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labcats2008-10-01 10:18 am
drcpunk.livejournal.com) wrote in labcats2008-10-01 10:18 am
Wow! Praising White Wolf Writing
When I first started reading the original Vampire: The Masquerade, first edition, which I still own, I soundly mocked a lot of the prose. This continued to be part of my love / hate relationship with White Wolf's World of Darkness. I think, for me, at least, the worst offender was a section from the prologue to both first and second editions of Changeling: The Dreaming. (Yep. Looking up my old review on rpg.net, I see that I was not the only one mocking the prose.)
Last night, I read a section of Equinox Road, for Changeling: The Lost, blinked, then read it aloud to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mnemex, who started nodding vigourously in agreement.
From page 58 of Equinox Road:
Epic, disastrous things immediately inspire visions of and fragmentary scenes, but a story is more than an image of dragons lumbering up Miami Beach, of Fae gods turning skyscrapers into huge trees, or changelings uttering the secret words that bind the Wyrd. The worst thing you can do is confuse these impressions for developed stories, use brute force to make the scenes happen and hope that some rationale will stitch them into a good story. Epic stories often fail because this thought process worms its way in. Players talk about fighting an aerial battle on gryphon-back to defeat the army of Fimbulwinter, armed with oaths the rot-elves have beaten into weapons of power. They get pumped up ready to play -- but for some reason; the chronicles that actually work tend to be a lot humbler. Why is this? Why can't enthusiasm alone carry your epic aspirations?
Hype is exciting but it isn't play. If you build a story by boosting the extreme side of the game and brain-storming half-finished scenes, you're doing the opposite of designing a chronicle. In a roleplaying game the rules, setting and protagonist are all tools that create a narrative during play. But enthusiastic speculation creates the story first and expects game play to catch up, falling into place to produce what the players demand. So it's no surprise that when the big moment comes, groups struggle with the vast, epic edifice they've created in their imaginations. It intimidates the Storyteller and makes players anxious about character portrayal.
You can build an epic, but you have to do it by playing the game. Your time at the table is the epic -- it leads the story. This is what makes roleplaying a distinct activity. Instead of passively witnessing the build-up, make it happen through the medium of your changelings, your World of Darkness and the themes you've put at the heart of your chronicle.
--------
Wow. An explication of "no play before playing" in a White Wolf book!
Mind, there is a certain paradox of gaming, both on the player and on the gm level as far as prep work goes and avoiding play before playing, but that is a subject for a different post. Right now, I'm grinning in delight at how far we've all come.
Last night, I read a section of Equinox Road, for Changeling: The Lost, blinked, then read it aloud to
mnemex, who started nodding vigourously in agreement.From page 58 of Equinox Road:
Epic, disastrous things immediately inspire visions of and fragmentary scenes, but a story is more than an image of dragons lumbering up Miami Beach, of Fae gods turning skyscrapers into huge trees, or changelings uttering the secret words that bind the Wyrd. The worst thing you can do is confuse these impressions for developed stories, use brute force to make the scenes happen and hope that some rationale will stitch them into a good story. Epic stories often fail because this thought process worms its way in. Players talk about fighting an aerial battle on gryphon-back to defeat the army of Fimbulwinter, armed with oaths the rot-elves have beaten into weapons of power. They get pumped up ready to play -- but for some reason; the chronicles that actually work tend to be a lot humbler. Why is this? Why can't enthusiasm alone carry your epic aspirations?
Hype is exciting but it isn't play. If you build a story by boosting the extreme side of the game and brain-storming half-finished scenes, you're doing the opposite of designing a chronicle. In a roleplaying game the rules, setting and protagonist are all tools that create a narrative during play. But enthusiastic speculation creates the story first and expects game play to catch up, falling into place to produce what the players demand. So it's no surprise that when the big moment comes, groups struggle with the vast, epic edifice they've created in their imaginations. It intimidates the Storyteller and makes players anxious about character portrayal.
You can build an epic, but you have to do it by playing the game. Your time at the table is the epic -- it leads the story. This is what makes roleplaying a distinct activity. Instead of passively witnessing the build-up, make it happen through the medium of your changelings, your World of Darkness and the themes you've put at the heart of your chronicle.
--------
Wow. An explication of "no play before playing" in a White Wolf book!
Mind, there is a certain paradox of gaming, both on the player and on the gm level as far as prep work goes and avoiding play before playing, but that is a subject for a different post. Right now, I'm grinning in delight at how far we've all come.