Just make sure that if you approach RP with the overall narrative in mind like this that you are not the only one in your circle doing so or things will head in a not fun direction for you.
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Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
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RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 12:33 PM
Isn't that the default state for RP?
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RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 12:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2015, 12:42 PM by Gegenji.)
(03-02-2015, 12:21 PM)Kage Wrote: Are you saying that in an RP that the overall narrative takes a backseat to a character's narrative? (03-02-2015, 12:33 PM)allgivenover Wrote: Isn't that the default state for RP? Do they have to be in conflict? Can't you have an overarching narrative going on and still allow for personal character development? Like Jancis' pilgrimages! They have an overarching narrative going - extolling and celebrating the Twelve - and yet you can have all sorts of personal mini-plots going on between the participants. |
RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 12:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2015, 12:46 PM by Kage.)
(03-02-2015, 12:33 PM)allgivenover Wrote: Isn't that the default state for RP?How would I know? I'm not the one answering a question with another question. If you want to be passive aggressive about a genuine question and a discussion, I'm not holding a gun to your head to have it. (03-02-2015, 10:13 AM)Dogberry Wrote: Yeah, Frank Sobotka is the leader of the Baltimore chapter of the "International Brotherhood of Stevedores" (basically the fictionalized version of the International Longshoremen's Association) at the Port of Baltimore. I'd love to see RP dealing with corruption in Limsa Lominsa's ports.I might be quite enjoying the fact that Amazon Prime allows for all 5 seasons to be in HD for prime accounts. :V Would this allow for some.... human trafficking (and deaths), with political contributions to ship captains under the Admiral's command and some sort of heroin drug? |
RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 12:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2015, 12:49 PM by allgivenover.)
Of course they don't have to be in conflict. Every roleplayer has thier own mix of narrative vs character motivation, and I do believe that most lean toward the latter. My point is that if everyone else you associate with is 80/20 character/narrative and you are operating at 60/40 narrative/character then you are not likely going to have fun.
Numbers chosen are arbitrary and just for example. |
RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 12:56 PM
I think it is up to the discretion and management of the roleplayer to balance both character and group narratives! It may be tricky at times, but all it takes is some thought, an open mind, and perhaps a personal guildline or two!
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RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 01:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2015, 01:09 PM by Cato.)
The biggest obstacle is often finding like-minded role-players to indulge in grand tales of adventure involving meaningful consequences and genuine character depth. In my experience a significant chunk of role-players in MMO's are content to indulge in 'tavern' and 'romance' role-play whilst very rarely touching upon anything else.
Not that there's anything wrong with that sort of role-play, it's just a shame that it's so prominent and that the role-players who are up for grander plots are frigid to those outside their little groups or simply think far too highly of themselves to make interaction with them enjoyable. Personally I've always made it a point to develop my characters in such a way as to leave them open to being injured or killed; especially if I feel as though their core tale has been told. |
RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 01:29 PM
You're making a logical mistake in your example, and your raised question in regards to roleplay;
The example of death you've quoted from the Wire was so that the story had something to feed on. a key moment to move the story forward. That was a decision a director made pertaining to a figure from literature. See the boy die (Even with his personal implication of liking the character), so that the story gets the necessary panache (Because the story goes first). So far so good. So you have the director sacrifice a character for the progress of the story. ergo; A singular Writer/Director kills of a Character in the singular narrative that he writes/oversees. Now, In roleplay, you do not have a singular narrative. There's no singular story to follow. Infact, in Roleplay you're not the Director, you are more of an Actor. Every single player follows his own characters narrative UNTIL you decide to switch from organic/open RP (actions/consequences entirely free and unrestrained) and switch towards Story writing RP (Actions/consequences are shaped to adhere your character but also to enable the progress of the desired Narrative that includes others). Another big kicker is that Roleplayers often do not only seek to own their Character, but also their Characters Story. The distinction is important for the following reason; If a person just focuses on maintaining character, you can literally throw his character at anything. Alien invasion, Zombie Moogles, A trip to hell, or grocery shopping with Ul'dahs prom Queen. Maintaining Character simply means that the character IN that scenario will undoubtly react how he should react to it, yet he sees no claim to where his character would end up in, or what he would face. If he'll be encountered with a lethal force he'll roleplay out dying, if he'll encounter poisonous gas he'll roleplay out dying form that slowly, if he'll encounter a rock-slide burrying him he'll get squished. The point is, to maintain character, you needn't control over narrative. But that's not how most people roleplay. We don't just remain in character, and react. We also own our characters story, and therein, the narrative and actions of our characters. So, to answer your initial question ; Quote:So I'm curious, have you made decisions to promote a better story? Did your characters ever go through something that, while it would not have been 100% in character at the time, would enrich the story? I'm not saying complete 180 but did you have to think of a way to steer your character a certain way to make it in character with the ultimate reason being a better story? I'll address this portion by portion; First, and this should be almost biblical law to every roleplayer; NEVER break Character. While others can never tell you if you do or do not break Character, you yourself will know. There's alot of immersion for yourself that you will ruin if you have your character wash up / apart in order to satisfy someone else, and more importantly, this dis-satisfaction WILL wash over into your play, therein making your portrayal of your character the way you want to portray him skewed. Think like an Actor; You want to deliver the best performance you can. However; That doesn't translate into "Never cooperate". While you should never break character, you can, and should BEND and SHARE narrative. If you're imaginative enough, you can have your most vile enemies work together if both parties do the right things with the narrative. Take for example X-men Comics. They constantly toss their characters at almost ridiculous scenarios, but seldomnly is character broken in any of those. All it takes is a NPC here, a vile action there, a bit of drafting on both sides to make almost anything possible without anyone ever having to break character. Which leads me to my last point ; Your initial post kind of tackled a massive amount of points, such as ; consequence, narrative, character integrity, story progress, IC/OOC seperation, and so on. I could keep writing on this for days on end, and still not give you a satisfying answer. I guess what it all boils down to is the following ; Make the quality of your Roleplay your personal responsibility. That is the only way you'll get the specific Quality of Roleplay out of it that you seek. |
RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 01:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2015, 01:33 PM by Cato.)
(03-02-2015, 01:22 PM)Gegenji Wrote:(03-02-2015, 01:09 PM)Graeham Ridgefield Wrote: The biggest obstacle is often finding like-minded role-players to indulge in grand tales of adventure involving meaningful consequences and genuine character depth. In my experience a significant chunk of role-players in MMO's are content to indulge in 'tavern' and 'romance' role-play whilst very rarely touching upon anything else. You don't need to be a hero to have a grand tale. You could spin a civilian's encounter with a regular bandit into a grand adventure if you wanted to and I've done just that in the past. I suspect it may simply be a culture thing - in other MMO's that I've played the atmosphere and attitude towards role-play has been completely different. Like I said, it's not necessarily a bad thing - everyone is welcome to do what they want, after all! Though it's most definitely proving to be a culture shock as the sort of role-play I seek doesn't seem to be as common as it is elsewhere. Which makes me consider just using FFXIV for PvE related matters and 'light' role-play whilst indulging elsewhere for something a bit more meaty. |
RE: Decisions Made to Promote a "better" story |
03-02-2015, 01:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2015, 01:46 PM by Gegenji.)
(03-02-2015, 01:31 PM)Graeham Ridgefield Wrote: You don't need to be a hero to have a grand tale. You could spin a civilian's encounter with a regular bandit into a grand adventure if you wanted to and I've done just that in the past. I suspect it may simply be a culture thing - in other MMO's that I've played the atmosphere and attitude towards role-play has been completely different. I'm just positing that it doesn't have to be a straight physical conflict like that. What about forgetting your anniversary with your girlfriend? A whirlwind of panic and running around town at the last minute to procure a gift for her and try to avoid being stuck sleeping on the couch or worse. Wouldn't that be an adventure of its own? Or maybe your character doesn't care. Each day is special, so this is just one more in a long line of wonderful days. However, you still have to explain that to her, so she understands that you don't need special holidays to know how important she is. Or maybe she's just a fling and you deal with the fallout and start on a new hunt for a new conquest. Each can be thrilling and engaging, each can be an "adventure", and each can show the depths of your character - in this case, their feelings on love and relationships. Or, to get away from romance. What about a merchant? He finds out that one of the items he sold was flawed or a fraud! Are they being scammed, or is this truly an err on his part? He might have to track down where and how this happened so the integrity of his product remains strong! Perhaps it just turns out that, in the end, one of his artisans stayed up late the night before to celebrate their kid's birthday and was woozy at work, resulting in a slip-up. A few harsh words, a promise that wouldn't happen again, and everything is better. An event, a conflict, and resolution all without having to actually draw steel or be forced to deal with bandits/monsters/big bads. That's all I'm getting it. It just seems a lot of the examples you're providing insist that violence and such is needed, as opposed to a more... I guess you could call it "mundane" sort of conflict or adventure, loathe as I am to use such a term. That might not be your intent at all, of course, I'm just saying for the sake of debate here. |
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