@Jeshin said in Emotional bleed:
Integrity of the story, not individual integrity. The shared suspension of disbelief. Obviously people have feelings and one of the reasons there's such a culture of don't do it finger wagging (I think) is because of the final question.
Mmm. I would not describe it as 'integrity' but there's a thing.
For shared suspension of disbelief, we need all the players to understand the game-world consistently with one another. We also tend to like a consistent emotional tone to the game. We call the mix 'theme', right? Pop fiction IPs work great because lots of people will already know what the game's universe is like, and also things like where the overall comedy/action/angst/coziness levels can be expected to lie.
What the hobby doesn't seem to have done is find a consistent way to communicate the OOC version of this. 'Community theme'? A "we're a serious bunch trying to tell a grim and complex story, and this tale holds priority" makes a very different MU from "We're goofing off and if we make a great story that's awesome but everybody having a good time is priority." Plus a lot of points in between, plus, "Core players having a good time telling their cool and complex story is priority, we'll fuck up that story to cater to their feelings, but not yours."
What your game is like in this community-thing regard probably makes a huge difference as to what bleed even is, as well as how to handle it.
