Because Dom Asked So Nicely...
Feb. 3rd, 2006 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicaddict...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.
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Continued
Date: 2006-02-07 09:23 pm (UTC)History: - By setting every event down in stone you force a set of events on people which may limit their future plans for games. There isn't a comprehensive history because people are creating it as they go. Lots of people. Not just one, or one team. There is also nothing to say you can generate events, as long as they do not hinder the creation of future ones. I really don't understand your points about not being able to say you race horses or have parties. Why not? Who is telling you you are not allowed parties ? What on earth makes you think the barony would have a news service? The Barony would have a rumour mill spread by travellers. Certainly amongst the peasant classes, who probably can't read, this is the only way they'd know about things. We know there are reports mongst the guilds and temples, people post those each week. Nobody has asked Cheska what she does during the week, but I'd be quite happy to tell you if you did. I don't need anything to work out what she does in a day.
I don't think anyone is saying there are no written histories. There are no histories written down OOC apart from the vague overview. Again, no one else has needed them, and the world is perfectly playable and has been for 8 years or so. “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.” Part of the problem people have I think is your attitude to things, with statements like the above. No one is disputing what you have said, its just a) not necessary and b) causes hassles which in most people's minds hinder roleplay rather than enhance it.
Maps : - not necessary. I know people have toyed with idea, and a vague map with lots of blank spaces isn't necessarily a bad idea. However any map would have to be set up in a way that didn't stop future players developing a home for their characters. I know what Cheska's home village was like, (I haven't named it yet, but there's nothing stopping me). Why is a lack of map stopping you having orchards in you home? I can't understand this, seriously. “I don't know where I live - just think about how ridiculous that sounds.” It does sound ridiculous especially as I don't know anyone else that has that problem.
Characters : - as discussed above, different people want different things. We cannot force everyone to be the same or we'll drive people away. There has to be some rules, some level of IC maintained, but its wrong to say you are a bad roleplayer if they get different things out of the hobby than you do. No one is stopping you having long histories to your characters, or beautiful descriptions of your home if you wish. The only thing people object to is stating them in such a way as it invalidates current characters or future ideas. See [Bad username or unknown identity: ”samedifference”] above for examples of things that do this.
Also, its not necessary for characters to have volumes of history to be great characters. I may be wrong, but I don't think Biscuit or Vortex had huge backplot or could detail their family tree or home village. However they are characters that will never be forgotten, nor are they simply walking stats. As I said before, there is more that one way to do things and if you can't accept that you are limiting yourself.
And the last bit... Opinionated little bitch aren't I!
Date: 2006-02-07 09:24 pm (UTC)Larps : - There are plenty of both sorts. There are original larps, there are standard fantasy settings larps, there are movie book and game tie ins. I prefer myself personally games not tied in to anything, but I don’t run enough myself to have any right to more than a personal opinion. Nor do i consider the games to have been bad, I had a lot of fun on the Advent Children ones as a monster. Who’s objecting to interesting and stimulating larps? I like to think the one we ran was along that vein. It certianly wasn’t a tie in, and I think people enjoyed it. Plenty of other larps have been more thinking, but again, there is nothing wrong with a good moster mash once in a while. Variety is more important I think.
Now I have never read your the stuff you did for the committee, and so I cannot comment on it personally, but what I have heard from others and what I have seen with other things that have caused problems is that they either went against the setting of the world, the campaign or went against individual charecters (made sweeping statements about the world or some aspect of it that would mean a character as they had been played was either a lier or incompatible with the world.) Its not just you that has done this, the whole happy-dow-and-elves business is another example. You found it offensive that people tore into your work. I think other people found it just as offensive to have their charecters invalidated by sweeping statements.Dave’s symbols did not do this because they are optional, they do not change anything. Cheska would not change if she was wearing one, and will not find herself excluded because she does not.
To conclude, I’m sure there is plenty that people want to change about BLADES and TL, and I know it will continue to provide endless discussion. But it has to be at the best interests of the club (that’s the club as a whole, not just the university society), not anyone member. People have to be prepare to deal with others, and to accept that you cannot please everyone all the time. But you cannot exclude people that have a different level of interest, nor can you go trampling on people’s charecters or their plot. Both these things are important to serious roleplayers and you can’t blame people for lashing out when they feel something important to them is threatened.
Re: And the last bit... Opinionated little bitch aren't I!
Date: 2006-02-08 03:15 pm (UTC)I still can't see why people now view the symbols as optional, unless they mean that people are free to wear/not wear them as they wish. Wearing something else will get you at the very least inquisitive thoughts from people who think, "there's a perfectly good symbol alread - why do we need a different one?", if they don't go the whole hog and ask entirely.
I have played and monstered in all kinds of larps, from the completely original to the outright plagiaristic. I was expressing a preference for original games. I never said that all parody games were poor. I said I would have preferred them to have had an original plot, and didn't think that parodies were as good. I had binned the Wheel of Time game I had written because I had realised this and didn't want to force it on other people long before I decided not to try running a game again.
I'd like to see what people were saying about the NPC backgrounds that they claim invalidated their character. I will agree that the terms "Paladin's Accepted" and "Searcher" may have defined too much, and I was willing to remove them, but I don't see how anyone else can have had a problem. This is how these particular people came to be how they are, and every time someone has brought something up claiming otherwise I have explained this to them. I was asked to produce these backgrounds by the committee, who claimed they looked at them and there was nothing they wanted changed. I would not try to create any more, because just giving an NPC a name defines them in history and makes them an unchangeable constant that potentially affects someone else's character. People display a penchant for glossing over the bits of unequivocal definition they do by saying that it doesn't affect anything. It does, they just don't like to admit it or they'd get torn into the way people like myself and Lawrence do.
"But you cannot exclude people that have a different level of interest, nor can you go trampling on people’s charecters or their plot. Both these things are important to serious roleplayers and you can’t blame people for lashing out when they feel something important to them is threatened."
Are you defending me or attacking me here?
I am having my opinions excluded because I have a different level of interest. I have had my characters and plot trampled on. Does this imply that I am not a serious roleplayer because I'm expected to get on with it and should not feel offended by the wave of negativity that every idea I have is washed away by?
Thank you. Thank you very much indeed.
Re: And the last bit... Opinionated little bitch aren't I!
Date: 2006-02-08 06:01 pm (UTC)And surely this is roleplay? How is it a bad thing? I can tell you why Cheska doesn't wear the might symbol. Ask her IC one day and I'll explain. Surely this is another way of building up a charecter, whether you're a conformist, or whether your chosen group has a different identification. If you do, what is it? Why chose it? Isn't this the sort of thing you are actually after? Another things to build a charecter on rather than stats?
"Are you defending me or attacking me here?"
Neither. i'm stating why I disagree, This my opinion and viewpoint, I'm not waging war here!
Did I critise your ability in any way? No. I was trying to explain why people got riled. You really don't seem to understand it, so I was trying to express it a bit more strongly. Until you can at least see what we mean (not saying that you have to agree with it), you're jsut going to take every suggest as a personal attack and another attemt at persecution. You made you were going to act like that from the outset. people have for the most part been trying to explain what they feel is wrong, I haven't seen any flaming or "that's just plain wrong and you are an idiot" comments. Just people trying to explain their side. Which us what happens when you air an opinion in a public place.
Have you had your charecters trampled on by someone else's plot or charecter making them invalid? Or do you just consider them invalid because someone has said "Look, when you say that, you're going against the campaign that's been set out/ invalidating everying person x has been saying about themselves."
And again, I severly doubt it is every idea you've ever had. I really do.
Re: And the last bit... Opinionated little bitch aren't I!
Date: 2006-02-09 11:29 am (UTC)People wouldn't be asking why Juilin wasn't wearing the Temple's insignia. They would be asking why Doug wasn't wearing Dave's insignia, and I'm not that petty. So I wore nothing.
I disagree with everyone, and I'm not going to change anything. This becomes increasingly apparent.
Fair enough.
I apologise for being unable to agree with people. I will stop being so intolerant around them, so unable to see things from other angles in their presence. I will stop being so selfish and self-absorbed around them, and inspiring them to try to change my opion to one more of the party line. I will not make my opinions public, and will keep any ideas I have to myself in the future, ensuring that I do not make the mistake of causing people to need to explain why some or all of them are not admissable.
Come Sunday evening, no-one will need to worry about what I'm going to say next.
Re: Continued
Date: 2006-02-08 02:59 pm (UTC)I was expecting them to have town criers, who if not sponsored by the ToF, wouold certainly be heeded most strongly by them. If these don't exist, who is to say that they were alive last week? What is there to defnine them as being people?
I am sorry if the way I speak the truth offends people, but if no-one disputes the fact that there are written histories somewhere, where are they and what do they say? Why am I being kept from reading them? What is in them that I shouldn't see?
The lack of maps means that I can't define anything in the world being there. I can't say that there are orchards round my house, because if I did, I would be defining part of the world that someone else then couldn't change. What if someone wanted to live near me but wanted farmland as far as they eye could see? It would also defnine House Fortrayre as a centre for fruit distribution for the Barony, and as there are no roads or economy on and OOC basis to speak of, it can't be the case.
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.
Biscuit and Vortex were played by giften roleplayers that could turn their hand to anything. Daenaram, Vaexarius and Juilin were not - they were played by an actor who feels almost naked in the absence of a script and was desperately trying to fit in with what was going on, and feels that without anything to define who or what he is, he can't. It doesn't matter if others disagree - if he feels that he isn't having fun playing a formless inert mass in a stripy shirt, no-one can tell him that he really is.
I am being stopped from having a long history, because every time I do, someone goes through it with a fine-tooth comb and tells me I can't do this, that and the other. The Ahnbree elves were a glade outside the Barony's borders twenty years ago, but are now disbanded and are covered by Barony farmland. In writing this, I defined how the borders have expanded in that time, and so should not have been allowed to say it - I got round it by having it being unverifiable, I felt so very dirty typing that it could not be confirmed. Might as well have phased into existence three seconds before time in on the first game, having never existed beforehand.
Clan Firestorm were a known glade of elves inside the Barony's borders, who had a history of sending warriors and mages to service. I couldn't say this, because I would ten be defining some people from history, which could not be denied later on. These people would have had to existed, and tsuch things might have interefered with past/present/future plot or characters, making Vaexarius' history invalid.
Juilin didn't have a history, and I was bored out of my crust playing him. Make of that what you will.
Re: Continued
Date: 2006-02-08 05:42 pm (UTC)Do you really not see the difference? If you set every event in stone, then there can be nothing between those stones. You run the risk of invalidating past charecters and beliefs, past campaigns and hindering GMs of the future because their ideas cannot be implimented as they wanted. What you want as an aid becomes a brick wall to anyone else.
No body bats an eyelid when it does not ivalidate past, present or future. People batted many an eyelid at the whole drow-elf thing because it went agaist what was known, and thus seriously affected several charecters because suddenly what they knew had changed overnight.
I've no doubt you have created half days worth of history that no one has raised an eye over. You can't tell me that everything you have ever written or discussed about any of your charecters has been dismissed. I just don't belive that.
"because every time I do, someone goes through it with a fine-tooth comb and tells me I can't do this, that and the other"
People might do the above, but only because you don't seem to understand what is okay and what is likely to cause offence.
I don't see what was wrong with Clan Firestorm in the above. No one is saying history has to be undeiable, they are saying that it cannot be forced on everyone. Above is okay (from what I can see), what would be wrong would be imply that all elves lived like that. Not saying you did say that, this is just an example.
Re: Continued
Date: 2006-02-09 11:11 am (UTC)People bat an eyelid because I have done things that are contentious in the past. I could write plot for a game in fifteen time after being being an meek and quiet society member from now until then and people would remember when I tried to change thw world and would bat eyelids again.
The two games I have left to GM in this system have no input of mine into them whatsoever. I am running someone else's plot and monsters, for those people who saw my name next to the GM bracket and made assumptions.
You're right. History that I have kept private and not told anyone about has not been dismissed, but anything I have made public with a view to using it has got sat on. I suppose you're right and you're wrong.
What is okay and what is likely to cause offence seems to be decided on an arbitrary basis. I could take offence at a whole slew of things some people have put into their backgrounds, and come up with reasons why they offended me. They wouldn't be true, of course - I'm not offended my them, and indeed welcome them - but it would make a point that anyone creating any backstory defines part of the world whether they like it or not, and anything can offend anyone given enough impetus.
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.
Re: Continued
Date: 2006-02-09 11:21 am (UTC)So, someone wanting to live fairly near me and have endless fields should talk to me about the area I live in? About the area I unequivocally defined? Surely they shouldn't have to, because I shouldn't have mapped that area of the Barony in the first place? How dare I take the vagueness out of fifty square miles of the map, with an orchard and rolling hill views surrounding House Fortrayre. They shouldn't have to play up to what I created - this is the entire thrust of why my NPC backgrounds were asked to be changed.
Where I came from defines the direction I am going. The speed I was moving at in the immediate history defines how fast I progress. If I start with no history, I am going from a standing start in no particular direction, which is what happens when someone is born. My characters were born respectively 223, 457 and 29 years ago, and had been progressing up until the point they started missions. Why should I start them from a dot rather than a line?