politically incorrect character traits
E. Hunter Godfrey
> E. Hunter Godfrey <hunt...@scott.net> wrote:
>
> >Most people can discern that the R and P stand for Role Playing which
> >would indicate pretty clearly that you are playing a ROLE and not
> >yourself.
>
> That's what's _supposed_ to be happening. In my experience, though, it
> doesn't always follow that that _does_ happen!
>
> Roz
I've never gotten into a fight or anything and as should be obvious from
my glib postings, I can be a pretty abrasive guy.
Of course I'm a big abrasive guy, but I don't think that has anything to
do with it :-D
Hunter Godfrey
Lion & Unicorn, Inc.
hunt...@scott.net
"Anyone for a sacred cow bar-b-q?"
E. Hunter Godfrey
> In article <4clmct$t...@news.scott.net>,> >> This has inspired me to make sure at the game briefing to point out
> >> that people are not their characters, and not to hold a character
> >> belief against a player.
> >
> >Do all of you belong to the touchy-feely method of gaming?
>
> I'm willing to do anything possible to make players feel comfortable
> in playing the complex moral positions that I'm writing into my
> game, in the hopes that this will make for a better game.
Perhaps I took an overly hostile approach to that message, but after
trolling through the mire of the majority of the other posts I was
overwhlemed at having found one that warranted reply. Sorry I'll
elocute (urm-er-type) in a more polite and reasonable manner.
Making your players comfortable is fine, but I've found a degree of
tension from the players playing uncomfortable roles can carry over into
the game and intesify the atmosphere of play.
Of course most of the groups I play with prefer playing conflicted
members outside of the mainstream. Typically the characters are gruff
and discourteous and often downright bigoted, but no two will be bigoted
or gruff in the same manner and this gives the game a nice backdrop for
other players to portray the lighthouse of reason among my groups
sea of incorrectness.
>>I've been gaming for around 15 years and have never had to make a
> >disclaimer before a gaming session.
>
> Maybe not. Then again, I've seen players announce at game wrap that
> they really don't hold the positions that their characters hold -
> obviously, they were somewhat worried about giving the wrong impression.
If they feel it's neccesary then I guess that's a judgement call. I play
with a pretty mixed group, all minorities and sexes represented ;-D and
despite the sometimes abrasive attitudes of the characters noone in the
group has ever held a grudge about something said in game. I help run
several Live Action games locally and the players that are new seem to
catch on pretty quickly, typically when it's slapped in their face by one
of those gruff core players to which I referred.
> (And if you've never seen someone take personal offense for something
> that happened in-character, then I wonder about how extensive your
> gaming experience is.)
Sure I've seen it happen. These are bad gamers and if they don't get it
then they don't get it, they should find another hobby if they're that
incapable of disasociating themselves from the brief period needed to
play. And perhaps for new gamers you might want to enforce the idea that
attitudes in game do not reflect the views of the player.
As to my gaming experience...I cut my teeth at 10 with a copy of GAMA
World and then slowly expanded into other games. I purchased a single
game store called Lion & Unicorn back in '92 and now own 7 of them. I've
written several systems that are played extensively locally but haven't
really shopped them around, I plan to do a little publishing after I get
a few more stores under my belt to help offset the loss ;-( just in case...
My father in Law is Allen Hammack who was involved with TSR from the
outset (that may or may not be a god thing -g)...
> To take a similar example: back in college, I did a fair amount of
> acting. My favorite comment on my acting came in a play where I
> played a simple-but-good-hearted rustic boy in a play. A neighbor
> of one of the actresses in the play asked her, "Is the guy playing
> Sim really that stupid?" I can only imagine what she might have
> thought of me had I been playing Simon Legree.
The only use I've found for my BFA in theatre is as a birdcage liner ;-)
I've had similar situations, I played god once and you can imagine the
confusion :-D
All that really illustrates is the ineptitude of a good portion of our
population. Most people that have at least a passing interest in RP also
tend to have slightly more active imaginations and tend to be a bit more
on the reasonable side, once they get past the hack & slash initiation
that all gamers seem to go through at least once.
> People make mistakes and get over-excited, especially where highly
> controversial issues are concerned. (And if you don't think that
> racism and sexism - two issues that I'm dealing with in my game -
> are hot button issues, then I can only ask what issues you think do
> qualify as hot-button.) If giving a brief disclaimer at my game
> intro will make it easier for players to deal with such issues,
> then where's the harm?
Well I do live in the south, so racism would of course be a topic of
conversation, as would sexism now that I think about it.
Hmm hot topics? Why do we have a draft dodger ordering our soldiers into
a country where we have no vested interest and then allowing the court
martial of a soldier that refuses to wear a uniform of an army he did not
swear to serve?