Casting in Role-Playing

[Le Joueur]

I've been attached to the statement, "characters aren't real, they can't have motivations."  I plead not guilty!

What I have said time and again is 'characters aren't real, they can't have motivations all their own.'  Walt pretty much laid it out in very clear detail.  A character doesn't have anything resembling motivation until you pick it up and play it; even then the actual motivation is 'to do what would motivate the character.'

Basically, thinking that characters have motivations when you leave the room is psychosis.

Following 'character motivations' is always at the descretion of the player, often this follows the line between Author Stance and Actor Stance, but not always.  Without acknowledging this descretion, you begin including schizoid behaviour as role-playing gaming.  I know it's a fine point, but important and central to what I'm being cited for.

Please...return to your regularly scheduled discussion.

Fang Langford

[MoonHunter]

This definetly falls in the "rules can't cover everything perfectly category. I think we, as game designers, give advice on the subject and even provide bits of technology to help the GM, but in the end, it really has to be the GM, working with the rest of the troupe, that does any scripting.  This can range from the GM saying, "I need a fighter, a mage, and someone of high social standing, to make this campaign work," to "Okay John I need you to write up a classic swashbuckler prince, George could you recycle Jazmine into this game, Martin you always play great Elves, so if you could... great... and so on). Some troupes just cast themselves because they have played with each other for so long, without GM intervention.  It is all dependent on the troupe.  So why we can give advice, it is, like so many things in a game, up to the GM and the troupe to work it.  

With that said, I use a somewhat mechanical system in casting, which I do tailor to the troupe playing. [ This system is currently in the game tips at www.openroleplaying.org and in Continumn/ Convergence Point].

When I create a campaign I create two kinds of cards: Role Cards and Bit cards. Role cards have specific roles (archetypes, social positions, and sometimes the actual character) that fit the campaign. Bit cards are filled with skills, advantages, disadvantages, and direction on how to play the character (you are in love with X and so on). Each card is put in an envelope with a basic title on the front. First the role cards are put out and players can discuss who wants which one. After each player has one role card, the bit cards can be put out. The players can select one or more bit cards. The envelope can be traded between until the time it is opened.  

Role Cards: When you create a campaign you often know that certain types are going to be helpful. Those types are set up on a role card, defining a role for the game. It comes with all the details (and their corresponding game mechanics) that have to be incorporated into the character. Some parts are conceptual (You are the knight of the Realm, 2nd son) or vague (Fighter class), or specific (take 2nd son disadvantage, Black sheep disadvantage, or CHA 18 no roll required). The cards are normally positive in nature. It is advantageous to take the role. The role cards are sealed in envelopes with vague listings on their front. They are looked over, selected, traded for, etc. Once you open the envelope, you must make your character using the details from the role card. (In random generation games, the pertinant rolls become what the card states automatically.)  If you choose not to have a role card, you take your chances of being the odd character out and being underinvolved in the campaign.  

Bit cards: These are small elements of skills, edges, and flaws that may be helpful to have in the campaign. These are packages like Belongs to school of fencing (skill points in fencing, but requires you to take the scar and nemesis flaw), belongs to school of fencing (a few skill points in fencing, some important contacts, and three nemesis.), and so on. Again they are sealed in an envelope. The title is listed on the top. Every player must take one of them. They may take additional ones as well. They can be traded for before they are opened. You make your character, then apply the bits.  

Again, the cards I would generate for my troupe in playing a certain campaign, would be a bit different than what you should generate for your troupe playing the same campaign.  You have to tailor any campaign to the troupe's taste. If you don't, no matter how brilliant the story and how much you work on the campaign, they might not like it.

[yellow_skeleton]

Heya,

For quite some time our gaming group has been aware of actively practising casting ....

- Joachim Buchert -

Our playing group has had this issue as well.  I have found an interesting way to solve it.  The answer, in a word, is FILTER.

Filter the NPCs reactions.  Filter the cross dialogue to the other players.  Filter the results of the players actions based on what the character did, not what the player did.

Perhaps an example will help clarify.    I recently ran a story called Freak Show.  In it, a character called Rat-Boy was hideous to look at and difficult to understand (he even had a tail).  However, the player was well versed at negotiation and subterfuge.  So a scene might go something like this:

Rat-Boy:  I walk up to the store and ask to buy some popcorn.
Woman at counter [horrified]: stands numbly without answering
Rat-Boy:  The usual price is 50 cents, but I only have forty.  Will she take forty?
Me:  The woman screems when you reach out your hand with money.
And so on.

If the player refuses or is unable to play in character, I instead convert their out of characterness to obliviousness of their own situation.  In other words, even though the player is out of character, the character is not.

This also works very well if a character is under some kind of mind altering spell.

-Colin