How To Create Engaging Rp And Improve Narrative Voice (with Real-life Examples)!

[SilentLeopard]

RP is fast-paced! We're expected to conjure up words and phrases at a moment's notice, but with the right guidance and self-teaching it's very easy/fun to learn! This guide is separated into three parts: the first is how to train yourself to improve your narrative voice and create expressive dialogue by copying from the greats. The second part urges you to compile all your character abilities/specials in one document for quick access. The third will teach you how to add unique flavour to your roleplay using omniscient third-person narrative voice, with real life examples!

Part 1. Great Artists Steal!
Thank you, Picasso, for your wonderful words of wisdom. My tried and true secret in improving your RP writing is to strip words from books, TV shows, video games -- pretty much any form of media you can get your hands on -- and collate it into a single document and incorporate it into your own RP.

Books, in particular, are wonderfully valuable sources of RP inspiration! Although, I warn you that this may take a long time (I spent over 6 hours reading, finding quotes, writing them down, and organising them specifically for my OCs).

Step 1: Find a book whose main character is most aligned with your OC. For my OC, Lysander, I drew much inspiration from 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' by Scott Lynch, among other books, games, and TV shows.

Step 2: Read the book, and if you find a sentence that stands out, copy it into a Word document no matter how mundane it may seem (it doesn't even have to be a spoken phrase, it can be a description of an action). The trick is to collate the most universal phrases that can be used as filler actions in between sentences, or quotes that apply to common situations. Organise them by "emotes" and "spoken". As an example, I've collated:

- [Name] waits impassively, (ci)garette smouldering between his fingers. (Disco Elysium)
- [Name] thought for a few moments, clicking his tongue against the insides of his cheeks. (Lies of Locke Lamora)
- [Name] tried to let a vaguely sincere expression scurry onto his face, where it froze in evident discomfort. (Lies of Locke Lamora)

- "You sound practically impressed with me. I feel so flattered!"
- "Ah, I've tasted that flavour of sarcasm before."
- "I spent more time perched up on that temple roof than I did in my mother's gods-damned womb."
^ (Lies of Locke Lamora)
​

Step 3: To make it even easier, organise your quotes into categories:

'Positive' for when your character is happy.

"I feel fabulous!" (Disco Elysium)​

'Neutral' for quotes that are neither good nor bad.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the consequences of my own actions." (Meme)​

'Negative' for mean things.

"I'm not questioning your honour. I'm denying its existence." (Game of Thrones)​

'Combat' for quotes that more specifically apply to CRP dialogue.

"The way you fondle your weapon is disturbing." (Dragon Age)
​

And finally, 'other', which are more specifically geared towards hobbies that your character does often. For Lysander, there is a 'drunk' category (he's an alcoholic lol), for Anno, there's a 'human observations' category. Your character might have an 'alchemy' category which will contain anything relevant to alchemy RP.​

Step 4: Now you have a huge collection of quotes and actions within arm's reach! All that's required is a quick scan through the document to garner some inspiration to keep that RP spicy and interesting! The point of this is that eventually you'll be able to write interesting RP on your own, without the aid of your 'stolen quotes document'. This is a great way to train yourself to learn new vocabulary, improve your narrative voice, and give your character more - well... character!​

Part 2. Keep all your OC's specials/abilities summarised in a single document!

The above example is only a small snippet, but it's pretty self-explanatory. Don't just copy-paste the ability details from the wiki, summarise it in your own words and modify it to be more specific to your OC (if applicable).

As you can see, instead of writing down the entire description of the [Purity Senses] special, I merely wrote how exactly my OC will react when the special is activated. Do this for every ability/special (Racial, affliction, proficiencies, ect.) that your OC has. The point is to be able to quickly understand how an ability works at a glance, instead of wasting precious CRP time finding and reading the entire ability description on the wiki.

Part 3. Sprinkle in some omniscient third-person narration!
"The omniscient narrator knows your characters' backstories, their motivations, their emotional states, and internal chatter."
A lot of people go by the "show, don't tell" method of emoting (nothing wrong with that!), although I believe it can limit the full potential of how amazing RP really can be. I'll break down the above quote into four parts, with compounding examples, to show how powerful omniscient narration can be in adding flavour to RP while simultaneously making it easier:

The omniscient narrator knows your characters' backstories.

> John thought for a few moments, clicking his tongue against the insides of his cheeks. He rubbed his bandaged neck, still oozing somewhat from two puncture wounds - evidence of a recent Sanguine attack. He went to place a hand on her shoulder.

This is building context. Doing this helps immensely with justifying the OC's actions and mannerisms, as well as providing an easy prompt for Mary's character to inquire about the vampire bite. Some better examples:

'It dug in the ground - something that must've happened when he had tried to drag himself away, all evidence of an escape that never succeeded.'

'It was but four hours ago that he had promised a life time unless the Everwatcher said otherwise.'
​

The omniscient narrator knows your characters' motivations.

> John thought for a few moments, clicking his tongue against the insides of his cheeks. He rubbed his bandaged neck, which still oozed from two puncture wounds - evidence of a recent Sanguine attack. He knew exactly how Mary felt, and went to place a hand on her shoulder. He wanted Mary to feel safe.

This is particularly important in conveying intention. In real life, it's easy to gauge what someone's intention is by their body language; it's a very nuanced mechanism that cannot be easily put to words. In RP, it's much easier to simply write what your OC's intention was. Here's a real-life example:

'As though that would fix it.'

'Fire began to erupt along his boots, harmlessly.'
​

The omniscient narrator knows your characters' emotional states.

> John shook his head, dismayed. In fact, he was devastated, although he tried not to show it.

By simply emoting how John felt, I didn't have to go through the effort of emoting the portrayal of that emotion. This is a lot quicker yet engages other players to use their imaginations to fill in the gap for you! This is arguably the most commonly used in roleplay:

'Out of grief for her lost hat.'

'She seethed out now, though, this frustration turned to pain as she began to grunt.'

'It matters not if the faith hurts, it empowers her.'

'His expression slides from fear to pain-- no, agony.'​

The omniscient narrator knows your characters' internal chatter.

> John shook his head, dismayed. In fact, he was devastated, although he tried not to show it. John thought she was a saint, but Mary had proved him wrong in the worst way: absolutely horrible.​

Ah, internal monologue; omniscient observations. It's a lot more involved, and invites Mary's player to consider John's internal thoughts, or it can force Mary's player to see John in a different light, which I think is an excellent way to create engaging, meaningful emotes:

'What a horrific cycle. Empathy, apathy.'

'But what difference did the Wald have to the trees of Regalia?'

'Three elements to make a perfect night for a haunt.'

'Could the Gloryseeker intervene in time?!'

'And how fitting that his declaration of hatred would be the last thing on his mind.'


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I'd like to emphasise that omniscient third-person works best if it's done occasionally. Not every emote has to be long-winding expositions into the psyche of your OC. Sometimes it's better (and easier) to just reply with plain dialogue or a simple emote. See below:

Dialogue only:

Simple emote:

Dialogue only:

Before I finish, I'd like to give credit to everyone who is featured in the screenshots! It's an absolute delight to read. The screenshots are either my own or taken from the discord/forums :D