As one of the official Chosen Tournament judges, I've overseen a fair share of T1 matches. One of the most difficult things to do when issuing a judgment is trying to figure out what's actually going on. This is due to the contradictions and paradoxes that occur when two players are writing against each other, something I'll get into in a moment. Because of the difficulty in understanding fights, we often ask the participants to supply us with a detailed list of actions that have occurred up to the contested point. Oftentimes, we find that the timelines don't even match. Why is this and what is going wrong?
This doesn't just happen in T1. A trend I've noticed among certain roleplayers is that they tend to write against each other as opposed to with. This, I think, is due to two reasons:
1. Ego - players want to be at the center of plots, so they're constantly fighting to be the center of attention. This also leads to a lack of accommodation, which can cause a clash of style.
2. Minimal Communication - This is especially noticeable in T1 matches. Players who frequently communicate seem to have the best synergy. If you know where the plot is headed and have a good idea of everything that is going on, you can make your post better integrate with the plot.
I know many people pride themselves on their writing and look at roleplay as a sort of writing exercise. This is good and a sentiment that should be facilitated and supported by the community. The problem lies in the fact that most threads read like a broken mash-up of events that seem to make little or no sense.
How is it fixed?
I don't have a sure-fire way to address the problem presented above, but I do have a few tips that may help those that wish to improve their literary relationship with other writers.
My first recommendation is to obviously drop the ego and communicate with your partners more. This should come as no surprise given the fact that I mentioned both of this issues above.
My second recommendation is to agree on the flow of time between posts with your partner. My intention here is to address the several temporal paradoxes that seem to arise when players fail to take time into consideration. If you're not involved in competitive roleplaying, it is advisable to give each player a certain amount of "IC" time with which they can play. Their post should be focused on their character's actions, but it can also address certain things that your character is doing.
The final idea I wanted to share has to do with the distribution of responsibilities. What I mean by this is that, in any given thread, you'll often find that a certain player takes on the responsibility of painting the setting, while another might describe major non-player actions. I feel that, for the flow of the thread, that it's important to share these responsibilities. The first post should always set the scene, but there is always more that can be described. Additionally, players can take turns controlling NPCs so to optimize the flow of dialogue and action. This, in my opinion, will provide the largest increase in synergy.
Leave some comments and tell me what you think!
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3 comments:
Nice work hun.
Great post, and every shred of it rings true. Given the emphasis placed on the individual when it comes to roleplay writing, and the break in continuity that comes from forfeiting the control of a single mind and perspective affecting everything, most people forget that this is a collaborative writing atmosphere.
It isn't fun for you, unless you are a GM kind of writer, to have every post centered around everyone else. It isn't fun for everyone else around you if you keep attention on your character alone; too egocentric, as you mentioned above.
This article does well to remind the user that they need to strike up a balance. That the best way to make a story, when multiple people are involved, is to do just that: involve multiple people. Collaborate. Build it together.
Good article man.
Good job, James! I prefer to play foil characters, so communicating with the people I'm playing with is usually a necessity. However, sometimes corrections can be cool, because I know Carlos has made minor adjustments to my order of events before and it's made it better. The key there is to write with clarity by making it clear what you're changing by explicitly referencing it in your post and when, in the order of events, this takes place.
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