Speaking in/out of character

[Quasqueton]

In Piratecat's story hour thread, robberbaron said:

In defence of GMs posting comments recorded during games, it is sometimes very difficult to judge if such was OOC or not.
I can normally tell but, sometimes the comment is so funny that it just HAS to make it into the story hour.

To make it easier, perhaps players should talk in character all the time.

How much conversation at your table, during game play, is actually in-character vs. out-of-character? Do you have a way of signifying out/in character comments? Do you get confused?

Our group probably uses in-character/out-of-character 50/50. We agreed on a hand signal to show we're talking out-of-character, but no one uses it. Yes, it gets down right confusing, often. And I, as DM, am just as guilty of the out-of-character comments as anyone.

Quasqueton

 

[diaglo]

i take all conversation as in character between players.

if it is directed to me as the referee then that is different.

if i am roleplaying an NPC. then it is in character.

i don't allow the players to tell each other stuff out of character. if player 1 wants player 2 to know what he is thinking. then he needs to say it as his character. if his character wouldn't know. then he shouldn't say it.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

We're pretty lienient.

The guys are good about not breaking character, but if the group is in a silly mood I just go with it and let the "I try to steal his pants" moments happen.

 

[Mercule]

I, essentially, use Diaglo's principles. And it has burned a couple of players. I also make exceptions for players who are obviously portraying their inner monologuing -- as I have been wont to do with characters who have ulterior motives for some of their actions.

My players (and myself, I must confess), would spend huge amounts of the session talking OOC about all sorts of things if left unfettered. Because of that, and a desire to actually have a game, I tend to be a bit draconic on occassion in enforcing the In-Character rule and have some "gotchas".

 

[ThoughtBubble]

I change posture, intonation and inflection when I'm in character, so it's usually pretty easy to tell. Our game is pretty RP-lite, so we spend most of our time ooc, declaring actions.

In the game I DM, I can pretty well tell when it's in character, or out of character. I do have the right to, at any time, decide a conversation has been in character, and respond to it as if it was. Typically, I use this to bring a cool conversation that SHOULD be in character (talking about their next goal for example) into character.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

I like people to keep in character, but gaming is social, and I so rarely get to see the players during non-game time. So....50/50

 

[ST]

Maybe 20% in character, if that. But a lot of our players use kind of an authorial stance, so we're discussing the game in an involved, engaged fashion -- we're just not speaking in first-person stance.

I have no problem, for instance, with a player describing what their character does in the third person. If they want to paraphrase dialog, that's fine -- I do it myself, most of the time. (If it helps "set the scene" I'll act out the first few sentences an NPC says, but after that we're discussing what happens in a more abstract fashion.)

We spend a lot of time getting immersed in the scenes -- sometimes we'll all embellish details on a particular action, as if it were being filmed for a movie, describing the camera angle, etc.

I respect that a lot of people feel that immersive first-person dialog is essential to role-playing; I'm just not one of them, and my players are comfortable with that.

 

[eris404]

We go back and forth pretty smoothly. One thing that helps us to distinguish between in character and out of character comments is that when a comment is directed to someone in character, the player or DM calls that person by their character's name - for example, the DM says to me, "What does George do?" or another player in characters says to me, "George, what do you think?" "George" is the name of my character, of course. But we do get confused sometimes and if we're discussing something in character, sometimes a player will make the "time out" sign to signify s/he is talking or wants to talk out of character, too.

 

[diaglo]

I like people to keep in character, but gaming is social, and I so rarely get to see the players during non-game time. So....50/50

well completely out of game comments are just that.... social... and meant for all to enjoy.

but trying to give another player hints about how they should act or what they should cast or what they should use as a weapon and such... no way..

 

[MrFilthyIke]

well completely out of game comments are just that.... social... and meant for all to enjoy.

but trying to give another player hints about how they should act or what they should cast or what they should use as a weapon and such... no way..

Ah, then I'm probably 80% closer to you. I let it slip sometimes, but try to discourage OOC tactics. I heavily encourage IC motivation over "smart" tactics. (ex what would your PC do, not what is the advantageous thing to do).