From my experience, those who are typically referred to as the “Elite” don’t actually call themselves that. I’ve seen so many of the most amazing RPers who make the most amazing characters and write great posts call themselves lesser.
That is true, action scenes often function better with less length to the posts, but that doesn’t mean you can’t describe what your character sees, their reaction, and their response.
For example: character A throws a sudden punch followed by a kick to the shin.
When writing for character B, you can mention their surprise by the punch, what happened to cause the person to throw the punch, how they respond to the punch and how the kick impacted that, then being kicked and how they respond and retaliate.
There’s still plenty to describe with an action scene, that doesn’t mean going overboard with the scene, thoughts, and dialogue.
Yes, sometimes the smallest one liner or a bare few lines can spark a lot. But we all know that is not always the case. Anything less than 4 lines on a computer can often not provide much to respond to. Especially if those few sentences don’t contain much dialogue.
Isn’t RPing a hobby for all of us? Some of us just hope to practice and improve our writing more than others. Not everyone wants to grow in their writing, I get that, but RPing is writing and we should all want to develop our skills.
Very true. But that can be the case no matter the length of post. But the shorter a post is, there’s less that there can be to respond to. Very, very few posts are 100% a clear action, and words spoken to another character. So a couple line post has little dialogue and action to respond to.
And some RPers are just very wordy with their posts, but should they be blamed more for it?
What would you say is reasonable for a length requirement then? It really depends on the RP. In a less story driven RP, I would say about 4lines on a computer or tablet. I’m a more in depth story driven plot, I would say around 8. Anything more than 10, I would completely understand complaints, but isn’t a decent size paragraph reasonable?
I’ve actually seen something like this done before. On the episode forums there was an rp called The A-List where everyone would reserve a character label which gave the basic description of who their character had to be.
It was enough to give a starting point for the characters, but still freedom to make them your own.
Examples
The Cheerleader - She once started on the bottom of the social pyramid. Teased, geeky, and shy. Look at her now, an overly-peppy cheerleader. She can’t leave her house without grabbing her pom poms, or putting on a fresh coat of lipstick.
The Thespian - An artsy young man who may come off as pretentious and overly dramatic. Current president of the drama club, he usually manages school productions, but his only true desire is to see his name on the A-List. Let’s see if he lands this role
It was cool for an RP. If you want to see about making one with something like this, feel free to pm me to talk about it and I’d be happy to plan with you!
Does it have to be European? 'Cause there will likely be European RPers and European characters so does the RP itself have to be set in Europe?