thread: 2005-03-18 : Audience?
On 2005-03-18, Charles wrote:
Okay, my backing for this is in Narrative Stance theory, so that may influence things.
I think it is probably a useful fiction to take audience and actor as mutually exclusive moment to moment. I'll agree that it is possible to move fluidly and rapidly from mode to mode, and I'll even agree that it is possible to achieve a childlike balance between the two where you are saying "My giant robot leaps to the walls of the castle and tosses Sauron into the moat." and thinking "That is SO cool!" at the same time, and I agree that this is probably an important state to achieve for engaging in child play, but I think that mostly we can treate the modes as mutually exclusive.
I'd divide things you can do while you don't have a character in the scene into two different chunks (recognizing that the in-between category may be pretty big): chunk one is scene framing, suggesting actions when your suggestions are likely to be incorporated, contributing dice to one side of a contest, etc; chunk two is table talk, joking suggestions of actions, suggested dialogue that can't actually be incorporated, or clear displays of interest or discomfort with the direction a scene is going.
In the first chunk, the player is acting to directly control the direction of the game (in the same manner as players with characters in the scene, or players officially responsible for the situation), and is therefore functioning in an authorial mode. At the most extreme form of the first chunk, the player might even temporarily take on an NPC, or might take over control of the situation. At this point, they are clearly not acting significantly in audience mode, but have become one of the authors of the scene. The PTA system highlights this authorial audience.
In the second chunk, the player is commenting on the game, and those comments may be incorporated by the other players into the game, but they are more likely to influence the game itself, rather than the progression of the particular scene. In this case, the player is solidly in an audience mode, but is simply an active audience. One of my two play groups uses this mode very heavily (actually, we use it so heavily that players WITH characters in scene will switch to this mode), with frequent discussions of what sorts of slash fic a particular scene leads to within the imaginary fan community of our game, or entire (non-canonical) conversations between slightly out of character characters.
As a more specific example of the later, Kip's character Guard has very poor language skills, and a very poor sense of self, so occasionally Kip will respond to a situation by playing out what Guard would be saying if he had a better sense of self, and others will respond in character or slightly out of character. These conversation do not take place within the events in game, and exist only within the active audience mode as a sort of fanfic, but they are critical to the shape of the game as a whole.
I think it is definitely worthwhile to talk about the interaction between the two modes within the player position of not having a character in play. I don't think we should restrict the discussion to just the audience mode, but should talk about both the state of being without a clearly defined authorial role (having a PC in scene, being GM), and also the state of watching the game.
To my mind, one if the main effects of giving players without characters some authorial rights is that it helps to keep the players engaged in the scene (while some players are happy to take the part of theatrical audience, sitting quietly in rapt attention as the play progresses, and others are satisfied being the hecklers at a movie, or even being the floor show at Rocky Horror, there are far too many players who, when their character walks off stage, pick up a book or stare out the window). This engagement, to my mind, serves to heighten the audience experience. Of course, it is also a good way to engage players as authors of the world.
Before I run on to long (too late, I know), I will close with a sidenote on the other things you can do when you aren't in scene:
There are two other things you can do when you don't have a character in play: 1)sit quietly and watch, and 2) ignore the game. The first is definitely audience mode (in the sense of watching the game), and can effect the game in three ways that I can think of: 1) its really a subset of the second chunk, in that the body language of an interested audience helps to tell the active players that what they are doing matters, that it is interesting to someone, and that it has sufficient meaning to hold someones attention 2) it ensures that the player knowns what is going on in the game, and will be able to contribute meaningfully to the overarching structure 3) it can be one of the main pleasures of the game. The second is not really audience mode, or maybe it is bad audience mode, but it is part of not having an authorial role. Some people seem to need it in order to maintain their focus on what their character knows, other people use it signal that they are bored with where the game is going.
There are advantages and disadvantages that I can see to all 4 types of things (contribute as author, contribute as audience, watch as audience, not watch) a player without characters in scene can be doing.
Anyway, thanks a bunch for starting this thread.
Oh, total side note, somebody needs to give you a recent comments side bar. I think some of your discussions end not because people stop being interested in talking about the subject, but because they drop to far down the page. As your blog develops into a fantastically cool place to talk about gaming, the ability to keep threads going on longer seems like it might be a big plus.
