4 posts tagged “characters”

I'm having a lot of fun playing the new local shit-disturber and dissident, but I've a few requests that would really help me flesh her out more. So if you're looking for a new character who's already got some links to the established grid, well, maybe you'll want to give one of these concepts some consideration. 

I would love, love, love to have someone playing Penny's older brother, who could maybe start making her life a little complicated in ways I haven't yet gotten into on the grid (let's just say he might have cause to not entirely agree with her stance on some key issues). I've left a lot about him open in her background (including his name and age), so if you'd like to play the beleaguered big brother to an anti-mutant activist, please let me know!

Obviously, there are a few secrets she's been keeping about him, so if you're seriously interested in RPing him, drop me a page or @mail on the game (or email me xmr.rogueATgmailDOTcom) and I can fill you in on the dirty details.

It would also be really awesome to get more folks in the ranks of SUFMA (Students for Mutant Accountability) at NYU or a sister chapter at another of the area schools, or another anti-mutant sort in general. Even some humans who haven't made up their mind about the issue would be fun to have around, since I'm sure both sides would have plenty to say to them.

If you're interested in making a SUFMA member, drop me a line and I can fill you in on what little I've established about the group so far (their stance, etc.), but for general anti-mutant types, well, just app away and look me up once you're grid-side!

Of course, this isn't to say I'm not having a wicked time fighting with all of you mutie-lovers! If you want to pick a fight or just be annoyed by the perky and opinionated blonde, feel free to poke me for RP.

Cross-posted to the forum.

Rogue

Rogue's actually my most active character at the moment, though that's not saying too much.  As far as her personal life is concerned, things with Pietro are progressing interestingly, though I do need to get her out interacting with other folks more too.  I know I owe Marrow and Nikolai scenes in particular, as well as just generally catching up with the BHers and perhaps even getting her a life, gasp, outside of the HQ.

I've also been working on some mission stuff for awhile, but it keeps getting bumped back due to scheduling difficulties and logistics.  So I'd like to get my thoughts in order and then work on getting that going again, with the hopes that it'll revitalize the BH.

Rahne

Rahne's slowly getting back into the swing of things.  She's working on her science fair with Tyson, so that has at least given me an excuse to start getting her active again.  However, she really needs to get out there again, meeting the new people at the school and catching up with old friends.

Before the hiatus, I was working on her slowly coming to the realization that a) she's not cool and b) this is not a good thing.  I'd like to start bringing that out again, pushing towards her slowly coming out of her shell and adapting to life in modern America.

Of course, she also needs to get back to her X-Men training, her martial arts, and volunteer work, either with the kids in the school, or getting back to the youth club at the rec centre.

Caden

Caden's personal plot is stalled a bit, but I've been seeing some interest in it again, so I'll have to look at getting that going again.  She's also got a role in a few plots revolving around other folks, though those seem to not be going anywhere fast.

I also need to get her out interacting with the darker element on the game, back to the Boar's Head, and maybe picking up a little more clientele.

Doug

Doug is kind of a difficult character to play sometimes, since I really expected people to respond to his being a public mutant, but it's been a non-issue in most of the scenes he's been in.  I'm not sure what's going to be expected of him in terms of X-Factor, so I've largely just been focussing on his life outside of that team.

I also am getting more and more set on having him start up a sort of mutant outreach, something along the lines of a soup kitchen or shelter that would be pro-mutant for those who can't get help at the more conventional places.  It took awhile to find anyone interested ICly in helping out, but I've since had a few takers, so who knows, it might happen yet.

I'd also like to work on bringing more to the fore just how badly he gets bullied at school or even just on the streets.  I've again painted myself into a corner, since he doesn't like to talk about it, feeling that complaining about such things wouldn't be heroic.  So I have to get creative on ways to bring it out within the scope of RP.

Taking advantage of Vox's new cross-posting feature with LJ to pimp my character blog a bit too.  May continue cross-posting future entries to have more than just logs in the LJ.  However, if anyone finds it too spammy, let me know.

So after giving some thought about my Close to the Vest post earlier, and considering some other points of view, I'm considerably less stressed about getting my characters' own stories out there.  I think I got a little too caught up in it for awhile, and it may well be that my RP suffered for it (though I didn't hear any reports to this end), and I know I certainly did.  Because I find if I get too obsessed over what I'm not getting out of RP, I can't focus on what I am.

This isn't to say I've become an entirely selfless RPer, no.  But I want to worry more about the story I'm currently telling and the one I want to tell down the road, rather than the one I've already told in my character backgrounds.  Those have been written.  If I really want them out there badly enough, well, I've got an LJ, a blog and a wiki page to do so.  This isn't to say I see no merit in bringing this information out in RP, just that I'm choosing to think of it as a part of the story rather than just something I need people to know.

I think it's something that's easy to do even in real life: get too caught up on wanting people to know about your past, rather than focussing on the here and now, or even the future.  When Rahne confides in someone about her past, I want that to happen because it's best for the story.  When Rogue tells someone her first name, it's more important to me why she's doing it and what it might mean for her current emotional state, rather than just having the presence of mind that someone out there knows it.

anna-paquin-xmen3-rogue1.jpg

I think it really was playing Rogue that made me realize this.  As mentioned earlier, by design, I don't plan on having her often (possibly ever) tell much about her past before Mystique came into her life.  Not only does this ironically seem to get people really, really intrigued in her story, but it also just leaves me free not to worry about it.  I can focus on the story she's currently telling, her journey.  I need to know her past; I always keep it in mind and allow it to inform how the character will react to any given stimulus - but no one else needs to know it until the time comes that it's right for both of our stories and the central tale that we're telling together.

I don't intend for this to sound like I've got it all figured out, or that characters' histories are insignificant.  Sure, I'd still love for someone to sit down with Rahne, Caden or Doug and really express an interest in what brought them to this point, but - I've just reached the realization that I don't need that to have fun.  I could force their histories on people, just to be done with it, but then that cheapens it for both parties, I think. 

Anyway, I consider this almost an RP resolution, I guess, is more the thing.  And I'm putting it here in text so that I can come back and reread it whenever I'm getting frustrated again.

Is it possible to be too reticent with your characters?

I'm finding it's a common problem with my characters, across MU*s, that they never seem to get much opportunity to tell their stories.  I've been playing Rogue and Rahne for almost a year now, and while Rogue's past is secretive on purpose, it isn't by design that still not a single person on the grid knows all or even most of Rahne's backstory.  In fact, only one or two people know much anything before she came to live with Moira.  For Caden, I had to bring in a plot replete with NPC from her past to get her talking about her past.

See, I don't like to force my characters' stories on people.  Or, more accurately, I don't like for them to force their stories on people.  Maybe it's just because I'm somewhat reticent myself, but it always strikes me as false to have a character suddenly start giving exposition about his or her backstory without there being some IC reason for why they're doing it.  Usually this reason is simply because people ask them questions.  But ... no one seems to ask.

So I have to wonder if it isn't because I'm not giving enough hooks there.  Maybe I need to be more forceful in bringing about my character's chance to talk about her history.  I don't know.  Problem is, none of my characters ICly would just bring this stuff up. 

Rogue, as mentioned, keeps her past a secret by design, so - not looking to have that come out to anyone except maybe a trusted confidante or two down the line.

Caden is a closed book out of necessity.  She's a street criminal.  It doesn't exactly do to be all sobbing over a rough childhood when you're trying to convince people you're tough and capable, so don't fuck you over.  But, as mentioned, I have been orchestrating a small plot which is helping with this to a degree.  Though obviously I can't count on dragging out a whole plot every time I want something to come up from my character's past.  Instead, my hope is that this will at least get her started talking to a few people.

Rahne is a horse of a different colour.  She would never lie or obscure the truth, and yet, I think she presents herself as such a sunshiny optimist that no one even thinks to look deeper under the surface to wonder why she has this obsession with the rules, or why she's so hopelessly out of touch with popular culture.  I thought I'd dropped a few hints, but seeing as the problem isn't restricted to one or even a few people, clearly I'm not dropping ones that are broad enough.  So I suppose she'll be my main aim in getting her to open up a little more.  At the same time, if I'm finally going to drop her big secrets, there is a part of me that feels like the other character should have to work for them, at least a bit.  Otherwise, well, I could be revealing something to to me and Rahne is huge, and the other character just sort of disregards them as unfortunately, but ultimately unimportant.  But maybe I should resign myself to the fact that no one else is going to care about her history as much as I do.

Doug, well, I just haven't had enough chance to play him for this to become an issue one way or the other.  I am trying to make him more of an open book, with the philosophy that, well, once your secret of being a mutant is out, there's not much point in trying to be obscure about the rest.  But we'll see how things go should I ever manage to get in more than one scene with any one character.

Of course, this isn't to seem like I only ever think about getting my characters' information out there.  But I think for pretty much all of my characters, they end up knowing far, far more about everyone else than even a single person knows about them.  And it just leaves me feeling like there are aspects of them that therefore don't end up getting explored.  But maybe I shouldn't stress over it so much.  It works for Rogue that I know her past and let it inform her actions, yet never tell anyone about her history.  So maybe I should just take this approach with all my characters until such time as someone wants to know more about them and what makes them tick.

And no, don't bother asking Rogue.  She won't tell you a thing.