sinful characters [g+ backpost]

Hi gaming peeps

(I’ve just added back a bunch of people into my gaming circle – if you aren’t into that, please let me know.)

I’m toying around with a little technique to develop interesting characters that I’d love to get feedback on. I haven’t formally tested it yet, though it grew out of things I do semi-consciously on occasion. Also, I’m particularly interested in this as a stage technique for improvisation shows, and it may feel less useful/needed in some rpg contexts. But I reckon it may be relevant for any on-the-fly character generation.

This is intended to mitigate 1-D characters by dipping into charged and easily accessible human qualities, or as these are typically termed, sins.

The seven sins – wrath, pride, gluttony, lust, greed, envy and sloth – are fairly accessible in Western J-C culture. So what happens when we mindfully use them as a palette to paint our characters in, together with a set of guidelines for the kinds of results you are likely to get? I think fun happens! Here are the guidelines:

1. Different combinations encourage different roles

You want someone who performs a social role in the story/situation, but with a bit of definition:

A flawed paragon is markedly prone to a single sin

Examples: the priest who is pious but lazy, the artist who is selfless but obsessed with the greatness of their sacrifices.

You want someone who is pretty horrible – a real heel – but want to accent their self-indulgence with some iron discipline

A disciplined badass has several sins but is totally immune to one or more.

Examples: the greedy, wrathful priest who can never be tempted by sex, the artist harping on and undermining the success of others, too lazy to achieve it on his own merit, but cannot be bought off by any amount of coin.

You want someone who is colourful, you kind of hate them but just when you make your mind up you love them again.

A big-hearted scoundrel has several sins but also exhibits the polar opposite of one sin, to the extent that it kind of redeems them.

Examples: the lustful, lazy priest who desires the best for others at the end of the day, the artist perpetually drunk, full of pride, and wallops anyone who doesn’t appreciate expressionism, but is respectful, diligent, even courteous to the opposite sex.

(This is my favourite and the reason I started making this stuff explicit, after reading John Berger on Rembrandt: ‘no saint’, indeed)

2. Different specific sins have a different emphasis on plot vs immediacy

Firstly let’s unpack the sins a bit more. To my mind,

 –   Wrath can include irritation at small things, and great roaring enjoyable anger cf Mark Rylance in Jerusalem, a bellowing Falstaff.

 –   Pride can involve suffering when other people see the world other than how you do – eg how Roger Ebert probably feels about McG’s success.

 –   Gluttony includes boozing, drugs, all vices of consumption.

 –   Lust isn’t merely desiring sex but any example of objectification of other people.

 –   Greed involves any material advancement, including ambition/getting status. The ‘lawyer sin’, reptilian, whereas pride is more peacock, where you really believe it and can easily be wounded.

 –   Envy includes any wishing-ill on others, general grumpiness and zero-sum attitudes towards life (those immigrants get all the social housing!)

 –   Sloth encompasses laziness, unhelpfulness, and demandingness to others (clean my teeth for me!) – a classic nasty Master sin, for those familiar with the Keith Johnstone improv set-up.

So what’s this about emphasis?

The first two are energetic and egoistic. They make the character grow out and show themselves, their sensitivities and buttons to push.

The next two involve approach and physicality. They make characters approach immediate components of the world and grab things (or people) within reach.

The next two are more tactical and scheming. They might involve grabbing things within reach but can be a little more abstract, and execution is often a bit more considered. Think Iago.

To my mind, the first two are great, and the third can be tricky, risking putting players in their heads for the ‘right’ way to get their goals. Compare with Be Angry Now/Get My Mack On.

What about Sloth? To me, it’s a bit of a wild-card. On a stage, played well, inactivity can heighten immediacy and perversely, make stuff happen. This is trivially true if the character has a high status – the king that requires the retinue to carry him to his horse, or delegates all the important decisions to his page – but also for ordinarily low-status roles: the stable-girl who never carries out the orders of the (highly-strung) head of household. No surprise, really, who can care less is status, after all…

But! I think this may play very differently at a game table, where an inactive character can be genuinely forgotten about.

3. How it works

For me, the notion is simply to walk on stage, find reasons to exhibit a sin or two, and then elaborate on these in the context of your role in the story (find a reversal to show your scoundrel’s heart, for instance).

That’s it as it stands. I’d love to hear your thoughts, both from a tabletop and Larp perspective.

Nov 2012

Play With Intent – tools for open play

I’m super excited that Emily Care Boss  and Matthijs Holter have released their roleplay framework, Play With Intent, as an open document. It’s a customisable methodology that helps us make up a story as we go along. It can be used in a way similar to ‘tabletop’ play – sitting around a table and describing events – but encompasses acting out events live, using mime objects and environments, cinematic techniques (‘cut to…’) and so on. For improvisers it will feel familiar in some ways to what we normally do, but it can go to very different places and is forgiving of lack of improvisation training.

I played with it twice at the Solmukohta convention in Finland earlier this year, and it was a blast – particularly the first session, pulling off an involving melodrama between a group of people who hadn’t played before, going to emotional places and forming a truly unexpected but coherent narrative, played live before each other. Much credit must go to the other players, of course, but that was the point where I became satisfied that the framework is much more than a set of training wheels for improvisation.

After playing with it I became fascinated with the customisability, and wrote some notes on  comedic techniques that Emily and Matthijs have built into the framework. Fun! They are mostly taken from improvisation and clown training, and simplified as much as we were able. But comedy is only a small part of what we’re capable of, so have a look, and be ambitious with your imagination.

Play With Intent is freely available here.

Play With Intent – tools for open play

I’m super excited that Emily Care Boss  and Matthijs Holter have released their roleplay framework, Play With Intent, as an open document. It’s a customisable methodology that helps us make up a story as we go along. It can be used in a way similar to ‘tabletop’ play – sitting around a table and describing events – but encompasses acting out events live, using mime objects and environments, cinematic techniques (‘cut to…’) and so on. For improvisers it will feel familiar in some ways to what we normally do, but it can go to very different places and is forgiving of lack of improvisation training.

I played with it twice at the Solmukohta convention in Finland earlier this year, and it was a blast – particularly the first session, pulling off an involving melodrama between a group of people who hadn’t played before, going to emotional places and forming a truly unexpected but coherent narrative, played live before each other. Much credit must go to the other players, of course, but that was the point where I became satisfied that the framework is much more than a set of training wheels for improvisation.

After playing with it I became fascinated with the customisability, and wrote some notes on  comedic techniques that Emily and Matthijs have built into the framework. Fun! They are mostly taken from improvisation and clown training, and simplified as much as we were able. But comedy is only a small part of what we’re capable of, so have a look, and be ambitious with your imagination.

Play With Intent is freely available here.

A carnosexual beginning

This has been a fun few weeks of improv: I’ve reunited with cherished teams, hosted a lovely-spirited improv jam, and performed a couple of times. The highlight for me, for sure, was being a part of something new. 

Carnosexual are a new longform troupe who met last Sunday, played a killer show two hours later, and are now officially a thing. I’m in a coaching role, so get to put my evolving improv eye to work enabling the group to get more play out of their time together. It’s a great thing I’m proud to do. The only downside is that these guys are having so much fun I’m sometimes sorry to be on the sidelines!

We’ve started a conversation about the things we each want to experiment with and explore through the group, which will become clearer over the coming weeks. One thing I already cherish is a diversity of background and areas of notable strength – some are more natural game players, others find the relationship meat more quickly – together with a willingness to try out and honour what each other brings to the stage.

I’m keeping my eye out for shows for the group for the rest of the year, especially as one of our players, Brandon, has a limited stay in the UK before returning to the US. If you are interested in hosting a longform group who play at a leisurely pace, dig into relational connections and mine comedic game, get in touch.

Julia und Alex

Last week I got a chance to try something I’d been hungry to do since Chicago. Only, you know that thing where you get a taste, but end up only wanting even more? Yeah…

I met Julia Poehlmann a year ago at the Wurzburg Impro festival, and spent an intensive week this spring playing mask impro with her in Denmark, but Chicago was a chance to really get to know each other and see how we played. And I love how she plays. We promised each other that on our return we’d explore doing some close-up, slow, impro together, ‘Alex und Julia’.

Last week Julia visited London and we got to do exactly that. The forum was the Hoopla-run Crash Pad experimental impro platform, a lovely night boasting short sets by a variety of groups. As a bonus, we had another Chicagoan with us, Brandon Rafalson, visiting over from the US. The three of us weaved a piece beginning with a large location painted from nothing; in this case it turned out to be the headquarters for a contraption manufacturer. From there we simply saw scenes of the people connected with that building. 

We hadn’t played together for a couple of months, and hadn’t played the format at all together. But I could tell that we all trusted each other and were willing to give each other time. As an example, I opened the second scene slowly, examining documents and muttering to myself. Twenty seconds in, I realised that the others were happy to give me the stage to myself, extending my object work and segueing into a character monologue. Such a generous thing to offer a performer! And so trusting that I would be happy to be out there and could handle that.

Brandon’s affable, confused security guard was so winning and the gentle comedic core of the piece. Julia’s wistful teenager was honest and moved the audience. We stumbled onto an ending. All in 15 minutes!

I have plans to play more with Brandon that I’ll write about soon. As for Alex und Julia, it’s next outing will take place in Tubingen, Germany at the end of the month. I’m still excited. 

Here, again, we see that the crowd-funding model is uncannily like the conventional music biz methods – only more so. It’s not the record company insisting that the band do more of the stuff that the kids liked last time. It’s the kids themselves. Bands have historically dug their heels in and resisted the demands of their labels (band vs. label conflicts are one of the endlessly repeating motifs of rock history). But how many bands would be bloody-minded enough to have that sort of fight with loyal fans who’ve just given them cash?

Michael Johnson on Chris TT’s post at http://louderthanwar.com/the-case-crowd-funding-platforms/

masks in public [g+ backpost]

Got to do some mask work in public today, which is always a mixture of joy an trepidation. Part of a little arts festival in a local shopping centre. We nearly ended before we began when a parent complained that we had frightened her child by strolling too close to her. Security closed in and we had an interesting but irresolvable discussion of “who is to say if something is appropriate in a public space?”

Actual show went very well. Our audience of mainly mums and tots really enjoyed it and we had a hardcore half-dozen who sat at our feet and interjected whenever they could. It was ace.

We did a mixture of full mask theatrical improvisation – eg I would narrate a story to which the other actors would respond – and a few scenes of full-on trance mask involving Joe, one of the more developed masks on the European scene. The kids lit up whenever he was about, and he responded well to them too: they really do operate on the same level. For instance, I sold Joe a fizzy drink, but once he had accepted it all the kids started yelling “it’s unhealthy!” – which is totally their “obvious” but not how things were being framed by me the adult. It was hilarious and led to understandable outrage from Joe demanding his cash back. In the same way, when Joe was retelling the fable of the fox and the stork, he indicated my nose to illustrate the stork’s features. Not polite, but what stood out to him!

Reasons to come to Cellblock!

Cellblock! is an improvised extravaganza taking place this weekend.

It runs 26 hours from 7pm today (8th October) to 9pm tomorrow, within 2 hour slots (runs about 100-110 mins of the slot). One slot is £5, an unlimited pass is £12

So here’s why to come:


1. If you’re a busy person who normally “can’t get to shows”, this won’t apply here; you can fit it in around pretty much anything. Come at 11am tomorrow, or after a long lunch at three. Or heck, roll in at 5am after clubbing – I know some people are planning on it! Each slot starts with a bit of a recap so you can slide in to the action.
 
2.  If you haven’t seen impro before, this is a great chance to get your feet wet. Quite aside from the convenience (1.), there’s such a rich and varied cast, containing people from all kinds of groups, from Music Box to The Inflatables.

3. And this will be no ordinary impro show. So if you have seen a bit of impro before, you’d no doubt be intrigued by the idea of a hard-core cast playing characters across the entire span of the show, in an event that’s all about story, story, story. The time-honoured “mime prop box” will be augmented by genuine costumery, and the patter of the players offset by a house band. So: bigger, louder, longer.

4. And weirder. You’ve got to wonder what happens when people enter a make-believe world and remain in it unsleeping for more than a day. We wonder too! Word has it, some filters drop away and things become very interesting.

5. If you’re of the appetite, this could be a pretty unique audience experience. Because unlimited passes retail at just £12, you can dip in and out across the run – Saturday night, a Sunday matinee and back for the grand finale – or go for the ultimate, and suck up six, ten, or even 26 hours worth.
(At last year’s Bristol improvathon I could only make it for the end, but managed the last eight hours, and the immersive qualities of living through that much non-stop story was pretty amazing. Like a boxed set binge if it were weaved before your eyes!)

I’m limbering up for an amazing performance experience, but it would be remiss of me not to share it with you. So why not come along for a show – or the whole thing?

Tickets are here or on the door.