planning. discussion

So, do you allow any template or just the one you've proved?

Just mine:
• aids readability when everything gets put all together
• benefits my slight ocd
• also, people tend to go overboard and then don't seem to stick with what they've initially come up with

My general guidelines:
• Must include everything I have listed.
• I must be able to read it.

In general, this is what I favor in templates (but don't require):
• Taseful amount of gifs
• Minimal use of other fonts
• Only black and white except for photographs of FC

I'm dabbling in having people only use my template in the new group I'm creating with Kiks, but I usually let people use whatever so long as it has all the required information.

Any template, because I'm more concerned with how the story is progressing rather than how the character bios look :)

Though, to be honest, I prefer extremely short template standards.
Name, age, and gender are all I really feel like should be asked of people.
Because, really, is the rest necessary?
Hardly anyone actually reads the whole templates besides that stuff anyways and I've personally always found it kind of dumb how you have to lay out your entire character before you've even gotten a chance to figure out if you can truly roleplay them to those standards.
But that's just me.

Jennalyn ♥ ₍ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏᴏᴅs ₎ wrote: "Any template, because I'm more concerned with how the story is progressing rather than how the character bios look :)

Though, to be honest, I prefer extremely short template standards.
Name, age,..."

This.

Also if there's a given template for everybody to use, I find the characters are created more quickly (especially if said template is short).

Oh! And also, having super short templates is like meeting someone in real life. You typically don't know anything about a person when meeting them besides their name, and maybe not even that if it's a random stranger and not someone that your friend has introduced you to, so I think it makes the experience more realistic. You have no bias to go off of regarding history or personality; just the character that's been placed before you.

And I forgot appearance :P Appearance is a thing that would be nice to have in there too.

Jennalyn ♥ ₍ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏᴏᴅs ₎ wrote: "Oh! And also, having super short templates is like meeting someone in real life. You typically don't know anything about a person when meeting them besides their name, and maybe not even that if it..."

Amen, sister.

I mean, I like to read all the bios and personalities, so I think that's not much of a problem for me, but I can see where people would be annoyed by it.

I'm actually moving toward discouraging collabs.

And the shortest Temolate I've ever required had a brief summary of the character required (two paragraphs maximum). So yeah... that might change soon.

It becomes very exclusive. People get left out, and people get discouraged. For a lot of people it becomes, "Everyone else's collab request got a response... why didn't mine? Am I not good enough?"

Not to mention that when I joined GR, no one collabed except for siblings, and even then, siblings were usually played by the same person. People would go to the RP request place, and be like, "Hey, I have a girl open, who wants to RP?" And someone else would be like, "Yeah, I have a guy, wanna post at the beach?"

It takes away a lot of the making-new-friends aspect of roleplaying. People cling to old friends for collabs, and believe me, I'm guilty of that too. I love collabing with my old friends (Jenna, Jay, Fiend, the list goes on and on and on). Some of them I've known for 2+ years and this is a chance for me to write with them again. But I don't want to monopolize their character or its relationship with mine, so that's another reason why I discourage collabs.

Whenever I make groups -- and that's rare because I'm super lazy and can never finish the information -- I always make everything other than name, age, gender, and appearance optional. Just so people can flesh out their character out before RP if they want, but they don't have to. Probs because I like figuring out how a character acts through RPing rather than before hand. I like winging things, aha. XD

And I agree with the collab thing. I miss when everything was just random. Not that I'd ever ban them or anything because people can do what they want, but the randomness of everything has always made writing more enjoyable for me personally.

Anyway, the next group I make is going to have no collabs (well, there's going to be no place to plan, anyway), and have short templates, so.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I only allow one template: mine. It keeps the information uniform and it isn't a headache to scroll through the approved characters.

That and I hate long histories, though your history needs to be well thought out and if I ask you a question about your character, you should know why he did something or where he was at the age of 14--it just doesn't need to be added to their bio. No one is going to read it.

sarah; true, but I kind of enjoy going through and reading character histories. That's probably just me, because I like to see what people come up with.
Unless it's absolute shit.
Then, no.
Because I've seen people write out bullshit excuses of histories before.

That kills me
every time
and I've seen people accept it anyways

OMG the amnesia trope? That's the worst.

Fiend, I don't mean that sometimes having a long history is good, but don't overdo it.

Sʜᴀʜᴅɪᴀ { محب الكتب } wrote: "The most annoying thing is when someone writes 'she doesn't remember' or 'SECRET' as a history."

YYEEEESSS

๖ۣۜSαᴙαh wrote: "Fiend, I don't mean that sometimes having a long history is good, but don't overdo it."

I hate long histories. If it's important, include it. If it hasn't helped to shape who they are or has in another way affected their current self, it's not important. And even then, there's no need to be flowery. It just makes it harder to pick out the relevant details. Profiles, except for the basic details, are for the player themselves, though, so... :P Still, the longer means the more dramatic and personal, past dramas are merely vehicles for... I can't think of the word, but basically it is unnecessary and self-indulgent, and easy way to make someone 'special' or face them with hardships, and it is not actually interesting.

Well said.

“Everything matters because everything teaches.”

^this

So, recently, I've had the idea of using no FCs, but rather just describe the characters as best they can.
Is this a good idea, or no?

I'm not opposed to it, but idk.
It kind of makes all the characters sound like the look the same?

I mean, there are a number of ways to describe people.

〈 ♣ 〉 ғɪᴇɴᴅɪsʜ ᴅᴇʟɪɢʜᴛs wrote: "So, recently, I've had the idea of using no FCs, but rather just describe the characters as best they can.
Is this a good idea, or no?"

I definitely agree with that. As I started roleplaying, I've realized that I'm becoming a little too dependent on face claims. And I've noticed that when people want to collab, they go by face claims instead of what kind of character they have (personality, history, etc.) And since most people who roleplay want to improve their writing, this'll help too since in writing, you can't exactly use face claims.

People don't use diversity in face claims.
What would make it any different in writing?

People could find non-white face claims, plus size face claims, any of that if they wanted to. But they don't. So that's not going to change just because it's in writing — it just means they'll be describing instead of showing.

Also, you don't want to become too reliant on that kind of description in your writing, esp. if you tend to write in first person. Many people go overboard with character descriptions in their first-person narrative, and it becomes “omfg stop using ‘orbs’ to describe eyes and my god, I don't think you're taking all that in when you meet them for the first time.”

So I don't know.

I'm not against it, but I don't see it as being particularly beneficial.

I see several people using diversity in face claims. I think it's really the person's responsibility to come up with all that, though, not just using face claims because no one describes the appearance.

And yes, you make a point with the "people could find non-white face claims, plus..." part. So, what's the harm in just describing the appearance? It's not very much of a difference, in my opinion--for roleplaying or writing. That's all up to the person creating the character, it's their choice. The appearance isn't even the focus of the character most of the time if at all.

Well, we all roleplay in third-person, since it's the general rule in advanced roleplaying. I think it would be beneficial in terms of roleplaying in third-person, too; it's easier to describe.

Though probably it's best if it's more obvious that members are allowed to just not use a face claim. I sort of feel obligated to use one nowadays.

I'm not saying that it's bad to describe characters' appearances in words. I'm saying that it's not necessarily beneficial. So? Maybe I don't want to focus on appearance descriptions. Maybe I care more about my character's emotional state, or their mannerisms, or the way they analyze their situation.

I realize that we roleplay in third person. Believe me, I've noticed. But like 99% of the time we write in third person limited, from the point of view of our character. If someone always uses outrageous descriptions, that's probably not the best thing for their writing.

I do favor face claims because when everyone can see, they can decide which feature their character notices. The fact that they only have a dimple on the left side, or the steel glare, or the light-up-your-face smile. You don't get to describe that kind of thing when all you have to go off of is someone else's written description.

I didn't call third person limited "first person." I was saying that the way people write in third person (usually omniscient) can translate very badly into first person and third person limited writing.

I've never been in a group that requires members to use face claims.

Oh!! I get it now :)

I dunno, like I've said before, I kind of feel obligated to use them, since i haven't seen a profile where a claim isn't used.

My thing is, I write in both first and third person.

I think that descriptions are important, even with emotional descriptions. People show a lot of their emotions, or you have the odd person that doesn't do so. If you can describe the outer appearance, you can sort of project their mental state onto that.

But, I get what you mean. I just think it works as practice for me.

I'm not talking about emotional descriptions, I'm talking about when people use like seventeen different ways to describe the color of someone's eyes in one paragraph. To the point where it goes, “No one actually thinks this way when they look at a person.”

That, that is an excessive thing that needs to be handled. I think that has more to do with a person's writing style, and less with their ability.

imo some people have the ability to connect with a first-person narrative and some don't, and it's up to them to figure out of they do or not. And some people aren't suited to it — hell, I'm not. I can't escape my own head enough to write from someone else's.

Anyway, that's just my opinion on the whole describe-appearance sort of thing. To each their own.

True, I understand where you're coming from.

i like templates but i recommend moderators and members shouldn't make a group solely about them. templates indeed give every member to show originality, or if a mod mandates a template everyone should use, it makes things uniform and tidy.

but in the cases where people can use there own templates there are some members who go too overboard - and frankly, it's a bit annoying because my then my computer would take a shit ton of time to load what? a post with 90% gifs and graphics and less writing.
not to mention some of those gifs are random and aren't necessary

i would recommend that members should focus on balance of writing and graphics in there templates to make things more efficient for everyone