The Unseen Servant forums

You already have a gadget to designate dialog with a specific color. I often see people posting internal discussions or random PC thoughts. Have you considered a 'thought' style box in a different color?

That’s an interesting idea. Did you mean a post button that provides a standardized color like dialog?
Or one that provides a hidden text box Or the open text box like “quote”

Ron is thinking that wrote:This is a neat idea.

Or something else?

The post button, actually. I've seen plenty of 'spoiler' boxes used for thoughts, and it's a perfectly valid system. But....

This is a good idea. But which color...??? (Hint: not this one.)
Also, when posting “thoughts,” I find italics (along with the color change) helps to set them off as such.

I think this hasn't been done before because, from a functional gaming point of view, posting internal dialog or mental conflict/thoughts is good for fleshing out your own character, but it's really not terribly useful in an RPG environment unless another character has ESP or has just cast an ESP spell.

You could post 1 page or 10 pages of internal dialog or a character's thoughts on a given situation, and the end result is the same - no other character can react or reply to any of it or even acknowledge those thoughts as having been made. To do so would be META gaming.

So even as "character development", it has limited value, because the only person who benefits from that character development is the character itself.

As a DM, I would encourage minimal use (or zero use) of internal dialog/conflict because it does nothing to move the game along. It is neither action nor spoken word, therefor nobody can react to it.

Example: http://itispitchdark.blogspot.com/2011/ ... t-two.html

I would also encourage not using white text on a black background, though I understand this specific site uses that format for thematic purposes...