Skits, and how do you do them? (Using hocuspocus)

Aerosi

So, I want to create a skit for a certain event, but I can't seem to figure out how people do them. I've seen one in action before by someone I met in Bopalopia, but I don't know how they did it, unless they typed out every single command, but she was talking a bit about timing.... Which using manual commands, would make not a lick of sense.

Do people use scripts, aliases, triggers, what? And my skit will be fairly large.

Please inbox me for this, as I might need more help after the initial and I don't want to have to keep posting questions when my first has already been answered here.

Aktillum

I'll PM you after I leave this here, an HHELP file I wrote for the CIJ

HHELP SKITS

So you want to put on a successful skit? First, lets clear up some

misconceptions. Putting on a skit is nothing to be intimidated by. Its

not something that needs to spend forever on your drawing board,

endlessly being tweaked to perfection.

A skit is simply thus: A short sketch. It can be humorous, such as a

parody or satire. It can be a witty dialogue on the meaning of life. It

can be a slam poetry, or you can juggle eggs and balance a broom on your

nose while riding a unicycle. It can be ANYTHING YOU WANT! HAVE FUN!

EXPRESS YOURSELF! BE CREATIVE! Just make it look good.

How do you make it look good?

-Proper timing between actions. You want your audience to be able to fully appreciate your emotes before you go to the next action. If your

skit has 10 emotes, don't just do them all, then sit back and wait for

the audience to read them. Put a nice, lengthy pause between your

actions.

-Understand how to properly include items and people in your emotes.

Read and practice HELP EMOTING, learn how to properly combine people and things into your emotes.

-Take advantage of using illusions, if you are able to cast them. If you

can't cast illusions, but want to use them in your skit, consider asking

a House member who can cast illusions for their help during your skit.

Aktillum

@Aerosi

I haven't known many people who fully script out a performance, most people in the CIJ just create a sequence of aliases. Skit1, skit2, skit3, skit4 etc etc.

skit1 hocuspocus aerosi does something
skit2 hocuspocus aerosi does something else

then you just go through your alias sequence during your performance. and with hocuspocus you can put them on a timer to help with pausing between what everyone sees. I find a 10 - 15 second pause is usually good for emotes/illusions that consist of 3+ lines.

Aerosi

Oops, sorry, sorry! I meant to press 'No' on the answer above!! Please, if you were going to inbox me/post here, please do so!

@Aktillum Hrm, that is a nice HHELP files, but what I really want more is maybe a crash course or even extensive guide to creating skit on Mudlet. I know how to emote and all, and I do actually have the script all written out and everything, I just don't want to have to COPY/PASTE, or type everything super fast and hope I didn't fudge up and look like an idiot with something is supposed to have been planned.

Melodie

I wouldn't suggest creating a script for the skit - while easy to do, it's also easy to really mess up. At best, creating different aliases (or even if you want, an alias that would send the right lines in order, you just have to do the alias yourself manually) would be at best.

The reason I still copy/paste manually is because it's a time-filler. One of the very very major things you have to be careful about with any kind of lengthy amount of emotes/says/etc (rituals, sermons, performances, etc) is making sure you give your audience enough time to read, enough time to anticipation the next thing slightly, while all still keeping them engaged (aka don't let it get much past the 5-8 minute mark). If you just put in a bunch of text every few seconds, no one is going to read it.

It's not at all unprofessional to just copy/paste so you can manually control when people see things. It is still how I do things, 8~ years later, 99% of the time.

Nim

I type things out.

Of course, it helps if your typing speed is in the triple digit. If you've got 40wpm typing speed, I wouldn't recommend that except with audiences you know will be patient with you.

Or if you're willing to cut the performance down from paragraphs to sentences, which, honestly, might be worth considering anyway if you can make it work.

Roleplaying has never required long paragraphs of writing after all!

Aerosi

I think I'll go with copy/pasting manually. Making aliases is just..... Sooooo long, especially for what I'm doing. Plus, I won't forget when to send the alias, so that might be helpful.......

Heh, typing things out doesn't sound so bad, either, but I've only got an average of about 70wpm. Will probably not work at all for me, and will have unusually long pauses if I accidentally put my illusion to 10 seconds, when I've already waited about 10-15 to enter it.