I like the idea of having the first post for each character set up where they are, what they're doing, what their mood is like, what they're wearing, and so on. After that, brief one-liners with a single line of dialogue or a single action are just fine. But that first post with the details helps me get an idea of how the stage is set, where everyone's at, what the atmosphere is like - all the important background stuff I'd need to build from.<br/><br/>We wouldn't have to start<em>every</em>new scene by reestablishing all those details about the characters. For example, if the previous scene ended with the characters chained to a wall in a witch's dungeon menaced by a giant cat, it's a pretty safe bet the next scene will start... with those characters chained to the wall menaced by a giant cat; there's no need to reestablish there. But a scene that has a cold start - that starts relatively disconnected from previous scenes, if any - like this one - needs the text equivalent of the "establishing shot". Scenes like this one that start as cold as cold can get, or scenes that start after some in-story break (for example, the crew has just picked up Charlie X and discovered the demise of the<em>Antares</em>... then it skips to a couple days later to the crew chilling in the rec room), those are the kinds of scenes that need a bit of establishment.<em>Especially</em>at this point early in the series before we all really have a feel for each other's characters.<br/><br/>All you need is a few lines to establish where your character is, and what they're up to - any additional details are bonus, because the more detail you give, the easier it is to get your picture of your character, and the better the characterization will be when the scene is finally written. After a paragraph or two to establish your character, you just need brief action/speaking posts from then on.<br/><br/>But as for the "if x then y" idea, I think that's a bad idea for 4 reasons:<br/><br/>First, it puts pressure on everyone else do 'x' - otherwise all the 'y' that was written goes to waste. If I hadn't opted to have Chandra solicit Tren's advice (which I actually didn't plan to do, of course - as I mentioned to Cyrano before the posting started, I was going to toss it straight to Talya), then that would be two paragraphs of dialogue done for nothing. Doing that to someone would kind of make you look like a jerk, which means the person who wrote the "if x then y" is effectively pressuring everyone to play out the scene their way.<br/><br/>Second, it makes the posts of the people who follow up longer, because now they have to not only React/Relay to<em>one</em>action... they have to React/Relay to<em>two</em>actions, making it two times the post for the price of one. That was the case with the Chandra post, where I first had to establish Chandra's position, then do the retroactive Relay to get Tran talking...<em>then</em>I had to React to<em>that</em>and Relay for the<em>next</em>person. (You can see where the split is marked by the ((OOC)) thing.)<br/><br/>Third, it makes the scene a spaghetti mess. With just the one example already, the scene unfolds like: {post 1 part a} -> {post 2} -> {post 3} -> {post 1 part b} -> {post 4}.... That's not so great already, but now imagine if everyone starts doing it: {post 1 part a} -> {post 2 part a} -> {post 3 part a} -> {post 1 part b} -> {post 3 part b} -> {post 4 part a}.... You're jumping back and forth putting things together, and anything that doesn't get used just ends up as bloat you have to read around.<br/><br/>Fourth, it's just not necessary. All you need to do is check once a day - or even every other day, at the rate we were going - and you'll have more than enough opportunity to jump in and respond to pretty much anything you like. Or, even better, if there's something you<em>really</em>want to say/respond to, just say so in the OOC thread, and the floor could be ceded to your char at the next best opportunity.