Narrative, Thoughts, and Dialogue

Roleplaying is very simple, that is, if you know what to do. Unlike some roleplaying forums, the Shadow Lurkers has guidelines to follow when roleplaying. For example, we don't appreciate this sort of roleplaying: *pads to river for a drink, sees Bob* Hi Bob!

Why don't we? Well, you see, within the RP, we expect quality. That isn't a quality post at all. In fact, there is much wrong with it. For starters, let's take a look at the format: *narrative* dialogue Now the format of it is made clear. When the narrative (non-speaking parts) is enclosed in asterisks, it's generally a sign of low-quality/below-TSL-expectations roleplaying.  Another issue is the things the character is supposed to be saying. You see how it's not in quotations? There needs to be quotation marks around the things a character is saying.

And if your character happens to be screaming when they speak, then do not use all caps. Why not? Just don't. If your character is screaming, add an exclamation point to the end of their speech, and tag it with "he/she/it/they/name/noun screamed/shouted/yelled/synonym". And if there's emphasis on some words, then italicise it. But no caps lock, please.

As for thoughts, don't do this: "Ugh, he's such a jerk sometimes!" she thought.

That can be mistaken for dialogue, and thus, it's better to remove the double quotes and either italicise the thoughts or enclose them with single quotes (these guys, '). Either one is acceptable. However, simply italicising the thoughts is preferred. (In case you aren't sure how to italicise, here: [i] [/ i] without the space between the slash and the I.)

NOTES:
No smilies or chatspeak.
At the end of dialogue, assuming it isn't an exclamation or question, there's a comma and the tag is lower case. If there is an exclamation/question, then the tag is still lower case.
This is serious business.

Thank you for your time.