Post event post!

[mostlyfoo]

Okay its like obligatory to write posts after events as far as I can tell, however this is mostly going to be egotistical ranting about methods of characterisation, so I'm interested in hearing from people about how they get into characters.

Comments

[evilbilbo]

He was an interesting gent that Elizabeth never wishes to meet again. Though should the opportunity present itself a gun to the back of his head might be very very very tempting.

[mostlyfoo]

Yeah I wasn't sure how that was all going to play out in the end... I think I solved the problem by legging it at the first opportunity once the peril was over.

[evilbilbo]

Legging it did solve the problem of any nasty followups

[lentilthelegume]

I do like Stanislavski, but I actually go for a much more spontaneous method when I'm roleplaying (as opposed to acting in a pre-written play

[mostlyfoo]

Well true, but I've always felt that Stanislavski's system is partially there to try and create spontaneous ability to live in the character, but I can see what you mean, theres only so much textual analysis you can do on a character sheet

[lentilthelegume]

Also, I found Scaithgrace awesome fun to bounce off - Sophie's opinion of him switched quite a lot. She found him sinister but reasonably likeable at first, then there was the very sudden threat that rather took her aback and she was a bit more suspicious of him after that. The practicalities of working together to resolve the situation raised him in her esteem again, and the encounter with Niles pissed her off.

Ultimately, she would probably share a drink with him because she thinks he's interesting, but would not want him to meet other people she knew.

Mind you, she doesn't really object to a bit of head-fuckery, like when he was trying to get the Opium dealers' names.

[mostlyfoo]

Yeah I was hoping you wouldn't realise quite what I was fishing for and would think I was another addict, but Sophie was clearly way too on the ball, hence why he fished for a bit then lost interest when it was clear he wasn't going to get anything useful out of her.

Similarly I found Sophie interesting, I'd written her off initially as just some silly poet, then when you started showing people the san-effecty ruins and ponder hugging jellyfish I started to worry you were going to be trouble by being so enthusiastic and getting in the way of the debt collection by prying, however I think Scaithgrace ruled her out as a threat in the end as she didn't seem the type to dob him into the law, and I think he was hoping she'd just enjoy her encounter with scary types and use it as inspiration then they could go their separate ways.

[mostlyfoo]

Ahh so you feel you can use these archetypes as a base for then setting up the character background and motivation off, or rather you examine the background and work out which archetype it's likely to push them towards

[mostlyfoo]

Ahh indeed that is the important thing to consider, that as long as a character is consistent with themselves and the world then anything can have happened that fits and fills in the blanks in their history :)

Malleable pasts (almost wrote pastas) are a valuable tool for characters to have, and I find they sometimes help drive and create the characters future or present actions, as I said sometimes its not clear to me what happened in their past until I need to rely on that part of them, then it crystallises and becomes formed.

[evilbilbo]

How do I get into the character's minds?
It kind of depends on who I'm trying to convay but generally what I quiet often fine is if I locate the part of myself which is reflected in them, open it up and see what happens.
Elizabeth was I guess the part of me which is the anti-social sit in my room and keep everybody else outside, the bit of me which is intensly private. I pull that bit up and out from whatever little box in my head it's lurking in and let it have reign and see what builds around it.

[mostlyfoo]

Makes sense, take the parts of yourself that are similar, amp them up and ask "What if this did this?" and poke it with a stick :)

[evilbilbo]

It's the method I've always used, but these days they're based around smaller and smaller bits of me and more and more a new character.
Though some it's hard to identify the starting link once I look at the end character.