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ch3mi0n
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:44 pm

You are awakened suddenly by a loud thump!

The haze of sleep slowly lifts as you force your eyes to open. Around you, you hear the muffled giggles and snickering of your classmates as you struggle to shake the sleepiness from you...

"Ehh? Sleeping again? You'll never graduate if you sleep your way through class!" A smile grazes your lips as your gaze sets upon the instructor. She gives you a playfully stern look; a wry smile turning up the corners of her mouth. In one hand she's holding a pointer, lightly rapping it on the palm of her open hand.

"Yes, ma'am," you reply sheepishly, hoping she won't slap that pointer against your desk again.

Ms. Fumika pauses for a moment, then turns and walks back to the front of the class.

"Now," Ms. Fumika says as she turns to face the class, "as I was saying... When you role-play with someone, you've got to make sure you don't step on any toes.

"What I mean is, role-playing is a method of expression. If your actions don't allow the person you're role-playing with to express themselves freely in response to your action, they will become frustrated and lose interest in the session. That's what we call a closed action.

"Your actions should always be open-ended, so the person you're role-playing with has the freedom to react to you in their own way.

"Here's an example." Ms. Fumika looks over at you, and for a moment you thought you had done something wrong again. "Come to the front of the class please," she directs you. Reluctantly you comply.

"Tanya, would you join us up here as well?" she asks a blue-haired girl, one of the youngest in the class. Tanya slowly stands and shuffles her way up to the front of the class and stands next to you.

Ms. Fumika continues, "the two of you are going to demonstrate a closed action for the rest of the class. Tanya stand over here," Ms. Fumika gestures at a spot near the door, about four paces in front of you, "and now turn and face each other."

Looking now at you, Ms. Fumika says, "I want you to just stand there; you're not allowed to move." A quizzical look flushes over your face, as you wonder what's in store for you. Ms. Fumika crumples up a sheet of paper and hands it to Tanya. "Hit him in the face with it," she tells the young girl standing before you. Tanya hesitates and glances up at the instructor for any sign of sarcasm in her face, and finds nothing but a straight face. Wavering only for a moment, Tanya turns her gaze back to you and nails you right between the eyes with the wadded paper.

Your face goes red, as the rest of the class tries to stifle their sudden laughter. Almost as immediately as it began the laughter is silenced by, "hush now. I meant only to prove a point." Turning to you, Ms. Fumika asks, "Now then, how do you feel about not being able to respond to the paper that was thrown at you?"

"N-not good I suppose," you manage to reply, still feeling a bit embarrassed.

"I'm sure, had you been allowed to react, you would have tried to at least dodge it, right?" It was a rhetorical question. "My point exactly. When you're role-playing, you cannot assume the outcome of your actions, or how someone directly involved would react. You have to give others role-playing with you a chance to make a response." Ms. Fumika then gestures you and Tanya back to your seats.

"Is everyone clear about this so far?" Ms. Fumika asks the class.

The reply comes half-heartedly in a chorus of muttering voices, "yes ma'am."

"Good, then you are all dismissed for today, I will see you all tomorrow morning," your instructor chimes cheerfully as she returns to her own desk and begins shuffling with some papers.

(to be continued...)

Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:13 pm

"Good morning class!" Ms. Fumika announces cheerfully.

"Well, let's dive right into it today. Yesterday we learned that closed actions prevent others from role-playing any reaction effectively. Today we'll talk about some good examples of open-ended actions.

"So, yesterday in our demonstration, we saw that when Tanya threw the paper ball, her role-play partner was unable to react the way he normally would have. Now, the proper way to role play that action would be to say," Ms. Fumika scribbles a phrase on the chalk board:

Tanya throws the wadded paper at you, aiming directly between your eyes.

Ms. Fumika explains, "as you can see here, I didn't write the outcome of my action, thus giving the target a chance to role-play how he would react. Would anyone like to give me an example of how you would respond to the action I wrote on the board?"

An older boy sitting next to you raises his hand slowly.

"Perry, what reaction would you give for this action?" Ms. Fumika asks the boy.

Perry replies, "I would dodge it and try to counter-attack or something, I guess."

"Very good," says Ms. Fumika and she begins writing the response on the board below the action written there.

Perry dodges the attack deftly, and returns fire with a paper wad of his own.

"This is a very good example, thank you Perry." Ms. Fumika continues by saying, "does everyone see how Perry chose to dodge to attack as well as making an open-ended action in response to the action against him?

"Another thing you want to always keep in mind when role-playing in this manner, is that you can't always chose to role-play a positive outcome of the action played against you. If that were the case, any role-played fight would always result in a series of dodges and parries and subsequent misses, until finally both contenders simply grew tired of the fight. Role-playing would get boring pretty fast!" A couple chuckles are heard from your classmates and you let a smile cross your lips.

"Would anyone else like to show me an example of what I mean?" Ms. Fumika waits patiently for a response.

Looking around the class you don't see anyone anxious to volunteer, so you raise your own hand.

Ms. Fumika turns and looks at you, "Well, Mr. Sleepy-head, how would you role-play this differently?"

"Well, I could say that I tried to dodge, but failed at that and then tried to fight back."

"Well done, that's exactly what I was talking about. Dodging attacks are fine to do once in a while, but at the same time you want to be flexible and just go with the direction of role-play. See where it takes you, you know what I mean? So in this case, we've failed at dodging, but still made an attempt to counter." Ms. Fumika picks up the eraser and changes the reaction written on the board to:

Perry nearly dodges the attack, taking a hit to the left shoulder. Picking up the paper wad, Perry advances for a swift counter attack! He flings the wadded sheet of paper back at you with incredible speed!

"Not only do these type of flexible responses make the role-playing much more interesting, but it also shows cooperation with whomever you're role-playing with, making them more likely to 'take a hit' too, as in our example. This idea applies to any type of role-playing, though." Ms. Fumika sits half-way on the edge of her desk, and crosses her arms in front of her. "Any questions about today's lesson?"

You raise your hand after a moment of thought, "does that mean we always have to let someone hit us, in the case of role-playing a fight?"

"Not at all," Ms. Fumika tells you, "but everyone involved will have a much more enjoyable time role-playing with you when everyone uses open-ended role-plays and doesn't negate every action against them. Does that make sense now? Both your and Perry's example reactions are acceptable and good examples of open-ended role-playing. You'll want to make use of both in your daily role-play, when it suits the situation.

"Well that's all that we have time for today. You all did well today!" Ms. Fumika beams a charming smile at the class. "Dismissed!"

Feeling proud of yourself, you grin broadly and hurry off to find your friends out in the hall.

(to be continued?)

ch3mi0n
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ch3mi0n
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:46 pm

As you walk into class today, you notice a man of about 40 standing at the head of the class with his hands firmly planted on the desk. He watches you as you take your seat. There are a few more stragglers behind you, who promptly take their seats.

As the last of the stragglers sit, the man stands tall, clearing his throat and begins by saying, "welcome class. My name is Mr. Loreto. Your usual teacher is out sick, so I'll be substituting." You can tell by his tone and mannerisms, he has a more serious personality. He turns towards the chalk board and scribbles his name there, then turns back to face the class.

"Well then, Ms. Fumika has talked to you about actions and so on. So I'll move right along to out-of-character interaction during role-play." Mr. Loreto places one hand at his hip and the other on his chin, a stern look on his face. "What brave soul here wants to explain to the rest of the class what I mean by out-of-character?"

Without a thought, you blurt out, "you mean things that have nothing to do with the role-play?"

"Or, more specifically, any interaction that doesn't belong in role-play. Especially interaction that relates to so-called real life," comes the reply from Mr. Loreto. "Very good." Mr. Loreto begins pacing back and forth in front of the class.

"Well here's a good example. Imagine you are engaged in role-play. Your character stumbles upon another character, who you know is a master swordsman, because you've read that character's biography. However, if the character has not let on, in-character, that he is excellent at swordplay, you can not act as if your character knows this information!" He grins broadly at nobody in particular, a seemly uncharacteristic thing for him to do. "I can see by the looks on all your faces, you're all a bit confused."

Look at it this way. In real life, you really don't know anything about a person until you either see it with your own eyes, or they tell you. In the latter case, you can either take their word for it, or you can choose not to believe them until you've seen proof. You never know if someone could be lying!" Mr. Loreto clears his throat before continuing, "you have to pretend to be ignorant of anything about a character that is not 'seen', as in the description of their appearance. That is, at least until you've 'seen' it with your own eyes. I don't care what you know in real life, if your character has not learned that information in an in-character way, meaning through role-play, then you don't know about it! It's as simple as that!"

Mr. Loreto glances at his watch, "Oh, looks like we've run out of time! Have a good night everyone." He walks back to the desk and takes a seat as you and your classmates leave for the day.

(to be continued?)

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