Advice/Help Pacing Issues

[Fable]

I've noticed this for some time and at this moment truly consider this the worst issue with my writing personally. I cannot pace well. I do not mean as in frequency of posting, but rather the in-character 'time'. I feel that I tend to go through scenes very slowly. I've not compared my pace to that of other RPs until recently, thinking back on group RPs I've been in as a player. I feel I go through things at a sluggish going on dull/boring pace for some RPs I have, not all.

How do you effectively pace a lore heavy roleplay without constantly throwing action scenes? My more action focused SMITED RP doesn't have this pacing issue, but my pirate RP does which I believe is affecting player interest. I had planned for this to be more exploratory than combat oriented as the crew travels the world to reveal the secret lore.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I find a good way to make sure you keep action moving forward is to set time limits for yourself. So like you can only talk about Scene 1 for a week then you have to time skip to Scene 2.

I mean the time period is up to you but the idea is you only allow a specific time period for talking about what is happening before moving on.

 

[Idea]

The pacing of an RP is tricky because individual scenes aren't entirely controlled by any one given person, not even the GM. What actions players take can make a GM transitioning out of the scene or moving it along too abrupt. Moreover, in the inevitable slower moments of RPs, which do not possess action, it's often the case that many players devolve into not posting and even ghosting due to the loss of interest in that one moment of the RP in which people aren't oriented about what to do and thus have greater difficulty posting. These slower moments are really when pacing suffers the most from my experience as they tend to exist between plot points, without a set objective that leads to the next thing and gets the characters moving.

Ideally then, you'd want to get a group of players that are willing to take innitiative of their own and through their characters create the incentive to explore and continue acting with direction, even in a moment of calm. However, to rely on this event would be perhaps a bit too idealistic.

As such, I find that it's imperative to stimulate this push where there isn't a story. I often say that, to me, one of the most crucial parts of a good GM is that said GM involve their players, that they take genuine interest in the work and characters of the players and strive to include that and play with that in their craft of the story, that a good GM will allow the characters to be individual, a true presence in the story, rather than a replaceable slot to fill that any number of characters could fill without much if any change at all. So, I would suggest creating 'hooks' during slow parts, things that will personally appeal to characters and/or their players within whatever environment or other traits of the slower moment. In every sense of the word this is an attempt to "bait" the players to take action of their own accord, you are putting a bridge over the fall, but letting your players feel as though they are the ones figuring out they need to cross it. A successful attempt at this should create a "task" that you can use to manage when you want to begin the next scene. This doesn't need to be action either, if you can bring up some character aspect that can spark a conversation, if you can give players and interesting place for their characters to investigate, a very detailed room with all kinds of things to play around with, etc... as long as it is personally appealing to your players, through their tastes or through their characters, this should do the trick. If you are not universally successful, that is alright too, because some players taking action will often prompt others to follow them.

Another similar method is to focus back on the appeal which attracted the players. Something brought them to your RP, some interest. If they were interested in a pirate RP, then what kind of slow scene would such a player be hoping for? Perhaps some rowdy bar, or some legends about a great fish in the area, and on the way they find this old fisherman who's hiding more than they are willing to tell.... Or if your players came more for the explorational element, maybe a slow scene of looking into something more unrelated, or one where they get praise and accomodation for their findings. If you don't know what exactly brought your players in, do ask them! I'm sure they won't bite.

Bottom line, my advice is the following: use your player's interests to formulate the scene in such a way as to incentivize them to create their own "task" (an activity with a particular achievable objective), and use that as the method for pacing the scene, associating the completion of the task with the end of the scene.

Hope this helps, best of luck and happy RPing!

 

[Dutch]

Give players purpose, a thing to write about, a mission, adventure, event anything that drives players to work toward some clearly defined end. Doesn't matter how long it takes as long as the interest to write it is there. Direction I find helps to pace players better otherwise people meander and write aimlessly and eventually lose interest.

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

Pacing is something I'm really good at, but it's made difficult in a group setting - scratch that - nearly impossible. People sink into a scene and get comfy. The round of dialogue has to taper off before you can just move on. It's honestly my #1 pet peeve in role play. Oh-ho-ho-ho, I could just choke someone even thinking about it.

You ever do a group scene where two individuals get interlocked, and just won't wrap it up so everyone else can move the plot along? This makes me want to hit the eject button, for real. That sounds cruel but it's so annoying to me.


My advice for your personal writing is to picture every scene in your RP like it's a scene from a film or television show. What are we doing here? What's the purpose of this scene? Who is involved and what can they contribute to it, or get out of it? Then again, that's coming from a narrative fiend. Good narrative gives me erections. Bad narrative makes me shut my RPs down.

As the GM you can try to play the role of Quarterback, and run damage control on scene lengths and purposes. It can be very difficult to wrangle a group, particularly if you have idle chatters () on deck. By idle chatters I mean those I mentioned earlier, who get interlocked and spend 8 posts talking about stuff that might serve character purposes, but it just goes on for far too long with no organization.


If it's the pacing in your writing that you're referring to specifically, complete a post as you normally would, then edit it. Go through and find all the needless details that the post, character and plot can simply live without, and trim it down. This might not be easy, but it will improve post pacing greatly.