RPGnet Columns
12-05-2003, 12:03 PM
Post originally by Chris F at 2003-12-05 11:03:06
Converted from Phorums BB System
Didn't Gandalf give Frodo a pretty lengthy lecure on what was going on, what The One Ring was, the Nazgul, Sauron, Gollum, etc., etc. up front? Luke didn't get as much, but I certainly wouldn't call him ignorant going in - he clearly had some knowledge of galactic politics and Ben filled him in on more in pretty short order. Both characters had a pretty good sense of their destiny fairly early on. Certainly in both of these examples, too, the viewer/reader is more ignorant than the characters, which is fine as a literary device, but one must be careful in drawing conclusions since PCs are characters, not observers.
While fully sympathetic with your desire not to overload characters with background early, on the other hand the players have to be properly motivated. If they don't know enough to make sensible choices, if they don't know enough to make *informed* choices, they'll feel like they're just going through the motions. If the characters know "somthing bad is going on", they also have to know *why* their characters would be interested in, threatened by, want to take advantage of, this. And that requires either that you railroad the characters by not giving them any real choice (not as attractive an option for players as for moviegoers) or some not entirely trivial background.
Unless you're playing Paranoia, ignorance is not necessarily that entertaining to roleplay in my opinion. Certainly, over-specification is not good either, but there is clearly a balance point somwhere in there.
Converted from Phorums BB System
Didn't Gandalf give Frodo a pretty lengthy lecure on what was going on, what The One Ring was, the Nazgul, Sauron, Gollum, etc., etc. up front? Luke didn't get as much, but I certainly wouldn't call him ignorant going in - he clearly had some knowledge of galactic politics and Ben filled him in on more in pretty short order. Both characters had a pretty good sense of their destiny fairly early on. Certainly in both of these examples, too, the viewer/reader is more ignorant than the characters, which is fine as a literary device, but one must be careful in drawing conclusions since PCs are characters, not observers.
While fully sympathetic with your desire not to overload characters with background early, on the other hand the players have to be properly motivated. If they don't know enough to make sensible choices, if they don't know enough to make *informed* choices, they'll feel like they're just going through the motions. If the characters know "somthing bad is going on", they also have to know *why* their characters would be interested in, threatened by, want to take advantage of, this. And that requires either that you railroad the characters by not giving them any real choice (not as attractive an option for players as for moviegoers) or some not entirely trivial background.
Unless you're playing Paranoia, ignorance is not necessarily that entertaining to roleplay in my opinion. Certainly, over-specification is not good either, but there is clearly a balance point somwhere in there.