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Defining "Character"
Sir Magnus of Narnia:
Back after some cleaning up.
Comments still welcome.
Defining “Character”:
One of the attractive aspects of Dagorhir is the chance to step into the role of another person in a different time or place. This often called a person’s character or person. People tend to throw around terms like role-playing, characterization, and garb, but don’t often share a common idea of what these terms mean. This can cause a lot of confusion as people try to explain one concept with a term that other people think means something completely different. The following is a collection of common terms commonly used to describe characters or personas in Dagorhir.
Character: A generic term for a collection of elements used by a player to either a.) Meet the basic requirements to play the game, or to b) create a certain effect or image in addition to the basic requirements. The term “persona” is another common term meaning basically the same thing.
Garb: Garb is the clothing worn by people during events. Garb is broken into two classes.
• Garb (required): This is the basic garb players are required to wear in order to participate in the game. The rules and the local customs dictate what is required. Required garb can be simple or very high quality, but the person is making no attempt to capture a certain look, feel, or time period.
• Garb (for effect): Garb for effect is garb that is worn to achieve a certain look such as a fantasy race, period of history, or a theme. Examples of garb for effect can include units that wear all one color, elf ears, animal masks, and undead costumes. None of this is required by the rules.
Characterization: Characterization includes small details that help a person or groups achieve a certain look, image, or effect, but is not necessarily garb or role-playing. Characterization is broken into three categories.
• Characterization (props): These are props used by a person or group to create a certain effect. Things like unit flags, the Narnian lamp post outside our campsite, medieval looking camp accessories, or feast gear. It can also include themed weapons and armor. Prop characterization is not role-playing, because you are not actively working at characterization all the time. It is basically a back drop.
• Characterization (atmosphere): This includes things like unit initiation rituals, Knighting ceremonies, a battle cry, acting out wounds in battle, music, and so on. This is not role-playing because people are not required to be “in character” while doing it and it is not a continuous effort. People participating in atmosphere characterization will often speak in modern language, draw reference to things from the real world (such as helping in a chapter, or attending events), and break from the effort frequently. I tend to include character names in this category as opposed to role playing because most everyone has a character name and uses it while playing.
• Characterization (back story): Many people create or adopt back stories for their character. This can include stories created by the player or popular stories (such as from books or movies). A back story is not role-playing since on its own the back story is not outwardly expressed. A characters back story can enhance the other elements of the character by providing a complete reasoning why a character acts and look a certain way. This is directly related to how “public” the back story is. If the players makes no attempt to tell other people their back story, this story will only serve to assist the player in maintaining continuity as they added new elements to their character. For example “if my character had feast garb, based on his or her back story what would it look like”? Public back stories make other things such as props and garb easily identifiable to outsiders and can increase the impact of the element. For example Narnia uses a very common public back story. We have a lamp post in our camp; people who visit can quickly put two and two together and this increase the impact of that element more so than if we had to explain it to each person who visits.
Role playing: Role playing is an active attempt to portray a role or character. This would include things like speaking like your character at all times, living like your character (primitive camp), etc, and ignoring obviously modern things (such as people talking about real life things during events) in an attempt to complete a total image for your character.
The breakdown: Taking each of the following elements break down the type of character you want. Fill in the gaps (remember not all are required), and make a check list of thing you want to get or information you need to research. Use this as a jumping off point to either get started or improve your “character”.
Bryn:
Just as I did last time, I'll leave the wording up to other, more experienced people and just focus on the grammar for the sake of a clean look.
In your first paragraph, there's an extra apostrophe after "don't." There shouldn't be.
Sir Magnus of Narnia:
Quote from: Bryn, Corrupted Soul on January 26, 2011, 02:34:20 am>>>>Just as I did last time, I'll leave the wording up to other, more experienced people and just focus on the grammar for the sake of a clean look.
In your first paragraph, there's an extra apostrophe after "don't." There shouldn't be.
<<<<
Thanks! Got it. No by all means, it helps me out because half the time I am typing while doing five other things.
Bryn:
Quote from: Sir Magnus of Narnia on January 26, 2011, 02:35:54 am>>>>Quote from: Bryn, Corrupted Soul on January 26, 2011, 02:34:20 am>>>>Just as I did last time, I'll leave the wording up to other, more experienced people and just focus on the grammar for the sake of a clean look.
In your first paragraph, there's an extra apostrophe after "don't." There shouldn't be.
<<<<
Thanks! Got it. No by all means, it helps me out because half the time I am typing while doing five other things.
<<<<
Got it. I'll see if I can find anything else.
Kaelivrin Sarnor-Velve:
I need to show this article to some people I know, including me from time to time.
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