Writing Realistic Responses in an Unrealistic World
Written by James on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 5:00 am
Part of the joy of role-playing is the challenge of reacting to situations we would never have to deal with in real life. The situations may be out of this world – facing a dragon in the deepest, darkest dungeon or meeting a werewolf in a modern-day setting – but the base of your character’s reactions come from a very real emotional response.
If a friend of yours missed a meeting the night before, you’d be worried, right? And what would you say if you met that person on the street? Probably something like, “What happened to you last night?”
What would your response be if the person replied, “Oh, I almost got eaten by the thing living at the bottom of my pool. What’s for lunch?”
You’d probably blink and think the guy was off his rocker.
Your character can’t express such a blasé response in a role-playing game, no matter how difficult you find it to relate to the situation he or she faced. You need to have a realistic reaction for your character, even if the encounter seemed crazy.
With any in-game encounter, reactions occur during three distinct phases. These phases are no different from the prelude, climax and aftermath of any story, in fact. They could be mini-stories in themselves, even. Take a look:
Fright at First Sight
The first time your character sees something different from the ordinary, there’s going to be shock involved. He might be frozen with fear. She may try to run. He may get angry. She might try to defend.
Even if your character was standing in place, simply blinking, there would still be a million different thoughts running through that person’s head. “How do I get out of this? Where did this come from? This can’t be real…”
You can’t just let your character do nothing without explaining why your character is frozen solid. There’s a reason for everything. What are your character’s?
Flight or Fight
The next phase involves the character taking some kind of action. Yes, even if your character decides to just stand there and do nothing (which really isn’t advisable), he’s still doing something.
How can nothing be something? Well, there are all kinds of physical reactions that prevent a character from moving. Maybe he starts to shake uncontrollably, his gut twists up in knots, and he can’t think clearly. Perhaps she throws up all over the antagonist in the scene or bursts into screams. Your character could even break down like a gibbering idiot.
Or, your character’s action could really involve some action. Maybe he or she feels a surge of adrenaline that spurs the type of utterly heroic action that the character never would have done in a million years. Maybe the character simply attempts to run away.
The Aftermath
Ripples of reaction always follow after a traumatic experience. Not everyone reacts the same way. Some people are calm and collected through an emergency. They instantly move to autopilot and do what needs to be done to get through the crisis.
The character could insist he or she is fine, that there’s nothing to worry about, but the moment they get some private time… They fall apart.
This delayed response could happen shortly after the encounter, or it could show up over time, similar to symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Make the Most of It
Encounters are so rich with material you can write about that it’s a shame not to take advantage to explore your character’s personality and development further. These tough situations let you look inside facets of your character that you wouldn’t normally get to delve into on a daily basis.
Some questions to ask of yourself as a writer are:
- How does the encounter affect his current relationships?
- What effects will the event have on your character on a daily basis?
- Will your character go through his day like nothing happened and deny everything?
- Will the situation bring back a haunting memory from the past?
- What will the physical reactions of the encounter be?
- Will he lose sleep?
- Will he get paranoid?
- Will he never want to go anywhere alone again?
Plenty of reactions, responses and emotions rise to the top after an encounter or event. Enjoy them.
Great post Harry.
i was thinking along similar lines whilst creating my character for ER. You know I actually found it difficult to create a character *because* of the realistic setting.
I mean I’m so used to fantasy Orcs and Goblins or sci-fi settings that it took me a while to “tone down” my usual character concept
Marc – WelshScribes last blog post..SEO 101: An Overview
It might help to remind yourself of the sorts of things you take for granted while living in the real world: Food is only as far away as your local store, transportation is faster and more convenient than at any time in recorded history, and (with certain tragic exceptions) you don’t have to worry about rampaging hordes of whatever attacking your hometown, among many other details.
Similarly, you might try writing a story about an average day in your character’s life, playing up the differences (and curious paralells) between the game world and the real world. You wake up to a clock radio, while your character may simply wake up when the sun first rises over the hill visible from his/her window. You may jump in a hot shower, armed with all manner of hair and skin cleansing products; if your character bathes, he/she may have to make do with a sponge-bath with room-temperature water and harsh soap. And you may be able to work from home using that most magical bit of technology called “teh Intartubes”, but your character may have a long commute on foot to the day’s work.
And those are just three thoughts. Go wild!
Perrin Rynnings last blog post..Carnegie’s Character Sheet
I like this post.
Somewhat Off-topic Question: Would you say there was a difference between explaining a character’s reaction and justifying it?
I ask because something that’s interesting to me is the way people on RPG sites tend to give explanation for their characters’ reactions to unusual circumstances OOC without going into detail about it IC.
To what extent do other players need to know *why* a character is responding the way they do? Is it better to over-explain IC and risk turning a post into a psychoanalysis or to wait and then justify if people ask later?
@Rose: My guess is some of that stems from insecurity on the part of the player. Many people who never gamed in this kind of medium before are a little afraid to step out there and take a chance with their character’s reactions for fear it will cause adverse reactions out of character. So they test the waters in the post, and do a whole lotta esplainin’ outside of it.
How do you get around that? Just take the chance and use it in the post. Let the readers see what’s going on with the character and what the train of thought was that led to that conclusion, good or bad. When you “show” enough in a post or story, you shouldn’t need justification on the outside.
@Perrin: That’s what we deal with on a regular basis on Escaping Reality. The setting is modern day, so there’s plenty of opportunity for people to infuse their posts with mundane activities. The challenge our players face is incorporating the supernatural into the mundane, unlike a fantasy setting where the opposite would be true. It’s a good exercise though. Nothing like trying to make a post out of brushing your teeth exciting.
@Marc: hehe, yeah, it’s a bit of a reversal in thinking, just like I mentioned to Perrin above.
I used to be really bad about what Rose was talking about – meaning, I used to write my posts IC without always showing why she did something, and then go on and on justifying why she did it OOC when someone asked about it. And then I got a kick in the rear from Taylor who, after asking why Natalie was doing something, said, “well, why didn’t you explain that in your story posts?” I think it really helped me as a writer, because now I’m more conscious about making sure the reader can get inside my head and understand why Natalie does the things she does. (I hope. And if not, kick me? Please?)
Allison Days last blog post..Red Dragon Roll
Some excellent points there. I used to be pretty bad at it, not giving enough information away in character and having to explain it out of character.
In a way you’re doing a dis-service to the reader, or that’s how I chose to view it. I think it helped, I mean would you buy a book if you had to have every chapter explained to you?
Of course the flip side of the coin is that you may have to deal with an inexperienced player that can’t distinguish between what he or she knows as a reader and what his or her character knows as a participant.
Marc – WelshScribes last blog post..How to Create a Character | A Review
Sorry. I meant “read a book” not “buy a book”