|
|
|
Heroic Knight
 
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Thursday, September 25, 2008 2:17 PM
Posts: 187,
Visits: 323
|
|
In Maelstrom, I have a privilieged position in that I have read all the culture and faith briefs. This gives me an amount of oversight which is rare outside crew. Here are some of my thoughts as a consequence.
Some people play their culture, rather than the exception. There have been some fine examples of this. They have also tended to have short, violent but intense careers. They are often playing people who will not compromise and we all know how LARPers like to compromise.
By contrast, some people play the exception rather than the culture (or the faith). They are no more nor less right than the people who play the culture. Consider for a moment our own real-world history; the people initially colonising America and Australia often came from what I might laughingly call the shallow end of the cultural gene pool.
The only conflict comes when someone looks at the one, and criticizes the other out-of-character. For example, I hear that some morons accused the White Lions of not playing Fidelia or the Teacher Church properly, based I presume on no information. By the same contrast, i think that to claim that someone is not playing Kamakuran "properly" is actually to claim that they are not playing their culture, but the exception.
If their portrayal clearly clashes with the established background, then it becomes more of an issue. Again, it is easy to forget just how big and insular the nations are. Some people play the Kamakuran Mokosh/human arrangement as an enlightened and honourable one. Others characterize it as a brutal oppression. The Cultural brief favours the former interpretation but it does not explicitly say that the latter situation does not exist in some parts of Kamakura. So both interpretations of the briefing material remain valid in specific cases.
Maelstrom has room for both of the culture and the exception. Should the people who play the exception be penalised? On what basis do we determine that they are not playing their culture "correctly"? The error is to assume that one group of people are "right" and the other "wrong". An equal error comes from assuming that your own interpretation of your culture supercedes the culture. For example, to play a Kamakuran who claims the Shogun ate his wife is fair enough; but to gripe if a bunch of Kamakurans cut you to pieces for your clearly dishonourable lie, that is not appropriate, regardless of whether those Kamakurans are clearly PCs or appear to be NPCs.
I wanted to open a brief discussion regarding the role of Culture and Religion, how people view the existance of the roleplaying "absolutes." The gods are a good example here, but another example would be that there is no current emperor of Kamakura (there is a Shogun) and thus no player can claim that there is OOC, whatever they claim IC. Much of this information is not common knowledge however, because the cultural briefing sheets are not common knowledge.
I would also like to examine what basis people use for making their value judgemetn of who is doing their role "right" and who is doing it "wrong".
|
|
|
|
|
Champion
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:39 PM
Posts: 305,
Visits: 432
|
|
| I think one point that needs to be made is culture is often about perception, is there really a right and a wrong? I've not read the cultures in detail, I only concentrated on what Im playing, so most of my views on them are from what I've seen in game. I know from my perspective that many aspects of gnoll culture, in the detail are things we introduced for our own group. A lot ofthese have to a degree been adopted by a large number of gnolls who were not directly in our group. For example everyone seems aware not to shake hands with a gnoll, due to a different cultural meaning, but this isnt in the background document (or wasnt). If someone started a gnoll that liked to shake hands for example Im sure some people would say it was wrong. However the background is robust enough for variation and the world is never black and white, just many shades of grey. I think the point Im making is that the background is a foundation on which we can all build. Different people will interpret it differently. We play our take, and if someone disagree's with our view, sorry, you play your way, we will play ours within PDs guidelines. As for playing absolutes, well playing to the absolute is alike a characture, an exagerated stereotype. Easier and perhaps fun to roleplay for some but not required for the game to work. I love the wemic backgrounds, tritoni and amunsar are awesome. I'm traditionally not a fan of the housecat cat people most systems have, PD seems to have tried to make it work better in their background. However not for me to say they are wrong, its their game too,and their background and the choice of play style is their own, if they have fun with it, fair play to them, you do it your ways, Ill do it mine.
--------------------------------------------If the Gods didnt want us to eat people, then why are they made out of meat?Grumf Kikuto - United Tribes of New BantustanSir Nathaniel Holt - The Fallen
|
|
|
|
|
Knight
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 9:10 PM
Posts: 70,
Visits: 392
|
|
Cenobite (8/1/2007)For example everyone seems aware not to shake hands with a gnoll, due to a different cultural meaning, but this isnt in the background document (or wasnt). If someone started a gnoll that liked to shake hands for example Im sure some people would say it was wrong. However the background is robust enough for variation and the world is never black and white, just many shades of grey.
This is very interesting; likewise, nowhere at all in the Amusar brief does it mention that women are to be considered second-class citizens. There is historical detail to lend credence to the idea that it might happen, but nowhere is it stated that it does, certainly not like the Tritoni. However, I've heard this being spoken of as common currency long before I chose to play an Amusar, and in play I've found varying degrees of this kind of oppression. Yet it seems to have been created in play.
I'm certainly not complaining; heavens no, as it helps the cultures alienate themselves from one another to have such taboos. But it is interesting to notice such memes developing and becoming accepted.
------------------------
PD: Marcus Al-Tora, Havocstan 33rd Assault
|
|
|
|
|
Heroic Knight
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 10:03 AM
Posts: 125,
Visits: 1,175
|
|
It's strange, but I seem to have become more and more "Fidelian" as I go along. I had absolutely no idea that the Fidelians were supposed to be pseudo-Russian when I started play (in fact, I'm still not, I don't see anything in the campaign info that indicates this but that seems to be the way it's worked out). I actually invented a justification for why my name isn't very 'Fidelian' sounding a couple of events ago, so I guess I have slotted into the accepted culture over time instead of coming in fully-fledged Fidelian. For me, this is because I tend to pay very little attention to background. I prefer to let the character's background develop as I play her - after 2 years, I now have a background that's settled enough for me to write it down, but before that I just wing it. So in terms of culture, I have been entirely influenced by what other people portray as 'Fidelian', tempered (but not much) by my own perception.
Being brutally honest, I chose to be Fidelian for the armour-making cost break, not the culture. Maybe that will cause some people to label me a second-class munchkinning roleplayer but it certainly hasn't detracted from my enjoyment of the game and that's why we roleplay - for fun (also, I bet I'm not alone!  ). I really genuinely do prefer to discover a character's culture, context and even personality during uptime, rather than poring over the briefing sheets. This is a personal choice, and I've no problem with people who write out their life histories before playing a character for the first time, but I do think it's a shame when your character background is more exciting than anything that will ever happen to you in uptime...
NB - I don't think this works for every character concept though, you can't be the leader of a colony/church/hive/whatever without making an effort to learn quite a bit about the culture beforehand.
Rant ahoy: anyone who whines that other people aren't playing it "right", who do you think you are, the roleplaying police? Are you actually so arrogant that you think your interpretation is better than theirs? Sigh. Let people play their games how they want to, it's a hobby, not a job. (Except for you Matt!) For the record, I think the White Lion are about as 'Fidelian' as it gets, that's not to say it's not great to see other versions of Fidelians about - it is after all an entire country, so diversity is allowed! end rant
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that players are all different and will approach the portrayal of cultures/religions in different ways, as well as actually playing differently nuanced versions of what we each got from the culture sheets. This is a good thing. How boring would the game be if we all were cookie-cutter characters? So don't take the piss with the culture, and let other people do it their way... m'kay?
RL: Daisy
PD: Piper Green
Cuckoo's Nest: Kestrel
|
|
|
|
|
Initiate
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Friday, October 12, 2007 1:11 PM
Posts: 9,
Visits: 18
|
|
Daisy (8/1/2007) How boring would the game be if we all were cookie-cutter characters? So don't take the piss with the culture, and let other people do it their way... m'kay? No one likes an army of Drizzt's. When you pick a culture, it's coolness should outweigh the skill picks. Maybe it is an almanac thing.
Unless it's funny...
|
|
|
|
|
Champion
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 5:25 PM
Posts: 495,
Visits: 5,924
|
|
I'm interested to the extent to which certain perceived instances of Special Snowflakeism / "Doing It Wrong" / etc. are connected to the FOIP nature of cultural, racial and religious briefing material.
Don't get me wrong; I love the fact that a lot of cultural, racial and religious information is restricted, I think it adds a great element of discovery and wonder to the game. I am merely interested by the correspondence.
Bob checks out Maelstrom, decides he loves the idea. He gets the mailshot, glances over the website and rulebook, and thinks that Craft Jelly is quite a cool skill with interesting game and RP potential, but he fancies playing a military character; so he comes up with the idea of a young, idealistic man from a family of Jelly Crafters, who apprenticed at his father's knee, before having a change of heart in his teenage years and running away to join the army. His friends are all playing Pogonians, and Pogonia seems to have a professional military (at least the website summary page suggest so), so that's where he sets himself. After a few years of loyal service, during which he was promoted to Captain, he was sent with the rest of his Pogonian unit across the Maelstrom. (Tragically, their crack emu-mounted cavalry all died in a hideous accident on the way.)
He fires up My Maelstrom and creates the character, books his first event, and eventually gets his event pack. It's only when he reads the briefing sheet that he discovers that Pogonia has a long cultural tradition of not allowing those from the Jelly-Crafting families of the Northern mountains into the military. In fact, the two are kept entirely separate for detailed cultural reasons which are never spoken of to outsiders...
Bob now has the rather unpleasant choice of rewriting his character (and if he's reading the brief for the first time with his first event pack, this could be a matter of days before the event) or being perceived as a Special Snowflake / Exception Player - not through deliberate choice, but through sheer accident. As a fresh Maelstrommer, Bob may not have the confidence to go through with playing an "off-centre" character type, and may Get It Wrong in the eyes of other, more vocal players.
In addition, Bob might have become very excited by the idea of playing a Borogrove from the website, and even gone out and bought a Borogrove mask from Kangena in an exciting green-and-purple paintjob, only to read from the Borogrove racial briefing (again, potentially received only a week or so before the event) that green-and-purple Borogroves are very rare, and that Pogonian Borogroves are almost all blue-and-orange.
I don't think Bob's necessarily at fault for being presumptive and jumping the gun with character ideas before getting all available information. Nor do I think that PD are at fault for not sending Bob the Pogonian and Borogrove briefings in good time. But I am curious as to whether this situation (which has hit me personally, and a few others I know of) can be easily remedied?
Would it be trivial, or excessively difficult, to integrate briefing views into My Maelstrom, so that once one had booked an event as a character, one then automatically had access to online text copies of the cultural/racial/religious briefings relevant to that character? If trivial, what would be the disadvantages of such a system?
If it can't be easily remedied, should new players be more heavily encouraged to withhold detailed thought about their character's background until they've received all relevant material? If so, how?
--
PD: Then: Some dead Wemic, some dead Puritan, Peggy Novak. Now: Samael den Shemhazai of the Sephirot.
White City: Then: Cpt. Ambriel Chermes, Broken Guard. Now: Sir Cordelia of the Shining Order.
RL: Helen W, RPGSoc.
|
|
|
|
|
Apprentice
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Sunday, October 26, 2008 9:04 PM
Posts: 20,
Visits: 126
|
|
Daisy (8/1/2007)
It's strange, but I seem to have become more and more "Fidelian" as I go along. I had absolutely no idea that the Fidelians were supposed to be pseudo-Russian when I started play (in fact, I'm still not, I don't see anything in the campaign info that indicates this but that seems to be the way it's worked out).
IIRC, back in the run up to the first event, MattP mentioned the real-world analogues to each Old World culture - Freiboden being Revolutionary France's bastard offspring with the Hanseatic League, Flambard being a sort if Italian-English cross that comes from Byron living in Tuscan villas... and Fidelia being Russia with a strong Orthodox Church in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and unwashed yak-herders everywhere else.
That the capital Yugorsk, which is named in the Campaign section of the rules, is a real place in Russia adds to that impression.
To answer Mr. Raff - I react to everyone IC. In general, that means that people not of my culture are dangerous barbarians who are basically in need of a good kicking to make clear what their place is, and then a proper education in ethics and morality so that they begin to have some value. People of any culture who act against their stereotype need watching, because they are unpredictable, and might be mad and thus dangerous. If they are from my own culture, then I remain aware that the stereotypical reaction I should be embracing is to loathe them more for their treachery than if they were foreigners, who can't be expected to know any better. Whether I actually loathe them is dependant on the character I am playing; for instance, a Flembic Upper City Teacher-devotee is likely to be more class conscious than a Freibodener Weaverite revolutionary, and a newly-awakened facet won't give a monkey's.
Tuez-les tous. Dieu reconnaîtra les siens.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | |