Is there a post somewhere that shows examples of all the tried and true ways to format your in-game posts?  I'm not talking the technical aspect, like "how do I make the text italic?" But the actual operational aspect, like "PMs should be in pink, quotes in blue, internal monologue should be in italics, dice rolls use 'insert private line to DM...". etc.

I know a GM can overdo it with formating rules, but I'm just wondering if there is a tried and true system that a GM pbp vet has come up with over the years.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:28, Fri 30 June 2017.

Probably as many methods as GMs.

I use the following:

Orange is for OOC text. Edit: The reason for this is because the system automatically makes Private Lines an orangey color, so it just made sense to me.

"Spoken text is in color." I usually use blue, but I don't much care what others use as long as I can differentiate it from regular text (ie, no black, brown, etc). (On a related note, 'single quotes' are for quotes inside of spoken text, or for calling something out as special; some people use bold for this, but bold annoys me personally.)

Italics are for internal monologues and thoughts, as well as for things that are particularly important. Edit: I also use them in edits, apparently. :)

Smallcaps are for signs and things that are 'electronic' in nature. I don't use them very often.

I've never used any of the other RuBB codes in IC posts, but that's just because I don't feel they add sufficiently for me to put the effort in. I may use the center tag in some very rare circumstances, but usually only for a prologue-type post.

I use language groups for their intended purposes when I can be bothered to create them; more often I don't bother, and just tell people to keep OOC knowledge OOC and leave it at that.

I've been gaming on RPOL since pretty much the beginning, and this is the method I most prefer. I've seen other GMs do other things, but generally I default to this if I possibly can.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:34, Fri 30 June 2017.

I use a lot of Big Brother's style, with some slight alterations.

"In-character speech is blue, and in quotes," with the change in that I don't color the quotes themselves. It takes a couple extra seconds to make sure they wind up outside the formatting, but in my mind it emphasizes the words themselves. I will sometimes use a color other than blue, as long as I can remember to be consistent with it.

Incidentally, in all the games I run I make the quotation marks (colored or not) mandatory. I've seen some players use the coloring alone to indicate in-character speech, and this doesn't really help colorblind users.

---

I usually put a horizontal line (using the <hr> tag) to separate in-character stuff from OOC clarifications.

[Out-of-character lines are orange] and in brackets. Same reason: it mimics the way private lines look. The brackets are also an aid to those who don't (or can't) see the colored text.

Today, at 22:56, LonePaladin copied from the Die Roller. I copy the results of die rolls in orange small text. I also put them at the very end. This keeps them from cluttering up posts. If I have a bunch of die-rolls, I might instead put them in a quote box instead of using the <small> tag.

As above, though I tend not to put OOC stuff in square brackets as it has the potential to muck up content that's in a private line

Differentiate spoken communication, "speaking in person" from electronic communication, ++ roger? ++

For my game, everyone gets to pick their own colour and use that for their OOC text. That's it. Everything else is just written like you'd see it in a book, with punctuation and stuff. No random colours and tedious formatting all over the place :P.

Yeah, I guess I should mention the only requirement I really have is that speech be in "colored quotes" (for ease of my viewing) and thoughts be set apart somehow (again, for my ease of viewing). Anything else players do I'm generally okay with (although I do strongly encourage orange for OOC comments only - again, for my ease of determining it's OOC). My rules (from my previous post) are really for my own usage more than anything else.

I prefer punctuation like in a book, quotes and commas and periods and all, but I like spoken speech to be in a color.  This lets me immediately identify anything said that my NPCs need to respond to, which helps me when I'm in a hurry.  Having an individual color also helps me quickly identify the player in question when I'm formatting a response.

I reserve orange for OOC information, like dice roll results, or mentioning technical game terms for character action.

I also reserve red for very dangerous situations, usually the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) or something equally dangerous.

I guess I do everything differently:

The only time I color dialogue is when I'm replying interspersed to quoted text.  For example:



"Kaylee, see what you can do with it, please."



"Okay, people, let's go to black, but prepare for action.  Kaylee, we need that drive on line now, please."

I do tend to use OOC:  Coral for OOC text.

I use the dark red theme for display of RPoL most of the time because it's easier on my eyes.  When I am choosing colors for text, I try to remember not everyone sees the page in the same color scheme I do.

Quote blocks are really nice for signs and in-game computer displays or similar.

Some games have radio or telepathy a lot and in those I see << and >> used in place of quotes, sometimes mixed with italics for telepathy.

< and > designate alternative language, usually on other sites that lack language groups though, or in webcomics.

The following seem to almost be the standard, (in my experience anyway)

Use either bold (other sites) or color(rpol) for speech.

Use orange as ooc text.

Italics are thoughts.