Action Variations

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Thu, 04/17/2014 - 09:43

Right, well this is kind of my first forum topic, but this is really something that I've been noticing around here for a while. When you do actions, it really spices up your rp if you don't put something like:

Rorgan nods. "Aye, we need t' go now!"

See, if I were to add something more to that nod, it really adds urgency to this situation if I'm trying to write an escape scene

Rorgan nods quickly, drawing another arrow and notching it on his bowstring. "Aye, we need t' go now!" He shouts, loosing it off towards an approaching vermin.

See how much more urgent that seems? I showed a pressing need to get away from wherever he is, and it simply looks more interesting than just nodding. Now obviously, it'll get difficult to pose something unique with every nod, but the quick solution to that is to not nod all the time. I've noticed that a lot of players revert to nodding when there's really nothing to pose, but if you think about it, there's always something to pose that doesn't come down to just a nod.

I know this topic is called Action Variations, but there are just a few things that I wanted to put in here that I wanted to talk about. One major thing is comma use and run on sentences. I cannot tell you how many run on sentences and grammar errors I've seen here.

"I would love to run with you, seems that it's going to be good weather today, course it's April so that makes sense."

This sentence has awful use of commas, and it could really use some work. The way I think of it for most cases is that when you put a comma, it signifies a momentary pause in the sentence. If we apply this logic, we would need to modify this sentence so it now looks like this.

"I would love to run with you, seeing as how the weather is going to be good today, but of course it's April so that makes sense."

See how that sentence flows together better than the first one? Commas are most certainly one of the hardest things in english to use correctly, simply because most people don't have a firm understanding of how they work.

This entire topic may seem kind of accusatory, and I'm sorry if it comes off that way, because I honestly don't mean for it to sound like that. :)

I just find many talented writers here, and I want to try and help develop everyone's skills even as mine develop, but that's about it for my suggestions XD So...yeah! Happy roleplaying!

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