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[Jet]

I've noticed over the years, that RP characters rarely ask personal questions. Usually the conversation topics are neutral, not sure why (I have a not so flattering theory lol) but it's a truism throughout the years. Of course there are exceptions, and this is only a trend not an iron clad rule, but it's a weakness of the medium.

Because the best way to know someone is to ask questions, so if your character doesn't ask any, they won't know much about the cast. They might feel detached and alone. So next time you post something in your RPs, throw in a random question! Let your partners get creative with answers, and feel special at the same time, and then, maybe you'll receive IC questions of your own. Now you can build character bonds faster than before, and add facets to your characters when questions come your way.

It's realistic, natural, and builds character bonds. It makes people feel cared about, and their characters will feel cared about too. There are no negatives, only positives, but it's not very common.

And it's not just my characters who don't field questions, before someone blames me. Even if I detach myself from my characters, and look at interactions elsewhere, it's a rare sight to see a question.

Thats it, just a suggestion to be mindful of it, and try it in your RPs.

 

[Idea]

I wholeheartedly support this, as people taking an interest in other's characters as well as feeling like their own work is appreciated and given the spotlight I think is an extremely important component of a satisfying roleplay experience.

Something I would add though, is that one needs to lay the groundwork for this to be a more viable approach. I'm not talking about setting up a situation for your character to ask questions (though that is certainly not something to discount either) or even making a character who would necessarily go around asking personal questions (that does help but there's plenty of very viable workarounds). Instead, what I'm referring to is setting up a character with a solid personality rather than a faint idea of what they might or not be. The character doens't need to be interested in every detail of other's lives, but they should be interested in [i}something[/i] for some reason. Maybe your dragon character is very interested in how the human(ish) cast usually makes their money (AKA what they do for a living), or where they acquired that bling on their fingers. Maybe that character traumatized by the war they underwent wants to know why others are so committed to the bloodshed. Maybe the brooder actually has a super soft spot for dogs and happened to see the picture on another character's wallpaper, maybe a singer is missing inspiration and wants to learn about songs from other character's home planets. Your character's personality, interests, experiences and so on are an important part of how you should roleplay them (obvious, I know, but nonetheless the implications of that are often ignored) and can and should inform the way they show interest in and engage with other player's characters.

Furthermore, developing a character to commit to is also an important step of avoiding the pitfall of treating the character like a sock puppet that does whatever is more convenient at the time. Characters who have whatever is the most meta response to other characters, who can shift between being uncooperative and rude to suddenly becoming teamwork leaders when going from a calm moment to a group exercise, characters acting on the most optimal strategy like robots without preferences, fears, anxieties etc... of their own.

Finally, establishing the character in a solid manner also implies that when someone turns around and asks you a question, an answer actually exists - and most likely one better than your character refusing to answer.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

Yeah, I noticed this too. I dont know why. I feel like most people more often share too much of the details in OOC or the CS rather than disclosing it in IC.

 

[Novelight]

Most writers in the roleplaying community need to do far more than just ask questions.

The majority struggle with advancing the plot through meaningful actions of their characters, and their inability to engage in interesting conversations and ask in-character questions is often a contributing factor to this challenge.

 

[Jet]

Most writers in the roleplaying community need to do far more than just ask questions.

The majority struggle with advancing the plot through meaningful actions of their characters, and their inability to engage in interesting conversations and ask in-character questions is often a contributing factor to this challenge.

Agreed, but the other things are harder to change.

Advancing scenes often ties to assertiveness, an OOC personality trait.

Uninteresting dialogue is a skill issue.

People should work on those things, but asking a question requires nothing. Just pick something your character would find interesting (Cool sword bro, where'd you get it?) and now your partner can write about the blacksmith back home, who made the sword in exchange for a month of hard labor. Or how it's a family heirloom, passed down by a legendary warrior long ago.

Etc.

It's a lot more compelling than the typical hum drum, kind of a cheat code for interesting dialogue.

That's why asking questions is common advice for making friends and finding dates. It makes for interesting convo, and people like talking about themselves.

I know there are more issues than just this, but it's low effort and requires no extra skill. That's why I posted this, because nobody has an excuse.

 

[GojiBean]

A very keen observation.

Questions, especially personal ones, are important to allowing characters in-world to truly get to know one another beyond just shooting the breeze at surface level, which does in fact happen a bit too often in my own experience.

However, just as in real life, there is a time and place for such things.

For example: If two or more characters are currently engaged in a life and death struggle against a group of enemies who've got them pinned down with their backs against the wall, and unless both role players agree that their characters are going to die as part of the story, it's not the time for personal questions. It's time for life-preserving communication and cooperation to overcome the situation at hand. Questions can come when the battle's over and their lives are no longer in danger.

I'm sure everyone knows this. But "pacing" is a word used to describe the rate at which a story progresses through its plot. "Rhythm" would be another good word to use as a synonym for it.

Character interactions, and growth resulting from personal interaction, require proper pacing as well. Especially in role play where the objective is collaborative story telling.

Knowing when to ask personal questions not just for the sake of characters getting to know one another, but also for the sake of contributing appropriately to another player character's arc, is essential to being a good roleplay partner. If we rush through asking personal and "interesting" questions because we feel other dialogue around us at the time is getting to stale or boring, we run the risk of becoming disruptive to our role play partners and whatever plans they may have for their character's growth.

Obviously, you can ask the player if it's okay to make the inquiry before just posting. And if they say "sure," then have at it. But I personally feel it's better to feel the RP out and use one's intuition as to the most appropriate moment to ask a personal question.

Incoming Sample


Imagine the following scene setup:

We're in a medieval fantasy RP (no magic or mythical beasts or non-human races), and our characters come across a village that was completely burned to the ground quite recently and is now nothing but a black field of ash and charcoal. Walking through it we can see the vague shapes of what were once houses, street vendor stands, and at times the charred remains of what were once human beings. Even the dirt roads are charred and barely visible or distinguishable from the lifeless field of charcoal around them. It all happened so fast that it feels like almost nobody who lived here was able to escape, further adding to the air of mystery and danger behind whatever took place.

One of our characters comes up to what they think was a house and steps on something. They kneel down and wipe the ash away and see what looks like a charred stuffed animal which barely, and only partially, survived the blaze. As they lift it up they see something stuck on its chest. And as they bring it closer they realize it's the charred and partial skeletal remains of a child's hand still clutching their beloved toy in what were their final moments of life.

The character freezes and puts their hand over the bones. It's the same size as their own younger sister back home who died of an illness years ago. But the character will never forget their sister's tiny hands, nor how much she loved her own stuffed animals all the way to her own final days.

Our character approaches just in time to see this other character place that stuffed animal down and bow their head with silent tears running down their face.

NOW is the time to ask a question... But what to ask?

It would largely depend on whether or not our character actually sees and recognizes the stuffed animal for what it is. Otherwise, if we're approaching from straight behind them we can't see that toy. Nor can we see the tears. We would just see them kneeling and bowing their head. If you set up your character directly behind the other, don't expect anyone to buy into the idea that they saw the tears, the toy, etc. In fact you might even get called out for that OOC (you definitely would from me) and asked to either change your character's angle of approach to be more believable, or change the nature of your character's response to the situation to be more believable.

Yes, it's a small detail. But unless x-ray vision was part of your character's list of skills being directly behind them and magically seeing through them to the tears and animal is going to annoy some folks.

Anyway, back on topic... What to ask? And how should we ask it? Do we go in with a personal question right away like "did you have family here?" No, of course not. We likely already know where they're from since that's usually something we learn when we're first introduced to the character earlier in the RP. So, do we ask something like "did you find something?" No. That's not a personal question and it won't reveal anything about this character one way or the other. Also, it's obvious they found something or they wouldn't be bowing their head. They'd have their head up and be looking around if they were still searching.

Presuming we did see the stuffed animal, the tears, and maybe even the tiny skeletal remains of the child's hand, arguably the single best question we could ask is, "Are you all right?"

It's a simple question. And while it might seem impersonal and boring it's actually one of the most personal questions we could ask in this scenario. Why? Because, obviously, this character is not all right. They're crying over a partially burned stuffed animal with burned finger bones stuck to it. Something has hurt them personally about this situation. So this question, again while seeming impersonal and unimportant, carries a lot of weight and meaning in this moment. Whatever answer we're about to receive is going to be revealing in some way.

If the other characters says "I'm fine" or "I'm okay," we know they're lying. You don't cry over a random stuffed toy because you're okay. Either they're not ready to answer truthfully, they're too proud to admit their pain, or something else is bothering them about this that they just can't bring themselves to talk about.

Regardless of whatever the truth may be, if they say "I'm fine" or anything like it, the time for further questions is over.

We have our answer. And we know that it's time to let it be and keep that nugget of information in mind for a later time when they're more likely to be willing to reveal what bothered them about this moment.

Not every question must be answered immediately for meaning and purpose to drive the interaction and set up a bigger payoff down the road between characters.

If the character answers more truthfully and says something like, "A kid died here... My sister. She was about the same age and size. She loved stuffed animals too... Why did this happen?!" and starts crying harder, this is an example where we can gently move in and ask more questions. We could kneel beside them, place a hand on their back and offer condolences while asking questions about what their sister was like so we can try to move their mindset to something happier like how bubbly she was, and how much she loved her toys and played with them all the time. Anything to evoke happier memories and try to uplift this character out of the sorrow they're currently treading water in. Doing so will also likely give us some insight through their answers as to what their relationship with their sister was like, too.

Depending on if/when we get to the point where we ask that question, "are you all right?" and get an answer like, "yeah, I'll be okay," the time for questions is now over.

"I'll be okay" is an entirely different answer to "I'm fine" or "I'm okay," as it directly states through the use of "I'll be" that the character admits they're not okay at the moment, but they're also suggesting to us that they're strong enough to pull themselves out of this sadness on their own if given a little time. Simultaneously, they're also implying that they're done talking about this and want to move on.

It's time to do just that.


Apologies for how long-winded this was.

I'm fascinated by the mechanics and logic behind the craft of story telling, and I can get a little too into the analysis and deconstruction of such things sometimes. Lol.

Anywho! Hopefully this was helpful!

Long story made very short, personal questions, when asked at the right (or at least most appropriate) time, are definitely a key factor in character progression, story progression, etc.

Just make sure you do your best to pace it properly, and everything will work out fine.

Cheers!

- GojiBean

 

[Jannah]

Yeah, I noticed this too. I dont know why. I feel like most people more often share too much of the details in OOC or the CS rather than disclosing it in IC.

One reason among many why I don't like character sheets. They leave little room for neat little surprises that can be revealed through RP.

 

[Jannah]

I think there's a few different factors behind this. I think one of the biggest is simply a lack of experience in writing. Most RPers have never written anything before dabbling in RP, especially the younger ones. Also, character sheets tend to already reveal most details about the characters, making players less inclined to ask questions in character. Thirdly, a lot of details are revealed through the exposition itself so players will often not have their characters ask about these things as to some it may be perceived as metagaming (which I don't necessarily agree with). Of course there's ways to approach these sort of issues without metagaming, but to go back to my first point a lot of RPers simply don't have the skills or experience to do so.

 

[Jet]

One reason among many why I don't like character sheets. They leave little room for neat little surprises that can be revealed through RP.

Big time agree.

My CD requirements are small for two reasons, and this is one of them. I don't require a public background nor personality section, because writing is discovery for many people, and why reveal your cards at the beginning? Where's the suspense and curiosity? The surprises and revelations?

I think character sheets are dumb. I only require them to check powers and abilities, and only ask people to post background when it has lore implications.

Otherwise, keep it a secret!!

Character sheets are so misunderstood... and I could rant for two hours about personality sections. They're terrible for characters you've never written before, but that's enough ranting for now.

 

[Jannah]

Big time agree.

My CD requirements are small for two reasons, and this is one of them. I don't require a public background nor personality section, because writing is discovery for many people, and why reveal your cards at the beginning? Where's the suspense and curiosity? The surprises and revelations?

I think character sheets are dumb. I only require them to check powers and abilities, and only ask people to post background when it has lore implications.

Otherwise, keep it a secret!!

Character sheets are so misunderstood... and I could rant for two hours about personality sections. They're terrible for characters you've never written before, but that's enough ranting for now.

This is essentially all I use them for too. I will ask for basic information like name, age, etc. and then if it's a RP dealing with superpowers or other sorts of abilities then I will ask for those. Mostly to ensure nothing overpowered or off-theme is being submitted.

 

[Jet]

This is essentially all I use them for too. I will ask for basic information like name, age, etc. and then if it's a RP dealing with superpowers or other sorts of abilities then I will ask for those. Mostly to ensure nothing overpowered or off-theme is being submitted.

I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever looking for a RP we're definitely on the same wavelength.

 

[GammyWamzee]

I agree with this whole heartedly.

I have had rps where we don't even ask names. Like whenever you think of it, how many times has a character actually introduced themselves?

I really love IC questions, it allows a character to develope more but not just the information spawned from the question, but how the character answers the question that could imply further details.