Ivy and Chrome PbP Forums

We're not all professional writers, so it's not always easy to come up with killer posts that will wow all of your followers. Here's a few tips on how to make your posts better.

Feel free to embellish your posts. This will be more enjoyable for all of us if everyone can write their part of the story less like a laundry list of actions and more like a part of a shared book. That's the beauty of PBEM and PBP RPG's. You can formulate your responses and take your time in describing what your character is doing. Not every post has to be a work of art, but feel free to let your creativity show. I'm sure no one is going to judge us with comparisons to Bob Salvatore, Isaac Asimov or Terry Brooks.

Some questions that might help inspire creativity:

What does your character smell, hear, see, taste, etc? How does the character react to these?
Has your character been injured? Is your character limping in pain from a strike or wincing as he swings his arm to loosen the bruised shoulder?
What thoughts are going through your characters head?

An example --
Poor -- "Fred looks down at the tracks to see what made them."
Better -- "Fred kneels down next to the tracks and runs his finger along the edge as he ponders what created them."
Even Better -- "Fred kneels down in the soft earth next to the tracks. The loamy smell of moss wafts upwards and assails his nostrils with it's pungent odor. Peering more closely at one track, he runs his fingers around it's edge, feeling the texture of the dirt and watching it crumble as his finger passes along the track's rim. 'What could have made this?' He thinks to himself. He uses his long years as a tracker to guess how old the tracks might be."

I could go on, but I better stop while somebody is still reading my diatribe. Posts should be in the third person (IE. "Darl looks" or "Jordan fires" or "Gerard turns around") as opposed to the first person or the point of view of the player, you, describing what your character is doing.

Also, this is a great opportunity for many of you to hone your penmanship, grammar and punctuation skills. I know that there are a few with absolutely horrid skills while there are others who have collegiate level skills. Please don't judge others by their skills, however, offer some advice if asked. I'm quite sure that eventually someone will mention to the less talented writers some of the common mistakes they are making.

Avoid posting results of actions unless you have worked out the details with the GM. For example, "Fred snaps up his rifle and fires twice, dropping both raiders instantly before they can react. The crowd cheers, the sheriff thanks him on the spot, and he collects a 10,000-credit reward from the job board clerk."

This oversteps the bounds of a player by deciding action results, NPC reactions, and guaranteed outcomes that the GM should resolve.