My thoughts, nothing more, nothing less. I know people consider Joe and I to be stuck at the hip, but most of this has been written at work during breaks. Much of what I would have said has been covered expertly above, so I'll try not to go over too much ground.
One thing that I don't think has been stressed, is the BLADES is a society for people who enjoy a hobby. It has to cater to the views and wishes of the majority, and it has to be open and approachable to gain membership. When I joined LT, one of the things that made it very inaccessible was that everything was very tied down. There were maps, there was history, there was plot going back five years and I had no idea about it. I couldn't touch it, and everyone else was so caught up in their own groups with their own back plot to explain it to me. I have no desire to play an LT event again.
Being a hobby, people take different things to it. Some people live and breathe larp. There are few times when you can get larpers in a room together and not have the conversation degenerate to larp discussion. But it is a hobby, not a life. Most people have other things to do, and don't want to get caught up in a 24/7 system. And a system like that is deeply unfair on anyone who cannot put that much time in, or does not want to put that much time in (See online games like World of Warcraft).
I don't think there is anything wrong with playing yourself, as long as you remain in an IC manner. You can play someone with your own personality desires and fears as long as you strip out the modern aspects. The only thing that is important is that everyone is able to maintain suspension of disbelief and that nothing goes against the campaign or the setting. I enjoy playing someone totally different to myself, but I can see the appeal of playing myself and seeing how I would react in a fantasy setting. And I'm not going to force anyone out of the club because they do not want to or are not able pull out a fully fleshed out character from day one.
I could probably write you two thousand words on Cheska now. I couldn't have done it when I started. First couple of games I played I didn't know which deity she worshipped. She has grown though experience. I have learned about her though being her. I dislike your implication that people are bad roleplayers because they don't have written history. The fact that I cannot give you Cheska's grandparents name, or the name of the village she came from does not make the character any less real to me. Most monster roles I have been given with a two minute brief and some stats, but have still created a character with an identity and a personality and kept it up for a couple of hours in several cases. Can you imagine how much more effort a GM would have to go through if people couldn’t create NPCs without a 2000 word brief?
In the game Joe and I ran a couple of weeks ago, I played the ghost of a small child. I kew enough about her for plot requirements, but she never had a name. I still came home and cried for her, because for that day I became her. That's what roleplay is to me, that's what I get out of it, being someone other than myself. Why should I be penalised because I enjoy a different aspect, because I do not need crutches like maps and fully fleshed out histories? I also enjoy fighting. I know lots of people do. Is it so wrong for someone to go out each Sunday with the plan to have a good mosh and little else, as long as they remain IC?
no subject
One thing that I don't think has been stressed, is the BLADES is a society for people who enjoy a hobby. It has to cater to the views and wishes of the majority, and it has to be open and approachable to gain membership. When I joined LT, one of the things that made it very inaccessible was that everything was very tied down. There were maps, there was history, there was plot going back five years and I had no idea about it. I couldn't touch it, and everyone else was so caught up in their own groups with their own back plot to explain it to me. I have no desire to play an LT event again.
Being a hobby, people take different things to it. Some people live and breathe larp. There are few times when you can get larpers in a room together and not have the conversation degenerate to larp discussion. But it is a hobby, not a life. Most people have other things to do, and don't want to get caught up in a 24/7 system. And a system like that is deeply unfair on anyone who cannot put that much time in, or does not want to put that much time in (See online games like World of Warcraft).
I don't think there is anything wrong with playing yourself, as long as you remain in an IC manner. You can play someone with your own personality desires and fears as long as you strip out the modern aspects. The only thing that is important is that everyone is able to maintain suspension of disbelief and that nothing goes against the campaign or the setting. I enjoy playing someone totally different to myself, but I can see the appeal of playing myself and seeing how I would react in a fantasy setting. And I'm not going to force anyone out of the club because they do not want to or are not able pull out a fully fleshed out character from day one.
I could probably write you two thousand words on Cheska now. I couldn't have done it when I started. First couple of games I played I didn't know which deity she worshipped. She has grown though experience. I have learned about her though being her. I dislike your implication that people are bad roleplayers because they don't have written history. The fact that I cannot give you Cheska's grandparents name, or the name of the village she came from does not make the character any less real to me. Most monster roles I have been given with a two minute brief and some stats, but have still created a character with an identity and a personality and kept it up for a couple of hours in several cases. Can you imagine how much more effort a GM would have to go through if people couldn’t create NPCs without a 2000 word brief?
In the game Joe and I ran a couple of weeks ago, I played the ghost of a small child. I kew enough about her for plot requirements, but she never had a name. I still came home and cried for her, because for that day I became her. That's what roleplay is to me, that's what I get out of it, being someone other than myself. Why should I be penalised because I enjoy a different aspect, because I do not need crutches like maps and fully fleshed out histories? I also enjoy fighting. I know lots of people do. Is it so wrong for someone to go out each Sunday with the plan to have a good mosh and little else, as long as they remain IC?