Doug Millington-Smith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
magicaddict) wrote2006-02-03 03:21 pm
magicaddict) wrote2006-02-03 03:21 pm
Because Dom Asked So Nicely...
...and because I've been getting more and more angry about it every time I am slapped down, behold what I consider would improve BLADES and larp in general. It's being said here so a) it doesn't go on the official boards and so is only a discussion, b) TheTony doesn't take the regular leave of his normally very reasonable senses and come out with words-to-the-effect-of "Normally I'm very nice, but right now you're citicising, so remember it's my ball and I don't particularly care for your complaining" comment that is rolled out every time someone complains about a rules change (example available on request if the boards go back that far), and c) it's on my LJ, so I can say what I damn well like, and so can you if you wish. All you will do is piss me off - not ruin the club.
It is behind a cut, because not everyone who's friends list this appears on will be interested in it.
Most likely, this will turn into a "let's see how many times we can tell Doug he's wrong" session, so I'm going to cut pretty much loose and issue a standing "I really don't care what you think" to anyone who might disagree with me.
Things I feel I need in order to roleplay better:
1. A comprehensive contemporary history of the Barony, dating back twenty years - Hell, knowing how well the farmers did last week would be nice.
Currently, my parents are aristocrats who have done positively nothing in their lives, because I can't create anything for them to have done. They've never raced a horse (even though Edran is a keen rider), or somewhere there would be records of point-to-point races. They've never had a party (and Juilin has never been to one), because someone would have been sober enough to remember them and that requires backstory. Nothing happened in the Barony last week, because that would require a news service to report it. I can't say anything did, because I'll get sat on for defining the world. If I want, as a freedom priest, to look back over past mission reports for recreational purposes (the same as reading technical journals, as professional scientists tend to do), I can't kick back and enjoy an evening's reading - I have to tell someone else I'm doing it and have them go and get the information for me (if the GM I am asking is disposed to do so).
Ergo, I dread guarding medders because if someone asks "so what do you think of...", or "so what did you do this week?", I am forced to answer "well, nothing really." This, for a seeker of knowledge, I find tantamount to imprisonment. What is the use of being a protector of knowledge if there isn't any bloody knowledge out there to protect, with the exception to the uber-tome of necrodhoom that turns up each week? How can I be interested in current affairs if nothing is happening outside of the patrols? So I can't be interested in current affairs? As a seeker of knowledge? *Dies laughing*.
2. A map of the Barony and how its borders have changed in the past twenty years, for crying out loud. Where do I live? Um...I don't know. Where did Daenaram come from? Um...nowhere in particular. Was his village outside the borders? Couldn't tell you - I only lived there for over two-hundred years. Where did you last take Anneri for dinner? Um...nowhere you've heard of. I don't know where I live - just think about how ridiculous that sounds. I can't tell people about House Fortrayre's wonderful orchards because I don't know they exist. I can't tell them about the view, because I don't know what it is of. Mountains? Pasture? Seashore? Moonscape? HELLOOOOOOO? COMMON SENSE????? Where is the Barony? What does it look like? What are some good night spots in Van Heusen's capital city? What's the first village along the Lannister road called? Where's Lannister?
Before you answer - I DO.
3. People to bother knowing who their character is - I dislike intensely characters who aren't even one-dimensional - who are, to quote Dave, "A walking set of stats". There is no excuse for this - you're too busy are you? Great - I have just oodles of spare time clanking around my schedule. This final year of the PhD lark is a complete doss, you know, and being active in three societies is hardly a crimp on the endless holiday that is my life either. Stop being so bloody arrogant and claiming that you are magnitudes busier than I am. It just isn't true.
Things I feel I want in order to roleplay better:
1. People who want to roleplay to putting time into creating their character - at least two thousand words worth. It's not hard to give them more than a name - a height, build (no - they do not need to look like you), gender, brief history and names of parents. It's amazing how quickly the words fly on to the page if people would bother to try - the creative talent present in BLADES is easily high enough for just about everyone present to do so. If people had to submit a couple of thousand words of backstory and a family tree of at least one generation, they might be committed enough to dedicate themselves in a way that holds me back when they don't. I'm tired of having my wings clipped because of other people's indolence - and the fact that I am saying that confirms just how indolent some people are.
2. A comprehensive history of the Kingdom of Exiles, since its inception (or at least five hundred years back) - if you want to tell me that there are no notaries, librarians or historians in the Barony, I will tell you that your world is so unreasonable as to be unplayable. What next? Gravity works in reverse? Water doesn't contain hydrogen? These are as fundamental concepts as history - if there is a now, there was a then, and someone will be documenting it. This is the way the world works. Get over it. While going all the way back is a luxury, it would be nice to see how the world has developed, rather than all those knowledgable Seekers not knowing anything about what happened fifty years ago. Mass amnesia, anyone?
3. Players to realise that their characters are important, but not that important. Why should story, or plot, or the world, end where they cannot touch it? How can te world stop moving during time out? How up yourselves are you people to assume the only people in the world of TL who matter or who can change the world are the ones being embodied by people every Sunday afternoon? I am sure that as soon as they game finishes every Sunday evening, the rest of the Barony populace freezes in place, waiting for the next exciting installment of arrogant sods who they have never met going out and saving their asses from things they don't understand. I'm sure the Barony patrols are viewed as heros by people they don't even know exist. I'm certain of it.
4. People who come up with original plot not being ignored in favour of parodying the latest film release, or because of who they are, or because of what people's opinions of their past larps are, or because someone who has been in the club longer has come up with something else. Rest assured I will never be submitting anything plot-related to any part of this society ever again. Go ahead - jump for joy. You got your wish. I was clearly misinformed in thinking I should ever try to write something that people might find engaging and stimulating, or that would be left alone. I obviously haven't been here long enough for that to be the case, as we all know that how long you have been there is the only important thing in deciding how reasonable your suggestions are. Larp - one of the few true gerontocracies left in the world.
5. How long you have been here ceasing to be the limiting factor in deciding what you are allowed to do.
It's strange, isn't it, that no-one has tried to change, alter or speak up against the inception of "optional" insignia for the patrolees. If Juilin came out wearing anything other than the tree, he shouldn't get a second glance, but he would, and undoubtedly people would think it was sour graps on my part not to be joining in. Think how hurtful I found the dissection of all I had been asked to create by the committee, then, that had been vetted and okayed by them. Nope, the longer standing members of the society, who aren't even full members so somewhow think themselves above the ones who are actually answerable to the university (who have to do the work to ensure we get to canvas on the parade and hire at the socs fair next year and actually get a new intake come october), decided that they weren't going to allow it to pass. So it didn't. I fucking hate it.
No. I don't have a low opinion of you. I have a low opinion of your opinion of me.
Damn. That felt good. Cue the flaming, the patting the upstart youngster on the head and the grumpy hurrumphs of "who's he think he is?" I couldn't give a flying buttmonkey what you think.
The programs are here. They charged me more than expected and used slightly less high-quality paper. I don't care - I won't be using them again because I won't be having anything further to do with publicity for anything that might use them. Ever. Suffice to say that more or less ands my commitments to publicise the show, and leaves me with a total of nine days left to survive and not kill someone.
The show itself is still a bad joke in a box.
The two leading roles, so cast because one of them does a radio show with the casting director and the other one wears her clothes (me? Bitter? nah...), are suddenly realising that they actually have quite a lot of lines, and requiring a prompt for every other one of them doesn't bode well with less than a week to go until we open. Pay attention and stop finding everything so funny - you aren't on the village green now.
The supposedly outstanding band is surprisingly good - for people who haven't been together a week. This means they sound like a crap band who have been together for a month.
The costume debacle seems to have been forgotten by everyone, so come tomorrow's tech when everyone suddenly realises they don't have this, or that and blames backstage because it's clearly their fault, there will be an almighty argument and someone more important might walk out. Like a member of the cast.
Helen wants us to finish the techs by eight at the latest each night. *Dies laughing again*. Let her try to argue people round to that if she wants. We'll be there until BTS are good and ready, probably gone midnight. If we run unbelievably smoothly, we might get done by then, but the day that a tech runs smoothly is the day that Satan...does something involving ice.
The Dow meeting went really quite well - more definite targets to head towards, more crystal structures got, all looking good, really.
It looks as if I am heading to San Francisco come September (well...damn. I suppose that'll have to do), the only crimp on which is the fact that I attend my cousin's wedding not two days after it finishes. Thankfully the parents had booked hotel rooms for us on the previous evening (we're staying down in London rather than driving there and back on the same day) so I can fly straight into London and go to sleep for the rest of the day. Might even work.
Right. End of day. Very little done but I have another crystal structure. That'll supplant work on any day of the week.
It is behind a cut, because not everyone who's friends list this appears on will be interested in it.
Most likely, this will turn into a "let's see how many times we can tell Doug he's wrong" session, so I'm going to cut pretty much loose and issue a standing "I really don't care what you think" to anyone who might disagree with me.
Things I feel I need in order to roleplay better:
1. A comprehensive contemporary history of the Barony, dating back twenty years - Hell, knowing how well the farmers did last week would be nice.
Currently, my parents are aristocrats who have done positively nothing in their lives, because I can't create anything for them to have done. They've never raced a horse (even though Edran is a keen rider), or somewhere there would be records of point-to-point races. They've never had a party (and Juilin has never been to one), because someone would have been sober enough to remember them and that requires backstory. Nothing happened in the Barony last week, because that would require a news service to report it. I can't say anything did, because I'll get sat on for defining the world. If I want, as a freedom priest, to look back over past mission reports for recreational purposes (the same as reading technical journals, as professional scientists tend to do), I can't kick back and enjoy an evening's reading - I have to tell someone else I'm doing it and have them go and get the information for me (if the GM I am asking is disposed to do so).
Ergo, I dread guarding medders because if someone asks "so what do you think of...", or "so what did you do this week?", I am forced to answer "well, nothing really." This, for a seeker of knowledge, I find tantamount to imprisonment. What is the use of being a protector of knowledge if there isn't any bloody knowledge out there to protect, with the exception to the uber-tome of necrodhoom that turns up each week? How can I be interested in current affairs if nothing is happening outside of the patrols? So I can't be interested in current affairs? As a seeker of knowledge? *Dies laughing*.
2. A map of the Barony and how its borders have changed in the past twenty years, for crying out loud. Where do I live? Um...I don't know. Where did Daenaram come from? Um...nowhere in particular. Was his village outside the borders? Couldn't tell you - I only lived there for over two-hundred years. Where did you last take Anneri for dinner? Um...nowhere you've heard of. I don't know where I live - just think about how ridiculous that sounds. I can't tell people about House Fortrayre's wonderful orchards because I don't know they exist. I can't tell them about the view, because I don't know what it is of. Mountains? Pasture? Seashore? Moonscape? HELLOOOOOOO? COMMON SENSE????? Where is the Barony? What does it look like? What are some good night spots in Van Heusen's capital city? What's the first village along the Lannister road called? Where's Lannister?
Before you answer - I DO.
3. People to bother knowing who their character is - I dislike intensely characters who aren't even one-dimensional - who are, to quote Dave, "A walking set of stats". There is no excuse for this - you're too busy are you? Great - I have just oodles of spare time clanking around my schedule. This final year of the PhD lark is a complete doss, you know, and being active in three societies is hardly a crimp on the endless holiday that is my life either. Stop being so bloody arrogant and claiming that you are magnitudes busier than I am. It just isn't true.
Things I feel I want in order to roleplay better:
1. People who want to roleplay to putting time into creating their character - at least two thousand words worth. It's not hard to give them more than a name - a height, build (no - they do not need to look like you), gender, brief history and names of parents. It's amazing how quickly the words fly on to the page if people would bother to try - the creative talent present in BLADES is easily high enough for just about everyone present to do so. If people had to submit a couple of thousand words of backstory and a family tree of at least one generation, they might be committed enough to dedicate themselves in a way that holds me back when they don't. I'm tired of having my wings clipped because of other people's indolence - and the fact that I am saying that confirms just how indolent some people are.
2. A comprehensive history of the Kingdom of Exiles, since its inception (or at least five hundred years back) - if you want to tell me that there are no notaries, librarians or historians in the Barony, I will tell you that your world is so unreasonable as to be unplayable. What next? Gravity works in reverse? Water doesn't contain hydrogen? These are as fundamental concepts as history - if there is a now, there was a then, and someone will be documenting it. This is the way the world works. Get over it. While going all the way back is a luxury, it would be nice to see how the world has developed, rather than all those knowledgable Seekers not knowing anything about what happened fifty years ago. Mass amnesia, anyone?
3. Players to realise that their characters are important, but not that important. Why should story, or plot, or the world, end where they cannot touch it? How can te world stop moving during time out? How up yourselves are you people to assume the only people in the world of TL who matter or who can change the world are the ones being embodied by people every Sunday afternoon? I am sure that as soon as they game finishes every Sunday evening, the rest of the Barony populace freezes in place, waiting for the next exciting installment of arrogant sods who they have never met going out and saving their asses from things they don't understand. I'm sure the Barony patrols are viewed as heros by people they don't even know exist. I'm certain of it.
4. People who come up with original plot not being ignored in favour of parodying the latest film release, or because of who they are, or because of what people's opinions of their past larps are, or because someone who has been in the club longer has come up with something else. Rest assured I will never be submitting anything plot-related to any part of this society ever again. Go ahead - jump for joy. You got your wish. I was clearly misinformed in thinking I should ever try to write something that people might find engaging and stimulating, or that would be left alone. I obviously haven't been here long enough for that to be the case, as we all know that how long you have been there is the only important thing in deciding how reasonable your suggestions are. Larp - one of the few true gerontocracies left in the world.
5. How long you have been here ceasing to be the limiting factor in deciding what you are allowed to do.
It's strange, isn't it, that no-one has tried to change, alter or speak up against the inception of "optional" insignia for the patrolees. If Juilin came out wearing anything other than the tree, he shouldn't get a second glance, but he would, and undoubtedly people would think it was sour graps on my part not to be joining in. Think how hurtful I found the dissection of all I had been asked to create by the committee, then, that had been vetted and okayed by them. Nope, the longer standing members of the society, who aren't even full members so somewhow think themselves above the ones who are actually answerable to the university (who have to do the work to ensure we get to canvas on the parade and hire at the socs fair next year and actually get a new intake come october), decided that they weren't going to allow it to pass. So it didn't. I fucking hate it.
No. I don't have a low opinion of you. I have a low opinion of your opinion of me.
Damn. That felt good. Cue the flaming, the patting the upstart youngster on the head and the grumpy hurrumphs of "who's he think he is?" I couldn't give a flying buttmonkey what you think.
The programs are here. They charged me more than expected and used slightly less high-quality paper. I don't care - I won't be using them again because I won't be having anything further to do with publicity for anything that might use them. Ever. Suffice to say that more or less ands my commitments to publicise the show, and leaves me with a total of nine days left to survive and not kill someone.
The show itself is still a bad joke in a box.
The two leading roles, so cast because one of them does a radio show with the casting director and the other one wears her clothes (me? Bitter? nah...), are suddenly realising that they actually have quite a lot of lines, and requiring a prompt for every other one of them doesn't bode well with less than a week to go until we open. Pay attention and stop finding everything so funny - you aren't on the village green now.
The supposedly outstanding band is surprisingly good - for people who haven't been together a week. This means they sound like a crap band who have been together for a month.
The costume debacle seems to have been forgotten by everyone, so come tomorrow's tech when everyone suddenly realises they don't have this, or that and blames backstage because it's clearly their fault, there will be an almighty argument and someone more important might walk out. Like a member of the cast.
Helen wants us to finish the techs by eight at the latest each night. *Dies laughing again*. Let her try to argue people round to that if she wants. We'll be there until BTS are good and ready, probably gone midnight. If we run unbelievably smoothly, we might get done by then, but the day that a tech runs smoothly is the day that Satan...does something involving ice.
The Dow meeting went really quite well - more definite targets to head towards, more crystal structures got, all looking good, really.
It looks as if I am heading to San Francisco come September (well...damn. I suppose that'll have to do), the only crimp on which is the fact that I attend my cousin's wedding not two days after it finishes. Thankfully the parents had booked hotel rooms for us on the previous evening (we're staying down in London rather than driving there and back on the same day) so I can fly straight into London and go to sleep for the rest of the day. Might even work.
Right. End of day. Very little done but I have another crystal structure. That'll supplant work on any day of the week.
comments
1) we've got at least eight years, not twenty. we don't need any more, so we don't have any more.
2) maps. we can draw one if you'd like. but it will be highlands in north, amazons in south kinda thing. we don't need any more, so we don't have any more.
1) two thousand words? TWO THOUSAND WORDS? how cruel do you want to be to the dyslexics, stutters or people new to roleplay? as a club that has had to rely on new blood each year, you want to slash the arteries?
2) there is no comprehensive history back 500 years. Only the last hundred years has there been a temple of freedom. Each area and village (which was around before the kingdom formed) has their own history, but no comprehensive history. a generalised world timeline? good idea.
3) agreed.
4) was my last larp chosen over another? and it was a book parody, not a film.
5) it's not how long you've been in the club, it's what you've done so far and how you've done it. I've been larping about as long as PeteW, for example. But run more larps. some bad some good, improved a few things, and now when i ask to run larps, committees often say yes. You'd have to ask them why. PeteW hasn't got as much GMing experience, so i doubt if he'd get the same response.
as for the insignia, i'd brotched the subject with the committee in the summer, they'd agreed in principle, i drew up some designs, and then asked peoples opinions on the designs. I changed some of the designs based on that, and then made a few samples. Which people then bought.
i never got to read your suggested NPC back histories, but from what i gather, they tried to define a few things about the Barony and the Kingdom. which contradicted old character backgrounds and old larps. and instead of a compremise, the whole thing was dropped. I'm sure most of it could have been saved with the opening disclaimer of .... in the shire of XXXX ....,
making them less sweeping statements.
hopefully next years committee aren't scared off getting something written to base the larps off.
Re: comments
2) So where actually do I come from? Or do I not? Did Juilin miraculously fade into existence from nowhere just before we timed in for the first game?
Wait a minute, I'm asking the wrong person. Hang on, I'll just go and change my backplot to match.
1) What are you saying about dyslexics, stutterers and people new to roleplay? It sounds like you're saying they haven't got the ability to write two thousand words. I don't know what you are, but I'm a stutterer and I find that quite offensive. You don't need to talk to type.
If you're dyslexic, does it mean you don't have creative ideas and so you need never to flesh out your character by knowing more about them? Must all dyslexics play one-dimensional walking stats because they haven't the ability to write? I'll leave my opinion of that unsaid, but suffice to say I think it smells bad and comes from the ass of male cows.
2) No-one thought to keep records of family trees or royal lineage? Say what??? What kind of blithering incompetents are the people in this Barony? I mean all of the people in this barony? If they haven't the wherewithall to keep records, they are obviously so incoherently random that they are prime for overthrowing. Roll on the Barbarians getting their birthright and beating us all to a pulp.
3) How can you be agreeing to this if you feel that overly defining who peopole are and what they do is wrong? When I said I wanted the world to carry on, I didn't mean for everyone to stand still and breathe, I meant for everyone to carry on.
4) It was a book parody that was released while the film is playing at cinemas. Do you honestly expect me to believe that the film being new didn't have anything to do with it? You do have a low opinion of me...
This was not so much a stab at you, as at every non-original plotline that comes into larp - and you've already said that you like parody larps, so we're always going to disagree on this point.
5) However, if I suggest something, and Pete suggests something different, I'd bet gold to grease that I would be the one people were apologising to. Having run larps cements you above others who have been here as long as you, but someone who has run fifty larps and been here for three years would net get the same level of trust as someone who has run forty over eight.
And if I bring out a different insignia, people will see me once again trying to define their world by having one in the first place - and I'll get told I shouldn't.
I don't see why they should bother getting a campaign overview written - unless it's by someone who has been here a long time, then everyone will naturally accept it. I doubt I'll be around to care.
Re: comments
However, a lot of dyslexic people, not making any comment on Paul either way, are very worried about how people perceive their writing and similar. They have to have the confidence to write that and show it to others, or risk having others see it. That's a lot to demand of someone moving into a new social group.
====
1) Make up the reports of old ToF members! Read them for your own pleasure. Publish them here or send them to Marcus and let him publish them as he's the untouchable golden boy.
However, remember, with every one you put out where others can see it, you're losing a lrp plot you just wrote - an opportunity for everyone to live a new experience together and have fun. Surely it's better to GM?
Re: comments
Not looking for names - just a yes or no. I suggest that currently, there is no-one who couldn't do it, and it would entivce me rather than repel me if I was new to the club. If I had to create the character background, I can see myself missing lectures, food and sleep to get it just the way I wanted it.
Re: comments
I will be marshalling someone else's monsters, plot and stats in the near future, and will never go any further than that. Ever.
2000 words
Not all people are creative in the same way.
Newbies. New to university, new to university and to encourage these eager minds into LARP, you want to give them a 2000 word essay in their first week? some might thrive. they might even be the better roleplayers. but some wouldn't.
better to ask them 20 questions so that they roughly know where their character is coming from, attitude and social group wise. Better still to ask them to submit some sort of full character background after a year of playing. Then, if the player is going to continue the character to higher level larps, it can be rounded out.
That would allow players who prefer to improvise with their character, rather than pre-formed complete backgrounds.
Re: 2000 words
Re: 2000 words
Re: 2000 words
Re: 2000 words v 20Q
it gives the option of back story rather than back plot. and 20 one word answers.
Re: comments
I've never written a back plot for a character in my life. Does that make my characters inert? Does it make them uninteresting? I hope not. I've never felt that it has, and I've never had anyone tell me such. I *have* sketched a brief outline (siblings, parents, interests, basic outlook/motivations)... and even those have occasionally changed once I've played the character, and they've actually woken up and told me what their personality is. The *most* I've ever written was what I submitted to Shaun for this year's campaign, and I think that may just about have hit four lines of an e-mail.
Thing is, roleplaying is essentially improvisation, not acting. You know (roughly) what your scenario is, you know (roughly) what your character's motivations are, and you put yourself in the character's shoes and see what happens. Someone asks you about your background? Make it up! If you want to be fairly sure that it's not going to conflict with anything, make it low-key. If you don't care, or your character thinks nothing of lying, make it as big as you like - but be prepared to be called on it.
Ultimately, a character (or a person, for that matter) is defined by what happens to them, and more recent events tend to have a greater influence than older ones. Backplot should at most help you define your initial motivations and prejudices, and should then take a back seat to the wild and wacky life of being a member of the Barony Patrol Corps. What makes a character interesting is not how amazingly well their history is defined; it's what they do in the heat of the moment, here and now.
Re: comments
My not having a backplot does not make my characters inert to anyone else.
My not having a backplot makes my character inert to me.
I'm saying that as clearly as I can to avoid equivocation. What other people are capable of is different to what I can do, and everyone pointing out how they can do characters without any kind of history doesn't exactly help.
Surely being a member of a Barony patrol corps isn't a wild and wacky life? It's butchering people left, right and centre for four hours a week and occasionally being jobbed from behind for your troubles. Juilin had more fun in the libraries than patrolling, but he wanted to help the world so he went out on it. A lot of the time, all he ended up doing was killing things to make sure other party members didn't take them prisoner.
Re: comments
2)Juilin came from where you wanted him to come from, does whatever you think he should in the world he lives. Why is it all or nothing? Why must Juilin have a precisely defined world in which to exist, or have no existance?
1)No one should have to write 2000 words if they don't want to, especially not just to start. You must get them hooked first, and if they don't yet know how to roleplay you must then guide them so they get better, help them get kit and form characters. Perhaps after a year or for their second character they could be asked to write more, to define more, but let them learn to walk before asking them to hurdle.
Re: comments
2. Because any time I have to stop because I'm hitting a grey area, the walls just get closer to me. There are so many grey areas I can't stray into that I might as well stand still.
1. All of this years characters who write reports on a regular basis have written two thousand words already. I write around fifteen hundred per report. I maintain that it isn't a difficult number of words to come out with if you relaxedly sit down with your drink of choice, good music playing and a bored mind for an afternoon.
Re: comments
Re: comments
I'll lend you carabas's big book of notes, rituals and observations, but I'm not typing it up.
2. you think there are grey areas now? You would have loved the play testing Larps. No money system, no idea if there was one temple or many or well anything really. Slowly, one by one, the grey areas fall. just be patient?
1. some characters don't write reports. ever wonder why not? or ask?