[Flash In The Pan] Lyric-Based Character Creation?

[Lxndr]

Okay, now THAT sounds cool.

They have more lyrics they CAN use, but they're still only able to use a certain limited # during any session (barring some sort of mechanical "track change").

I like.  :)

[Chris Capps]

Ok, so I finally have the mechanic for Flash In The Pan. Until now, it's just seemed like any other RPG, with lyrics instead of Traits, but I finally realized how I can really bring the idea of exploring Archetypes into fruition.

Each player will create an archetype, that will carry on from session to session, which will have a master list of lyrics. These are general archetypes, with no personality, name, or emotion.

Example:

The Martyr

1. "Fall in love to fail, to boost your CD sales."
2. "My actions are orchestrated from above."
3. "You should know that I won't let you die."
4. "Cut that little child inside of me, and such a part of you."
5. "Won't you hold me now? I will not bend, I will not break."

Each gaming session, this player will play The Martyr, but every session it'll be a different martyr. The GM will create a new setting, and the player will make a name and history for his character, and pick (3?) of his lyrics to apply to the  character.

So, if today's gaming session is talking place in Victorian Europe, the character might be a middle class merchant's son, who is having a secret relationship with a baron's daughter. She just sees him as a fling, but he's become obsessed with her, and will do literally anything to be closer to her. The player might pick lyrics 1, 4, and 5 to represent this character. The next gaming session, the player will play a completely different character in a different setting, but still a Martyr.

Maybe, after each gaming session the players can add another lyric to their pool, to represent their exploration of the Archetype?

[Lxndr]

Sounds pretty danged cool.  I'd buy the game for something like this.

But I think even "the Martyr" is too much of a name for the archetype/template.  The exploration of the character's theme through the adding of lyrics can take on many forms, not all of them necessarily easily labelled (or WANTING to be labeled).  Heck, take 2,3, and 5 of your initial list, and you've created not so much a martyr as a holy warrior, or at least it could be interpreted that way.

Another possible idea (perhaps just as an optional rule):  switch the archetypes around.  Players MUST play a different archetype (or collection of lyrics) each session, and must go through the whole list before they go back to the first one again.  At the end of each session, the player CURRENTLY using the archetype gets to add a new lyric to it.  But someone else will use the archetype in the next session (the order in which they get to choose is decided by die roll, I guess).  Thus each archetype eventually is molded through the combined efforts of all the players, and is not the property of any one player.

You could even, to run even farther into the "probably just optional rules" area, have more archetypes available than players... thus allowing for a different cast of archetypes for each session.

Either way, I like the whole "archetypes, not characters" method.  :)

[Tim C Koppang]

Just caught up with this thread.  Wanted to chime in and say that I've long been interested in games that combine pop music with roleplaying.  I think you're on to something with the archetype exploration.  For your game though, I'm not sure if I like the idea of playing a different character each session (not that it couldn't work).  But why not specify that characters are inherently multi-faceted.  In other words, players could create different personalities for different situations.  These of course would be linked to your different lyric choices.

I couple of years ago I came up with a game that used randomly played songs as the basis for scene framing.  You might be interested.  I called the game Theme Music, but it's far from playable.