Action vs. Emote

[Lupus Astrum]

This has probably been asked a million of times - but what is the intended use of the "action" speech option as opposed to the "emote" option?

I personally never use action, and wish it were simply replaced with emote.

Is there an actual intended use for it though?

[Oberoten]

I believe it's intended use is to show intentions... but yes, a spot of decent writing will make it rather obsolete.

[Tokuriku]

The biggest difference is by the way it is presented.
If you would write "makes a cake" and pass it as an emote, it would look like this:
Kenshin makes a cake

If you wrote the same thing and pass it as an action, it would look like this:
Kenshin: makes a cake

In my opinion, an emote is for something that your character does independently from what your Gamemaster could decide like snore, dance or stuff like that.
For exemple:
Kenshin laughs at the feeble attempt to persuade him.

An action is more what you want to do and put it up for the Gamemaster to decide if it works or not.
For exemple:
Kenshin: I will try and pry the bars open with my crowbar.

Either way, as you said, all could be passed as emotes but I believe it's just a little bit easier for the Gamemaster to find the important stuff in the middle of the chats and the emotes if there is the "action" option.

[Griogre]

The intention was Actions are something that might not happen. IE MyCharacter: opens the door. This is something that might need to be resolved by game mechanics and could fail to happen, if say the door was locked or stuck.

Another example of an action - Rayna: I disarm trap. In this case our favorite Amazon wanted to disarm a trap, however she might fail or think she succeeded when she did not depending on the roll. (By the way I really did like the way you played that character, at iCon - LOL).

Emotes are really suppose to be for emotions. However because emotes and actions are the same color text and because the /a command is broken many people use them interchangeably.

[Lupus Astrum]

Hmm, in that case, I think it would be preferable if the button for emote was alt and then action was alt+shift, as I have found most everyone I play with to use emotes much more.

In my opinion most people just find the textual result more pleasant on the eyes.

Rayna bounds up the statue and effortlessly hangs upside-down with her legs wrapped around the head.

Just looks better than...

Rayna: bounds up the statue and effortlessly hangs upside-down with her legs wrapped around the head.

Colons just automatically register in my brain as the start of speech (like a typical script), so using the same for actions is a bit mentally-annoying.

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(By the way I really did like the way you played that character, at iCon - LOL)
Haha, thanks - too many players fall into a rut of pseudo-powergaming and are afraid to play out weaknesses (Wonderful 8 INT), but I love 'em, haha. I had a lot of fun playing her as well - that girl could JUMP, ahaha.

[drkknight32]

What my group does sometimes is they just sort of put everything into one set of words and we use different dividers for different types of actions. It looks a little funky, but you have less things going on in the chat box.

Sally: *Looks up towards the roof and begins to ready her bow. She is unhappy.* "I really want a sandwich"