Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Passive-Aggressive Godmoding

Count Aretine said:
Additionally, if one constantly has to state these things in their prose, then they're probably doing things fundamentally wrong. Show, don't tell. If your character is arrogant, show us through his actions. Don't simply tell us how arrogant he is by demeaning the opponent. Have him take off his suit of armor when fighting an opponent, or give a snarky retort, or laugh in his opponent's face. You'll find that trying to show your character's personality in this way, rather than simply telling us how they are, makes for a much more vibrant experience.
Agreed, but we don't have to have a thread to call people out on this. Too often we have threads where something is brought to light and we comment about how immature or badly written some posts or characters, instead of solving the problem privately. Heck, I'm putting my hand up to be a mentor if people want this to happen.

We seriously need to question if publicly shaming people is the right way to make positive changes in the community.
 
Nobody is being mentioned by name or publicly shamed at all here. For all intents and purposes we are all equally guilty of what I'm talking about. I'm sure we have all been passive-aggressive at some point in time.
 
Count Aretine said:
Nobody is being mentioned by name or publicly shamed at all here. For all intents and purposes we are all equally guilty of what I'm talking about. I'm sure we have all been passive-aggressive at some point in time.
Of course we have, but what youre explaining is a common writing style of arrogant -characters- not writers. And them saying your weak does not mean your weak, its just the characters point of view and honestly that is not godmodding in the very least, hell my character Yusan does this very thing, if he doesnt think someone is worth his time then he will act like an ass in words and thought.
 
sabrina said:
okay for last time, of asking
how do I deliver thought, that my character can not express, as she into undercover work.
Okay, so she's undercover but you want to express her opinions subtlely. The best way to do this is through poses and actions.

Say she wants express disapproval, but not actually say it. She could cross her arms while she's talking, signifying to the reader that she might not agree with what's being said. Or you can write her thoughts, but differently:

"Sabrina looked at the other guard, her arms crossed, leaning her back against the wall. Her face showed no emotion as she spoke...."

This gives a physical appearance of disapproval, rather than a straight emotional comment in the prose. By showing this detail of how she looks while she talks in such way that the reader can infer her feelings on an issue without her actually thinking them, it makes for a much better read and a more fluid story.
 

sabrina

Well-Known Member
@[member="Chupa La'Roi"] problem with that I am showing my emotion`s, I am meant to be agree with them, outwardly, as I planning to hurt them inwardly.
 
Solan Charr said:
Of course we have, but what youre explaining is a common writing style of arrogant -characters- not writers. And them saying your weak does not mean your weak, its just the characters point of view and honestly that is not godmodding in the very least, hell my character Yusan does this very thing, if he doesnt think someone is worth his time then he will act like an ass in words and thought.
The point he's trying to make, which I understand a lot better now, is that straight up commenting on a character in your posts needs to be downplayed. You can be arrogant and think you're superior as a character, but you don't need to say you are explicitly. You can write actions or vocal opinions or even stances in such way to express arrogance more fluidly.

Take Saruman from the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien doesn't expressly say, "Saruman looked at Gandalf and thought about how pitiful and useless the other wizard was." He expressed Saruman's arrogance and vile attitude through his actions and comments, but subtly. His stern approach to Gandalf's actions, his vocal disapproval of the Fellowship, the descriptions of how he sits and walks and reacts to people and events describe his feelings far better than if he simply said that Saruman thought about how ugly Gandalf was.
 

sabrina

Well-Known Member
Then they won`t trust my character, as I am lowest ranking member of the team. Thus she fail in objective, to get close, to her intended target.
Think of a under cover police man, they are not meant to do any thing to blow their cover.
 
sabrina said:
@[member="Chupa La'Roi"] problem with that I am showing my emotion`s, I am meant to be agree with them, outwardly, as I planning to hurt them inwardly.
Then what you can do is remark on them as a description, rather than a straight out opinion. I'll give an example.

Say a senator disapproves of your leader: "Sabrina followed behind the senator, her arms behind her back, her face emotionless as the fool continued his tirade about how badly the leader was doing in the galaxy. She knew one of these days she would get a chance to snap his neck, but for now she would keep these feelings inside. She had people to influence, topics to discuss and one foolish senator mattered not in the long run, and so she simply smiled and nodded as he looked at her for approval."
 
Everybody loves to claim I god mode, but if anyone were to actually look at any of the posts I make in threads they would see that I am one of the only ones on this board that take constant hits over half the time in every single thread I join....

If you all wanna call taking hit god modding then you might wanna have your brains checked for a tumor, or abnormality.
 
I think the conclusion of this thread is that some people do what OP is suggesting; others don't, and just act as they think their character should IC.

Blanket statements don't apply to everyone, everywhere, as we have quite a few unique, beautiful snowflakes who all do things differently.
 
I agree with @[member="Count Aretine"] on this. It's why I've taken a very minimalistic way in writing. I realized how annoying it is to write with opinions presented as facts - even under the assumption that they're the character's opinion. It comes off far more as the writer's opinion. I personally find it immature when I see writers believing their character's opinions such as "The Sith aren't evil, but it's the Jedi!". I'm hardly annoyed when the characters actually vocalize such opinions - thus making it clear that it's not the writer drinking the koolaid but the character him/herself.

Another thing I don't like is just people posting their character's thoughts in general - unless they are expecting other characters to "use their emotions" to read their mind as Darth Vader did in Episode VI. But even then, I see people write out huge rebuttals against what another character says but it's presented almost entirely in the narrative. No only is it just this "passive-aggressive godmodding" but also the same as if the character said absolutely nothing. A writer has to trug through mountains of passive-aggressive comments just to realize that their character has nothing to respond to or do.
 

Nellja

Energizer Bunny on Caffeine
I might post this on my other RP sites. I 4.5/5 agree on this (go to my other post to see my opinion on this matter.)
 

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