"So do you keep character sheets for all your characters?" you ask.
"No," I reply. "Except of course for Carl's character, but that's because it was a character I was actually playing in a tabletop game. In general I don't want character sheets, because I don't think they're important for telling the story. They'd be important for a game, but not for this story. We know the race and class of each of the characters from the Origin story. That's enough detail to be going on with."
"Is that because you want to keep action scenes off-camera?" you ask.
"Essentially, yes. But there are always on-camera actions that are rolled out of initiative, so I wasn't ever going to be able to avoid those. In situations like this I have characters speak very matter of factly, as though this is the most normal thing in the world to be talking about, and I leave out all discussion of how a roll is generated, what the modifiers are and so on."
"But you do discuss those things sometimes," you point out.
"Sure," I say. "Try doing what I'm doing without it. Ultimately I'm trying to present an example of play. Lots of roleplaying games have this little section in the front entitled what is roleplaying, and a lot of those give an example of play in dialogue form. There's one in the 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. The problem is that the players in the examples don't talk like real people talk. They talk as though they are artificial constructs given existence solely for the purpose of demonstrating how to pick up and roll dice at an appropriate time."
"Their dialogue is stilted," you offer.
"And unnatural," I reply. "I've already said that my characters - those being the players, each of whom plays a character in the game - are idealised. They have complete knowledge of the rules, instant recall where necessary and think faster on the fly than any player I know. But I hope that for the most part they speak naturally, the way real people speak."
"You've already described one multi-round combat scene, under the church. Do you plan to do more?"
"Only where dramatically appropriate. I still want to keep most of that sort of stuff off-camera, for the reasons I've stated already. One day I might find that I need character sheets to keep it all straightened out, but not today. One thing I will say," I add. "Carl's character's Intelligence score isn't as high as he likes to pretend it is."
Monday, January 8, 2018
On "Sacrifice"
"Sacrifice is actually the first ATPK story I wrote,” I say. “And it differs stylistically a little from the later works.”
"So your first intent was to explore the evil nature of Carl’s character,” you say.
“Yes, “ I replied. “Carl’s character is actually a character I made up for myself in a game, which unfortunately didn’t last very long. He is also the inspiration for a short story I wrote some time ago which actually got incorporated into a chapter of my novel. I wanted to try to play an unrepentantly evil character, essentially to see how long he would last. I felt that I could play such a character in such a way that he would be both not murdered by the party and not creepy or disruptive as a player. And that’s Carl.”
“And the sacrifice scene was part of that?”
“Exactly,” I said. “I wanted to demonstrate how it was possible to have such a scene, with sufficient details to be compelling, and still for it not to become gross and creepy and the sort of thing you don’t want at your gaming table.”
“I liked how Carl the player asked the table how much detail to go into,” you say.
“Yes, that’s very important,” I reply. “Bringing things to the table without the table’s consent is a great way to be a really shitty player. You always establish boundaries. Some groups will have boundaries in different places from other groups, and what is acceptable among one group may not be acceptable for another.”
“And when it came time to describe the deed itself, all Carl said was I sacrifice her,” you observe.
“Yes,” I reply. “That’s a level of detail that the table really doesn’t need, no matter how much enthusiastic consent is expressed. If you want to know exactly how and from what angle the knife enters the body, and what the blood looks like as it wells out, go watch some 80s slasher horror film.”
“So where does this fit into the greater story?” you ask.
“Well, like Origin, this is not technically part of the story, though it is canonical. You notice that the event is referenced in Under the Ruined Church when the party returns to the death house.”
“Is that the Death House from Curse of Strahd?”
“Yes, even to the extent of accompanying the Burgomeister and his sister out of the town, which I think is something that happens in Curse of Strahd. This was very early in the production of stories, so at this point all I had was a vague idea to write isolated vignettes from multiple adventures in a particular group’s campaign. The story wrote itself later.”
“So in terms of the story?” you continue.
“Oh yes,” I reply. “I guess that this would fit somewhere before The Ring, since Carl got the dagger from the death house. It might be before or after the Village of Retired Adventurers.”
"So your first intent was to explore the evil nature of Carl’s character,” you say.
“Yes, “ I replied. “Carl’s character is actually a character I made up for myself in a game, which unfortunately didn’t last very long. He is also the inspiration for a short story I wrote some time ago which actually got incorporated into a chapter of my novel. I wanted to try to play an unrepentantly evil character, essentially to see how long he would last. I felt that I could play such a character in such a way that he would be both not murdered by the party and not creepy or disruptive as a player. And that’s Carl.”
“And the sacrifice scene was part of that?”
“Exactly,” I said. “I wanted to demonstrate how it was possible to have such a scene, with sufficient details to be compelling, and still for it not to become gross and creepy and the sort of thing you don’t want at your gaming table.”
“I liked how Carl the player asked the table how much detail to go into,” you say.
“Yes, that’s very important,” I reply. “Bringing things to the table without the table’s consent is a great way to be a really shitty player. You always establish boundaries. Some groups will have boundaries in different places from other groups, and what is acceptable among one group may not be acceptable for another.”
“And when it came time to describe the deed itself, all Carl said was I sacrifice her,” you observe.
“Yes,” I reply. “That’s a level of detail that the table really doesn’t need, no matter how much enthusiastic consent is expressed. If you want to know exactly how and from what angle the knife enters the body, and what the blood looks like as it wells out, go watch some 80s slasher horror film.”
“So where does this fit into the greater story?” you ask.
“Well, like Origin, this is not technically part of the story, though it is canonical. You notice that the event is referenced in Under the Ruined Church when the party returns to the death house.”
“Is that the Death House from Curse of Strahd?”
“Yes, even to the extent of accompanying the Burgomeister and his sister out of the town, which I think is something that happens in Curse of Strahd. This was very early in the production of stories, so at this point all I had was a vague idea to write isolated vignettes from multiple adventures in a particular group’s campaign. The story wrote itself later.”
“So in terms of the story?” you continue.
“Oh yes,” I reply. “I guess that this would fit somewhere before The Ring, since Carl got the dagger from the death house. It might be before or after the Village of Retired Adventurers.”
A Different Story
"One thing that's noticable about your writing," you say, "is your sparseness of description."
"Oh, you mean the way I leave most of it up to your own imagination to fill in?" I ask. "Yes, that's how I DM, so that's how I write. If you want a writery quote, then say that I like the way everybody gets a different story."
"Oh, you mean the way I leave most of it up to your own imagination to fill in?" I ask. "Yes, that's how I DM, so that's how I write. If you want a writery quote, then say that I like the way everybody gets a different story."
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