critter 2469 Popular Post Share Posted January 5, 2023 As a refresher… Character bleed is when the experiences of a character influence the relationships of the player. Consider checking out my first guide or this handy intro for more. DISCLAIMER Spoiler There is limited data on RP’s influences on the human psyche, though I have read a lot of it. I am a LARPer and on-and-off LOTC’er of four years, and this guide comes from the experiences and observations I’ve made in that time. I am not a mental health professional. Alright. Into the thick of it. PLAY-TO-WIN vs. PLAY-TO-LOSE vs. PLAY-TO-LIFT A play-to-win mentality means that you are playing to win, by whatever metric satisfies you. A play-to-lose mentality means you are actively setting your character up to lose in order to create more drama and story intrigue. A play-to-lift mentality means that you are both taking responsibility for your character, and also seeking to create good storytelling experiences for your fellow players. While all three are techniques you can apply to RP, play-to-lose and play-to-lift mentalities are both part of collaborative play styles. Play-to-win is competitive, and that’s where the conflict begins. In my time on LotC, I have noticed an alarming amount of communities who seem to have become driven by a play-to-win mentality. If the majority of a community is playing to win, then their culture becomes a competitive one, and player may find themselves ‘punished’ by that system when they don’t prioritize ‘winning.’ No one person or source can be blamed for this. It’s often a slow creep within a system. PLAY-TO-WIN To be clear: it’s not a bad thing if you want your character to win. The danger lies in how you as a player respond when they don’t, and whether or not you can separate your characters’ wins from yours. You, the player, are always winning if you enjoy the story you are telling through your character. This may be difficult to remember, especially if you’ve been with one character for a long time; but if/when we lose sight of it, that’s when the problems start. A play-to-win approach to RP is more than just wanting your character to win. It often serves to create frequent feelings of frustration, disappointment, anger, and strained relationships with other players. Players who come to RP settings with play-to-win mentalities are also more likely to experience character bleed, or to have no boundaries between themselves and their character to start. Play-to-win mentalities are great for MMORPG or ‘traditional’ video games; Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls Online, etc etc etc; if you’ve seen the classic gamer guy punching a hole in the drywall for taking an L, then you’ve witnessed the most intense form of play-to-win character bleed out there. But in communities like LotC, which are inherently collaborative and require distance between the player and the character, a play-to-win mentality undermines everyone’s experience. PLAY-TO-LOSE & PLAY-TO-LIFT (or, PLAY-FOR-STORY) For our purposes, we’re going to be discussing these two mentalities as one: “playing-for-story.” “Play-to-lose” is a little intimidating if not discouraging, and should really be a part of a mentality, not one on its own. A “play-for-story” mentality is often the hardest shift for those players having their first community RP experiences, be it live-action, tabletop, or virtual. Your experience, even your ‘success,’ hinges on your relationships with other players and their characters. You have to place a level of trust in the player, something I myself often struggle with, and this is where a play-for-story approach comes in. A play-for-story player is more likely to recognize when their character needs to lose for the advancement of both their personal and the overall story, when they should pass the spotlight to another player, and most importantly, that the actions of a character do not reflect on the player. These approaches to RP do not make a player immune to character bleed, but it does change the fundamental way they interact with other players. APPROACHING RP Whether you’re a nation leader or a new player, your core objective is always the same: Tell. The. Story. Your character’s story, first and foremost; and through that character, the story of those around you, and the wider world they exist in. If this feels vague and overwhelming, that’s alright. From here on, we’re going to discuss a few approaches for building characters and interacting with other characters from a play-for-story mentality. Oh, and for gods’ sake; stop referring to your characters in the first person. Draw the first line there, and the rest will start to fall into place. GOOD META An essential in the RP’ers toolbox. Touched on in my last guide. Spoiler Put your pitchfork and torch down this instant. Good meta is not metagaming to cheat: a more accurate name might be ‘empathetic meta,’ or ‘metagaming for inclusion’. It means that you make choices for your character in order to better support other players, particularly new or anxious ones, because you know they may need or want that support to better flourish. You don’t have to betray your character to do this; it’s simply a way to open the door for someone else and, in doing so, create more RP for the both of you. EXAMPLES: A grumpy old barfly buys a newcomer a drink A mean, aloof noblewoman stops to introduce herself to a new plaything A frugal shopkeep offers a customer an unusual deal A shy artist offers to paint a portrait for an unfamiliar face KINGMAKER'S STYLE An individual RP approach to character design. Spoiler A Kingmaker’s Approach to RP means you have chosen to create a character who builds their success on the successes of others by gathering knowledge, money, power, or other means of influence through which they support other characters and advance many different stories. This is a very individual approach, and can be implemented at different phases in your character’s story. EXAMPLES: The wealthy patron funding a young artist The bartender who knows endless rumors and potential adventures The veteran soldier advising and supporting a young upstart The excitable young adventurer dragging their friends or elders out with them PASS THE SPOTLIGHT A both communal and individual tool which can be implemented at any time. Spoiler ‘Pass The Spotlight’ is an approach to RP in which you, the player, consciously decide to step back in RP to give another character the spotlight, knowing their player will eventually do the same for your character. ‘Pass The Spotlight’ only works, though, when you can trust that your character will receive the spotlight when it’s their time to shine. When a community sets the precedent of passing the spotlight, then we’re getting somewhere; each character will get the highlight of their individual story (and the player, the satisfaction of the moment), while the overall narrative remains balanced. This also doesn’t mean you, the player, are giving up on RP; it just means recognizing that someone else’s character is having ‘Their Moment,’ and your character is playing into it. EXAMPLES: A character stands on a table to give an impromptu speech. Your character applauds, or mutters condescending remarks to the nearest person, or heckles them. A character has just received news devastating to them. Your character asks why it’s such a big deal, or attempts to comfort them, or quietly revels in their sorrow, or gave them the news in the first place. A character is having a wedding. Your character gives them a generous gift, or congratulates them, or mutters about what a strange match it is. IN CONCLUSION… There are a lot more methods and concepts to add to your RP toolbox. Hopefully, though, this has given you a way to evaluate how you think about and approach RP, and expanded the ways in which you can discuss it. Please remember this isn't a one-time process; every time we log on, log off, and join a new scene, we should be considering from what angle, and what our needs and wants are. I would love to see folks replying with examples, thoughts, critique, or more ideas, and to open this for broader community discussion. FURTHER RESOURCES If you’d like to learn more about RP techniques, these are my primary sources for this guide: https://cwfox.com/2018/04/26/how-to-share-the-spotlight-at-larp/ https://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Playing_to_lose https://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Category:Techniques If you’d like to learn more about character bleed and taking care of yourself as a player, check out: Wrap up your gaming experience with these RPG Aftercare Tips 3 Red Flags that your RP is getting out of hand Post-Play Activities for LARP: Methods and Challenges ...and if you're a community leader, consider making these or guides like them readily available in your Discord or community hub. It also never hurts to review the community guidelines. LotC is way more accessible than most RP formats, but it is still essential to treat it as a social and psychological experience, from which you need breaks, care, and rest. Be safe/have fun. Special thanks to @satinkira& @Minuvas 64 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahbarah 5015 Share Posted January 5, 2023 based and critterpilled ! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkaxeman 1107 Share Posted January 5, 2023 I play to win because minecraft is a game and I want to win it 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoopy_Duck 1500 Share Posted January 5, 2023 Another Critter post to restore faith in LOTC for a good day. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lomiei 1487 Share Posted January 5, 2023 I love this post. Thank you very much critter. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werew0lf 12019 Share Posted January 5, 2023 The loathsome Dung Eater. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassyDryad 1732 Share Posted January 5, 2023 Critter posts are so good that if you do the opposite of what they suggest you will turn into the most evil person imaginable. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayalia 285 Share Posted January 5, 2023 🙌 Healthy rp healthy rp healthy rp healthy rp- 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonito 2263 Share Posted January 5, 2023 1 hour ago, critter said: stop referring to your characters in the first person this alone is very good advice. such a small thing that ive noticed so many people do (including myself at times) and making that little change goes a long way. good post. what do u think about players who are the exception to the character/person separation? ive had my fair share of rp interactions with characters that turned out to be pretty similar/idealized versions of the irl player and their goals. im definitely not the only one whose experienced this. do u have anything for dealing w that? 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter 2469 Author Share Posted January 5, 2023 19 minutes ago, Bonito said: this alone is very good advice. such a small thing that ive noticed so many people do (including myself at times) and making that little change goes a long way. good post. what do u think about players who are the exception to the character/person separation? ive had my fair share of rp interactions with characters that turned out to be pretty similar/idealized versions of the irl player and their goals. im definitely not the only one whose experienced this. do u have anything for dealing w that? such a good question and also the thing that i struggle with the absolute most. at LARP i tend to straight-up avoid these players tbh, but there's also a physical element there that we dont have online. the most important thing is to encourage players, esp new players, to consciously and deliberately give their characters traits they, the player, do not have. a good persona tends to be a blend of relatability and contrast to its player (as most of us know, subconsciously or consciously), but obviously if you're already entangled with an idealized-self character that's not really an option. in those situations, distance and OOC check-ins to keep your boundaries steady + a line of communication/feedback open are probably the best moves, with more of one or the other depending on how things are going. alternatively if the player is not receptive to OOC check-ins re: the flow of rp/safety, forcibly keep everything wholly irp. i wish i had more concrete advice, but i'm still navigating this one myself! thanks Bonito! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
satinkira 5863 Share Posted January 5, 2023 the server isn't advertised as a place to build a collective narrative. if it was, we'd likely get far better new players more interested in developing the story. instead.. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter 2469 Author Share Posted January 5, 2023 7 minutes ago, satinkira said: the server isn't advertised as a place to build a collective narrative. if it was, we'd likely get far better new players more interested in developing the story. instead.. Yeah, when writing this I had to refer to the community guidelines where it states Quote Together, we write a story. We write it in such a way that no single person owns a chapter, or even a full page. Gradually, as we discover more of this tale it reveals the exceptional appeal of our server: Thousands of people contributing verses to a grand narrative—simply by playing their own character. to make sure I wasn't about to outright and utterly contradict the server mission. Putting the "collaborative" side first in advertising would be a huge relief to me, for one. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xarkly 12601 Share Posted January 7, 2023 On 1/5/2023 at 10:36 PM, satinkira said: the server isn't advertised as a place to build a collective narrative. if it was, we'd likely get far better new players more interested in developing the story. instead.. I don't think our mission statement as any bearing on the quality of new players, nor is this necessarily incorrect, it's just promoting the freedom aspect of LotC's RP, which is definitely one of the server's most marketable traits. Ultimately, it's essential to remember that most people who come onto the server as noobs are young people who will have to go through the usual growing pains. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
puffables 1125 Share Posted January 8, 2023 this post is wonderful and so are you critter ; now as a collective we gotta prioritise not only recognising the bleed but countering it actively. last thing i wanna see is people going 'so true so based!' and then immediately reptile-brain returning to exactly the mentality they had before as soon as they encounter mild inconvenience. think we can all say we're guilty of reading some good advice on good rp but spur-of-the-moment discarding it when we feel spited by others not taking such good faith; first step to changing community attitude is, even when encountered by bad faith, allow it - can rly make an impact on not only you (might feel like it sucks, letting 'some upstart newbie powergamer play-to-win self-insert' inconvenience your mighty lvl100 grizzled soldier-mage , but trust me - situations with some element of loss is fun rp, and really forces you to engage more with the story being built!! winning always doesn't let you incorporate actual character into your character, its setbacks that do so.) but also the other player. when other players encounter good-faith rp, especially in the long-run it encourages them to also participate in good-faith rp by creating an atmosphere of such. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter 2469 Author Share Posted January 9, 2023 On 1/8/2023 at 10:01 AM, puffables said: ....first step to changing community attitude is, even when encountered by bad faith, allow it - can rly make an impact on not only you (might feel like it sucks, letting 'some upstart newbie powergamer play-to-win self-insert' inconvenience your mighty lvl100 grizzled soldier-mage , but trust me - situations with some element of loss is fun rp, and really forces you to engage more with the story being built!! winning always doesn't let you incorporate actual character into your character, its setbacks that do so.) but also the other player. when other players encounter good-faith rp, especially in the long-run it encourages them to also participate in good-faith rp by creating an atmosphere of such. this is absolute gospel truth. asking lotc players to be willing to lose is not my effort to ask them to stop having fun; it's to begin a deeper process that enables us all to have better, more consistent fun, and to share that fun with others thank you Puffables for this addition 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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