OOC tags

So, I use green text in all my games to refer to OOC; but that's really just a convention for me to keep things clean. What I have noticed is that everyone does different things, but everyone does have an approach for identifying OOC text from IC text when posting in a game thread. Thus, it would be mighty convenient to have OOC tags, and a uniform OOC formatting applied by the forum.

I propose something like, 75% black/25% white text (dark grey) that's left indented by ~20px ("1 tabs" worth or so) to make it stand separate from the rest of the text.

I'm all for making OOC tags; I considered it early in. I just wasn't sure HOW do it it, so I figured I'd leave it up to people.

My thought was similar: black on a light charcoal background, dark grey borders, indented on the left and right. I just thought it would be slightly bland.

So yah, let's decide what OOC should look like!

OOC *should* be slightly bland. It should suppress itself from attention so as not to distract. I wouldn't background the text differently. Different background colour will make it stand out, you want it to fade in (which is why I suggested grey text;dark enough to read, but subdued relative to black text).

I was always used to using blue. However i would give it up for a button that sets everything up for you.

Let me mock up what I'm thinking.

EDIT: I'm coincidentally thinking something something along the lines of the quote box, though probably sans border (or with a very light border), a lighter background, and probably italicized. Though looking at it now, I can see italicized and greyed, padded, maybe in a slightly different color (tinged blue or green).

Like Candi, I tend to use green font for most of my Out of Character (OoC) text, though I also try to be consistent in putting it in parentheses and prefaced with "OoC:"

I'm torn on this enhancement topic, as I both like and dislike the idea of a standard Out of Character (OoC) tag. I like the potential convenience, but my uncertainty stems from the fact that OoC comments can serve at least four different purposes:
* questions about a system ("What do I roll to do this?")
* questions about what's happening in the game ("Can my character see this from here?")
* declarations of actions with system-specific information ("I cast Magic Missile with a level 3 spell slot.")
* general commentary between players ("Good one, Jenny!")
...and it seems like they would be weighted and/or displayed differently. That third one - system-specific actions - needs to be particularly prominent. GMs often overlook this, so I put that text in red in many games. So I don't know if there's a "one implementation fits all" here; even with an OoC tag, there will probably continue to be conventions for which types of OoC comment will use the tag, and which will be presented differently.

In any case, I'll be interested in seeing a mock-up. It's entirely possible that one solution will fit most, perhaps all. I'll need to see it to judge, and probably even then, I'd have to try it in-game to see if it works better at attracting GM attention (necessary for the first three). I suspect a standard approach would work better, given that people would use it.

I realize it's a different topic, but this sort of begs the question about other conventions, and whether they should have standard tags. In-character speech is an example of such a convention, for instance. Most people on GP that I've seen use boldface and quotation marks to indicate in-character dialog. But not everyone does this; some use blue text, some use italics, some use quotation marks, some do a combination of these. Be prepared that if we get OoC tags, someone will ask for other text-formatting tags like 'In Character Dialog,' too.

Yah, it's why I never created one in the first place. But of course, having the tags doesn't mean everyone will have to use it. As for the different ooc styles, can always have subcategories, like [ooc="question"]. Do you have thoughts about general styling spaceseeker?

I think the indenting you've been discussing is a good step, and makes it distinct from the text formatting we can already do. I think a color switch as Candi suggested is good, too: as I've said, my biggest problem with OoC text is that it gets lost in the thread and the GM misses actions and/or questions. So anything that makes it stand out would be good. It's quite possible that just being indented would be sufficient. Nobody is perfect, and people will miss stuff, no matter how it's formatted.

How much weight is given really depends on the system, as well as the type of OoC comment. For instance, I'm playing in games in several systems that are new to me but which have detailed mechanics, so for me the OoC rules questions are particularly important. If I was playing in less mechanical systems that I don't know well - like Theatrix, for instance - the rules questions would both be less vital and less common. Perhaps the solution would be that the font color is still determined by the person posting the message, but the OoC tag would provide the special indentation...? Is that possible? I don't recall if the "quote" tag allows for font color formatting. Just an idea.

While you can sub-categorize OOC questions/comments I would recommend against having category-specific formatting. For one, if the tags work like colour tags then it is no more convenient than what I already do now (using color="green"). Secondly, the issues spaceseeker brings up are game-specific, and in fact player-specific. If you start catering to things at this level, you'd best head it off at the pass and allow users to define custom tags that act as short forms for combinations of formatting tags (limit each user to, say, 3 custom tags). Then we can just follow our own conventions.

I see it this way -- when it comes to play by forum RPGing, there are two fundamental categories text within a post falls into within the main game thread: IC and OOC. OOC tags let OOC content be cleanly visually distinct from the IC content, and this is something generally useful for all PbF games. Whether GMs and players adopt the tag and use it, or use it in some other way, well all you can do is make tools available, it's up to the users how they deploy them. As for how to format it. I feel OOC content should be 'suppressed' because, well, to me anyway, RPGs are about the story first and game mechanics are just there to support and guide the story.

Ok, to keep this focused, let's start with the basic: . Let's try no style, indented, a dark grey, with a light border? I'll start coding stuff, but I'll wait to hear more thoughts too.

This is a great idea, Keleth (and Candi and spaceseeker19). I like the notion of implementing and testing a simple one first.

I think sticking to a basic one would be best to start with, but I really like the idea and hope to see it in action soon!

We've used maroon/red in the past.

I like it -- let's start simple -- and then let's figure out how we want it to improve after we use it a bit.

Just use your quote box framework.
I am fine with using my own colors for all this as well though.

(This may be what your describing already, and I am not getting it, so ignore if that is the case. :P )

I like this too. Action: Red, Statement: Green, Question: Blue, etc.

Yes. As I said, I think the indent is likely to be sufficient.

It would be nice if we could also apply color formatting ourselves (through the existing color tag) within the text marked with the [ooc] tag, but not necessary.

So, two things:

1) I added an OOC tag, but I don't like how the image looks in the bbCode bar...
2) What do you think?I'm not sure if I like the gray text, I tried it slightly blue too. Suggestions?

Let me test it!Edit: Didn't work for me!

Edit 2: Hmm... it worked after I edited the post... Weird

I think it's actually not bad!Edit: Hmmm, it only seems to work for me if I go in to edit the post after I've already made it, or else it just shows the tags and doesn't format it