I can't know where I live because I'm not being allowed to know - I can't nail down a location because then everyone has to be aware of it and it becomes intractable for the future. People scream and start gibbering when they hear that, so I can't have a fixed abode.
I think the issue here is one of flexibility. Our characters live in a world that is essentially being playtested - and this means that every now and again the fabric of reality goes boing. Even things that have hitherto been fairly strongly fixed, such as the College, are subject to changes. The trick when defining locations is flexibility, and a little vagueness. Your family lived on a plot of land x miles from the Barony capital? Fine, no problem. Why should not being able to quote grid reference and elevation prevent your roleplaying in-game? Nothing wrong with having a house surrounded by orchards. Someone wants to live near you but have fields as far as the eye can see? Then they talk to you and modify their own decision based on that. Or they live in a valley with no line-of-sight to your orchards. The world is flexible, and distances do not remain the same with time.
Frankly, the two examples you give of back-history would be fine within Van Heusen's Barony. The former, however, didn't work for Scara'fould's Barony, but that wasn't your fault; the GM should have let you know that sooner. In the case of Vaexarius, there's nothing to stop you having been part of a family that contributed many members of the College, nor to stop you having a list of them, for that matter. You just wouldn't be able to have any contact with them that gained you any IC benefits, and so you wouldn't really be able to have them be all that important in the scheme of things.
Ah... I think I may have had a flash of insight. Most LARPers want to have characters who are heroes (or anti-heroes; greater than the norm, anyway). There is a... well, I was going to say a right way and a wrong way, but that's a little stronger than I intended. It comes down to Shakespeare's comment about greatness: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." The interesting characters in LARP are not those who are born great, but those who achieve greatness from humble beginnings. I'm not saying don't create a history; just don't try too hard to make it interesting, because most people won't give a fig anyway. It's not where you came from that counts, it's where you're going.
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branchandroot
Re: Continued
Date: 2006-02-09 12:52 am (UTC)I think the issue here is one of flexibility. Our characters live in a world that is essentially being playtested - and this means that every now and again the fabric of reality goes boing. Even things that have hitherto been fairly strongly fixed, such as the College, are subject to changes. The trick when defining locations is flexibility, and a little vagueness. Your family lived on a plot of land x miles from the Barony capital? Fine, no problem. Why should not being able to quote grid reference and elevation prevent your roleplaying in-game? Nothing wrong with having a house surrounded by orchards. Someone wants to live near you but have fields as far as the eye can see? Then they talk to you and modify their own decision based on that. Or they live in a valley with no line-of-sight to your orchards. The world is flexible, and distances do not remain the same with time.
Frankly, the two examples you give of back-history would be fine within Van Heusen's Barony. The former, however, didn't work for Scara'fould's Barony, but that wasn't your fault; the GM should have let you know that sooner. In the case of Vaexarius, there's nothing to stop you having been part of a family that contributed many members of the College, nor to stop you having a list of them, for that matter. You just wouldn't be able to have any contact with them that gained you any IC benefits, and so you wouldn't really be able to have them be all that important in the scheme of things.
Ah... I think I may have had a flash of insight. Most LARPers want to have characters who are heroes (or anti-heroes; greater than the norm, anyway). There is a... well, I was going to say a right way and a wrong way, but that's a little stronger than I intended. It comes down to Shakespeare's comment about greatness: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." The interesting characters in LARP are not those who are born great, but those who achieve greatness from humble beginnings. I'm not saying don't create a history; just don't try too hard to make it interesting, because most people won't give a fig anyway. It's not where you came from that counts, it's where you're going.