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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 8289226" data-attributes="member: 6801252">Another observation is that a big part of what makes the "actor" thing seem not to work with SP is the neo-trad idea of character concept as something you predesign. This creates friction between the world, and the character which wasn't made for it. An actor discovering their character over the course of the game, wouldn't have the same problem-- the character's view of reality is informed by their actual experience of the game world rather than the player imitating tropes from other stories. This is also why we've started to see so much of a preference for 'combat as performance' because the dropping of uncertainty is what enables these preintended narrative arcs to take shape, so players assume that 'roleplaying' demands predefined narrative arcs and a stance where the players are directors framing a scene in a narrative-- trying to 'make it happen' instead of it arising naturally from the circumstances. But that assumption isn't necessary, your player and character could both be trying to succeed at something, and reacting to events and each other as they unfold and you wouldn't have meaningful issues. The central obstacle is the idea of the incompetent character who nevertheless expects to survive to end of the story as a result of movie-like plot armor. Their overall success becomes detached from their ability to earn victories because a lot of our narrative tropes frame stories that way, and people emulate the bad decisions, but since those players don't have a writer who has already decided the PCs will survive, the tropes don't execute. So really, you have to get away from the idea of plot armor to make them compatible, you have to focus the story on skillful people genuinely trying to overcome challenges with their best efforts a relatively rational outlook, even if that is permeated by some drama that everyone agrees to not let them get killed. So I'd hazard that its just a different realm than some roleplayers expect, especially currently, but not one with less story and acting intrinsically (because you can still inhabit that space of a skilled character invested in winning, and create excellent stories through your actions and performance, without those stories being about lucking through your failures constantly.)</blockquote>

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