Friday, October 18, 2013
Narrativist Storytelling
During a dinner conversation with a bunch of friends who are slowly teaching me the wonderous thing that is Nobilis, we had a discussion about RPGs and LARPs. During the conversation--I forget precisely what the impetus was, but at one point I barked out this:
Do you notice that while most Live Action Role Play events are based on Role Playing Games, that there is no 'G' in LARP? I feel this is intentional. That the focus is Role Play in a Live setting.
There was much nodding of heads and agreement, but the notion stuck with me. I've talked ad nauseum about the GNS Model. It's a flawed system, but it's a convenient one, used to delineating three separate means of behavior in terms of gaming. Gamists play to attain a goal, complete an obstacle or to build an effective strategy to attain their goals. Narrativists are focused on story and plot and mainly do things because it leads to development or challenges to their character as well as them. Simulationist is the adherence to a specific theme or setting and adhering strictly to the rules those settings would have allowed.
I'm a decided Narrativist, both as a player and a Storyteller and a Simulationist as a Secondary. I don't care what dots you have on your sheet, I don't care if your dice pools are fucking righteous. What I care about is that your PC has an arc and is interacting in the world. The only time I use any Gaming principles is in terms of balancing the game to keep it 1) Challenging and 2) Fair. I'm not out to screw the players, they can screw themselves as much as they like. My job and goal is to make sure there is an interesting story with a plot that people are invested in and want to follow, not because there will be some cookie at the end, because they want the challenge and the development for their characters and entertainment for them.
That doesn't mean that things are all story time fun. There are still rules and boundaries of statistics and genre that have got to be kept in line. The Antagonists have to be balanced to keep it a challenge without being totally unkillable, the mystery has to be plausible and have multiple tracks, no small feat when magic is involved. And ultimately, what matters is that the story is driven by the characters first.
This is the one major weaknesses of Narrativist Storytelling, Railroading. It's mightily condescending and entirely too much work. I like being a lazy storyteller and not having to come up with the next plot, save the writing for my novels and this site (like I would ever stop).
So I can't really give much advice on what makes a good Narrativist plot. All I can do is give a few examples and anecdotes:
One of the best Narrativist tools in storytelling is the Conspiracy plot. Who is working for the bad guys, who is working for themselves. Enemies and Allies are sometimes one and the same and that makes interaction and development of ideas major thing. I made this Chronicle of Mage, at least at the onset, by basing the Seers on the Syndicate, the human conspiracy based in the X-Files. However, there is a lot of history and there is definitely an endgame...just not entirely sure how it will manifest itself. This is the simulationist part of the story as it endgame should be totally driven by the PCs, not by me. I just get to referee...
I get to drive the aftermath.
Another thing I try to keep in mind is making plot specifically for some characters. I'm of the mind that unless you have a rather large staff working with you, it should somehow tie in to the plot of the game in some way. One of the challenges I'm facing is with a player's plot tying into his (soon to be) Legacy, which for those of you not in Mage (seriously, get in my game. All operators are waiting) is a secondary type of magic some people can do. It basically hammers down their class and the themes of their magic. This magic is based on Clarke's Law that Advanced Science is indistinguishable from Magic. I suck at any science that is dependant on numbers (x+y= nosebleed), so I'm more or less re-reading my Clarke and re-watching COSMOS before I start again.
As an aside: to the player in question, I know you're reading this, shut up.
Continue shutting up.
Thank you. The plot will continue until my morale improves :P
Also, and I think this is important, Narrative has consequences. Telling me you wanna do the cool thing because you have the dots on the sheet and wanna do the cool thing is not going to get me to follow with it. Telling me your character wants to do a thing and you're willing to roll with the consequences for them is what is going to get me to go with it. Doesn't matter if that's what the game says. Your PC just did a thing that should have consequences.
I'll give you a for instance. My Requiem PC last Chronicle was tasked with helping an Elder member of his Covenant back from the brink of sanity...or hypersanity, it's a bit wonky what was going on but all that I remember was Taglia went into a PCs brain and saw EVERYTHING in stereo. Taglia brought him back using mental exercises and telepathy to do it. Now, Telepathy doesn't work like that, but the ST was cool with it and ran with it. But to me it felt too easy. My PC is a relatively weak Mekhet compared to this guy and doesn't have enough of a buffer to effectively face what is essentially The Untempered Schism . I got permission to have my PC have a brain hemorrhage every time he tried Telepathy for two months after the event. There was nothing in the mechanics that said that should have happened, there is nothing in it that says I couldn't either. But he did something that frankly Could Have and Should Have put him in a fucking coma himself. He needed to pay the cost for doing that as a person.
For those of you who haven't figured it out, I'm a strong proponent of the Jim Butcher school of protagonism: You want your protagonist to do the cool thing? Great. Make em 1) earn it or 2) pay for it. Again, I'm not out to screw my players, but I do want you guys to know that it is impressive that you've just done a thing.
In the end, and I'll repeat, I am mainly concerned with the story of the game and it's players. If someone is going "I have nothing to do" or "I don't know what's going on" I can plug them into the story. Hell, they are all part of a story. Does that mean I'm going to snub Gamists? Hell no. I'm going to have a challenge with them but as long as we can come to an agreement that's what matters. But in the end, this is a Live Action Role Play
Everything else is just a game.
Later.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Hypersigil: LARP as Ritual
Note: this is the second time I've written this article. I rewrote it because the last one was "a bit manic" and not even close to being remotely interesting. I enjoy writing convoluted screeds, but there is an audience involved, and I'm not assuming you're into that sort of thing.
So, I spoke about my recent trip to Changeling, and how such an intense scene gave me a rush and a high like I've only really felt once before in a game, right? It was something that, truth be told, I had been hoping for since I first created Jin. There was a moment of Bleed, a term popular in Nordic and Jeepform LARPs where the emotional content of the PC is what drives the players actions, not vice versa. I was not reacting, Jin was. I consider this one of the higher points of my experience in LARPing.
When I write a character, I usually take an aspect of myself, fragment of my sense of Self and make it into a Persona. It's still me, in some ways, but just a form of me put on. Jin is the face of the very basic sense of Honor I try (key word) to maintain, Taglia was the self destructive tendencies, Declan was cowardice, Rave was sarcasm and secretive nature. Rhys was the asocial type who could do anything he imagined finally. All of these are facets of me.
I should say that not everyone does this, nor should they. If you're going out there and essentially playing yourself, you're causing more problems than good things. You're playing a role, distance yourself a bit, go out a bit. This is where Backstory takes a lot of importance as it acts as a major buffer. At their core, you have a connection to these characters, but there is enough in between that you aren't casting yourself out into the void of LARP. Your PCs are Masks, not Faces.
During the writing of this Chronicle, I created my new PCs as explorations of myself and means of evoking new senses from within. Jin was created as a sense of Honor, of dedicating oneself to a decision and accepting it's consequences. Owen was a delving into the dark recesses for a sense of Power, Sex, Strength, all of the things the Id enjoys. I didn't build them because they were aspects of my day to day personality (as is my usual tack). I built them to try and evoke those concepts for me in my day to day life.
My life is strange. I'm Catholic with some strong Pagan leanings, with many saying I'm stuck in the Broom Closet. The point being is that I enjoy researching the Occult. One of my favorite subjects is that of Sigil Magic. I was first introduced to the subject of Sigil Magic through a video by comic artist Grant Morrison. Sigil Magick is a form of Chaos Magick, which looks into hacking reality and psychological paradigms to achieve a goal and result. You take a phrase, more often than not a goal, and you take components of that phrase and create an artistic representation of that phrase or the letters. After that, you charge it off, putting in your energy and send it off in the moments when your consciousness slips through cracks. We do this all the time, like hitting a natural flow where you do thing autonomically, without conscious effort.
It's a lot to process, but the point is this: You create a goal in your mind, you make it important, you give it some energy, and you absorb it until it's no longer in the front of your mind but still active. The Artistic Design that represents that goal is a Sigil. Now, Grant Morrison introduced the concept of the Hypersigil. A Hypersigil is a complex visual representation of a goal or concept. Morrison wrote several works, most popularly The Invisibles, which he designed as a sigil that embodies his goal, his will and his intent. The Main Character of the Invisibles, King Mob, is a bald headed shamanic badass. Morrison gave him a similar look and charged his image in the hopes that he would change the world around him through this character. At one point, he writes his character going through a major torture as his flesh is being eaten and his lung collapses. Several months later, Morrison goes septic, his flesh is being eating by necrosis and his lung collapses. Aware of the situation, he writes King Mob in different ways, giving him a redheaded girlfriend, which in turn results in similar red headed girls walking into his life.
The Character of King Mob is a Hypersigil, a fragment of the artist himself engaging in a multi leveled story. It's a major working through challenges and triumphs. By allowing a bit of King Mob into himself, and himself a bit into Mob, his reality and ways of interacting with the world change.
So, why can't that work with a PC?
As I said before, I know what I am. I'm a geeky goofball who plays the role of support and clown. One friend is convinced I'm his sidekick. I'm fine with that, but when it's a perpetual image and not just a role I slip into. After a while, you get tired of playing second banana, and it's time to get behind the wheel of your own car. So, I drew up a Sigil, I created characters I could slip into, a persona. I created characters that were, finally, meant to be more detached from my general outlook and being. I was trying to see if I could do it, I was trying to maybe bring something out of myself I hadn't seen before.
The first few months of Chronicle were tough, and I think a lot of it had to do with one simple fact: We're a group of people who see each other at least once a month, who hang out afterwards. We're friends, family, lovers, enemies and rivals. We know each other, and that makes the suspension of disbelief even harder. Which probably makes my burnout and backing away from game probably the best decision I could. Make, the decision removed me from being "Oh, Craig is here" to "Oh, Jin is here".
People will probably go, "Craig, these are characters, not magic". Well, you're right. I'm not completely drunk on the cool-aid to think that this is exactly what it is: me playing in a live action game with a bunch of fellow geeks. But it can be more, we bring into it what we bring into it. I'm bringing into it a place to explore and evoke aspects of myself I never thought I had. I put on a costume, I observe the rites and for four hours I weave a ritual with other people in costumes and with goals of their own, building up into a crescendo at the end of the night. And in those hours, in those interactions, you get those moments of Bleed, and the line between you and your PC dissolves, and suddenly you feel it. So yes, it's a game. It's also a ritual, if you look for it.
Of course, this is all hypothetical and completely an experiment. If it doesn't work, eh, I have two characters I'm going to have fun playing. But if I can use this as an experience, maybe I can do one more. Either way, I'm going to play the fuck out of these guys and make something special out of the process.
Hope you stick around to watch.
Later
So, I spoke about my recent trip to Changeling, and how such an intense scene gave me a rush and a high like I've only really felt once before in a game, right? It was something that, truth be told, I had been hoping for since I first created Jin. There was a moment of Bleed, a term popular in Nordic and Jeepform LARPs where the emotional content of the PC is what drives the players actions, not vice versa. I was not reacting, Jin was. I consider this one of the higher points of my experience in LARPing.
When I write a character, I usually take an aspect of myself, fragment of my sense of Self and make it into a Persona. It's still me, in some ways, but just a form of me put on. Jin is the face of the very basic sense of Honor I try (key word) to maintain, Taglia was the self destructive tendencies, Declan was cowardice, Rave was sarcasm and secretive nature. Rhys was the asocial type who could do anything he imagined finally. All of these are facets of me.
I should say that not everyone does this, nor should they. If you're going out there and essentially playing yourself, you're causing more problems than good things. You're playing a role, distance yourself a bit, go out a bit. This is where Backstory takes a lot of importance as it acts as a major buffer. At their core, you have a connection to these characters, but there is enough in between that you aren't casting yourself out into the void of LARP. Your PCs are Masks, not Faces.
During the writing of this Chronicle, I created my new PCs as explorations of myself and means of evoking new senses from within. Jin was created as a sense of Honor, of dedicating oneself to a decision and accepting it's consequences. Owen was a delving into the dark recesses for a sense of Power, Sex, Strength, all of the things the Id enjoys. I didn't build them because they were aspects of my day to day personality (as is my usual tack). I built them to try and evoke those concepts for me in my day to day life.
My life is strange. I'm Catholic with some strong Pagan leanings, with many saying I'm stuck in the Broom Closet. The point being is that I enjoy researching the Occult. One of my favorite subjects is that of Sigil Magic. I was first introduced to the subject of Sigil Magic through a video by comic artist Grant Morrison. Sigil Magick is a form of Chaos Magick, which looks into hacking reality and psychological paradigms to achieve a goal and result. You take a phrase, more often than not a goal, and you take components of that phrase and create an artistic representation of that phrase or the letters. After that, you charge it off, putting in your energy and send it off in the moments when your consciousness slips through cracks. We do this all the time, like hitting a natural flow where you do thing autonomically, without conscious effort.
It's a lot to process, but the point is this: You create a goal in your mind, you make it important, you give it some energy, and you absorb it until it's no longer in the front of your mind but still active. The Artistic Design that represents that goal is a Sigil. Now, Grant Morrison introduced the concept of the Hypersigil. A Hypersigil is a complex visual representation of a goal or concept. Morrison wrote several works, most popularly The Invisibles, which he designed as a sigil that embodies his goal, his will and his intent. The Main Character of the Invisibles, King Mob, is a bald headed shamanic badass. Morrison gave him a similar look and charged his image in the hopes that he would change the world around him through this character. At one point, he writes his character going through a major torture as his flesh is being eaten and his lung collapses. Several months later, Morrison goes septic, his flesh is being eating by necrosis and his lung collapses. Aware of the situation, he writes King Mob in different ways, giving him a redheaded girlfriend, which in turn results in similar red headed girls walking into his life.
The Character of King Mob is a Hypersigil, a fragment of the artist himself engaging in a multi leveled story. It's a major working through challenges and triumphs. By allowing a bit of King Mob into himself, and himself a bit into Mob, his reality and ways of interacting with the world change.
So, why can't that work with a PC?
As I said before, I know what I am. I'm a geeky goofball who plays the role of support and clown. One friend is convinced I'm his sidekick. I'm fine with that, but when it's a perpetual image and not just a role I slip into. After a while, you get tired of playing second banana, and it's time to get behind the wheel of your own car. So, I drew up a Sigil, I created characters I could slip into, a persona. I created characters that were, finally, meant to be more detached from my general outlook and being. I was trying to see if I could do it, I was trying to maybe bring something out of myself I hadn't seen before.
The first few months of Chronicle were tough, and I think a lot of it had to do with one simple fact: We're a group of people who see each other at least once a month, who hang out afterwards. We're friends, family, lovers, enemies and rivals. We know each other, and that makes the suspension of disbelief even harder. Which probably makes my burnout and backing away from game probably the best decision I could. Make, the decision removed me from being "Oh, Craig is here" to "Oh, Jin is here".
People will probably go, "Craig, these are characters, not magic". Well, you're right. I'm not completely drunk on the cool-aid to think that this is exactly what it is: me playing in a live action game with a bunch of fellow geeks. But it can be more, we bring into it what we bring into it. I'm bringing into it a place to explore and evoke aspects of myself I never thought I had. I put on a costume, I observe the rites and for four hours I weave a ritual with other people in costumes and with goals of their own, building up into a crescendo at the end of the night. And in those hours, in those interactions, you get those moments of Bleed, and the line between you and your PC dissolves, and suddenly you feel it. So yes, it's a game. It's also a ritual, if you look for it.
Of course, this is all hypothetical and completely an experiment. If it doesn't work, eh, I have two characters I'm going to have fun playing. But if I can use this as an experience, maybe I can do one more. Either way, I'm going to play the fuck out of these guys and make something special out of the process.
Hope you stick around to watch.
Later
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Agents of SHIELD and Storytelling
My friend (and resident LARP scholar) Shoshana wrote up a review of ABC's Agents of SHIELD. It hit on a few points that I had noticed and several more. As some of you should know, I enjoy comic books. I'm not a major geek on them, but I enjoy them nonetheless. So I go into the Marvelverse Movies with a sense of Comic Book fandom but casual viewer mentality. I don't care if this scene is exactly like panel thirty seven of issue 1,232. I care that it's a great movie. Thor was the movie that had the least going for it in terms of fanbase and it is, to my opinion, the one of the better films in the entire Marvel Catalog. It could have been cartoonishly bad, but it was handled with a sense of "yes this is a comic book movie, what story do we want to tell with it?"
Of course, this all leads to the Avengers, which is the culmination of the movie series premise and the confirmation that Joss Whedon knows his shit. It not only introduced and reintroduced characters, it introduced to us, in full, SHIELD. SHIELD is a group of spies, secret agents, and so forth that deal with deep classified material. They are the CIA and FBI combined in a sense. The is embodied in two characters, leader Nick Fury (played by Sam 'mothafuckin' Jackson) and the unassumingly awesome super spy Phil Coulson (played by Clark Gregg). These were guys who could handle situations, but realized that some things required some superheroes.
Now, after the success of the Avengers comes Agents of SHIELD. Which continues the story after the Avengers, eventually tying into the second Avengers movies (and probably some of the other films). It stars Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson again, as the head of a team who investigate deep cover items for SHIELD. There was a lot of hype going on about this show, and like Shoshana, I reserved Judgement until after the third episode to see what threads had begun to form.
In truth, I hold some reservations.
Most of it comes from the fact that the show is set in a rich and lush universe with the potential for hundreds of characters, themes and other things able to be played with and thought about. So far, I haven't seen that in the show. They've made very oblique mentions to the movies, which is a given considering that Agent Coulson is directly from them. But there is no sense that this is set in the Marvel Universe. So far we've seen several plots:
1) A man given super powers through technology and becomes a danger to himself
2) A struggle for an ancient alien device
3) A new element is being created and used for nefarious purposes.
These are standard, sci fi tropes that, unless tied down to a really good arc, are just formulaic and shoddy writing. So far, we only have one arc, that of the hacker character Skye's group the Rising Tide and their actions. But there isn't enough drama in that, and I'll get to why in a few minutes.
What hurts is the fact that, while they are in the Marvel Universe, there is no sense that they are IN the Marvel Universe. No mention of Stark Industries, groups like AIM. You could remove the name SHIELD and you'd get the same affect. This is a product OF the Marvel Universe, but it doesn't give you the sense that you are IN the Marvel Universe. They are working in a Vaccum, literally. The team is transported in a private plane, they aren't rooted anywhere. So they just touch down in whatever location of the week and then pick up and leave. There doesn't seem to be any long term consequences, no overarching events. There is a sense that Status Quo is God, and that's something that Marvel doesn't do well. When shit happens, it has a tendency to have consequences.
The main problem, however, is with the main cast. You could do episodic drek if you have a decent cast of characters. Look at NCIS, Warehouse 13, Stargate SG-1. The plot in most of these episodes don't matter, it's the interactions between these characters that drive the show. Right now...we don't have that. I'm going to run down the main cast and go from there
Phil Coulson: played by Clark Gregg. From his last few scenes in Iron Man I to his triumph in The Avengers, he proved that you don't need a costume to be a badass. There is a lot of mystery considering his status post Avengers, and that's one of the major draws. He's the only major movie character shown on a constant presence and when the next Avengers movie comes out, it's probably guaranteed he'll be involved (I'm of the numbers that believes that he's the new Vision). But so far, he's the only one that I'm personally invested in, if nothing because there is a pay off in his story down the aisle.
Melinda May: played by Ming Na. My second favorite character. She comes off as the veteran badass tired of being a badass. She's the one driving the bus (the plane that they work out of) and every so often reveals that yes, she still has it. Unfortunately, it doesn't come off as an arc for her one way or the other. She's retired because she says she's retired, but is right there kicking ass. There is no mystique because she spells it all out. We're told all of this information, and there is no pay off
Fitz/Simmons: Played by Iain de Caestecker (Fitz) and Elizabeth Henstridge (Simmons). I mention these two in the same breath because so does the storytelling. I'm almost convinced that the script initially called for one character, but somewhere they forgot them and made them two and then continue to forget them. They play the resident techie, but in stereo. Their dialogue shows that they are clearly a unit, but they are so involved in their own discussion that there is no room for them to grow. They feel like functions, NPCs, there is no growth. In the third episode of the series, one of their professors is a person of interest, there is no drama, no sense of tension, no fallout when the episode is over. They aren't *real*.
Agent Grant Ward: played by Brett Dalton. Ward is the squared jawed hot-shot agent that follows his own badass path. He's no Clint Barton or Natasha Romanov though. He's a broody, asocial man who fills out the role of the "hero" in the group, but little else. There is no sense of who this man is, where he is coming from. He's just there, and we're informed about his prowess in the pilot as being "in league with Romanov" in terms of marksman ship. Natasha could convey more emotional impact by dead panning than this Ward could with a taser to his balls. Don't tell me you're badass, SHOW ME.
And finally, we have:
Skye: played by Chloe Bennet. Wikipedia describes her as "bubbly but goofy" but also "warm, edgy and witty". She can hold her own in any situation." (1)
So what I'm hearing is that she's a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who will serve whatever function to foil off of Agent Tightpants Ward. Right. Got it. I'm a guy and I'm insulted by that. Her charm and appeal come off more as pandering for the audience than the characters in the show. She has been compared to Eliza Dushku, which is a bit unfair to both of them, but I can see the point. She comes off as a Faith Lehane "I'm a badass outsider with moments of vulnerable adorkability". The only thing about her is whatever the hell Rising Tide is and what they wish to do. Other than that, they have given me NOTHING to root for this girl. She plays the role of the new guy on the team, except there doesn't seem to be any exploration of the team.
The reason I bring this up on my LARPing/Gaming blog is because I see this an example of how not to tell a story. Here you have a rich, lush environment to work with, and each episode is just going to be one new thing after the next. You're not making it a credible threat, as we all know that if you give it an episode or two, they'll clean it up with little fuss and hardly any damage that lingers. You also need to make characters that show you that they are credible in their roles and positions, not just telling us. When building a team, they have to work off of each other, and instead of getting Firefly, I'm seeing stock dialogue. I don't feel like this is a team, I don't feel like I'm watching something credible.
That being said, I desperately want to love this show. I want this to be something that people want to see, and that when the movies come out they want to see those too, feeding into each other like an ourobouros on gamma radiation. I want this to be Marvel's Agents of Shield, and not just in name only. Help me out here, ABC, you're my only hope.
Later.
Of course, this all leads to the Avengers, which is the culmination of the movie series premise and the confirmation that Joss Whedon knows his shit. It not only introduced and reintroduced characters, it introduced to us, in full, SHIELD. SHIELD is a group of spies, secret agents, and so forth that deal with deep classified material. They are the CIA and FBI combined in a sense. The is embodied in two characters, leader Nick Fury (played by Sam 'mothafuckin' Jackson) and the unassumingly awesome super spy Phil Coulson (played by Clark Gregg). These were guys who could handle situations, but realized that some things required some superheroes.
Now, after the success of the Avengers comes Agents of SHIELD. Which continues the story after the Avengers, eventually tying into the second Avengers movies (and probably some of the other films). It stars Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson again, as the head of a team who investigate deep cover items for SHIELD. There was a lot of hype going on about this show, and like Shoshana, I reserved Judgement until after the third episode to see what threads had begun to form.
In truth, I hold some reservations.
Most of it comes from the fact that the show is set in a rich and lush universe with the potential for hundreds of characters, themes and other things able to be played with and thought about. So far, I haven't seen that in the show. They've made very oblique mentions to the movies, which is a given considering that Agent Coulson is directly from them. But there is no sense that this is set in the Marvel Universe. So far we've seen several plots:
1) A man given super powers through technology and becomes a danger to himself
2) A struggle for an ancient alien device
3) A new element is being created and used for nefarious purposes.
These are standard, sci fi tropes that, unless tied down to a really good arc, are just formulaic and shoddy writing. So far, we only have one arc, that of the hacker character Skye's group the Rising Tide and their actions. But there isn't enough drama in that, and I'll get to why in a few minutes.
What hurts is the fact that, while they are in the Marvel Universe, there is no sense that they are IN the Marvel Universe. No mention of Stark Industries, groups like AIM. You could remove the name SHIELD and you'd get the same affect. This is a product OF the Marvel Universe, but it doesn't give you the sense that you are IN the Marvel Universe. They are working in a Vaccum, literally. The team is transported in a private plane, they aren't rooted anywhere. So they just touch down in whatever location of the week and then pick up and leave. There doesn't seem to be any long term consequences, no overarching events. There is a sense that Status Quo is God, and that's something that Marvel doesn't do well. When shit happens, it has a tendency to have consequences.
The main problem, however, is with the main cast. You could do episodic drek if you have a decent cast of characters. Look at NCIS, Warehouse 13, Stargate SG-1. The plot in most of these episodes don't matter, it's the interactions between these characters that drive the show. Right now...we don't have that. I'm going to run down the main cast and go from there
Phil Coulson: played by Clark Gregg. From his last few scenes in Iron Man I to his triumph in The Avengers, he proved that you don't need a costume to be a badass. There is a lot of mystery considering his status post Avengers, and that's one of the major draws. He's the only major movie character shown on a constant presence and when the next Avengers movie comes out, it's probably guaranteed he'll be involved (I'm of the numbers that believes that he's the new Vision). But so far, he's the only one that I'm personally invested in, if nothing because there is a pay off in his story down the aisle.
Melinda May: played by Ming Na. My second favorite character. She comes off as the veteran badass tired of being a badass. She's the one driving the bus (the plane that they work out of) and every so often reveals that yes, she still has it. Unfortunately, it doesn't come off as an arc for her one way or the other. She's retired because she says she's retired, but is right there kicking ass. There is no mystique because she spells it all out. We're told all of this information, and there is no pay off
Fitz/Simmons: Played by Iain de Caestecker (Fitz) and Elizabeth Henstridge (Simmons). I mention these two in the same breath because so does the storytelling. I'm almost convinced that the script initially called for one character, but somewhere they forgot them and made them two and then continue to forget them. They play the resident techie, but in stereo. Their dialogue shows that they are clearly a unit, but they are so involved in their own discussion that there is no room for them to grow. They feel like functions, NPCs, there is no growth. In the third episode of the series, one of their professors is a person of interest, there is no drama, no sense of tension, no fallout when the episode is over. They aren't *real*.
Agent Grant Ward: played by Brett Dalton. Ward is the squared jawed hot-shot agent that follows his own badass path. He's no Clint Barton or Natasha Romanov though. He's a broody, asocial man who fills out the role of the "hero" in the group, but little else. There is no sense of who this man is, where he is coming from. He's just there, and we're informed about his prowess in the pilot as being "in league with Romanov" in terms of marksman ship. Natasha could convey more emotional impact by dead panning than this Ward could with a taser to his balls. Don't tell me you're badass, SHOW ME.
And finally, we have:
Skye: played by Chloe Bennet. Wikipedia describes her as "bubbly but goofy" but also "warm, edgy and witty". She can hold her own in any situation." (1)
So what I'm hearing is that she's a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who will serve whatever function to foil off of Agent Tightpants Ward. Right. Got it. I'm a guy and I'm insulted by that. Her charm and appeal come off more as pandering for the audience than the characters in the show. She has been compared to Eliza Dushku, which is a bit unfair to both of them, but I can see the point. She comes off as a Faith Lehane "I'm a badass outsider with moments of vulnerable adorkability". The only thing about her is whatever the hell Rising Tide is and what they wish to do. Other than that, they have given me NOTHING to root for this girl. She plays the role of the new guy on the team, except there doesn't seem to be any exploration of the team.
The reason I bring this up on my LARPing/Gaming blog is because I see this an example of how not to tell a story. Here you have a rich, lush environment to work with, and each episode is just going to be one new thing after the next. You're not making it a credible threat, as we all know that if you give it an episode or two, they'll clean it up with little fuss and hardly any damage that lingers. You also need to make characters that show you that they are credible in their roles and positions, not just telling us. When building a team, they have to work off of each other, and instead of getting Firefly, I'm seeing stock dialogue. I don't feel like this is a team, I don't feel like I'm watching something credible.
That being said, I desperately want to love this show. I want this to be something that people want to see, and that when the movies come out they want to see those too, feeding into each other like an ourobouros on gamma radiation. I want this to be Marvel's Agents of Shield, and not just in name only. Help me out here, ABC, you're my only hope.
Later.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Going There
Friday night, I was aikido'd into going to Changeling by my dear friend (and resident Changeling the Lost ST/Groupie) Abby. Abby knows my pressure points, because she said simply "Empress Song will be there." For the two or three of you who don't play Changeling in the New York Game, Empress Song is the leader of the Southern Court of New York, and is a major player in the group that my PC, Jin, is a part of. Unfortunately, Song is an NPC, Jin is currently the only PC member of the Directional Courts. So, when Abby says that another Sovereign of the Directions is making an in the flesh appearance, I will snap to.
God damn you Abby.
The game began as most games began, with me just kinda costing with the group to do a thing. Unfortunately, the scene was fueled more by Out Of Character ennui than anything really IC. I couldn't really care about what was going on. To me it was just a bunch of geeks sitting around a table fucking about. As time and time again has proven, I suck at doing that as myself let alone as my characters. We got shit done and we carted off into the room again. It was there that things got interesting. I sat down with Shawn and Ephraim, whose PCs Ciar (the Autumn Sovereign) and Lachoros (Winter Sovereign) were having a discussion. The three of them have collectively had a shitty month, with them losing a member of their freehold to Keepers, while Jin suffered insult by their freehold personally (he was once a member), professionally and they approached him solely as a means of arming their stupid plan, and as a delegate of another freehold altogether he was ignored on a matter which involved all of them. Those two sovereigns weren't at the gathering this all happened at, but they were also responsible to other activities that have left the Freeholds ill at ease.
There came a point somewhere between Jin's conversation with Ciar where both of them made it personal. Ciar is a Fairest Shadowsoul and could give Tolkien's Elves a run for their money in the haughty department. Jin is a soldier, a killer, and a man far too tired and covered in blood for this bullshit. It ended with Ciar selling one of his people (and Jin's best friend) under the bus on the whole matter while agreeing that things will not be done as if their Freehold is to blame. Jin agreed with him...and then promptly told him right to his face that if war should happen, as the Emperor of the Court of War, Jin would be forced to dedicate his life to the ending of the freehold, which is the last thing Jin ever wants. It ended with Jin begging Ciar to make his attempts to rectifying the problem, as the alternative is something that no one in that room wants at all.
There was a point during that conversation, I don't know when, where I realized that the room stopped. Everyone, every single player and character, stopped and watched the two of us have this heated conversation dripping with emotion. When Jin got up, and believe me when I say Jin and not I is intentional, the entire room exhaled sharply. For several minutes, an entire game of Changeling stopped for two people. I walked out of that scene, and into another one with the first West Court PC I've met other than Jin, where we have had this intense conversation/walking around each other. August, played by the awesome Scott, and Jin both had the scent of blood in the air and while August called for immediate action, Jin called for deliberation. Jin is pissed, and everything in him knows that Ciar will eventually need to be dealt with, but he will not risk open war with Seasonals and risk losing his friends and loved ones.
Game ended there, and I remember feeling this high. I don't remember my words, as I often don't when either reciting lines for a show or having written them down in a story or a blog. I felt emptied out, I felt satisfied. I realized that for the first time in five months, people saw Jin. Not Craig Page-playing-Jin, but the man himself. I felt like I was on autopilot and I just did it instead of overthinking and trying to go "well this would be cool". I hit a mark and I ran with it.
I've been LARPing for three years now and Roleplaying for nearly five. I've seen players hit that high mark where you feel that they are these characters, you are drawn into the world with them and it becomes a bit more real than it was before. I saw it all throughout Requiem, watching the power players bring a level of intensity publicly and privately where you are compelled to react in the world. I've also heard stories about players who through sheer force of will made their characters live. The key example I've heard being Dain, a former NYC player, playing Simon Cassio. Cassio's reign as Prince of New York, and his level of intensity and the sense that this is a being who will kill you if you present yourself as a threat to the City, was lauded even three years after his departure. LARPs can get dodgy with the memory thing as we often deal with the Here and Now. People were still referring to Cassio with legit, OOC fear. I've had the privilege of working with him on email scenes, as well as his wife Rachel. Rachel, this time around, plays my cousin Juniper. Madwoman, Seeress, She speaks in riddles and only she knows the true meaning. We finally met and worked during NERE and watching her interact with people and how through her performance sucked them in and, through that intensity and commitment to the character, improved their roleplay.
And I'll be honest, I want more of that. One of my larger fears is that LARP groups, once they've settled in and gotten to know each other, tend to just repeat the same routines and it becomes more about the players than it does about the characters, thereby making it less of a LARP and more of a social club with funny costuming policies. In an isolated system, entropy can only increase. So I want to open up more and focus more on these characters. One of the reasons I took a break was so I could 1) rest up because burnout is a thing and not something I like and 2) remove my PCs from the Here and Now, allowing me to come in with fresh eyes for everyone (including myself) in regards to these characters. I know how I present myself to people. I'm a goofball, a snarky cloudcuckoolander who is mostly harmless but goddamit I try. I'm aware of this. However, I'm playing characters who aren't, and sometimes it helps to remind the other players as well as yourself of that fact.
So, in short, I'm aiming for more intense scenes, and more intense character work other than "I have a thing, I do a thing" While snarking with my friends. I can do that (or not, depending on the mood) outside of game. But If I'm showing up to a game, I want to make sure that people are getting my A game, so I'm not just sitting there IC and OOCly bored.
Later.
God damn you Abby.
The game began as most games began, with me just kinda costing with the group to do a thing. Unfortunately, the scene was fueled more by Out Of Character ennui than anything really IC. I couldn't really care about what was going on. To me it was just a bunch of geeks sitting around a table fucking about. As time and time again has proven, I suck at doing that as myself let alone as my characters. We got shit done and we carted off into the room again. It was there that things got interesting. I sat down with Shawn and Ephraim, whose PCs Ciar (the Autumn Sovereign) and Lachoros (Winter Sovereign) were having a discussion. The three of them have collectively had a shitty month, with them losing a member of their freehold to Keepers, while Jin suffered insult by their freehold personally (he was once a member), professionally and they approached him solely as a means of arming their stupid plan, and as a delegate of another freehold altogether he was ignored on a matter which involved all of them. Those two sovereigns weren't at the gathering this all happened at, but they were also responsible to other activities that have left the Freeholds ill at ease.
There came a point somewhere between Jin's conversation with Ciar where both of them made it personal. Ciar is a Fairest Shadowsoul and could give Tolkien's Elves a run for their money in the haughty department. Jin is a soldier, a killer, and a man far too tired and covered in blood for this bullshit. It ended with Ciar selling one of his people (and Jin's best friend) under the bus on the whole matter while agreeing that things will not be done as if their Freehold is to blame. Jin agreed with him...and then promptly told him right to his face that if war should happen, as the Emperor of the Court of War, Jin would be forced to dedicate his life to the ending of the freehold, which is the last thing Jin ever wants. It ended with Jin begging Ciar to make his attempts to rectifying the problem, as the alternative is something that no one in that room wants at all.
There was a point during that conversation, I don't know when, where I realized that the room stopped. Everyone, every single player and character, stopped and watched the two of us have this heated conversation dripping with emotion. When Jin got up, and believe me when I say Jin and not I is intentional, the entire room exhaled sharply. For several minutes, an entire game of Changeling stopped for two people. I walked out of that scene, and into another one with the first West Court PC I've met other than Jin, where we have had this intense conversation/walking around each other. August, played by the awesome Scott, and Jin both had the scent of blood in the air and while August called for immediate action, Jin called for deliberation. Jin is pissed, and everything in him knows that Ciar will eventually need to be dealt with, but he will not risk open war with Seasonals and risk losing his friends and loved ones.
Game ended there, and I remember feeling this high. I don't remember my words, as I often don't when either reciting lines for a show or having written them down in a story or a blog. I felt emptied out, I felt satisfied. I realized that for the first time in five months, people saw Jin. Not Craig Page-playing-Jin, but the man himself. I felt like I was on autopilot and I just did it instead of overthinking and trying to go "well this would be cool". I hit a mark and I ran with it.
I've been LARPing for three years now and Roleplaying for nearly five. I've seen players hit that high mark where you feel that they are these characters, you are drawn into the world with them and it becomes a bit more real than it was before. I saw it all throughout Requiem, watching the power players bring a level of intensity publicly and privately where you are compelled to react in the world. I've also heard stories about players who through sheer force of will made their characters live. The key example I've heard being Dain, a former NYC player, playing Simon Cassio. Cassio's reign as Prince of New York, and his level of intensity and the sense that this is a being who will kill you if you present yourself as a threat to the City, was lauded even three years after his departure. LARPs can get dodgy with the memory thing as we often deal with the Here and Now. People were still referring to Cassio with legit, OOC fear. I've had the privilege of working with him on email scenes, as well as his wife Rachel. Rachel, this time around, plays my cousin Juniper. Madwoman, Seeress, She speaks in riddles and only she knows the true meaning. We finally met and worked during NERE and watching her interact with people and how through her performance sucked them in and, through that intensity and commitment to the character, improved their roleplay.
And I'll be honest, I want more of that. One of my larger fears is that LARP groups, once they've settled in and gotten to know each other, tend to just repeat the same routines and it becomes more about the players than it does about the characters, thereby making it less of a LARP and more of a social club with funny costuming policies. In an isolated system, entropy can only increase. So I want to open up more and focus more on these characters. One of the reasons I took a break was so I could 1) rest up because burnout is a thing and not something I like and 2) remove my PCs from the Here and Now, allowing me to come in with fresh eyes for everyone (including myself) in regards to these characters. I know how I present myself to people. I'm a goofball, a snarky cloudcuckoolander who is mostly harmless but goddamit I try. I'm aware of this. However, I'm playing characters who aren't, and sometimes it helps to remind the other players as well as yourself of that fact.
So, in short, I'm aiming for more intense scenes, and more intense character work other than "I have a thing, I do a thing" While snarking with my friends. I can do that (or not, depending on the mood) outside of game. But If I'm showing up to a game, I want to make sure that people are getting my A game, so I'm not just sitting there IC and OOCly bored.
Later.
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