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Forums » RP Discussion » A Question of Etiquette: Controlling NPCs

This has been nagging at me for a few years now, so bear with me while I unpack the question. I often feel like I'm hogging the spotlight enough when I have to keep track of a single character, since I write so much per post. So I don't often run a scene (is that even the right phrase?) myself. Running a scene means I have to bring in and send off NPCs for my partners to interact with and I'm always terrified to do it. I'm afraid it's overwhelming to read so much per post.

So I guess part of my question is as a multi-para RPer, how do I write multiple people doing stuff without a post turning into a tiny novel? Should I break it up into multiple posts and indicate which PC it's directed at? Or should I bite the bullet, warn my partners of impending novella, and forge on in a single post?

From the other side of the coin, how much power is acceptable for a player to exert on NPCs/setting? Like, if the scene we've set is that of exploring a location, is it okay for me to write what my guy discovers or should I only go so far as to describe intent and let the person running the scene decide what gets found? Or in the case of combat - if we're playing a scene where we're fighting monsters together, is it okay to write that my guy took some out or should it only that he tried to and leave it to be resolved by another?

Maybe I'm looking at this from too much of a tabletop RPG perspective, and I'm thinking too rigid, I dunno... I know the boundaries a bit better in a dice-heavy RP, but I'm at a complete loss in freeform and I feel like I'm slowing down the plot when I could be taking risks and helping to drive it forward.

Thoughts?
As long as people are aware that is your style, why fight it? RP is supposed to be fun and freeform fluid and adaptive to your needs. Especially in 1 on 1 I have been known to put 3 pages of a word doc in one post. My advice would be don't worry about it. No one i have RPed with has ever complained about long posts. Most are flattered that I put in all that effort. True it can slow post frequency down but it more than makes up for it in detail, setting and characterisation. As for NPCs, I love them. They add a dynamic element to RP that can take you surprising places.

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