Monday, March 7, 2005

What I think makes a good role-player

I've been avoiding posting my own answer to the survey, in case I bias the results of someone who hasn't yet taken it. (If you haven't taken it, head to http://grahamrobinson.com/survey.html now. Come back here after you've sent me your own answers.) I'm starting to think that if I don't answer soon, I never will. So, here's my order, with copious explanatory notes :

I'll start with the essentials, common to all good role-players :

1. Ensuring Enjoyment for Others. Role-playing is a group hobby, in which everyone participates to have fun (for some definition of "fun"). Nothing screams good role-player to me like someone who goes out of their way to make the game more fun for others, especially at their own (character's) expense.

2. Tell Stories. Equally, role-playing is all about stories - whether the story is "we killed this big dragon" or some complex political drama, complicated by star-crossed lovers. Good role-playing is about telling interesting stories.

3. Creativity. Perhaps this isn't obvious, but it is perfectly possible to role-play without any creativity. There are plenty of people who can raise a laugh by quoting Monty Python, play a character by memorising the Toreador clan book, or suggest a plan that worked well for Captain Kirk that one time. Given a wide enough range of reading, tv watching, etc. such a person may be a hugely entertaining, impressive role-player. But the gamer with genuine wit, imagination, and panache! Ah, there is true greatness.

Next come the optionals. These are areas which may be missing entirely from a great role-player, but which if present often help to impress.

4. Acting. I'm a pretty lousy actor, so I hope this isn't essential...

5. Humour. Apparently there are people who play role-playing games entirely seriously. Cor blimey.

6. Goal Completion. This (and the following problem solving) are important as they allow the plot to move forward and achieve its potential. Not every player needs these abilities, but having them in the group is very, very useful.

7. Problem Solving.

8. Game Mastery. Someone who can use the rules and/or game world to produce unexpected results can be very cool.

9. Props. In freeforms, props and costumes are very important, and this category would move up four or five places. At the tabletop, props are cool, and costumes are weird, bordering on the creepy.

Now we come to two categories which are essential, but only because their complete absence is a sure sign of bad role-playing.

10. Immersion. The game gets going. A real atmosphere is building. Someone makes a dramatic comment. Then one person says "That reminds me of a character I played in another game years ago..." Nothing wrecks a mood faster than gamers who won't stop going off at tangents. Breaking out of immersion is needed - to make dice rolls, for example, and someone needs to get the door for the pizza delivery man. But a good role-player knows when its appropriate, and how to do it with minimal interruption for others.

11. Playing the Character. Ah, yes, the favoured excuse of disruptive players. (For examples, see pretty much any issue of Knights of the Dinner Table.) Having no consistency to characters is a disaster - "You fool! Why did you trust me! I am famed throughout the land as a master thief!" "I thought you were playing a paladin?" Beyond that, it's rarely important. Real people are complex, contradictory and frequently unpredictable. Plot, interest and meta-game often provide reasons for a particular decision. Character consistency barely gets a look in, and, if applied too fervently, can lead to one-dimensional characters.

(It has recently struck me that perhaps some people see this more as exploring a character. If that exploration is external, that means its being done via the character's interaction with other characters and the broader plot, that would seem to me to be telling stories. After all, it is hard to see what sort of stories a role-playing game can tell which aren't character based. On the other hand, if the character exploration is entirely internal, that may be fun for you, but how do I tell? As an analogy, method acting might make Dustin Hoffman a good actor, but it doesn't make him a better actor than Laurence Olivier.)

And finally, the areas that seem pretty irrelevant :

Character Survival. If anyone really cared about survival, why would anyone play Call of Cthulhu?

Rules Mastery. If someone at the table understands the rules, they can explain them as needed. If no one does, make it up as you go along!

Treasure Collection. This is very important for a good game - people like to be rewarded. But it isn't part of good role-playing.

[<< Tommy Vance RIP] [Comments Re-enabled >>]