[quote=Jig]
Could you expand on this with regard to post length? It's a great article, but it highlights one of the biggest challenges of RPìng: contributing a noteworthy post long enough to feel worth reading without resorting to godmoding, unnecessary fluff, or the unreasonable demand of having every post run by every player as one big collaboration. Any further words of wisdom?
[/quote]

Quality over quantity. Construct your post based on how you react to others, then act based on your reactions, then explain those reactions, and if it's still too short, explain what your character thinks might happen and how they would react to that.

So for example. Player A writes about a killer spider. Your character is Johnson, a man with sword. Johnson has many options in this scenario. He can...
--Propose to retreat, or at least fall back and get allies and/or superior footing.
--Leave [Player A's character] to die. (Quite impolite though, and will rightfully get you a reputation as a damn, dirty deserter.)
--Propose a classic flanking attack.
--Charge wildly! (Generally unwise, but sometimes works.)
--Tell [Player A's Character] to fall back while Johnson holds off the spider.
--Attempt to communicate to the spider.
--Etc, etc, etc.

So, knowing Johnson has several options, how do we decide which one Johnson would choose?

Write Johnson's reaction. To the killer spider, then to his compatriot's position. Use exposition to expand on how he thinks of this situation, and to add in Johnson's emotional state, which will help to justify whatever course we take.
[i]"Johnson saw the great, disturbing looking beast with eight spindly legs and giant fangs, with eight, disturbingly vacant black eyes. It frightened him a great deal, and his comrade did not seem to be well equipped to handle it, having only a spear to hold the monstrosity off with."[/i]

Lets see. Johnson sees a great monster, he is disturbed by how inhuman it looks, he is frightened of it, and he thinks his comrade is not well armed to deal with the threat. So would Johnson charge this monster? Probably not. Would he suggest a flanking maneuver? Well, probably not again, he thinks his comrade is ill equipped to deal with the situation. So what will Johnson do? A. Run away and leave his friend to die, or B. Propose a retreat. Well, this is a role play, so having Johnson leave his comrade in arms to die horrible would probably incur the ire of all of your fellow role players for the rest of the story and end in the GM hitting you with the mighty karmic hammer of +4 sucks to be you.

So Johnson is going to propose a retreat, based on his reactions and expository thoughts and emotional state. So how will Johnson do this? Probably by planning it out (exposition), then telling his comrade through dialogue (action) what to do, followed up with obeying his own plan (action).

[i]"Realizing that winning was out of the question and that there was no sense to taking such a great risk, Johnson took a quick look around the cavern they were in. The tunnel they came from was large enough that the spider could pursue them, but a second tunnel, behind them and away from the spider which they noticed earlier, wouldn't fit the spider, but it would fit them. They could run there. Johnson yells out to his comrade. [b]"DAVIAN! WE MUST FALL BACK! OVER THERE!"[/b] He points at the man-sized tunnel. [b]"THE SPIDER CAN'T REACH US THERE!"[/b] He hoped that his comrade would listen to him, and then immediately bolted for it himself, deciding that he couldn't stay any longer even if he wished to do so."[/i]

If this is still too short, you can also add in additional thought and planning, even a little bit of motivation if you wish, though try to avoid overdoing it. (Remember: Exposition is like alcohol. Too much and you overdose and die.)

[i]"Johnson knew that this whole situation would be a trap the moment he heard it being told to him in the Stereotype Inn. The booze was too cheap and the barkeep cheaper, damn him. Who knew what was inside the man-sized hole as well, it could be hordes of cockroaches or other disgusting things. Maybe even smaller spiders, with their luck, it probably was smaller spiders... Johnson swallowed back his fear as he approached the tunnel entrance. His sister was depending on him, there was no time for giving up and going home!"[/i]

So! What do we have?

[hider=Excerpt: Casual][i]"Johnson saw the great, disturbing looking beast with eight spindly legs and giant fangs, with eight, disturbingly vacant black eyes. It frightened him a great deal, and his comrade did not seem to be well equipped to handle it, having only a spear to hold the monstrosity off with. Realizing that winning was out of the question and that there was no sense to taking such a great risk, Johnson took a quick look around the cavern they were in. The tunnel they came from was large enough that the spider could pursue them, but a second tunnel, behind them and away from the spider which they noticed earlier, wouldn't fit the spider, but it would fit them. They could run there. Johnson yells out to his comrade. [b]"DAVIAN! WE MUST FALL BACK! OVER THERE!"[/b] He points at the man-sized tunnel. [b]"THE SPIDER CAN'T REACH US THERE!"[/b] He hoped that his comrade would listen to him, and then immediately bolted for it himself, deciding that he couldn't stay any longer even if he wished to do so."[/i][/hider]

That is easily enough to go into casual role plays with. It tells the other players everything they need to know, succinctly, and this assumes there is only [b]one action[/b] going on in total to react towards. Remember, in a typical group role play, you will have at least three or four other people's previous actions to react towards before you even instigate your own. You can easily balloon a post's length to twice or even three times this one's size without any real level of effort on your part, except by acknowledging what others have done, which is what you should be doing anyway.

[hider=Excerpt: Advanced Min][i]"Johnson saw the great, disturbing looking beast with eight spindly legs and giant fangs, with eight, disturbingly vacant black eyes. It frightened him a great deal, and his comrade did not seem to be well equipped to handle it, having only a spear to hold the monstrosity off with. Realizing that winning was out of the question and that there was no sense to taking such a great risk, Johnson took a quick look around the cavern they were in. The tunnel they came from was large enough that the spider could pursue them, but a second tunnel, behind them and away from the spider which they noticed earlier, wouldn't fit the spider, but it would fit them. They could run there. Johnson yells out to his comrade. [b]"DAVIAN! WE MUST FALL BACK! OVER THERE!"[/b] He points at the man-sized tunnel. [b]"THE SPIDER CAN'T REACH US THERE!"[/b] He hoped that his comrade would listen to him, and then immediately bolted for it himself, deciding that he couldn't stay any longer even if he wished to do so.

Johnson knew that this whole situation would be a trap the moment he heard it being told to him in the Stereotype Inn. The booze was too cheap and the barkeep cheaper, damn him. Who knew what was inside the man-sized hole as well, it could be hordes of cockroaches or other disgusting things. Maybe even smaller spiders, with their luck, it probably was smaller spiders... Johnson swallowed back his fear as he approached the tunnel entrance. His sister was depending on him, there was no time for giving up and going home!"[/i][/hider]

This is the minimum for advanced, and again, predisposes itself on only [b]one[/b] action to reply to.

Remember, most importantly, at the end of the day: [b]Length is never a substitute for quality[/b]. Length is a [b]tool[/b], it is not a means to an end. Combat sequences, action sequences, anything that has rapid movement and quick changes to the scene should not have massive amounts of expository garbage. That is the definition of purple prose, which is a [b]poison[/b] that will kill any meaning your writing meant to convey. Even as a GM, in advanced, with role plays that typically last several months to outright multiple [b]years[/b], during combat sequences, I usually reply with one paragraph to each player involved. Because all of the players involved have not only what I've written to respond to, but each other, so if I shower them each with three or four or even five paragraphs of information, I'm going to be utterly [b]drowning[/b] them in work just to be able to respond in a coherent manner, that addresses everyone's contributions to the situation... And I know for a fact a lot of people just don't have time to sit down and assimilate three hours worth of reading, to then write up at least two more hours of work on their part. Especially not in a timely manner.

So, if you have to release a short post to keep the story going... Do it. If you have to ask the GM a question or two quick to get the information you need to then decide what your character will do, do it. It's all about pressing forward, not about how pretty the post looks.