Powergaming

[Duke]

I would like to roleplay as an engine repair technician/mechanic. I am just wondering if it is powergaming if I were to check a customer's engine, and diagnose a problem, or I must do "/do is your carburetor adjusted properly?" etc.?

Scenario 1:

*Customer walks into shop*
Customer: Hi, I have a problem. My car is stalling quite a bit.
Me: Alright, let me have a look at it.
*Customer pops the hood*
Me: /me checks the engine over
Me: /me checks the carburetor
Me: /do carburetor is fine
Me: /me checks the fuel pump
Me: /do fuel pump is broken
Me: It seems that your fuel pump is broken.

Scenario 2:
*Customer walks into shop*
Customer: Hi, I have a problem. My car is stalling quite a bit.
Me: Alright, let me have a look at it.
*Customer pops the hood*
Me: /me checks over the engine
Me: /do is your carburetor adjusted properly?
Customer: /do yes
Me: /do is your fuel pump broken?
Customer: /do yes
Me: It seems that your fuel pump is broken.

 

[Mark_Fleur]

Great question. What you've just shown in my opinion is 2 different roleplay styles, one which requires one party to have a fair amount of knowledge (namely yourself), and the other which requires the both of you to have a reasonable amount of knowledge. When I RP things such as surgeries and I ask if a person has a collapsed lung, if their patella is correctly located or if I find a history of cardiac disease on their records then I usually get a /do What's that mean? Or a /pm Mark_Fleur LOL what's that mean?
It is a bit annoying, and so as soon as I get that I just ask general questions eg /me listens to your chest /do Anything abnormal? If so what.
If they respond "/do Yes, it sounds weak and wet" then I go "Sir I believe you have a collapsed lung on the left hand side of your body- this has been caused by _____" etc ie I ask general questions and use my own knowledge to make assumptions and guesses accuratley, compared to getting stupid/moronic /do's from people who don't know what they're on about- for example "/do My blood starts turning blue", well no it really isn't, no liveable conditions in the world would allow for someone to have blue blood, unless they were dead in an oxygen free environment and had been suspended there for several minutes...

So either at the beginning of the RP ask if they have any knowledge of mechanics IRL or start the second way and if they're stupid just change to the first way partway through- if they're struggling to keep up they won't mind!

 

[Duke]

That helps a lot, thank you

 

[Ink]

solved, moving.