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Roleplay Style

Paddy McDowell

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Whenever I join an eW community, this thought always pops up. There's so many different here, you can imagine the diversity of the characters that there... is. Erm... well, what's your roleplay style? Script, novel, first person, second person, fireflies, you name it.

Script man here.

Actually, scanning over a few forums, looks like script's prime here... makes you think.
 

LQJT86C

Where's my money, Chad?
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The "nice answer": use whatever style you want. It's mostly script, but anyone can succeed as long as they're good!

The REAL answer: script.

People use different variations of script, and you have certain exceptions to the rule like Impulse and Steve Knox, who employ more novel-influenced styles, but even they revert back to script/teleplay at times. The style is basically bit off script writing for television, which is notably different from motion picture script writing. Anyway, that's a longer answer than you actually needed. All I really needed to say was "script." Enjoy.
 

JLevinson

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I prefer script by miles. It just makes sense to me. Wrestling is presented on television, which means you are limited by what you can see and hear. Narrative style, to me, implies that you somehow know omniscient 3rd-party information, which turns it from wrestling into some bizarre Wonder Years episode about men in tights with Daniel Stern narrating about how that last suplex reminded him of his first kiss to Whitney. I'll stick to the script format, thanks.
 

LQJT86C

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I prefer script by miles. It just makes sense to me. Wrestling is presented on television, which means you are limited by what you can see and hear. Narrative style, to me, implies that you somehow know omniscient 3rd-party information, which turns it from wrestling into some bizarre Wonder Years episode about men in tights with Daniel Stern narrating about how that last suplex reminded him of his first kiss to Whitney. I'll stick to the script format, thanks.

THIS. End of thread.
 

The Great Eye

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But Morgan Freeman needs work, who'll think of Morgan Freeman?!
 

jediPREZ

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To be honest, I don't see the difference between...

(FADEIN: MIKE RANDALLS on a donkey.)

vs.

The camera faded in on Mike Randalls riding a donkey.


Not all narrative pieces have inner monologues, it really depends on the fed/author.

That being said, for me, nothing beats the John Gilson created UWA TELEPLAY style that JN tweaked and perfected. But that has more to do with the writer than the actual format.
 

LQJT86C

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I think there's actually a big difference between the two. The first example capitalizes the name, so it sticks out right away, and the description is more brief. Not that the second example/style is all that bad, but people tend to glaze over anything that resembles prose. I've been guilty of adding prose into my parenthetical descriptions, big time, but I think teleplay overall is just a lot easier to follow. Simply put, it exists for a reason.

With that said, some people are AWESOME at it, like Pete. Impulse is one of the few characters written in that style who I actually enjoy reading, but usually I prefer teleplay.
 

Justin

Da BAWS
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Personally, I have dabbled in all of the above writing styles.

To me, it depends on the character and the situation.

Some times I need to write in first person, some times I need to write in third, sometimes I want to throw something up quick, and to me the screenplay style is a lot quicker and easier to put together than a full on piece of prose.

It just depends, like I said, on the character and the situation.

Also: the writer's ability to write properly in each style.
 

PaulNJ21

I shunned a voodoo witch, decapitated a black cat
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To me, the most realistic style is script since we are basing this on pro wrestling and we are supposed to be playing off of each other with the promos in order to sell the match. These are supposed to be airing on some fictional television show or in front of a crowd.

Inner monologues.... could you imagine if the WWE or TNA aired an audio narrative of what was going on in a wrestlers head when he was just sitting there...
 

jediPREZ

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To me, the most realistic style is script since we are basing this on pro wrestling and we are supposed to be playing off of each other with the promos in order to sell the match. These are supposed to be airing on some fictional television show or in front of a crowd.

Inner monologues.... could you imagine if the WWE or TNA aired an audio narrative of what was going on in a wrestlers head when he was just sitting there...

At the same time, Paul...

Could you imagine if WWE or TNA aired 10-20 promos for a single match?

If we were basing this off of professional wrestling, you'd do one promo a week and that's it.
 

LQJT86C

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Since initially bashing other style of roleplay in this thread, I have since joined PRIME. I am no longer allowed to have an opinion on this.
 

jediPREZ

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Since initially bashing other style of roleplay in this thread, I have since joined PRIME. I am no longer allowed to have an opinion on this.

I just don't think anything in FW or PRIME or angle feds is 100% accurately based on Pro Wrestling. I don't think any of us hit the 50% mark to be honest.

Once you get out of the 'realism' argument, it's really all about personal preference/opinion. You may end up hating PRIME or loving it, we'll find out soon enough.
 

RStrawsma

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Thinking about it, I'd say that I attempt to create a narrative THROUGH a script. I stick to the basic script format, but the way I describe the action usually contains more of a narrative voice than simple stage directions. I don't think any one way is better than the other, but as it's been said... depends on the character and the situation. Also depends a bit on the writer.
 

PaulNJ21

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Realistically, yeah, 10-20 promos would be too much, but the back and forth since we can't really have two guys cut promos against each in live time, it is the only real way to simulate that interaction and get a feel for who really won. I always have a hard time judging the 1-1 RP sessions.
 

jediPREZ

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Realistically, yeah, 10-20 promos would be too much, but the back and forth since we can't really have two guys cut promos against each in live time, it is the only real way to simulate that interaction and get a feel for who really won. I always have a hard time judging the 1-1 RP sessions.

Technically, an angle fed would be more realistic than what you're suggesting.

If you write a segment and then work out the result with your opponent/fedhead, that's way more in line with how things work.

It's not like Vince is watching Edge and Randy Orton cut promos on each other and basing a PPV result on which was performed on a higher level. Most likely, the result has already been worked out for quite some time.
 

TheOriginalSE

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Script vs narrative isn't as big a deal for me as it used to be. Inner monologue? Sure, why not.

I RP Edmunds and Michaels in a script style here on FWC/A1E, but do a narrative style for Edmunds in Just (Tour X MVP ftw!). I may bring more narrative to him over here in the future.

The only thing that I require in the RPs is relevance to wrestling. As Katz said, we hit, at a maximum, 50% of the realism we're going for (hence the "Fantasy wrestling")..

If it is relevant to wrestling, your match, or your opponent, then I don't care whether its script, narrative, or a video posted in sign language.
 

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