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PurpleXVI · 01-05-2007, 03:51 PM

Oh Lord yes, I know what you mean about the long posts. 49% of the players online do long, boring, meandering dramatic posts which involve an internal monologue about the one time something like this happened to them in the past but it was TOTALLY TRAGIC and so they are DARK and BROODING. 49% of the players online do one-line posts along the line of: "M3g4d00d openz teh door" or "LEETKILLER FIRES ALL HIS GUNS" every time, with no details or descriptions of what's happening on the inside of their heads.

The last 2% are actually decent players.

I find that the only reason the ratio is better for real life Pen and Paper is that the people with troublesome personalities and terminally lacking skills can be weeded out before the game starts.

And yes, I can improvise in person, too, but occasionally some things are REALLY so out of left field you never expected them and you need to either call a time-out to plan or do a crappy improvisation. Maybe it gets harder for me because I tend to have the sort of anti-authoritarian players who will occasionally intentionally take routes that are obviously not the ones I expected just to screw with the game.

Another terror in the Long Posts vein is joint posts. When two players who want to have some HARDCORE DRAMA going on between their characters have some massive chat over an IM program, then transcribe it into a five-post drama-bomb.

Occasionally I feel that some side-details that don't move the plot or affect the game much are handy for character development. It's rather nice when the various characters are more than 1-dimensional caricatures of their alignment or some generic stereotype.

I totally get what you mean about the fluff, and sometimes there's so damn much of it that it bogs a game down and when you look at the dates, it's been a month since the characters entered the damn town for what you expected would just be a five-post chance to stock up on rations and get their gear fixed.

One place where real-life stuff DEFINITELY wins out is combat, that's why I tend to have my own strategy there. Instead of going it all round-by-round I just request a general strategy from everyone, then run the battle until something comes by that requires input(Enemy reinforcements, the ceiling of the dungeon starts caving in because someone brought out their Horn of Blasting, the leader of the lizardmen decides to high-tail it out of there while the PC's are stuck fighting his minions, etc.).

I completely get what you mean, and I can see you get what I mean, I just think we've both had mostly bad experiences with the sort of gaming the other has had more good experiences with(Not to say that all my forum gaming experiences have been good, sweet Jesus no.).

01-05-2007, 03:51 PM	#21
PurpleXVI Emerald Dragon Join Date: April 6, 2005 Location: Denmark Age: 39 Posts: 903	Oh Lord yes, I know what you mean about the long posts. 49% of the players online do long, boring, meandering dramatic posts which involve an internal monologue about the one time something like this happened to them in the past but it was TOTALLY TRAGIC and so they are DARK and BROODING. 49% of the players online do one-line posts along the line of: "M3g4d00d openz teh door" or "LEETKILLER FIRES ALL HIS GUNS" every time, with no details or descriptions of what's happening on the inside of their heads. The last 2% are actually decent players. I find that the only reason the ratio is better for real life Pen and Paper is that the people with troublesome personalities and terminally lacking skills can be weeded out before the game starts. And yes, I can improvise in person, too, but occasionally some things are REALLY so out of left field you never expected them and you need to either call a time-out to plan or do a crappy improvisation. Maybe it gets harder for me because I tend to have the sort of anti-authoritarian players who will occasionally intentionally take routes that are obviously not the ones I expected just to screw with the game. Another terror in the Long Posts vein is joint posts. When two players who want to have some HARDCORE DRAMA going on between their characters have some massive chat over an IM program, then transcribe it into a five-post drama-bomb. Occasionally I feel that some side-details that don't move the plot or affect the game much are handy for character development. It's rather nice when the various characters are more than 1-dimensional caricatures of their alignment or some generic stereotype. I totally get what you mean about the fluff, and sometimes there's so damn much of it that it bogs a game down and when you look at the dates, it's been a month since the characters entered the damn town for what you expected would just be a five-post chance to stock up on rations and get their gear fixed. One place where real-life stuff DEFINITELY wins out is combat, that's why I tend to have my own strategy there. Instead of going it all round-by-round I just request a general strategy from everyone, then run the battle until something comes by that requires input(Enemy reinforcements, the ceiling of the dungeon starts caving in because someone brought out their Horn of Blasting, the leader of the lizardmen decides to high-tail it out of there while the PC's are stuck fighting his minions, etc.). I completely get what you mean, and I can see you get what I mean, I just think we've both had mostly bad experiences with the sort of gaming the other has had more good experiences with(Not to say that all my forum gaming experiences have been good, sweet Jesus no.).