Finding Your Voice

[SlurpeeMoney]

Over the course of the last few days, I've been talking to my group about kicking our games up a notch or two. By this, I mean utilizing more of the story telling tools available to us (typically, we keep it with Narration and Dialogue with me, the Other/GM/Ref, throwing in spats of half-hearted Description and a few key actions). They've been receptive to it, and I'm loving that they want to become better role-players, but I'm having some difficulty in slowly incorporating it into our gaming; I don't want to have everyone completely uncomfortable, having stepped out of their comfort zones too far too fast.

The problem, I think, is my "voice." Over the many years that I've been a Game Master, I have developed a style of play that emphasizes Narration and Dialogue, to the exclusion of everything else. Now, as I am trying to build my role-playing repertoire, to step out of my "bubble," I am trying to change that voice, and the voice is somewhat resistant to change.

And it is not just myself. I can see it in everyone. One player in particular has been trying very valiantly to change his voice to little or no effect, and I can see that it is frustrating him to no end. He wants to be a better gamer, much as I always strive to be a better Game Master, but without simply jumping in head-first, I can't really see how we can change our voices in our gaming sessions perceptably while "keeping it real."

Some background information:
My games are very fast and loose, involving much more improvisation than planning, as my players will throw me for a loop regardless of what I have planned. I go with the flow as much as possible, while keeping some structure to the story, and all of my players are used to this style. I taught every one of them how to play, so the majority of their session have been in my style. My group is evenly dispersed between men and women, with the women being occasionally dominant. We've decided to step it up, not really for artistic reasons, but only because we feel it would add something to the game.

How does one find one's Voice? Where does it come from? How can one change it?

SlurpeeMoney
"I have an accent. I'm Canadian. Eh."

[Paul Czege]

Hi,

One player in particular has been trying very valiantly to change his voice to little or no effect, and I can see that it is frustrating him to no end.

Can you provide a little more detail on this player? What is his traditional style? And what is he trying and failing at?

Paul

[SlurpeeMoney]

Tyson is a very strong tacticle player, with a spotlight addiction and a quick-fire attitude toward role-playing. He's a munchkin. He cheats. He usually doesn't give one whit about the story, as long as his character comes out on top in the end. He's been trying to change that for a very long time, with minimal effect. He's become more story-oriented, and has tried to get in touch with his character rather than his character's combat skills, both of which have been relatively successful. His trouble stems from the same source as mine: expanding his range and incorporating something new gradually.

If he'd stop cheating, too, I would likely die from complications of mental shock.

SlurpeeMoney
"Story? What story?"

[wicked_knight]

His trouble stems from the same source as mine: expanding his range and incorporating something new gradually.

Then why not do it all at once instead of gradually?

I seem to get the implication from your statements that these changes you are attempting are being done in the context of an existing game and/or game system.

I'm fairly new to the board myself but from what I understand from the theory sections is that different game mechanics induce different style of games. You may want to find a game that doesn't even have the mechanics to support a munchkin and try it out  as a one shot alternative. sorta "hey lets try this for a game or two to get the feel of it".

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

One possible solution is to try a radically different game for a little while, if everyone can get behind the idea of "Hey, let's really do something weird for a bit."

Top picks would be, I think:

InSpectres, My Life with Master, The Questing Beast, The Greak Ork Gods, kill puppies for satan, Soap, and Dread. All of these are superior for "getting the gaming job done" without all kinds of stumbling blocks, and most especially for establishing strong connections among the actual, real people during play. Although it is currently still rough and should probably wait for more author playtesting, the recent game design The Mountain Witch deserves a look too.

I don't suggest Legends of Alyria, The Riddle of Steel, Violence Future, or Trollbabe, because these rely heavily on tropes from source literature and underground pop culture - and people who are used to "gaming fantasy" or "gaming cyberpunk" might have a little trouble with that. Nor do I suggest Dust Devils or Sorcerer, both of which have a pretty heavy aesthetic buy-in factor.

By a little while, I suggest about three sessions or so. None of the games I recommended are very easy to predict in terms of sessions, so you might end up intending five and getting two, or vice versa. But the point is that they are very easy-entry, very high-bang per time unit of play, and overall have a kind of ... "hey, this is easy and fun" feel that is often quite a surprise to role-players.

And boy do they encourage new voices, in (as far as I can tell) exactly the sense you're talking about.

Best,
Ron

[contracycle]

If he'd stop cheating, too, I would likely die from complications of mental shock.

What precisely do you mean by "cheating"?  What sort of actual behaviour are you describing?  This might be an interesting diagnostic point.

[Peter Hollinghurst]

I hope I am understanding at least part of what you trying to achieve-though the use of the word 'voice' can mean different things to different people. Some of the player you mentions problem seems to be one of not making a distinction between the self as a player, and the role of a character being played. If you play 'yourself' heavily, your own motivation tends towards 'success' in the game for yourself instead of the 'success' of the story/adventure in a traditional story sense. Hence the cheating-the player plays to 'win' because they are focused on conventional game playing objectives, not story. There are pros and cons of that-some of the best rpg games I have played in have had that mentality, while others have been highly story-orientated.
If you want to get into a story/character mode more I do have a slightly bizarre suggestion though. Try going out to a shopping mall or similar busy place together, hang about a bit, look at the people around you and try and invent their story. Who might they be? Do they have a secret? What might they do next? I used to play this when I was bored sometimes-usually with a 'spot the spy' twist where I would try and see who made the most likely spy, what country they worked for, and what their mission was. Try finding characters in them that relate to whatever game you are playing. Then go somewhere else (its disconcerting for people to do it there and then) and note down anything you recall about them-especially anything distinctive and any obvious mannerisms you observed. Then play the most interesting person as your next character. Try to adopt their mannerisms as you play every now and again-and focus on the game as their story, one in which you are trying to discover what they would do next. You might be suprised by the results. It does get easier with practice btw.

As I said-I may have misunderstood your main objectives, but it should help a bit with changing focus away from self/cheating toward character/story.

[SlurpeeMoney]

Tye does have a lot of problems as a player, first and foremost. By cheating I mean that he likes to hide his dice or roll when I'm not looking and has been able to make every critical roll he's had to make since I've met him. The only time he fails a roll is when he is obviously tired of a character and wants said character to die so he can make a new one (I've disallowed arbitrary character-switches, which had been a continuous problem previous).

His bad habits as a gamer, though, are less important to me than the way we all play. Sometimes, it seems as though our gaming sessions would read like one of those horrible "Example of Play" segments in a game's rule-book. He's simply the player most into changing our style, which is why I mentioned him in specific.

By voice I mean, I suppose "the style in which we play, and the level of narrative involvement." As I've said, we utilize Exposition and Dialogue quite heavilly, with a small emphasis on Description and Action from myself as the Game Master. I want to improve on this, add to it, and not have everyone feel horribly uncomfortable and exposed. We all agree, we want to make it more descriptive, more immersive and more entertaining, we just want to take it in small steps so that everyone can be comfortable.

I will, however, try to change up games and see if changing the rules, system and setting really has that much of a change on our style; it hasn't previously, but we'll see what happens with some of your suggestions.

Thanks for the advice!

Kris
"Mmmm. Chicken."

[contracycle]

Tye does have a lot of problems as a player, first and foremost. By cheating I mean that he likes to hide his dice or roll when I'm not looking and has been able to make every critical roll he's had to make since I've met him. The only time he fails a roll is when he is obviously tired of a character and wants said character to die so he can make a new one (I've disallowed arbitrary character-switches, which had been a continuous problem previous).

OK.  Possibly, this is a sort of fear of the dreaded whiff-factor, i.e. discovering your super cool ninja fails to throw shuriken one time in 3 sucks.  It might be worth trying as high karma system for this player and opbserving whether or not the cheating changes or goes away.  If the player is more confident of being able to carry out their special role the problem might go away.