Importance of Characters

[SeanFrank]

If your players are haveing a problem with actually narrating( I don't know how to qoute yet, but the spot 17 roll followed by a buch of blank, blank) I suggest trying the game Pantheon by Robin Laws. If I'm remembering correctly it's powered by "The Narrative CageMatch" system where each player goes around in a circle adding a sentence to the story.There is no GM. The only rules are for when players disagree, because sentances like "bobby is strangled to death while I watch" are part of the game, and bobby's player might not want his character to die just yet. There's even points awared at the end of the game for players who stick to the cliches of the genre your playing in. Beer and prerzels yes, but a great way to train your players how to narrate.

SeanFrank[/quote]

[Ian Charvill]

The players all know this, at least I've told it to them several times. But they rarely take advantage of it. Perhaps it's my approach. I could be overloading them. But situations have occured where a player has rolled a die and said "I got a Spot of 17" and I've replied "Tell me what you see." Blank.

"What is it that you're looking for?"

Blank.

The problem here may simply be that you're giving to little definition to the freedom.  Say, I as a player don't know what will cost me a hero/drama point to invent - and I don't at this point want to spend a drama/hero point - I'm going to be loathe to invent anything because of what it might cost me.

If the players are out and out happy inventing stuff but their ability to invent is tied to an finite resource and they have no clear control over how much of that resource is spent then they may soon stop being out and out happy.

And in the early stages of inprov a single botched attempt - something that costs that they didn't expect to, or that produces a complication they're not happy with - will be enough to stifle future improv attempts.

I'm aware of just how much of all of this is just speculation w/r/t your group but it certainly applies to attempts to encourage this sort of gaming in the past in groups I've been a member of.

[DP]

Dr. Dave is compelled to add his own prescription for Scripty.

Take a sauna/cold swim approach: go full-on Sim with SLA Industries. Bathe in blood. It's a fun game. After several good sessions, have a character generation session for Ars Magica, and ask that everyone "roleplay as their characters." Create characters and covenant.

It will open the pores.

[johnzo]

For me, the root of character drama is choice.  What happens when you give your players multiple legitimate paths, each with their own pitfalls and blessings?  For example, maybe you could give your characters three bosses--say, a bishop, a King, and a guildmaster.  Make their bosses' happiness mutually exclusive, or, at least, make the intersection of their bosses' happiness really hard to find--and then see what happens.

Another thing that might help you is playing with name characters from a character-driven TV show, like Buffy or Farscape or even the Sopranos, in a sample game.  If the players are involved enough in the show to want to recreate the character faithfully, they'll have a great example to follow.

Hope this helps--

zo.