thread: 2009-06-08 : Restating: Fictional Causes and Realization
On 2009-06-12, Joel wrote:
But it IS what the activity is about. It's definitional to roleplaying, as opposed to fiction writing or daydreaming. I think it's a red herring to talk about "being creative now!" as if you're demanding some quality of performance that must be maintained at all times. The point is to just DO something, even if it's not the most brilliant thing ever uttered, because that IS what we came to do. Sure, there's an on the spot aesthetic judgment that happens, where people respond emotionally to the input. But if you just don't give the input in the first place, you're not playing badly, you're simply not playing.
I think Graham's Play Unsafe concepts are key here—be boring, be obvious, etc. yes, we want what people say to be cool, but we don't want them to show off, or stretch for it. We want it to flow naturally from what seems to them the most straightforward and obvious input at the time. Which will generally be just fin, and occasionally be brilliant.
