Warning, RPG rant ahead! Click on More if you care, ignore if you don't.
I have to admit up front ... I am one of those annoying roleplayers who tries to stay true to the character until the end, even if that means the character leaves the game. I know there is another school of thought, that the game is paramount, and you should work hard to make your character fit into the game.
But I just can't do that, not all the time. Not without breaking the character.
Last night's Aberrant session went poorly. There are three actual players in this game, with one playing via IM, which works because he's our "netrunner," to use a different term. Our information guy.
One of the players designed a Brick. Not a lot of powers, but a lot of strength. One of the players designed a Face, a social character, but who also has the abilities to copy other character's abilities and powers. I designed a person with shadow powers, the ability to make and use shadows, to turn her body into darkness, and to transmit anywhere there are shadows. There's also an NPC, who his basically a Spiderman-type.
The player who designed the Brick was very upset with the Face's player, because now the Brick was not the strongest in the group (the Face ended up picking up Boost, which enhances strength and other attributes, I believe), and his niche was gone. He did not think the character was playable anymore. His character concept was broken.
He originally was going to bring in a new character, but Lou talked him into modifying the old. Another Quantum event happened, and the Brick has been redesigned with new powers. YES, the Face can still copy powers, so I don't see what was salvaged with the change.
And now the Brick's personality has completely changed. Where once there was a take-charge, leader-type, there is now a 17-year old schoolgirl, with some of the personality of the older version, but none of the leadership qualities.
My character is SO out of there. There is no one in the group to lead us now, and while we may not have needed a leader at first, we had one. It's hard to move into a no-group-leader arrangement, once you've had someone give the orders. And no one else in the group is the type to lead. Believe me.
Teja, my character, decided to try this group because of the leader. She thought that Doc Brass, the former-leader's Nova name, could actually make this group work. Now, with Baby Brass asking HER what they should do, she is just freaking and running away (as is her personality type. She's a divorcee with a kid she doesn't see because she can't relate to him. Not a people person, our Teja).
It makes sense for the character to split. I can't see her staying. Every time Baby Brass spoke, she shuddered and cringed. It was just so wrong. And no one else is going to step up to lead. Certainly not her (she's a photojournalist, being a rabidly independent individual is her trademark), not the Face (he's just in it for the fun), not the NPC (he's a follower of orders, not a giver of them). Maybe Baby Brass can pull it off, but she doesn't want to be there while she learns new ropes.
She decided to stay for the current scenario, but made no promises beyond that, and the decision to stay was only made under extreme duress.
Now as I see it, because one player was cheesed at the other (justified or not) and had to break their own character, now I have to break mine to keep her in the game.
I do not like this. I cannot justify it within Teja's personality. Call me a game-breaker, call me a silly roleplayer, call me someone who is stupid to remain true to the character instead of true to the game. It's all true. I agree with every word of it.
I just can't play any other way, and still be me.
I can't play Teja any other way and have it still be Teja.
I hate this.
Comments (3)
Shifting roles is hard. I have had a recent situation in Changeling that was exactly the opposite. We have a group that is full of leader characters. A Sidhe Knight, a quest oriented Satyr... and others who are willing to work and manipulate the other characters into doing what they want to accomplish.
And then there was the day that the Knight's player didn't show. The day we were rescuing the Satyr. This left a raggle taggle group of characters in the sewers of Glasgow... and suddenly my (what-they-hell-are-we-doing-here-anyway) Nocker chick was leading the troops.
Now when the 'leaders' are endlessly equivocating or off on some stupid tangent - Birch steps up and says, 'all right, knock it off, here's what will work...'
The Satyr's player turned to the Sidhe Knight's and said, "Where'd she come from?" With just a hint of, 'hey, whose job is this, anyway?'
Too bad.
Birch found a back bone and I'm running with it!
Posted by jenn | May 29, 2002 5:57 PM
Posted on May 29, 2002 17:57
Interesting quandry. A change in group dynamics is often a change in character concepts, at least where they fit in... but the question is, does Teja grow from it? Does the character extend past the boundaries of the past and step up to that role? Does she become a Queenmaker?
I understand that there's cheesing to be had at the other player who felt elbow'd out, incidentally or otherwise. But is that annoyance really a sign that you want your character out of the game as it is because _you_ don't like the way it's going?
Teja would have had situations like this in her life. Does she walk out of all of them? Is it something the GM can use? What makes her "broken," exactly?
Posted by MT Fierce | May 30, 2002 12:07 AM
Posted on May 30, 2002 00:07
Ye-gods...a Queenmaker? That'd scare the shit out of her.
I think my annoyance comes mostly from the fact that things were going just fine in the game, no problems at all, save for one player's annoyance at another. And he didn't want to talk, player to player, to try and resolve the problem. He wanted Lou to talk to Kevin, and barring that, to make up a new character.
Frankly, I'd rather have had a new character, with Doc Brass having died or moved onto NPC status, than have such a radical change in game.
And yeah, Teja pretty much runs/walks out of those sorts of situations. She got married because it was expected, got pregnant without really thinking about it, then realized that she had no idea of how to be a mother, or how to relate to a kid, never mind her husband. (I decided I wanted to play someone who really shouldn't have been a mother, someone who *doesn't* connect with the kid after birth)
Right now, to fit her into the game, I need to have her go against all of her instincts and past history, which are telling her to run far away.
I didn't realize this until after this past session, but I was really looking forward to having Teja work with the group. She's a very independent person, used to doing things her own way. Doc Brass was someone she thought who could pull it off. Someone she was willing to follow, or at least attempt.
And now that's gone. Her personality has so changed; it's just not the same.
Ah well, I'm going to keep at it, and maybe it'll all work out for the best.
Posted by Julia | May 31, 2002 9:50 AM
Posted on May 31, 2002 09:50