As a player or a developer, how do you like the PC’s dialogue to be written? In Blood Money, the PC’s dialogue is only ever chosen by the player, so you have one of the below styles:
She gives you a sly look. "So, are you in?"
*fake_choice
#"Yes, absolutely."
"Wonderful," she says. "I'll see you at the treasury tonight."
Or:
She gives you a sly look. "So, are you in?"
*fake_choice
#I agree, and shake her hand.
"Wonderful," she says. "I'll see you at the treasury tonight."
#I'm not sure about this. I'll talk her out of it.
The police will be watching the treasury closely tonight, and the moon is so bright that it'll be hard to hide. When you tell her so, she sighs. "All right. But you owe me."
In some games, though, the PC has dialogue that isn’t chosen by the player. So you might have something like:
She gives you a sly look. "So, are you in?"
*fake_choice
#I agree, and shake her hand.
"Absolutely," you say.
"Wonderful. I'll see you at the treasury tonight."
#I'm not sure about this. I'll talk her out of it.
"Have you seen the moon tonight?" you say. "It'll be impossible to hide."
"But we need that money," she says, but you can tell she's wavering.
"The police will be crawling all over the place," you tell her. "It's too dangerous."
She sighs. "All right. But you owe me."
As a developer, I haven’t done the last one very much. It feels quite appealing, but I wonder whether it might feel more railroady. As a player, I’ve found it can help the PC feel more concrete and fleshed out (Tally Ho did it particularly well to reinforce the voice of the game), but at the same time you run the risk of having dialogue that the player doesn’t think is right for their PC. So what do you enjoy? Are there CoGs or HGs where the PC’s speech has worked especially well for you?