[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Seven Xu]

This is something I try to be very careful with. It's easy when one of my PCs literally fell from the sky at the end of spring: he knows nothing, Jon Snow.

Seven on the other hand is generally educated, literate, and came from a city where trade from the outside world is becoming more and more common. What does this mean? Well, he can read, he knows how Lhavit functions and he took an early interest in stars and cartography so he knows how to organize the sky on a grid and a few astral coordinates from summoners that he badgered at the Plaza. But, by no means is he worldly. There was no reason to learn who the Syliran Knights or the Icewatch were. There's no way he'd know of Wind Reach, or Blackrock, or say, Denval, because he has no way of really knowing those places exist. Being a foreigner for the complete period of his active roleplaying career, he can pride himself on knowing information about Lhavit that, say, a Syliran just wouldn't know, and that gives him a sense of being smarter than the average bear.

I'm sure I've assumed too much along the way. His best friend is from Ravok and despite there being implication that he's probably asked about the city (being curious as he is) I'm hesitant to actually let him use that information, because it never happened in thread.

Magic is something that escapes him entirely. It happens, but he's seen very little of it. Just recently he learned how to shield, but despite having a book on the subject he needed help to make such an intangible concept work.

I don't enjoy playing with people that assume their character is well-educated on a world that's generally quite isolated city-to-city. Half the fun of writing for me is the exchange of information, the pursuit of new knowledge.

This was longer than I expected it to be.

[Gossamer]

. What Does My PC Know? Most of this is common sense. In this day and age we live in an information society. We are bombed with TV and have the internet so the average person knows a whole heck of a lot about say what is going on in the middle east while they live safe secure lives over say in the UK or USA. If someone farts wrong in NYC and you live in LA, odds are you are going to hear about it or see a youtube video. But please back up and look at the relationship your PC has with his or her environment. Have they ever, for example, met a Benshira? Then no, they probably don't know anything about them. Think about Robin Hood and how strange the Muslim (or whatever specific race he was) traveling with Robin in Europe... everyone stared and no one knew what he was even though everyone was off fighting war in the holy lands. Think about how rare books are. A great many storytellers have installed libraries, but the truth is most of the books are precious few and there's not a whole lot of knowledge floating around. Has your PC ever interacted with a race/magic/location of this kind in your in-game history? If the answer is no, then you don't know about them unless you've had a specific conversation about that particular race/magic/location etc. Eths are rare period. Syms and Dhani are rare outside of their region. Unless you've been to Kalinor, you won't know about what the city is like. Don't write a visit into your history that you've never rp'd. That's not only silly but way too safe. Just because something is installed today in the wiki doesn't' mean your PC instantly knows about it today because its definitely just material that's manifested. Go learn about it in game. Go find PCs that will teach you or will at least talk to you about things. One of my favorite scenes was when a friend of my PC... an Akontak questioned a Drykas and got him to tell her IC all about webbing even though he wouldn't teach her. I thought it was genius because my friend really wants to know webbing but beings that she's not Drykas, she can't swing it until A. She knows about it. B. She finds someone to teach her. Half the battle is over. Now we just get to see how she proceeds next... and I guarantee she won't get her knowledge from anywhere but in an IC way. Now that's not to say using a library is bad. It's not. Recently I've had a storyteller come to me that talks about a PC who's getting all sorts of flack for knowing (untutored just by trial and error) an expert level in a magic via solo threads. I can't make them see how cheeseball it is that a PC would discover all these applications of a single magic to go from novice to expert level on his own and how 'amazingly' talented the PC seems when he writes his solo threads. All the storyteller cares about is that the PC has done the work and wrote the threads. All the other players who are picking on the PC and making fun of him for being ridiculous sees is that he cheeseballed the threads he did write. So then the storyteller comes to me asking for help to make this stop saying the player followed the rules... sure he did.. and the storyteller's right. But how do you make the writer involved see that failing once in a while - overgiving (and no I don't mean a headache where you have to go lay down) and whoopsing - is so much better than a perfect amazing wonderful talented genius PC who never fails? You can't. Do you go yell at the PCs' who are taunting a bit when the other pc gets to bragging... sure you can but you empathize with them totally. So you get a situation where the brilliant pc is stuck rping with people who don't know about the cheeseballishness (mainly newbies) and to do this they are greeting newbies 24/7 and being super nice so they actually have someone that doesn't know any better to play with... because all the rest of the game is still rolling their eyes. Am I sympathetic? Not really but I can ask the pcs involved to cool it. And then the storyteller gets upset because the player is upset because folks make snide comments around him. That's human nature and you can't be around 24/7 to control commenting nor can you force a group to respect an individual. This won't even manifest into a pvp situation because no one can expect fair play via the expert pc. You don't blame the folks for their comments and snarking, and you don't blame the storyteller for being upset its going on.. and you don't blame the player for being upset that no one recognizes his brilliance. But all this could have been avoided. How? Fantasy realism. Be human. Be awkward. Blow shit up accidentally. Make mistakes and put yourself into the healers a week or so. Help others. Be less than wonderful and have flaws. FLAWS are amazing... they make characters more realistic. Put gaps in your PC's knowledge that should be there given the game design and setting. All this thought makes your head spin after a while. I like to say be real but that sounds ridiculous on a game like Mizahar. That's why I say fantasy realism. Bolden is right. It's a great deal of metagaming even if it is housed within the rules. It's annoying to me, to you, to everyone on the game besides the person doing it but they will feel the consequences as time passes. Call yourselves on it before a storyteller has too or you fall into the trap where folks laugh at you and won't rp with you at all because thats generally where this slippery slope leads. .

[Siofra]

Even Wizards Blow Stuff Up

[Aidara]

.... What does that even mean?

Putting up images with fun quotes is fun

But it doesn't mean chocolate chip cookies aren't oatmeal.

[Siofra]

Hmm... Maybe I should edit to say "Even Wizards Make Mistakes".

I want cookies now.

[Aidara]

Ooooooooooooooooooooh I get it. I was reading it as


"Even wizards blow stuff up

sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken"

Which is why my picture and quotes intentionally make no sense.

[Gossamer]

Ahem....

*clears throat*

I declare this Scrapbook an HP FREE ZONE.

[Aidara]

Sign I might have been a bit bitter when I made it

[Bolden Denusk]

For Jen.

[Baine Coolwater]

This has really given me a lot to think about. From my perspective, just coming in, it's hard breaking the habit of doing what's needed to "rank up" your character so that he/she is strong enough to do what you want them to do...

Though I do agree, foibles, warts, and boils do add some terrific color to characters.

Thanks for writing this. I do have a suggestion, if I may. This would be a terrific subject for a discussion thread... sort of a hmm. "Discussion thread on what makes a Misahar role player."

I think it would be of great value. Especially if it were a sticky in the founders forum. People tend to read everything there. At least, that's what I've found.

Mizahar is as advertised; it's not like any role play site I've played on. To me, it's more of a round robin story telling forum.

Oh, yeah and please, feel free to tell me "suddup" and "who asked ya." XD

B.