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Some thoughts on forum roleplaying and this site
Topic Started: Apr 14 2011, 11:40 AM (34 Views)
Dinah May Anderson
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(This will probably turn into a bit of a rambling rant, so be warned.)

In light of Rhea contemplating to leave, and a cbox discussion preceding her post about it, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and feelings behind some of the changes I made to site, compared to the original EoM, and ramble on a bit about a few aspects of forum roleplaying as I see them.

What does roleplaying mean to me? To me it means you have some characters, a setting, and then the characters interact in that setting. I know that's pretty obvious and basic, but lets start from there. For the characters to have any interaction with each other and their environment, at least a few things about all that have to be know. Otherwise you'd have an equation of only unknown variables. The characters we define through their profiles (at least until they develop in a direction not initially covered by profile and/or bio), and the environment exists as a construct of mutual consent. By that I mean that if a thread is posted in a forest everyone who posts there has some idea what a forest looks like and what to expect, same for the mall, a hotel, or most other settings. Sure, surreal "down the rabbit hole" places can exist, but they should not be the norm, and they should not be infinitely mutable if we want to avoid WTF moments when Fredo the halfling suddenly sprouts angel wings and draws a laser pistol from his backpack to shoot a vampire's brain out. (I know that's exaggerated, but I think it helps make the point.)

Still with me? Told you it might be a bit of a rant. ;)

At the original EoM I always felt that things were too random, lacked definition when it came to the setting. There I read posts that I thought were well-written by writers I thought would be interesting to post with. But - some of those characters I read about seemed to exist in worlds completely different from the one my character occupied. There were threads that were downright sci-fi, with super-powerful androids or faster-than-light travel. Other threads had characters that paid in gold coins, rode horses, wielded magical swords as if existing in a (more or less generic) fantasy setting. Other characters (mine included) were based on a more "modern" background, a world not too different from the one we live in (plus slavery and exotic races). I found it rather difficult to imagine my "modern" character just hopping on a horse and riding into a medieval setting, or taking the next shuttle to the shoulder of Orion. To me those were parallel universes that just happened to be acted out on the same site I was on, but not the same world. So I knew there were characters there I wanted to roleplay with, but I also knew I would have to bend over backwards and ignore almost everything I knew about my character's situation to write with them.

So when I set up this here site I tried to make the background more consistent, base it more on a reality we can all identify with and turn the setting into a place that would look and feel a little more familiar and consistent. I did it for two reasons: One, because I could do it and it suited my own sensibilities. I can be selfish like that at times, no use denying it. But another reason was that I hoped bringing everyone more onto the same page setting-wise could be a step towards breaking up the cliques I had sensed at the old site, that having everyone in the same world, so to speak, would make it easier for different characters to interact with each other.

Now that I talked about the setting... Characters and playing them. Again this is just my personal take on it, but I think characters should be believable - not necessarily "real" in the strictest sense of the word, but consistent, and they should be someone the player can "get into". A character should not do something unpredictable because the player just feels like having the character do it. That can mean a character can share some personality with his/her player. It can also mean the character is completely different from the player. It works differently for different people and some are more comfortable with one approach than the other.

In the former case being consistent - and giving the character his own feelings and emotions to display in a thread - can be fairly easy, as there is always the "what would I do in this situation" approach to fall back on, even if you use only certain parts of your own personality as a blueprint for a character.

In the latter case I think it becomes more difficult, but it can be done well, i.e. both consistent and believable. But I think it requires a solid knowledge of a characters background or personality, preferably both as they can not be completely divorced. Knowing what (e.g.) a half-dragon, half-lycan sold into slavery at the age of 5 by his own parents would feel and think is nothing anyone of us has any experience with. It needs more thought, and I feel the more that thought is supported by a well-rounded and detailed profile, the better. (The same also goes for characters that are based on their player, but sometimes I feel it's even more important with completely "fictional" characters.)

Of course a decent, i.e. somewhat detailed and consistent - bio is, in my opinion, always important, even if you already know that the character will share some (or many) of your own personality traits. Even if this setting may be too close to the real world for some peoples' taste, some important aspects of the society are still different and how that informs a character's personality should be worth a few moments of thought.

Now you may ask why you should write out all that, and more, when you feel you know your character inside out already. For three reasons: One, it can never hurt to keep it written down, just to remind yourself. Two, writing about a character can be a good way to ask - and answer - the question "why?". Why does my character feel a certain way about certain things? Why did he do something, and not something else, at a certain point in his life? Why is he only interested in a certain type of slave? And so on, and so on. Finding answers to questions like that can not be so bad, can it? And for some, writing about it can help. Third, the more you write about it in your profile, the easier it will be for others to judge if your character will be an interesting roleplaying partner for them.

Something else where I think it is important to provide at least a few basics (and preferably some details) in a character profile is the entry about skills, abilities, and weaknesses. The more exotic a character is, the more important this becomes, again, of course just in my opinion. Again, I have more than one reason to think so. For one it may be just a matter of what I am used to from my background in "old-fashioned" pen-and-paper roleplaying. Then it can prevent people from pulling a "Fredo the halfling" (see above), which would be a bit silly to do. (Yes, I know most people here are mature enough not to do it, but making certain doesn't hurt, does it?) And finally, and IMO most importantly, it will tell you something about how your character might react in a certain situation. Often the decisions a character makes are informed by his/her personality. But sometimes they are also influenced by what you are actually able to do.

To give you a real-world example: Sometimes in my life I got so mad at people that I wanted to punch them in the face (a decision based on my "bio"), but didn't, because I knew I would not be able to withstand the echo (a decision informed by my "skills and abilities").

With some characters it's perhaps not that necessary to go into too many details. We all know what humans are capable of or not. Vampires and werewolves have enough sources in writing and film behind them to have what I would call at least semi-established capabilities, even if there may be some variations. But the more exotic someone's species, the more I think it could be beneficial to go into some details, because we have less of a baseline. Most of the roleplaying here is character-driven, but some abilities and weaknesses could become important.

If X beat Y in a fight once, he should be able to do it again, unless Y gets some serious training, gets sneaky, or completely changes his tactics. If your character can lift 10 tons in one scene he should not have to struggle with moving half a ton in another scene, even if it would make things more interesting or dramatic, unless there is a good reason for it. Some of these things can be established during the actual roleplaying. Some of them can change over time, based on what happens to a character. But I think having some solid idea of where you start from can't hurt.


Now, to sum up these long-winded ramblings:

I see forum roleplaying as something of an exercise in collaborative creative writing. It's about telling a story - the story of certain characters who live in a certain world. To have that, both characters and setting need to be on a solid footing, just as novel needs to have consistency and some "internal rules" for the setting - even if it is a fantasy novel or a space opera - to achieve verisimilitude. Actions need to have consequences, things need to flow logical from A to B to C, characters should be defined at least somewhat by both their personality and abilities and not just random encounters with other people or their environment.

Perhaps I am trying too hard at times. Perhaps I am interfering with some people's fun and make them feel I am out to step on their toes and hinder their creativity. But I will stand by my opinion that it can be beneficial for writing and roleplaying to have both setting and characters well-defined from the start. In short, I believe that a certain framework can be beneficial - and at times necessary.

I also hope it is evident from my actions here that I do not have any intention to micro-manage what a character can do in a certain situation, or restrict anyone's freedom within said framework.

A friend of mine once had a rather ornate picture frame mounted on a wall in his flat, and in the center of that empty picture frame he had tacked a simple, hand-written note that read: "Freedom can only exist within a framework". Agree with it or not, but I think it is the closest I can come to a summary of how I think forum roleplaying should be handled if it is to strike something of a balance between randomness and a structure that helps the collaborative writing along.
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