azurelunatic | "Is there *hitting*?!"

First, the definitions. Once upon a time,

cadhla posted "Why Coyote doesn't give commandments," wherein she explained how the 10 Commandments as taken down by Moses would be entirely different if originally dictated by Coyote. In these commandments were some concepts that stuck in my brain and made themselves at home, to appear quite cheerfully at later points in time:

II. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife, But Thou Art Totally Welcome To Admire Her Ass When She Walks By, and If It Happens To Come Out That They Are In An Open Relationship, Dude, Tap That Ass As Much As They Are Willing To Allow. Same Goes For the Ladies. Coveting Is Sort Of Stupid, But Sex Is Just Plain Fun, Unless Thou Art Doing It Entirely Wrong.

III. If Thy Neighbor Says 'Hands Off My Wife, Dude', Thou Shalt Listen and Back Off, Because Otherwise, Thy Neighbor Will Be Totally Justified In Hitting You About the Head and Shoulders With Gardening Tools, and Don't Think That I'm Going To Step In There and Stop Him.

IV. Adultery Is Actually Pretty Fun. Commit It All You Like. Just Make Sure Everyone Is Cool With It, Or I Will Not Help You Out Once the Hitting Gets Started.

Somewhat later, I had occasion to be asking a friend about some upcoming plot developments in a role-playing game I was following. The scenario to date had involved a prominent government official, his mistress, and his soon-to-be-ex-wife, and the conversation that was to ensue when the official returned to the home that he had up until quite recently shared with his wife: this being the first time the official had encountered his wife in private after she had learned about his mistress. "Will there be hitting?!" I asked eagerly.

"Hitting" has become a shorthand term of mine, for the situations that have been brewing and are now stacked just exactly so and are inevitably not going to end well once all the pieces are together and something disturbs the previous fragile balance. Usually the explosion happens in a way that will probably leave all participants still alive, but is likely to have people who have been really asking for something winding up getting that something. The characters who have been asking for what they're about to get are not always aware that they're asking for something, or, if they are, aware of what they're asking for. A scene in which I think there will be "hitting" matches them up with someone who is able to dish out what needs dishing out. If the character deserving the dishing out cannot take it, that is their own fault and they have brought it upon themselves. It's not necessarily actual physical violence, but either way, they are going to stumble away from the scene feeling like they've just been on the receiving end of an old-school Barrayaran discipline parade.

I look forward to reading (and writing) situations like that. I get a dose of guilt-free schadenfreude when some character is getting a right royal dressing-down. There is all the glorious emotional excess of High Drama, without the unpleasant and-then-dealing-with-the-fine-mess-we-have-made ripple effect and backlash that happens in real-world situations. (I used to be a real-world drama addict, but I've developed a bit of a distaste for that scene over the past decade.) Sometimes this is a thorough bitching-out that they might not get if this were actually reality that they lived in. They are getting exactly what they deserve, and it's wonderful to watch.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Some of the most fun and amusing scenes in games I've been in would have been tragic had they been real. A great one was when a character I am campaigning with was back in his home town. He'd left due to some issues with debts he couldn't repay from people who don't take kindly to debts that can't be repaid. He'd been being walked back by two thugs when someone else came out and killed both of them. Great... except now his loan shark was going to be really, really mad. So, he went to his Dad's place to warn his Dad to leave town for his own safety. Explaining the situation, his Dad yelled at him and disowned him. He left all disconsolately and hangdog. It was great. But then, this was done by a player who set up a lot of this in his backstory. He's playing a teenager with average wisdom, and he takes that seriously. To the point that in a world where magic exists but is seen as demonic witchcraft he decided to drink from a vial he got off some goblins that was, well, vile. He thought it'd give him magic powers. He tried it the first night alone on his watch and passed his fort save. So, he tried it again. It dumped his wisdom down to 4. Getting him home was a challenge. He was babbling on about how he could make the grass grow. We told him it already grows naturally. He said, he can make it grow faster. That it was slightly higher than it would have been otherwise. Yeah...

Another really fun tragic scene was when I was temporarily role-playing an NPC for the DM. I was a young boy in a hospital and a PC had to tell me that I was dying. Partway through, she asked me if I remembered my dog, Fluffy, who had died. I said, yes. She said yes. She told me I was going where he went. I said, you mean you're going to bury me and then animals will dig me up, and then you'll bury me again, and then I'll get found in the sewer?

The players lost it. But it was based on the experience of not burying a cat deeply enough. Other animals will dig up your beloved pet to force you to repeatedly rebury the animal no matter how disturbing and traumatic that may be. Which means it's probably best to be careful when using comparisons about death.

But disowning and the death of a young child just aren't funny in real life.

Those both sound absolutely hilarious in-game.

The player for the first incident was the DM for the second instance. He's fun to game with. He's fine with his characters getting bashed around in all sorts of ways and he sets up amusing scenarios.

I really like role-playing. I wish it didn't get such a bad reputation. If I have kids, I want to find some easy gaming systems to start them role-playing early if they're into it. It's creative, it involves planning, math skills, helps with literacy (my nephew's reading skills really picked up when he got into Yu-Gi-Oh cards, different thing, but same idea, any task which you want to be able to do that requires reading is really helpful when kids are learning), it requires cooperation and teamwork. I know of very few things that exercise as many different skills as role-playing does. And it's good practice for learning to accept setbacks too. Good stuff happens and bad stuff happens.

I spent years playing Pretend as a child. Role-playing is just Pretend with more structure. And the structure can be helpful. And you get to try out various roles in safe ways, including ones that you wouldn't ever really want to be in, but are fun to pretend about.

*pointlessly preaches to those who don't need it*

I've heard that this one is easy but good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_and_Trolls

Pretend is very fun.

Thank you. :) My partner says he knows some that are good for very young kids. I figure that as I don't have any children yet, and they won't be ready to role-play until years after they are born (formal role-playing is great for young kids, but seems like infants and toddlers aren't likely to get much out of it. With young kids say 2 to 5 or 6 a more informal Pretend sort of thing is probably better... a lot depends on the specifics of the kid), so I figure I have many, many years to research such a thing before I need it. But I really like the notion of role-playing as a family. I hope if I have a child/children, they'll be into it too. You don't get any guarantees that they'll like the same things you do. And I don't want it to turn into a chore. It should be fun. But I think most kids would find it fun. Playing pretend is pretty natural to most kids.

LOVE the Coyote's commdandments!

She is hilarious, isn't she? (Also, when the October Daye books come out, you should snag them.)

"Is there hitting?!"

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