[Dresden Files] It‘s not Zilch play, but what is it?
Frank Tarcikowski:
Anders, she did seem quite familiar with role-playing per se, if not with FATE. We did not bring our own characters, but made them up in the beginning of the session.
Pawsplay, I can see how you could get that impression from what I have written, but it’s not really how it happened.
Quote
She turned into a little kitty during the "talking" scene. Did anyone pet the kitty? No. They ignored her kittiness.
Actually, she already turned up as a kitty, and it was established how she climbed one of the other player characters (including the use of claws, ouch). Someone might even have said, “Come here, kitty!” I wouldn’t have thought much of it (just a bit of character portrayal, which others did as well) but it did seem pretty obvious from how the GM announced the scene that this was the scene in which we would talk.
Quote
She got stuck in a tree. Did anyone rush to her rescue? Did anyone capitalize on the potential comedy? No.
Actually, we wanted to get her out of the tree but she had compelled an Aspect and earned a FATE point and it would have been contrary to the rules to just negate her disadvantage, the GM explained. As for capitalizing on the potential comedy, can you give an example of how you would have done it? Because, really, as she kept meowing, I thought, does she expect us to do anything? But I had no idea what.
Quote
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.
Actually, she did not portray her character as being embarrassed. She portrayed her as teasing and shaking her hips.
You are certainly right that the group did not get her, but I’m not so sure about the rest. I think we could have handled a non-professional kind of character, and all characters had their Trouble Aspect anyway, so although I’ll grant that we played in a problem-solving mindset, it was expected and encouraged by the FATE system and the source material that characters do sub-optimal things. However, it did not seem to me that the Werecat player tried to interact with the group in some way and got brushed off. It rather seemed to me that she did not have any interest in interacting with the group at all, which is the thing that puzzles me.
I get your example form that Vegas scene. I’ve done likewise, disengaging from a game that made me uneasy and positioning my character in-game in such a way that I could reduce interaction to a minimum. (At other times I’ve made up a polite lie to excuse myself, but I see you couldn’t do that on a quasi-date.) In the case of the Werecat player, though, the idea of “she disengaged because the game made her uncomfortable” kind of doesn’t seem to fit with that euthanasia scene in the end, and also with the “look I’m naked” scene.
Callan, that window you are talking about, would that be Congruency by big model terms?
- Frank
pawsplay:
Quote from: Frank Tarcikowski on July 05, 2011, 01:12:44 AM
Actually, she already turned up as a kitty, and it was established how she climbed one of the other player characters (including the use of claws, ouch). Someone might even have said, “Come here, kitty!” I wouldn’t have thought much of it (just a bit of character portrayal, which others did as well) but it did seem pretty obvious from how the GM announced the scene that this was the scene in which we would talk.
So what make it obvious? And is it required that she be on board with the whole talking thing? Is her character one that would logically have a lot to say in the situation? I have lots of questions about how that scene played out. It's entirely possible she was biding her time, waiting for the scene to end, which is still not necessarily total disengagement, just disinterest in the scene.
Quote
Actually, we wanted to get her out of the tree but she had compelled an Aspect and earned a FATE point and it would have been contrary to the rules to just negate her disadvantage, the GM explained. As for capitalizing on the potential comedy, can you give an example of how you would have done it? Because, really, as she kept meowing, I thought, does she expect us to do anything? But I had no idea what.
Like... get her out of the tree? Just a thought I had.
Quote
Actually, she did not portray her character as being embarrassed. She portrayed her as teasing and shaking her hips.
But she ran away as soon as the situation was resolved. I'm guessing her idea was born out of spontaneity and possibly a desire to be outragerous.
Quote
You are certainly right that the group did not get her, but I’m not so sure about the rest. I think we could have handled a non-professional kind of character, and all characters had their Trouble Aspect anyway, so although I’ll grant that we played in a problem-solving mindset, it was expected and encouraged by the FATE system and the source material that characters do sub-optimal things. However, it did not seem to me that the Werecat player tried to interact with the group in some way and got brushed off. It rather seemed to me that she did not have any interest in interacting with the group at all, which is the thing that puzzles me.
I wasn't there, I'll grant you. But it sounds, to me, like she did try to interact with the group. She did attention-getting things. She just wasn't able to communicate clearly what she expected. Maybe she was nervous. Nervous people sometimes do very strange things. :)
Callan S.:
Quote
Callan, that window you are talking about, would that be Congruency by big model terms?
Looking up the term, no, that's some creative agenda thing. A straightforward example of the windows I'm talking about is if you only spoke German and I only spoke English - those windows of communication and understanding only barely overlap, and that's only because of body language and pointing at stuff, etc. Here it's the language of the kitteh and language of the serious investigation crew. They just don't overlap.
Paws, I don't think you need to do the internet thing of 'Just a thought I had'. At the forge generally people try to earnestly understand the other dude (atleast at the start, anyway). But on your question it raises some interesting points...
Quote
Actually, we wanted to get her out of the tree but she had compelled an Aspect and earned a FATE point and it would have been contrary to the rules to just negate her disadvantage, the GM explained.
Frank, is it really contrary to the rules?
If so, perhaps she didn't realise the power of the rules she was invoking and was thinking 'Aww, I'll just use these to put myself in a tree, then they come save mah kitteh!' when the rules she invoked don't work that way.
Did the GM explain this to her as well? What was her reaction (her real body language)?
How long is the disadvantage supposed to go for, anyway? If the rules don't say and it's up to the GM, then it's one of those points where the GM starts saying the rules are in control when actually the rules have punted control to the GM on the matter. A murky, mollasesy moment...
pawsplay:
Quote from: Callan S. on July 05, 2011, 02:56:19 PM
Paws, I don't think you need to do the internet thing of 'Just a thought I had'. At the forge generally people try to earnestly understand the other dude (atleast at the start, anyway). But on your question it raises some interesting points...
I felt I should demure because my knowledge of FATE is pretty soft. My knowledge of Dredsen Files, specifically, is almost non-existent. I don't allow the rules to tyrannize my games. However, I was concerned I might not be understanding the rules. Maybe there is a good reason you can't just rescue the kitty. In most games, when you receive some kind of currency for accepting a complication, the complication itself is played out as a little scene-inside-the-scene. But maybe in this game, if you accept the point, you have foreclosed certain options. I honestly don't know.
But if a thing is a role-playing game, I think it should be possible to rescue the kitty.
Frank Tarcikowski:
I don't have the Dresden Files RPG. The Free FATE text on Compelling Aspects is pretty wide open to interpretation. The actions needs to be "to the character's detriment", that's about all it says. The GM gets to make the call. It's well possible that the player did not expect that consequence.
- Frank
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page