Forums » RP Discussion » What Is This New Thing? (A Certain Rp Style)

There is a style of RP where the person will not relay or share little to none of their character's mental thoughts. Once the other character has been around them for a little bit (a few posts down the line) then you get to read into their mind and what they are thinking.

I have only come across it on this site. Though it's interesting and sometimes cool. Other times I'm not sure how to approach the RP style. I just kinda deal with it. It's not hurting me too much when responding but it does make it a little difficult to know if the person is invested. In certain times it feels as if I'm doing all the work in making the RP engaging at the start. I tolerated it because I get the idea that this is only temporary. But what if two people of the same RP style do this? Do they already understand that this is what is happening?

What is the mindset of those that use this style? Has this always been around and I'm now just finding out about it? If so, how long has it been in use? I would love some input. What are ways I should start off that would better benefit those that use this style?

I've only been RPing for a little bit over a year. But, I haven't heard of this as a specific style or thing that has a name. So far, I've RP'ed with people who either 1) almost always share their character's feelings (and usually thoughts), or 2) people that mostly show actions and rarely thoughts (but sometimes with actions that show thoughts and feelings, like shaking or blushing or glaring at someone).

Maybe someone else will know more! Maybe as the RP goes on people get more comfortable...idk. It's hard to know because people say my writing is kind of emotionally driven so it's hard for me to picture the mindset of someone who doesn't like to share the characters' thoughts and feelings at first.

It seems a bit weird to call it a 'style', but I suppose that's what it is. It shows investment in plot-development, in my mind. It's just along the same lines as holding back OOC information like backstory that another character wouldn't necessarily know, so that players will make decisions based only on limited information.

Playing fairly deceptive characters, this is essential (at least I find). But I also play a few easily-distracted or spacey characters, and I sometimes feel the need to fill in these lapses in attention with a bit of stream-of-consciousness so it's more interesting than 'and then they stared blankly again for a good minute'. It also makes it feel like you've put more thought into it beyond 'lol random space moment again'.

I can understand in, say primarily romance-based RP why hiding thoughts and feelings might not be helpful or useful, since in this case I suppose the point is to Feel. In this case, if RPers only start out hiding thoughts and then gradually introduce them, I don't see why that would be a problem--it shows two characters coming to trust each other, perhaps moving towards a mutual understanding in where it almost feels like they're 'in each other's heads' or have become better at 'reading' each other.

^-^; sorry I only called it a style because I never came across it until being on this site. But yea, though holding back information may be an interesting way to play, isn't the whole point of RPing is to make it interesting knowing this information? If my character was a complete goodie-goodie but I know as a player that your character thought he was being really shady. I could play up the antics to either side. Make him/her more shifty or less shifty.

But then this makes me wonder, should I try incorporating this into my writing to make the other player feel more intrigued? In these situations, I give up a lot of information in my posts. Is it best that only one side does this, so that side has more to play off of?

Or maybe that is where the fun is? Being just a little frustrated that you can't read a character right away? Much like how some people find being frightened and/or surprised is fun?


Edit: Also thanks for responding guys! I can really use this information to up my game!

thats probably exactly why you would withold that information. So that the other player wont make decisions based solely on information that they themselves should not be aware of.

I usually put in at least a few of my characters thoughts and most of the time, it seems to work out well enough. And I appreciate thoughts and feelings in return. Even in my DnD style games where I ultimately need to know "what are you doing?" the PC thoughts help me as GM to know if I'm being too vague with the clues and hints that I'm dropping.

There have been a couple times in 1x1 RPs when my partner seemed to cross the line and their character started being too much of a mind-reader. Unsurprisingly, in those few cases, they tended toward other god-modish behaviors as well and the RP did not survive very long.

But even those few made me a tad more conservative about sharing character thoughts and feelings for the first few posts until there is a baseline level of trust that my partner won't abuse it.

I guess I'm a bit of a minimalist, but I feel like for me it's just better to get straight to the point rather than waltz around and end up with a bloated response. Which is not to say there aren't a lot of people who write amazingly descriptive responses which are an absolute pleasure to read through, but in my case I just feel like it's usually better to remove some bits and pieces and prioritize flow and and cohesiveness. And well, I just don't like writing out everything my characters think and consider. Because for one thing, thinking isn't a straightforward process and I've often found myself ending up with too many threads to follow when I used to write more of their inner workings out. Then there's the fact that a lot of actions are intuitive and not analyzed on a conscious level, so having my characters analyze everything just feels unnatural. And lastly, I don't have to mirror half my partners response in an attempt to explain why my characters reaction, when it's already made obvious. Show don't tell and all, and well at end of the day it's the way my characters reacts that actually gives my partner material to work with so it's that part I like to focus on and embellish.

But yeah to actually answer your question, and not ramble on about my personal preferences, I think a lot of people either just need some time to get into character, don't have a lot of things for their character to think about yet or just want to make the first encounter more suspenseful by revealing less.