Re: Lethality of events

On May 8, 9:48 am, Ben Finney <bignose+hates-s...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> Will in New Haven <bill.re...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>
> > Having done all three, I would say that roleplaying in a game is
> > closer to improv than either is to acting in a play, although all
> > are related.
>
> I haven't done all three, but your comparison sounds true enough to
> me.
>
> > Another activity that resembles acting in a play is acting as an
> > Semi- Player-Character Iothers would just call it an NPC) in the
> > service of the plot. I have done this for friends who run LARPs. I
> > am GIVEN the character's motivations and capabilities and I then act
> > out his part, using my own dialogue. Usually I play a murderous
> > bastard who usually meets a bad end. I quite enjoy the whole thing,
> > including the bad end.
>
> Thanks for the data point. It does seem to sup****t the notion that one
> can ****tray a character most people here would consider "evil" without
> one's morality necessarily being involved or affected.

However, neither actors nor people playing NPCs _choose_ their evil
actions. It is true that I could have, for instance, said "Oh, no, I
couldn't play that sneaky bastard. Let me play some bland guy with one
line rather than the most interesting villain in Shakespeare" and
perhaps my willingness to play Iago has had some long-lasting harmful
influence on my old battered soul. However, playing a character that
says "let's gang-bang the serving maid; she can't do anything about
it" reflects on the player much more, in my opinion, than playing a
thug in a film or play. And this is true whether the serving maid is a
PC or an NPC.

Saying that I don't like it does not mean that I want to pass
legislation against it. It might not even mean that I would never play
with that player. Although it does in this case, there are plenty of
other things I don't like that I don't believe are so bad that I
wouldn't play with the player.

Will in New Haven

--


>
> --
>  \         "I still have my Christmas Tree. I looked at it today. Sure |
>   `\            enough, I couldn't see any forests."  -- Steven Wright |
> _o__)                                                                  |
> Ben Finney