thread: 2005-05-03 : Creating Theme
On 2005-05-05, Sydney Freedberg wrote:
So the basic structure is, "A or B? A or B? Choose!"
And you've already said, based on Charles's comments, that refusing to choose is a choice, right?
So let me take that further:
The essay implies (I think) that if the story/game asks "A or B?" and the character walks away with both A and B (e.g. Master & Commander), that's a cop-out. Maybe that's not what you meant, but if you didn't think that way I'm sure some people here are, so I'll address it.
Getting A+B is obviously the dream-comes-true-huge-sigh-of-relief-off-the-hook outcome. But it's not necessarily a cop-out. Sometimes, in life, the world gives you a break. And sometimes you outgrow your old dilemmas.
Consider my daughter, 14 months old Tuesday. Right now, her A vs. B is "stand or move?" Because if she stands up to see better and grab things, she can't get very far; but if she goes down on all fours and crawls, she can't see far or grab things. And right now, she's pretty cranky a lot of the time, because A or B? A or B? Stand or move?
But very very very soon she's going to learn to walk, and then, BAM! A+B. Move while standing up. Stand up while moving. The heavens open. The Red Sea parts. The scales fall from the eyes.
And it's not an easy out not only because it was hard getting there, but because it throws her into a whole new world of A's vs. B's she couldn't have imagined before.
This happens all over the place.
The abused child who grows up to have a series of abusive relationships is constantly having to choose, free but lonely or together but abused? A or B? And then one day you might a decent person and suddenly you can be together and free. A+B.
And the Gospels are all about this. Do good or avoid suffering? A or B? You even have Peter going "B! B! I do not know that man!" and choosing life over virtue, and Judas choosing the 30 pieces of silver to betray his Master, whereas Jesus keeps on healing and preaching and restraining His followers from violence until the nails slam through His skin. BUT. Judas hangs himself—so neither A nor B—and Peter repents and Jesus comes back, so the answer to the dilemma is not just "A+B," virtue plus life, but in fact "if not A then never, lastingly, B; but if A, then, ultimately, by the grace of God, B."
Which may be too-good-to-be-true-wish-fulfillment-treacle. Or it may be outgrowing the limits of the old dilemma.
Aaaaand... dragging this back around to roleplaying:
This is where your "not knowing the answer before you start" comes in. This is where the dice, or other means of injecting uncertainty, come in. The one time my group played Dogs (see http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14215), we ended up facing down a teenaged sorceress, a kid really, a huge threat to the whole community, plus she was killing us; and one of us fired (not me; I couldn't bring myself to) and took her down... but the fallout dice rolled low and she lived and had a chance to repent. Afterwards I told the player who'd decided to fire, "You shot her just enough to save her soul"; and he said, "No, I got lucky."
If the all-powerful narrator (GM or freeformer) says, "Okay, fine, A+B," it's too easy, it's a cop-out. But if you roll the right result against all odds.... well, maybe that's luck, and maybe it's grace. And it's definitely not an easy out if you walk away with the nail marks in your hands.
Short form: A or B? A or B? Sometimes A and B.
