Robin D. Laws's Blog, page 96
October 6, 2011
Hillfolk Characters and Their Dramatic Poles
As an example of the sorts of characters you'll play in Hillfolk, the first DramaSystem game, here's the roster from the in-house playtest. They are stalwarts of the Horsehead clan, highlands-dwelling raiders at the dawn of the Iron Age.
The most important element of any DramaSystem PC are her dramatic poles—the two contradictory emotional impulses she's torn between.
Redaxe (played by Paul) is the clan's bad-ass war champion, a confident berserker with axe in hand, but an often confused man in the confusing realms of love and politics. Poles: man of peace vs. man of war
Thickneck (Justin), Redaxe's brother and the clan's most accomplished shepherd. His desire for himself and the clan is tranquility; so far, events have given him little of it. For the first season, he served as self-appointed conscience and advisor to the chieftain. Now he is the chieftain. (He's also for the moment become a GM-run recurring character, as Justin has had to bow out for the fall semester.) Poles: ambition vs. loyalty.
When we first met Twig (played by Lisa) the clan's willowy young hostler, her lack of confidence led her to seek the approval of others. She started out as Redaxe's girl, then realized her true feelings were for Thickneck. As last season closed, her confidence issues seemed to disappear, as she sought power for herself and Thickneck. For the first season, her poles were conformity vs. adventure. Now, as she becomes more political and materialistic, she's shifted to selfishness vs. altruism.
Skull (Christoph) was, for the first season, the brash and maneuvering village headman, who by fits and starts negotiated the Horsehead clan into vassal status with the northern kingdom, only to be set aside by King Goldenthrone. Skull's search for a new place after losing his authority will doubtless drive much of season two. During the first season, Christoph expressed his poles as assimilator vs. protector. As GM, I would have asked him to adjust these to something more personal and less abstract—were he not in practice playing the more gripping set of poles: arrogance vs. wisdom. In his new renegade state, his poles have shifted to vengeance vs. the people.
Farhawk (Chris) is a young firebrand, and a burr in the saddle of the other main characters. His father, headman of the defunct Lavender clan, was slain by Redaxe, who has sworn to train Farhawk in the art of combat, so they can fairly fight to the death later. Though generally distrusted and disregarded, Farhawk may have the keenest political instincts of any Horsehead. His poles: becoming a Horsehead vs. destroying the Horseheads.
Chris started out playing Roll-the-Bones, the clan's wise woman. But after she proved dramatically inert—her sole tactic in dramatic scenes was refusal—he was dragooned into playing the powerfully double-edged Farhawk, first introduced as a recurring character (an important NPC.) Roll-the-Bones then became a recurring character, where her obstructionism suits her for the role of nemesis.
October 5, 2011
Link Round-Up: Shoggoth Remorse and the History of Keeping Calm
History of 'Keep Calm and Carry On', from non-use in WW2 to current trademark fight.
Shoggoth remorse: is it ever justified?
RPGamer Interview
Hear me interviewed by Scott "Fowl Sorcerous" Wachter over at RPGamer. I provide the lowdown on Ashen Stars, spill additional beans regarding DramaSystem, and dole out nuggets of GMing wisdom.
Put it in your ears!
October 4, 2011
Link Round-Up: Lego Protest, Punisher Praise
Bike lane reduction prompts Lego protest.
Punisher: War Zone is an unheralded masterwork?!? Why was I not informed?
October 3, 2011
Link Round-Up: Golden Geeks, Hero Researcher, Horror King, Wendig World
Thanks to Golden Geek Award nominators, who gave nods to The Armitage Files (best supplement) and Ashen Stars (best art). Bookhounds of London is up against Armitage, prompting me to wonder what the word is for a mixture of pride (that Ken got a nom as well) and vexation (that the two books will split the Trail of Cthulhu vote.) Irrichuffment?
Cancer-stricken researcher devises treatment, extends own life, dies, days later gets Nobel nod.
Laurent Bouzereau documentary covering Stephen King's take on horror movies, first airing tonight on TCM, looks pretty promising.
As I prepare to lay down my group world-building stick, Chuck Wendig is picking his up.
Seeking Toronto-Area Gamer For Thursday Night Playtest Group
I am once again looking to augment the ranks of my Thursday night playtest group—hence this open call for one new recruit.
To join the group, you'll need to be reliably free on Thursday nights and able to get to the Bloor-Bathurst area in downtown Toronto. We meet from 7 pm to 10 pm.
You will also need a saintly tolerance for my playtesting needs. I run games I'm either designing or need to familiarize myself in order to do freelance work for. In the early going a new game may crash and burn, mandating a return to the drawing board. Often I'll have to suddenly abandon a successful series in midstream to go on to the next thing. We usually play RPGs but there's always the chance you may be asked to test-drive a card or board game along the way.
At present we have just entered our second season of Hillfolk, the first game using the new DramaSystem engine. It works within the storygame tradition, focusing on narrative and character development, setting traditional butt-kicking and problem-solving by the wayside. This game will continue until at least spring. Next up will be Gaean Reach, a game of interstellar mystery and vengeance using the GUMSHOE system, with touches of Skulduggery thrown in for good measure.
Please put yourself forward only if you can realistically make a long-term commitment to showing up every Thursday night.
If you're interested, get in touch either by leaving a comment on this blog, or via private message on Facebook or G+, or DM on Twitter.
September 30, 2011
Classic Post: Dramatic Poles
I've talked before about the iconic characters and how they are driven by an ethos. By recapitulating it, they triumph over external obstacles, affirm their selfhood, and restore order.
But what drives dramatic characters?
When we care about a fictional character, we hope for X and fear for Y. X is the positive condition; Y is its opposite. In a procedural, we hope the character will succeed in reaching his procedural goals and fear that he will fail. In a drama, we perceive a positive and a negative potential. We want the character to reach the former and avoid the latter.
Compelling ongoing dramatic characters possess dual natures, or internal oppositions. We want them to overcome one of these and realize the other. Another way to express this is to say that the characters are torn between two internal forces or impulses. These are the poles of a dramatically active character.
Rick Blaine (Casablanca) selfishness or altruism?
Shelley Levene (Glengarry Glen Ross) winner or loser?
Nora (A Doll's House) subservience or selfhood?
Tony Soprano: family man or Family man?
Nate Fisher: (Six Feet Under) freedom or responsibility?
Frank Gallagher: (Shameless US) dissolution or dignity?
Walter White (Breaking Bad) virtuous weakness or anti-social power?
Our feelings toward the two poles may be clear-cut, or divided. Dramatic characterization deepens, and our reactions to it become more complex, when our reaction to the dual nature becomes ambiguous. Part of us wants Tony to be the good family man, but part of us takes dark vicarious pleasure in his sociopathic side.
See P. XX
Proving it still counts as the September issue if it comes out on the 29th, the latest edition of the Pelgrane Press webzine, See P. XX, has now escaped from the nest. My eponymous column introduces you to the whys and wherefores of DramaSystem and Hillfolk.
The first of several exciting Ashen Stars demos appears, in the form of Kevin Kulp's "Stowaway." This had folks coming up to the booth raving (and then buying the book) when he ran it at Gen Con, and it's great to see it made available for a wider audience.
Also: Jonny Nexus takes aim at red herrings, we get a peek at the Night's Black Agents layout, Graham Walmsley continues the Cthulhu Apocalypse, and Beth Lewis debuts her Q & A column by soliciting some Qs and laying down one of her own. And as always, head Pelgrane wrangler Simon Rogers updates you on new and forthcoming projects.
September 29, 2011
Season Two
After an overly long summer break, my Thursday night playtest group will reconvene, continuing to put the first DramaSystem game, Hillfolk, through its paces. At this point, I'm confident that the main mechanism works well. This is the framing and playing out of dramatic scenes, in which one main character seeks an emotional concession from another. We're still discovering new things to do with it, which will play into the final manuscript's explanatory passages. The bit that might or might not now be in place is the less-used procedural system. This comes into play in the surprisingly few cases where you need to determine whether a character succeeds at an external, practical goal—what has always been the bread and butter of traditional roleplaying.
Knowing that we were headed for a hiatus, we tried to steer the previous episode to some climactic moment analogous to the season-ender of a serialized cable show. (The game uses the TV series as a reference point but doesn't try to impose specific television tropes or structures on your evolving narrative.)
That big shift point seemed elusive throughout the session. Then, with the magic gestalt that attends a multi-author improvised narrative, we suddenly got there in the last scene. For much of our first season, the Iron Age raiders of the main cast have been contending with an incursion from the culturally similar but more economically and politically advanced nation from the north. After going back and forth as to whether to ally with or fight the forces of King Goldenthrone, our heroes eventually threw in with him. To make a long story short (and simpler) the chieftain skull (played by Christoph) bowed down to him as a vassal, in hopes of eventually becoming king of the southern badlands, and then challenging him. In a surprise scene at last session's end, Goldenthrone tired of Skull's maneuverings and fired him as chieftain. In his place, he elevated Skull's adviser/frenemy Thickneck (played by Justin.)
Tonight, we'll add a new player. This will dovetail with the cable series tradition of adding new regulars to series in progress. We'll start the session by deciding how far we want to jump ahead in the narrative, most likely to a revised status quo with Thickneck in charge and Skull looking for his new place in the clan.
