Do you rp thoughts?

[Sludge]

The Great Warlord's face twisted as he remembered the long forgotten trauma caused by his master's early death. He roared "No! Keep the peanuts to yourself!"


So do you write your charcter's thoughts and memories in forum roleplay? Or do you simply describe the actions while keeping everything hidden from other players? (perhaps to create suspense?)


I ask because I do it. I feel like it is a good way to avoid confusion and, well, it gives you more flexibility in your actions. But recently I thought that actually in a way it is pretty much a metagameing magnet. If you tell other people what your character thinks and that leads to them changing the response of their character... then, well, here it is. But then again, if I use this kind of logic then planning rps beforehand is also metagaming.


( O.o )

 

[LegoLad659]

I honestly don't see anything wrong with it. If anything, it gives your character more depth, and lets you relate to them as a person more effectively. That's my opinion on it, anyway ( )

 

[Chordling]

I write out a character's thoughts though I usually do not write them as dialogue. For example, Robert was shocked to hear such news from his aunt. He never expected her to come to such a grand success in such little time.


I believe the issue of metagaming can be avoided. Characters should only be able to react what they see. They can't see your character's thoughts unless your character expresses those thoughts out loud. So it really shouldn't change the way a character responds to what is happening.

 

[Sludge]

I write out a character's thoughts though I usually do not write them as dialogue. For example, Robert was shocked to hear such news from his aunt. He never expected her to come to such a grand success in such little time.
I believe the issue of metagaming can be avoided. Characters should only be able to react what they see. They can't see your character's thoughts unless your character expresses those thoughts out loud. So it really shouldn't change the way a character responds to what is happening.

That does make sense. A good rper should stay in character. But that way he also gives an opportunity to other (perhaps not as much experienced) rpers to force their story onto your character by knowing what he or she thinks of things.

 

[QuirkyAngel]

I write out thoughts, because if I don't, it just leads to misunderstandings. If I'm rping a villain character and make him/her a total ass, without context to his thoughts at the time, I fear other rpers might be insulted and avoid rping with me.

 

[Kylesar1]

I do.


I think of RP as a story. A story is boring as hell if no one knows how any of the characters think


I try to keep it brief though.

 

[amdreams]

I rp thoughts. Though I do agree that it's sometimes treated like a magnet for metagaming. However that's not always a bad thing. Though very annoying, if you play your cards right, it can be an effective move to manipulate rpers. Especially if they tend to metagame. Personally, if I'm trying to get a certain view, I still rp thoughts but very selective of what thoughts I let through. That combined with misleading or ambiguous ooc can allow you to do anything you need.


As for misunderstandings, I do agree that it'd be nice to avoid those in the long run. However I think an occasional misunderstanding on the character's part is fine and even fun. Because misunderstandings happen in real life.

 

[QuirkyAngel]

I rp thoughts. Though I do agree that it's sometimes treated like a magnet for metagaming. However that's not always a bad thing. Though very annoying, if you play your cards right, it can be an effective move to manipulate rpers. Especially if they tend to metagame. Personally, if I'm trying to get a certain view, I still rp thoughts but very selective of what thoughts I let through. That combined with misleading or ambiguous ooc can allow you to do anything you need.
As for misunderstandings, I do agree that it'd be nice to avoid those in the long run. However I think an occasional misunderstanding on the character's part is fine and even fun. Because misunderstandings happen in real life.

It's true that misunderstandings can be fun, but only if the other rper doesn't take the insult to their character personally. A majority of rpers aren't so thick-skinned and I don't want to risk offending/hurting another person's feelings--even if it is online.

 

[amdreams]

True. True. I try not to step on toes either. I have a particular character who can be quite mean. And usually I apologize for her behavior in advance. But if it's a misunderstanding, I don't know if that's something you can just predict. Still if someone does get hurt I suppose all you can do is apologize and let them know it wasn't your intention.

 

[Shura]

It has its places. Overall I love RPing out thoughts and emotions. It helps develop a character far beyond its original conception and allows for insight. Honestly some of my best writing is when my character is looking back on something or having a quiet moment.


However there are times where thoughts are not always needed. Most times it's plot and context related. Sometimes I'll write my antagonist pure in the perspective others would see him. Because that's how I want my players to see him. It's ways interesting to see what people can theorize or come up with about the character and how clues and small things mention can add to the puzzle and mystery.

 

[Xenonia]

It's always good to give people some idea of what your character thinks. You don't necessarily have to jump into a flashback every post, but at least let their general opinion of the thing be known so that others have something to work with.

 

[Blumenkranz]

I intentionally leave them vague unless I have a good reason not to (such as internal monologue jokes or things like that).


While my usual type of narration is far from objective, I try to avoid deep inspection of thoughts as much as possible. This means, the narrator knows very well the character and can guess how it may feel at any given moment or maybe have a vague idea of what could the character be thinking in that moment, but it is by no means an accurate depiction of the character's thoughts. Instead of reading the character's mind, the narrator deduces this information by having a good knowledge of the character's personality, its past and several other clues also available to other players, such as gestures or grimaces. We could call this the Mom Narrator.


I personally think explicitly writing your character's thoughts as a way to give some sort of sense to your post is kinda cheap. If your character's actions aren't clear enough without explicitly writing what your character meant with that, you should probably rethink what you are about to send.


Do you want your character to be socially awkward and have complex thought patterns? Then you should try to discourage metagaming by forcing other players to get to know the character before they can guess what was passing by its head (if you greet another person by insulting them, how do you expect the other person to be kind to you because they automatically know you have Tourette's?). Do you want your character to be a regular, straightforward person? Then you should try to rewrite your post so a external observer without knowledge of your character's mind could understand it.


Basically, if your post would get another person to think any differently from it if you removed your character's inner thoughts, you are doing something wrong.

 

[Kylesar1]

I try not to RP big thoughts, especially in Fantasy or during battles.


If a character thinks about their weakness, and writes it down, the other players tend to magically know that weakness and take advantage of it immediately. The same goes with unexplained strengths


On other thoughts, I don't really do unnecessary thoughts. If it's not relevant to the immediate situation, It's not needed. TLR posts are one of the reasons people don't read these days

 

[myvalentina]

I think it's important to write out thoughts. I agree that it can possibly change other players reactions to your character but I think that's putting such little faith in your fellow role players. Maybe it's because my writing style is flowery and descriptive so it's more a problem with me and my weaknesses in writing, but I feel it's necessary to get the overall feeling of the plot, as well as clearing up any dialogue that could be ambitious.


Like I play a lot of sarcastic characters but shit sarcasm is hard to convey through dialogue alone, even more so if your limiting the perspective. I need to put my characters intentions out there so that the other person has all the information they need to make a decision on how they want their character to act. Even just writing. "You are so right." He said, sarcastically I feel sometimes isn't enough.


We're still crafting a story and I feel I need all that information to make it the best story possible.

 

[Sludge]

@myvalentina


I can see how not writing thoughts could become a problem with sarcastic characters... Adverbs are generally weak when it comes to conveying emotion as they rely on telling instead of showing, but when it comes to sarcasm inserting an adverb is pretty much the only way to show it. Actually I've never really thought about intentionally using thoughts to convey the emotion in such cases (how ridiculous the situation is from the perspective of your character).


What I am concerned about is that thoughts kill all the suspense. For example:


At the mention of her family she abruptly stopped and glared at him.


Makes you wonder what it is that made her angry. You would probaby want to find out more about her past. Put it against:


The mention of her family reminded her of her sister who died in a road incident. She abruptly stopped and glared at him.


Yeah, there might still be an interesting story behind all that, but you can already predict most of it. Would you question for more? Hell no, who wants to hear yet another bit of plain old tragic background.

 

[myvalentina]

What I am concerned about is that thoughts kill all the suspense. For example:

You know what I actually think I agree more then I disagree with that. Like I've had problems with Rp-ing too many thoughts before like not remembering what had been said in an aside vs. what had been said verbally and yeah that would be remedied by keeping a lot of the thoughts out of the Rp.


But, I still I think it comes down to distinguishing between [B]you[/B] the Rp-er and the character your playing. In the case of your example:


[I]'At the mention of her family she abruptly stopped and glared at him.'[/I]


vs


[I][B]'The mention of her family reminded her of her sister who died in a road incident.[/B][/I][I] She abruptly stopped and glared at him.'[/I]


In the first instance yes I (as an rp-er) would want to look more into why the character would stop at the mention of her family, but maybe my character wouldn't. Like maybe my character will take her stopping abruptly as a win, or ignore it, or whatever reason. But it's up to me as the writer to take the information and use it to weave a story around it. With the second one I get to have that tidbit of information for later, if I so wish to, and create a situation that could instigate the most angst or drama, or whatever.


I think both are done to manipulate the story to the way you want it to go. But it's up to the second person to take what you write and respond to it 1) truthfully as their character would and 2) in a way that they feel will either enhance the story, or move it along.


You just don't know what type of RP-er your going to be playing against. Some people may just use the thoughts and asides to not really advance the story, or to create a cliche story, or it would kill the suspense for them, but they could do the same just by reading the bios. Idk it's a very interesting topic, and the more I think about it the more I kinda agree at limiting the thoughts of characters (but I'm so torn! lol)

 

[Esphyliad]

I definitely RP thoughts just the way I would doing a novel or the likes. for thoughts to differentiate them from speech I put them in italics like this "insert though here" and then followed by (character though) or some other variation. however as already stated sometimes you don't need to write the words to what they thought but the emotion or reaction like. Sandy stood there in total shock unsure how to react. This style also is like thoughts and adds a new perspective to the character development without having to read all there exact thoughts.

 

[FallenKINGDOMS]

I definitely roleplay the thoughts, usually in italics although. It has so many things you can add to the rp. Lets say you're character is struggling with something. Not only do i want their actions to be frisked and stiff, i want them pulling at their hair and sighing. But i want them to be thinking of their choices and the decision at hand. I want my partner to know what it is that they are struggling with. 'I want to go to this college, but if i do..i'm away from home, from my family.'


Not only does it help you understand the characters side of view and how they think. It's also terrific for comical relief. Especially if you're in a really rough patch of suspense and then suddenly you're quiet and shy character is making sassy remarks in their head and trying not to laugh.


What i'm trying to say is, adding the thoughts to your roleplay is just as valuable as any action or phrase they say. Because what they're really thinking your character may never say. This way no one confuses your character for some thoughtless, rash person.

 

[Frag]

I do it because I see RP as a story written with others of a like-mind. In books, does the author often leave you wondering what's going on in the protagonist's head?


Now given, there are some titles out there that do, do that. However, most of the first and third person writings I have read don't. And much like a few others explained. It gives flexibility to your posts and context to your character's actions. Its a sure-fire way to let other readers (not characters) know of your character's intentions and give them a foresight into future actions. ^.^

 

[Elle Joyner]

I try not to... firstly, because as a writer in general, it's always my goal to show, not tell. Thoughts and thought-verbs can read as a lazy way to get a scene across, and can disconnect a reader from the scene.


But the second and primary reason I try not to do this in roleplays is becomes roleplays are largely reactionary.


Thoughts can't be (unless you've got a literal mindreader) utilized by any player besides yourself as a means of plot or character development. It becomes filler... and padding, while it can make for a fun read leaves very little to respond to... and if someone can't respond... eventually, they're likely to lose interest.


Are there exceptions? Of course. But I rarely see thought-rping as successful.

 

[marorda]

Yes, I always write my characters' thoughts and memories. When they add to the story or character development that is... Or when I plan on throwing in some more plot

 

[drencrom]

Sometimes. I honestly think it depends on the RP and if it makes sense to write out your character's thoughts. If done correctly, it can add depth to your writing, but it can detract from it as well. I try to use it sparingly.

 

[Levyn Ari]

It usually depends on the other person/people I am RPing with. I tend to play off of their style, as I have no one set way of writing. I prefer thoughts to be incorporated when they can. I think it helps a reader to better grasp who a character is.

 

[Obsessed]

Both. It depends on the topic... if what the character thinks has anything to do with the plot then, I'll either don't put it or put it but not really complete in order for it to still have suspense ;p

 

[Purple Kitti]

I do thoughts, memories, and dreams, but I completely restrict them to one RP character (if I'm playing multiples). I won't reveal thoughts for other characters, but instead reveal their internal workings through their actions, attitudes, and dialogue.

But I also use those thoughts sparingly, and in a way that *most likely* won't influence god-modding/ metagaming from my partner(s).
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