Roster Characters & WoD?

[Ganymede]

@derp said in Roster Characters & WoD?:

Alright. So then what happens when someone picks up that roster with those, presumably, unique hooks and whatnot and then just doesn't play them?

Then you toss them back.

The thing about the World of Darkness, relative to Arx, is that WoD leaders can be deposed more easily. On Arx, if you are the head of a house, it is difficult to remove the person from their position because it is based on blood and heredity. So you have Voices, which can speak for the House, but never quite take over.

Take, for instance, Maddy (my PC) from Echoes. If I flaked out and didn't do what I needed to as Bishop or Primogen, then someone else could simply depose her be edict from an NPC Archbishop. Leadership problem solved. And if someone picked her up after I idled out, they would have to deal with the consequences.

When comparing the two situations, it simply makes sense to me to have Maddy rostered unless I give staff permission to do whatever it wants with her upon her death. If I recall, that's exactly what happened on Echoes; if a PC idled-out, they became fodder for plots. That doesn't really happen much on Arx, but when it does it becomes fodder for plots for PCs to get engaged in, and the Circle of PC life continues.

[Tinuviel]

I'd only be even remotely okay with this if it were optional. I MU* to play my own characters, not step into the soiled shoes of someone else's idea that was played by another person that didn't write anything down.

[mietze]

I've never seen a completely roster game in action--well, actually that's not true I don't think, since I did log in to Firan a few times (but couldn't get into it because of the code) which was IIRC a complete roster game/no OCs?

I tend to not pick up rosters. Savage Skies was an exception, as one of the rosters there grabbed me and I had a ton of fun with him, only resigned the pc when I knew I wasn't going to be able to play due to RL stuff.

I don't think anyone picked him up after that though, which is too bad. But I've met too many people who seemed to find being able to jump in without having to go through the CG process (other than an application). I will say being able to see "examples" of PC writeups (the available rosters) has helped me A LOT during cging of normal PCs on the games that had them available.

[il-volpe]

Thing. Wot means roster character?

There's the "Feature character" model like on some BuffyMUs, where the scooby characters are traded around.

There's a roster of pre-made characters you can take, and they may or may not have been played before or be expected to be recycled if you leave them, and maybe they're open to everyone or maybe the character is Abelard's sister and only Abelard's player can approve you taking that one.

Then there's like, positions rosters, where, say, your game goes through a passel of sheriffs and town judges as some leave and some die, but each is a unique character. But seldom does somebody RP their way into the role, the PCs are made with it in mind.

[Tinuviel]

@il-volpe said in Roster Characters & WoD?:

Wot means roster character?

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it means the second option you gave.

[il-volpe]

@tinuviel I'm all for it except the bit where characters get passed from player to player. Warn people that such things are almost never taken.

[Tinuviel]

@il-volpe I mean. That's a big part of the roster character idea. Anyone can pick up the character once it's been given up.

[il-volpe]

@tinuviel Okay. Seems like it needn't be. Just toss them after a player or two, and let people who want pre-made characters have them, if people want to make them.

Or, like, templates? Fill in a few details to make it yours? After a while the similar concepts will start to get wearing if a lot of people use it, but you could retire the template for a while.

[Tinuviel]

@il-volpe Or like... just make your own character and not bother with the faff of a roster?

[Too Old For This]

@ganymede said in Roster Characters & WoD?:

@derp said in Roster Characters & WoD?:

Your continuity goes all to hell as each and every person plays them in a different way because they don't actually give a shit about their story or history, they just don't wanna do the chargen work.

It's funny to me because this does not seem to be a huge issue on large games with a roster like, oh, Arx. I mean, sure, it has a host of attendant problems, but this really isn't one of them. And frankly, I think what you said before says more about World of Darkness players than about rosters.

To be fair, though, I'd probably allow every player to make 1 OC when they come on board. After that, like, do what you will, but if you hand-off your PC to an idle-out, like on most WoD games, that PC's fate is in staff's hands unless you give some sort of last-will instruction.

In regards to Arx, they actually had to recently make a statement and update to the rules that roster characters would have to be played for a certain amount of time before any large changes could be made specifically because people were picking up a character just long enough to kill off an idle spouse/HoH so they could be 'free' to play the character they wanted.... then the character would idle out within a month of the request being granted. Insert also 'scrape sheets for extra xp that could be sent to their main alt', 'make huge sweeping changes to their background/personality/etc.', 'scrap inventories for mats/empty bank accounts of saved gold or resources'.... like it became enough of an issue that staff had to make a new rule to keep people from doing it.

[Grayson]

@chibichibi said in Roster Characters & WoD?:

Wouldn't the equivalent of a WoD roster character just be those templates found at the end of each and every splat/tradition/convention/tribe/clan book? You could easily take those and boom, ROSTER.

Gods, no. Have you seen those characters?

[Ganymede]

@grayson

I r samuel haight cat.

[HorrorHound]

Not sure who said it, was barely paying attention: But anyone who idles out, and does not really alert staff (your GMs and STs) to any Real Life Bullshit keeping you away -- I fully support them going ham. WoD is a shitty place. PCs live in a shitty place. It is good to use abandoned PCs as examples, especially if they're leaders.

My vitriol for rosters still exists.

[Tinuviel]

@horrorhound said in Roster Characters & WoD?:

It is good to use abandoned PCs as examples

I have to absolutely disagree. Sure, PCs losing their position is important. But if I've had to abandon a character because of real life bullshit, and you decide to just arbitrarily kill off (or otherwise make unplayable) my character? Like fuck would I stick around.

[HorrorHound]

@tinuviel

Clarification: By abandoned I mean like, you've been gone a year. Fwoof.

[Tinuviel]

@horrorhound Well, you did say 'idles out'. And that's usually a month.

[HorrorHound]

@tinuviel my bad.

[Solstice]

I hate the Roster system because very frequently, the character has been dropped for a reason. So if you get re-involved with whoever picks it up next, you finally get them up to speed with your character beats and how you two got along, and then it gets dropped again. And you get re-involved, and you finally get them back up to speed, and then it gets dropped again.

It's like endlessly playing reruns of the same episode of Doctor Who, except each time with a different Doctor.

So then the next time the Roster comes up, you're too exhausted with it to even send an @mail that you had anything to do with them at all.

...I hates it.

[Tinuviel]

I hate the roster style for the same reasons as above, with the addition of a roster character never feels like my character. I feel like just an actor, pulled in to play a role, when what I want to be is a writer as well.

My character is mine. I made it. I know it. I'm the driver and I built the engine.

[Pyrephox]

@tinuviel I think it's okay for games to exist that aren't 'for' every player. Just because something isn't to a player's tastes, doesn't make it wrong.

Roster characters aren't my first choice, generally, although I do consider them a fun challenge if there's one that sparks my fancy. But there's nothing wrong with a game having them. More diversity in games and game philosophies is a net good, I think, even if it means not every game out there will be my style.