I've found roleplaying out traumatic experiences, and sometimes their after-effects, is best done when the other players care as much about their characters as you do yours.
Yeah, being the one person to want to play out the depths of stuff like that in a group that doesn't get into it like that can be kind of awkward. By the flip side, if I don't have reason to think the GM will make use of my backstory/NPC attachments I'm less likely to make meaningful ones to start with. Sort of ironic since those are the NPCs much more likely to survive.
But with players who are able to get into it to the same level and get into it when other people do it even if they're not an active part of it can produce *amazing* results. I normally don't consider myself good at improv, but with a character whose head I've gotten into and someone good to play off of, I can get into screaming matches involving philosophy and plans of attack at the same time with no time lag to think of things to say.
I'm still not great of improv in general though.
Character quirks *can* be there just because. Real people can be scared of spiders without a traumatic reason why, but I think to be make if a *huge* deal it needs a reason (the difference between jumping on a chair to avoid a mouse and having a paralyzing fear of them...or a one point flaw and a five point one). We may not often play the small phobias but that doesn't mean they can't happen
One of my favorite after effects I ever played wasn't something I thin either the GM or I had planned. The game started with big explosion killing of my major NPC (surprise surprise) and months later we're basically at ground zero of another big explosion in which a couple of the characters are quite burned and my character goes nuts with PSTD flashbacks. It's not like I had any stats on the subject but I knew in that moment that that's how she'd react. Luckily it was with a GM who was totally willing to work with my character's issues so it did get played out, but it surprised both of us I think.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-11-02 07:35 am (UTC)Yeah, being the one person to want to play out the depths of stuff like that in a group that doesn't get into it like that can be kind of awkward. By the flip side, if I don't have reason to think the GM will make use of my backstory/NPC attachments I'm less likely to make meaningful ones to start with. Sort of ironic since those are the NPCs much more likely to survive.
But with players who are able to get into it to the same level and get into it when other people do it even if they're not an active part of it can produce *amazing* results. I normally don't consider myself good at improv, but with a character whose head I've gotten into and someone good to play off of, I can get into screaming matches involving philosophy and plans of attack at the same time with no time lag to think of things to say.
I'm still not great of improv in general though.
Character quirks *can* be there just because. Real people can be scared of spiders without a traumatic reason why, but I think to be make if a *huge* deal it needs a reason (the difference between jumping on a chair to avoid a mouse and having a paralyzing fear of them...or a one point flaw and a five point one). We may not often play the small phobias but that doesn't mean they can't happen
One of my favorite after effects I ever played wasn't something I thin either the GM or I had planned. The game started with big explosion killing of my major NPC (surprise surprise) and months later we're basically at ground zero of another big explosion in which a couple of the characters are quite burned and my character goes nuts with PSTD flashbacks. It's not like I had any stats on the subject but I knew in that moment that that's how she'd react. Luckily it was with a GM who was totally willing to work with my character's issues so it did get played out, but it surprised both of us I think.