Ride along, or the director's chair - An RPBuddy Guide
Jacob G · · 5 min read
Your hands are on the keyboard, and you have two ways to type the next line. You can say what your character would say and wait to see who answers. Or you can set the room first: who's there, what just happened, and what you want this moment to do. Both are real ways to play. RPBuddy is built so you can do either, and mix them in the same session. Knowing which one you're doing matters, because they ask for different habits.
Riding along
Some people want to be in the scene, not above it. You talk the way your character would, describe what you do, and then see what comes back.
A few habits keep that from sliding into quiet direction:
Don't go OOC unless you truly have to. If you can say it as your character, say it that way.
Talk to the NPCs. Otherwise, mostly describe your own actions, and leave their private thoughts alone.
Let the world react, and follow a story line it offers if you want it. You can still walk away.
Write the facts a visitor would bump into, not a life story.
NPC and building profiles:Who they are to you, and what they want from this talk. A merchant trying to keep the shop open has a reason to bargain over your offer.
Where they spend their time, so you go to them instead of calling them into an empty room.
One thing they won't do, and one limit the place enforces. The storeroom stays locked. The inn has a bed, and it isn't a gift.
Lorebooks, for the facts this scene might need:A custom, a rumor, a debt, or a rule people here already live with.
Specific enough to matter: a village where debts are settled publicly gives an unpaid tab more weight.
Tied to a person or a building you can walk into. Start with relevant details, then expand as your campaign grows.
One more support, when the profile still feels thin. Give them a relationship to you, a motive for today, and one thing that isn't finished:You already know them, even if that's one line. She covered a shift for you. He still has the knife you lent him.
They want something from this conversation: payment, an apology, the key, a room for the night.
Something is still open. The tab is unpaid. The door you were told not to open is still closed.
These details give a conversation somewhere to go without deciding how it has to end. An unpaid tab might lead to an argument, a bargain, or an awkward change of subject. You can discover which by playing your side of the scene. Add more context as the story needs it.
Taking the director's chair
The other way is to set the beat before you live in it. When you enter a room, describe what is happening before you speak or act. Go OOC when you need the scene pointed somewhere.
This is my favorite way to play. With a useful profile, and lore for the place I'm in, I can intend the next beat and still be at the edge of my seat. I can know that I want an argument without knowing the exact line, the flinch, or how it will land. That generated part is the suspense. Intending the beat isn't the same as controlling how it's played.
Before you speak, put the room on the page: who's here, what they're doing, and what the quiet is about.
If you need an out-of-character note, use ordinary words. Out of character, I want her to bring up the favor I still owe her. It gives the continuation a clear direction.
Speak to the NPCs, and narrate a reaction when you want it in the authored beat. Write that she snaps her fingers, and the snap is yours. What she says after it isn't.
You're giving the scene a direction, not scripting every word that follows. The continuation might take the tension somewhere you hadn't considered, which is part of what makes this style fun.
Friya was my character in the first solo campaign, the one I wrote about in the beginner guide. I played her with a general-purpose AI chat tool, not in RPBuddy, and I played that campaign from this chair. It started in a tavern, with a party of friends who had different histories, and it kept going for months. It was a lot of fun.
A moment in the scene
Imagine a tense conversation with an NPC named Sara. Here's the same discomfort, written two ways.
If I'm directing, I write the beat, including her reaction:
I scoff and look the other way. Sara sees my disregard and snaps her fingers to get my attention back. I look back at her and say, "I said it's fine, God."
I've supplied her finger snap as part of the scene, but left her next words open. Her continuation can build on that irritation, and I still get to experience how the exchange unfolds.
If I'm riding along, I only write my side:
I look away. "I said it's fine, God."
Here I leave Sara's reaction open. She might challenge me, fall silent, or change the subject. I'm choosing my character's behavior and discovering hers.
Finding your balance
I like the chair. Riding along is just as valid, and a blend is normal. Set the room, then just talk, or ride until the scene goes quiet.
Do I want to experience this scene, or shape it? Stay with what you do and say when you want the moment to land on you. Describe the room and the intention when you already know the beat, then stop writing everyone else's lines.
Try writing the opening of your next scene both ways before sending it. In one version, give only your character's words and actions. In the other, add the atmosphere and an NPC reaction you want to explore. Choose whichever makes you more curious to read what happens next. That's the style worth following.