Ok i have always used past 3rd person tense and it works very wel for the last 5 years however one member decided to DISS the method after ignoring the posting rules so i thought well as he took it upon himself to state EVERYONE he knows likes current 3rd person when all those i know like 3rd past tense i shall ask here.

I LIKE PAST, 3rd person. It's what i always use and will always use. It is like a book, we are reading what HAPPENED to them even if they are writing it at this moment in time. The characters moved, walked, talked and did stuff they are not doing stuff, talking, saying, walking. I is not a word used either it should stay as SHe, He, THey etc..

I know 50 who say past, 3rd so join that side to proove me right lol jk

Holly
X

I agree with you. Third current just seems awkward to me, but maybe that's because I'm so used to Third Past. Still, when I first encountered Rping and happened upon the rules, I thought that it made the most sense. Before that I had thought you Rped in first person.

I think that 1st person in and of itself can be limiting to a post. You can't really delve deep into their head, or environment, because the only thing you can type is everything how they see it, how they feel about it. It can be good for figuring out your character, but in the long run it just sucks.

Using present tense, with whatever perspective, has always seemed kind of. . . .retarded? One site required that tense, so I went along with it and I felt like I was in elementary school. I can't say for sure why, but 3rd person past tense all of the way!!

I would say that he should keep the tense consistent with the site, as you are all telling a story together. Yes, you can tell stories in four tenses; heck you can write in second if you've got a plausible reason, but an RPG is a vehicle for a whole group writing one overall story. And writing in other tenses is hard, but not impossible, so anyone can switch to another tense (even him).

(You can just make an executive decision for that.)

I like third person past, as well. I usually write the way my character would act so that it fits them and it's not like it's completely impersonal or anything.

I'm on a game now where it is 1st person past, and it is so hard for me to get into, that even though a good character of mine tha ti created on there is there, i'm thinking about dropping the site. It's just sooooo hard to write 1st person...

Oh dear god, I cannot stand when someone posts in first person. I don't know why, it just irritates my eyes, makes them burn. (x.x)

Past 3rd person, though sometimes it does stray from past. It's hard to keep it past tense, sometimes mistakes just slip out. lol, I do it all the time. XD

Gettin' better though. ;)

Usally I post in 3rd person, because that what most sites want, but from time to time I also RP in 1st person. To me it makes it more easier, and you can put herself in your characters positions (with there personality), and right out what they are doing as you think it. Sometimes my post are bigger, being that I have more to say.

Altough I like 3rd person past, I quite enjoy 1st. I think it is more condusive to a psychological RP. I love delving into the psyche of a character.

Anything but third person, past just bothers me. Third person, past is generally the 'professional' way as my friends put it.

Definitely third person, past tense. I've never been on an RP that didn't require it, and I rarely see the other styles, other than when people join up on an RP and don't read all of the rules or don't understand them and post in first person... or using asterisks. I hate when people do the " *smiles* hi i'm bob *waves* " type of posts. XD

I definately say past 3rd person.

Past, third person, 100%. I get sick of people who roleplay present first person. o.O

"I walk to my house."

No offense to anyone who does, of course. ;3 It's just a tad irritating to me.

I would prefer 1st past for any first and I like it because of the originality of it. I also have no complaints about third past but I don't like any present at all.

i dont have a problem with any of these except 3rd present (which i hate with a passion and will never allow near me for some reason) and i play 3rd past simply because its easiest and i dont feel like doing any other. dont really mind if other people post in others, although i think its easiest if one site has one set thing so people dont get confused.

Past third person, though, of course, speech can go every which way, sometimes even backwards! ;)

I like past 3rd person a lot, but I have also written out applications in past 1st person, and it really connects you with the characters, because you are actually writing as they narrate, per se.

I am a big fan of third person, past tense. I remember [I have been rping for 10 years] when I first started I would RP first person. And know it makes me cringe. I can't remember when I started rp'ing with third person and in past tense, but I can't think of anyway else to do it.

And I love it when everyone posts the same way on a site. It gives me the biggest HEADACHE when you have some people posting one way and the others another.

tehe.

Present tense just doesn't seem to work in RPs. It sounds weird, in my opinion. 1st person can work I guess, but my preference is definitely 3rd person.

Third person, past.



It's the way to be, man.

When on a text rp site; third person. Ideally your are 'playing' a person's life... you play them by moving them like puppets. "Ombrel smiles twisted inside..." but when you read with a person doing first person its killer cause you are saying 'I am doing this' but it is really them...

It confusez me... a lotz...

But paper and pencil (aka you D & D nerdz....) you know the drill of how to play :p

Third person past.

But if you really look at it, there's no real reason except for the fact that it's what most people consider to be the norm. It's what all the conformists feed us as school the bulk of the time and what authors use in most novels and books. We grow to get used to it and anything else becomes unnatural/uncomfortable to the senses.

People who do otherwise are even subtly encouraged to change their ways. Since you know, if a whole community uses third person past (I haven't seen one that doesn't), and someone suddenly diverges from that standard, they're gonna stick out like a sore thumb.

Ooh lookey. Muffins made a tangent. :sweat:

I love 3rd past tense. Makes it easier to read. Just like a novel.

1st person makes my eyes bleed. To me, it screams noob. I'll stick with past third person tense. I mean, you ARE telling a story to some degree so going from post to post is like passing a story stick. You don't tell a story like that in 1st person.

1st person only makes sense for DnD. That's the only way I can really see it working, and that even sounds weird to me.

I prefer third person present tense. I mean, I can write in past tense, but using present tense comes to me easier. You're more...living in the moment, I guess you can say. I can do first person, but I really don't like to. Present, third person is my favorite. I just like present tense *shrugs*

lol yeah I prefer 3rd person past tense. Something about using the present tense bugs me out. Especially first person present tense. *twitches*

Past, 3rd person for sure. I mean, come on.

If we write, I said. I did.... its just ugh, but that my opinion.

But instead -

She looked outside to see what was happening and saw for herself that it was a meadow is much for more interesting than say -

I look outside and see there is a meadow.

Right? Right.

I'll NEVER use first person in RP (or in story-writing for that matter). In RP, it just creeps me out and annoys the hell out of me. *twitch* In books, it tends to annoy me, too. There are a few books I love which pull it off quite wonderfully and in such a way that I forget it's even first person, but for the most part I avoid first person narratives.

So, I write third person. Whether it's past or present depends on the format. In a forum RP, I'll write third person past tense always. It feels like a story to me and nothing else makes sense to me in that format.

However, if I'm playing over IMs, I write in third person present tense because past tense doesn't make sense to me there. In IMs, it's a quick exchange back and forth and it's mostly just me RPing casually with a partner while we're also posting on the forum. So it's a rapid exchange, replies are very short, so it feels more immediete, like it's happening right now. Past tense would just feel awkward like that, just as present tense would feel awkward to me on a forum.

So yup! I do both! Just depends!

Myself and two other admins on a forum to which I belong had a conversation about this the other day, the end result being that I wanted to brutally murder someone for posting in present tense. Also, they jumped back and forth between first and third person, which made me die a little inside.

To me, first person, past tense, is standard, and so shouldn't be deviated from unless the forum rules state as much.

3rd person past tense....all the cool kids are doing it!!

Third person past progressive for meeeeeeeee. I'd get even more complex and throw in how it has a 'dictated thought' feel to it, as if the character is narrating, but I can't remember what that's called!

I have always done this--I guess it was just instinctive. There are, however, many, many ways in which it can be done, and it depends really on what one is trying to achieve. However, a large part of me thinks that this is only applicable when writing other sorts of fiction that have a forseeable ending. Not all roleplays work toward an 'end'. However, most short stories and novels do. Therefore, if a doesn't know what they're gunning for as an end result, then they should, really, lean more toward a 'universal' tense and voice.

Thing is, people don't. : )

o.O I voted wrong... *Wasn't paying attention to the tallies.* I thought by current, you were referring to a actual now type of sense in roleplay. Or did you mean it that way? Current as in currently today RP style or current as in 'present tense' RP?

That was what confused me, they need vote change feature. Oh well, mine was for third past tense.

Third Person Past. I suck horribly at first person.

I used to do it in 1st person but then I realized how rubbish my roleplay was.
I decided that maybe third person would be better, because it's like a novel, which is what I wanted.

So yeah, 3rd person for me. It's a bit like fan-fiction that way. :)

Sometimes I like to shuffle it up (from board to board, not thread to thread. :p)
But most often it is past third. It seems to be most prefered by the admins of all the sites I've been on.

<sub>o____O Present third person?? That's just weird. I'm sorry it just is. To me, an RPG is like a really big book and I have read a book that is in present third...like twice. xD

First person is also very limiting and it is hard to write a decent post with first person. I only use first person in the plot, photo albums, journals, and sometimes the applications for my characters. If I had to RP in first as well, I'd probably go crazy. The word I would be everywhere. I'd probably go crazy. c[:

Third person, PAST all the way! I mean, I've never RPed with the other tenses, so I don't know. But since I started RPing four years ago, I've been using third person, past. ^____^</sub>

I don't like writing in first person unless it serves a purpose (a journal entry, for example) or if it's done for the effect (so, in a short story). To me writing in first person in an Rp sounds absolutely retarded. Don't know why, it just really grates on my nerves.

I also don't like writing in present tense. I used to, and then I discovered the wonder known as past tense and, for a while there, I was combining the two until I realized my folly and switched straight over to past. So now I write in 3rd person, past tense because first person and present tense annoy the hell out of me (though the latter one not so much as the former).

Could it be "free indirect style"?

Third person past, or, preferably "free indirect style". Which is what all the cool modernists were doing, or something *wisenod* It is just third person narration, with the added feeling of the character in it. The closes I can get to a decent exploration is that the character narrates the post. Which makes for a lot of fun.