Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?)

[IoleRae]

So!

I am (to no surprise, I’m sure) a touch rusty right now, as I settle back into RP. Had a conversation with somebody about it that got me thinking.

What do folks think is a good pose? For you, from somebody else?

For me, I try for three things with any given pose: Response, Action, Prompt. So I respond to what others pose, have my character take their action, and then a prompt to give them something to pose back, if my action doesn’t include that.

It has very little to do with length (though I still feel weird when I pose too short) or flowery language or anything.

I don’t really evaluate other peoples’ poses on this, though. And I find THAT interesting, too.

Thoughts?

[Tez]

I bet there’s some really good theater improv stuff on this. I don’t have any on hand and I am too lazy to google it, but I BET.

The heart of it comes down to the hook, for me. I think I take the response for granted, because – yeah, you’re right. You gotta acknowledge what other people put out there for you. Nothing tickles me more than when people not only read what I put out but read what I DON’T put out and get the SUBTEXT. That shit’s hot. But mostly, I think what really matters is giving a hook. Giving someone something to work with, a bounce.

Your pose can have all of the elegant writing and poetic metaphors in the world but if you aren’t giving me something to work with then I wish you good luck on your novel writing career, bc clearly that is all you are here for.

[Jennkryst]

I have different styles based on the vibe I’m going for, so like… it’s complicated.

Is it LEWD? Well, then it almost always sounds like narration that should be spoken by the Love-Ahs from SNL: https://youtu.be/gqeQLV04kwU

(I have a problem)

Is it silly? There might be… not internal monologue, but references to thoughts and stuff that isn’t apparent. Just overflowing with detail that isn’t relevant, but hilarious.

I’ve been trying to avoid that with Arx, because so far the RP vibes I get from there seem ‘just dialogue and response’ but maybe it’s just folks I’ve seen.

I DO try to give body language cues and stick pauses into speech patterns to give other folks a chance to interject. Like I’ll ask a yes or no question, (a pause for the answer), then continue. My responses might not always be in the order of the pose I’m responding to… I may answer the last question first, if that seems the more important thing.

I’ll HYPER FOCUS on small details. On Arx Shaman, I mention beads and wooden animal totems in hair that click-clack when she shakes her head fast enough. On a fashionista character, let’s mention those PERFECTLY MANNICURED FINGERS or FLAWLESS MAKEUP every three poses or so.

[RightMeow]

I personally think (and take that as you will) the best pose composition is the one that flows with the scene. To me, it’s just like a book. Every scene has a different ‘voice’ that is made up by the two people writing it. It’s the one that flows to the context of it and engages.

I am also prone to very wordy if the right subject matter comes up, so as I said, that that as you will.

[Solstice]

I’ll shift my style to match what’s going with the scene in most cases, or what I know about the style of the writer I’m working with. If someone prefers second-person perspective, I’ll dive in. The instant a third party enters the scene, that gets bumped up to third person. If the pose length starts creeping up, I’ll match pace. If people start trending the pose length down, I match.

So yeah, a lot of this can be boiled down to “Know your audience.”

I do think that the guidelines mentioned by @IoleRae are foundational. You need to acknowledge that something happened, react accordingly, and then do something yourself.

Nothing feels crappier than no one acknowledging your contributions to the scene! The least fun scenes I’ve been in are the ones where I’ve posed every round, provided hooks, and mostly been posed around.

Writing into the void feels terrible.

Acknowledge your fellow roleplayers today!

[Jennkryst]

@Solstice said in Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?):

Nothing feels crappier than no one acknowledging your contributions to the scene! The least fun scenes I’ve been in are the ones where I’ve posed every round, provided hooks, and mostly been posed around.

This is also important, like sometimes a question is asked that I’ll miss, or like. Saw but didn’t answer right away, because SO MANY POSES so I try to streamline and hit the important things. If it’s important I can circle back to it, or maybe they will bring it up again. If I am intentionally ignoring it, I will point that fact out in the emit so the other player has the chance to recognize I’m intentionally ignoring it, or they can play dumb on their own.

[Third Eye]

I also try to chameleon my style somewhat to the room/my RP partner, though there’s a certain level of long that’ll never feel right for me. What I mostly try to do is read the room and, if there’s not much for my PC to bounce off of (because actually responding is the easy nub of it), at least do something that plays with a piece of characterization (like playing with what their favorite song on the jukebox is or what kind of beer they order or what have you). So even if it’s a random bar scene that doesn’t go anywhere in the moment, maybe I can build something off it for later.

I find my writing warps quite a bit depending on what I’m reading at the moment so idk that I’m particularly consistent so far as that goes.

[tsar]

@IoleRae said in Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?):

For me, I try for three things with any given pose: Response, Action, Prompt. So I respond to what others pose, have my character take their action, and then a prompt to give them something to pose back, if my action doesn’t include that

This sums up my own go-to pretty well, I think. Sometimes there’s the very delicate art of knowing when to drop some parts of the conversation so your poses aren’t 90 longs long.

…but then again sometimes everything is a lot of fun to reply to @crawfish has done this to me!!!

[Pavel]

Third-person, present tense. Almost everything else is negotiable.

I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m not accidentally switching tenses every other line, so I’m happy. I am, however, finding myself responding to poses in reverse order and I don’t know why - that is to say things said last, are responded to first. It’s weird. I need to stop.

[crawfish]

@tsar wait what what did I do are we talking about verbal chess or when your character makes mine want to break his nose??? What tell me so I can do it again!

[tsar]

@Pavel said in Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?):

. I am, however, finding myself responding to poses in reverse order and I don’t know why - that is to say things said last, are responded to first. It’s weird. I need to stop.

I do that, sometimes on purpose. Like if it makes the pose more impactful to do respond to something at the end, I slap it there instead. I figure this is creative writing, I’m going to be creative.

[KarmaBum]

@Pavel said in Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?):

I am, however, finding myself responding to poses in reverse order and I don’t know why - that is to say things said last, are responded to first. It’s weird. I need to stop.

I do this all the time. What’s really bad is that I then often don’t “read” the rest of someone’s pose 'cause I’m paying too much attention to the part I’m relpying to. I’ve missed so much important shit because it wasn’t the part of someone’s pose I zeroed in on as relevant at the time.

[Ashkuri]

A good pose responds to what was given and gives something new to react to. Response-action-prompt seems like a good way to put it.

Making sure to acknowledge/include people is also important as folks don’t like to be left out or feel their content wasn’t read or that they aren’t welcome.

I think the rest is just details in reading the room and using that to determine long or short, serious, funny, whatever. I typically do find that other people enjoy talking about their characters and will appreciate it if given a chance to do so, rather than talking about my character or being prompted for game/plot information.

[Pavel]

@KarmaBum said in Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?):

@Pavel said in Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?):

I am, however, finding myself responding to poses in reverse order and I don’t know why - that is to say things said last, are responded to first. It’s weird. I need to stop.

I do this all the time. What’s really bad is that I then often don’t “read” the rest of someone’s pose 'cause I’m paying too much attention to the part I’m relpying to. I’ve missed so much important shit because it wasn’t the part of someone’s pose I zeroed in on as relevant at the time.

I used to get in trouble for this but with text messages. If you’re sending me a really long message, I’m going to assume the important bit is at the end, and focus on that. I’m working on it, promise.

[Pavel]

@imstillhere said in Pose Composition (What makes a good pose?):

Making sure to acknowledge/include people is also important as folks don’t like to be left out or feel their content wasn’t read or that they aren’t welcome.

This, with the big ol’ proviso: within reason. If there’s ten people in a scene (heaven forbid) then I’m not going to include every single person. One, I just can’t keep track of that many poses, and two I don’t think it’s realistic. If you’re in a group of ten people, you’re very likely to break up into smaller groups for conversations.

[Ashkuri]

Well, yeah, all things RP are “where possible within reason.”

[Testament]

And here I am thinking my poses are good enough if I just get all the words in the right order.

[crawfish]

@Testament

Like … Alphabetical?

[Ashkuri]

@Testament please write your poses with all the words in alphabetical order, respect my playstyle accommodation, I am not taking constructive criticism at this time

[Testament]

@crawfish More like my brain has a tendency or running faster than my hands type. So I tend to just, skip words, I guess. In my head I’m pretty sure I typed them, when I actually didn’t.

That’s what I mean when I say that I just want to make sure all the words are in the right order.