ROLE-Playing tips

Jesse Grabowski

Jesse Grabowski

Squire
Marshal
Hey folks...

More feedback...

Immersion immersion immersion! When you break character, it takes away from someone else's experience. You may not realize it, but we do when we read post event commentaries. Now, it doesn't happen that often, but I feel a gentle reminder cannot hurt. If someone says, "Hey Joe Deathbringer, you dodged that death spell most nimbly!" Please do not respond with, "Or that NPC just sucks at throwing packets!" It's things like that that ruin the atmosphere.

try to separate yourself from your character... what makes the two of you different? What might my character do that I would not if it were really me alive in this fantasy world?

for those non-human characters... what separates you from yourself? Do you act way differently? Wylderkin, what distinguishes a rabbit, from a fox, from wolf, from a snake, deer, etc....??? What do you do that makes you more than a human wearing a mask? I used to play with a monkey scavenger (old wylderkins) and holy crap he used to roam around on the ground, often rolling on his back during a lull in the action. He had a one handed blunt club that was a large bone. He would leave it laying around wherever. I played with a rat scavenger who, while under a hallucinoid, rolled around with a chair thinking it was a giant piece of cheese. If cheese was around, he would lose his mind and let things hit him while he pursued cheese! Ask yourselves what can you do differently to act like your animal? Keep in mind, I am not pointing out anyone specific... just trying to get more folks to think outside the box and act like their race instead of Bill the accountant who swings plumbing once a month! ;-)

Hope this gets folks to think more about their distinct role-playing choices/behavior/mannerisms.
Watching you all help us all raise the bar,
Jesse
 
I see you are mentioning wylderkin in particular. I want to ad something, that I dont think a lot of people are thinking about...

Stereotypes are stereotypes and often fun and easy to play. But deeper concepts of character, acting and nuance arent always going to fall in line with the general, and often simplistic and often incorrect or incomplete broad stroke expectations of the masses.

Rats actually prefer candy to cheese, some species of monkey hunt and eat small prey animals (chimps too- But Gorillas never.), deer kill more people per year than sharks worldwide, and rabbits are factually very violent at times. Pair these factors with a hominid body, the capacity for intelligence on par with a human, and a life history that these things allow, and you may get very individualized and unexpected combinations of character and depth. Often with subtle items of habit being the result, rather than obviously cartoonish interpretations or based on literature's symbolism (wich is not an image of reality. Owls are not wise, they have tiny brains, lions are not that brave they feed on carrion as much as they can, and Snakes are no more sinister in their life goals and intentions than your average housecat.)

So while everyone should certainly think about how their character is built and what makes that character a character- and not them... its important for people on the outside to also be considering that their expectations and understanding of personality, nuance, character and depth are not everyone's. Nor the only right way.
 
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I can see both sides on this one, but I'd lean more toward going overboard or accepting stereotypes, especially as recommendations for newer LARPers. I know I've said it before to many people, but I think it bears repeating: Find something that isn't you in your chosen race/culture to be something other than the player. Non-human races in LARP give us chances to explore that aspect of ourselves and be somewhat alien and different. Yes, they are humanoid and will have human aspects, backgrounds, experiences, etc, but make sure that you don't discount the non-human aspect.

An orc character is very human-like and it's easy to think like yourself when playing one. It's easy to say, "I've got experiences that jade this character no different from any of the town's humans or elves or whatnot." That, I think, loses some of the wonder of playing a character. You need to keep in mind the differences, even if the character doesn't think they're acting different from others. That orc might be civilized, know all the customs, etc, but if she/he was brought up among orcs, there's still that background of having lived in a violent warlike civilization. That jades how they act and perceive things.

A stereotype in and of itself is easily viewed as a bad thing, but it can also add flavor as long as it's not the whole character. I often encourage people to pick a trait of their chosen race/breed and run with it, altering otherwise human behaviors because of it, even if the character intends not to act "different." Wylderkin are always a great example (as are Sarr, really) in that they are part animal. That means that their base behavior should be tainted by instincts, habitual mannerisms, or other quirks. They don't have to drool and lick themselves, but the way your character presents itself should be at least somehow influenced by those traits. That applies to all the races, but animals are really easy to pick on, since we can look around the world at the actual animals for ideas. I can't go to the zoo and see a dark elf, sadly.

Anyway, soapbox goes to the next person now. I'm done. :)
 
Both add great perspective. The only reason I picked the Wylderkin example is because, behind humans, they are our second highest played race in our chapter! Of all the Alliance Chapters, we have the highest percentage per event of wylderkin characters LOL.
Also, a good re-reading of the rule book, national race packet, and thelocal packet (for those races who have them finished!) can help foster even more creativity...
"The most important part of role-playing a wylderkin is in understanding the animal type you are emulating. Do research; look up the qualities of the creature, and find ways to incorporate that into your role-play. Some animals are cunning, some are slow-witted, some are solitary, some live in groups, some are nocturnal,
some are playful. Although survival is a core element of wylderkin role-play, different animals survive using different tactics. A wolf-kin is very likely to enjoy cooperating with others to bring down prey, for example. A rabbit-kin runs and hides when in danger, while an armadillo-kin hunkers down and relies upon his or her armor. Due to their lack of a social structure, wylderkin tend to look for security within themselves or perhaps within a small group of companions. They are likely to make little patterns of behavior concerning themselves or their group in order to gain a sense of belonging and stability. The patterns and habits often make no sense to other people, but are comforting to the wylderkin. There are certain aspects of wylderkin that are consistent, however. Due to their solitary outcast natures, they are very uncivilized. This does not mean they are rude and obnoxious; simply that civilization is unfamiliar to them.
Money seems highly artificial and social structures more complex than “I can beat you up, so do what I say” seem nonsensical.
Wylderkin are survivalists. Their bottom line is living from day to day, not gathering immense wealth or political power, or other things that people whose basic needs are looked after can contemplate. To the typical wylderkin, people from organized cultures are out of touch with what is really important; if such civilized
folk fell into bad circumstances, and were not supported by their artificial network, they would not survive all that well.

And from the National Packet, I like :
Magpies and crows are notorious for stealing shiny things and hiding them; dogs love to go on a chase and need social company. Some animals are cunning, some are slow witted, some are solitary, some live in groups, some are nocturnal, some are playful.
And:
Although not every aspect of your wylderkin character will be represented in terms of game abilities or systems, you should play them anyway. A bear wylderkin will hibernate in the winter; as the fall game season progresses, he or she should be talking about the hibernation to come, looking for a safe place to do it, and
munching up a lot of food so he or she can live off the bodyfat over the winter. The more you act and look like the animal you are emulating, the more fun the character is to play and the more fun others have in playing with you. Trying to be too low-key and ‘normal’ in the human sense is a terrible waste of a roleplay opportunity.
So think of other ways to add to the RP to make it more fun for all! Food for thought!

Jesse
 
Regardless of whether you feel that playing to the subtleties increases immersion through realism or it detracts from potential by too much internalization -- or you love the stereotypes because they help establish consistency in a shared fantasy world, or you decry play of the stereotypes because it dampens imagination and individualization -- attention to detail in your own character is super duper awesome both for your own inner monologue, and your portrayal of a character as an actor. Ultimately, that's the major differentiator between live-action roleplay and table-top roleplay: It's all well and good to have your character neatly defined in your mind. You have to act the part visibly in order for others to get to experience that character's story, however. That's what adds to our shared experience so beautifully in this hobby.

Ian Moriarty found this really neat in-depth character survey online. It has a lot of detailed question that can turn a bare sketch of a character into a three-dimensional, realistic actual person. I recommend highly utilizing a tool like this. Ian even turned his into Local Plot with his character history. The seemingly random question about what sorts of books you read prompted Ian to mention his character's favorite book as a child, something that really influenced Alexander Fairfax growing up. Wasn't Ian pleasantly surprised when a dealer in rare books came into New Acarthia offering him a copy of this childhood favorite, autographed by its author!

Take a look through this and see where it leads your imagination:

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/articles/character_questionnaire.php

Trace
 
To be honest... most of us who play Wylderkin (here, in colorado) find the national packet to be, frankly,- garbage. like to the point where a lot of us considered not playing the race. The local one is so much better and inspiring.
 
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Thanks, B. *blush*
 
Hey folks, this post was meant to be positive and constructive on RP tips. Somehow it devolved into how to play a Wylderkin correctly simply because I used them as an example, simply because they are our largest non-human PC. While Jim did do an amazing job on the local packet for us, there is no reason to insult the creators of the national packet by calling it garbage here in the forums. If you disagreed with it, then you shouldn't have played one. If you disagreed with the similar description of them in the rule book, then you shouldn't have played one. A lot of people put in quality time and thought into creating that packet, including personal friends of mine. I quoted those passages to illustrate what the Alliance-wide vision of wylderkin are, not to tell anyone how to correctly play one. (Although after 23 years, my personal vision does match that of the National and rule book one) If players choose not to play up their animal behaviors, or play them very subtly, then perhaps they were raised away from the Wylderlands and other Wylderkin similar to you, and perhaps your character history reflects that. Just for total understanding, please know that a vast majority of the NPC wylderkin you will meet, (and PC wylderkin in other chapters) will act much more animalistic in nature, even somewhat cartoonish and/or stereotypical.
 
One of the largest ways to separate character from player I have found is your voice. While it is super easy to just talk when your character talks, there are vocal manerisms and speech patterns that are very modern. If your character speech is slightly different, it also helps a TON with the in character versus out of character RP aspects. This mainly ends up used for the more fluid NPC players and non-human races.

Simple things, like dropping your voice slightly lower when your character talks makes it really pop when in a fight, because your voice then comes out completely different with you yelling 'Two Normal', so then it's a detached thing. I've noticed some of the players are GREAT at this, where it's actually hard to tell it's the same person.

Other things, how you walk or even how you fight can be a HUGE indicator, though also this is more toward NPC's. If you're a goblin, consider the creepy scurrying.. spiders can do more jerky motions. If you are an elemental being or a shambling undead, make large lumbering movements. A mindless zombie shouldn't be doing nimble flicks of a sword to parry and riposte, they should be making wide cutting arcs with a flail of a limb. Elementals are literally a force of nature, a mobile rock or tree or sometimes a being made of water or ice.

Immersion can make or break a character. Even if that character is something meant to only be seen once and then disappear, if you can put yourself into the mind of that character, talk like they would talk, walk like they would walk, or even think like they should think, then others won't see you playing a character, they'll see that character.
 
Not at all, its only been a bunch of conversation on different ways to do it. I dont think there is a single right way. Wich was my point.Its neither an attack nor a support, just a discussion and an important one because it is discussing these kinds of things in an open and honest manner. Something worth talking about and being real about as players who choose to partake in this game and this world-content.
 
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