Monday, October 15, 2012

Playing to Type: a Role Play Discussion

This post is dedicated to Ericka, Roo and Rachel, who suggested this. Ladies, you're to blame :P

God Please, Kill Me Now
You're in a room, dealing amongst the power elite as you usually are. You meet a person you've never seen before. He's a tall man, easily 6 and a half foot. He has dark, dusky colored tone to him and carries himself well. You approach him to get to know him better, he could be a tremendous asset, or at least a minor diversion from the normal drawl. You look to him and smile. Before you say anything, you see a note pinned to his t-shirt..

My Character is:
- 5' 3''
- Asian Gentleman, twitchy and neurotic
- Wearing a Suit

Well, you think, shit.

This happens sometimes in LARPs, when the player doesn't match the character he is playing. It's to be expected. We are, every one of us, playing a game of make-believe. A very mechanical game of make believe, but make believe nonetheless. We can be whatever we want in the game space, many people build characters that appeal to certain aspects of their lives, some do characters as escapes of their real life and give them aspects that couldn't normally have. Some make characters that are, with minor cosmetic exceptions, merely avatars of their real world selves.

In the show that is our game , and let's be real that while we are playing a game we are also characters and performers of theater in which we are also the audience, there requires one thing that all shows need: The Veil of Disbelief to be suspended.

I know what you're saying, "Craig, you ignorant slut. Are you seriously telling me that you can buy that we're centuries old vampires, but you can't buy that I'm playing a twelve year old boy when I'm a forty year old man?"

Well, the answer is I can. But I'm expected here to believe that we're all vampires. We have mechanics and everything to support what we can do. Why are you playing a twelve year old boy?

We in LARP have to play things in a slightly Dissociative way. We're not just thinking for ourselves, we're thinking for our characters. So during game, we're thinking for two. Play a series of games, and you're thinking for several people. That's a challenge in of itself.

These are the thoughts that keep me up at night, folks.

But my point is this: Having to take the description of your character, subtract it from your physical body, and extrapolate a mental image is taxing and detracts from the rest of the make believe.

So where does that leave us? Well, it leaves us with you.

A popular theory, or at least one I've heard a few times is this: "Would you cast yourself for this character if you were a director of a play?" This of course appeals to the theatrically inclined members of Role Playing (which hey, there's a shock), but it does lend some credit. You can change your face with make up, your voice with training, your posture with practice, but your body is still your body and there is very little that can be altered on the fly. The character you create should at least be in the ball park of your general physical appearance, especially your build. A forty year old guy who weight-lifts every other day is going to find a hard time convincing people with his twelve year old character who looks like a stiff breeze would blow him down. It's not impossible, but it's not easy.

Let's take me for example. I am 5'10''/5'11'' Two hundred and *grumble grumble grumble* pound man in his late twenties. I have a pale complexion, dark hair, hazel eyes with one eye being browner than the other and slightly lazy to the right. My voice is a nasal tenor that has a slight Bronx accent (the "slight" part disappears at times). I tend to talk a lot, and be funny or try anyways. If I were a director, I would be a supporting character, a sidekick or ally to the main character(s) and aiding them along the way. I am not going to be playing an olympic swimmer or gymnast. I am not going to be playing "The Popular One" at least by a glance. So that leaves me with characters that deal mostly behind the scenes, who find stuff and bring them to others, or go out and do things for those who know what to do. I would have to push myself very hard to play other kinds of roles, I can, but it's a bit out of my comfort zone.

Those of you reading and following with me, keep in mind that I'm saying "Roles" and "Characters". This is in no way me saying "Go ahead and play yourself." This to me is worse than playing a character that shallowly doesn't resemble you. I've met people who have played what is effectively them with supernatural powers. I find them to be annoying and tend to be ones who take the game too seriously because it is in fact them in the scenario and not the character.

What I'm saying is this: If you're going to play, realize that other people are reacting to it based on what they see of you. Does this sound shallow? Yes it is. We're humans, this is part of the bag.

An exception to this are NPCs. The reason for this are because, well, they're NPCs. They are not Player Characters. They are assigned to fill a specific role and the person playing them isn't necessarily the same every game, which leads to a very interesting discussion about Long Term NPCs and consistency that I'd like to bring up one day.

So where does this whole diatribe lead us? Ultimately, it leads us to the balancing act of playing a game or playing a role. In one, we are trying to "win", or as much as one can in an open ended scenario. In the other, we are all pieces of a greater story being told on a personal, local, regional, national and global scale. We play the game, but we tell a story while doing it. How do we balance it? It's a discussion for a later time, though. Let's keep the focus on playing type.


Here are some tips to help in building characters that work with you:

-Think of the character as a costume. You put them on, wear them for a few hours, then slip back into yourself when you're done. The thing about costumes is that they are meant to fit on you. See yourself as the frame, and build the character around yourself.

- Since we took it metaphorically, let's get literal. Costuming helps. It's the adage that the clothes make the man/woman. In many regards, this is true (the reverse is also true, but that's neither here nor there). Me for example again, I tend to hate, hate, Hate wearing suits. There is just something so stiff and formal and suffocating about them. So I tend to prefer to wear regular street clothes, or at the most, business casual. Lately, I've been suiting it up for my Requiem Character, Taglia.

Taglia is a Doctor, a studier or mythology, and a lush. He's more comfortable in dress down and prefers to go for the "Teacher's Assistant" over "Professor Emeritus." Lately however, with the Invictus breathing down his neck, he's been playing their game a little and putting on the shirt, tie, clan and covenant pins. As I said, shirt and ties make me feel claustrophobic and immobile. That's good, because that's how I want Taglia to feel. He is uncomfortable, and he is suffocating.

Now, there are of course exceptions to this that I've noticed. Some venues need to Suspend the Veil of Disbelief with a lot more industrial clamps than most. Changeling is the most egregious, but then again, it has to be. Changeling is built around the concept of "you were irrevocably altered by the True Fae Forever." When most people introduce each other in character in Changeling, they step out of character and ask the million dollar question:

"What am I seeing?"

Sometimes you'll get really profuse descriptions, very rarely will you hear "Just like this". Some people hit up the make up and costuming for the venue. In terms of the discrepancy between what I'm seeing and what they're describing, the game gives us a brilliant way of dealing with it. We're not seeing them, we're seeing their Mask. We're seeing the thing that they wear for the normals, because OOCly we are normal (work with me here) people. So we as players see their Masks and part of their Mien, while we as Character's see their Mien.

Another thing to consider when playing outside of Type is duration of play. I recently played Dystopia Rising, in which you were in character from 9pm Friday until Noon Sunday. With very few exceptions can I see players staying in character for the full 35 hours. For incoming players, I'd suggest keeping the character...I guess Trimmed Down is a good term. Keep it as close to you as you can. This is also considering that DR is a game that makes you rely more on natural ability than Stats on a sheet. Both you and your character are in the woods at night, with things may or may not be in there with you. You need to be ready, you need to react and attack. And this goes on for a day and a half. It's comparatively easier to play outside the box in a studio for four hours.

So, Build around yourself, Dress the Part, Know your venue. This discussion can go on forever, there is no hard answer for this. I'll most likely come back to it from time to time, while also addressing the big question I mentioned before. Is LARPing a Story To Tell, or A Game To Win.

Later



5 comments:

  1. This is very thoroughly awesome, and I think addressed quite well. For the more "raaawr, I wanna win my game and play whatever I want to play!" types, it's also worth noting that when you are playing closer to your type, it's often far, far easier to get ahead in game. Because people will treat you better, talk with you easier, and believe you far more immediately! But yes. This is awesome. And it needs be said.

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  2. Is there a certain level that we can stretch this disbelief? We're on the same page of limits to what we can reasonably expect to portray, but some of my characters have Striking Looks, some of them don't, and not all of this can be assumed to be merely my confidence.

    Similarly, I may not have the actual resources to play certain things, like very wealthy or very old characters. Do you think that there is a given threshold where we have to say "Wait a minute. I don't think you can reasonably portray that character", or is it a case-by-case basis?

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    1. Sadly, there are no hard rules to this. Striking Looks really doesn't become a problem, as there is just something about you that people find alluring.

      I don't think there is a set threshold. I think it is a case by case basis with the factors of "how much are you making me believe you?"

      Again, I come from the school of "This is as much Theater as Game" and that there is a degree of acting involved.

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    2. Keep in mind, though, that even small touches can entirely change the way we perceive a character. A small woman who wears eight inch lifts on her boots still isn't a "Giant" (per the merit), but we now understand that she's meant to be much larger than she actually is.

      Similarly, even an ill-fitting suit from the thrift store will convey something entirely different than someone in jeans and a nerd tee-shirt wearing a tag. Or a hat can drastically affect the demeanor of someone, even if they're not actually acting any differently. Or (or!) a small prop - something that a character carries that is intrinsically *theirs* - can make a difference.

      If a character is supposed to be older than what you can effectively portray, there are even ways to handle that without going crazy with makeup. Small costuming choices can allude to being older or more affluent without shouting it - and often how much do we need to shout these things?

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  3. I always get worried because people don't have unlimited resources to spend on either costuming or props. yes, it would be epic-sauce if everyone had the funds for that stuff..but sometimes we have to allow for the people who just need to use the card.

    sad, I know, but that's why we have an XP award that's separate for costuming.

    It's very easy to be lost in the trap of "everyone should have a costume or a prop" until one looks at the financial realities of the members of this club. some people have the funds to really go all out, some people can't really afford more than they're doing right now.

    Something to think about.

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