Columns:
Men with a Mission: Getting along
 
 
By: Wouter van de Zandschulp

Role-playing rarely happens alone. Most of the time you are in a party, with groups of people. People who role-play alone out on the street are there, but mostly not for long. Then later you can find them in a mental institution.
If you all role-play in a group, it will be fine, as long as you know when to stop as others enter the room, or you can find this group later on in a mental institution.
There are some dis-advantages about being part of a group, but you will just have to get along, while people outside keep wonder what that mysterious 'RPG' is all about and fear their child is part of a some kind of sekt. We role-players find their wondering quite stupid; we know it's true. We have all kind of secret signals, strange dices and weird ceremonies.
Like when a plastic bag is openend en all kinds of real small salt potato-chips just poor out. Everyone picks up hands full and puts them in their mouth! Strange things after which outsiders only can guess.
Being part of a group like this keeps you quite safe, from the outsiders, that is. To be safe from your groupmembers takes some adjustments, especially in our group. As well the players as the characters need to get along some way or another, the players can't role-play by theirselfes and the characters will get slain by theirselves. Further more, the characters want to be played with by players, but they can't if the players don't play.
So in the two worlds role-players are in, they both need to get along.
But how do you get along with people who throw their drinks over your character sheets, people who make fun of you and your character when they can and don't excuse when they burp? Well, I don't know. Maybe with good old friendliness? Let's demonstrate with me trying to play a gnome, against someone playing an orc, I will try to keep friendly.
Gnome: "I will walk to..."
Orc: "I will walk three."
Gnome: "What?"
Orc: "I will hit the gnome."
Gnome: "I ask: 'Why did you hit me?'"
Orc: "I will eat him."
Gnome: "I ask: 'Why do you eat me?'"
Orc: "You can't talk with your mouth full."
Gnome: "Why not? I see you doing it all the time.. err.. I mean, err.. say, why is my mouth full!"
Orc: "I didn't mean you as player, but you as character."
Gnome: "I'm not eating now as player!"
Orc: "That's why I ment you as player, listen!"
After this it's the Orc who listens at some serious insulting words.
The conclusion of all this is that it is not possible to get along all the time. That's why we will say things we don't mean. It's not our fault, it's not the fault of the others, it's just the way it is. No-one of us is perfect, everyone isn't. So that's why we can take take everything and forgive and forget everything about one another.
We may hit each other, may throw with them, clean the windows with someone else his tongue, but we are all just boys and we can take it, that's what role-play-buddies are for.
We all just stick together and bond when it comes to enemies from the outside, just as our characters. Only they just deal with monsters, we with school and parents, is it a wonder we want to escape in our fantasy-world?

Back to Philosophers Guild





Join the Exchange| RPG NEWS | ARCHIVE | SHEETS | SHOPPING | E-BOOKS | INDIE