Interesting comments.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=145962.msg6723236#msg6723236">Quote from: apostateCourier on 07-08-2012, 15:56:14</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">But, characters are the driving force of any story.  We HAVE to make things happen, otherwise how will our situation improve?<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Let's say I play Spiderman.<br/><br/>I have Spiderman go on patrol.  After that, I can't make anything happen.<br/><br/>The GM has a bank robbery occur.  I can have Spiderman swing in, beat up the bad guys, make funny statements and save the day.<br/><br/>As a player, I can only initiate going on patrol.  But I cannot initiate the bank robbery that would make Spiderman shine.  Only the GM can initiate the event.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=145962.msg6723296#msg6723296">Quote from: Blinkin on 07-08-2012, 16:20:35</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I tend to agree with the idea that characters have to make something happen... if you want your character to become involved in a gruge with the gnome, for example, go out and challenge him. You don't have to wait for the GM to initiate events; you can make them happen. I think all of us have been reluctant to do so because of the lack of general knowledge about the setting and/or waiting for things to happen. RPGs are fueled by characters and players. The GM only guides.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Using the above Spiderman example...  I, as the player, want Spiderman to stop a bank robbery.  But Spiderman can't get the bad guys to do a bank robbery, only the GM can.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I also disagree strongly with the "Everyone gets something good happen but one gets something bad happen." My primary objection is that there's no causation prompting the bad thing to happen... is it just, "Oh, it's Her bad day and because she breaths, she gets whipped for blinking twice." as for the good things... if you don't earn it, then it doesn't mean much to me. Agan, if you find the secret door to the sacrid snack chamber and the character didn't do anything but exist... it makes the game pretty dull.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>The party got press-ganged onto the Wormwood.  We the<em>players </em>wanted our characters to play a pirate game, and the GM had an event that caused that to happen.  But our<em>characters </em>didn't want to get press-ganged.  Getting press-ganged happened to the party.  There was no causation on the part of our characters there.  They were victims.<br/><br/>Making stuff happen is just to speed the game up.  We need to build up faction and know the ship in order to take it over eventually, so instead of the player taking a day to say "I make nice with the gnome" and the GM taking another day to say "success," the GM can just say "success with the gnome."  Game progresses.<br/><br/>Also, I don't feel particularly rewarded by anything my character attempts and succeeds at.  I don't feel like I "earned" anything.  It's not like I was fist-pumping that Beriana aced the climb checks during the rigger test.   Beriana succeeded, but that success meant nothing to me.<br/><br/>I mean, if I the player in real life climbed something and won, sure, I would feel I earned it.  But if my fictional character had nice dice rolls, I the player don't feel like I earned anything.<br/><br/>My reward is the role play itself.  One of my favorite posts to write was when Beriana failed horribly on a diplomacy check with a female gnome rigger.  I actually wrote about how he failed it (by telling her gnome jokes).  My character "lost" the check, but I the player "won" with a chance to RP an outcome.<br/><br/>There doesn't have to be causation for bad things to happen to our characters.  Our characters are basically prisoners and slaves.  Bad stuff is supposed to happen to them, whether they like it or not.<br/><br/>Also, everyone is going to do what they're told while attempting to make friends without doing anything wild and crazy.  During a tabletop game, you can run an in-game day in real-life minutes.  On a forum, an in-game day can take a real-life week.  We're in the middle of Day 3 and the game started almost four weeks ago.  The ship is going to get somewhere eventually, but if it's day 14 and we continue at this pace then I'll just quit now.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Make something happen, yes. Have something that allows the characters to interact as a group, yes. Mix things up and speed up the mundane things, yes. Make the GM do ALL of the work so we can sit back and say "ok." No.<br/><br/>The thing to remember about S"Starting things" is that there are reprocussions. If the law of the sea is no fighting with your crewmates. Then if the gnome starts something with your character, he knows that he's going to get a lashing at least, and so is your character. So, why should he if the lady isn't complaining or making him do it? He HAS the experience to know that he's going to get more than a beating from a half-orc out of it.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I don't want to just say "ok."  I want stuff to happen that I can role play out.<br/><br/>The gnome would not logically start something with Beriana.  Add alcohol and jealousy, and he might start something irrationally, regardless of the consequences.<br/><br/>I the player would like to have Beriana get punished, but Beriana's not knowingly going to do anything to make that happen.<br/><br/>I mean, if the GM is okay with it, I can post about the drunk, jealous gnome picking the fight with Beriana.  Or I can post about Scourge thinking that Beriana was challenging him even though Beriana wasn't.<br/><br/>