Hey everyone. Lately I'm noticing that the RP has had trouble with keeping a steady, flowing pace. I'm not pointing fingers here, since I realized recently that I'm definitely more guilty of this than most people. What seems to be occurring is that a lot of players feel like they have to write RP posts several paragraphs in length in order to fit in here or match the "style" of RP we do in CoU. The unfortunate result of this is that while RP posts do indeed get larger and more descriptive, it results in players taking anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes for a single RP post, which is a huge problem.

Now, if you're one of those people who can bust out a two or three paragraph post in like 5 minutes or less, then by all means go for it. We do love attention to detail here. But when attention to detail results in posts taking so long that RP sessions which could've taken a few hours end up taking several sessions split up over multiple days to complete, it becomes a problem, especially for people who have limited free time and want to be able to get in a satisfying RP scene in a two hour window or so on the weekdays.

So because I personally need to work on making my posts come a little faster, what I'm experimenting with lately is shortening my posts as much as possible, without making them totally bland and robotic, and I hope those of you who are struggling similarly with keeping your RP scenes moving along steadily will give this a try as well. Instead of trying to cram tremendous detail into a whoppingly huge post, I'm trying to space it out a little bit at a time into a few sentences per post. I've noticed that this leaves me with more descriptive "fuel" to insert into the RP steadily for a longer period of time, as opposed to spilling it all in one or two posts.

Please note, though!!! I am NOT asking for RP posts to be shortened all over. I'm only suggesting it *if* you notice that you're taking like more than 7-10 minutes to make a post, in which case you should consider streamlining things a little. Even then, you don't need to shorten all of your posts, just enough of them that the RP flow keeps going. Some big descriptive 10 or more minute posts now and then when the scene really needs it is just fine, just don't let them be your regular post time.

In closing, let me say that there is no rule, and never will be a rule, about post length here. All the matters if that you react properly to what's going on in the RP around you if your character would be affected by it or notice it, and that you in turn give something for other people to react to. Whether you can do this in two sentences or two paragraphs doesn't matter - all that DOES matter is that the RP flow keeps moving, and that everyone's having fun.