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Dec 26, 2009, 9:20pm

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Chicago...Home of a population of over three million people. Despite what is known Chicago is not the only corrupt City; It is not the Second City; It is not even a distinctly solely American City. It was all those things once and maybe will be again. Chicago is Chicago. It has always had a strange affinity of death about it. It has always had its own elegance. A certain way that a hog butchered here was a 'Chicago' butchered hog. Its broad shouldered way of doing things was as distinctive as a Marshall Fields Gabardine over coat. But this last year death has come to roost in its winter home. The death toll skyrocketed as the value of both life and the dollar plummetted. Monsters roamed both the light of day and the darkest nights. Chicago's Underworld the vast nebulous entity that was as eponymous as an american made car in detroit took several major hits. The canvas had been torn. The Capo de Capo's of the family that held reign with an iron fist... sent to the next world in a blaze of glory. The beleagured and beset officers of Chicago's RPIT being threatened with Federal Intervention. Their numbers dwindled to a emaciated levels. The Lycanthropes scrabbling for cohesion while maintaining their anonymity. Losing their way beneath the weight of disappearances, debacles, and deaths. The Fae seeking a voice lost to their own machinations. All the while the Undead sit behind their ivory castles watching as the city broils like the runoff of a charnel house. Their is a plan afoot but will anyone survive the coming storms of winter. Welcome to Chicago... Arm yourself.

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Topic: Writeplaying where to begin... (Read 49 times)

Hieronymous
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Writeplaying where to begin...
« Thread Started on Apr 29, 2009, 11:09pm »

I have been a roleplayer most of my teen years and the entirety of my adult life. I only within the last two years fell upon the world of fanfiction and forum based writeplaying. I can't lie I was immediately hooked.

For years I had been a storyteller/GM/DM/Moderator or any number of epitaphs that describe the nerd behind the screen. I say so lovingly and with all due dread. As the man with a plan I was responsible for the every minutiae of the game world. Part and parcel of the role is in planning for almost every argument to your decisions and being able to explain why someones level ten spell fizzled. It is a and was a role that was hated as equally as much as it was loved. The GM has full and complete control but in truth is powerless. The GM can be undone by one single mistake a story chronicle or session that'd been planned for months can be derailed by one bad decision. One poor description and the fun of all can drop into negative numbers.

A GM must be adaptive as players can and do dig deep they find alternatives that short circuit the most well thought out schemes. That ability to improvise and stray from the mapped out storyline can be the most annoying feat any player can have. It is also the most rewarding out of everything a GM does. It is one if the reasons that I was so hooked on the idea of writeplaying.

I say writeplaying as what we do here is close to roleplaying but is so truly not. Writeplaying can be a mutually gratifying exchange of ideas. It doesn't always work out that way. But when it does my god it will send one to the heights of literary ecstasy. Reading the interplay between to writeplayers that have found a groove, a give and take, is like watching two lifetime dance partners choreograph a stage show. Or at times like two boxers mix it up in the center of the ring its a thing of beauty to behold. It needless to say can be moving all of its own just to read such an interplay let alone be apart of one.

However, as close to writeplaying is to roleplaying the differences are just as glaring at times. In roleplaying when being a player the only real and true concern is ones own storyline and how it fits into the wide broadcloth of the chronicle campaign or session. It is the cry of RPers everywhere that they are "Staying true to the character." This of course usually though not always is in response to the GM rolling their eyes or some other sign asking "how on earth could you do such and such?" I have found that during RPing no matter how much group or cast time a player has that at the end of the day each player wants their time in the spotlight. The thief wants their locks to pick. The assassin their marks to snipe coolly or poison. The warrior their battles and the politician their turn to wax philosophic. It is the Gm's responsibility to give each character their turn in the spotlight. To balance the disparate personalities.

Many of you that come to the board understand the basis of this some of you don't. It is truly just build up to the point of this scattered essay.

Writers don't have such concerns. They are the arbiters of their characters fate from beginning to end. They control what is and what isn't important to their characters. What bit of knowledge their character will or won't use. To simplify writers tend to have grown accustomed to roleplaying and GMing themselves. Thats fine and good and can lead to some really inspired scenes.
The level of control that a writer has over their character can boarder on the fanatic. This isn't always the case and of course I am speaking in generalities.

All of these styles of storytelling have their place. None of them singly have their place in forum based roleplaying. It takes a combination of these styles to writeplay (effectively). Loving your character is great. Being able to construct a scene is also great. Having the ability to view the whole scene ad adapt to whats thrown your way is also great. As great as these traits are by themselves only through the applied learned and honed combination of them a can there be a truly open world.

By open world I mean a place that has room for everyone. The full width and breadth of "Power levels". From just above enfeebled to throwing around BMW's. From tripping over ones own feet to nearly running across a trail of bullets. There is a gamut and it is ever growing. Just like in real life. Their is a wide and diverse assortment of people often times in the same fields.

In short after a long diatribe

This is a game.

This is done for fun.

For things to work there must be compromise.

The world and its purview are not solely anyones domain save the originating Author of the mythos...LKH.

The board and the vision of the whole is not even solely mine. It is the conjoined property of every member. Every writer that contributes a bit of their muse.

But most importantly ...

This is just a game.

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Hieronymous Banks-Walker/ 32 / Alpha / Dominant / Pride / Rex

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