Color-first character, part 2: Getting this far

[Ron Edwards]

Hi,

Any further discussion in this thread is OK, up to and including what the hell are you trying to say or anything similar. Before asking that, though, please take a look back over the questions and answers; there are about a hundred interesting points to follow up on.

However, to move forward, I'm also starting Part 3, which picks up with the next question in the sequence.

Best, Ron

[Joel P. Shempert]

This is coming in a little late but I wanted to take a crack at this before moving on, for my own benefit at the very least.

Is there information that must be provided by another person from this point forward? (And I don’t merely mean playing NPCs, I mean substantial Setting and System stuff, mainly, or anything like it.)  What is it?

Well, there's information that's already been provided by another person, whether the GM or the whole group or what: The basic setting premises, Humanity definition, descriptors and their relation to culture and background in the specific setting, and so on. I mention it only because it seems to tie into the topic of whether the character can be created (or played) in a vacuum. In this case not. I notice, even now, that I forgot to write in the Humanity definition the box--telling, I think, that even though I always had Humanity "in the back of my head" through the process, without the. . .feedback? oversight? of whole-group parameter-establishing as per Sorcerer, it's easy to let things like that fall by the wayside, be taken for granted, or left vague.

So anyway: The biggest thing on the front of the sheet is the Kicker. The GM must take what I write here and, with autonomous control, craft it into real, at-the-table, forward-motion Situation. Sure, a lot of that is merely "playing NPCs," but it's a very specific lever that sets play rolling downhill, that I can't do myself.

Other stuff: Destiny, at least in this case, implies a lot of stuff about Setting that the GM, an somewhat other Players, must bring forward. The Demon. . .maybe? It might just fall under "merely playing NPCs," but it seems like a big deal in terms of establishing a relationship dynamic that affects the course of the whole game. And there's Setting stuff in terms of 'what Demons are like" that the GM provides. Back of the sheet: this is a whole interlocking web of Setting and Situation that I must have other input on, both on Czege Principle terms, and because it's just too vast for me to bring into play all by my lonesome.

To develop this idea further, what are the underlying features of System and Setting that apply to any and all player-characters in the game, and what are the features that are highlighted by the options chosen for this character?

From the top: Humanity affects everyone in terms of the shared definition and its practical use. We all need to know the Humanity rules and their local application to play the game (Hmm, yet another thing we fell down on in Cascadiapunk!).

Descriptors and price are shared concerns only insomuch as multiple players have the same Descriptor: if there's another Savage-raised PC, then it concerns her very much what breadth and depth the Descriptor applies to stated actions and rolls. Not to mention the setting elements behind the Descriptors, such as what "Savage" cultures are like and so forth. Ditto Demons and their Abilities: Anyone with a parasite has to know what they do and how. Anyone whose Demon has old, frex, needs to know what it does and how.

Back of the Sheet: these elements affect other Players inasmuch as they share elements (such as relationships with a particular NPC) or are concerned with general concepts. In the latter case, for example, I wrote "faerie Wood" and "Harvest Moon" in my Lore section, implying that tose elements, and similar things, are important to Ritual. Therefore it informs anyone else doing Ritual, or encountering those elements ("It's a Harvest Moon tonight. Be wary of Fey Lights in the woods!").

I think that does it. Hope I got it all down!

Peace,
-Joel