The Knoll Blog

Friday, May 12, 2006

The general consensus <--(we use this word all the time at work and it has slowly slipped into my everyday vocabulary) is that we start up something new and fresh and so I say unto all WE WILL START SOMETHING NEW AND FRESH! But I would like to point out that if the alignment of the current characters is one of the causes of their inability to cooperate then perhaps players should try to make characters that can get along well with each other. Just a suggestion, you know, for party sake.

Ok, so I'm going to flesh out my new idea a little bit more then I'll post it here. That is all after I write my Shakespeare essay. Quit distracting me from my finals!

Quack Quack ~Emu Sound~

PS I wrote a Haiku that everyone in the world should enjoy because it is a zombie Haiku. Enjoy.

Why shouldn't he eat
your brain? You don't use it.
Head like pudding cup.

5 Comments:

At 1:21 PM, John Ostermiller said…

Lenny and I actually were talking about this very thing last night.

Something I've noticed in our games is that often times our chars are never given a reason to work together or to trust each other - other then being forced into a situation or because we're all serving the NPC. And when the group isn't tearing itself apart because of radical alignment differences (something I think is both a player and DM responsibility to thwart) we're only working together because we 'have to' - we've serving the same NPC out of various reasons of indebtedness, we're all hired by the same guy, etc.

I've noticed it my games, although I try to get everyone to 'know each other'... but maybe, if we all talked to Chase about backstory's more and really tried to make a cohesive unit it'd help curb some 'party failure'. For instance, in the DnD game it was awesome that Chase actually took my Ranger (Kempek) backstory and turned it into the whole next chapter - but no one had any reason or motivation to want to help me out - other then the lich wanted them to, and there were issues even there on how and why they would or should - I think Jess had it right... you guys probably could've killed me without remorse and it would've solved the problem. I know Lenny and I tried to come up with a thread so we'd be friends or trust/know each other but that just ended up not being used - instead Lenny became just another loner hired to join us.

It's really hard to get us all to work cohesively, because I know we all have different schedules and ideas and things we want to try/do/see - but maybe if we all worked together... players and DM, we'd not put the responsibility/'blame' on one of us and instead make the game a whole lot better... not to mention more fun.
At 1:28 PM, John Ostermiller said…

P.S.

I want Chase to know how much I appreciate him always running games for us. And while I'm complaining in the above post, I really don't want people to think it's all his fault - or that I see it that way. We just all need to work together more and step up as players to help with party cohesion.

The DM's just usually an easier target. =P
At 1:51 PM, Duckmu said…

Thank you for bringing that up John but there is one more component to character that people seem to leave out of their characters. hey forget that characters have a consciene.

For example the only character in the game that could have murdered your character without remorse would be Jess's character, but that would have been tricky in that she would have had to get past Adrienne (because she was lawful good) and Drake (because he was trying to get back to good). Adrienne was also a good characters and would have helped you out of a feeling of moral responsibility. Drake, in an attempt to redeem himself, would also have helped you. Neko was under orders from the Lich to help (who was his father and church leader) and so must help also due to his alwful nature. Lenny was under contract with the thieves guild to keep an eye on Jess and Jess had no other option as it was the only means to keep a party around thatmay be able to help her reach her goal of paying off the Assassin's guild.

Now what I'm getting at here is that there are complex interactions between the characters that many of the players end up neglecting while in a game situation because their characters stop being characters and simply become stats on a page. I don't remeber if Drake stepped up to help (as would have been proboble with a good natured character) but he did light a drow on fire for meta-purposes. Here demonstrates that he slipped from having a character to having stats. When you play a character you must stop thinking of yourself as a player, you must think of yourself as the character. (A good example is the difference between Vemon and Carnage. Vemon never truely bonded with the symboiate in the way that Carnage did as shown by Vemon's continued reference to himself as "we" while Carnage was I. Venom was Eddie Brock and a Symbiot while Carnage was Carnage. I don't think that helped.) What I'm trying to say is that players must take into account more than just alignment and class. You must understand personality. Is you're character the type to step right up and help anyone in need? Or the type to stay in the background helping while shying off credit? Both could easily be the same alignment, but have vastly different personalities. And both accomplie the same goal. They are helping someone who needs help.

I don't know how very clear that is, but I hope i have demonstrated that character, like real people, should be complex. They should not be simple ruthless murders with no conscience or totally selfless paragons of virtue because people are not like that. Even though you play a hero you are still a person first. And that should be reflected in your actions and choices.

Quack Quack ~Emu Sound~
At 2:13 PM, John Ostermiller said…

Thanks for bringing -THAT- up, Chase. =)
At 3:00 PM, Lenny said…

For the sake of clarification. The human component of carnage was a serial killer named Cletus Cassidy and that is the real reason why carnage is so evil.