Post by Hank McCoy on Jul 30, 2006 17:29:50 GMT -4
((Okay really this is about Breaking In as a new character. I just put the other thing to get your attention. This was written for inclusion into my second Junk thread...but once I saw the size of it and anticipated (hoped, really) for comments and discussion I thought I'd give it its own little space to play in. If people are nice and join in it will be taken into account on Bikini Day. You others have been warned. ))
Back to Adam's comment about breaking in. Again, I completely agree. Since this is my soapbox I'm going to expend a little time talking about it. If you just like the pictures, you can skip this part and nobody will be hurt.
There are several different problems and cliche's we deal with in the introduction of new characters - canon or not.
First: a fair percentage of existing characters have difficulty integrating into a normal public setting. Myself included, Beast isn't the kind of person you'd meet at the bar or the mall or the hospital. Even if you saw him...or Nightcrawler....or Guido....or a handful of others they'd be drawing crowds of either admirers or haters. So an open tag in some open, public area generally eliminates these characters from interacting right up front. That's one reason it's often the same people who end up being in all of the new character scenes. That, it may be astonishing to learn, gets really old....really fast.
Second, new characters very often try the "let's show up on their doorstep and let THEM deal with ME". Well...it works...sort of....but after all this time it's becoming less and less interesting. In the case of the Acolytes/Brotherhood their base is SECRET..! People don't just stumble into it and if they do know where it is chances are pretty good it'll piss somebody off.
I've made the comment a few times with new folks that they should start their story and let one of US find THEM. Truthfully...if you don't have some kind of ongoing life in mind for your OC (or canon character for that matter) then we don't either and getting involved with that person is, by necessity, some derivative of the two approaches above. (i.e. I show up where you are, or you show up where I am.)
In Beast's case, I opted for an "I've always been here" approach and made my excuse for his arrival as one of returning home. That gave me the benefit of having (at least in Beast's mind) established relationships I didn't have to go through the awkward introduction phase with. "Well, that's all fine for Beast but it won't work for an OC", you say. I disagree. The myriad of possibilities the structure of our playground allows for means that virtually all options are open. And many have figured this out. Both canon and non-canon players have become pretty comfortable with the "this is not the universe I remember" idea and play it really well. The point about that is that my character knew things and people that made it easier for me to start playing instead of trying to get all of the exposition out of the way.
If I was starting a new Original Character, I wouldn't expect to stumble upon other mutants or go looking for them. I'd do it like the comics do it. I'd establish my life...my family...the place I work or go to school or whatever it is I normally do...and I'd *have something happen to me*. Maybe I manifest my powers for the first time and blow the crap out of a city bus or something. Maybe I invent something perceived as either useful or a threat. That gets me wanted by the police or interviewed on the news....
...or chased by Sentinels...
...and that event makes the people in the game come looking for me.
You can't just be "in" the story. Be a part of it. And before you say "yeah, well *you* have it easy....you play someone written for you and I have to make this stuff up" let me tell you a little secret.... Or maybe it isn't.
I play an Original Character. Right here. And I've done a fair amount of work with a couple of others to make theirs seem more like canon characters along the way. Sometimes, I think people assume that they *are* canon characters. But that's because they did the hard part first...they created something that gave me and others ideas we could work with. And having a backstory lets you draw from elements in it without having to roleplay every detail in order to explain it. It also lets you have mystery - which is a plus if it makes somebody actually want to read what you're writing.
Couple of examples. Callie dropped a character here she'd played elsewhere...found a couple of accomplices...kept playing as though everything *else* was what was weird and not her...and she's now tied into the story all over the place. Christine (at least in her first incarnation) built in a connection to a supporting canon figure that made her presence have a surprising amount of credibility right from the start. Wanda clearly has something up her sleeve even though I still don't know precisely what it is. These are examples (2 OCs, 1 canon) I'd take to heart if I was trying to learn.
Back to Adam's comment about breaking in. Again, I completely agree. Since this is my soapbox I'm going to expend a little time talking about it. If you just like the pictures, you can skip this part and nobody will be hurt.
There are several different problems and cliche's we deal with in the introduction of new characters - canon or not.
First: a fair percentage of existing characters have difficulty integrating into a normal public setting. Myself included, Beast isn't the kind of person you'd meet at the bar or the mall or the hospital. Even if you saw him...or Nightcrawler....or Guido....or a handful of others they'd be drawing crowds of either admirers or haters. So an open tag in some open, public area generally eliminates these characters from interacting right up front. That's one reason it's often the same people who end up being in all of the new character scenes. That, it may be astonishing to learn, gets really old....really fast.
Second, new characters very often try the "let's show up on their doorstep and let THEM deal with ME". Well...it works...sort of....but after all this time it's becoming less and less interesting. In the case of the Acolytes/Brotherhood their base is SECRET..! People don't just stumble into it and if they do know where it is chances are pretty good it'll piss somebody off.
I've made the comment a few times with new folks that they should start their story and let one of US find THEM. Truthfully...if you don't have some kind of ongoing life in mind for your OC (or canon character for that matter) then we don't either and getting involved with that person is, by necessity, some derivative of the two approaches above. (i.e. I show up where you are, or you show up where I am.)
In Beast's case, I opted for an "I've always been here" approach and made my excuse for his arrival as one of returning home. That gave me the benefit of having (at least in Beast's mind) established relationships I didn't have to go through the awkward introduction phase with. "Well, that's all fine for Beast but it won't work for an OC", you say. I disagree. The myriad of possibilities the structure of our playground allows for means that virtually all options are open. And many have figured this out. Both canon and non-canon players have become pretty comfortable with the "this is not the universe I remember" idea and play it really well. The point about that is that my character knew things and people that made it easier for me to start playing instead of trying to get all of the exposition out of the way.
If I was starting a new Original Character, I wouldn't expect to stumble upon other mutants or go looking for them. I'd do it like the comics do it. I'd establish my life...my family...the place I work or go to school or whatever it is I normally do...and I'd *have something happen to me*. Maybe I manifest my powers for the first time and blow the crap out of a city bus or something. Maybe I invent something perceived as either useful or a threat. That gets me wanted by the police or interviewed on the news....
...or chased by Sentinels...
...and that event makes the people in the game come looking for me.
You can't just be "in" the story. Be a part of it. And before you say "yeah, well *you* have it easy....you play someone written for you and I have to make this stuff up" let me tell you a little secret.... Or maybe it isn't.
I play an Original Character. Right here. And I've done a fair amount of work with a couple of others to make theirs seem more like canon characters along the way. Sometimes, I think people assume that they *are* canon characters. But that's because they did the hard part first...they created something that gave me and others ideas we could work with. And having a backstory lets you draw from elements in it without having to roleplay every detail in order to explain it. It also lets you have mystery - which is a plus if it makes somebody actually want to read what you're writing.
Couple of examples. Callie dropped a character here she'd played elsewhere...found a couple of accomplices...kept playing as though everything *else* was what was weird and not her...and she's now tied into the story all over the place. Christine (at least in her first incarnation) built in a connection to a supporting canon figure that made her presence have a surprising amount of credibility right from the start. Wanda clearly has something up her sleeve even though I still don't know precisely what it is. These are examples (2 OCs, 1 canon) I'd take to heart if I was trying to learn.