This is not a comment on that GNS rubbish, but rather how people play an actual character. It came to me because one of the students has left my Wednesday afternoon group citing sporting commitments. His brother (also in my group) says that the real reason is that I won't go back to dungeons and dragons. I don't think that is the real reason either. I think the real reason is that he has realised that he is not role playing at the same level as the rest of the group; he is still at stage one.
Stage one
In stage one things seem fairly simple. The bad guys are bad and need to be killed or punished. The victims are innocent and need to be protected or rescued. And a character class is what defines how you play a character. Fighters fight, rogues steal and so on.
Stage one players often sit back and wait until their character can have an impact on the game so that they can shine. Unfortunately such one dimensional characters are often of very limited use and the players become bored very quickly, often contriving situations where they can use their character's skills. The game is often slowed down by these players as their characters pick fights in taverns or attempt to steal from the local merchant.
This idea of stages makes me think about my own progression as a role player. What is stage two? Is it to do with alignment? Where do skills, background and personality come in? Is there a continuum? Hmmm.
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3 comments:
I would honestly say progression from level 1 is a maturity change. Also, playing with older players usually helps you move on from level 1. Change of game can do that as well. I was brought up on a diet of D&D and it was only until my first roleplaying con back in '91 that opened my eyes up to the possibilities of different systems. But I mainly played with my fathers group of gamers for most of my own exp, before starting my own group at 10, and his group contained 4 players in their early 40s.
But that's getting a head of myself. I would also say it is partially the GM/DM/Storyteller/etc responsibility to help people move on from level 1 in subtle ways, especially when dealing with young kids. It might also help to suggest books that start to move away from the typical "evil wizard X has stolen princess Y and heroes Z, G, H and friendly giant D will go and rescue her" and more "princess Y runs away with evil wizard X but it looks like a kidnapping, Hero G is still in love with the princess and will be unwilling to believe she could cause genocide with wizard X and will be vulnerable to that plot later, while friendly giant D had to be captured as he was rampaging a town when the heroes started on the quest".
Hmmm ... long rant, sorry about that. How old are these kids again?
Average age of the group is probably 14 or 15. I would say that most of them have moved on to a higher level. I will have to think about how to describe that level and post it here.
Good comment btw.
Around 14-15, i was only playing D&D rarely. I'd been playing a lot of WoD, Ars Magica and Cthulhu at that point and a whole bunch of systemless and freeforms that all had good ideas formed around them.
I like Ars Magica because there are three types of tiered characters you play. It also encourages a lot of NPC played characters that give people chances to play something they usually wouldn't without repercussions to their "main" character. The system is a little clunky and does need a lot of GM decisions to say what works and work around what doesn't (but then what can you do when its basically the precursor to the WoD system). Also, people get to be magicians and knights and dirty peasants, alot of fun can be had with that. Also you could slip in some history lessons if you felt like it as it was the middle ages.
I'll be interested to see what you think level 2 would be.
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