On a blog for the Pixar Touch, a documentary about the history of Pixar, they published a collection of rules for good stories originally tweeted by Emma Coats a Pixary Story Artist.
Some good ones:
#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on - it’ll come back around to be useful later.
See http://www.pixartouchbook.com/blog/2011/5/15/pixar-story-rules-one-version.html for the rest.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Online Gaming not Sucking, and the Gamer Nuremberg Defense
http://forum.dwellindarkness.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5028
Two articles, one on how to run online games that don't suck, and one on how just playing your character is a BS excuse.
Two articles, one on how to run online games that don't suck, and one on how just playing your character is a BS excuse.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Joseph Campbell's Heroic Journey, Supernatural Characters in the World of Darkness, and Gangrel
There's been some discussion recently in OWBN's gangrel out of character mailing list about Gangrel. People have been suggesting that vampires (and other supernatural creatures more generally in the World of Darkness) can be Heros in the sense of Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or superheros, while others have suggested that Vampires are essentially motivated by selfishness. Personally I think either view is reductionist, and I wrote the following:
Actually, Campbell's heroic monomyth isn't that great a fit.
Character types of the world of darkness are based on trespassing against a society's taboos, about ceasing to be human. Vampires, Changelings, Werewolves and Mages, all represent an alteration from man to another type of being brought upon by some sort of trespass... with the possible exception of mages, who are a sort of reification of ritual as a means of transcending humanity, but at the same time plays with the separation of the "awakened" from ordinary man. None of them returns to humanity, they are all fundamentally inhuman at some level, set apart in fundamental ways. Even mages are in effect the shamans of their culture, transcending the physical with the metaphysical in ways that "sleepers" cannot.
The mono myth isn't even all that widely accepted among students of mythology, at least as I understand it. It's kind of a crib. Sure the Hero has a thousand faces, but Campbell goes on to write the Masks of god, which talks about the cultural differences in myth and their importance.
Anyway, getting back to vampire, it's perhaps better to see Vampires as representing essentially cautionary tales. Myths about the inhuman are still, at there essence, myths about humanity, the limits of what it is to be human and the allure of leaving humanity behind contrasted with the loss that represents... hence the focus on Humanity in vampire.
That tension, among Clan Gangrel, is about becoming bestial and wild vs. staying human. Gangrel grow more powerful by departing from their humanity, by becoming part of the wilderness. Essentially, Gangrel become red in tooth and claw, the ultimate bestial predator, at the cost of giving up most human concerns. The essential ultimate gangrel lives in the wild, survives easily, is a monsterous predator and a loner, lacking concerns for politics or human morals and even human speech, a master of their environment, but lacking self control and operating largely on instinct..
It's also not really a player character, since living alone in the wild as a beast isn't really great for a protagonist.
Gangrel PCs instead have to have that tension... they live uneasily on the line between beast and human, seeking a unification that may well be impossible. A Gangrel story is about changing, or resisting the change, of becoming more bestial and animalistic. It works slightly better in Tabletop, where Frenzy is an advantage (making you largely immune to social and mental powers) then in live action, where it's mostly a disadvantage. It's also hard for Storytellers to frame stuff... really dramatic moments should have you choose between fufilling your goals by acting like an animal, or remaining essentially human and failing. It's about sacrificing ones humanity for one's goals or one's goals for one's humanity.
Anyway, that's not to say that Gangrel can't be heroic. But in a sense, if your playing your Gangrel as the good guys, facing only easy black and white moral choices, running around in beast form without it making you more into a beast fundamentally, you are not taking full advantage of the real drama of being Gangrel... that tension, that struggle. In a sense, that struggle, winning it, or even losing and becoming more beast like, is also part of myth.
Remember, when you "Win" on a path or humanity check, you feel either guilty (for conscience) or gain a sense of shame over your own failure (for conviction). When you lose, you feel righteous and justified.
If I had to draw a larger lesson from this... I'd say that things that make one more powerful should also bring one closer to one's animal nature, and one's Beast. Maybe some combo disciplines would benefit from having neg trait requirements... you have to be bestial or repugnant or feral enough for them. Maybe getting mentors for paths like path of the beast, especially instinct paths, should be harder for those that resist frenzying, or seek to mitigate their animalistic nature with Mask of 1k, or use tools in beast form. Not that these should necessarily be binding packet rules, but they might make good suggested rules for STs, and guidelines for PCs to gain coord approval.
Character types of the world of darkness are based on trespassing against a society's taboos, about ceasing to be human. Vampires, Changelings, Werewolves and Mages, all represent an alteration from man to another type of being brought upon by some sort of trespass... with the possible exception of mages, who are a sort of reification of ritual as a means of transcending humanity, but at the same time plays with the separation of the "awakened" from ordinary man. None of them returns to humanity, they are all fundamentally inhuman at some level, set apart in fundamental ways. Even mages are in effect the shamans of their culture, transcending the physical with the metaphysical in ways that "sleepers" cannot.
The mono myth isn't even all that widely accepted among students of mythology, at least as I understand it. It's kind of a crib. Sure the Hero has a thousand faces, but Campbell goes on to write the Masks of god, which talks about the cultural differences in myth and their importance.
Anyway, getting back to vampire, it's perhaps better to see Vampires as representing essentially cautionary tales. Myths about the inhuman are still, at there essence, myths about humanity, the limits of what it is to be human and the allure of leaving humanity behind contrasted with the loss that represents... hence the focus on Humanity in vampire.
That tension, among Clan Gangrel, is about becoming bestial and wild vs. staying human. Gangrel grow more powerful by departing from their humanity, by becoming part of the wilderness. Essentially, Gangrel become red in tooth and claw, the ultimate bestial predator, at the cost of giving up most human concerns. The essential ultimate gangrel lives in the wild, survives easily, is a monsterous predator and a loner, lacking concerns for politics or human morals and even human speech, a master of their environment, but lacking self control and operating largely on instinct..
It's also not really a player character, since living alone in the wild as a beast isn't really great for a protagonist.
Gangrel PCs instead have to have that tension... they live uneasily on the line between beast and human, seeking a unification that may well be impossible. A Gangrel story is about changing, or resisting the change, of becoming more bestial and animalistic. It works slightly better in Tabletop, where Frenzy is an advantage (making you largely immune to social and mental powers) then in live action, where it's mostly a disadvantage. It's also hard for Storytellers to frame stuff... really dramatic moments should have you choose between fufilling your goals by acting like an animal, or remaining essentially human and failing. It's about sacrificing ones humanity for one's goals or one's goals for one's humanity.
Anyway, that's not to say that Gangrel can't be heroic. But in a sense, if your playing your Gangrel as the good guys, facing only easy black and white moral choices, running around in beast form without it making you more into a beast fundamentally, you are not taking full advantage of the real drama of being Gangrel... that tension, that struggle. In a sense, that struggle, winning it, or even losing and becoming more beast like, is also part of myth.
Remember, when you "Win" on a path or humanity check, you feel either guilty (for conscience) or gain a sense of shame over your own failure (for conviction). When you lose, you feel righteous and justified.
If I had to draw a larger lesson from this... I'd say that things that make one more powerful should also bring one closer to one's animal nature, and one's Beast. Maybe some combo disciplines would benefit from having neg trait requirements... you have to be bestial or repugnant or feral enough for them. Maybe getting mentors for paths like path of the beast, especially instinct paths, should be harder for those that resist frenzying, or seek to mitigate their animalistic nature with Mask of 1k, or use tools in beast form. Not that these should necessarily be binding packet rules, but they might make good suggested rules for STs, and guidelines for PCs to gain coord approval.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Hello Again: Character Development Techniques
Hi! It's been a while, but I thought I'd post something I saw.
Kung Fu Monkey, which is a writing blog, talks about developing characters. I think this is valuable both for developing PCs, and developing NPCs.
Techniques discussed:
360 Degree review. IE, how does the character's bosses, peers, and underlings view him.
Flipping characters from villian to hero, or hero to villian.
And my personal favorite:
Years ago another writer taught me a simple exercise -- describe a character, hero or villain, as his best friend would describe him while setting up a blind date. Then do it from the point of view of the co-worker who hates his guts and is unloading to his wife after work, or finally has a chance to sink him with a job recommendation.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Upcoming
I realize it's been a while since I've posted. I'm working on the following two blog posts (titles tentative).
House Rules that Don't Suck: Or what I've generally learned about Writing House Rules that players will actually read
We Screwed Up: Fixing ST mistakes
I'm also considering a post discussing how to communicate players to figure out what they want in terms of plot and theme, but I haven't started work on it.
If there is one you would prefer me to put out first, sound off in the comments.
House Rules that Don't Suck: Or what I've generally learned about Writing House Rules that players will actually read
We Screwed Up: Fixing ST mistakes
I'm also considering a post discussing how to communicate players to figure out what they want in terms of plot and theme, but I haven't started work on it.
If there is one you would prefer me to put out first, sound off in the comments.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Advice for New Ventrue Players
Somebody on the OWBN Ventrue OOC list asked about playing a Ventrue. I've edited it a bit, expanded it a bit, but this was my response. In case this isn't clear, this is for Masquerade Ventrue, though it's possible that it's applicable in parts to Requiem.
Playing a Ventrue is hard.
Lineage wise, I don't regret not having a PC sire, but I do wish I had picked a lineage at least partially shared with other players. Hopefully the Coord team and the wiki can be helpful in that. Incidentally, if they'd be interested in being related to my PC, I'd love that, and I'm sure there are plenty of other PCs who would be happy to share a lineage or even be a PC sire.
Lineage is incredibly important for Ventrue RP. It colors many things. Having a screw up childe, or a famous sire or grand sire creates new facets for characters. There is also a PC I know of who's sire was killed by another Ventrue, and the hatred that's there makes for awesome roleplay.
For playing a Ventrue, you could do worse then recommending they pick up a copy of Tai-Pan and/or Noble House by James Clavell. Possibly Shogun, though I haven't read that. Strategy books like the Prince, art of war, how to make friends and influence people or vampire: the Masquerade books like Guilded Cage etc. might help them being good at being a Ventrue IC, but the Clavell books books will show them how to play a Ventrue, whether a strong leader, a cunning manipulator, a brutal monster, a career politician, or a weak willed patsy. It also teaches you about rivals, and how Ventrue won't kill their rivals off the cuff... they want everything their rivals have built torn down, destroyed or taken over, and they want their rival to see it, and their children take up the cause. In Noble house especially, you realize a rivalry from the 18th century has continued for at least a hundred years between two families.
TV/Movie wise Tai Pain was also a movie, which I haven't seen. I'd also highly recommend HBO's The Wire.... The police dept functions a lot like the Directorate, and many of the characters are excellent examples of Ventrue, The worst of them often are promoted. Loyalty is established by protecting one's subordinates, or taking the fall for one's superiors. The best of them are good police because of their flaws.
Flaws. Flaws make Ventrue Ventrue.
Lots of people will tell you to that Ventrue are supposed to be great leaders, astute businessmen, honorable knights, and masters of influence. This is all at least somewhat true IC, and every Ventrue will likely be expected to to try to live up to that. But OOC playing a Ventrue who isn't perfect is best. A Ventrue who is flawed, who has weaknesses. First, because it's impossible to play perfectly. Second because Ventrue, like all of the best PCs, are made interesting by their failures.
Having said the above about failure, few Ventrue PCs should be complete failures and total disappointments to their elders. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that one's elder's shouldn't be disappointed in you... living in the shadow of other Ventrue and under the weight of their expectations is a large part of Ventrue genre. Breaking under that weight can be good RP.
The most important way a Ventrue can fail is by arrogance and pride. Hubris and entitlement are in many ways really the Ventrue Clan flaw. Seriously, if your Ventrue is screwed over because of their unwillingness to lose face or to admit defeat, your probably RPing just fine. That's why neg traits like callous, violent, impatient and condescending are great for Ventrue.
That pride colors competition in clan. Ventrue compete not by doing things well (that's to be expected) but by trying to get each other to lose face. In fact each Dignitas claimed is like a target telling your Clan to test you there. There is also noblesse oblige, and the paternalistic part of Ventrue arrogance. If you replace White Man's Burden with Ventrue's Burden, and have the other people be other Kindred, you start to get an idea.
The second is tradition and the clan's institutions. Ventrue genre is holding to tradition even when it's the wrong choice, and it's breaking from it when it's the right choice (or even the only choice) and being punished for bucking the system or failing the tradition. The best stories I've seen in the Clan have often come from this. The best way to get a Ventrue to lose face is to point out a way they failed the clan traditions, or failed to live up to their Dignitas. The best place to do so is in a Directorate meeting.
Speaking of the Directorate meeting, I've also had Tremere players tell me that the clan has better genre, and much better clan meetings. Some people hate Directorate meetings... personally some of the best RP I've ever seen has been in them, especially when you have a rival or an agenda. Tribunals as well can be awesome, as can Death Nights. New players should seek directorate meetings, should push for them.
So again, playing a Ventrue is hard. It's also amazingly fun.
Later on in the thread I said.
I'd add to that thatneonates, nobility, honor and obedience are part of the same package. They are encouraged to be ambitious, but being honorable and noble means ambition must be tempered with respect for the good of the Clan.
A noble neonate understands how little of the Elders they understand, and is thus willing to trust their elders, to sacrifice their personal ambitions, and possibly themselves if required for the good of the clan. That's honor. That's rewarded.
An ignoble neonate pursues his owe interests, doesn't trust or respect his elders and superiors, and sells out his clan for short term gains. He dishonors himself. He will find himself on the outs. A CEO can thus be noble and well rewarded by Elders, and a Ventrue descended from royalty with an aristocratic bearing can be ignoble and dismissed.
That's how the majority of neonates should likely see it. Ancilla and Elders, those with twisted upbringing, those who are left to their own devices... well they may notice some hypocrisy in the above.
Playing a Ventrue is hard.
Lineage wise, I don't regret not having a PC sire, but I do wish I had picked a lineage at least partially shared with other players. Hopefully the Coord team and the wiki can be helpful in that. Incidentally, if they'd be interested in being related to my PC, I'd love that, and I'm sure there are plenty of other PCs who would be happy to share a lineage or even be a PC sire.
Lineage is incredibly important for Ventrue RP. It colors many things. Having a screw up childe, or a famous sire or grand sire creates new facets for characters. There is also a PC I know of who's sire was killed by another Ventrue, and the hatred that's there makes for awesome roleplay.
For playing a Ventrue, you could do worse then recommending they pick up a copy of Tai-Pan and/or Noble House by James Clavell. Possibly Shogun, though I haven't read that. Strategy books like the Prince, art of war, how to make friends and influence people or vampire: the Masquerade books like Guilded Cage etc. might help them being good at being a Ventrue IC, but the Clavell books books will show them how to play a Ventrue, whether a strong leader, a cunning manipulator, a brutal monster, a career politician, or a weak willed patsy. It also teaches you about rivals, and how Ventrue won't kill their rivals off the cuff... they want everything their rivals have built torn down, destroyed or taken over, and they want their rival to see it, and their children take up the cause. In Noble house especially, you realize a rivalry from the 18th century has continued for at least a hundred years between two families.
TV/Movie wise Tai Pain was also a movie, which I haven't seen. I'd also highly recommend HBO's The Wire.... The police dept functions a lot like the Directorate, and many of the characters are excellent examples of Ventrue, The worst of them often are promoted. Loyalty is established by protecting one's subordinates, or taking the fall for one's superiors. The best of them are good police because of their flaws.
Flaws. Flaws make Ventrue Ventrue.
Lots of people will tell you to that Ventrue are supposed to be great leaders, astute businessmen, honorable knights, and masters of influence. This is all at least somewhat true IC, and every Ventrue will likely be expected to to try to live up to that. But OOC playing a Ventrue who isn't perfect is best. A Ventrue who is flawed, who has weaknesses. First, because it's impossible to play perfectly. Second because Ventrue, like all of the best PCs, are made interesting by their failures.
Having said the above about failure, few Ventrue PCs should be complete failures and total disappointments to their elders. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that one's elder's shouldn't be disappointed in you... living in the shadow of other Ventrue and under the weight of their expectations is a large part of Ventrue genre. Breaking under that weight can be good RP.
The most important way a Ventrue can fail is by arrogance and pride. Hubris and entitlement are in many ways really the Ventrue Clan flaw. Seriously, if your Ventrue is screwed over because of their unwillingness to lose face or to admit defeat, your probably RPing just fine. That's why neg traits like callous, violent, impatient and condescending are great for Ventrue.
That pride colors competition in clan. Ventrue compete not by doing things well (that's to be expected) but by trying to get each other to lose face. In fact each Dignitas claimed is like a target telling your Clan to test you there. There is also noblesse oblige, and the paternalistic part of Ventrue arrogance. If you replace White Man's Burden with Ventrue's Burden, and have the other people be other Kindred, you start to get an idea.
The second is tradition and the clan's institutions. Ventrue genre is holding to tradition even when it's the wrong choice, and it's breaking from it when it's the right choice (or even the only choice) and being punished for bucking the system or failing the tradition. The best stories I've seen in the Clan have often come from this. The best way to get a Ventrue to lose face is to point out a way they failed the clan traditions, or failed to live up to their Dignitas. The best place to do so is in a Directorate meeting.
Speaking of the Directorate meeting, I've also had Tremere players tell me that the clan has better genre, and much better clan meetings. Some people hate Directorate meetings... personally some of the best RP I've ever seen has been in them, especially when you have a rival or an agenda. Tribunals as well can be awesome, as can Death Nights. New players should seek directorate meetings, should push for them.
So again, playing a Ventrue is hard. It's also amazingly fun.
Later on in the thread I said.
I'd add to that thatneonates, nobility, honor and obedience are part of the same package. They are encouraged to be ambitious, but being honorable and noble means ambition must be tempered with respect for the good of the Clan.
A noble neonate understands how little of the Elders they understand, and is thus willing to trust their elders, to sacrifice their personal ambitions, and possibly themselves if required for the good of the clan. That's honor. That's rewarded.
An ignoble neonate pursues his owe interests, doesn't trust or respect his elders and superiors, and sells out his clan for short term gains. He dishonors himself. He will find himself on the outs. A CEO can thus be noble and well rewarded by Elders, and a Ventrue descended from royalty with an aristocratic bearing can be ignoble and dismissed.
That's how the majority of neonates should likely see it. Ancilla and Elders, those with twisted upbringing, those who are left to their own devices... well they may notice some hypocrisy in the above.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Plotting about Plots
I've seen it happen again and again, but as an ST and a player. The STs will introduce a plot, perhaps with interesting NPCs, perhaps specifically targeted toward new players.
And older players with powerful PCs, (powerful meaning either politically in terms of position or physically in terms of experience points) will jump on it, demand that nobody go after it but them, for everyone's safety.
I've explored this problem before, in my Plots for New Players post. But recently something occurred in a game I ST for, Shadow's Crossing, that has changed my perspective. I've suggested targeting plots for new players, but on reflection, there may be another way to go then in trying to segregate players.
I was running a plotline for a player, and after I was done, he thanked me for giving him a plot he could do investigate. But the thing was, I hadn't targeted the plot toward him. In fact I hadn't known he would even have been played, or glanced at his sheet before the game started. The fact was other PCs were pursing other plots, both PC and ST created, and he just happened to be the one going after this plot.
Instead of trying to keep players involved with specific plots from the get, and other players out, the thought occurs to me. Why don't I simply introduce more and more plots, until everyone is involved with something if they want to be.
Now I know what your thinking, at least if your an ST. If your running 5 or 10 or 20 plots, aren't you going to be too busy to run everything?
Well yes and no. I've found that the more PCs going after a plot, the longer it takes to run, exponentially. The inverse also seems to be true. That means if I run 20 plots for 20 players, I may actually save time over running one or two plots for 20 players.
Why this may be isn't totally clear to me, but it seems that the more info I put out, the more things going on, the more it leads to PCs roleplaying with each other, sharing the information, trading things they have for things they need, etc. Making the game world richer with more to do means that PCs have more to do not just through interacting with STs, but with each other.
There is a time loss however. It's in prep time and downtime responses. However if face time with STs at game is at a premium for players, this is often better then the alternative.
So I'm going to be exploring this in upcoming games, and seeing how well it works.
And older players with powerful PCs, (powerful meaning either politically in terms of position or physically in terms of experience points) will jump on it, demand that nobody go after it but them, for everyone's safety.
I've explored this problem before, in my Plots for New Players post. But recently something occurred in a game I ST for, Shadow's Crossing, that has changed my perspective. I've suggested targeting plots for new players, but on reflection, there may be another way to go then in trying to segregate players.
I was running a plotline for a player, and after I was done, he thanked me for giving him a plot he could do investigate. But the thing was, I hadn't targeted the plot toward him. In fact I hadn't known he would even have been played, or glanced at his sheet before the game started. The fact was other PCs were pursing other plots, both PC and ST created, and he just happened to be the one going after this plot.
Instead of trying to keep players involved with specific plots from the get, and other players out, the thought occurs to me. Why don't I simply introduce more and more plots, until everyone is involved with something if they want to be.
Now I know what your thinking, at least if your an ST. If your running 5 or 10 or 20 plots, aren't you going to be too busy to run everything?
Well yes and no. I've found that the more PCs going after a plot, the longer it takes to run, exponentially. The inverse also seems to be true. That means if I run 20 plots for 20 players, I may actually save time over running one or two plots for 20 players.
Why this may be isn't totally clear to me, but it seems that the more info I put out, the more things going on, the more it leads to PCs roleplaying with each other, sharing the information, trading things they have for things they need, etc. Making the game world richer with more to do means that PCs have more to do not just through interacting with STs, but with each other.
There is a time loss however. It's in prep time and downtime responses. However if face time with STs at game is at a premium for players, this is often better then the alternative.
So I'm going to be exploring this in upcoming games, and seeing how well it works.
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