thread: 2006-10-02 : Conflict resolution sans stakes
On 2006-10-04, sammy wrote:
What I want randomness to do is provide me with interesting options I wouldnt have come up with on my own.
Not to make my character a villain without my consent, or a bit character.
There's a story about the film "The Usual Suspects"... well, okay, look. It's ten years old, so if you haven't seen it it's high time that you did. Because there's a large spoiler coming up in the next paragraph. Okay?
There's a story, maybe apochryphal that after "The Usual Suspects" was wrapped, they gathered the cast and crew together to screen the final cut for the first time. If you don't recall, Agent Kujan questionins Verbal Kint for hours, building him to the conclusion - with substantial evidence from the events of the story - that Dean Keaton, Kint's boss and possibly friend, was actually infamous underworld kingpin Keyser Soze. At the end of the film, of course, it's revealed that Verbal Kint is actually Keyser Soze. (Maybe. Probably.) Gabriel Byrne, who played Keaton, was incensed, and reportedly accosted director Bryan Singer to tell him he'd gotten it wrong. I mean, let that sink in a minute: the actor grabs the director, after the film is completed, and tells him that the entire conclusion (and arguably the whole premise of the film) is borked.
You're Gabriel Byrne. What you're afraid of is that the director is going to make a decision that suddenly robs you, or your character, or whatever, of your agency. Only you only kinda have agency to begin with, because you're an actor reading a script in someone else's film.
Only you're actually not - you're playing in a game, not in a film, and all of your lines are improved. But there's still a director, and he either knows where the plot is going to take you, or he's going to roll dice to find out. Maybe he'll even ask you. But that is, after all, why he's the GM. Otherwise, what would you need a GM for?
