Rollplaying magic advancement. Options

[emo samurai]

Would you make it easier to craft foci/initiate/whatever if the player roleplays the creating thereof? For example, if he does the meditation ordeal and he narrates what he sees when he does it, would you allow him to initiate for less karma? Same thing for if he crafts and bonds a weapon focus in a dojo?

[stevebugge]

No.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

As a GM, I generally expect this stuff more or less for every character advancement. Otherwise, I´d be reluctant to even allow it, especially with Initiation, but less so with foci.

If the RPing is good and or extensive, or the player actually writes something up (or for foci even draws something up), I´ll generally give extra Karma, that can be spent for the advancement.

[Azralon]

[Geekkake]

I don't provide bonus modifiers for RP during initiations, foci creation, etc., because these events should be roleplayed to begin with. From a logical perspective, a focus has to have some kind of personal connection to the mage to bond via Karma, an Initiation is a personal journey into the mage's goddamned psyche. Without roleplay, I'd immediately declare the effort unsuccessful, regardless of rolls. There's simply nothing behind the effort, no connection to integrate the focus or ordeal into the mage's soul.

However, if the RP is well-done, I award bonus Karma, which is standard practice on my runs.

[emo samurai]

So if the character obviously shows more initiative than normal, then he should get a bonus? That's about right.

[mfb]

i'm not sure initiation and foci creation should have to be rp'd. i mean, if the GM has a plot point he wants to develop with one, or the player has a cool idea for his initiation, great. but who wants to try and roleplay something that can be summed up as "i sit on the floor cross-legged for six hours and think about stuff"? or "i lock myself into my lab for a week and smelt pig iron". trying to rp an initiation, or a focus creation, can be cool, and is definitely worthy of some karmic reward. trying to rp all of them, though? meh...

[emo samurai]

What if the dude's really philosophically complicated? Then I think it's okay for him to rp every initiation. Maybe he doesn't want his magic to be treated as just another thing for him.

[stevebugge]

[emo samurai]

What if my description takes, like, 2 minutes, tops? Such as, "To bond this air spirit focus, I go to the top of a skyscraper to feel the wind and magically focus it into my mystical wind thingy." Or maybe I say "I use the alchemical acid to etch a haiku into my katana surrounded by caligraphy written by great swordsmen." That's inventive enough, I think, and it doesn't take much time.

[mfb]

eh. if you do stuff like that consistently, i'd probably give you some bonus karma once every few sessions for general good rp. if you only pull that out when you're trying to do something karma-intensive, probably not.

[emo samurai]

What constitutes good RP for you? Being funny? Coming up with good lines? Acting out your character well?

[Lagomorph]

[mfb]

all of the above, emo. in the table game i run, i've got a guy who talks in his 'in-character' voice even when he's just describing what his character is doing--walking down the street, reloading in a firefight, doesn't matter. i've got another guy who doesn't have an in-character voice at all, and who does things like running into the middle of a bunch of bad guys to grab the piece of primo gear one of the dead ones has on him. guess which one gets more karma (or, well, more chips, since it's a Deadlands game).

[emo samurai]

I don't know; running into the middle of the fight would be fun in RL, mortal risk aside. I mean, how primo was the gear? If it was good enough, that might have been a tactical decision. And what does the munchkin's OC voice sound like? Is it monotone or something?

[Azralon]

If someone is particularly good at RPing (or otherwise contributing to the game), then I'm inclined to give them more karma. It doesn't matter if it's during their ninth initiation or during a beer run to the Stuffer Shack.

That's the extent of it. It's canon, it's simple, and it rewards those who put forth extra effort.

[Geekkake]

I can see some of the game-time concerns being voiced, and I completely agree. Which is why my group doesn't get to do things like bond foci or Initiate in the middle of a run. As far as I'm concerned, our weekly sessions are reserved for running, and brief downtime activities.

When my players want to do time-consuming downtime stuff like bond foci, Initiate, train new attributes or skills, build a car, program software, etc., they E-Mail the descriptive, RP-oriented portion of process, and check their sheets (always keep a copy of a char's sheet), make a few quick rolls, and give them a descriptive result. Takes five to ten minutes, usually, which is no huge chunk out of my day. When I'm sitting around on IM, it can be done anytime (aside from game-time).

The only real stipulation I have for this method is how much downtime the characters have. If the characters are in the middle of a run when we broke off last session, sorry, no time. But the rolls and descriptions can still be done, and later applied in game-time once there's enough downtime to allow the attempt.

[mfb]

it's a GM call, emo. as his GM, i don't see him putting much extra effort into RP, and i see him occasionally do things that are completely out of what character he's built. sure, there are some characters that would stop fighting in order to grab a piece of gear some guy dropped, but his character isn't one of them, from what rp he's displayed.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

I do agree, that downtime stuff should not consume to much gametime. Thats why I try to handel this stuff betweem sessions, too. And I allso dont allow to have this stuf taken place betweem session, if the character does not have this much time.

[emo samurai]

This is all stuff I would do. Thanks. Pretty much the only rule for RP I'll use is, "entertain me."

[Kremlin KOA]

[emo samurai]

My point is that there is normal, "Wisdom of the Ancients" or "Just in from MIT&T" magic that other people tell you works, and then there's the magic that you sort of make up yourself. The magic you make up yourself should work better because each person's magic is different, and if he works to make it work for himself rather than a magical group, then it should work better for him. Hence, the greater karmic efficiency.

[Dissonance]

Except in SR3, the exact opposite was true. Working within the confines of a group, rather than following your own magical tradition, resulted in 'greater karmic efficiency."

[emo samurai]

Bah. POWER TO THE INDIVIDUAL! Seriously, though, I think it's more of a challenge for the player to make his own paradigm than it is for him to choose a Level 2 contact at character creation.

[yesman]

In my opinion, email or forum posts are the best way to handle this kind of RP opportunity in any great amount of depth. Then spend a little time in game on it to reinforce it, when appropriate.