We drop into and out of character moment by moment in all aspects of play, including when the PCs discuss something with each other.  One PC can directly address another using first person, get a reply in third person, and then get an OOC comment by another player.

I don't directly encourage or discourage any particular mode of speech, as there are plenty of examples of all types to pick from, and most of the players switch freely as the mood strikes.  I do encourage a degree of PC rivalry in order to liven up the action.  That can lead indirectly to PC discussion.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;971807I think PCs speaking to each other in character is more the norm in my campaigns, but it depends on the situation. There is also sometimes a blurry line, particularly when players are planning things, where you almost can't tell if people are speaking in or out of character. But I find if I ask whether they are, the answer is often yes. A little hard to analyze this from within the group though.

This is pretty much my experience. Some of them are real scenery chewers.

Quote from: S'mon;971804Do you think it's something worth encouraging? Do you discourage it?

PCs talking to eachother is the norm for most any game I've DMed or played in. The players have their characters chat and co-ordinate in character quite often.

Ive found that the players, and their characters tend to get more quiet as the danger levels increase. If the PCs are sneaking or exploring then everyone quiets down too.

1: Neither. I just let it happen. If you try to force it to happen then its likely to go badly and if you try to discourage it its likely to go badly. Though I have one player who's character will just not shut the hell up. He's ALLWAYS joking. Its gradually getting on my nerves and we are going to have to have a more serious talk about it.

This is a very different matter from the Players chatting out of character.

It depends. On adventuring party games it rarely occurs. On intra-party fuckery games it always happens for us.

If that should be encouraged? If it suits your group sure. Otherwise don't bother. It's not really mandatory, IMO.

Quote from: S'mon;971804Do PCs talk to each other in your games?

Sometimes it is what the session is all about.

QuoteDoes it depend on the game? Do Call of Cthulhu PCs talk more than D&D PCs?

No.

QuoteDoes it depend on the game format (tabletop, online text chat, PBP & PBEM, live action etc)?

No.

QuoteI suspect PCs pretty much never interact in-character in my D&D tabletop games, and that this is a big difference between tabletop and text-chat or pbem play where that is often the focus of play. Do you think it's something worth encouraging? Do you discourage it?

I suppose the way I GM encourages it, though it is not a goal so much as an undisputed fact. I do enjoy it, if the players are into it.

Quote from: S'mon;971804Do PCs talk to each other in your games?

All the time, its major segment of most games.

QuoteDoes it depend on the game format (tabletop, online text chat, PBP & PBEM, live action, etc?

I'd say its more extensive in text format but significantly more common. I'd say its pretty much the default in text based formats.

QuoteDo you think it's something worth encouraging? Do you discourage it?

I definitely like to encourage it. Its one of the perks rpgs have over so, writing stories or reading as far of entertainment, IMO.

Quote from: John Scott;971810Almost always no matter what game we play. Worth encouraging? Not really.

Pretty much this. There are some things we'll talk about OOC, especially where rules are concerned, but when things are currently in motion, it's almost entirely IC. And that includes when PCs talk to each other.

I've never actually run into this problem where the PCs don't talk to each other, but if I did, all I'd really do to encourage it is talk IC myself and hope others followed suit. If that didn't work, I'd likely bring it up after the session and see if there's a reason, and if that reason means that we're just not compatible. And then take appropriate action. I'm not going to try to force others to game the way I want to game, but I'm also not going to stick around to game in a way that I don't like.

Quote from: S'mon;971804Do PCs talk to each other in your games?

Does it depend on the game? Do Call of Cthulhu PCs talk more than D&D PCs?

Does it depend on the game format (tabletop, online text chat, PBP & PBEM, live action etc)?

 I suspect PCs pretty much never interact in-character in my D&D tabletop games, and that this is a big difference between tabletop and text-chat or pbem play where that is often the focus of play.

Do you think it's something worth encouraging? Do you discourage it?

Yes, frequently so. It'd be weird if they didn't, both for the players' themselves due to their personalities/playstyles and for the general dynamic of the game.

No, it depends on the group in my experience, especially the GM who has significant weight in this matter. If the GM encourages roleplay and talking, you're gonna get roleplay and talking. As a side effect, you'll see players making choices for their characters that would be "sub-optimal" for pure dice-rolling games.

That's on you. Encourage your players more to do it. If they don't want to, find new players or be content with it. If they do, fucking A! PBC and the like don't encourage more "roleplay": most of that from what I've seen is waffling more than substance which is a shame because you'd think the medium would encourage succinct expression.

You should always encourage roleplay. It's called a Role-Playing Game for a reason! Combat itself becomes more fun when players are exclaiming wildly at each other and getting all worked up: it feels *real*, alive and like there's something on the fucking line.

Quote from: Lynn;971806Among my players, yes, if the game is a modern or near modern setting, they are more likely to speak in character with each other.

I find my players speak to each other IC regardless of setting. One thing that is a *thing* is doing an accent well -- if you can't, don't do it.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;971807I think PCs speaking to each other in character is more the norm in my campaigns, but it depends on the situation. There is also sometimes a blurry line, particularly when players are planning things, where you almost can't tell if people are speaking in or out of character. But I find if I ask whether they are, the answer is often yes. A little hard to analyze this from within the group though.

I offer my players the choice of abstracting away the roleplaying or talking it out. They tend to the latter. I wouldn't have thought it particularly hard to get a read on IC vs OOC but that's just me. Why is it for you? A different dynamic, perhaps?

Quote from: Krimson;971809It depends. There could be dialogue or not, in the same campaign. Sometimes sessions will be roleplay heavy and sometimes it's dungeon crawling, some sort of heist, or tactical combat. Occasionally there are mass combat scenarios which have about as much RP as a game of Squad Leader.

Encourage your players to shout and scream during combat. It's fucking awesome once they get into the swing of things. I fucking *hated* rolling on my random tables when it got good because if my creatures (humanoid or otherwise!) got in a good'un, I'd hear some shit like "awwh shiitt... Sav's lost his fucking leg! Priest! Priest, get your fucking ass over here. PRIEST!" Epic as shit!

Only War back in the day was REALLY bad about this shit, godamm those were some good battle scenes...

Quote from: NeonAce;971811In my High School/College-era groups we did quite a bit of talking to each other in character. In my current group, it varies a decent amount, with some sessions being almost entirely OOC talk planning, and abstract 3rd person resolution of some social situations. Personally, I love roleplaying with fellow PCs in character and tend to be mildly frustrated when people shy away from it or approach RPG scenarios in a detached "As players, let's talk and find a solution, then have our characters execute it" kinda mode. I like interesting characters, and for them to be interesting to me, I need to see them roleplayed, and for a group of characters to have camaraderie and relationships, I need to see it RP'd out amongst them. I guess that makes me a bit of an "immersion" kinda guy. I'm not against playing an old school dungeon in 10 minute turns, with rests and wandering monsters, but without at least a whiff of inter-PC RP, I prefer just playing a non-RP game as I tend to think they are better as games.

This is partly the reason I disallowed character backgrounds that are more than a long paragraph at most. That and also that I don't want to read your perpetually unpublished wannabe novelist manuscript (I had one for a VTR game ages back that was six pages long! That taught me...).

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;971814Not really. It amounts to little more than bad acting. It's OK, even amusing, in small doses. It annoys me when it goes on and on, especially when it's characters arguing over petty shit.

Arguing over petty shit is good. That's when I get to break out Virtue/Vice and make shit happen as a GM that the PCs didn't want but they gon' get!

Quote from: S'mon;971826Yeah, I feel the same.

Is there anything a GM can do to encourage in-character interaction among the PCs?

Actually fucking encourage it. Setup scenes for them talk over problems or to discuss bits of a characters background coming into focus. Stuff like that.

I literally set aside time in most of my sessions for an Interaction Moment (IM) and they've been an invaluable tool for me as club-level GM as they give players a kind of "safe ground" and respite from gameplay concerns to focus totally on roleplaying, chat and acting IC. They might be no more than 5mins, they may take as much an half-an-hour or even an hour! Point is, these guys talk and when they do, boyyyy I've seen them go so Game of Thrones I felt like the luckiest fucking GM in the world when I saw that make its way back onto the table (and just how much the 11+ players at the table got into it, even the ones who are usually more shy/less outspoken)!

You can literally have the PCs go to a tavern or coffeehouse or even a quiet grove or whatever and talk about what happened earlier in the session or plan what they're going to do later. Debriefings and briefings (make sure players do this with each other, not you speaking to the table instead) are a perfect way to edge this in!

Quote from: Itachi;971843It depends. On adventuring party games it rarely occurs. On intra-party fuckery games it always happens for us.

If that should be encouraged? If it suits your group sure. Otherwise don't bother. It's not really mandatory, IMO.

I'm hosting SOTDL and that's adventuring party as fuck, more so than D&D and most OSR games. My players still chat IC, even while walking/travelling between hotspots/locales.

Quote from: Nexus;971852All the time, its major segment of most games.



I'd say its more extensive in text format but significantly more common. I'd say its pretty much the default in text based formats.



I definitely like to encourage it. Its one of the perks rpgs have over so, writing stories or reading as far of entertainment, IMO.

Funny thing: you encourage it, you get more of it and more new players who also do it. It's awesome version of a vicious circle, hah hah.

I don't know that I've ever played in a game where they didn't.

I'm actually having a bit of a disassociative moment with this thread, one of those "are we playing the same games?" Moments.

Talk IC?  Nearly all player communication is PC to PC unless we're taking a break or eating, and sometimes even that is IC if the PCs are in an inn or something.

When talking to NPCs it's IC.  When talking to the GM, it might be "I do" or "My character does", depending on player.

The best way to encourage it is organically.  Have NPCs address them in character and have NPCs that are fun as hell to talk to - the PCs will start talking eventually.

Quote from: Piestrio;971878I don't know that I've ever played in a game where they didn't.

I'm actually having a bit of a disassociative moment with this thread, one of those "are we playing the same games?" Moments.

I wasn't going to say it, but yeah, players who don't talk IC to each other.  IME, that's pretty rare for a RPG.  As in I don't know that I've seen such a player.

Quote from: PrometheanVigil;971875I offer my players the choice of abstracting away the roleplaying or talking it out. They tend to the latter. I wouldn't have thought it particularly hard to get a read on IC vs OOC but that's just me. Why is it for you? A different dynamic, perhaps?
.

In the moment, if you are looking for it, it is easy enough to discern. But I mean it is hard to analyze in hindsight and figure out what the ratio is (I am not evaluating how much of what the players say is in character and out of character during play). I think being in the middle of it all, it isn't something that is as easy to measure as say someone who is watching you play.

Talking in character us pretty standard in my group.

Quote from: CRKrueger;971882I wasn't going to say it, but yeah, players who don't talk IC to each other.  IME, that's pretty rare for a RPG.  As in I don't know that I've seen such a player.

It might be one of those things where it means different things to different people.  My players say things to each other in character - usually when moments of gravity combine with some inspiration on their part.  But they don't converse in character.  They don't say "Aethelred, it looks like there are two corridors ahead of us - which should we take?", or, "This road is dangerous and many have disappeared. so keep your eyes sharp".  Instead it's "all right fucker, I'm choosing the direction this time because you suck at not getting us roasted tonight", and, "dammit, I hate going through mountains because of all the encounter checks".  

85% of the communication at my tables sounds no different than it does when the same group of people isn't playing RPGs in tone or other generalities, although obviously subjects are activity-specific.

Quote from: PrometheanVigil;971875Setup scenes for them talk over problems or to discuss bits of a characters background coming into focus. Stuff like that.

I literally set aside time in most of my sessions for an Interaction Moment (IM) and they've been an invaluable tool for me as club-level GM as they give players a kind of "safe ground" and respite from gameplay concerns to focus totally on roleplaying, chat and acting IC. They might be no more than 5mins, they may take as much an half-an-hour or even an hour! Point is, these guys talk and when they do, boyyyy I've seen them go so Game of Thrones I felt like the luckiest fucking GM in the world when I saw that make its way back onto the table (and just how much the 11+ players at the table got into it, even the ones who are usually more shy/less outspoken)!

You can literally have the PCs go to a tavern or coffeehouse or even a quiet grove or whatever and talk about what happened earlier in the session or plan what they're going to do later. Debriefings and briefings (make sure players do this with each other, not you speaking to the table instead) are a perfect way to edge this in!

This sounds great. Can you give an example of what you'd say as GM to set up the interaction scene?