thread: 2005-03-18 : Audience?
On 2005-03-19, John Kim wrote:
Well, my two cents are that the analogy of separate "Actor" and "Audience" is wrong. In an RPG, these two are—or at least can be—completely intertwined and merged. In particular, I discuss this in my essay Narrative Paradigms in RPGs. There is no clear division between conceived story and perceived story, or between expression and interpretation.
Case in point: There is in my experience a frequent case of Out-of-Game yet In-Character comments during tabletop games. That is, a player does not have her PC there on the scene. However, when something happens, she pipes up with an in-character comment. Sometimes it is clarified that she isn't there—but often its just understood that she is expressing what her character would have said if she were there. But this means that the player is being audience while still in-character.
In other words, the character is not just a means by which you provide input onto the game. It is also a lens through which you see the game. My point is that dividing into Actor and Audience (among other divisions) is missing the point of RPGs.
