Fasold’s Characters

[Kelemelan]

Although I do enjoy playing in harsh fantasy games, just killing stuff is of no interest to me. Actually, I can play (or GM) without killing at all, and I can do that in very difficult settings, were character could die any second… 🙂

In such instances, the tension creates an even more gratifying ambiance. 🙂

In my experience, GMing a game is a lot like writing, with just less or more improvisations depending on your style. 🙂

[Fasoldgames]

But Kelemelan, don’t you find it strangely relaxing to take an axe to somebody’s head?
I do, and I can’t do that in normal life, it isn’t nice 🙂

Especially after a stressful day’s work, I also found it quite stress relieving to engage in the wholesale slaughter of some goblin tribe or other, and they are evil anyway, so it is all okay 🙂

[Kelemelan]

I agree, Fasold, and that’s also part of why I’m a roleplayer, nevertheless, my answer will be twofold:

1. okay, hack & slash killing can be “entertaining”, to a point, as a stress reliever for the evening if you will, like you just said… I support that. And I add such fights in my games because of that. 🙂
2. nevertheless, I insist that it’s not about killing, it’s about shooting stuff or just about the stress or the intensity of it (à la Hitchcock). In my games, the fighting happens as it should, that is: if you kill 10 people, there’s going to be blood & guts everywhere, you’re gonna stink like a slaughterhouse (which is exactly where you’re standing by the way…), and people around you are going to react to the smell and to your actions.

So now no matter who or what you’ve killed, even if it was just game (animals that is), the basic idea is that like sex, killing (most types of it anyway) is dirty, so it shouldn’t be the only fun there is. Adventuring, or spying or solving puzzle or stuff like that should be more fun than killing. Killing should be just an accidental event (to relieve the tension if you will, that’s how I’m using it. 🙂 )

[caenissnow]

In my fiction there’s war. And sex. Lots of both. In gaming, sadly, there’s only war. (Except in my Skyrim anyway.) (Thank you Sexlab.) Killing can be necessary, and sometimes it can be avoided. There are different paths you can take in every game. In my Skyrim I sometimes play without a weapon so no fighting at all. I make up a story for my character where she has to get from XXXXX town to XXXXX town and has to get there without getting killed. It can be amazingly difficult, but incredibly fun.

In GW2 just now… My friend and I were doing our nightly play and we followed a group into a dungeon we’d never been in before. There was a puzzle inside…. putting ‘eyes’ on the proper sequence of stones. I’m not sure how many times we tried till it finally opened. It was me and my friend and three others who we didn’t know at all. (In GW2 you are to just run to join in… no grouping/party needed so you end up really getting to do all sorts of interesting things just by joining in.) That sort of thing is everywhere.

In any case, I enjoy the strategy of the kills. Whether sneaking and conquering from afar, running in and hitting everything at once, putting debuffs and all on the mob, or healing everyone else running in. Whatever… It’s all fun. In a group or alone.

[Kelemelan]

There’s an easy way out : fighting, but not killing at all. 😉

You know I’m used to running supers game, okay ? So while I was playing stuff like City of Heroes (Supers MMORPG) my perspective was just that my foes were down/stunned/cufffed/whatever/ready for the cops but not dead.

And I was roleplaying that part. 🙂

Simple as that. 🙂

Many ways an opponent can be incapacitated without killing him, especially in a world of your own. 😉

But, yeah, except the obsessive use of the word “kill” 😉 I basically agree with you. ^_^

[Fasoldgames]

Guildwars 2 does sound like a lot of fun! I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet this weekend, been rather busy with singing and going to a concert of my singing teacher, which was quite a bit of fun, but I do honestly want to try it out!

And I agree about the sex thing, in games like Skyrim, it should be there, as a natural part of life. You can hack a person to bits, but not engage in the act of love, because that would be offensive? That is always a bit strange to me.

And if treated with class and subtlety, it could be quite beautiful, I think.

[Kelemelan]

Ahem… Death, plagues and epidemics are natural parts of life too. I wouldn’t beg for them to happen just because they are “natural”. 🙁

“Natural” doesn’t support any point of view, it’s like saying : “it happens”

In PnP I’m fine with that provided I’m dealing with a GM with an appropriate moral compass (and this can be agreed upon with a real life person, the compass must evolve if all the players are kids for instance 🙂 . But in a computer game the lowest common denominator has to apply. You never know who’s going to play and who’s going to end up in front of the screen. 🙂

[caenissnow]

@Fasoldgames

Yes! GW2 is a lot of fun. i have my male solo character now and he’s a blast. 😀 I showed him to my friend last night…. Introduced them, so to speak. (He’s a bit jealous of other men around me but he doesn’t seem to mind when I play a male character solo. Then later, he makes his characters look like my solo ones. It’s kinda cute.) 😀

And as for sex in Skyrim, well, I can’t say it’s ALL class and subtlety, but I’m perfectly fine with that. I’m just so glad it’s available.

@Kelemelan

And um….. sex is FAR more common than plagues and epidemics, thank goodness. And frankly, um… yeah, it is natural and yeah, it does happen. And yeah, I’m a woman saying all that. 😀

I never will understand why in the world people are so afraid of it. I’m glad it’s in the Witcher games and the Dragon Age games. I hope they start a trend.

[Kelemelan]

You’re misunderstanding me.

I’m not saying it’s wrong. I’m saying plagues and epidemics and death, and hatred, etc… are just as common, especially in a medieval setting. Actually, this is WHY the birth rate was that important… because there were so many people dying… at an early age or later. Just have a look at medieval demographics and cause of death. 🙂

For instance, the great plague of Vienna caused 76 thousand deaths and it was just one of many in those times (which weren’t even the middle ages, btw, that plague is from the 17th century).

On the other hand, where a social activity is involved I still believe everything is not okay. If you can be certain only mature adult people will be involved, okay, fine with me, now how can you make sure of that ? 🙂

[caenissnow]

Yeah…. In my book there’s a HUGE birth rate issue. It’s a genetic mutation, and they come up with laws to help combat it. Sadly, those laws wreak other kinds of havoc.

In most of these games there’s no epidemic going on, thankfully.

Skyrim is solo play so yeah…. they’re all adults. In an online setting, well, there is an online RPG game in development with that in mind, but it’s adults only. (Have no idea how it works… it’s in alpha atm. How they would keep the kiddies from getting in I don’t know. It will be a monthly pay model though so I would bet that would stop most.)

In any case, the man I play online games with is 62 and a grandpa. 🙂 No worries there.

[Kelemelan]

Point with that kind of stuff is that 15 years old are usually more tech-savvy then their parents. 😉 😛 ^_^

So it’s not about what’s in theory nice or fine but about what’s happening for real. 🙂

Don’t know about Skyrim but I’m certain that if a 12 years old finds it fun and if his mum is weak enough to let him. Well, he or she will. 🙂 That’s why some stuff have to be hardcoded in the game.

I understand the issue because I had to referee this kind of stuff as a GM times and times over. Now, just like online games, some GMs you will agree with and others will piss you ff, that’s what a referee does I’m afraid. 😉

[Fasoldgames]

Well, I’m actually not all about class and subtlety 🙂
But, strangely enough, it is still a topic I kind of tiptoe around, when speaking about it.

I wish I could be like Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man, and just talk without restrains about the hot, vertical mambo 🙂

Actually, I could not remember what slang term he used in that film, so I googled slang, and this page is quite interesting, never knew there where so many slang words for human procreation activities 🙂

(http://onlineslangdictionary.com/thesaurus/words+meaning+sex,+sexual+intercourse.html)

I hope I don’t get banned from this forum for this 🙂

[caenissnow]

@Fasoldgames

Oh god! I love that movie!!!! 😀 And the whole awful Barbarella style of lovemaking…. geez… 😀

Yeah – I sometimes use a website for descriptive words when I’ve used the same ones rather a lot in my fiction called “Erotica for the Big Brain” but yeah… I know what you mean about getting banned for talking about stuff like this. I really wish people weren’t quite so prudish. But, you know… it is as it is, sadly. 😀 Thank goodness for writing fiction and Skyrim or I’d completely go out of my mind. 😀

@Kelemelan

I think you have to be an adult to get the mods from Sexlab too, actually, but yeah… For sure there’s some kids out there messing around with it. Shoot, if I was still a kid, I’d be trying every mod out there. 😀 As for tech savvy… well, that depends on the parents. In my house my kids came to me for computer help.

As for GMs refereeing, I think that’s why I like playing games my own way. 😀

I’m really starting to sound kinda set in my ways, aren’t I? 😀

[Kelemelan]

Hey, each and every RPGer I know have always been somehow hard-nosed in their own ways. Now GMing should be finding a middle way between everyone’s perspective, not imposing yours. Of course, if someone has to eventually decide on some specific issue, it has to be the GM, but this should be a last resort option (pity it happens that often, but when your party is ok, it works smoothly 🙂 ).

Btw, a good GMs makes a good referee… and the other way round. We are talking about live people there. ^_^ Gamemastering is definitely much more akin to an art.

[caenissnow]

Ah well, pen and paper days are gone for me, since my life seems to be a primarily solo experience these days. 😛 But hey as long as everyone is having fun it’s all good. 🙂

[Author]

Posts