---

Rule number one for good roleplayers: You are NOT your character. You and
your character are two separate entities. However, you have a close
partnership, in which you have the sole power. In order for this to work you
must respect your character, you must distinguish between his (for ease I
will refer to player and character as male) motives and your own. Too often
it happens that the player takes upon him self the objects and obligations
of his character. The intentions are of course only the best, but the result
is the non-existence of the character. You must divide the tasks between
you, for once you abandon your tasks to do your character's in stead, it
ceases to be roleplaying.
It is tempting to take upon you the tasks of your character. They are simple
and egocentric, and success is easily measured. His tasks are merely to
survive and achieve goals chosen by him self. Your task as a roleplayer is
far more complicated and utilitarian, it is to create your character. If you
do not create him, he does not exist. Unlike you he does not exist in him
self or for him self. But you can create him so that he exists in you and
for you. Further more, you can create him so that he exists in and for your
fellow roleplayers. This is your task as a roleplayer.
I have six guidelines that I use to evaluate the success of roleplaying.
They are slightly overlapping, but useful none the less. The first is Focus.
Focus means that you create your character for your self and imagine him in
his situation. This means paying attention to the other people that take
part in the game and not doing unrelated things.
The second is Participation, here you establish your character as an agent
in the world in which he takes part. Now he exists not only for you, but
also for your fellow players as part of a joint fantasy. Entailing
Participation is Persona. Here your character's beliefs and desires shape
his actions. Your fellow players see the persona of your character reflected
by his actions and utterings. The character comes alive and you have a role
to play.
Fourth, Act in Character, is often the place it slips. Even with a fully
developed character, the player can fail to Act in Character. The player
will too often bypass his character and try to pursuit the character's goals
for him. The most common mistakes like this is in information gathering and
decision making. In stead of leading a conversation with between characters
the players debate between them selves and often using game terms and
speaking about their character in third person. Another common mistake is to
simply ask for information in stead of saying what the character does to
gain it. In this category I will also place the lack of communication
between characters that happens when a character suddenly wanders off to do
something that his player has described, without saying a word to the other
characters.
The fifth guideline is to Uphold Restrictions, this simply means that the
player does not share restricted knowledge with his character. The character
does not know how many how strong a monster is just because the player
knows. And the character does not have information given to another
character even though the player overheard it. It also means that a
character cannot give advice while gagged, unconscious or miles away.
The last guideline to blow life into the roleplaying is Response. This means
simply that the character responds, in character and role, to the world
around him. If something smells he might ask if anyone else notices. If
someone acts weird he might ask why and if it is hot he might take off his
hat. No matter what, he responds to the world around him and thereby becomes
a believable part of it.

---

Disse engelske betragtninger kan umiddelbart virke fornuftige, men de er
overhoved ikke universelle. Man kan spille sin figur på mange andre måde, og
med lige så stor ret.



Se f.eks. dette uddrag fra min rollespils ordbog:



"Stance. Den "beslutningstilstand" som en spiller er i når han styrer sin
figur. Teorien kan bedst illustreres med et eksempel.

En figur opdager, at en forstander på et københavnsk plejehjem i
virkeligheden er en vampyr, der suger blod fra de sagesløse beboere.

1) Actor stance reaktion: spilleren vurdere hvad hans figur
logisk/følelsesmæssigt ville gøre, og gør det. "Min figur er dybt rystet, og
flygter ud af landet. Fra Kastrup lufthavn ringer han anonymt til politiet."

2) Author stance reaktion: spilleren vurdere hvad der er godt for
historien, og lader sin figur handle derefter. "Min figur tror ikke helt på
det. Han tager en gammel lygte og tager ud til plejehjemmet, en mørk og
stormfuld nat, for at undersøge det nærmere."

3) Pawn stance reaktion: spilleren finder en løsning, og bruger sin
figur til at føre den ud i livet. "Min figur bryder ind i en kirke, og
stjæler en masse vievand. Så laver han en armbrøst der skyder med træspyd,
og tager hen til plejehjemmet på en solskinsdag."

Betydningen af denne teori er at visse stances ikke egner sig til visse
spil; et gyserspil kræver at spillerne bruger Author stance, for at holde
spillet i gang; Dungeon Crawl giver oftest kun mening i Pawn stance."



Hilsen Mads

http://dk.groups.yahoo.com/group/rollespildk/

"Kim" <kimoj2000@tdcspace.dk> skrev i en meddelelse
news:3e80341c$0$52089$edfadb0f@dread16.news.tele.dk...