Standards of Posting in a Play by Post Game (The Players)

After having discussed some uesful standards for posting as a DM I'm going to take a look today at standards of posting as a player.

The biggest thing a player can do to meaningfully contribute to a play by post game is to post in a clear, concise manner and make sure that every post you made contributes to moving the game forward. There's a lot of reading that goes into a pbp game, and as a DM my eyes glaze over whenever I'm confronted by an enormous wall of text, or a post populated with grammatical or spelling errors. It's also a huge pain in the ass to try and decipher what a player actually means or is trying to do. I'd much rather have a short post that presents a clear action than a long post filled with interior dialogue, flowery descriptions, and so forth. I always prefer a post to the effect of:

"Ejemplo swings at the goblin nearest to him with his blade." It's short, it's sweet, and it tells me exactly what I need to know.

Hypotheticals or variable actions should go in a spoiler or OOC text at the bottom of a post. I like seeing extended OOC posts in the actual OOC thread, rather than in the IC thread. Questions, too, should go in the OOC thread, if possible.

It is also helpful to designate who is posting, especially at the beginning of a game where I'm trying to learn everyone's name. I ask that my players start each of their posts with their character's name and class in bold at the top, like this:

Glaarg the Glamorous, Fighter

Some people prefer to indicate dialogue through colored text, with each player selecting one color to use for themselves. I find colored text jarring and prefer my players use quotation marks to indicate dialogue. Whichever you chose, make sure that you are consistent and that all players observe the same standards. It can also be useful to bold the names of other PCs in your text, especially if it is a long post.

When I post as a DM I will do so in third person, present tense. I ask my players to do the same, referring to their character by name. If the players are not rolling, actions should be stated as intentions, without assuming success or failure:

"Glaarg backs up and runs at the door, leading with his shoulder, in an attempt to break it down" rather than "Glaarg runs into the door and breaks it down" (since you don't know if you're successful until the DM resolves the action). Along a similar vein, players should never post what other PCs do, feel or experience, or what NPCs are doing, feeling or experiencing. It is up to the other players and the DM to react to the PCs actions. Glaarg's player should not post, therefore:

"Ejemplo is impressed as Glaarg struts, flexing his panther-like muscles." It is up to Ejemplo's player to determine if Ejemplo is impressed by Glaarg's display of masculinity.

Finally, everything a player posts should contribute to moving the game forward. If the players are discussing what their next course of action should be each post should either a) support a course of action or b) suggest an alternate course of action, as opposed to just saying no.

Glaarg the Glamorous: "I propose we venture to the Forgotten Fane of Vidmar and plunder the treasure that surely lies within!"

Ejemplo the Erudite: "I've heard terrible tales of the Fane of Vidmar, of the deadly undead that lurk in its shadowed halls. I say we travel east and attempt to drive out the brigands that lair in the Granite Pass, and claim the reward the Baron is offering for re-opening that road."

Each player that contributes after this point should do so in a manner that supports one or the other proposals, or to put forth a third plan of action. The idea, though, is to resolve decisions as quickly and efficiently as possible so play can continue.