Tenses in roleplaying

Which do you generally prefer and why? Which do you consider the better choice for narration and exposition? Which (if any) breaks your immersion? How do you react to different players writing in different tenses? Tell me everything.

I use and prefer present tense, the action happening as I’m thinking. Seems that’s what most games use, IME. I let others do what they do though, that’s not something that breaks my immersion, I filter tense when reading. I’ve been in games where GM stipulates what tense to use (I think it’s always been for present tense IIRC), but if a GM calls for otherwise I’d go along with it, not a big deal really.

Edit - I guess it might be my own shortcoming though, I get in a hurry sometimes and default to what I’m used to doing. So I’d have to really focus on posting in something different than present tense, that’s just a default mechanic for me.

I write like one might talk in casual conversation. Just start saying whatever comes to mind in the moment. Like throwing tracks down infront of a train as it goes. I believe past tense tends to be what I drift towards, but it shifts and flows depending on factors I don't hold actively in mind.

I float between past and present. Many of my posts begin in past, but end in present as the timeline catches up. It is the grammatical person that I struggle with, finding my posts all over the place. I just hope my players either don't notice or don't care.

My preference is present tense, since RPGs work best (for me) if I am in the moment.

I long enjoyed past tense and the more literary feel it sometimes conveys... and it was very common on TK. Since arriving at GP a number of years ago, I've switched gears as almost every game here has been in present tense. It does provide a more immediate feel. In the end I enjoy both, and consistency. And cowleyc, I'll do the same thing -- summarize or cover recent events with past, then switch to present in the moment.

Present, for me. I find it easier to role-play in the present tense, but oddly, I write in the past tense.

I too start in the past and switch to the present. Unfortunately I can’t articulate exactly when it feels right to do so, but at some point I just switch and usually don’t notice it until a few sentences later! Sometimes I go back and make the whole thing consistent, but not always. And when I do shoot for consistency, I usually try to match the tense that others are using.

I drift between the present and past tense in my narration based on what I'm describing.

Present tense when I'm describing something that is happening in the game. e.g. Moli mousey-sneaks down the corridor, careful to avoid treading in the squeaky floorboards in her path.

Past Tense when describing something that has happened.
e.g. The coach journey to Bogenhafen was completed without incident, which was unexpected.

As a rough rule of thumb I use 'Present Tense' to narrate events that the players can influence, or react to, and past tense to narrate events that are finished and cannot be altered by player action.

I almost always stay in present, but I'll also refer to things that already happened in past tense. Particularly when I leave a large gap between my posts, I'll cover what my character has been doing in the background using past participles and then catch up with the present. E.g. "While the party marched, Ilanis had been scanning the trees with her bow nocked. Now, she checks for traps." In any case I try to sound like I would the actual table, with the benefit of having space to wax poetic when I feel like it.

I find past tense more of a default. I am forced to artificially switch to present tense because I see many games use it. But I still find it odd to think about: try thinking of any other story written in present tense. I can't recall one written that way. Try to open any vignette in a TTRPG - same thing. It will go something like
or
or

I completely agree. Past tense seems most natural to me too, not to mention it allows me to add far more nuances to the narration than action-oriented present tense does. And it in fact takes a lot away from my writing when I'm forced to rewrite everything to fit in the group where the overwhelming majority of players and GM prefer present tense.

Very, very much this. I use present tense as I perceive everything to be dynamic and can change based on other people's posts and the roll of the dice. Using past tense feels like something is already locked in, as if it's already happened and can't be changed. If, as a GM, one of my players uses past tense, it really throws me off, even if what they describe is somewhat open ended (i.e. "the dwarf swung his axe aiming at the goblin" as opposed to "the dwarf sliced the goblin with a swing of his axe" in a situation where you're still making the attack roll and don't know if the dice will agree. Statement of intent, yes, declaration of outcome, no). I'll rarely use the past tense when describing things that have transpired and most of these times it's in a summary post at the start of the chapter (i.e. "it has been a few months since X happened and the party has been busy researching Y and Z in order to understand it, when just this morning they received news of...")

Aligning with some others, I use present tense in most cases unless I'm talking specifically about past events. When I'm roleplaying, I treat my writing less like I would if it were a short story or novel, and more like I'm in an ongoing and developing stream of events. Present tense makes sense to me for that and helps me feel connected to a living narrative.

On a similar note - do you write from third or first person when you play? I assume the STs/GMs mostly do the second - "you, Schumuky the Dwarf, find a little baby goblin, hiding in yer beard!".

I tried writing from the first in the game i'm playing now, as an experiment, and it is pretty fun and enjoyable.

Past tense for me always, like narrating in a story or novel, and also third person. Dialogue of course is in present tense.

But because of this, I also resort to conditional tense quite often, to convey situations happening at the very moment, or interior decision-making.

In play by post, always third person, whether I'm the GM or a player. When I'm a player in live tables though, whether online or around an actual table, I find myself alternating between first and third. Does that make sense?

Present tense for playing. GM could insert/interpret things.
Past tense for GMing. Once it's narrated it's done, no going back.
Future tense when maybe wrapping up a game and giving an epilogue.
Conditional tense is asking to be ignored. 'I would sit in the chair' Oh yeah? You would, but I got there first. I might use it occasionally when I know a GM isn't going to let me get away with a specific shenanigan or I'm alerting a player to something that's potentially about to happen, but even then, it's probably in future.

This for me as well. As for consistency, it does jar me a little bit when different people in the same game use different tenses, but nowhere near as much as when POV isn't uniform. For me, personally, reading someone's first-person narration is really jarring. It's like the PC is breaking the fourth wall. But that's just me.

I've used first person in a Noir duet before, and really liked it. But nope, not in a game with more than one player.

This. I'd find it weird to write a story in present tense (although I've done it, as a stylistic choice), but writing PbP is not writing a story. In fact, I'm deliberately trying to distance myself from the idea that I'm writing a story, that way I'm removing the (quite unfair) expectation that all players should be matching styles, tenses, post length, etc.

As for the POV - third person, mostly. In the current game I'm running I'm trying to do second person for the PCs and I'm not yet sure how I feel about it. And I find myself often reverting to third person when there's more than one PC in a scene, because it's not often clear who the "you" is in a given situation.

I'm new to PbP so my writing instinct was to write in the past tense since that's how I'm used to. But I can see the benefit of using present tense for PbP.

I tend to use first person, present tense when writing as long as my character is labeled well by the platform I'm using (to make the writing flow conversational I guess), otherwise, I use third-person, past tense to make my writing more like a narrative fron a book.

That's very neatly summed up. That's how I write as well. I'm swiping your wording, for when I explain this to a new player. :D

I strongly prefer present tense; in roleplay it feels jarring and awkward to describe something that's happening currently as something that happened already. I understand the impulse to do it that way because everyone is used to most written storytelling taking that approach, but it feels off to me.

I think it might come from my reading a lot of comic books, where active narration, when it's present at all, typically refers to what a character is doing instead of what they've done.My preference is strong enough that I've come to prefer it when reading (or writing) prose too, though it's rare to actually encounter that. But nowadays there's always a tiny part of my brain constantly fighting against the past-tense nature of most storytelling -- especially if it's a sci-fi story set in the future or something. If these events won't occur for five hundred years, why are we talking about them as if they already did? Is this a "time is a flat circle" thing?