Seemingly unimportant dialogue into more dramatic dialogue.

This concerns the FRPG6 Dialogue Engine.

Side note about the name FRPG6
By the way, the FRPG6 means that it was once a part of Flash Fiction. Yes, my original document was to create something that would generate both story and dialogue. The original title of that working document wasn't called Flash RPG. It wont say what it formerly was, in case I want to reuse that name, I'll leave it blank. It was … RPG 1d6.

So after I extracted the game into parts, FRPG means Flash RPG. So, technically I think the dialogue engine, behavior engine, flash RPG, three conflict chain, and deep dive engine all came from that original single document.

While later material dropped the FRPG6 from the title, the original source was one single document.

Anyway, to the main thrust of this blog post.

A comment about the dialogue engine was something like roughly, what happens when in the middle of action a player rolls up "Nice weather."

This comes from rolling a #1 on the friendly conversation mood column.

Here is #1's content from FRPG6 Dialogue Engine, page 6, on the Dialogue Mood and Topic engine which is the main engine for Dialogue Engine.

Casual conversation. See
Fact Generator = a current
sensory, emotional, and / or
cognitive experience. AKA
weather talk.

And after this, which was expanded to 12 moods in Relationship Engine, the friendly mood is the following, which requires a Fact Generator sensory roll.

Engaging casual topics

To me, this isn't a waste of a roll. Rather it is an opportunity for irony.

Imagine the battle scenes you may have scene that whenever in the height of battle, some confident person stops to enjoy the beauty of something–unfazed by the chaos or drama surrounding.

She stopped the running charge—and for a brief moment looked towards the heavens. 

"I love it when the sun shines down upon my victory," she said with a half-smile. She screamed a mighty roar and leapt into the fray.

That is a nice weather dialogue.

Does it make the dialogue worse?

To me, it only adds distinct flavor and a little bit of spunk.

Notes from The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue by John Hough, Jr.

These notes are from The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue by John Hough, Jr.

Here are nine points taken from the first two chapters of The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue. The book has much more to be said about these topics–when to use them and when not to use them properly.

talking verbs
said
asked, answered
continued, interupted

modifying said
adverb (loudly, quietly)

italics of what was said
"help me" = emphasis, loudly, or shrill

use ! sparingly
"Yes!"

brevity & brisk dialogue
1-3 sentences compact, every word has meaning
by 6 sentences, the other character becomes a listener, and drama shifts to the speech

limit stating the obvious
like when is saying "It's a beautiful day." not obvious? When things are horrific and not beautiful like in the middle of a battle in war.

omit most greetings and salutations
most do not reveal character nor move the story along

only repeat what was said to drive a point home

limit ah, um, and hmm