thread: 2006-05-25 : System and character sole-ownership
On 2006-05-26, Levi Kornelsen wrote:
Okay, a simple quasi-example, to make sure we're talking about the same thing here:
We're sitting at the table, and each of us has a character that is (nominally) our own.
We're running those characters around inside the fiction of the game. At the same time, we're throwing ideas around about what would be cool, obviously including you throwing ideas out about what my character should do or even *does* do, and vice versa.
Now, when an idea gets thrown out there that has to do with the actions of my character, I will generally try to make sure my character keeps their integrity. So if you're riffing off some cool in-fiction events, and make suggestions that are in line with those events, I'm the one that makes sure that putting my character in on those isn't something that ruins the value of that character.
Now, if you're riffing off those events, and making things happen, and the stuff you narrate is cool for my character but not for *yours* - and you don't seem to notice...
Do I step up and address that? Do I just kind of sit there being fuddled as to why you had your character did that? Or do I not even notice it at the moment, but only in retrospect?
My own experience says I might do any of those three, if it's "your" character.
To me, the suggestion of loosening up that "sense of ownership" also means that in addition to getting in on the action of suggesting and describing actions for character other than "mine" *must* be linked to paying enough attention that you'll work to preserve the value of those character when you do.
Am I making sense here?
This makes JS go "Total sense."
That sounds like an awesome way to play. . .sure as hell beats letting it ride out and griping afterward about how things fell flat.
This makes TLB go "Valuable to whom?"
You're trying to avoid ruining the "value of the character." Is that its value to you? Its value to someone else? It's value in an objective sense?
In general, if you narrate something for your character which makes that character valueless -to me- then I'm going to step up and stop you. If you just narrate something that makes it valueless -to you- I don't really care.
This makes LBK go "It's never objective."
It's always, always subjective. Value to whom? My quick response is "to everyone"... But that's a silly answer, when you really look at it. The value your character has to me is clearly going to be different from the one they have to you much, even most, of the time.
Short answer: I don't know.
