Hello players, in this guide I'm going to show you the difference between showing your character's emotions, expressions, and behaviors through a detailed /me instead of simply summarizing them. In this case, telling what's going on with them.
Before we start, I want to credit Chuckle, the original creator of this guide. With that being said, let's begin.
As you guys may know, there's a writing style commonly adopted by skilled roleplayers, through which they can express their character's emotions through detailed lines. This is a known technique not only for storytelling but also in roleplay as a general. Instead of doing a simple-based /me line, we can construct something more complex, which will allow other players to interpret what's going on in the roleplay scenario and with our character. Let me present some examples:
If you're sick and have a cold, instead of telling people right away, express yourself: you're shivery, have a cough, a runny nose etc.
*Frank_Levezzi is sick after catching a bit of rain from the storm yesterday. - This is telling, by this you're giving zero chances for other players to interpret what's going on with your character, you just served them the information in a silver splatter, zero originality, zero personality, zero interest, basic and boring.
*Frank_Levezzi sneezes; he has a crackly voice and occasionally coughs in between his speeches. He reaches out for John with a shivery, using dominant hand. - This is showing, we gave much more details for the viewer to interpret what's going on with Frank, we made clear that he's sick and has a cold.
If you're excited or happy, that's usually a sign of an improvement of joy, you can express this by facial expressions and behavior that coincide with the emotion.
*Martin_Guerra's pupils are dilated, he flexes his facial muscles, and curls his lips in a toothy smile. - This is showing
*Martin_Guerra's happy and visibly excited. - This is telling
See the difference?
What we can take from this is that telling is much more vague and offers short-term insights about your character. Because of this, your character appears more robotic due to it's lack of human characteristics. You want to captive the reader, make him interested in your character, the reader in this case is the people you roleplay with in the server. By choosing showing, your character becomes more organic, more human-like, you give him weaknesses, qualities, and a more fluent interpretation of him and the affairs around it.
Ambience also plays a major role in this. By ambience, we can think about the backstory and the mannerism of your character, the reason why he acts in a certain way, and why he behaves differently in certain scenarios. We can all show this clearly by showing.
If you're nervous, people tend to bite their fingernails, if you're uncomfortable in a certain place, you tend not to speak much, stay quieter, you scratch the back of your neck when you lie, you roll your eyes when you're annoyed, you shake your head when you're dissapointed and so on. Such little expressions that can say a lot about how your character is feeling at the moment.
" The first steps towards helping people implement this playstyle is by leading by example. The aforementioned indiosyncrasies, if you are someone who pays attention to the detail then use this to incorporate into your own character's thought process. If someone is quiet, mention that they haven't said much. If someone's bitting his fingernails, then ask them what's on their mind. If someone refuses to shake your hand, then assume it is one of two things. 1) They don't like you, or 2) They're fastidious, which is someone who is very sanitary. This can be revealed by the grimace on their faces, followed by the refusal to shake hands. Tell them you just washed your hands, or ask if they have a problem, but from those very small details, we can generate more roleplay. "
Disclaimer: This isn't mandatory nor an obligation, but this will help you develop your character and make the roleplay a bit more enthusiastic and fun for everyone. Like Chuckles wrote in the OG guide, it's here to motivate, not enforce.
Before we start, I want to credit Chuckle, the original creator of this guide. With that being said, let's begin.
As you guys may know, there's a writing style commonly adopted by skilled roleplayers, through which they can express their character's emotions through detailed lines. This is a known technique not only for storytelling but also in roleplay as a general. Instead of doing a simple-based /me line, we can construct something more complex, which will allow other players to interpret what's going on in the roleplay scenario and with our character. Let me present some examples:
If you're sick and have a cold, instead of telling people right away, express yourself: you're shivery, have a cough, a runny nose etc.
*Frank_Levezzi is sick after catching a bit of rain from the storm yesterday. - This is telling, by this you're giving zero chances for other players to interpret what's going on with your character, you just served them the information in a silver splatter, zero originality, zero personality, zero interest, basic and boring.
*Frank_Levezzi sneezes; he has a crackly voice and occasionally coughs in between his speeches. He reaches out for John with a shivery, using dominant hand. - This is showing, we gave much more details for the viewer to interpret what's going on with Frank, we made clear that he's sick and has a cold.
If you're excited or happy, that's usually a sign of an improvement of joy, you can express this by facial expressions and behavior that coincide with the emotion.
*Martin_Guerra's pupils are dilated, he flexes his facial muscles, and curls his lips in a toothy smile. - This is showing
*Martin_Guerra's happy and visibly excited. - This is telling
See the difference?
What we can take from this is that telling is much more vague and offers short-term insights about your character. Because of this, your character appears more robotic due to it's lack of human characteristics. You want to captive the reader, make him interested in your character, the reader in this case is the people you roleplay with in the server. By choosing showing, your character becomes more organic, more human-like, you give him weaknesses, qualities, and a more fluent interpretation of him and the affairs around it.
Ambience also plays a major role in this. By ambience, we can think about the backstory and the mannerism of your character, the reason why he acts in a certain way, and why he behaves differently in certain scenarios. We can all show this clearly by showing.
If you're nervous, people tend to bite their fingernails, if you're uncomfortable in a certain place, you tend not to speak much, stay quieter, you scratch the back of your neck when you lie, you roll your eyes when you're annoyed, you shake your head when you're dissapointed and so on. Such little expressions that can say a lot about how your character is feeling at the moment.
" The first steps towards helping people implement this playstyle is by leading by example. The aforementioned indiosyncrasies, if you are someone who pays attention to the detail then use this to incorporate into your own character's thought process. If someone is quiet, mention that they haven't said much. If someone's bitting his fingernails, then ask them what's on their mind. If someone refuses to shake your hand, then assume it is one of two things. 1) They don't like you, or 2) They're fastidious, which is someone who is very sanitary. This can be revealed by the grimace on their faces, followed by the refusal to shake hands. Tell them you just washed your hands, or ask if they have a problem, but from those very small details, we can generate more roleplay. "
Disclaimer: This isn't mandatory nor an obligation, but this will help you develop your character and make the roleplay a bit more enthusiastic and fun for everyone. Like Chuckles wrote in the OG guide, it's here to motivate, not enforce.
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