One liners.

[Shade_XY]

From what I have seen, most people doesn't favor one liners. Some even get upset when they see one liners replies.

But I. I do not hate one liners. I am fine receiving one liners for a reply post. I find that a one liner is comfortable at most times. I do not feel that you cannot react to a one liner. I delve into my character and think how my character would react to that one liner. I am a one liner liker. ^^ I like exchanging short sentences between two characters just as I like the quick exchange of short sentences between me and another person in real life.

An example of a comfortable one liner is below.

"What is your name?" asked Adam.

"Delphie," she answered nonchalantly.


Just thinking about this non complex reply makes me relax and lay back. I do not have to wrap my head around the answer and write a respond post as I see fit. I love this casual relaxed kind of roleplay.

:)

 

[Skyswimsky]

Collabs are your friend, my friend.

 

[Windsong]

Dreadfully boring.

If it's a small conversation like that then it's at least a little understandable. But to many of us who like complexity in our writing (and who don't want to wait two days for a SINGLE SENTENCE), it's a bit lazy.

The world didn't grind to a halt all around this single conversation. Surely something must be going on. The wind can be blowing. What does the character look like? Are they doing anything or just standing stiff as a board and talking in a monotone? We know nothing!

Little of this applies for a chat RP though. Because it's flowing far far faster than any forum.

 

[Diana]

I have no problems with one liners as long as that one liner reacts to the previous post AND then progresses the scene.

This one is okay, because it's asking a question and helps progress the scene. The next poster has to respond in some way.

"What is your name?" asked Adam.

But this one sucks as a post because it responds, but it adds nothing else. So then the first poster/next poster is now responsible for moving the scene forward again. And that's not fair. Every roleplayer's post should help progress the scene or it stagnates.

"Delphie," she answered nonchalantly.

That is prolly what people are bitching about when they hate one liners!

 

[ElBell]

The examples you gave for one liners, those are what bug me. Yes, they're relaxed, but to me that is CHARPS place. I come to forum role-play for those longer, 3+ paragraph posts. Yea, shorter happens, but "hey, how are you?" is not a post in any way to me. It just isn't if it's a post in the forum area.

However, before you shoot me, there are one liners that are absolutely wonderful that I could handle seeing from a partner. It sometimes means being wordy, but that is my style as well so I personally like it and tend to like partners who share that. An example of my own likable one liner would probably look a little something like these (I don't usually count dialog in sentence counts due to where I started roleplaying, mind you):

~~~

"But, what happens to us now?" The girl asks, her voice quaking intensely and eyes staring up widened with fear.
Without a word to offer, the boy held her closer to his body, trying to ignore the fact that he had no more an answer than she...

~~~

And those my friends, are what I consider good, fun, usable one liners! ^_^

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Speaking as modern 21 year old Gwazi Magnum, I don't really like or care for one liners.
I currently role play at a high enough level that even with very little to go off of one should be able to do at least two or three lines.

That being said, for the vast majority of my RP experience (when I was a teenager) one liners was the norm.
Me and those I played with weren't yet at a skill level where we could do multiple lines for even the simplest of stuff.

So in all honesty, I do recognize it is just a style preference.
Some people work best when one liners can be used, others flourish with higher requirements.
It's all about the group dynamic and players in question.

That being said though.

I don't care at all for those who run around going "I cannot stand those who post as a lower caliber than me! They should be more dedicated and skilled like I am! For RP is an art, and should not be tainted by such simplicity! Aha!" *drinks tea will laughing like a noble man*.

Because that is really just elitism, arrogance, and a lack of willingness to help new people.
All things that can destroy an RP by creating walls rather than bridges.

 

[Brovo]

"What is your name?" asked Adam.

"Delphie," she answered nonchalantly.

One liners are generally bad for one reason I wrote an entire guide on: Because they break the action-reaction wheel. Not specifically because of their length, length is largely irrelevant in the question of quality, especially in a 1x1 role play. Basic English 101: A sentence is a self-contained subject. "Sally walked down to the store." The action-reaction wheel is inherent on the following:

• That an action is committed by person A.
• That someone (person B) responds to that action with a reaction, and then contributes with their own action to further the story.
• That person A responds to that action with a reaction, and then contributes with their own action to further the story.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Everything else in terms of role plays is gravy: It can be useful to have additional descriptors, but ultimately a role play only really needs actions and reactions to function. One liners, being self-contained subjects, very rarely can contain both a reaction and an action unless paced in something highly active, like combat or lovemaking. By the very nature of language, you need to write more than one line more often than not to push a story forward. Otherwise, you're usually just dropping the ball and expecting the other player to do all the work, and that is very rude. Very, very rude.

Ergo, one liners are bad by nature because they create a highly disjointed narrative that one person has to push by themselves. They break the action-reaction wheel, which is centric to player interaction. It's plain bad writing, no matter how well intentioned.

 

[Shade_XY]

Speaking as modern 21 year old Gwazi Magnum, I don't really like or care for one liners.
I currently role play at a high enough level that even with very little to go off of one should be able to do at least two or three lines.

That being said, for the vast majority of my RP experience (when I was a teenager) one liners was the norm.
Me and those I played with weren't yet at a skill level where we could do multiple lines for even the simplest of stuff.

So in all honesty, I do recognize it is just a style preference.
Some people work best when one liners can be used, others flourish with higher requirements.
It's all about the group dynamic and players in question.

That being said though.

I don't care at all for those who run around going "I cannot stand those who post as a lower caliber than me! They should be more dedicated and skilled like I am! For RP is an art, and should not be tainted by such simplicity! Aha!" *drinks tea will laughing like a noble man*.

Because that is really just elitism, arrogance, and a lack of willingness to help new people.
All things that can destroy an RP by creating walls rather than bridges.

It feels good to see there are people who can cope and not get angry. :) Although some are capable of writing long sentences with many multiple paragraphs but decide only to write one liners, some actually aren't that able. These unable people may lack knowledge on grammar, words, or creativity, but that is not their fault. It heartens me to see people who understand and has empathy :)

here is an image of an ermine as a thank you.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

It should probably be noted/stated that:

1) When I say "One-liner" I'm counting stuff like one line + a little bit. I don't consider it a two liner until it's in fact 1-1/2 lines.
2) How many lines a post has varies on one's monitor. I've seen what looks like a short post on my PC look bigger on my laptop, and then even bigger on my phone.

^Example, each of those points show as one line for me. But some of you might see it as more.

Duvnar soon entered the place with Zane, Ejii & Gwazi behind him. Duvnar saw Helix and then sat across from Helix at a table with the others and said "So, now that we're here you mind explaining in more detail what you got yourself stuck into?'".

^There's an example on a one-liner I did back when I was younger (July 30th 2010 to be exact, I'd be 16 at the time).
Could it be polished and improved? Most definitely, but it gives both an action and reaction, so others can continue.
Which depending on your group is enough to keep things going without impeding on them.

 

[Brovo]

^There's an example on a one-liner I did back when I was younger (July 30th 2010 to be exact, I'd be 16 at the time).

Don't worry yourself, that's not a one liner. There's more than one sentence.

Duvnar soon entered the place with Zane, Ejii & Gwazi behind him. Duvnar saw Helix and then sat across from Helix at a table with the others and said "So, now that we're here you mind explaining in more detail what you got yourself stuck into?'".

You did multiple actions and specifically placed your character in a scene contextually by associating your location nearby others. I'd say the worst spot this has is lacking any real way to discern exactly where your character is, and that has more to do with a lack of spatial contextual awareness than necessarily poor writing.

 

[Shade_XY]

One liners are generally bad for one reason I wrote an entire guide on: Because they break the action-reaction wheel. Not specifically because of their length, length is largely irrelevant in the question of quality, especially in a 1x1 role play. Basic English 101: A sentence is a self-contained subject. "Sally walked down to the store." The action-reaction wheel is inherent on the following:

• That an action is committed by person A.
• That someone (person B) responds to that action with a reaction, and then contributes with their own action to further the story.
• That person A responds to that action with a reaction, and then contributes with their own action to further the story.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Everything else in terms of role plays is gravy: It can be useful to have additional descriptors, but ultimately a role play only really needs actions and reactions to function. One liners, being self-contained subjects, very rarely can contain both a reaction and an action unless paced in something highly active, like combat or lovemaking. By the very nature of language, you need to write more than one line more often than not to push a story forward. Otherwise, you're usually just dropping the ball and expecting the other player to do all the work, and that is very rude. Very, very rude.

Ergo, one liners are bad by nature because they create a highly disjointed narrative that one person has to push by themselves. They break the action-reaction wheel, which is centric to player interaction. It's plain bad writing, no matter how well intentioned.

Perhaps you feel that way. But I don't. Some people do find it difficult to post after someone post a one liner. It may be a problem for group roleplay where the storyline matters more. But for one where the story is about characters interaction, it is not a problem for me. :)

So Sally walked down to the store. I could write that Vern saw Sally walking down the sidewalk through his apartment building. He had something to say to her so he ran down to catch up to her. He reached her and talked to her. Some people may want to have a longer story to go on with, but I am not one of those people.

My writing style may be to simple. I usually irritate the more experienced writers ^^

 

[King]

Eh, some people really enjoy one liners and that's totally cool! I used to use like 2-3 lines back on my really old Skype RPs.

However nowadays, with complex characters and a collection of themes, I feel the need to write more. It's not necessary, but with knowing what a character is seeing/sensing/thinking/showing, etc etc, it makes it more fun for me to reply to!

But as you said, you enjoy casual roleplays, whereas others enjoy a lot of complex themes. It's easy to play a casual and relaxed roleplay with a line at a time rather than using one liners to roleplay something a combat scene, idk. It's totally a personal thing I think. c:

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Don't worry yourself, that's not a one liner. There's more than one sentence.

Now I'm thinking the difference of opinion here might be more semantics.

When I think one liner I'm thinking one line. It can be multiple sentences, it just needs to occupy one line worth of posting space.

Duvnar soon entered the place with Zane, Ejii & Gwazi behind him. Duvnar saw Helix and then sat across from Helix at a table with the others and said "So, now that we're here you mind explaining in more detail what you got yourself stuck into?'".

You did multiple actions and specifically placed your character in a scene contextually by associating your location nearby others. I'd say the worst spot this has is lacking any real way to discern exactly where your character is, and that has more to do with a lack of spatial contextual awareness than necessarily poor writing.

It should be noted that Zane, Ejii and Gwazi were crew mates of Duvnar, and were following him inside. Duvnar was simply in front of them when entering the building.
Though then again, I did at least later state he was sitting across from Helix who in his post above did state where he was more precisely.

 

[Jorick]

Chat RPs: one liners are fine, quick pace, no problem. Just keep in mind the whole action/reaction interplay. Two short sentences can make up one line and do just fine.

1x1: only okay if both players are throwing one liners, because at that point you're basically doing chat style RP on a forum. If one person puts out 3 paragraphs of stuff there will almost certainly be multiple actions to respond to (some exceptions being internal monologuing or detailed scene setting that takes up most of that space), and you'd have to do some crazy and probably grammar breaking things to reply to all of that in one line. Responding to a large post with one line means either poor writing or ignoring most of the other player's actions, which is poor form and causes things to fall flat.

Group RPs: if you're doing short back and forth stuff with one person you really ought to do a collaborative post instead of spamming the thread with one liners. Otherwise you ought to be dealing with multiple people at once, and that exacerbates the whole problem with short responses to one person's longer post.

One liners are not inherently evil, they just tend to be used poorly by people who don't really get the action and reaction setup so they have a bad reputation.

 

[Zackymas]

One-lining is a deep thread that must taken with patience and deep analytical thinking. "One-liners" are normally people who either don't have the experience or just time to write a long and descriptive post. There are two types of these though, the "passive one-liner" that normally just writes a response that just answers a previous action, and there's the "aggresive one-liner" that doesn't only replies, but dinamizes the interaction between characters.

I have a little bit of a problem with both, and it's that whenever we are into something DELICATED (SOMETHING VERY DELICATED SUCH AS PLOT FLOWERS) their short answers normally leave the reader wide open to imagination and that could literally ruin the entire plot, and not ruin it in the fun way, but doing it just because someone didn't get his exact message. Because of this, whenever I see a one-liner do such posts in such sitations, I end up disscussing with him for a LONG time (Once, it took a week to take whole thing to a clear point) stopping the plot and making people feel desperate.