1. God modding - what to write

One issue that I have been confronted with again not long ago is the difficulty of some new players to stick to their characters.
In most games god-modding not allowed (also look at the Admin Help thread, category "Diva" about this problem). However, I found that many of these new players are not the 'bad' Diva kind who *want* to be in control, but simply that they cannot figure out what else to do to avoid one-liners and move the story along.
(Note that these are actually very promising players, because they want to avoid one-liners and move the story along )

One example is a scene of two people meeting:

Arthur went to the door, and saw that Bernard had arrived. He smiled. "Hello, I am glad that you made it. Come in!"

At which point a reaction from Bernard would be needed... but the posts is still horrible short and so on... so he adds some more.

Bernard came in and Arthur lead him to the living room. "Would you like something to drink? Sherry maybe?"
When Bernard nodded Arthur went to fix him a drink.


The problem is obvious. Arthur's player is controlling Bernard. (I exaggerated a bit, to make the problem more clear)

Now, the question is how to do it better. There are actually two ways:
a) avoiding any kind of control whatsoever
b) making it sound less like control and giving the other player a chance to interfere

About a)
In this case, one would only work with the first part of my example:
Arthur went to the door, and saw that Bernard had arrived. He smiled. "Hello, I am glad that you made it. Come in!"

But in this one could elaborate much more, thus making the post more alive and interesting. A general guideline that new players often forget is: Do not only include the general actions and dialogue of the scene, but also thoughts, descritions and feeling. Use adjectives and more descriptive verbs. It will give the other players much more to works with.

In this example it might look like this:
Arthur hurried to open the door. There, outlined as a dark shape against the sinking sun stood Bernard, who had finally had arrived. Glad that his friend had managed to catch the earlier flight and arrive in time for the party he smiled. "Hello, I am glad that you made it. Come in!" he said, taking a step back into the long hallway to allow the other man to come inside.

I am aware that this cannot be learned overnight, but it is a good start to think about these things when writing and trying to include more and more of them. With time it will come naturally.

About b)
While method a) is generally preferable to avoid clashes with other players, there are some groups where a little controlling is allowed, of scenes where it might be necessary, for example if one character is completely in control of a situation. But even then there are ways to phrase it a bit more elegantly. An 'if' and 'when' and such things will go a long way of making it sound less harsh.

Example:
Arthur went to the door, and saw that Bernard had arrived. He smiled. "Hello, I am glad that you made it. Come in!"

Arthur waited for Bernard to come in and headed for the living room. "Would you like something to drink? Sherry maybe?"
Expecting Bernard to accept the offer Arthur went to fix the drink?

Do you see the difference? Bernard is still eing lead to the living room, but he is free to hesitate, turn around, take a run around the part in the meantime, because Arthur is 'waiting' for him. The Control is not comletely gone, but less harsh.
The control about the drink is gone, though. Bernard is free to say 'yes' or 'no' as he likes, because Athur is just acting on assumptions so far.