GM:? The corridor is dark, tiled with alternating squares of black and white.? The barest hint of a breeze can be felt, despite a dry, dusty scent lingering in the air.? Up ahead, a doorway can be seen, barely cracked.? Behind you, the distant sound of footfalls.? But as you move farther down the hallway, your trained senses begin to curse silently in your head as you feel the distinctive shift of weight that signifies the first portion of a pressure pad trigger being armed beneath your left boot.? What do you do?

Player A: I freeze.

Player B: "You lost motion, Red.? What's wrong?"

Player A: "Pressure pad.? Status?"

Player B: "No alarms.? You're green."

GM: The sound of footfalls increase in volume, ever so slightly, in the distance.? The gentle breeze continues, softly.? What are you going to do?

Player A: Nothing - "I'm stuck.? Hack the room."

Player B: "Copy.? I'm on it."

Player A: "Pressure panels.? And hurry.? I've got movement."

GM: You continue to hold your position, while the sound of footfalls increase...

***

The above example isn't going to win any awards, but I think it certainly illustates an opportunity for simple responses to be more than appropriate, even -facilitating- the tension of a scene.? Can you imagine if those responses were four lines of garbage?? Six?? Should we all wait a half an hour for a GM, and two players, to go through the process of -stopping motion and listening-?? Because they thought two words weren't enough?

-CM

Somehow this has turned from backgrounds to pose length discussion. I won't try to refute what CM said because I agree with it, in part.

In reality, when I am in a social scene and trying to roleplay, there is nothing more annoying than trying to RP with someone who doesn't give anything back. It makes the RP feel practically useless, since it's like you're not actually developing anything at all. The other character is not being a part of the RP. Now sometimes it can fit, if a character is being surly or trying to stay out of what's going on. If that's -all- you get out of someone, ever, is something akin to the <sip> thread, well then...

Tear sips her drink.

Commiekeebler sips his drink, "Uh-huh".
Commiekeebler stretches, "Ahhhh! Good times." And accidentally hits Tear in the face with his outstretched arm.

"In order to be understood, a thought needs to be diluted in as few words as possible."

I don't know who the quote belongs to, but there you have it.

Commiekeebler scratches his crotch, then smells his armpit. THEN he notices Tear, "Wha'?"

The author of that quote should take his own damned advice.

Bah and quadruple bah!  Where in the above quote is there a wasted word?  He didn't say in as simple of words as possible, he was only talking about quanitity...  Let me see if I can trim the fat from that quote.  Bet I can't.

"To be understood, a thought must be diluted to as few words as possible."

That saved... 5 words.  And doesn't really make the thought easier to understand, the length is almost unchanged and the substance is identical.  The only way to simplify it more would be:

"To understand thought, few words!"

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I printed it out and smoked it and the ink hurt my throat.

Make sure to use a filter. They sell those now.