Actions and Detail

This page was imported from a forum post dated May 26, 2014 in the category Chatterbox by Dylan Locke. Its content is likely to be out of date!

Mon, 05/26/2014 - 20:00

A brief discussion on helpful hints for Actions and Detail.

Hello again Forum Goers. I'm pretty sure this topic has been covered in the past, but rather than hunting it down through several decades worth of forum topics I decided to just make a new one :D.

This topic is about detailing player actions.

Rest assured this isn't the age old discussion of short vs. long posts but rather a way to give hints and tricks others use to flesh out their posts if they so desire.

___________________________________________

First, Actions.

Obviously actions are the things your character does from drinking ale to walking down the hallway to swinging a sword. So Dylan, why are you bringing up something we already know how to do? Good question reader, because I have noticed that on every muck there is a certain pit fall to over using actions, cramming too many actions into one single post, to using too little actions.

As state above, everything your character does is an action. Even standing still and doing nothing is an action. So lets talk about over using actions. Let's see the first example.

GM sets the scene:

The door to the iron cell door opens with a loud squeak. The prison guards continue to sleep on though, perhaps they hit the bottles of ale too hard. There is a key on the other side of the room.

Player then poses:

Carl the cat moves around the beasts. He grabs the keys and unlocks the other cell doors.

How many actions did you spot in Carl's post? Everyone would come up with a different number based on the actions that they could see themselves doing. Me, I count 5. Carl moves out of the cell, moves around the guards, takes the keys, moves around the guards again, and unlocks the cells. Depending on how many cells he unlocks those too are actions.

While technically there is nothing wrong with this post it has the potential to be many more posts. Instead of dashing off to the keys right off the bat lets see what happens when he pauses at after action number two. Don't worry, we will detail them in a bit.

GM sets the scene:

The door to the iron cell door opens with a loud squeak. The prison guards continue to sleep on though, prehaps they hit the bottles of ale too hard. There is a key on the other side of the room.

Player then poses:

Carl the cat moves away from his cell. Silently moving around the sleeping guards while trying not to wake them up.

GM:

The beast's snort and roll over in their sleep.

Carl

Carl feels his heart nearly stop, then grabs the keys and works his way back to the cells.

By doing this Carl has given the GM, and other players a chance to expand the scene. Now lets add some flair and detail to these posts.

___________________________________________

If you want to be technical players generally should try to aim for 25 words per post give or take. I've met a couple of players while traveling MU's who consider this to be either too little or too much but for the sake of argument lets call this a reasonable goal. Don't worry, its actually easy to do. And no, people will not take the time to count out each and every word...if they did well...that's another matter that can be referred to a forum topic about oocly conduct. :3

Mostly lack of details comes from not knowing exactly what to say. It happens to all of us from time to time.

The first step is to Pause. Yes, we don't want to take forever to make a post but rushing to make another post increases chances to make mistakes. Mostly rushing to make posts comes from lack of pose order where players will post after every turn, sometimes even after their own, which is one reason why people feel the need to post so as to post at all before their character actions become irrelevant.

The next trick is to add one detail to each object or action your character takes. The fox jumps over the lazy dog becomes the The slender red furred fox jumps nimbly over the fat bellied, lazy hound dog.

It's also important to remember that each object isn't just that object. A box isn't just a box, its a cardboard box, or wooden box, or rotten metallic chest with pot marks left by the weapons of those who failed to open it. For practice you can choose one object in your home and just describe it to the best of your ability in a text document. For an added test look at yourself in a mirror and describe yourself.

Now granted a player doesn't have to describe EVERY detail. If you take more than ten minutes of continual writing I can guarantee that most players will skim over it. Just add enough to bring some life to their npcs, scenery and objects.

For example the GM above can detail the state of the room, if it is in good repair, describe the smell, sounds, and other things the players would sense. He could describe the beasts beyond even just their species. Describing their fur color, size, weight, weapons, or noticeable scars etc etc. He can even describe the keys if he wants.

As for Carl the Cat he can describe side stepping empty bottles on the floor to further describe the scenery and help flesh out the personality of the gm's npc guards. Or perhaps let us know what he is thinking or feeling as he walks, twists, bends, and generally avoids waking up the guards.

_________________________________________________

There is a lot of room to add stuff here but I have already taken up so much space that even /I/ am beginning to skim through what I wrote :3 The only thing I can add is that every player will always be in a state of improvement. There will never be a perfect post :D

So Forum Goers, what tips can you give us on adding detail to posts?

Top