this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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How do you speed up your text roleplaying? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 3 days ago by MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/rpg@ttrpg.network
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My girlfriend is really slow at text roleplaying. It’s been getting worse, and today we got mad at her because we went two hours in her game without any plot happening during a session where everyone was in voice call.

Do you have any advice for her on how to improve the pacing of her game?

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[–] FearfulSalad@ttrpg.network 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Hey, GF, what did you think of this format? I want you to have fun, but I'm worried that you're not enjoying it. It also seems like there are some unspoken expectations from the others, and I think it'd be good for us to discuss them together to see if we agree with them, and then maybe take our thoughts to the group."

And then be ready to either defend your GF, as well as open to potentially leaving the group with her if the other players refuse to accommodate.

Just because you think the right solution is for your GF to increase her pacing does not mean that your GF will agree with the premise, and even if she agrees, it doesn't mean that she can achieve whatever arbitrary standard the group expects.

[–] MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Our relationship has way more communication than you're assuming

[–] FearfulSalad@ttrpg.network 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Great! Then either talk to her to come up with ideas, or if you're determined to ask the internet, telegraph your united front in your question so that we don't assume that the primary reason is that you are a shitty partner. Read your question again, just the words, and see if it sounds like the author actually likes their partner, or wants help from the internet changing them to make this game more fun for themselves?

Anyway.

A live session with just voice chat is already a heavy mental toll for some people. Players and DM alike are filtering and translating ideas through one or more layers (what should be done? would this PC/NPC think to do X? How does doing X look like in this setting? Do they have the materials necessary? Would they countenance doing X based on their personality? What would they say alongside it, with what accent and affect?) in real time. Imagine trying to also type while thinking through those thoughts, and wanting your words to be well written, and your grammar and syntax to be correct, and your immortal words to be self-consistent across multiple posts? AND while you are working on all those things there is also distracting crosstalk? Or worse, you're in a quiet room typing by yourself, but you know that three or more people are talking about what you're typing in a little huddle? There is no consistent human response to this situation.

It's an objectively complex format. Some people may find it easy. Some people may be able to ignore or eschew some of their own internal requirements that are consuming their mental energy and game time. And some people may not, and then external pressure to do so can make them stressed, which makes all of what I wrote harder to manage.

You could go text-only, with multiple text channels (roleplay vs ooc vs initiative) and strict timers, e.g. 5 minutes (which, speaking from personal experience, is also draining) just get rid of the voice chat. Or as others said, go with truly async play-by-post with 24 hour timers. Sure, a single combat may take a week to resolve, but it gives everyone plenty of time to do all of the mental load required to play, without all the pressure of realtime translation.

[–] MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

😭 I'm not a bad partner I promise

[–] Tyr13@lemm.ee 7 points 3 days ago

Simple. Either do play by post (where everyone does their thing in their own time), or dont play via text at all. Hybrid formats will often lead to frustration. If youre frustrated that shes so slow, shes frustrated everyone is mad at her, then no one is actually having fun.

[–] Zeusz13@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Can you elaborate? What do you mean by text RP?

[–] MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 days ago

Well it's a roleplaying game where you use a keyboard instead of your mouth. We're doing a synchronous roleplay where we meet in voice chat for a few hours while we type. That way we can call for rolls and discuss ideas with our fast voices, and do character actions and dialogue with our keyboards. It's good for players who don't feel as confident roleplaying

[–] derekabutton@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is she running the game? When you run your games, how do you keep up the pace? Let her know. If you don't run games, it sounds like it is time to try it out. If you already let her know and she wants that pace, you may need to learn to accept it or play a different game.

When you refer to a lack of plot development, what is it you are doing for 2 hours? Is it character development?

[–] MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 days ago

My games are mostly in voice instead of text. I've never run a synchronous text game like we're doing now

Well the first hour was five messages of the team's muscle renting a truck in a flashback (we're playing a Forged in the Dark system) and the second hour was us waiting for an NPC to leave the venue while she had a phone call with a plot hook none of us were interested in. We were supposed to be having our NPC minions drive the truck to our location to pick up some stuff we stole, but she wanted to do a moment where the truck arrives and then the NPC we scammed walks out of the building we did the scam in. Problem is, we all thought it was obvious we'd wait for the NPC to leave before we radioed for the truck. So we told her she was railroading by deciding the muscle would bring in the truck while the NPC was there, and she fixed the railroading by deleting the message where the van arrives, and having a conversation with herself while we all waited.