ydegirl

recommend checking out this section of this video (and just checking out this channel in general, it's one of my favorites, offers a LOT of tremendously helpful writing/character advice). this guy talks about how the "show don't tell" rule isn't always correct, and in other videos he talks about how it's more important to know when to use show/tell rather just using it at all times. we can just as easily apply this to RP as we can to any other form of writing

some p decent advice here 

it mostly comes down to acknowledging narrative for your character is going to be more real and important to you than anybody else. how would your character really feel? how would they manifest that? 

I had an ex who had a big problem picking at her nails whenever she was anxious. It wasn’t something I noticed until i spent a lot of time with her, and that’s something that reflects on characters too. Anethra, my high elf, would pick her nails a lot. It was something I emoted that most people picked up on as just filling dead air for emotes and padding space. But those moments when you’re really in tune with your character and showing subtlety are what’s really special. It’s harder to do on a cooperative narrative like lotc than in books, but it also allows that unique opportunity where you aren’t in control of what other people say. 

Garden your character and let them grow. let them surprise you and think in depth about quirks, characteristics, morals, boundaries your character may have. Anethra never once stepped on a gold line because it was morally beneath her. She never let her palms get cut at gates because it’d scar and she’d feel ugly. Whenever someone slighted her she’d give the same smile or laugh. People will follow interesting characters and want to learn more about them. Playing someone who tells you their full story on their skin and name is someone who can’t quite match that because you just kind of know who they are. 

some great advice here though and it translates across mediums and types of storytelling. hope you have fun 😊

@ydegirl I hope what I provide may be more helpful & directly related to your question now that you've given me an example:

You need to always bear in mind that, as a player/gamer, you are the only one who inherently has access to "the mind" of the character you are playing. You are telling too much if you are expressing thoughts in your emotes. Emotions and the expression of those emotions are another area where one can go a long way showing, not telling. In the narrative form that LotC has by way of 'character' dialogue & emotes, describing the corresponding body language, facial expressions, and other visual cues of the emotion would be appropriately showing, not telling.

Example based on what you gave: "Wow, here is some text," she said as her eyebrows raised. Her lips curled into a smile.

This example neither describes your character's thoughts (or act of thinking) nor does it make a direct reference to the emotion. The body language & facial expression does the lifting here.

Another example: Mahpiya taps his forefinger against his chin and let out an audible oh.

This example once again lets body language & facial expression do the heavy lifting. Even without context, one can probably infer that Mahpiya is expressing either confusion, interest, or wonder.

I do think that, generally speaking, injecting adjectives to the body language, facial expression, & other visual cues are fine as it is usually done to help the reader solidly "categorize" what emotion, intention, or thought the player means to convey through their character.