Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 7387956" data-attributes="member: 71699">In usual language I would take a broader reading of the word "controlling" to include determining any and all of the motives and behaviour i.e. every act attributable to the character including such acts as are intended to paint the character. Having a thought is a thing the character does. I don't feel prescriptive about it: I'd be happy to limit the definition of "controlling" for this particular discussion.Anyway. For me, strictly, there was no need to go beyond "does". I realise he wanted to make his point clearer, but thinking is doing, just as much as opening a door is. How do other players know that I am struggling with slaying the dragon that I know is really my romantic interest, who has been cursed to ravage the land in that dreadful form? I enunciate it. In every case that I've encountered, that is as much a speech act as the "doing" of my character opening a door. In order to paint the clear and powerful picture, spoken word was used. In order to open the door, spoken word was used. A possible weakness of narrativism is to take so literal a reading of the action. A dragon in a story is already symbolic.For me, mechanics like alignment have always been about inspiring coherent motivations. I can and have run extensive RPG without rules. Rules serve a purpose. As does world building. I would keep coming back to that word inspiration. When the four characters imagine their backstories etc, I think the springboard of a built world transports the whole group into a new, shared place. Otherwise Bob might be harming Alice's gumshoe fiction with his heroic fantasy.So for me, the answer to the OP is always consistency and inspiration. As Tolkien pointed out, it is critical for fantasy worlds to be consistent. If they are not consistent they stop being believable, and unravel. One way to achieve consistency is to work it out beforehand i.e. world build. Not every detail, but the fact that your character can be warforged, mine can be blood of the banished, etc. Springboards for imagination.I generally find, both in professional and personal creative effort, that constraints elevate.</blockquote>

Verification