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Method of writing your "role-playing"

Y

yiran

New member
Do you think first person and/or present tense would be acceptable in narrating your character's actions? Or is it limited to strictly third person past tense?

Thanks in advance.
 
I'd prefer third person, since that makes it easier for everyone involved to keep track of who's who, but I don't care much either way.
 
Wouldn't keeping track still be easy if the characters name was listed at the beginning of the text? Or some other method of identification?
 
I usually list the member's name in the first post at the sign-up area and the characters they are playing. Its easy for me, not sure why. Other than that, I enjoy third-person view.
 
yiran said:
Wouldn't keeping track still be easy if the characters name was listed at the beginning of the text? Or some other method of identification?
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Sure. I'm not saying first person causes huge problems or anything, but it would be marginally easier to just have all characters referred to by name instead of everyone being "I".
 
Well, yes, of course. I just think first person allows a more direct portrayal of emotions and thus makes the character connect more personally with the player, as well as other readers.
 
I RPed once with a guy who used first person omniscient and holy god it was pretty bad. I'm not saying everyone who uses first-person is bad, but this guy was really bad.

I prefer third-person past-tense myself, if only because I have a tendency to use loads and loads of characters, if that winds up being permitted, and even if it's not, I like multiples, so it just looks better with my RPing style.
 
yiran said:
Well, yes, of course. I just think first person allows a more direct portrayal of emotions and thus makes the character connect more personally with the player, as well as other readers.
Click to expand...

I like to achieve this by using monologue, showing thought patterns, and in some cases, including dialogue.
 
The stories I've written aren't even in first person, so I default to third-person in roleplaying. Although since I started roleplaying before I wrote anything, maybe it's the other way around.
 
I prefer third person present, though I often seem to end up throwing bits of past tense in it as well. Bad habit and crap...
 
Depends on the RP, really. Though third-person makes it easier for the other players and the person running the game to know what's going on, so unless you're told otherwise it's generally safe to default to third-person, especially if you're trying to RP multiple characters.
 
Sunflower said:
Depends on the RP, really. Though third-person makes it easier for the other players and the person running the game to know what's going on, so unless you're told otherwise it's generally safe to default to third-person, especially if you're trying to RP multiple characters.
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Does that means it's not safe to use a perspective that's not third-person?

Just clarifying.
 
Defaulting to something other than third-person in a roleplay can be tacky. Consistency's more important, though, and most people write third-person past or present, so!
 
I actually perfer FP because I write/RP much better, but mainly write 3P due to the rp style most people do.
 
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