Through which lens...

[Wretched]

So, I like watching things, many different varieties of things, and I hear it's not an uncommon hobby. Movies, TV shows, Comic Books, Novels, Games. many of these have specific themes and styles, be they Noir, Comedy, Action, Suspense, Whatever the fuck the Awesomesauce that was into the Spiderverse was...

So I am curious, through which lens, if any, do you see the world when you are MUing? Does it change between characters? Does it change between scenes? Do you rely entirely on the game itself or add your own flavor?

When i was younger, it was very Tim Burton mixed with 8mm, I went through a phase that was more edgelord than normal with Underworld/jason Statham stuff, Rawr battle badass unf.

These days i focus on more of the absurd, my internal dialogue is way more 'What we Do in the Shadows', I mean sure i am playing a spooky dark forest dwelling demigod... but my interest comes from how he interacts with people and the world and how bizarre and strange it can be. See new changelings introduced to cell phone 'contracts'.

[Coin]

It depends on the character and the game; sometimes it also depends on the combination of characters with a game and what the scene entails.

While I often try to keep a backdrop of the game's general genre, I find that MUing is very flexible in that each scene can almost have its own genre, though of course genres that have more to do with character attitude rather than setting elements are much easier to change into "subgenres" within the game's main one.

For example, it's easy to get into a romantic drama subgenre for a scene in a World of Darkness game or a Battlestar Galactica game, but I doubt you'll have fantastical elements in the latter, or Cylons in the former.

[Ganymede]

@Coin said in Through which lens...:

While I often try to keep a backdrop of the game's general genre, I find that MUing is very flexible in that each scene can almost have its own genre, though of course genres that have more to do with character attitude rather than setting elements are much easier to change into "subgenres" within the game's main one.

I concur, but write separately to add.

I find that mixing genres can be tricky, and sometimes jarring. When I was playing on a Lords & Ladies game, I was hoping for a darker, more noir setting than expected, and I did not get what I was looking for. When I was playing on Fallen World, I played my PC through the lens of being a "superhero" as opposed to a "mystery solver," and that was nominally more successful. I did not get as much grit as I wanted in BSG:U, but I ended up with a lighter, more comical take to the war stories, and that seemed to work quite well with Fox Force Five.

So, it does depend, but having the wrong lens can make an experience dissonant.

[Coin]

Absolutely, Gany. I agree. You have to be able to pick the right genre to mix.

[saosmash]

It cracks me up whenever Gany writes a concurring opinion.

I rememberon SL an event at one point where we were supposed to play up the gratuitous cheesecake angle like we were on a WB show or something and ... my posing did not noticeably change.

... oops?

[Ghost]

WoD - Detroit in The Crow meets some aspects of Underworld. Live-action. Scenes filmed in blue or green filters. Fire makes shadows. Gotta keep it grimdark.

Actually, everything to me is live-action. Trek. Star Wars, BSG, Zombies are almost always in my head as close to the core visual style of the source material. An anime-themed game would always play out in my head like anime; sometimes even that shitty 80s Robotech animation. Which is why SuperHeroStuff mushes to me are always in full color comic book style in my head; never live-action.

I don't see Jeremy Renner. I see Clint Barton.

[mietze]

It can change drastically between characters, for me. I prefer that, since it helps me a lot to get the widest variety of RP/helps with the restlessness.

[juke]

Whatever I imagine about how it'll be before I start RPing a new character, it almost always winds up being something else. Most RP feels cinematic to me, but I think music winds up shaping the tone/mood of my RP more often than films/shows/film genres.

I'm can also be pretty easily influenced by qualities of books I'm reading at the time, if the author has a particularly strong style/tone/rhythm/etc. I try not to be, but for MU* writing it inevitably slips through.

[LittleLizard]

This post is deleted!

[Wretched]

@LittleLizard Vampire should only be played like this from now on.

[Ghost]

God, that trial episode was epic. The nod to Only Lovers Left Alive was epic.

[surreality]

"To throw a bad vampire orgy, I don't know how one would recover! Half the bats you see, they are just vampires who have thrown terrible orgies and they are too afraid to regain their vampire form. They just flit around. Shame bats. Bats full of shame. And you know them, because they don't fly as high."