Anchorhead said:
I just assumed it was some silliness belched out on the "bio" pages of the Lucas Franchise machine. Which to me, has always felt weirdly uncomfortable, a sort of role-playing extension that is so fleshed-out that it borders on disturbing. Particularly for adults.
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/NEW-NEW-REPUBLIC-RP-PROBOARD/topic/11507/
*grin*
I know, I probably didn't make any friends with that statement. ;-)
If it pleases the court;
Role-playing and cos-play are an attempt to make the film (any film) into a sort of reality, for lack of a better term. To me - that takes away the magic of the film. I don't want the film to be real, I want it to be an escape from reality. A chance to be transported. That desire for the film to be an escape from reality is the same reason I don't watch behind the scenes documentaries. Just a personal choice.
Yeah, most if not all of the back stories are from comics or books or the cartoons.Anchorhead said:
I just assumed it was some silliness belched out on the "bio" pages of the Lucas Franchise machine. Which to me, has always felt weirdly uncomfortable, a sort of role-playing extension that is so fleshed-out that it borders on disturbing. Particularly for adults.
I was wrong about the back stories, or at least some of the ones I've read so far. These stories are from some very talented writers and some of them would make interesting novels on their own. Once again, this board grows my Star Wars universe.
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Anchorhead said:
I know, I probably didn't make any friends with that statement. ;-)
Heh-heh, I'm right there with you. I only role-played for the lolz.
I'm from Naboo.
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
And I'm the Czar of All the Russias.
I myself am the Absolute Ruler of Abydos.
But don't tell anyone that, okay?
These things are all what I DON'T like about the EU.
These are all EU things, right? Is Russia part of Europe?*
doubleofive said:
Yeah, most if not all of the back stories are from comics or books or the cartoons.Anchorhead said:
I just assumed it was some silliness belched out on the "bio" pages of the Lucas Franchise machine. Which to me, has always felt weirdly uncomfortable, a sort of role-playing extension that is so fleshed-out that it borders on disturbing. Particularly for adults.
I was wrong about the back stories, or at least some of the ones I've read so far. These stories are from some very talented writers and some of them would make interesting novels on their own. Once again, this board grows my Star Wars universe.
I would say a fair amount are also from the West End Role Playing books predomiantly written by Bill Slavicsec.
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
xhonzi said: doubleofive said: Anchorhead said: I would say a fair amount are also from the West End Role Playing books predomiantly written by Bill Slavicsec.
Yeah, most if not all of the back stories are from comics or books or the cartoons.
I just assumed it was some silliness belched out on the "bio" pages of the Lucas Franchise machine. Which to me, has always felt weirdly uncomfortable, a sort of role-playing extension that is so fleshed-out that it borders on disturbing. Particularly for adults.
I was wrong about the back stories, or at least some of the ones I've read so far. These stories are from some very talented writers and some of them would make interesting novels on their own. Once again, this board grows my Star Wars universe.
I don't know about Bill Slavicsec but I do know that if you look at the beginning of the book there's a special dedication to Bill Smith from West End Games who they credit for a lot of ideas, backgrounds and starting points. Everything in those stories originated in those old source books.
Anchorhead said: Role-playing and cos-play are an attempt to make the film (any film) into a sort of reality, for lack of a better term. To me - that takes away the magic of the film. I don't want the film to be real, I want it to be an escape from reality. A chance to be transported. That desire for the film to be an escape from reality is the same reason I don't watch behind the scenes documentaries. Just a personal choice.
This statement doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I personally don't roleplay as it's not my thing but I do read all of the old WEG books as they're great for filling in the gaps of how the Star Wars galaxy works. You're like me in that you like to take a back seat style of escapism into the galaxy, but roleplayers are doing the exact same thing. They just like to take an active part in the galaxy. Whenever you read or watch something you're being transported into that work's reality, I don't really see that big a difference between that and pretending you're a part of it too. And I really can't see any connection between behind the scenes docs and what roleplayers do. =P
Tobar said:
Anchorhead said:
Role-playing and cos-play are an attempt to make the film (any film) into a sort of reality, for lack of a better term. To me - that takes away the magic of the film. I don't want the film to be real, I want it to be an escape from reality. A chance to be transported. That desire for the film to be an escape from reality is the same reason I don't watch behind the scenes documentaries. Just a personal choice.
This statement doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I personally don't roleplay as it's not my thing but I do read all of the old WEG books as they're great for filling in the gaps of....
Let me see if I can elaborate on a few of your points. I read EU novels because they are good stories, just as a well made movie can be. Pretending, getting lost in, escaping to - whatever it can be classified as - is why I read novels. So, I'm with you there. Don't know what WEG books are, but it sounds like it's just a different sort of escape\story\emotion\etc.
roleplayers are doing the exact same thing.
I don't see it that way. Reading a story is different than creating an alternate identity and actively pretending to be part of the story or the world it takes place in. Roleplayers\cos-players are trying to make the fiction exist in our non-fiction world.
They may have differing degress of seriousness, but it's still a breaking of the fourth wall that I have no interest in. Pretending (acting\writing) for the sake of telling a story is just a method of conveying the story to make it more clear. To me, that differs greatly from pretending to live within the story.
I don't want to live in those worlds. I want to escape to them occasionally.
They just like to take an active part in the galaxy.
They can't. It's not real. For me, pretending that is real ruins the magic. It ruins the special place that the movie\book\play is.
Whenever you read or watch something you're being transported into that work's reality, I don't really see that big a difference between that and pretending you're a part of it too.
I feel there is an enormous difference between becoming immersed in a work of fiction through film or novels - and stepping out of your XTerra dressed as a stormtrooper or Boba Fett.
And I really can't see any connection between behind the scenes docs and what roleplayers do.
There isn't one. I just failed to be more clear. I don't watch them because I don't want the fourth wall broken. Interviews with actors are fine, but I don't want to see the plywood bolted to the side of the 18-wheeler that I previously thought was a landing bay or Mayan temple. It takes me out of the film the next time I watch it.
I have to agree with Anchorhead here. Roleplaying/cosplaying/etc is much different from the experience of watching a film, reading a book, seeing a play, listening to music. They both have similarities, in which you escape to and enter another world, but the difference is that in one you are an active participant and in the other you are a passive observer. It's the difference between "story time" and "make believe." In the first, you listen to a tale being told and lose yourself in the story and its manner of telling; in the second, you enter the world as a character and become a decision-making part of it.
Tobar said:
You're like me in that you like to take a back seat style of escapism into the galaxy, but roleplayers are doing the exact same thing. They just like to take an active part in the galaxy.
So they aren't actually taking a "backseat" then? The whole "active" part denotes more of a driver's seat sort of situation... Don't you think?
CP3S said:
Tobar said:
You're like me in that you like to take a back seat style of escapism into the galaxy, but roleplayers are doing the exact same thing. They just like to take an active part in the galaxy.
So they aren't actually taking a "backseat" then? The whole "active" part denotes more of a driver's seat sort of situation... Don't you think?
I was referring to the escapism. I'm not saying that roleplaying is exactly the same thing as reading a story or watching a movie but that they were more similar than Anchorhead's posts made them out to be. The people sitting there roleplaying are using their mind's eye to picture what is going on in their game. It's just a different form of escapism, as everyone that has replied so far seems to agree with and was my original point. Cosplay is something entirely different and I would agree would be a breach of the fourth wall but not simple roleplaying.
But then again, I might just be confusing reading the books with actually playing a session of the game. As I've never actually played a tabletop RPG, I just enjoy reading the source books for them. My post was also a sort of reaction to this quote from the previous page:
Anchorhead said: I just assumed it was some silliness belched out on the "bio" pages of the Lucas Franchise machine. Which to me, has always felt weirdly uncomfortable, a sort of role-playing extension that is so fleshed-out that it borders on disturbing. Particularly for adults.
As Anchorhead has said he likes the stories that show what kind of things normal people face in the Star Wars galaxy and that's basically what those books are all about. They establish what it's like being an average joe in that galaxy. All the interesting background bits you find in the Tales books and the stories that came after all originate from those source books.
Tobar said:
But then again, I might just be confusing reading the books with actually playing a session of the game. As I've never actually played a tabletop RPG, I just enjoy reading the source books for them.
You really should hang out at one of the online roleplaying sites for a little while. It might just melt your brain.
I play quite a bit of PnP RPGs, and they're a ton of fun. But I don't exactly role play any huge amount... I guess it's more like a video game to me, only the character you play is more "you" than in most video games since all the decisions are governed by you and not preset paths. No other games let you randomly decide to spend an hour describing how you dig a giant hole filled with poisoned bear traps and spikes and gasoline to catch a tyrannid.
I have also dabbled in online roleplaying when I was younger, as well. That's a little different. There's not really any point to it, like in an RPG (there's a story and a goal to that). I guess the goal is to just immerse yourself in a certain lore and pretend that you're living in that universe for awhile. Which is just as much an escape as a movie or a book, but feels more "real" since, like with a PnP RPG, it's actually you "experiencing" these things. It just takes a good imagination to conjure up the imagery.
I got out of it, ultimately, because to me it feels silly as fuck to roleplay. Like I said, there's no point, really, so a lot of the time you're "standing" around with a group of people talking about your character or another person's character because that's all there is to talk about because there's nothing going on. Maybe there are more organized roleplaying groups or something, but it all seemed pretty frivolous. Except if you want to do a lot of cyber sex. Ton of that going on.
There's also no better place to find drama than a roleplaying group. The problem with being your character means some people can get really emotionally invested in them, and then relationships start based on characters and people can be unable to separate real life from the "game", people can be way too serious about everything and ugh. It can get hideous and ugly.
PnP RPGs are really totally different in my experience. To me, it's akin to getting together with a bunch of friends to watch a football game or playing Smash Brothers or something. You get together with your buddies, buy a bunch of junk food and just hang out playing a game for a few hours. Maybe we're playing wrong because we mostly just define our actions and are not seriously getting into our characters and speaking from their perspective every single time and everything, but it's just a lot of fun. To us it's more about the socializing than being an elven ranger/Cadian Kasrkin/Mandalorian supercommando for awhile. Though it is sometimes fun to break into character. =P
It's different strokes for different folks, in the end. What works for some doesn't work for others. Blah blah blah.
Keep Circulating the Tapes.
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I know we've kind of diverged from the thread topic, so what the hell...
When I signed up at SWCL, I did so as "Ric Olie." Naturally I pretended to actually be Ric Olie, but several of my posts were deleted because I couldn't possibly be the real Ric Olie.
This is on a role-playing website, keep in mind.
The reasoning was that I was pretending to be Ric Olie, but doing it outside of the role-playing forum - I was doing it in off-topic areas. And apparently that's a no-no.
Uh, okay....
Soup's On: The Pipe Smoker's Tale, by Jennifer Roberson
For effect (good or bad), I'll write my review in the style of her story.
Story, cantina, smoking a pipe, his name is Dannick. Quiet. Alone. Mos Eisley. Very dangerous, very distant.
-soup's on-
I had a hard time following, understanding, comprehending, struggling, wondering. I'm fine with giving someone the benefit of the doubt, but this was too much of a headache.
-style over substance-
I read at night to unwind after the stresses of the day, not to work, struggle, wonder, be confused. After only a few pages, I lost interest. I lasted about five pages and moved on to next story.
-skipped-
Corellian, smuggler, not Solo. Like it so far. Review. Soon.
Yeah, "Soup's On" is terrible. Don't feel bad for skipping it.
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I kinda liked "Soup's On". :shrug:
If it really is in the style of Anchor's review, I think I'd hate it.
DuracellEnergizer said:
I kinda liked "Soup's On". :shrug:
There may be an interesting character in there or an interesting story, but it was too much work trying to pick the story out of her style. Maybe it's her attempt to make the reader not realize they may be the victim or feel some sort of suspense.
Whatever it is, to me it's the written equivalent of two-image-a-second editing or shaky-cam films. It's work - and I won't do that to experience a story. I'm the customer.
At the Crossroads: The Spacer's Tale, by Jerry Oltion
This was also one of the better ones, as well as a longer one. This is about BoShek, a Corellian acquaintance of Solo's. He's the fella we see in the cantina scene in a pilot's suit. I thought this was another good example of really expanding on the universe. It crosses the cantina day in about the middle of the story. Interesting guy and a very interesting & clever take on who he works for.
In fact, his employer could be a good novel itself. A perfect example of stories existing in the Star Wars universe without having to be Jedi\Sith based. The mention of what he does for a living and where he operates from left me wanting more of that potential story.
Not too much interaction with the film characters and I was again glad that he doesn't know everyone or hear all their conversations. He has his own problems to deal with, so the story goes beyond the cantina scene. I couldn't help but get a slight sense of Indiana Jones in the post-cantina portion. Of course, it's not even remotely close to any type of Indy stuff, but BoShek just sort of reminds me of that type of person.
It has some subtle humor too which I thought was well played. When I go through the novel again sometime in the future, this will definitely get a second reading.
"Do the Banthas of the dunes toil and sweat?"
LOL
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There's a comic featuring BoShek, actually. I don't know much about it aside from the fact that exists.
Keep Circulating the Tapes.
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