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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 6855254">I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't getting into the particular style of roleplaying you describe because, being professional actors, they recognize that the &quot;lines&quot; they improvise are actually pretty bad writing.&nbsp; Good acting and good writing are not the same thing, and writing good dialog in particular is very, very hard. I for one do not enjoy the acting form of roleplaying, because most of the time what people come up with is pretty bad. I could see it being like fingernails on a chalkboard for professional actors.The old advice for writers is &quot;show, don't tell&quot;, and the same advice can be applied to roleplaying.&nbsp; Roleplaying through describing actions (&quot;I'll remind him of his mother's last words&quot; rather than &quot;Remember what your mother said on her deathbed!&quot;) encourages the player to show instead of tell, and comes across a lot less awkwardly.&nbsp; It also gives the players the &quot;out&quot; of not trying to dress up mundane actions when they can't think of anything good.&nbsp; Sometimes it's ok to just say, &quot;I'll try to Persuade him&quot; or &quot;I attack with my sword.&quot;&nbsp; That moves the story along more quickly, and the more of the story you cover the more chances there will be for players to have a flash of roleplaying inspiration.&nbsp; I'd encourage them to focus on those flashes, and dispense with the...dispensable.I play in some Play-by-Post games, and some players narrate every combat round in-character, often with several sentences.&nbsp; Reflecting on it now, I can't recall the specifics of a single one of those posts.&nbsp; They're just not very interesting, and they don't actually contribute to the story. Forcing a player to roleplay that way every time they contribute becomes a meta-game of &quot;can you stay in character?&quot; but doesn't often actually generate good storytelling.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 6855254"] I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't getting into the particular style of roleplaying you describe because, being professional actors, they recognize that the "lines" they improvise are actually pretty bad writing. Good acting and good writing are not the same thing, and writing good dialog in particular is very, very hard. I for one do not enjoy the acting form of roleplaying, because most of the time what people come up with is pretty bad. I could see it being like fingernails on a chalkboard for professional actors. The old advice for writers is "show, don't tell", and the same advice can be applied to roleplaying. Roleplaying through describing actions ("I'll remind him of his mother's last words" rather than "Remember what your mother said on her deathbed!") encourages the player to show instead of tell, and comes across a lot less awkwardly. It also gives the players the "out" of not trying to dress up mundane actions when they can't think of anything good. Sometimes it's ok to just say, "I'll try to Persuade him" or "I attack with my sword." That moves the story along more quickly, and the more of the story you cover the more chances there will be for players to have a flash of roleplaying inspiration. I'd encourage them to focus on those flashes, and dispense with the...dispensable. I play in some Play-by-Post games, and some players narrate every combat round in-character, often with several sentences. Reflecting on it now, I can't recall the specifics of a single one of those posts. They're just not very interesting, and they don't actually contribute to the story. Forcing a player to roleplay that way every time they contribute becomes a meta-game of "can you stay in character?" but doesn't often actually generate good storytelling. [/QUOTE]

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