Classifications
Leaderboards & Statistics
LaRPS : Legacies Role Play System » Support » Roleplaying Lectures
Class: 2010 October 5 : Anecdotes in RP
(1 post)-
[17:08] Furio Ghost: Tonight's class will focus on anecdotes and on-the-fly storytelling.
[17:08] Samhain Ashdene: (and attempt rp ._.)
[17:08] Furio Ghost: Allow me to explain....
[17:08] Furio Ghost: In real life, when we interact with friends we speak in a language of stories and anecdotes.
[17:08] Furio Ghost: We talk about things that happened to us. We share how events in the present remind us of things that happened to us in the past. Often, friends will speak exclusively in a language of stories.
[17:09] Furio Ghost: "That reminds of of when...." "Oh? Ha! That's just like when I...." and on and on, back and forth.
[17:09] Furio Ghost: Sometimes, even just a single word will conjure up a story between friends... think about "inside jokes" you share with people and how you can make your closest friends laugh just by saying a word or two. The author of Fight Club tells a great story about why hearing the phrase "ARCH YOUR BACK" makes him laugh. If there's time at the end, ask me about it.
[17:09] Furio Ghost: In roleplay, all too often this langauge of anecdotes... of shared happenings and interesting scenarios... isn't spoken. Not enough, anyway.
[17:10] Furio Ghost: We don't tell stories.
[17:10] Furio Ghost: We greet one another. We ask questions. We give answers. We offer opinions. We aim threats.
[17:10] Furio Ghost: We crack the occasional joke.... We often find ourselves speaking stiffly.
[17:10] Furio Ghost: There's only so many times one can hear "How does the night find you" before you start to get a bit bored with it.
[17:10] Furio Ghost: And when we do tell stories, they're usually things that have happened recently in game recounted. Gossips. "Did you hear what so and so did?" "No" "Oh, he did this." "Wow."
[17:11] Furio Ghost: Again, this is not to say that stories NEVER happen or that any of you are not capable. It is simply that our RP language does not sound like our RL language. The stories are missing.
[17:11] Samhain Ashdene: can we ask questions during this? or do we just wait to the end?
[17:11] Furio Ghost: Sure. Ask away :)
[17:12] Furio Ghost: But you have to be naked to ask.
[17:12] Furio Ghost winks
[17:12] Cin Roxley: o.O
[17:12] Scarlett Domzarjs: laughs
[17:12] Samhain Ashdene: was just curious as to rumours, how do we know what is 'rumour' so it doesn't cross into metagaming
[17:12] Jeanie Styrian: :D
[17:12] Lydia Cremorne: Damn good question
[17:12] Samhain Ashdene: ....furio that we can do later *spanks butt* ;)
[17:12] Samhain Ashdene: I think that is why many, including myself, is careful with 'rumours'
[17:13] Furio Ghost: That's.... a bit outside my universe of discourse. I will say simply two things: 1) If you have to ask then it's probably metagaming, you know? Or at least close nough to metagaming that someone can cry foul. And 2) pose that to an ST. They're the ones who get to deal with the fallout so they will have the best tips.
[17:13] Samhain Ashdene: ok :)
[17:13] Lydia Cremorne: Might I interject here?
[17:13] Samhain Ashdene: we should XD have rumour posts XD
[17:14] Furio Ghost: Please.
[17:14] Scarlett Domzarjs: well rumor and conjecture are a part of discourse between communities
[17:14] Lydia Cremorne: Oh, actually - eek it's off topic now I think about it. Ignore me *blushes*
[17:14] Furio Ghost: Heh
[17:14] Furio Ghost: moving on....
[17:15] Furio Ghost: et's begin by further understanding the challenge.
[17:15] Furio Ghost: Very simply, we do not exist as our characters. We don't get up in the morning. We don't go to work as them. We don't meet random people in the street who aren't already part of the rp.
[17:15] Furio Ghost: Mr. Ghost has never been ripped off by an apple vendor, stubbed his toe on a coffee table in the dark, or owned a childhood pet. He's just a character I play in SL. Though our characters have backstory, they don't have a childhood or an adolescence to draw inspiration from. So anything that happens to Mr. Ghost, I must invent.
[17:16] Furio Ghost: Let me qualify that.
[17:16] Furio Ghost: Anything that has HAPPENED to Mr. Ghost either in his past or "off camera" is something I came up with rather than something fate gifted him.
[17:16] Furio Ghost: Even the most excrutiatingly detailed backstory usually only gets the highlights... not the random happenings that we tell stories about.
[17:16] Furio Ghost: Thus, we have to improvise. *grins*
[17:17] Furio Ghost: Since we don't have rich & full real world lives to draw from, we have to brainstorm places we can craft tales from.
[17:17] Scarlett Domzarjs: and Furio is a genius at improv
[17:17] Scarlett Domzarjs: `
[17:17] Furio Ghost: Because we only role-play our characters a few hours a day in a beautiful, but mostly static Second Life, we need to rethink our sources of stories. We don't have grocery store mishaps or adolesccent bullyings to draw from.
[17:17] Furio Ghost throws Scarlett the lindens he promised her for talking him up
[17:17] Eastern Snowpaw: sorry I was kicked off
[17:17] Furio Ghost winks
[17:18] Scarlett Domzarjs: raise a brow and winks back
[17:18] Furio Ghost: So where do we look for inspiration? Inspiration can come from...
[17:18] Furio Ghost: ... Our backstories expanded. Each of you has in mind a background for your character. It's yours and yours alone... so long as you're not trying to create a god-character, use it to your advantage. Expand on it.
[17:19] Furio Ghost: Walking up on two characters talking about swordplay? Playing a martial character yourself? Maybe you can invent a fencing mentor who gave you some advice that would make for good conversation. Or perhaps in your backstory you were nearly killed by a swordsman. Talk about that.
[17:19] Furio Ghost: Feel free to invent or re-invent your character right there on the spot. So long as you are abiding the 10 commandments of good role-play, you cannot go wrong.
[17:19] Furio Ghost: Also...
[17:19] Furio Ghost: ...Our real lives. Sure. Our characters are pretty different from us, but we've all had shared experiences. Both I, the player, and Mr. Ghost the character have probably at some point in time done... well, a lot of common things.
[17:20] Lydia Cremorne: One can certainly reframe real life
[17:20] Furio Ghost: When I was a kid, I got bullied some and learned to deal with it. So if I encounter a character who's being intimidated or bullied, I can look to my past and put a spin on it to have it make sense in character.
[17:20] Furio Ghost: Maybe Bobby Smith from elementary school who tried to take my bike could become the leader of a street gang who once terrorized my character. Maybe me standing up to him could turn into a story of Mr. Ghost finding a way to deal with said gang.
[17:20] Furio Ghost nods at Lydia
[17:20] Furio Ghost: Point being, if it's a story worth recounting in the real world, it's usually not so hard to change it around and make it into a Legacies-esque tale.
[17:21] Furio Ghost: ... another place is....
[17:21] Furio Ghost: ...History. The world is your oyster. Most people aren't history buffs. Most people know the big highlights of history. WWII. Woodstock. etc.
[17:21] Furio Ghost: History, though, is full of people who have done remarkable things, great and small. If you are looking for stories to tell or subjects of conversation, it really is only a click away.
[17:21] Furio Ghost: Pick a time and place in history and google it. Look for the people who moved and shook that era and then talk about them. Find a way to work them into conversation. It truly is a LOT easier than you may think.
[17:21] Furio Ghost: And of course....
[17:22] Furio Ghost: ... pop culture, media, and literature. Really, any happening... fictional or real... can be the basis for an in character story.
[17:22] Furio Ghost: Did you see a news story about a robbery in your neighborhood last night? Talk about it in character as though you were a witness to it.
[17:22] Furio Ghost: Have a favorite book that you don't think we've heard of? Find a way to compare what's going on around you to happenings in the book. It can be as simple as "Oh, if (name of protaganist) were here, he'd have this ALL sorted out by now."
[17:22] Furio Ghost: Usually, people will ask you who you mean and then tell them about the book... either as it being a book ("Oh, he's from this book I adore...") or as a 'real' person ("Oh, he's this dashing rogue I met in prague...").
[17:23] Lydia Cremorne shot the sheriff. But she would like it made clear she did not shoot the deputy. ;)
[17:23] Furio Ghost: Heh.
[17:23] Scarlett Domzarjs: lol
[17:23] Furio Ghost: Just try to avoid being too obvious. We never want to break the flow of rp with comments that are clearly going to take people OOC. Don't let me hear you saying "Wow, that reminds me of the time Dark Invader, the dark lord of the smith, chopped off his own son's hand with a blight saber."
[17:24] Furio Ghost: Questions so far?
[17:24] Scarlett Domzarjs: none thus far
[17:24] Lydia Cremorne: none here.
[17:24] Cin Roxley: nu uh
[17:24] Lydia Cremorne: except....
[17:24] Samhain Ashdene: I have to go now, bedtime :) I will read the rest online, this is interesting.
[17:24] LaRPS Meter v0.25: ((Samhain Ashdene's meter has been detached.))
[17:24] Furio Ghost: Yes, they're real, Lydia.
[17:24] Lydia Cremorne: why don't you do your classes topless, like Ray? lol
[17:25] Scarlett Domzarjs: hehe
[17:25] Cin Roxley: o.O
[17:25] Furio Ghost: Actually, I am doing this class in wireframe with all prims derezzed.... just to stay afloat on the grid.
[17:25] Furio Ghost: So if you are topless I am missing it.
[17:25] Furio Ghost: And that's tragic.
[17:25] Furio Ghost: Anyway....
[17:26] Furio Ghost: Moving on to stories on the fly...
[17:26] Furio Ghost: What I mean by that is being able to come up with an anecdote on the spot.
[17:26] Furio Ghost: Either crafted from one of the sources I just mentioned or invented from scratch right on the spot.
[17:26] Furio Ghost: To some rp'ers, this comes natural and is very easy. Others struggle with it a bit.
[17:26] Furio Ghost: If it comes easy to you, sit tight. We'll get to you at the end in the QA. If you're thinking "Man... that sounds hard..." fear not. I am here to help you as are your fellow rp'ers. This is not math. I swear. Here are some tips on how you can create anecdotes and stories on the fly.
[17:27] Furio Ghost: There is no long division. Promise.
[17:27] Cellestaris Firecloak: Synthetic division?
[17:27] Furio Ghost: One....
[17:27] Furio Ghost: Come up with canned stories or what I call "story chunks".
[17:27] Furio Ghost: These are people, places, and scenarios that are interesting to hear about and can easily be worked into an anecdote.
[17:28] Furio Ghost: Begin by thinking about situations you'e likely to be in. Think carefully about comments from people you're likely to hear.
[17:28] Furio Ghost: Think you'll talk to a vampire about, well... vampire things? *grins*
[17:28] Furio Ghost: Come up with a vampire story... or draw on a movie or book you like. (NOT Twilight. I WILL maim you and shave your cat....).
[17:28] Scarlett Domzarjs: rofl
[17:28] Lydia Cremorne: I hear you. And approve
[17:28] Furio Ghost: London is a dangerous place and people are often in the hospital. So you could draw on say... a time you were in the hospital. Have that at the ready. "So and so is in the hospital? What happened to him? Wow... and I thought the time I broke my arm falling out of that window was bad..."
[17:29] Cin Roxley: i enjoy the movies and the books. =/
[17:29] Furio Ghost: If you think Vampires sparkle, then I think me kicking you will tickle....
[17:29] Furio Ghost: ... anyway....
[17:29] Furio Ghost: :P
[17:29] Furio Ghost: You don't need to spend hours and hours coming up with note-carded lists. You just need to be able to draw from what you know... either through stories you've heard (movies, books, etc.) or things that actually happened to you.
[17:30] Furio Ghost: Again, don't be afraid to just invent on the fly. If you can think of a story quickly and work it into a situation, go for it. "Oh, so and so is in hospital? I remember the time the Chaositects tried to build a bridge of poor Pierre. Never declare the universe is full of order in front of those who exalt chaos... especially if you happen to be French."
[17:30] Scarlett Domzarjs: or Drow
[17:30] Furio Ghost: Making fun of the French is always a good thing, too. We are, after all, in England and the English have been poking fun at the French for centuries.
[17:30] Jeanie Styrian: :D ahaha
[17:30] Furio Ghost: Next... keep it simple.
[17:31] Lydia Cremorne: Only because they are horrible to us
[17:31] Cellestaris Firecloak: Besides. They're French.
[17:31] Furio Ghost: You don't need to come up with a full Shakespeare-ian drama to enrich your rp with a few well placed anecdotes. You can begin with just a few well placed words or sentences.
[17:31] Jeanie Styrian: They're the ones that smell like elderberries :/
[17:31] Furio Ghost: Start with "that reminds me of the time..." and finish the sentence. Then see where it goes. See if your fellow players ask about it.
[17:31] Furio Ghost: If they do and If you can't think of anything further, just tell them IC'ly that you can't quite remember how the story went. If your first sentence gets your creative juices flowing, run with it.
[17:32] Furio Ghost: Have fun with it.
[17:32] Furio Ghost: I'll say that again.
[17:32] Furio Ghost: Have fun with it.
[17:32] Furio Ghost: Again, as long as you're sticking to the rp 10 commandments, you really can't go wrong.
[17:32] Furio Ghost: We're going to do a little exercise now.
[17:32] Furio Ghost grins mischeviously
[17:32] Furio Ghost: I'm going to go around the room. I'll address you by name and give you a statement. I want you to reply with the words "That reminds me of... " and complete the sentence how ever you like.
[17:33] Furio Ghost: Just one sentence. That's all for now.
[17:33] Furio Ghost: Time is an issue here. If you take longer than a minute to reply, you're overthinking it. The point here isn't to hear an entire tale. The point is to get you to understand that it's fun and easy to work anecdotes into rp. And, again, I know some of you are already doing this... quite well I may add.
[17:33] Furio Ghost: That being said....
[17:33] Cin Roxley: i cant do that.
[17:33] Cin Roxley: skip me.
[17:34] Furio Ghost: As you wish, Cin.
[17:34] Furio Ghost: But I think you can do it :) I'll skip you though if that's what you want.
[17:34] Cin Roxley: please do
[17:34] Lydia Cremorne: Hey Cin, you could always borrow somethinng from Twilight
[17:34] Furio Ghost: I'll start with Cellestaris. Because picking on her is very very fun.
[17:35] Cellestaris Firecloak: GRRRR! IMMA WEREWOLF!
[17:35] Furio Ghost: Cellsataris: "This morning, I nearly fell off the side of the Pandora; the airship where I live and work. "
[17:35] Cellestaris Firecloak: Quick question
[17:35] Furio Ghost: ?
[17:36] Cellestaris Firecloak: Does it have to be "That reminds me of a time when..." or can it be like... i duno, a story worked into the answer?
[17:37] Furio Ghost: Either way. Just one sentence, though. Quick. Off the top of your head. It doesn't have to be Shakespeare. Just something to reply. Go.
[17:37] Furio Ghost: Ragnar, you'll be next...
[17:37] Cellestaris Firecloak: "Oh? An airship you say? I bet those filthy whores of raccoons can't screw up on YOUR window ledge, huh?"
[17:37] Furio Ghost chuckles "Good."
[17:38] Cellestaris Firecloak: ^true story
[17:38] Jeanie Styrian: :D
[17:38] Furio Ghost: Ragnar: "I think that vampire over there is eyeing me. "
[17:38] Furio Ghost: Eastern you're next.
[17:38] Ragnar Ergaron: I say, that reminds me of the time when the missus caught me eyin' dame, and blacked me eye...
[17:39] Furio Ghost: And that is why I am not married. Heh. Well done.
[17:39] Azura giggles.
[17:39] Furio Ghost: Eastern "London seems a dangerous city with all these murders happening. "
[17:39] Eastern Snowpaw: That reminds me of the time I found that bag of dead cats- shudders
[17:39] Ragnar Ergaron: lol
[17:39] Furio Ghost makes a face "Dead cats. Yeeeee.... Good good."
[17:40] Furio Ghost: Jeanie: "I overheard half a riddle on my way here and I can't for the life of me figure it out."
[17:40] Jeanie Styrian: That reminds me of when my brother was eating his birthday cake and spat it all out when my farther remembered the one about the hermaphrodite peacock
[17:41] Furio Ghost: Ah nice. A story that lead to another story. Very good.
[17:41] Lydia Cremorne: What's with all these animals in anecdotes lol
[17:41] Furio Ghost: Lydia... "I think that fox likes you. "
[17:41] Lydia Cremorne: see^
[17:41] Furio Ghost: Jinx
[17:42] Lydia Cremorne: I'm not so sure, last time I saw a fox my father was wringing it's neck because it got in with the chickens
[17:42] Furio Ghost: Well done. Farms are full of stories.
[17:42] Lydia Cremorne: And MANURE.
[17:42] Lydia Cremorne: lol
[17:42] Scarlett Domzarjs: lol
[17:43] Furio Ghost: Scarlett... Heh.... "I'm just a modern guy... of course I've had it in my ear before."
[17:43] Jeanie Styrian: :X
[17:43] Lydia Cremorne: Got a lust for life, there mate?
[17:43] Scarlett Domzarjs: tis a pity I could find such better places for it, chuckling
[17:43] Furio Ghost: That was a tough one. Well done.
[17:43] Furio Ghost: Faith? Are you observing or did you want one?
[17:44] Furio Ghost: Take that as an "knee deep in IM's" for the moment...
[17:44] Furio Ghost: Well done all.
[17:44] Furio Ghost: Once you've got "simple" down, build from it. Take your one sentence and write another. Think about what would happen next and see where it goes.
[17:44] Furio Ghost: Be creative.
[17:44] Scarlett Domzarjs: excellent teacher Furio
[17:44] Furio Ghost: Thanks, but I'm not giving you any more lindens. *winks*
[17:44] Scarlett Domzarjs: ratas
[17:45] Scarlett Domzarjs: er rats ass?
[17:45] Eastern Snowpaw: Yes great ideas
[17:45] Furio Ghost: And don't be afraid to IM other players to coordinate and help. One of my hugest pet peaves of rp... if you know someone for more than ten years, you likely can speak in a language of inside jokes.
[17:45] Furio Ghost: So, if your backstory intertwines with someone else's, grab a beer in real life and IM together until you come up with some good ones. Things you can chuckle about and let other people in on if you feel them worthy.
[17:46] Jeanie Styrian: :3
[17:46] Furio Ghost: So... any questions so far?
[17:46] Saori Aeon: Yes.. I just got here, can you repeate everything you've said so far?
[17:46] Scarlett Domzarjs: lol
[17:46] Lydia Cremorne: haha
[17:46] Furio Ghost: Yes, but only if you're naked.
[17:46] Jeanie Styrian: lol *facepalms*
[17:46] Jeanie Styrian: Oh that's where I came in haha
[17:46] Saori Aeon: You first
[17:47] Furio Ghost: Don't tempt me. Anyway... some fun things you can do when the class ends...
[17:47] Furio Ghost: In real life I mean. Or over voice.
[17:47] Furio Ghost: Questions tennis.
[17:47] Furio Ghost: You might have seen this on "who's line is it anyway".
[17:47] Furio Ghost: You play one on one.
[17:47] Furio Ghost: You can ONLY speak questions. Back and forth.
[17:47] Furio Ghost: No statements.
[17:48] Furio Ghost: No pauses.
[17:48] Furio Ghost: No repeating yourself.
[17:48] Saori Aeon: We have to pause, that's the time we take to type...
[17:48] Furio Ghost: No non-sequitors. Every question must have at least a rough logical flow.
[17:48] Furio Ghost: That's why you do this over voice or real life, love.
[17:48] Furio Ghost: Another game that I strongy recommend...
[17:48] Saori Aeon: Ooo.. i thought it was somethign we were about to do in class.... see, this is why you should have repeated everything! =P
[17:49] Furio Ghost: SOMEBODY still has all undies on and therefor doesn't REALLY want me to repeat.
[17:49] Furio Ghost: Anyway... :P
[17:49] Saori Aeon: ..actually I don't O.O
[17:49] Furio Ghost: Another one is the storytelling game. It goes roughly like this:
[17:49] Furio Ghost: Players sit around a table.
[17:50] Furio Ghost: One player begins.
[17:50] Furio Ghost: They look to the player on their right and give them a story to tell.
[17:50] Furio Ghost: So someone could look at me and say "Furio, tell me of the time you seduced 30 women in 30 minutes"
[17:50] Scarlett Domzarjs: hehe the gypsy camp
[17:51] Furio Ghost: I have to tell that story, to the best of my ability... making it as entertaining as possible... for an allotted amount of time. usually about 5 minutes in real life when playing with buddies outside the virtual world.
[17:51] Furio Ghost: However...
[17:51] Saori Aeon: You used both hands 2 times each..
[17:51] Saori Aeon: 3 times*
[17:51] Furio Ghost: You never get to tell your tale start to finish unmolested. Each player may ONCE interrupt the story and offer some change.
[17:52] Furio Ghost: So half way through my tale, Saori could chime in and offfer "Isn't it true, they were 30 dogs and you were REALLLLLY drunk???"
[17:52] Furio Ghost: I have the option to ignore ONE interruption from only one player.
[17:52] Furio Ghost: So if there are four players and I ignore Saori... whatever the other players throw in, I HAVE to work into my story.
[17:52] Furio Ghost: It makes for great fun and good practice at improvising.
[17:53] Furio Ghost: Questions?
[17:53] Jeanie Styrian: Yes... Was it really 30 dogs?
[17:53] Furio Ghost: Yes.
[17:53] Scarlett Domzarjs: will you be hostng any bard events here?
[17:53] Saori Aeon: What breeds?
[17:53] Furio Ghost: I MEAN NO!
[17:53] Jeanie Styrian: :3
[17:53] Furio Ghost looks at Scarlett and grins "Hush you. They don't know about that yet."
[17:54] Scarlett Domzarjs: grins wickedly, "hmmm it will cost you"
[17:54] Furio Ghost: Spot me 20 linden?
[17:54] Furio Ghost: Any other questions?
[17:54] Scarlett Domzarjs: rofl...you know drow prefer their payments other ways
[17:54] Cellestaris Firecloak: Fetal sacrifices!
[17:55] Scarlett Domzarjs: chuckles
[17:55] Saori Aeon: Sunblock?
[17:55] Furio Ghost: All deliveries in the rear. Yes. I know.
[17:55] Scarlett Domzarjs: hehe
[17:55] Furio Ghost: Seriously... any questions? Comments? Concerns? Was this helpful? Or at least entertaining?
[17:56] Ragnar Ergaron: yes, on all counts
[17:56] Scarlett Domzarjs: It was helpful...entertaing and will provide some good exercises
[17:56] Saori Aeon: Your always entertaining, very funny actually.. Well, not with your pants on, but still.
[17:56] Lydia Cremorne: Well, I'm inspired
[17:56] Jeanie Styrian: Was very entertaining :3 Thankyou
[17:56] Furio Ghost: You're welcome and thank you guys.
[17:56] Jeanie Styrian: It's true, less pants makes everything funnier.
[17:56] Furio Ghost: Cin? You sure you don't want a prompt?
[17:56] Scarlett Domzarjs: Thank you for the class
[17:56] Furio Ghost: :)
[17:57] Ragnar Ergaron: If I may speak for Snowy, she enjoyed the class and then crashed
[17:57] Furio Ghost: That's a shame.
[17:57] Furio Ghost: Faith? You about?
Reply
You must log in to post.