System/Mechanics Short replies?

[theoscout]

Do you love them or hate them?

personally, I think they're okay. Sometimes actions during a conversation or fight scene need to be short and snappy, and you can't chew the scenery on every reply to pad the length. I think people get scared of short replies because they see other people posting entire novels, and get nervous people will think they're lazy.

 

[Nomai]

I think short replies are totally fine! Of course, it depends on what people want from the rp, but in my experience they can really help things move along--especially in action or dialogue scenes! My guess is that often folks try to mirror their partner(s)' length, which, if following a setting-heavy or flashback post, can lead to conversations going on for longer than neccesary. Personally, my posts generally range from a couple hundred words to over a thousand depending on the current happenings of the rp, and I would never expect someone to match the length of one of my longer replies.

Great topic, and I'm curious what other folks have to say!

 

[StrixDesmodus]

There's a time and a place for everything. I think people forget that short replies have their time and place too. That's why I'd never impose a hard minimum in a roleplay I host, nor would I be likely to join a roleplay that has one.

And don't get me started on when potential hosts say "quality over quantity" but still impose length quotas as though they mean the exact opposite.

Not to mention that with clauses and vocabulary, you can say more in a single sentence with a more natural tone to it than if you were to break it up to meet a poorly defined minimum.




An example

Free writing:

Molly lifted the cup to her face without so much as sipping, but instead examined the liquid it contained.

Versus something meant to meet a requirement of three sentences:

Molly lifted the cup to her face. She did not drink. Instead, she examined the liquid it contained.

 

[Perpetual Zen]

Short replies are really great for action scenes or role plays where you have intense consistency.
Why I like longer posts is because I insert a lot into them. Not just information but much like when writing a novel there will be reoccurring themes, foreshadowing, symbolism. All of which can still be done in a short post but if you want a certain kind of atmosphere, you need more words.

Currently, I'm working on a post with just an introduction of around 600 words. It's just an old man in his cabin but it is expressing a lot of the undertones of the story in that short scene.
Although, many words does not mean you have to describe every detail of everything. This is where writers get lost. Your not telling everyone or even showing but your emoting to everyone. Your guiding them so their imagination can fill in the blanks. Also, because more often then not the longer replied role plays will take time for others to respond to. Various reasons and I try not to pry. So if you give a long atmospheric post they can read it a few times over and still get new information each time. That can be exciting too! But it has it's place and players.

I also love short replies. I really am just excited to have anyone respond or be creative with me because I'm always excited to learn. It's what makes writing worth while

 

[Idea]

I hate them, though not categorically. To me the issue with short replies is that tend to lack the details - be it in content, in form or both - making those posts end up feeling lacking and more often than not reading like a shopping list to me.

Note that I am not saying those shorter replies lack quality, but I do believe that different writing styles fundamentally have different goals and values, and what constitutes a quality response will vary between those writing styles. Someone can write an excellent, super concise response that brilliantly utilizes every word to convey an abundance of meaning, clever implications, foreshadowing and more, and there's a good chance it will just bore me to death nonetheless.

I guess another issue (though this is more an issue of the format of using short replies than the short replies themselves) is pacing. Lengthier formats I find just give me more room to breathe in terms of the expectations for the time it takes to write a reply. It's very important to me that there really isn't the expectation that I will reply the first moment I can or that I will e constantly focused on a particular RP project, and short replies ends up building that pressure a lot more, especially in group roleplay where a few more active people can practically turn the RP into a 1x1 as they move past scenes while moderately slower writers can barely get a word in edgewise.

There are of course scenes which will be more or less lengthy, but in general I do think people who prefer shorter replies tend to underestimate how much one can get out of a scene. There's a lot of details to even the most mundane moments, and a lot of things you can get out of those, especially if you set up the scene the properly to begin with. Not everyone has or even would have a good time using those additional details though. It's a matter of what you care about in writing. As I mentioned there's different writing styles, and atmospheric details will only matter to some. That is part of the reason why I seek and have length requirements. Because they are actually very useful and practical as filters for those different interests and writing styles.

 

[P_Roach]

ultimately roleplaying is a hobby do what works for you and your partner/group.
I hate one liners but I would never judge someone who enjoyed it; neither of us right/wrong just incompatible.

I tend to be quite laid back and versatile. I can write a pararaph up to a novella lit. it depends on what the partner has written/ type of roleplay the scene etc.
and ultimately, the story.
I put the story first, if you're setting a scene, there's usually more that needs to be described so will be longer than when there's lots of dialouge and that will be more back and forth so they are usually shorter.

However, are you defining short as that can be subjective.?

 

[theoscout]

ultimately roleplaying is a hobby do what works for you and your partner/group.
I hate one liners but I would never judge someone who enjoyed it; neither of us right/wrong just incompatible.

I tend to be quite laid back and versatile. I can write a pararaph up to a novella lit. it depends on what the partner has written/ type of roleplay the scene etc.
and ultimately, the story.
I put the story first, if you're setting a scene, there's usually more that needs to be described so will be longer than when there's lots of dialouge and that will be more back and forth so they are usually shorter.

However, are you defining short as that can be subjective.?

I define short as being around less than 10 sentences.

 

[GojiBean]

Hoyo!

Personally, I don't care how long or short a post is. I care about how much meaning your content brings to the table in the overall roleplay experience.

If your post accomplishes at least one of the following I'm gonna be a happy camper. Obviously, the more of these things (and other things not listed for the sake of brevity) which your post accomplishes, the happier I'll be.

- Provides insight into your character's state of mind
- Addresses and responds (either directly or indirectly) to something my character (or someone else's) said or did
- Provides subtext to your character's words and actions (such as exposing that they're thinking one thing while they say something else because they lack confidence in their true opinion/desire, they don't want to cause drama, etc)
- Provides important information about the setting that's relevant to progressing the scene or relevant to my response because it affects my character either which way
- Acknowledges an event which took place and provides a means ormethod to move forward
- Provides historical, cultural, or personal context (or all of the above) to your character's opinions on a subject being discussed
- Provides relevant information about a subject not known to my character (or others) for the purpose of sharing knowledge or insight to a problem/obstacle
- Accomplishes some type of personal or overall goal of the roleplay, such as slaying a certain monster or finding a certain artifact, which then propels us into the next phase of the journey
Again, the above are just some of the things I look for in the content I read from others. There's more. But if I were to list all of them we'd be here all day.

If you're a good writer you can accomplish all of the above in a few concise and well-crafted sentences. And to me that would be perfectly acceptable because you've given me a lot of what I want to see and read about.

If it takes you between 5+ paragraphs to accomplish this, either due to writing style or personal preference reasons, then so long as they're well-paced and well-crafted then I'll be happy to read through that much content.

At the end of the day short replies aren't for everyone. But if you're okay with them then you should stick with them and find partners who don't mind.

Cheers!

- GojiBean

 

[GrumpySwallow]

All I need is genuine effort and something myself and other players can reasonably respond to.

If all I get as a response is something along the lines of

Bob nods. "Yeah, let's do this!"

and that's it, I'm not going to be a happy player. What the heck am I supposed to do with this? Why even bother with RPing if that is all one can give to the other players? Not all posts have to be worthy of a Cookie, but a post like the above example adds nothing to the game and might as well not exist at all.

 

[Pokeking]

If it was done on an IM based service, such as Discord, then I would say short responses are acceptable and encouraged.

In this particular venue, I would say the minimum response should be a paragraph. I don't think I have provided a short response that is just a sentence in any storyline I've participated in. Most of the time, I view my posts as longer than expected because I enjoy providing background/contextual information about why a character is doing something or why they said something.

For example, my character of Xenophon. He's a minotaur. I could write that he becomes nervous around Mr. X who is human and that he spoke harshly before walking away else he'd beat Mr. X up. Maybe that is acceptable. What I would do is write a paragraph about how humans treated him harshly when he was younger because they viewed him as little more than a beast. Mr. X resembled his chief tormentor and Xen struggled to keep his temper in check knowing that he could easily and seriously injure Mr. X.

Overall, I think post length depends on context and what the previous poster has written. I frequently see in casting calls that the writer will match the other participant's length.