[Dresden Files] It‘s not Zilch play, but what is it?
Callan S.:
Or the way I'd put it, it's like the anime bit is beer and the interacting is like chips - you can enjoy beer and chips together (and I'd say they even compliment each other). When did she go off chips? Or are some people never a big fan of chips to begin with?
Anders Gabrielsson:
Did you get an impression of if she was an experienced roleplayer or not? Meaning, did she seem comfortable with dice, terminology and the type of interaction that typically goes on around a gaming table?
It seems you brought your own characters to the game. Is that correct?
One reason I'm asking is that she may just have been used to a different form of play. For example, she might have played one-on-one, or in another very small group. Or (and this might be a bit prejudiced) she might have been a hanger-on with her boyfriend's playgroup where the others were okay with this type of play because it kept her "out of the way" while still being in the game.
pawsplay:
She wants to be a cute girl who turns into a cat.
She turned into a little kitty during the "talking" scene. Did anyone pet the kitty? No. They ignored her kittiness.
She got stuck in a tree. Did anyone rush to her rescue? Did anyone capitalize on the potential comedy? No.
She's a schoolgirl who turns into a cat. Then she was naked. Did anyone respond to her embarrassment? No. Instead she was treated as a sex object.
She showed a hidden, more serious side, taking the part of a literal angel of death. It wasn't important that the comatose guy see her; she was giving him last rites. Was she taken seriously? Apparently not.
It sounds to me like she had a concept, and some kind of plan, but no one tuned into the things she was interested in, and no one was interested in the hooks she offered. It's not some weird, mutant style of play. It's an awkward person being rejected by a group that doesn't get her. I think she really tried, but the group was all earnestly talking, and earnestly tactical, and earnest about some comatose dude. The group didn't really offer a lot of space for an innocent, non-professional kind of character. The group expected River Tam; she brought Mathilda from Leon the Professional. So she got brushed off.
Callan S.:
I think apart from the sex object notion (which seems hyperbole), that's an interesting point.
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The group didn't really offer a lot of space for an innocent, non-professional kind of character.
But equally, what space was she offering them in what she did? It didn't seem especially wide either? It was kinda 'Stop! Kitty time!'
I'd almost propose two groups not offering the other that space - even if one of the groups was only comprised of one person. But then again I've not soley focused on her throughtout this thread as if the only off kilter things could be to do with her.
Anyway, that 'space' is an interesting idea. I kind of imagine it as a window, presented by either party - with the size of the window the amount of 'space' given and whether one participants window overlaps another participants windown to some or a large degree. The area they overlap in is the area they can work in together. But I think players with a strong sim basis tend to offer very narrow windows, with the narrowness indicative of "see, we don't just allow any old thing in, thus we must be doing this right!". When from my perspective there is no right to be had, just a very narrow window. Two narrow windows here in the AP, with no real chance of overlap?
pawsplay:
Quote from: Callan S. on July 04, 2011, 11:21:34 PM
I think apart from the sex object notion (which seems hyperbole), that's an interesting point.
I wasn't trying to be hyperbolic. Rather, I was speculating about a mismatch in expectations. Even a small mismatch in this case would lead to a recoiling reaction.
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The group didn't really offer a lot of space for an innocent, non-professional kind of character.
But equally, what space was she offering them in what she did? It didn't seem especially wide either? It was kinda 'Stop! Kitty time!'
I'd almost propose two groups not offering the other that space - even if one of the groups was only comprised of one person. But then again I've not soley focused on her throughtout this thread as if the only off kilter things could be to do with her.
Anyway, that 'space' is an interesting idea. I kind of imagine it as a window, presented by either party - with the size of the window the amount of 'space' given and whether one participants window overlaps another participants windown to some or a large degree. The area they overlap in is the area they can work in together. But I think players with a strong sim basis tend to offer very narrow windows, with the narrowness indicative of "see, we don't just allow any old thing in, thus we must be doing this right!". When from my perspective there is no right to be had, just a very narrow window. Two narrow windows here in the AP, with no real chance of overlap?
This actually reminds me of an eerily analogous experience I had. A long time ago, I started dating a woman who had an existing gaming group. Because they let her bring her young child to the session, she was pretty grateful for the opportunity and had been loyal to the group for some time. I got brought along, basically as a date. The game was Hero System, and I impressed the group with my math skills and my ability to whip up a character basically on the spot. I was a long-haired punk, but I wanted to explore something different, so I created a conservative, divorced, ex-Marine with a drinking problem and a buzz cut, who had become an armored vigilante and was trying to study Aikido in order to deal with his personal demons. He had growing bonsai as a hobby.
A group member was missing, so rather than proceed with the planned adventure, they decided to run a quick "soap operatic" session. First, my character was introduced as a new recruit. Things got off to a bad start when they described my character as having an "enhanced physique" according to their scanner, and after I clarified that I was playing a super normal, they just stared at me like I was speaking Martian. Belatedly I realized that being Batman was still a superpower as far as they were concerned. I sort of rolled with it. Each of the established players had six or more regular players which they played, often switching parts between two or three at a time. My date only had two characters, and only played one at a time. Somehow, the group zeroed in on the idea of "going to Las Vegas" as a way of blowing off steam. At that point, I was like, ok, this is not what I would choose to roleplay, but I can see some possibilities here. Some of the other characters might try to be friendly, there will be alcohol, etc. Well, right off the bat, my character was isolated from my date's character, and I found my staid vigilante being confronted with a bubbly, flirtatious female character played by the male host. Now I can't say with certain that this wasn't just my discomfort, but I got a "vibe" and suddenly I wanted to be just about anywhere else doing just about anything else than roleplaying a flirtation with this player. It was instinctual, and I can't state any explicit reason for my ill-ease, but I didn't want to see him making "flirty" faces, didn't want to know more about how he portrayed women in fiction, and didn't want to have to try to feel out what MPAA rating we were shooting for. I thought about my character and considered that logically, he might find her repellant, so I role-played the brush-off, with a little extra rudeness, for spice. The rest of the session was pretty banal. Ultimately, I felt the truest thing to my character would be to sneak off from the social situation, and get pretty drunk. The other players basically let that happen without interruption, and I spent the last fifteen minutes or so fielding the occasional question about my character's level of consciousness, before finally allowing that he had fallen asleep with a whiskey bottle in his hand. Frankly, it was (I felt) a poignant scene that pointed out the amount of missed potential.
I wanted to interact. I tried to interact. But I found myself backpedalling away from one unwanted interaction, and being ignored in virtually every other area. And I don't remember a damned thing about my date's character. It would not have taken a lot of effort to involve my character more. But somewhere, sometime, I was probably the subject of a post much like the OP in this thread.
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