House of Cards GM Log

Better Posts: Independent Actions

posted by Ginger at 11:47 AM, June 22, 2003 | Filed under : Netiquette & Play Procedures | Comments and Followups

This is the first in what will be an ongoing series of GM suggestions on how to improve posts to get the best results from the GMs. We don’t like having to strike parts of posts and tell people they can’t do things, so we’re posting some guidelines and example posts for people to read and understand how we adjudicate posts.

Our first guideline is “Write independent posts, which are posts that don’t depend on other PCs or NPCs to succeed.”

If you write a post that depends on the actions of an NPC or another PC to be completed, we are likely to amend or strike the post.

This is an example of a good post:

Fred says urgently to Daphne and Velma that they need to talk alone. [Assuming they agree.] He leads them outside to the Mystery Machine and says …

This post gives Daphne’s and Velma’s players the option to accept or refuse walking out to the Mystery Machine. It also clearly marks where it’s OK for the other players to strike an action assumed on their character’s part.

This is an example of a problem post:

Fred says urgently to Daphne and Velma that they need to talk alone. He leads them outside to the Mystery Machine and says …

Fred’s player described the actions of Daphne and Velma in this post without giving them an option to refuse. This is aggressive play to the point of rudeness, even if Fred’s player didn’t mean it that way.

If Daphne and Velma don’t want to go along with Fred, they may feel pressured to do so anyway because of the way Fred’s player wrote the post. They may refer the matter to the GMs, which is within their rights, or they may go along with the post and seethe privately. Neither of these options is good, so it’s best to clearly mark the point where other players’ actions may diverge from the script.

If you want to move a post along and have contacted other players to secure their explicit approval in advance, you can also write an OOC note at the top of the post saying that other players have agreed to the following post. However, since it’s possible that Daphne’s player may not have understood “private conversation” to mean “outside at the Mystery Machine”, the [Assuming …] model is preferred.

Follow up: the trackback URL for this entry is: http://www.whiterose.org/MT/mt-tb.cgi/1840

3 Comments

Olof
Jun 22, 2003 4:01 PM

I think this is a very good suggestion. I will try to use it.

(Probably extensively. Be careful what you ask; you just might get it.)

Actually this is probably even more needed for descriptions of the world. You GMs cannot provide all detail that sometimes is needed. Normally I feel less inclined to wait for details on the world than on responses from NPCs or PCs. Maybe because waiting for information delays the game more. (An example would be the current Lilly/Ossian/Vialle thread where I assumed several things, like the existance of chairs in the ballroom, the location of Gerard, and the tactical advances of Gerards position in the room. At least one of which went a bit wrong.)

Madeline
Jun 22, 2003 5:24 PM

I actually feel that the top model is somewhat coercive, too, in that people feel guilty about forcing the discard of everything below the [Assuming], and not be sure whether it actually happened or not. Me, I'm perfectly willing to break in with the "Neither option of this dichotomy is what Daphne would do" sort of post, and logging continuity be damned when both threads take off; but I generally prefer that decision points be left open.

I mean, it's generally not a major thing; it bothers me a little when the continuity goes to hell, but not too much; and I'm down with the desire to have a PBeM move as fast as possible. And of course, all situations are different; hopefully Fred's player will be making assumptions that are true and natural. But I think often in this sort of situation, a good post is:
Fred says to Daphne and Velma, "We urgently need to talk alone." He points with his chin out to the Mystery Machine.

And then hopefully Velma chips in with:
"Ok," she replies, heading out with him, "What've you got?"

And they're both willing to deal with it when Daphne comes in with:
"Could we just huddle over there by the grandfather clock? I want to keep my eye on that painting..."

Ginger
Jun 22, 2003 5:33 PM

The opportunity to break doesn't imply that the options set out are the only options for the other player(s). It's a suggestion only.

My feeling is that anything after [Assuming ...] is fair game for either Daphne or Velma. [Assuming ...] marks the end of Fred's intentions that don't require cooperation.

[Assuming ...] should not be the default mode for posts, either. In general, you should cut off your posts where your action ends. But there are times when it's merited, and when you need to, [Assuming ...] is the preferred technique. It's certainly preferred to assuming without clearing it with the other players.

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