RedM /me and /do commands: the roleplay tools that make a scene

RedM /me and /do commands are the oldest roleplay tools there are, and still the ones used most. A good /me turns "he clicked a button" into "he wipes the glass and sets it down". This guide covers how to write them, where the text should appear, and the tools around them: text left in the world, status labels, skillchecks for contested actions, animations, and how to keep it all from turning into spam. The tools described are the ones in Poggy Scenes ($9.99), because that is what we run, with the free options named where they exist.

What RedM /me and /do commands are for

/me is something your character does. /do is something the world shows, or the answer to a question about it. Between them they cover everything the game cannot animate: a look, a smell, a hand slipping into a pocket.

How to write a good /me

• Present tense, third person. "/me tips his hat", not "/me tipped my hat".
• Only what others can see or hear. Thoughts and feelings belong in how you act, not in the text.
• Attempt, do not decide. "/me swings at his jaw" leaves the other player a choice. "/me knocks him out cold" does not.
• One action at a time. Short enough to read before it fades. If it needs three lines, it is three emotes.

When to use /do

Use /do for what the other player cannot see for themselves, and to ask and answer. "/do Would I smell whiskey on him?" is a fair question; "/do Yes, strongly" is the answer. It also sets a scene: "/do The wanted poster is torn down the middle."

Overhead text or chat?

Chat keeps a record and scrolls away. Overhead text sits on the character, so you know who did what, but it fades. The best setup does both: text over the character, plus a place to read what you missed.

What ships free depends on the framework. RSG Core has a /me built in that floats text over the character. Stock VORP Core has no /me at all. On QBCore RedM it depends on your chat resource. Whatever you pick, run one /me. Two scripts answering the same command is a mess; Poggy Scenes lets you rename any of its commands in the config.

In Poggy Scenes, /me floats above the character for 10 seconds and can be seen from 20 metres. It also goes into the /me box, a see-through box near the top of the screen that collects /me messages from players within 6 metres, with the character's first name and initial, coloured by job. Each player sets it with /mebox: auto fades after 30 seconds, persist stays up, off hides it, and move drags it anywhere. Messages delete themselves after five minutes. /do shows in red above the character and does not go into the box.

Scene text: notes left in the world

Some descriptions belong to a place, not a person. A fresh grave with the dirt still loose. A smell of smoke in the barn. A notice nailed to the church door. With /scene a player writes the text, picks colours from 19 swatches and a size, then moves it into place before saving. Scene text can be read from 5 metres, is drawn in capitals because that is how the game draws world text, and stays through reconnects and restarts.

That persistence is the point and the risk. A crime scene that is still there the next evening is great roleplay. Forty old scenes on Main Street are clutter. See moderation below.

Status labels over a character

A status label is the /do that does not fade. /status Injured, left arm sets one at once; /status on its own opens an editor with colours and presets saved per character; /cstatus clears it. It can be read from the same 5 metres as scene text.

Good uses: injuries a doctor should see, appearance the game cannot show ("Soaked through", "Smells of the stable"), and a character's state ("Drunk", "Out cold"). Poor uses: out-of-character notes and anything that tells players what they could not know.

Skillchecks instead of dice

A dice roll settles an argument, but nobody gets better at dice. For actions against the world, like picking a lock, stitching a wound or cracking a safe, a skillcheck lets the player's own timing decide. Poggy Skillcheck (Free) is free: a needle sweeps round a ring and the player presses Space inside the zone. It is a tool for scripts, not a command players type, so your lockpicking or medical script calls it and acts on the result:

local result = exports.poggy_skillcheck:StartSkillCheck({
    speed = 2, difficulty = 2, repetition = 3,
})
if result.success then
    -- open the door
end

Speed and zone size go from 1 to 5, and up to 10 hits in a row can be required, so a cheap padlock and a bank vault can feel different. A gold "great" zone gives a bonus for precision. It uses no framework functions at all. On RSG Core, the free rsg-lockpick is another minigame your scripts can call. Between two players, dice or a plain agreement still work best; a skillcheck judges a player against the world, not against another player.

Animations that sell the scene

"/me leans on the post" lands better when the character actually leans. RSG Core ships rsg-animations, a free emote menu with favourites. vorp_animations on VORP is a library for developers rather than a player menu, so search GitHub or the Cfx.re forum for a VORP emote menu. RedM animations goes further.

Three Poggy scripts fit here:

• Poggy AnimTool ($24.99) is for staff, not players. It chains animations on a timeline, attaches props with keyframes and exports a scene your own scripts can play: a doctor's examination, a smith at the forge. /animtool needs the command.animtool ACE.
• Poggy Badges ($20) lets law characters flash a job-locked badge. It shows the badge image and name to players within 2 metres, which says "deputy" better than any /do.
• Poggy Transform ($9.99) lets players become any of 90 animals and people, and wolves and dogs have emotes such as /ae howl. It suits events and animal roleplay, and any entry can be locked to a job. Its admin character-appearance browser is VORP-only; everything else runs on every framework.

Moderating it

Roleplay text is free speech with a map pin, so plan for abuse before it happens.

Removing a scene

Stand within about a metre and a half and press 4. The player who placed it can remove their own; jobs in Config.removejobs (police, sheriff and marshal by default) and the admin group can remove anyone's. The server checks every removal again.

Cleaning up in bulk

The Scenes panel in /poggy lists every scene with who placed it, where and when. Edit the text, delete one, delete everything by one player, or delete everything older than a number of days. Scenes never expire on their own, so do this every week or two.

Limiting who can place scenes

Turn on Config.joblock and list jobs in Config.allowjobs. Job names are exact and case-sensitive.

Keeping a record

Changes made from the Scenes panel are printed to the server console with who made them. Nothing is sent to Discord, so a screenshot is still your evidence for a report.

Keeping forms in check

Poggy Transform checks attacks on both ends, and the target must have PvP on. Lock animal forms that can fight behind a job if they are being used to grief.

Rules worth writing down

1. /me describes an attempt, never the result for someone else.
2. /do is for what cannot be seen, and questions get an honest answer.
3. Status labels are in character.
4. Scenes describe; they do not advertise, insult or instruct.
5. Clean up your scenes when the story is over.

Every Poggy script here runs on VORP Core, RSG Core and QBCore RedM through the free Poggy Core (Free). How to install a RedM script covers start order, and setting up jobs covers the job names these configs expect.