatim! Joey can condense it into 'makes an argument' and roll for how GOOD an argument it is, and Susan can condense into "responds with her own concerns about her personal priorities", and roll for her counter, and then they can decide on the end result and flesh THAT out.
@pyrephox said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
@carma In Ares, I really wish there was more cultural acceptance of, "Joey filled in Susan on the events of <link to log>last night," instead of having to do direct dialogue.
The expectation of direct dialogue has been a thing since I started playing in the 1990s - it really has nothing to do with Ares.
That said - yeah, MU conversations are pretty absurd. That's partly why I can't do big scenes any more (even more than 3 people). Everyone is putting so much into their individual poses that by the time it comes round to me there are like 27 conversation threads to keep up with and my brain cries uncle.
@faraday said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
@pyrephox said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
@carma In Ares, I really wish there was more cultural acceptance of, "Joey filled in Susan on the events of <link to log>last night," instead of having to do direct dialogue.
The expectation of direct dialogue has been a thing since I started playing in the 1990s - it really has nothing to do with Ares.
That said - yeah, MU conversations are pretty absurd. That's partly why I can't do big scenes any more (even more than 3 people). Everyone is putting so much into their individual poses that by the time it comes round to me there are like 27 conversation threads to keep up with and my brain cries uncle.
No, I understand that. I'm not blaming Ares. I'm just saying that in an environment where most games have every meaningful scene logged and every log public, it should be more of a thing to just be able to condense a recap to a link to the relevant logs.
@kestrel Yeah, I've ranted about this before too.
@pyrephox said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
it should be more of a thing to just be able to condense a recap to a link to the relevant logs.
Sign me up. Especially if it means we can skip 10 text-threads of people recapping the plot.
I too, dislike the fact that we often feel pressured to respond to everyone. I get it! There are legit reasons! But yeah. I 
my friends who will let me one line at them in a conversation because... it's a conversation.
This is why big scenes should require places code, so you can +join a table and only RP with the cool kids.
@sahin said in Weird or unrealistic gaming... stuff:
Nonverbal communication.
Yeah but that's a MUSH thing more than anything.
I suppose though intricate plans discussed OOC between players then put into play almost immediately in IC time is very similar for table-top.
