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Old 03-18-2005, 11:08 AM   #4
Qud
New Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Jerusalem, Israel
Posts: 4
Qud is on a distinguished road
There's a collection of Armageddon logs available at

Most of those will probably be helpful. When I emote, I don't try to force things; I write what I want as I want. One emote can be a detailed three line emote and the next can be "emote snickers hoarsely".
I personally prefer emotes to be as detailed as possible, but it's not a crime or anyone's fault if they used a social once a day. Sometimes people are lazy, tired, or too excited to really sit down and type a long emote, and that's fine.
Definitely don't go to the thesaurus and find the most difficult way to describe a shrug. A couple of big words can help the atmosphere when they're appropriate, but they'll just make you look silly or like a snob if you overuse them, not to mention that some people simply won't understand your emotes and will get annoyed.

Doing unusual things that can't be described by a social are good practice for emoting. Taking out that longsword of yours and doing a few combat routines for practice is good. Just start with how you position yourself and the sword and picture the movement from there, and then describe it as quickly or as slowly as you want.

Another thing that I find helps fleshing out a scene is to include more senses (smell in particular, nothing describes a location better than how it smells like) or to emote a couple of virtual NPCs. If you're in a tavern or at some healer's altar, you can briefly mention someone sitting nearby with an emote, and possibly interact with them a little or to explain what they look like and what they are doing.

Finally, remember that a room usually isn't a clear space with all of the people and objects stuck to one wall; if you need to go from one place to the other, use an emote for that. Maybe you nearly bumped into someone, maybe you stopped to look outside, or maybe you just had to walk around the fountain. You could be striding, or running to cower, or just strolling over...there are many options.

Experiment and you'll find that a style will come to you. To develop that style further, just pick up a new word at a time and take it slowly. Both roleplaying and detailed 'high quality' emoting take time getting used to. Nobody is really born with it.
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