Sunday, September 15, 2013

Character Creation

My friend Paul asked me to talk about my method for character creation in a Live Action Role Play. That gives me some pause, because it's difficult for me to describe. I will preface all of this by saying that this is solely my opinion, and I'm still exploring the process myself. This is not a "How to guide", it's just me expounding my own madness.

Step One: Read the Setting and Themes
Know the game you're walking into and the themes that exist in it. Ask questions of the players and the storyteller to get a sense of the vibe and gib of the game as it's played as much as it is written. I spent the better part of a month going through Mage before I figured out what I wanted to do. I read it so much that I fell in love with the damned venue, but have an idea of what you want to go into.

Step Two: Form a Foundation
Now that you know what you'll be dealing with in this world, now is the time to set what you want to do with it. Most of my foundations begin with "I want to explore this..." Taglia was all about exploring Vampire Psychology, Rhys was about exploring the city, Owen about the darker side of life, Rude about the nature of his people. This is the Macrocosm of your character, the broad scope of where they will be in this world you've studied. This part isn't as much about your character as it is about you. What about this game do you want to invest yourself in? What is the story you wish to tell?

Step Three: Concept Creation and Functional Themes
This is where we start talking character. Most of the Character Concepts can be anything from two word phrases (Hardboiled Jedi, Burned Out Therapist, Street Mage, etc) or inspirations (John Constantine, Lex Luthor, mine was 'Write Petyr Baelish a check'). This will inform your decisions as to what you do next. It's both easy as sin and difficult to hold on to. Concepts may change over time as your Characters evolve. Taglia went from Vampire Therapist to Beleaguered Priscus, and his whole dynamic changed. Your concepts are capable of change, as are your characters, if given strong impetus.

There is also the exploration of what their function is in the game. I tend to take the Tarot Card route, using the Major Arcana. Are they the Fool, just aimlessless seeing what's over that hill/cliff? Are they the Magician, already established and there to give characters the tools for the trade? Are they the Emperor, official and imperious? Are they the Hermit, reclusive but full of vital information (these should be rare) are they the  High Priestess, keeper of Rituals and Mysteries. Are they the Devil, Master and Controller of Vices? Are they the Tower, the destroyer of order?

Keep in mind, these are broad concepts, and while they make up the core, they aren't all or the sum total. I'm gestalt, the parts added does not equal the sum.

Step Four: Who the fuck are you?

This one is split up into three interconnecting points

Present: What does your character do? What do they do for a living? Do they have a job, family, friends outside of direct play? What do they do during direct play, this is tied mostly to their fucntion, but what is going on laterally in their world. Rhys had his coffee shop and a girlfriend, Rude had his siblings and father, Taglia had his psychology practice. Owen has his hotel and his Ghoul.

Past: What has lead these characters to this point in their lives? This often includes their induction to whatever super natural status they now hold, what was the nature of their Vampiric Embrace? What experiences did they go through during their Awakening as a Mage? What was their Durance and Abduction like? These flavor your present, as these can reoccur and cause for good drama

Ties: No one lives in a void. Even if a character does, they didn't start there. Likewise, you didn't get there alone. People have friends, loved ones, family, enemies and associates. They can have existed in the present or in the past, and often then not they influence and add flavor to at least a one person show.

The trick of these is that in Live Action Roleplay, this is not a linear process. Case in point, I was starting in Requiem as Taglia, and given ties to my friend Jenn's PC Mirandia as her Childe. Mirandia had been dead two years already, but we were both playing characters old enough (read: we both lived in Venice during the Napoleanic Wars) that she could have sired my PC and live a long fruitful life as a blood sucking fiend. That tie alone helped me form the basis for Taglia's past, as it required him to do or be something that would have set him at distance with her.

These parts are key in development, because if you're just showing up just to show up, then you're there for less than half the full experience.


Part Five: Goals

Everyone needs to have them, whether they are short term, long term, impossible and shared. Short term goals are ones that can be completed anywhere between hours and months, long term goals take from months to years, shared goals are ones you share with crew mates or likeminded friends.

I can't stress the need for an impossible goal. An impossible goal is something that should be nigh unattainable by a character. Why? Because when the short term goals are gone, and the long term goals are tucked away and everyone is celebrating the success of accomplishing their shared goal, their is still something itching in the character to accomplish. I also should stress the "nigh" part of "nigh" impossible. It should not be something that can be given up so easily, it should be something just barely out of reach, just to keep the character reaching out for it. Taglia, who through two years of interactions went from reclusive psychologist to someone who had responsibility thrust upon him started to find himself sympathizing with and (unbeknownst to him and me) mimicking his late Sire in some ways, wished to make peace with her. Unfortunately, she was dead. But death is a loose concept, and one night he (and I) get a phone call with Her on the line, and her expressing approval over his choices and situation. It was brief, but the impossible CAN become impossible.

And when you've run out of stuff, find new stuff, even 'escape from Ennui" can be a goal.

Part Six: Flaws

What about your characters gets in their way to achieving these goals. Now, when it comes to New World of Darkness, I'm not talking about anything necessarily mechanical. I am talking about Character Flaws, things that players can call upon to cause a dramatic issue. Taglia had his suicidal ideation, Declan was a Coward, Rude was both fascinated and repulsed by Death, Jin has Post Traumatic Stress, Rhys is consistently haunted by his family's tragedy and Owen's own moral ambiguity. These are treated the same way a novel's characters have flaws, they aren't game derangements and they aren't mechanical errors...for the record I'm not a fan of how White Wolf has handled either.

More often then not, I've used the Vice/Virtue system to help assign these Character Flaws. Lust for thrillseeking/sex, Gluttony for addiction, Wrath for destructive/self destructive attitudes, Sloth for Apathy or Cowardice, Pride for Vanity or Unreasonably high opinion of oneself. Likewise, the Virtues are the aspects that help redeem these characters...or get them into more trouble. Jin's sense of Benevolence (which I broke down as the Virtue of Charity) is most likely A) going to get him killed or B) drive him into a bottle of something likely to kill him.

Part Seven: Methodology

Welcome to the end of the beginning. Now that you have a character with a background, ties, goals, and flaws, now comes Methodology. How the hell are you going to 1) Portray this shmuck in a live action roleplay setting, 2) convey the goals, flaws, and ties and 3)interact with the other people playing pretendy fun times. That's up to you.

Some of you may have noted that I didn't mention "What powers does your character have, what abilities do the do." That's up to you, really. The focus of this piece is to speak on developing a Character, a Character that will be performed and portrayed in. The Powers, to me, are the flavor. They are the tools you use in your methodology, they are not (should not) BE your methodology.

When I say methodology, are you going to use guile to trick your way through? Will you let two parties fight it out and scavenge the spoils? Will you go head in, guns blazing? This is what should be considered. Powers, I think, get too much focus. You want to sit and talk about actions and powers, then I would recommend Table Top.

Later

Saturday, September 14, 2013

NPC Based Merits

"Allies, Mentors, Retainers and similar Merit-based NPCs are created and portrayed by the Storyteller." 
- Mind's Eye Society Universal Addenda


A recent development came up as the new chronicle rolled in, it has a lot to do with the discussions I posted previously about NPCs and how they should be handled by the STs. The ST chain of the Mind's Eye Society has made a point of stressing that the NPC based Merits. For those of you who do not play in the New World of Darkness Games, Merits are defined in the corebook as "Merit: A character trait representing enhancements or elements of a character’s background, such as his allies or influence." So when I say NPC Based Merits, I mean items that tie a PC to a character inside the setting. They come in different flavors:

1) Mentor: A teacher and guide to the PC. Mentors often take the tack of teaching through subtle means, Daniel LaRusso had Miyagi on his sheet. The Mentor acts as teacher, though the caveat of agenda of their own is always on the table.

2) Contacts: A bit more passive than the other merits. Contacts give information, but not much else, they can be anywhere from a group, a demographic or a single person in the know.

3) Allies: More active versions of Contacts, Allies allows you to gain assistance in a certain area (multiple purchases means multiple areas). You can have Allies in Streetgangs, Allies in the Police, and if you ask for favors that are in their area, they can (note that word) do it. It's wise not to abuse this as they do have lives of their own.

4) Retainers: These NPCs are a PCs go to NPCs. They are their valets, drivers, managers, slaves, investigators. They work almost exclusively for the PC, if not outright. Almost each major template has a sub-class that act as perfect Retainer types (Ghouls for Vampires, Wolf-Blooded for Werewolves, Sleepwalker/Proximi, Fae-Touched for Changelings). This is the most ubiquitous of the Merits, and is also the most fun to roleplay with as you're effectively making a secondary character to assist you.

5) Familiars: Entities that are bonded to the PC. These include Familiar's of the Spirit Realm, the Ghosts of Twilight Realm (no, they do not sparkle...okay, some of them do), the Goetic Summonings of the Astral, Zombies, Hedge Beasts, Hedgespun Automata, etc, etc, etc. These are overtly supernatural entities and are usually beholden to esoteric rules that keep them in check.

As the Mage Storyteller, a venue that has ready access to nearly all of the realms, I have to deal with most of these types of Merits (barring the venue specific varieties). In my time as a player and as a Storyteller, I've seen these Merit Based NPCs used in two ways: Fully fleshed out concepts, and dots on a sheet. An example of Dots on a Sheet were my experiences with Jack on Duck Island. Jack was a consistently exasperated Retainer for the overly dramatic escapades of what was a Vampire Sitcom. Then I've run into it where someone goes "I have five dots of Allies, they're going to back me up" And that's that.


Can you guess which version I like better?

NPCs, as I've stated before, represent your setting. If you're playing a game that is based deeply on your settting and on themes, that will reflect in how these NPCs react to others. NPC based Merits is access to the Setting for aid and assistance. Further tying this down, NPCs are to be written by the storytelling staff, an aspect that is being hammered home a lot more closely than it was last chronicle. These are, for all intents and purposes, part of the setting.

This gets to be interesting as I've said before, Mage deals with creatures and characters on multiple Realms. Each one has their own flavor and their own sort of themes. The Spirit Realm is the most obvious of them, but the Astral has it's own David Lynchian quirks. I can't speak for other storytellers, I'm not them, but if I'm expected to write them and portray them, you'd better believe I'm adding Depth and Consequences to them. NPCs are not just functions to be used at the players convenience, they are the population of your game world. They react when you do a thing, they do things when you aren't even around. So while a PC's sheet has dots that denote access to them, that's exactly what it is: Access.

Things to keep in mind.

Later

Monday, September 9, 2013

One and Done: A look back

This week a year ago, I decided I was egotistical enough to think that people would want to read a blog on LARPing and gaming.

It was egotistical, but I've learned to cope with it.

A year into the lunacy that is Confessions of a Wrathful LARPer, I've learned several important things. I've learned about the GNS theory, how it works and how it doesn't. I've learned that my main goal in anything I do in this community is going to be based on telling a story as opposed to playing statistics or recreating a perfect simulation. That's my motivation in Role Play, to play a Role. In the future, I want to look at Method, How as a player and a storyteller that plays out, because as I've noticed, I use the limits of the Game to allow for Narrative to happen.

I also discovered the mad house that is Dystopia Rising. Bunch of fucking lunatics raiding the woods in the ass crack of night and torturing their players once a month, rain or shine. I've never been challenged to interact as a character for 36 hours, especially when sleep deprivation, the fear of the unknown, and the ability to not fuck up and die in the middle of the woods is a thing both in and out of game. The blog post I have of my first experience there is my most read article to date.

Love you guys. I'll be back soon, if I have to drown the entire forest in the blood and bile of those who get in my way, I will.

I've also discovered the love that is Nordic LARPing. I've not yet had the experience, but I want to take part in a Nordic Style game. I want to be challenged by being in the experience as far as I am allowed to and as far as I can take it.

The year has also shown me my limits in gaming. I'm not a social heavy character. I do not have the thought for social climbing or going out and making an impression. I am. And while we're exploring characters that are different from ourselves, it has to come from part of us. I don't have that part in me. I also learned my limit in terms of gaming, as I begin to take my break for the next couple of months.

I've met several other academically minded folk in the field. Shoshana Kessock, local game developer and fellow blogger added me onto her unless-someone-shows-me-better comprehensive LARP and Gaming reading material list . I've also met Peter Woodworth, a man who has written for and about role playing games than I ever will. I'm playing games WRITTEN by him. He's something of my celebratory crush on this list. I've also had the distinction of becoming acquainted with Dr. Sarah Lynne Bowman, whose book The Functions of Role-Playing Games is something along the lines of what I want to do with this blog eventually

I told you, I'm egotistical. And as I said, I've learned to cope.

In the end, writing this blog and the experience in LARPing made me a more insightful writer. Since I started Storytelling and writing, I've come up with story ideas that while weren't good for the games, could make good novels in and of themselves. I'm also in the midst of developing my own Boffer Larp with several of my friends. I've got a thousand ideas, and because of this thing, I want to share them.

As for what's to come, there are several articles I have in mind: Powergaming, the struggle between Function and Flavor in Character Building, and a look into Final Fantasy VII and it's affect on my gaming experience.

Thank you all for reading this, and I hope you stick around.

Later.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Stepping off the board: dealing with burnout

Last we spoke, I talked about post-con exhaustion. Well, after two weeks, the exhaustion hasn't left. Reading emails to do scenes is like reading mandatory memos from an employer. I look to this game weekend and, if not for the fact I have to run one of the games, I would just sleep through the whole fucking thing.

In short, kids, I'm burned out.

Burn Out, as my psychology lessons threatened to bash into my skull, is when the mind has attained a level of consistent exhaustion through present stressors. In this case, gaming.

Part of dealing with it is understanding the factors that went into it. The con probably didn't help. Don't get me wrong, loved every minute of it, but as I've noted before, I people out damn fast. That, plus a moment that hit one of my triggers (I've gotta do a topic on Triggers and Gaming at some point), just made last week a chore, and has just sucked the fun out of coming in this week.

Another factor are the PCs I'm portraying. Again as I've said before, I'm in the middle of trying to figure out where my PCs for Lost and Requiem are going. I've a plan for my lost PC, but in reality he has no footing to back himself up. This is what I get for making a special fucking snowflake character (I'm one of the only Directionals in play right now, period). He needs time to shore up his own resources and make himself ready, his focus is Honor and War. While it's Honorable to commit to an action, it's stupid to not have your own base of power or your own stores, or soldiers. So he's doing that for the time being in the distance.

My Requiem character was an experiment that did not end well. He was supposed to be a Socio/Political character. Here's the thing: Craig isn't socio/political, and it was boring the fuck out of me. Also, the person with whom my PC was attached to as attache' and bodyguard is GREAT at  the socio/political, so there's a need to alter the dynamic of my PC, but there was no real opening or impetus for it.

And to be frank, I'm 27 years old, single, currently unemployed and LARPing is a hobby that can consume your real life if you let it.

So, when you've come to this point, you do what's natural: You step back, recharge, regroup, plan and come back at a later time. In my hopes, I'd like to come back in December, as it's my third year anniversary with the Club and Live Action Roleplay in general. But I'm not going to stress it, I'll come back when it's both good for me and my characters to come back, they'll still be doing stuff, but they're off the board for now.

I would like to note that this doesn't mean I'll stop blogging. I've still got a game to run and ideas to confront, so the blogging will continue until morale improves. Since this is my morale, the Blogging will just continue.

Later,