Posted by Kim on August 14, 2013, 1:42pm
Today's tutorial comes from Ben, a long-time community member, serial game master and talented writer. He's majored in writing and theatre, and uses these twin passions as fuel for RP with so much personality you just can't stop! Back in April, Ben took first place in our tutorial contest with the following tips on how to breathe life back into stagnating characters or plotlines.Without further preamble, I give you Ben:
Introduction
Oh no Ben's about to go on another rant about theatre.
THAT'S RIGHT AND YOU'VE GOT TO SUFFER THROUGH IT.
Who is this guide for?
This guide is for experienced and new roleplayers alike. Specifically, it's for roleplayers who are having trouble with one or more of their characters. If you've got a character that isn't fun any more, or doesn't interact in the right ways, or their story has either come to a close or petered out, then this guide is for you. If you have trouble coming up with backstory and history for your characters, this guide is also for you. If your characters are all going well, but you just want to dig a little deeper into their personalities, well, this guide is for you!
What's this guide all about?
In this guide I'm going to discuss a few elements of one of the major schools of acting, created by Constantin Stanislavski, and how they can applied to your roleplay. Before we start, I want you to abandon one major misconception about good character development.
I've heard all sorts of tips for giving characters a little more life: the most common being rich backgrounds that shape their development. While these are undoubtedly useful tools for both the writer and the actor, I consider them to be traps. These should be supplementary tools, second to the arguably most important influence on a character's action. Dreams of the future.
When actors prepare for a role they often come up with detailed backstories for their characters, and while these histories are a great help when shaping a character they are always internal. They're not in the script, and so the audience never knows what they are. There might be hints in the way that the actions on stage are played out, but nothing is specifically revealed if it isn't in the script. How much does get revealed in the script varies from one playwright to another but more often than not, if the information isn't moving along the plot, it tends to be left ambiguous. Roleplayers, and writers of fiction, could take a lesson from this separation. Just because you know something is true about a character, does not mean it needs to be revealed. I'm not telling you to do away with character backgrounds, but I want you to put them aside for a while, because we're going to talk about what creates active, engaging roleplay.
The Basics of Stanislavski
An actor according to Stanislavski, when choosing how and where to move on stage, must in every moment be aware of these four things.
- The super-objective, a goal that leads them through the whole play, which invokes
- A through-action, a single intention and desire for the current scene, which informs
- An action, which is a step or strategy used to help achieve their desire, which is driven by
- An objective, the immediate impulse that turns simple activities into actions.
Don't worry, we're going to take this one step at a time. Let's get into actions in more detail first.
Activity vs. Action
An activity is a thing a character does without specific intention. An action is a strategy that a character uses in order to achieve an objective. An objective is the desire to do something, achieve something, affect another character. It's a goal. Put simply, an objective turns an activity into an action. As a good habit, all objectives should be directly related to other characters in a given scene.
Activity: Going jogging.
Action: Going jogging because there's a girl who goes jogging in the same park, who you'd like to meet.
Activity: Putting on a tie.
Action: The boss is visiting and you want to impress, so you're dressing up.
It's pretty easy, starting to see the pattern? Objectives turn ordinary activities, things we do every day, that your characters do every day, into important character driven events. The stronger the objective, the better the roleplay. Alright, so now we know what the difference is, how do we go about turning everything a character does into an action?
Through-action
When your character enters a scene, before you make your first post, decide something. What does your character want? Give them one goal to achieve, and make that goal somehow related to the other characters in the scene. This scene by scene objective is called the through-action. Now here's the trick. Make everything, and I mean everything that your character does a strategy that in some way helps them achieve their objective for the scene. Every time you post ask yourself “what does my character want, and what are they going to do in order to get it?” Also be aware of the obstacles that stand in your character's way. They will guide the efforts to achieve a specific goal. This will make your roleplay more active and exciting. Okay, so, how do you pick a through-action?
Super-objective
This is the big one, and really you only need one. Pick one long term goal, something that your character wants to do with their life. Give them a dream, that leads them into the future and drives them to take charge of their own fate. Make it difficult and make it powerful. It can be simple, too. Revenge, love, all the classics are fine. The specifics will develop out of your scenes. Once you've chosen one long term goal, make the through-action of every scene somehow related to achieving it.
The super-objective should be powerful enough to be on the character's mind a lot. The trick is to find something that other characters can do to help your character achieve their dream. Or alternatively find something that they need to stop doing to make your character's life easier. In all your decision making, include other characters, create friction by interacting with characters that seem to have oppositional intentions. If you want drama, you don't need to plan a sweeping plot, all you need to do is put two characters together who need different things. Or perhaps the same thing.
Closing Thoughts
I don't believe that the past ever drives action, it only influences a character's future aspirations. To be clear, I'm not saying the past is unimportant. Emotional knee-jerk reactions, avoidance behaviour, and a number of other elements of character depend on their history. But the past governs reactions, not actions. Past events can be helpful in shaping a character's dreams, but the dreams themselves drive action. Revealing your character's motivations through the actions they take will always be more telling than pontificating ad nauseum about their history. Don't fall into the trap of backstory -- move forward.
Comments
Martini
August 15, 2013
7:54pm
Awesome Ben! I'm so glad you did this!
Hoohah so very helpful. 
Thanks so much for sharing this information with all of us, I know without a doubt all will find it helpful!
Thanks so much for sharing this information with all of us, I know without a doubt all will find it helpful!
Thanks for the responses guys! I hope this is helpful. If you ever want any extra clarification, feel free to post your questions here or hit me up in PM.
Regarding Rosby's questions:
I hope this helps
Regarding Rosby's questions:
- Regarding unconscious super-objectives: While it is helpful to consider these as fixed constants for developing characters, the truth is they rarely are. It takes a very driven person to always know what they want, and most, if not all of us, go through periods of turmoil during which our dreams change and our true aspirations are revealed. So I would encourage this sort of thing. Self discovery can be a powerful guiding force, and as powerful emotionally as long needed reconciliation.
- On vices: I would be careful with this one. If not done right, your character can lose the depth we're striving for. Vices are great, but here's the thing. A lot of the time, addictions, and serious issues of self confidence are hidden elements of a character. Most people with serious issues are actually quite difficult to spot, because they're good at hiding them to the average acquaintance, even to their loved ones. At least until those issues boil over and become too visible to hide. So the answer is tentatively, this can drive good plot. But don't overdo it. Your character should have more to them, and they should hide their problems well. No one wants to RP with characters who become the dictionary definition of their vices.
- About characters with a cross purpose: I would actually avoid establishing a second set of objectives, unless you want the character to have a conflict about what they're doing. If they know what they're doing, why they're doing it, and aren't likely to deviate, just make their objectives surround the subterfuge. Remember this work is internal, so the less is revealed the more unclear your character's true intentions are. I would just add a caveat to each scene, "I want them to think that I want ___, in order to get ___" However, if you want to develop a conflict about what they're doing, a spy who begins to question his superiors, a man who married for political gain who begins to fall in love... I would encourage establishing a second super-objective, and putting them at odds.
I hope this helps
Fantastic information, really made me think deep into a few old characters I'm now somewhat excited to pull out. Thank you very much! I think a lot of players such as myself needed a little tutorial boost like this, kudos to you!
The tutorial was very informative, concise and refreshing, and I loved the application of Stanislavski to roleplay. I think many people””myself included””get ensnared in the writing trap, and treat in character exchanges with passivity; they look at it as though it's a chapter in a novel. The problem, of course, is that your own writing is directed entirely by you without any outside input, whereas a roleplay is collaborative, more like improvisational acting than longform fiction. Applying theatrical schools of thought to this medium of storytelling strikes me as very appropriate. My questions are as follows:
- Regarding the super-objective, could it exist subconsciously, or must a character be aware of it as a driving goal? Could part of their journey hinge on the discovery of their true aspirations?
- What are your thoughts on characters whose super-objectives may be clearly defined, but lamely pursued due to flaws such as laziness, substance abuse, or a defeatist attitude bred by self-loathing?
- What about characters who work at a cross-purpose, perhaps for political subterfuge or the manipulation of their family””would it be wise to establish two super-objectives (the apparent and the masked), and through-actions that are willfully disingenuous?
TheLily
August 14, 2013
2:39pm
I really need this right now. I have so many characters who are languishing because I haven't been able to bring them back successfully.
AngelicDevil
August 14, 2013
2:37pm
I kind of skipped through and read the more interesting parts, but it sounds like a well wrote tutorial!
This was actually really kind of fun to read, and makes some really great points that are great for reviving! Thanks for writing it!!
Pirate
August 22, 2013
5:39am