Can We Agree on a Tense?

[Stolcor]

I'm a grammar nerd and also fairly new. I'm noticing some variation on what tense people use and the use of quotes. Just thought I'd initiate the conversation, can we agree on what tense we emote in? It's weird to have someone emote *she sat on the bench* immediately followed by *he offers her a drink.* Past tense makes sense in a novel, but it's weird in roleplay. I guess if everyone did it, it wouldn't be so weird.

There's also the variation of using quote marks when speaking. I assumed anything not emoted is spoken, so the quotes seem redundant? Then when a character is quoting someone, it's hard to tell if they're speaking or just quoting.

So, I dunno. Can we all give it some thought? I know enforcing consistency is impossible, but some people might have never considered it, so I'm hoping this gets people thinking and moving towards some consensus.

Thoughts or rebuttals?

[Stolcor]

While we're at it. Is it really necessary to use self-descriptors in emoting? *The human sits down* is a bit clunky when "*sits down* is sufficient, no? Like, the words are popping our of -your- head, we know who's doing what.

[Hoihe]

Let us not police preferences.

as for self descriptors, they put emphasis.

[Wade]

It's all preferences, really. You can use simple emotes like "looks around", or more litereature-esque like "The tiefling scans the hall with his vigilant gaze.", you can mark emotes with blue and speech with white, or you can keep everything white and just mark speech with quotation marks. You can use italic, bold, different colors in your RP, you can mix in past tense, conditional sentences, even slight 4th wall player remarks. This is all your style and creativity and everything is welcome! Various players have various styles, you'll just get used to it in time.

Though tbh complaining about someone using a literature style over plain-simple emotes was amusing, lol.

[Asmodea]

I actually find tense can help set how formal or informal an action seems and help set a mood or aura for a character.

[DM Doom]

I'm a grammar nerd and also fairly new. I'm noticing some variation on what tense people use and the use of quotes. Just thought I'd initiate the conversation, can we agree on what tense we emote in? It's weird to have someone emote *she sat on the bench* immediately followed by *he offers her a drink.* Past tense makes sense in a novel, but it's weird in roleplay. I guess if everyone did it, it wouldn't be so weird.

There's also the variation of using quote marks when speaking. I assumed anything not emoted is spoken, so the quotes seem redundant? Then when a character is quoting someone, it's hard to tell if they're speaking or just quoting.

So, I dunno. Can we all give it some thought? I know enforcing consistency is impossible, but some people might have never considered it, so I'm hoping this gets people thinking and moving towards some consensus.

Thoughts or rebuttals?

((This is my personal opinion and not an official stance.

It will not be possible to agree on a single style. Be aware that there's a large amount of non-native english speakers here as well.

Aside from the past tense vs present tense, there are different styles of emoting, I think at least 3 of them. For example:
Hello! *she says*
The elf said: "Hello"
I think the third one involved square brackets and was quite rare.

Basically it is up to you to quickly recognize which style the person is using and adapt to it on the spot.

My only advise is to never use "you" in emotes as a player. Because it is unclear who the "you" is supposed to be when there are many people around. Basically "*she speaks to you*" is a no, but "she speaks to the elf" is okay.

[Tanlaus]

One thing I’ve seen a few times and I’ve meant to ask about it but don’t want to offend the player doing it, is the use of the conditional.

“She would look at him then turn away.”

Or something to that effect where the player uses ‘would’ to describe what their character is doing. Doesn’t happen often but I’ve seen it a few times and tend to be genuinely confused by it.

I take the above quote to mean the same as ‘she looks at him and turns away,’ but there could be more to it? Am I misreading the intent of the quote?

The reason I don’t think so is players who use it tend to use it for every description.

Anyone else run into this?

[V'rass]

Grammar Nazi detected.

[K'yon Oblodra]

Mmh I think I'd use it a little like the past tense thing, where you kind of want to give that a certain feel, but in general I'd say you have the right idea .

I have gotten used to using the quotes to determine something as speech, there is also people using italics to speak at all times but I prefer the italics to be used to emphasis certain words.

One could also write them in fat or use colours as mentioned... The colour coding hasn't been kind to me yet though XD.

I like the quotes stylistically, I rarely use quotes of others but admittedly it gets a bit weird then XD.

[Hoihe]

One thing I’ve seen a few times and I’ve meant to ask about it but don’t want to offend the player doing it, is the use of the conditional.

“She would look at him then turn away.”

Or something to that effect where the player uses ‘would’ to describe what their character is doing. Doesn’t happen often but I’ve seen it a few times and tend to be genuinely confused by it.

I take the above quote to mean the same as ‘she looks at him and turns away,’ but there could be more to it? Am I misreading the intent of the quote?

The reason I don’t think so is players who use it tend to use it for every description.

Anyone else run into this?

I see use of conditionals as an offering so to say. It opens the player up for interruption if it is something that can be interrupted.

*would hug the orc*
*the orc would push the orchugger away*
*is pushed away*

giving a "if able" implication . Even if not preventable, it sets up when something will happen. English lacks a proper future tense, and will/would is the closest it has. Using would implies the action is about to be taken as the emote is sent, rather than being a fact of history.

otherwise, idk its use. tho ill say it has a nice aound/feel to it.

[Max Hatchet]

The OP is preferring the original style and the style I also prefer. No quote marks etc. The style used in NWN1 originally

Since then some other styles have come in - as if people are writing a novel

Would it be better if we all used one style? Maybe

But rp is about self expression so I think we just have to deal with the different styles

[K'yon Oblodra]

I see use of conditionals as an offering so to say. It opens the player up for interruption if it is something that can be interrupted.

Now that you said it, I remember having used this as a testing out if the implied action would be accepted.

[Shadowspinner70]

To me, "would" sounds unsure. If I want to use a conditional, I use something like "Aunrae hugs the elf, if they let her" or "she begins leaning in towards the elf for an embrace." It begins the emote without what I feel to be uncertainty.

I also like quotes to separate out the actions and what the character is saying in addition to the colors! But! One more thing: I love the variation of style. It allows me to pick up on styles of others if I like them, take notes, the whole gambit, despite the nonconformity of it all--or because of it!

[bharring]

That tasted good *he smiled*. Did you want one *he offers the newcomer a drink*? *once taken, he will then grab another from behind the bar*

The tenses should be meaningful. Past tense for what's done after reading (like smiling above). Present for an action still happening after read (offers a drink). Future for what hasn't happened yet, although its awkward - should be emoted when it happens.

I'm inexperienced, but it seems like tenses should be set in relation to the point the emote is emitted - or possibly when it's been read.

[Steve]

Drowsign.

I’ll let myself out.