DE: Hello, Me. It's Me again

[bjornwilde]

And so another new year at Milliways dawns...okay it happened a few days ago but still. Welcome to the new year!

lazy_but_loyal would like to know,

Threading with yourself: yea or nay? Because your own pups have got to interact with each other some time, right?

[Also, apologies to all I was supposed to thread with the past week. My muse decided I needed to spend time with family and wouldn't play even when I had time. I will be catching up this morning.]

Comments

[forceimbalance]

No, with small exceptions of parent-child or siblings if they are in the same place or the strange, rare case of R2, who can usually get folded into his human's tag.

This is part of why I avoid more than one character from any canon--playing non-major-character kids is an exception--and definitely not multiple protagonists. Without this personal rule, I would play the entire Aleran cast.

If I wanted to write both Rey and Anakin in a conversation, I'd write fic.

[bjornwilde]

I used to do this all the time with Ben Grimm and Valeria von Doom and found it challenging; a bit tedious, as well, logging in and out of journals.

I think if I were to do this again, I'd go with a couple of strategies. In OOMs, I'd likely just write the different voices in the main piece, rather than switching between pups. Unless there was good reason to, such as the use of a good pup icon or to switch the pace.

In bar, I think I'd have to pace the conversation slower; like give a few minutes between each pup's voice. This would tone done the bother of logging in and out (even with LJ juggler this is bothersome for me) and allow the voices to switch in my head easier.

[sunbaked_baker]

I don't, except in very rare circumstances where it is necessary (if I'm playing an NPC or plot-centric pup who has to interact with mine for the sake of the plot) or when it's a three-pup thread with at least one other mun involved.

[leeshajoy]

I'm not above having two or more pups interact within a single post--I do that with Alyx, D0G, and/or the twins all the time. But I try to avoid actually threading things out unless the game demands it for some reason.

[genarti]

I'm not outright opposed to it, but I find it difficult. A lot of the fun of RP is bouncing the thread-energy back and forth with the other mun, IMO! If I'm playing both halves, then all the energy is mine, and if I flake out I'm only leaving myself hanging, and it's hard to not write every tag with the other character's reaction already factored into each sentence. If I did it, it'd be something short and with a clear plot purpose, so that I could comfortably go in knowing the whole shape of it.

[camwyn]

I got my start in online RP at World of Darkness MUSHes and a few MUDs. RP'ing with yourself was considered incredibly bad form, since a) it was realtime and not archived, so you were basically just textually masturbating, and b) it was generally believed to be a way for you to OOH SO CASUALLY pass IC information to a character who wouldn't have been able to get that info by RP'ing with someone else's pups. Can't convince the $FACTION_MEMBER to mention a $FACTION secret plan to someone from $OTHER_FACTION, or someone just plain human? Whip out your alt from $FACTION and have them WHOOPS! mention it in front of your pup from $OTHER_FACTION. Why put any work into your RPing? Play with yourself!

I realize things are different in M'ways RP, and in most other DW RP, but it still reeks of copout to just thread your characters against each other instead of arranging interaction with another player.

[dejah_thoris]

+1

[2goodarms]

The closest I ever came, aside from writing the occasional NPC for plots my characters joined, was this joint EP with Gaeta and Curtis. Even then, I didn't just have them sit and talk to each other for tag after tag; I tried to draw in a third party both of them could play with. I feel a lot like Cam does -- to me, threading with yourself feels like a big copout and kind of against the spirit of RP. We're here to play with each other, not just ourselves!

[sdelmonte]

Not only have I never threaded with myself, but I think none of my pups have ever met. On rare occasions, someone has told one of my pups about another, but for some reason I like compartmentalize completely.

[mnt_mike]

Considering I play three of a family of five...yeah, it's safe to say that I've done this a fair bit.

I find it fun and entertaining, not the least of which because Mike, Raph, and Splinter come from such different places, and have such different voices that I think it works well.

Or at very least I hope it works well...

Bumi and Aang have never met in game....because I think that would break poor Bumi's mind.

(I should game more...)

[varadia]

I prefer to have a third non-me person involved if I can get it, especially for canon crossover things that result from my having multiple characters that sometimes talk to the same people at all, and usually I can just have things relayed in two separate threads.

I've done a few same-canon things, and most of those are because canon leaves something unaddressed, and when I address it I want to give equal value and presence to both POVs, which I find I can't do as well in fic-style stuff. Hi Flemeth and Ysalwen!

[alexiscartwheel]

"I prefer to have a third non-me person involved..."

Yes! In the few times I've threaded with myself, I noticed this as well. I know Mary has met Carol, once, and Mary has also encountered the Tracksuit Draculas in company with Thayet (in that thread Heather and I were both threading with ourselves, since she had Thayet and Evil). The latter thread was more logistically complicated but also more fun.

[ceitfianna]

I try to avoid it as much as possible. It helps that I don't have any pups in the same canons and for me, I RP to interact with other people.

Also I started out doing tabletop and LARP where RPing with yourself simply wasn't possible so its never been something I think of. The closest I come has been NPCs but there I'm like Lynne and others, the NPCs interact more with the other characters than mine. Like a conversation among the Merry Men involves Will but they're all usually focused on the other party.

[have_no_mercy]

Nay. My characters don't ever have to meet and even if I'm playing from the same canon I'll just handwave any conversation that might need to take place.

[guppy_sandhu]

Actually I am guilty of this for several reasons (hopefully considered good).

Guppy, Fry and Coral are related (parent/child) and the two kids are quite young so often they end up in the same thread.

Guppy is also a medic so frequently he joins an existing thread in need of a medic if there are no other medic-muns around (usually at the request of the player who isn't me, as I quite enjoy watching other people medic at times)

I play two of the Scouts leaders and a couple of my small people are in the Scouts, so there is occasionally overlap there (but generally not, because I use several Small People in the Scouts in order to boost numbers for an activity rather than having the same kids there all the time).

I sometimes use cameos in threads with Vyvyan when he needs someone to harass.

[cassiefuckingcage]

Very occasionally, and only when necessary to advance plot for pups from the same canon.

[maid_of_tarth]

Nay. If I wanted to write fic, I'd...write fic.

[fairy_fixit]

I did, and without shame. Having pups that are canonmates and that can't easily squish eachother helps. But then one of those voices faded and was replaced by a very squishy one that hates my other one.

[road_to_calvary]

If I want my pups to interact, I fic them. It doesn't happen often, with the exception of Valjean and Javert. If those two have to be in a thread together, there'll always be someone else there - preferably more than one - but if it's just them, I don't see the point of switching journals when straight prose is easier.

I have no particular feelings on RPsterbation either way, I just don't do it because I am meh on it. It's not as much fun as playing with someone else - but if other people want to, then I say go for it. Pretendy funtime games, and all that.

[cameoflage]

My Milliways characters don't really have anything to do with each other, but if that changed, I'd put the back-and-forth between them in an OOM or the EP rather than posting it as a thread. It's just easier. I find it kind of exhausting to RP with myself; I've done it for various reasons and it's twice as hard as RPing with someone else. Even RPing as both characters simultaneously in separate scenes with different partners is still easier.

I'm thinking of two of my characters talking directly to each other here, not two of my characters both interacting with the same third person or group of people. That's much easier.

Like Cam Senior, I come from a background where RPing with yourself was frowned upon, although for somewhat different reasons than the ones other people mentioned. I did a lot of round-table IM RP, and there was only room for so many things to be happening at once, so taking up airtime with a scene that only involved your own characters and had no reasonable way for other people to jump in was considered self-indulgent and/or spotlight hogging unless there was a decent reason why it had to happen onscreen. Doing that a lot sort of correlated with bad RP practices, but was less likely to itself be a medium for them in my circles.