I don't understand where this "monotone" red herring is coming from.
I have compared RPGing to a certain sort of structured conversation. Maybe I just hang out with unusual people, but I can't think of anyone I know who converses in a monotone. People talk more loudly, and/or more quickly, when they are excited. They snap when they are angry or frustated. In short, they manifest emotions and responses.
But (again, bracketing the salon-type scenario) none of this is
performance - it's not artifice, but rather is just what is normal in human communication.
I can draw the contrast in my own experience as a teacher: giving a lecture has a significant element of performance; but supervising a research student does not. The former requires holding the attention of an audience; the latter is a conversation. But this does not mean that supervision meetings are devoid of passion, intensity, sometimes argument or contradiction, hopefully not very much anger.
Totally agree that effort is the key here, rather than degree of professional acting ability. The simple fact that you are trying is, by and large, more than good enough.
That already establishe the contrast with literature! Trying to write well doesn't make writing good, or enjoyable, or readable. You're an English teacher, and so I assume have marked written work, and hence know this truth only too well!
"mysterious", "sinister", "great master" - these are all important elements of performance, not of content. None of those elements matter one whit about the letter written by your mother. Yet, you include all this descriptive language, even in something as bare bones as this scenario.
It's virtually impossible to avoid the performance aspect of the game. I'd assume that the DM would describe the tower much beyond simply its dimensions - there'd be descriptions to set mood, tone, and whatnot. The whole set up of Evard as well already includes mood inducing language.
I don't think I'm following this. Of course I use certain adjectives to try and convey the situation to readers on ENworld - you weren't there. But those adjectives are my description of something I experienced in play, not my recount of something that someone said during the course of play.
Here is a bit more detail about the game I mentioned:
Thurgon, a knight of the Iron Tower, and Aramina, a sorcerer, are travelling through the borderlands between Ulek and the Pomarj. Thurgon has a Relationship wth Xanthippe his mother, who lives on the family estate of Auxol, and has a Belief "Harm and infamy will befall Auxol no more!" Aramina has a Belief "I'm not going to *finish* my career with no spellbooks and an empty purse!", and has a modest rating in Great Masters-wise. Aramina suggests that, if her recollection is right, the tower of the great master Evard is somewhere in the vicinity - mechanically, this triggers a Great Masters-wise test, which is successful.
When the two arrive at the tower, they encounter a demon disguised as Evard. Aramina's attempt to cast a spell fails, and she collapses from the strain. Two of Thurgon's Beliefs are now at stake here - "I am a Knight of the Iron Tower: by devotion and example I will lead the righteous to glorious victory" and "Aramina will need my protection" - and so he battles the demon, and is able to hold his own until the summoning magic expires and the demon departs the mortal world. As a result he earns a new reputation: he is infamous in the halls of Hell as an intransigent demon foe.
During the battle with the demon, it has become clear that the demon was summoned by Evard, and probably killed him; and that the demon is looking for the "Sunstone", an unknown artefact that also (as learned by the characters in prior episodes) seems to have been connected to a schism in the Iron Tower.
After tending to Aramina, Thurgon enters Evard's tower. Looking around, he finds the letters addressed to "Papa", and signed X for Xanthippe. He takes all the letters and burns them. (Aramina has a Belief "If in doubt, burn it!"; Thurgon has an Instinct "When camping, always ensure that the campfire is burning". So burning letters isn't hard.)
I don't remember much about the tower itself, except that it had a loose stone where Aramina was able to hide documents so the demon wouldn't find them if we fell. The status of Evard as a
great master isn't an aspect of performance; it's established through the system of play. The fact that Evard is mysterious is both implicit in the fact that he's a FRPG wizard in a rumoured wilderness tower; and is evident in his abandoned tower and the demon who has replaced him. The fact that evard is sinister is stongly suggested by him being a demon-summoner.
And this is all fundamental to the letters. They reveal something about my mother, and my ancestry, that I wish wasn't the case.
What is driving the game is investment in situation and character, not enjoyment of the referee's performance.
