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Freelance: The Writing  Clear Skies. If you play EVE Online and haven't seen this, what rock have you been living under? Seriously, go watch now. If you don't play EVE Online, you may not have heard of it. That's okay. However, now that you have, go watch it if you have any love for sci-fi, hard-luck heroes, or british accents. And who doesn't love those things, anyway? visited 41 states (82%) Create your own visited map of The United States or Like this? try: Fridge Poetry http://ianprice.deviantart.com/art/H http://ianprice.deviantart.com/art/H No-longer-sekert work today. http://ianprice.deviantart.com/art/Myth non-sekret work today Dragonball: Evolution - it's like a good Swiss. Full of holes, but they're intentional. Extremely cheesy, but if it wasn't, it wouldn't be so good! I declare this movie a worthy alternate continuity. I love the semi-cyberpunk style; it's a darker mood and look than the original, which fits perfectly with the live action. However, the dialogue and action is still lighthearted. The "life lesson for the hero" is also heartwarming while not falling into the "pointless disconnect from the action" trap that so many action stories that try to have such a message (*coughbleachcoughcough*) fall into. It helps that I'm a Shadowrun fan, so mixing mysticism and ultra-tech isn't news to me. If there's a sequel, I'll watch it. Enjoy. http://ianprice.deviantart.com/art/Ches http://ianprice.deviantart.com/art/Amar Updated to completeness. People communicate by listening. Talking is pointless if nobody is listening. Two people can talk at each other all day, but if neither listens to the other, they'll learn nothing. No communication, just chatter. Thus, listening is crucial to roleplaying. As a social activity, roleplaying depends on communication. Everybody involved has to listen to everyone else involved, no exceptions. Each player must pay attention to each other player, and all players to the GM, and the GM to each player. This investment of attention pays off quickly, and continues to pay off even more as the dividends are reinvested. At the start of the game, those who attend to each other will know what characters the others are playing. For the GM, this provides opportunities to make sure everyone's concept works with the planned game, and to hook players' interest from the beginning by tying those concepts to his own game concept. Players can immediately reap the rewards of attentiveness by making characters who will play off each other in fun and interesting ways, and avoiding pitfalls of bad combinations. If you know that someone's playing that special magic-user type, and he knows you wanted to play the magic-hating character going down a mage-slayer path, the two of you have the chance to come to a compromise before the game starts. Maybe you can both even play those concepts by establishing that you know each other. Maybe the mage-slayer views this magic user as an exception, or maybe he doesn't really trust the mage, but finds him useful and reliable enough to leave alive while there are worse offenders to deal with. Many similar situations come easily to mind, and every one could be resolved by a little listening from all players and GMs involved. From there, listening continues to build value. The GM can glean ideas from his players by listening to their reactions to the game. Players can enrich the story by listening and remembering things the GM puts in, and elements of other characters' backgrounds that come up in play. A name dropped in the first session might come back up a couple of months later if someone paid attention to it, creating a sense of continuity that really adds to the fun of a story. It's one thing to have a character's "old friend" you just made up appear in the bar they just entered; it's another thing entirely when the player made up that old friend in his background, and this is the fifth time they've encountered this old friend. But this isn't the bar they usually meet him at - what's he doing halfway around the world? And still drunk, the old sot! I believe every failed, un-fun moment in roleplaying is caused by failures in communication, which can always be traced to a failure to pay attention. Sometimes what was said was missed; sometimes not enough was said, because the speaker wasn't paying attention to what the listener didn't know. Attention is like a vending machine that dispenses money. You get out more than you put in. What limits should there be, when creating a character? Any given game typically encourages players to follow certain guidelines, and sometimes certain things are outright forbidden. 3.x D&D Paladins can't multiclass, they lose their powers. Shadowrun magic-users don't want cyberware, they lose Magic points. Exalted characters should be the same Exalt type as the other PCs. You can't have portal magic in GURPS: Technomancer. So on and on the list goes. There are two natural responses to these limits: to embrace them, and to try to bend or break them. The focus on these limits creates a box of its own, though, in which what your relationship with those limits is makes all the difference. I believe this is the box to think outside of. Build a character from the basis of a fun idea, and try not to even think about the limits imposed by a system or setting until you run into them. By that point, you should know what you want to do based on the character idea, if that problem even comes up. Usually, though, I find that taking the focus off what can or can't be done ends up landing more ideas in the "easy to do and doesn't even brush up against the limits" area of gaming - an area which often gets too little attention. This is why all RPGs start character creation with "Step 1: Concept." Following this order of operations helps to make sure that even if rules are bent or suggestions ignored, the character will make sense and be fun to play and play alongside. Concepts can be complex! If you want to play a guy who was raised by his people's usual mortal enemies, then rescued from them, so he's learned both their styles of magic - then joined the army and learned to fight - hey, that's a concept. On the other hand, it could be just as much fun to play the kid who grew up on the farm then joined the army to see the world, and he'd be much easier to build too. The trick is to decide how you want to front-load your drama, and pick something simple or complex in concept to fit that, then build your stats to match. |
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