Out of Character conversations while roleplaying?

[Web~Janitor]

I generally prefer it if people didn't have Out of Character conversations while in the middle of a roleplay, because it breaks immersion. It's not that different from trying to play a game while an annoying acquaintance (or sibling, or really anyone with a squeaky voice and a hyena-like laugh) is constantly talking loudly with others while sitting right next to you.

That said, sometimes OOC clarifications are necessary in a given roleplay, or sometimes you also want to chat with the people you're roleplaying with while you play. Trust me, there's not much fun in a D&D game if you are only ever allowed to act in character and can't crack jokes around the table while things are going on.

I can't think of a roleplay chat that doesn't suffer from the conflict between being in character and out of character, because everyone has a different level of what they think is acceptable. And the more you codify the rules about it, the more you drive out users. Do it enough and soon you'll be the only one sitting in a chat room.

Whispers don't always work, because they only go to one person at a time and aren't suited to groups of people. Messengers aren't perfect, either, because there's a lot of people you don't want to give your contact details to out there.



Without a good way to deal with this, I'm going to propose a new etiquette. This is what I do when I'm running a game: I log into an OOC room and a Roleplay room with two handles. The players are all there in the same OOC room, so we can chat, and the characters are in the IC room, so we can roleplay without OOC interruption.

With tabs it's not hard to flip between the rooms and monitor sizes tend to be pretty decent, so you can even have two windows right next to one another without much trouble.


Thoughts?

[Joeking]

Some of the players, including me, for your dungeon crawl do that.

It's a good system, imo, and I think it'd be a good habit to get into.

If there was a way to talk to everyone in the RP in an OOC room, I wouldn't break up the RP except with the odd occasional whisper.

But not everyone seems to catch on to the idea...

[Rosery]

As you said, it varies with people. My friends and I can deal with people cracking jokes occasionally without it totally ruining the flow of rp, others find one ooc ruins there mood entirly. Your way works, no argument but I can see people with slow internet not doing that. For the simple fact that it lags to much.

[the Architect]

You tend to miss a lot in the OOC room, Web.

Not your fault, I know a DM has a lot to deal with throughout a play session.  Believe me, I've DMed a time or two, so I'm well aware.

Fortunately, I can ping your messenger and point you to my question, so that works out.