[Dresden Files] It‘s not Zilch play, but what is it?
wholeridge:
Quote from: Frank Tarcikowski on June 08, 2011, 12:43:38 PM
Hey Dan, to be clear, my analogy was meant to describe the players, not the characters.
I can't really second-guess the backstory or what went on inside the player's head. Your interpretation is interesting in particular looking at the "angelic euthanasia" scene--from the other scenes, I would not have felt anything dark or broken about the character.
- Frank
I pretty much jumped to the conclusion that the player was acting out of fascination with the character, rather than for any reason relating to social contact with other players. When I read of the character's acts of self-sabotage and flight from contact with others, I though about why a real person would act as this character was acting, which led me to view the character as broken even before I came to the part about angelic euthanasia. It never occurred to me to instead ask "why is the player manipulating her game token in this fashion?" which, I suppose, says something about my own creative agenda.
Dan
sirogit:
I think the description of events is vague enough that trying to formulate what's going on involves less diagnosis and more making up your own little story, but I kind of want to make up my own little story so I'll go ahead:
I think most of the players minus cat lady are playing into a very top-down game play structure. GM provides stuff to do, players say how they do it and provide color. Not cat lady, she plays by her own rules.
Is the first scene about talking? NO. Its about me being a cat.
Is the second scene about sneaking around? NO. Its about my cat being up a tree.
Is the third scene about fighting a bad guy? NO. Its about my being naked.
Is the fourth scene about some dude in a coma laying there silently? NO. Its this little poignant thing about being a fake angel.
What's wrong with her play styles? Well, its difficult to interact with the other players, as they're set in this top-down-GM-provides-what-we're-doing play style, so she's largely doing stuff solo. Its also difficult to create interesting conflict, as the play style of the rest of the group only empowers the GM to do that. Also, I think there's a very real power struggle between her and the GM, evidenced in people moving to shut down her little coma contribution (That honestly seemed a bit nasty to me.)
What would a table with only players with her be like? It could be totally sweet! It could be everyone making challenging situations for each other, people jumping on other people's situations because they're genuinely intrigued by them, and developing them further. (I try to rescue the cat from the tree! I call the firemen and its awkward because he's an ex!)
Maybe it would sometimes making little situations that no one else jumps on to. That's okay. That's an expected consequence of an open exchange of situations instead of a closed exchange dependent on a GM.
Frank Tarcikowski:
Hey Sirogit, sure, it‘s all speculative. Even if I told everything I remember about her to the last detail, it would remain so. I was kind of hoping for others to jump in with some experience of their own to add to the topic because, as I said, I found myself at something of a loss.
From how I perceived it at the table, there was no power struggle between the Werecat player and the GM. She accepted his plot authority, just using what he provided as a backdrop for her “own game”. As for the “people moving to shut her down”, all the other player characters were around and could have stopped her, and not everyone approves of euthanasia, so there was a bit more to it than just “shutting her down” because she played “wrong”.
Would a group of players like that be making challenging situations for each other? I don’t know. I tried to bounce something off her “naked” scene and others tried in different scenes, but she blocked literally everything. I had a very strong impression that she was deliberately preventing any sort of consequential interaction with her character.
- Frank
Callan S.:
Quote
Would a group of players like that be making challenging situations for each other? I don’t know.
Why does this matter to you, Frank? I mean, what they'd be doing in their little group is what they'd be doing. Is your interest beyond the practical concern of how your own game activities go?
Frank Tarcikowski:
Well, mostly I'm just curious. Also, I wonder what I and the other players could have done to make play more rewarding to the Werecat player, if anything.
- Frank
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