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paradisaooc2012-06-09 12:04 pm
paradisamods) wrote in paradisaooc2012-06-09 12:04 pm
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HOW'S THE GAME?
It's time for another round of Game Discussion, also known as
HOW'S THE GAME?
Here we come together to discuss the game, its plots, the settings, and just about anything we can think of that we'd like to talk about, expand upon, improve, change, etc.
This is not an HMD for players and their characters; this should be about the game's function as a whole and not the people in it. If there is something you feel is absolutely necessary to address that involves a specific person, please IM a mod first to discuss it. We can be reached at valawie (Valerie), fan of todd (TF), or never die ftw (Ashley).
Anonymous will be left off for this round. Sock journals are allowed, but you will have to request comm access to post with them.
Here are the sections that we've come up with. Add your own, and we'll edit it into the list. :)
Here we come together to discuss the game, its plots, the settings, and just about anything we can think of that we'd like to talk about, expand upon, improve, change, etc.
This is not an HMD for players and their characters; this should be about the game's function as a whole and not the people in it. If there is something you feel is absolutely necessary to address that involves a specific person, please IM a mod first to discuss it. We can be reached at valawie (Valerie), fan of todd (TF), or never die ftw (Ashley).
Anonymous will be left off for this round. Sock journals are allowed, but you will have to request comm access to post with them.
Here are the sections that we've come up with. Add your own, and we'll edit it into the list. :)
➜ HOW'S THE STAFF
➜ RETURNING CHARACTERS
➜ THE CITY AND WORLDBUILDING
➜ ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
➜ PLOTTING 101
➜ APPLICATION SAMPLES
no subject
See, after like... idk, 4.5 years in this game, I've really come to realize that shaking a character out of apathy or complacency doesn't necessarily correlate with what kind of plot is thrown at them. Yeah, some characters respond broadly to trauma and torture and the like, but those tend to be the characters who don't usually experience that kind of stuff: Paradisa being what it is, we have plenty of characters who have seen people die, have killed others, have been killed themselves, or deal with nasty or otherwise gruesome or difficult things on a day-to-day basis. A sheltered schoolgirl from a regular Earth might find survival in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by monsters very nerve-wracking and horrifying if it's her first round in Paradisa, and she may experience some moment of crisis where she almost dies and loses a friend and realizes she should learn to fight, too, so it can never happen again... but to someone who has been in a war zone their entire life or laughs in the face of death frequently, it is a bit more of a hum-drum experience, loss of life aside.
What I'm trying to say it this: plots, especially dark plots, are not one-size-fits-all. They work for some people, but they have the opposite reaction in others; either their muns are too exhausted and ignore the plot or handwave most of it (and the aftermath), or the characters just develop in a way that doesn't serve them any good. While character building need not necessarily bring characters towards their best possible, most thriving self, it doesn't do much good to bury them in holes of suffering, either. You could say the same of fluffier plots, too, but odds are a trip to the Harvest Moon farmlands or the Pokemon World aren't going to leave any characters with trauma. Boredom, maybe, but you can find stuff to do. Dark plots tend to be all-consuming in that characters often can't just wander off and occupy themselves with something else without going vastly OOC. Who wants to be the person playing their character watching television or baking brownies while know the world goes to shit, you know?
But this isn't to say dark plots can't be done... it's just to say they need to be utilized to have long-lasting consequences. People can't just reply on a plot or an event to MAKE long-lasting consequences for them, they have to effectively plan it out or organize it with CR or arrange it ahead of time. I don't think the current way we run plots can effectively do that; this "do one thing to trigger the next event" set-up is cool, and it tells interesting stories, but the narrative becomes more about going-A-to-B rather than the characters. Dark plots have a habit of falling into this trope where they go "OOH SCARY GUYS, ISN'T THIS SCARY?" and throwing whatever they can at you -- eldritch horrors, tentacle monsters, darkness, alien adventures -- while forgetting that when muns are more focused on figuring out how to, say, build a bride or open a door or get into a secret whatever, they spend less energy on building CR. I fully admit that my own plots suffer from this and I've seen commentary on it around that I agree with full-heartedly; we need to be writing plots that focus on characters and explore characters rather than emphasizing these complicated narratives/stories, so that people have TIME to make CR in a plot.
So because of that, if we do a dark plot, I'd want it to be very basic. No complicated lore, no overly complex scenario, no horror-porn of look-at-how-awful-this-is-isn't-it-awful. I think it needs to be something straightforward and grim, like, say... powerless people scraping out an existence in a ruined city, struggling to survive with few resources, with the biggest threats being themselves or the odd wolf pack or something. Powerless and just trying to get by. Harsh, like real survival, not this "convenient plot device" thing. That would say more about the characters and teach them more about themselves than any typical horror plot, I think, especially because it's Paradisa saying one very clear thing: "Think about everything I give you. That's how much you need me." That,, to me, says "dark plot".
Something along those lines, anyway. Something that gives people room to make CR and do introspection and struggle to survive without these endlessly drawn-out text-based fight scenes. And, granted, yes, it does rely on people putting a lot of concentrated effort into making lemonade out of those lemons, but I can tell you that for me, personally, I can build much better CR when characters are working through something slowly, rather than this mad-dash ONWARD!! trend we've fallen into for action plots.
no subject
And I have to thank you for this, because it was really insightful. I've honestly never attempted to run an RP plot in my life, so I don't really know a lot of the nuts and bolts of what should go into it. In the grand, cosmic scheme of things, I haven't been RPing very long; less than two years, actually. Prior to RP, most of my writing has either been with fan fiction for the fandom stuff and prose or script for the non-fandom. There are definitely different things to consider when you're writing a 2-hour movie versus when you're writing something interactive.
This, in particular, is a great point regarding what a good RP plot would need: we need to be writing plots that focus on characters and explore characters rather than emphasizing these complicated narratives/stories, so that people have TIME to make CR in a plot. I think this is what I'm still trying to get used to, coming from a tradition where I'm more accustomed to writing narratives. This is exactly the kind of thing you need in the RP medium. And the more I think about it, these are the ingredients we need.
Honestly, I'm more of a fan of stuff that focuses on character psychology than monsters anyway. I enjoy Alien as much as the next person, but it's not my favorite kind of movie. I'm more of a fan of stuff that makes people turn into themselves, realize things about themselves, and, yeah, realize that the biggest threat is themselves. (Maybe not quite what you're getting at but, for instance, I enjoy something like Black Swan WAY more than Alien.) Just something that gets to the nitty gritty, bare bones of the character.
So, in conclusion, I'd be at least 110% on board with something like that. :) A plot with a darker theme, but with an emphasis on character. I think that has the potential to be something cool for a lot of us.
no subject
Back when I was working mornings full-time but had evenings to myself it was fine for me to sit there for five days and run people through these complicated and detailed plots without it getting too muddled, it was okay, but I also introduced this habit of like... NPCs everywhere, point-A-to-point-B, whatever. Back in the day, it was super neat and fun because it was new and shiny and we were doing things in a way it wasn't typically done. It worked beautifully at the time but because I'm always trying to try new things with running plots, Paradisa ended up subjected to whatever harebrained idea I had next.
But all that said, as I burned out I got admittedly sloppy running them and they didn't run the way I envisioned them, and now many plots in Paradisa have an awful tendency to have too much narrative and not enough breathing room. In a game of a couple dozen people it would be okay to have heavier narratives because there'd be less characters sharing the roles, but in a game of 230+... nah, it doesn't work like that. You end up with moments like Mirrorplot where 20-something characters are in for the ride of their lives while everyone else is twiddling their thumbs between looking around the castle and doodling/writing things that don't actually have THAT much impact on the other group. It's ridiculously fun for those involved, but for the people with nothing to do, it's a bit disappointing. I've tried to combat that in my own plots and it ends up turning into me having that much more to run or NPC, and it's hard to tell a cohesive story when you spread things across helpers.
But anyway.
That's why we need the back-to-basics more than ever, lmao. It is crucial to remember that we have to be inclusive of 230+ characters and 120+ muns, and that is hella hard when you approach it as a huge story and turn them all into pawns in said story.
Also jesus christ Black Swan, I love Black Swan. One of my favourite movies for sure. Sadly, those things are best left to personal plots/losses, as you just can't do them with groups of our size.
no subject
But yeah, I see what you're saying! I admire you for sticking with that for as long as you did, that's crazy. Props, seriously. But I definitely know who to go to for advice now if I ever get ambitious about this.
I think I really want do to try to work on drafting something while keeping all of what you said in mind. Approaching it less as a story is a very good place to start. Maybe more as a... scenario? I'll kick around some ideas while I'm inevitably thinking about things at 3 in the morning and see what sticks.
(... And then probably handing it off to someone else if it goes anywhere because I'm scared, lol.)no subject
And hah, yes. I'm always open for advice!
I think a scenario is good, much better to think about than a story. If you want some ideas, movies like The Road or I Am Legend or the History Channel's series "Aftermath". All of them deal with that kind of "survival" theme and might be good to mine for ideas.
Arden and I were kicked around ideas on plurk, too, and we thought it'd be a nice touch to have the castle make everyone "forget" that these world changes end. If people thought this new hellhole was how it was going to be forever, there'd be less apathy, I think, because there's no "oh well by next week we'll be back."
no subject
But anyway... I really like the idea of everyone "forgetting" about the world change. People have to find a way to... figure it out and band together and go on, and that's fabulous. And, given that I play Katniss Everdeen, who's used to finding ways to adapt to places that suck, I really do like the survival idea A LOT. I'd get to play with another side of her, and that'd open up the door for some interesting new CR. I see potential in this. I've seen I Am Legend, but I need to check out the others that you mentioned.