How do you feel about Novella roleplay?

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Hello everyone, Dark here. I am curious as to what the community here thinks about what they call Novella roleplay. Do you find it fascinating? Do you find it a waste of time? What's your reasoning behind how you feel about it? And do you think there could possibly be improvement? Reason I ask is because I perform Novella roleplay, though I see it's a rarity here.


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It honestly depends on the Rp Itself.


However, let's say for instance that there's a RP with a REALLY and I do mean, REALLY rich environment, lore, and everything written up in perfect detail and creating a wonderful, interconnecting world for us to base it on?


Then hell yeah, I fucking love It. It's a great experience, In my opinion anyway.


In an instance such as that, I feel like being able to describe everything in utter detail to even the minor things to be quite fun and mentally stimulating. It almost feels like you're writing the pages to a large book. That and It allows me not only to show off my skills in writing but improve them as well. I learn various ways in which others would write when given such a large amount of material to work with and expected to write back in equal amounts. How do they keep It interesting, what words do they use describing the scenery, how well do they portray their characters feelings and emotions?


I'd honestly love to be part of a fully dedicated, hardcore Novella RP group.


Though, there are problems that come with such a Rp.


Leaving.


Now people can leave for all sorts of reasons, maybe because their flaky assholes who are just like "Nah, don't want to do this anymore but I don't want to tell them either. Time to disappear" or people might be experiencing a real life crisis or problem that requires their full attention. One person leaving a normal RP is annoying and can throw things into slight disarray, but for a Novella Rp someone suddenly leaving can really fuck up the entire experience for everyone and just derail It in such a massive scale. You really need a group of trustworthy and dedicated people to pull off a successful Novella Rp in my experience or somewhere down the line, It'll go real wrong real fast. That and I do think that collaboration and communication in a Novella is way more important than in a standard Rp. There is a difference between giving great detail to a situation and giving great detail to absolutely nothing which people really don't need to know or care about. So you'll want to work with people and create a great environment and atmosphere whilst also not wasting everybody's time by writing about something needless. Which reaffirms my point on needing a really dedicated, trustworthy and good group of people to pull it off.


So yeah, In my opinion, it's amazing when done right but It's a lot more fragile and fickle in comparison to more toned down styles of RP.


If you're into writing a crapton and letting your imagination go buck wild whilst having the patience to write up lots and wait for others to do the same; then a Novella RP is great.


Wooo, that's my view on it and everything.


Hopefully, I didn't end up writing up my Opinion and thoughts up as a Novella. XP

Not sure what you mean by novella rp? Could you describe exactly what you mean?

nerdyfangirl said:

Not sure what you mean by novella rp? Could you describe exactly what you mean?

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A Novella Rp is often a Rp that requires participants to write more than six paragraphs.


In my experience, anything beneath that number would be, In my experience "Not enough" to qualify as a proper post In a normal Novella Rp.


So basically, It's a RP that involves lots of detail and writing going into each and every post made.

nerdyfangirl said:

Not sure what you mean by novella rp? Could you describe exactly what you mean?

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Novella is a term that categorizes a certain section of roleplay that goes beyond paragraph based roleplay into multiple paragraphs of roleplay (The shortest posts in this category often being from 5-10 paragraphs that consist of 5 or more proper sentences.)


This particular type of roleplay often demands comprehensible grammar and to go into great detail of the roleplay without the user of filler. Such roleplays can last for days if active and continuing, sometimes weeks. Each post is a great contribution to said roleplay, and just as St Indigo brought up, if one person leaves it can derail the entire roleplay.


Basically speaking, you are writing a small novel.

I'm not really a detailed writer so it's kind of annoying imo. I can do it with a really strong plot, but that's only happened once. For me, roleplaying is supposed to be a collaborative thing, so when I write novellas it feels like I'm just writing on my own.

Vague said:

I'm not really a detailed writer so it's kind of annoying imo. I can do it with a really strong plot, but that's only happened once. For me, roleplaying is supposed to be a collaborative thing, so when I write novellas it feels like I'm just writing on my own.

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Well that's why before you do any form of Novella roleplay, that it's with people you are confident about roleplaying with rather than complete strangers.

Thanks @Dark Half & @St Indigo for the explanation.


I would say on this site in that case it depends entirely on the type of roleplay your doing. If you looking to join a group than I don't know that many that require that level of detail. I think there might be a few detailed roleplays where you could submit that much personally but your best bet is really just to look at the GM's requirements or to ask if your not sure.


In 1x1s however again I'd just communicate that your looking for someone who can write large posts and you should be fine. There are certainly people on this site capable of writing that much if that's what your looking for.


I myself could crank out three pages if I really wanted to and I have played with partners that can reciprocate that.


So if that's important to you than just put it in your searches or ask if the people your roleplaying with would be okay with it.


This is a site that caters to all types of roleplayers so you should be able to find someone who will roleplay with you.

I don't really like it. I've been trying to get myself to write longer posts (like 2-3 paragraphs rather than a single paragraph), but I can't, usually because of boredom or lack of ideas.

Ooohhh.


I thought you were talking about those absurd posts that are like 2000 words long. 6-10 paragraphs isn't that bad, especially if you're entering a new scene or narrating multiple characters. I think the main thing, though, is that setting a paragraph limit forces people to blather on about nothing sometimes.


For example, let's try the aftermath of a medieval fantasy battle. What if the scene is long set, the conflict is over, and all your character needs to do is get on their horse to follow the group? You're going to stretch that for 6 paragraphs? Really?


I can basically guarantee that 3 of those paragraphs will be painfully dull internal monologue, 1 will be the actions drawn out to an absurd degree (foot in stirrup, jump off ground, one leg over horse, pick up reins, put heels to horse, direct horse behind other horses) and the other 2 will be restating things that other people have already written.


Players having to force out a bunch of unnecessary words is, I think, the main reason those RPs fail at a higher rate. In Simple Sonic Hedgehog Highskool or whatever the game may be weird and silly, lacking depth, but at least it doesn't chew up hours of your time for a single dull post.

Can't abide paragraph limits of any stripe - just because you can write longer doesn't mean you're writing better. Since I mainly GM, I don't have time to read that much meandering, amateur prose to find the details necessary to advance the plot. If a post is well-written enough that I don't notice it's unusually long, that's great, but more often it's a slog.


And for my part, I don't treat roleplaying like actual writing, but as a break from work on other projects, so the last thing I want to do is churn out excess wordcount.

I'm a long-winded writer and I enjoy writing and reading long posts. No, I don't believe it makes me 'better' than anyone and, more importantly, I know there are plenty of writers who can write more in two lines than I can write in two paragraphs. That said, it's just my personal preference. Always has been and I'm not sure I have a reason behind it besides that I enjoy it. One of my favourite things about roleplaying, that I've noted several other players mentioning as 'dull' or 'boring' is inner monologue and character growth. Now, I understand it's not for everyone, but to me it's not dull at all, and I live for writing/reading what is going on in a character's head sprinkled in between dashing moments of exciting prose and dialogue.


As such, I would probably argue @Coward to the death. While it may be 'painfully dull' to you, I find it quite exciting. That said, I've found very few examples of detailed roleplayers I work with regurgitating what has already been written. I do understand the value and can appreciate a roleplay that lacks post length and/or plot breadth, but it's not to my preference. I roleplay to get away from real-life and relax, and I find the longer styles do that for me, where short/rapid/shallow posts tend to just stress me out.


I think it really comes down to what you use roleplaying and what you enjoy.

Mordecai said:

I'm a long-winded writer and I enjoy writing and reading long posts. No, I don't believe it makes me 'better' than anyone and, more importantly, I know there are plenty of writers who can write more in two lines than I can write in two paragraphs. That said, it's just my personal preference. Always has been and I'm not sure I have a reason behind it besides that I enjoy it. One of my favourite things about roleplaying, that I've noted several other players mentioning as 'dull' or 'boring' is inner monologue and character growth. Now, I understand it's not for everyone, but to me it's not dull at all, and I live for writing/reading what is going on in a character's head sprinkled in between dashing moments of exciting prose and dialogue.
As such, I would probably argue @Coward to the death. While it may be 'painfully dull' to you, I find it quite exciting. That said, I've found very few examples of detailed roleplayers I work with regurgitating what has already been written. I do understand the value and can appreciate a roleplay that lacks post length and/or plot breadth, but it's not to my preference. I roleplay to get away from real-life and relax, and I find the longer styles do that for me, where short/rapid/shallow posts tend to just stress me out.


I think it really comes down to what you use roleplaying and what you enjoy.

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Character thoughts don't have to be dull, and I didn't think I'd implied that. When they're good they're great, and I do use them myself a lot.


When they're empty filler, though... damn. Excruciating. Characters thinking about how they wish the weather would stay nice. Characters planning their next meal. Worst, characters spelling out their emotions rather than feeling or expressing them: 'Clara was ecstatic that they'd won the battle.'


I once read a seven or eight paragraph post where the character... nodded. To fill the words the writer had made their character recall a large portion of the plot to that point, with no new information.


I guess you could call it a pet peeve, but I don't think it's necessary a lot of the time. The ratio of internal monolog to action in most detailed RPs tends to be higher than in good novels, and personally I would rather find out about your character through dialog and body language and so on. That way interaction can happen.

Coward said:

To fill the words the writer had made their character recall a large portion of the plot to that point, with no new information.

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I am always quietly horrified when I see someone rehashing the content of a post that was just made by someone else, with their actual response sandwiched in there somewhere. Like, please, just post the reaction.


This is especially galling when it's someone who considers RPing to be collaborative fiction writing first and foremost - you wouldn't do that in a novel.

I have found that in large roleplays wherein I have a lot of different posts my character needs to respond to, some rehashing is necessary.


But there are exceptions to every rule, of course.

I enjoyed longer posts. Gives me a lot to work with and I don't mind reading them but if the novella posts only give description about one thing not relevant to the story, I will be turned off. If I'm going to read such posts I would like to set a set up of the story, place. Characters, character interaction, things of that nature.

Ahh novella rps~


I came from a world where those rps were standard. Anything under 500-700 words were sub-par. Honestly, I've gotten far too lazy with little time to sit down and write a post for half an hour to an hour just to meet the quota. Don't get me wrong--I love writing and if it ends up coming to that, I wouldn't mind cranking out long posts again. But I don't think those kinds of rps do well here, simply because of the polls and comments I've seen around the site since I've been here. Detailed still seems to be the less favored out of all three prefixes, so I can only imagine it would be worse for something that requires lengthy walls of text. :/


Sometimes I miss it, other times I don't. I just write whatever I feels necessary now in days. And most of the time I write long-winded posts anyways. xD

Notice how everyone has a different opinion on novella rp'ing. While some find it enjoyable, others find it to be painfully unnecessary. So really, there is no right or wrong to it. It is all up to personal preference after all.

Personally, I enjoy this more than shorter responses because I get to really engage with my character, as well as respond to other characters.

I think that kind of RP requires plot advancement with every other post; you can't expect anyone to wait for every character to have their own little reaction to an event before deciding to move on, since it usually leads to the dreaded "no, you go first" continuum. Then that's paragraphs upon paragraphs of text, and hours of writing, accomplishing absolutely nothing. I think a successful novella RP only gives as much as it gets: if you write 6 10-sentence paragraphs of crap, that's what everyone else will write too. Roleplay relies so heavily on the experience of everyone else involved that one "bad" response could throw the entirety off balance.

I have written 1500-2000 words per reply where it's considered the norm for "skilled" writers (elitism, if you ask me), but most people stretched their posts out with over-the-top descriptions right out of American Psycho, but without the charm or intent. I think it would be quite the undertaking on RPN, considering the amount of skilled RPers, and maybe one day I'll work up the courage to tackle it. For now, I think it's too much of a niche here to really garner much interest, if it ever gets off of the ground. Though I have seen it work, and in some cases, it can actually be a good read.

However, I think at that point I'd consider actual collaborative writing (AKA having control over all aspects of RP with another person, including characters) before an RP of that caliber.

Novella RPs are AMAZING but you have to be super committed and your partner has to be super committed. I wish I had more time for them, honestly, I haven't done one in ages.

I love long posts, sometimes I truly love sitting down to crank out paragraph upon paragraph. However these posts shouldn't happen too often or they really will tire me out and drain motivation to write. I think long posts (10+ paragraphs) have their place but as someone who used to write too little, then too much, I think there is a sweet spot of 3-5 paragraphs and anything less is too little and anything more, can be a bit tough to reply to unless you have a certain partner or are in a certain part of a RP that allows for a massive skip, information dump or character study.

When it comes to the question of length of replies and detail in posts, I find myself falling on the higher end of the spectrum. I find short and simple posts to be bland and boring to me, so only larger replies really satisfy my needs. My general approach to the topic, is that I prefer longer and more detailed replies os I'm willing to be patient for them, and take my time writing them as well. This allows me more time to do other things, while still tapping into the source of my enjoyment. What I like in posts and replies is the experience I have as I read them, and the story that is being constructed. In both regards, longer replies are simply needed:

A lot of detail some would consider "flowery" is something I appreciate in a read. I like to get the full context to things, I like seeing the thought process of characters Internal monologue), their little actions, and the environment around them. I like it when repetition or side-tracking is used for stylistic effect. To me, longer and more detailed replies tend to be leagues more immersive, even if they aren't, admitedly, as organic in some senses as shorter and simpler replies. To enjoy myself in roleplay, I need that kind of experience, that juiciness. It's the difference between a slideshow and a movie to me. You may get the gist of the story from the slideshow, but if you're like most people I know, you'll probably be borred by it, while a movie may actually pull you in and make you appreciate the story in a way that the still barely connected images just can't.

I also believe detailed replies are needed (though no guarantee) to better written stories. I do want to mention that this is better written in a formal objective sense. A story that isn't as well constructed can still be just as if not more enjoyable than some better written ones, but enjoying something has less to do with the story itself and more to do with the context in which you consume it. An unfair comparison that is often made is that "but some excellent writers try not to drag the descriptions and...", well, yes, but they are writing in a book format- no interruptions and no person that needs to be able to directly interact with the scene. But this is a discussion for another time. The important part for now is that under formal structural criteria for good writing, there's a bunch of things that need to be included that will often just be cut out by shorter replies: Character justification, blocking, foreshadowing, to name a few. These help set up the overall structure and big moments of the story, give it more context and connection, but will naturally tend to occupy space of their own.

On top of this, detailed RPers, as people, tend to be people I work with better. Not only do we have more similar approaches and mindsets when it comes to writing, but detailed RPers also tend to be more willing to plan things out in more detail - something which I seldom get to do, but which I absolutely love.

Now, one could argue that I also take a bigger loss by RPing with large detailed posts, if the RP dies. This was a problem i struggled with for a while, and came to lead to my current philosophy on ghosting and such. I strive to put everything I can to make posts and Rps something of inherent value. Somehting that, even if they go nowhere, I can look back to with pride. Then add to that the fact that I just wouldn't enjoy myself without those long replies...


I do feel the need to adress one other complaint that is often brought up against detailed roleplays, the "filler" and forcefully long descriptions, cluttered posts. On that topic, I have to agree. However, if you look at that and say "Novella/Detailed Rps are just worse" or "Novella/detailed Rps lead to filler", then I must say you're pointing your finger in the wrong direction. I would argue instead that the blame isn't on Novella or detailed RPs, but on casual roleplayers who take on that kind of roleplay without being ready to sustain it.

I don't think anyone is really arguing one type of roleplay is bad per say, or that everyone is the same. Some types of roleplay will just suit some people better than others. There are plenty of stunning casual roleplays, but I just can't into it because the style of post involved in it doesn't work well with my tastes. For some, Novella/detailed roleplay may be a problem for their motivation or be too intimidating, etc... However, people also have a tendency to overstimate their own skills. People will tend, for whatever reason, to make a roleplay detailed before thinking of whether they can sustain it or when that isn't really their preferred style. Some problems created by this would be:

->A player finds they can't actually keep up with the roleplay because they aren't used to the detailed style of roleplay (ghosting)
->A player is too reliant on the muse and thus can't bring themselves to write the full content after the innitial hype is gone (posts never come)
->A player has no idea how to actually write detail with a bare minimum of competence, and just crams more actions or completely unrelated descriptions that have no weight for anything on the context of the narrative (poorly written detail)

Detailed roleplay is a completely different beast from casual roleplay. Failure to understand that will result in failure to cope with at least one of them; and possibly the wrong choice of which to partake in. There's nothing wrong with liking or participating in either, so make sure you understand your own needs and make a decision that is fitting.

I don't mind novella posts especially if it's for an opening which should be detailed as you're trying to convey characters or the world to your partner or something relevant to the plot such as the moving forward of a plot, information, etc but for every post it would become too much just as having a paragraph every time would be that's just my own opinion. I don't like just responding to dialogue or a carbon copy of what I wrote I appreciate character thoughts, emotions, actions.

I find that, like others have said, novella can be very good when done correctly. If you've got a very dedicated partner or group and know how to pace it well, it can be a really engaging and fun experience. I find that it really allows you to interact with the world more than a rp with shorter replies does. However, there is, of course, the looming issue of the fact that sometimes longer replies simply aren't better in a certain situation. I find that there are times in which shorter replies simply work better than longer ones (take the "getting on the horse" example). That isn't too say that a certain rp is better or worse because it has longer or shorter replies, but I find that sometimes forcing myself to churn out 6+ paragraph replies can be a grueling ordeal that simply doesn't have a payoff worth the effort.

TLR: When done correctly by the right people and in the right context, novella rps can be really fun and engaging, but in some situations they just aren't preferable to me.

An honest question here: HOW do you write that much? I find it difficult to surpass 3 well bodies paragraphs. Simply my mind goes blank. Do you have any tips for someone who wants to push their writing boundaries?