The Use of Tense

While it's one of Temple's cash cows, we're talking about another context of tense.

Basically, we *should* be using the Present Tense while RPing. Although time becomes somewhat warped while in a scene, mostly serving only as a starting point, your characters are generally supposed to be interacting in real time.

It's kind of a book deal, like how in a chapter of a book the passage of time is dictated by the author rather than by any real measurement. The characters are moving in abstract "real time", but the passage of time is dictated only by the starting point and the ending point, without any catalogue of the time that passes inbetween.

Thus, it's generally a good idea to aim for: Character does this and that, and then does something else.

It's equally a good idea to avoid: '''Character did something. He then did something else. He then walked down somewhere.'''

Present tense. Not past tense. Future tense should be avoided all together. '''Character would do something and then something else. Then he would do this and then that.'''

Easy! It makes the flow of RP read better too. Tense is textual lubrication!