And here I am again, folks, ready for the second installment of my RP’s Commentary series.
This week’s subject: Takebachi Soramaru.
Hoo boy . . . Takebachi. XD What can I really say as an introduction? Everybody loves Take. Everybody loves reading about Take. Everybody likes collabing with Take. And what can I really say to argue? Takebachi is a fun character. Not just to write, but to interact with.
So, I guess what I’ll begin with is how the character himself was born.
As I alluded to in my previous chapter, most of my characters and the world they inhabit are subject to my personal beliefs. Personally, I’m a big fan of Asian philosophy, particularly Taoism and Buddhism. And though I know that my work will never, ever do the depths of either of them justice, I try to instill a small portion of those schools of thought in everything I write. Thus, I am a firm advocate of “balance” or, to put it a different way, “the middle path”.
That said, Take was meant to be a “foil” for Kuroshin. Or rather, he was meant to provide a point of juxtaposition for the character. He debuted within my very first chapter—the same that introduced Kuroshin. Take’s purpose within that chapter was to showcase exactly what Kuroshin’s life path was costing him. Kuroshin’s obsession with pondering the proper path of truth and justice was ostracizing him from the rest of humanity, and making him a less sociable being. Take, on the other hand, would be the complete opposite.
Now, a funny story here is that I had originally planned to kill off Takebachi within his second appearance. He would die fighting a monster with Kuroshin—just another martyr to help Kuroshin on with his cause and intensify his resolve to succeed. Fortunately, though, I shared my plans with the character beforehand with a good buddy of mine that you all know as “Cloud_X”.
Cloud didn’t like the idea of Takebachi dying, because he was fond of the character after only his first appearance. Furthermore, Cloud explained to me the value of NPC characters, and why they needed to be kept around. (More on that a little later.) Needless to say, Cloud’s opinion affected my decision and Takebachi stuck around.
Boy, was that the best decision I ever made.
As I said before, Takebachi lives for socializing. His entire character thrives off of interaction with other people. In basic instinctual behavior, some theorists have concluded that there are four principle objectives to all vertebrate animals. These four instincts exist to varying degrees within humans as well, and drive our daily actions whether or not we realize it. What are these four things you ask? Well, they’re the Four Fs:
Fight, Flight, Feed or Fuck
Takebachi, however, only represents two of these things: the first and the last. Takebachi’s response to absolutely every person he meets boils down to either fighting them or fucking them. Takebachi is heterosexual male, so often this choice is made for him based upon gender. The two middle options are rarely, if ever, a concern for him.
To be honest, though, Take’s lewd personality was born of misunderstanding. I’d written in my first chapter that Take was a fun-loving guy, and probably a bit lazy. I tried to think of what a noble would do with his free time, if he wasn’t too concerned about training or dealing with noble politics. So, I thought about what any rich, handsome and carefree individual would do: they go get laid. I wrote a single chapter about Take scoring, and all of a sudden, everyone saw Takebachi as a pervert. I thought it was actually a pretty fun angle, so I ran with it.
Another funny thing about Take is that his existence as a noble was created based upon necessity. I needed to explain how Kuroshin escaped from Soul Society and why Takebachi was able to get caught and sent back without any real punishment. His being a nobleman, with the special access and privileges that came with that status, fit within my plans nicely.
As I started to write more about Takebachi, I decided to explore his universe a little more. Now, as I said, my principle concern with my characters is “balance”; most of my characters represent a particular extreme, and my purpose is to deconstruct that extreme and show both the pros and the cons of it. Therefore, Take, being a hedonist, needed an antithesis. He needed something to show that indulging oneself on base whims wasn’t always the right thing to do, and that’s where Aoi Soramaru came in.
But I’ll save more on that for when I write about her.
I rode with this setup for a good while, and I had plenty of interesting stories waiting to tell about the growth of Kuroshin, Takebachi, and the rest of my cast. But then, something unexpected happened. Something that completely changed everything in a heartbeat.
Kuroshin died.
Yes, at my old site, Kuroshin was killed. (I’d argue unjustly, and many agree with me, but I digress.) The bottom line is, Kuroshin was dead, and most of my plot was therefore up shit’s creek.
Eventually, Cloud convinced me to return to RPing with Takebachi as my main character. This, however, left me with a few problems: as an NPC, Takebachi had a lot more freedom, and a lot of his story revolved around Kuroshin. Furthermore, I had no idea how to build the characters’ stats the way I’d want them to be. Over my time at the other site, I’d come to find the way the Hohou (speed) stat worked there to be rather useless. Therefore, I had no intention of keeping Take as the speedy martial artist that he’d original been.
My solution was to make Take a bit of a brute. He’d be large-bodied and buff—maybe not to Incredible Hulk standards, but certainly moreso than your average Joe. While playing the 2008 version of Prince of Persia, I based his build (and some of his personality) on that game’s titular character. I also gave him the use of Kidou to even out his Hakuda abilities, in lieu of speed.
But now my problem was what to write about. I decided to do a lot of collabing initially, until I got in the groove with the character again. I wrote a lot of “filler” collabs that really had no meaning for the character or his story. It was around this time that I got a certain “negative review” that completely dogged both my writing style and my characters. Once again, I’ll save the bulk of my explanations on that for later.
One positive that came about from that negative review was that it inspired me to give Take a more in-depth story so that my original purpose for the character could come to light. It was also meant as a “fuck you” to everyone who claimed that the character had no moral point or themes. The entire POINT to the character in the first place was that he didn’t CARE about those sorts of things. Take lived for self-gratification, but if he could do someone else a favor and cheer them up at the same time, great. But other than that, Take didn’t give a rat’s ass about morals or values.
With that, I developed the character further, culminating in a storyarc in which Take is forced to deal with issues with his family. Throughout my entire history at the RP, I had explained that Take HATED dealing with noble politics. But the entire point to his story was that there were consequences to sticking your head in the sand and choosing to ignore unpleasant things. Whether he was ready for it or not, Takebachi’s life choices eventually came back to bite him in the ass.
I still have plenty more ideas to write with Takebachi, and he’s still as fun as ever. I’ll keep them to myself for now, though, because this entry is already rather long, and I want my audience to be somewhat surprised.
That’s it for this entry. For my next one, I’m going to focus upon Caprizel.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
We're Back!
Hey everybody. I’m having kind a slow, dragging day and turns aren’t coming to me as readily as I would like—so, I decided I would use this time to do something constructive, like restart the Bleach Channel RP blog.
What I’m gonna do for now is start something fresh. I’m gonna indulge my ego a bit and talk about a few of my personal characters. Maybe about five or six, or I might do more or less, depending on the reader reaction to this sort of thing. What I’m really gonna talk about is the creation and development process for my characters, so that I might be able to help people get some idea of what they should do. A lot of people ask me how I come up with my ideas or always find material to write from. This seems to be a bit difficult to explain sometimes, so I thought I’d just do a little “Director Commentary” and see how it works out.
So, with all that said, I think the first character I’ll talk about is Kuroshin since he’s the character I started RPing with, and I’ve invested more into him than any other character.
Kuroshin
Kuroshin, simple enough, is fanfic fodder. I got the idea for him from the IchigoxNeliel relationship on the show. The idea of a shinigami and an Arrancar having a bit of a forbidden romance was interesting to me, so I wanted to explore it with my own character. However, as most of you know, I started writing on a different site than Bleach Channel, and their rules for character creation were a lot stricter. I wanted Kuroshin to be somewhat of a rebellious character (after all, wouldn’t a shinigami have to be if he wanted to love a Hollow?), and I also wanted him to be a part of the Gotei 13.
But then, I also had the bright idea of giving him an Inner Hollow, thus making him a Vizard. The reason I did this was because: A) I’d wanted to RP a Hollow since I first heard about Bleach RPs, and B) the last RP I’d participated in, I’d done a werewolf character with a very fun motif about self-restraint. But, I’ll touch on that some other time.
So anyway, I was forced to submit my Vizard character for the original site’s Vizard faction, and I dove right into my story. So now that I’ve explained how Kuroshin was created, I guess I’ll talk a little bit about the character himself. This might be a bit of a long story, but just bear with me; I’ll try to abbreviate it as much as possible.
Kuroshin’s personality was meant to reflect myself and my beliefs. While Kuroshin’s personality isn’t completely like my own, I tried to give him the same sort of thought process that I have. In a nutshell, like myself, Kuroshin hates being wrong or perpetuating any type of injustice. So Kuroshin’s character represents an eternal quest: the struggle of figuring out what is “truth” and what is “justice”.
Bonus points on fellow Superman fans if you catch my homage there.
Kuroshin Jusutisu’s very name means “True Black Justice”. This was meant to have a double meaning: it provides clues to both Kuroshin’s theme, and as well as the author’s identity. As many of you know by now, I’m an African-American, so that was kind of an in-joke for anyone who could catch it. Which few people did. The other meaning for “Black”, though was the harsh reality of “truth”. It ain’t always nice, and it ain’t always pretty—but it is what it is.
So I started writing with Kuroshin and I immediately ran into a few obstacles. One of the main ones was that Kuroshin was boring. He was boring for most people to read, and he was boring for me to write. Like myself, Kuroshin is introverted, so what he does most of the time is think. Unfortunately, this does not translate well into an RP.
The second obstacle I ran into was that Kuroshin’s very philosophy undermined him as an RPable character. What I mean by this is, when a character is RPed, it’s simply meant for two people or more people to put their created avatars onto a stage and watching hijinx ensue. The entire point to these characters, and the RP as a whole, is for these people to mash two different stories together in an attempt to flesh out their separate universes through cooperation.
Unfortunately, a character like Kuroshin, who insists on always doing the smart, honorable, and “correct” thing, is hampered by this. Why? Because this isn’t their world.
When a single author creates a story, he or she is God of that world. What that means is, whatever observations or problems he or she has with the real world are either highlighted or eliminated completely from their fabricated one. The good guys save the day. Justice prevails, or perhaps just the opposite occurs. It really depends on how the author wants his world’s “rules” and morals to function.
However, with an RP, this world will never be yours. Not completely. So what this means is, values and morals that make sense to you might not make sense to someone else. Therefore, Kuroshin’s idea of doing the “smart” or “correct” thing might be completely different from what someone else had in mind. This was a big problem when collabing, and it was even more of a problem given that site’s insistence on spontaneous plotting, character death, and “common sense”.
These three things, in my opinion, make a fun and open RP completely impossible in the long run. Instead, it creates a system in which one person’s laws and moral codes (probably the GM’s) dominate the entire tone of the RP.
Alas, I’m getting off-track, and I apologize. What this meant for Kuroshin was that I had to alter his character somewhat and make him a far more proactive and reactionary character to RP with. I needed to make him think less and act more, which would become an eventual theme for all of my characters.
Well, that’s about it for the first installment in this series. I hope you found it entertaining and interesting. Stay tuned, and next time I’ll talk about Takebachi Soramaru.
What I’m gonna do for now is start something fresh. I’m gonna indulge my ego a bit and talk about a few of my personal characters. Maybe about five or six, or I might do more or less, depending on the reader reaction to this sort of thing. What I’m really gonna talk about is the creation and development process for my characters, so that I might be able to help people get some idea of what they should do. A lot of people ask me how I come up with my ideas or always find material to write from. This seems to be a bit difficult to explain sometimes, so I thought I’d just do a little “Director Commentary” and see how it works out.
So, with all that said, I think the first character I’ll talk about is Kuroshin since he’s the character I started RPing with, and I’ve invested more into him than any other character.
Kuroshin
Kuroshin, simple enough, is fanfic fodder. I got the idea for him from the IchigoxNeliel relationship on the show. The idea of a shinigami and an Arrancar having a bit of a forbidden romance was interesting to me, so I wanted to explore it with my own character. However, as most of you know, I started writing on a different site than Bleach Channel, and their rules for character creation were a lot stricter. I wanted Kuroshin to be somewhat of a rebellious character (after all, wouldn’t a shinigami have to be if he wanted to love a Hollow?), and I also wanted him to be a part of the Gotei 13.
But then, I also had the bright idea of giving him an Inner Hollow, thus making him a Vizard. The reason I did this was because: A) I’d wanted to RP a Hollow since I first heard about Bleach RPs, and B) the last RP I’d participated in, I’d done a werewolf character with a very fun motif about self-restraint. But, I’ll touch on that some other time.
So anyway, I was forced to submit my Vizard character for the original site’s Vizard faction, and I dove right into my story. So now that I’ve explained how Kuroshin was created, I guess I’ll talk a little bit about the character himself. This might be a bit of a long story, but just bear with me; I’ll try to abbreviate it as much as possible.
Kuroshin’s personality was meant to reflect myself and my beliefs. While Kuroshin’s personality isn’t completely like my own, I tried to give him the same sort of thought process that I have. In a nutshell, like myself, Kuroshin hates being wrong or perpetuating any type of injustice. So Kuroshin’s character represents an eternal quest: the struggle of figuring out what is “truth” and what is “justice”.
Bonus points on fellow Superman fans if you catch my homage there.
Kuroshin Jusutisu’s very name means “True Black Justice”. This was meant to have a double meaning: it provides clues to both Kuroshin’s theme, and as well as the author’s identity. As many of you know by now, I’m an African-American, so that was kind of an in-joke for anyone who could catch it. Which few people did. The other meaning for “Black”, though was the harsh reality of “truth”. It ain’t always nice, and it ain’t always pretty—but it is what it is.
So I started writing with Kuroshin and I immediately ran into a few obstacles. One of the main ones was that Kuroshin was boring. He was boring for most people to read, and he was boring for me to write. Like myself, Kuroshin is introverted, so what he does most of the time is think. Unfortunately, this does not translate well into an RP.
The second obstacle I ran into was that Kuroshin’s very philosophy undermined him as an RPable character. What I mean by this is, when a character is RPed, it’s simply meant for two people or more people to put their created avatars onto a stage and watching hijinx ensue. The entire point to these characters, and the RP as a whole, is for these people to mash two different stories together in an attempt to flesh out their separate universes through cooperation.
Unfortunately, a character like Kuroshin, who insists on always doing the smart, honorable, and “correct” thing, is hampered by this. Why? Because this isn’t their world.
When a single author creates a story, he or she is God of that world. What that means is, whatever observations or problems he or she has with the real world are either highlighted or eliminated completely from their fabricated one. The good guys save the day. Justice prevails, or perhaps just the opposite occurs. It really depends on how the author wants his world’s “rules” and morals to function.
However, with an RP, this world will never be yours. Not completely. So what this means is, values and morals that make sense to you might not make sense to someone else. Therefore, Kuroshin’s idea of doing the “smart” or “correct” thing might be completely different from what someone else had in mind. This was a big problem when collabing, and it was even more of a problem given that site’s insistence on spontaneous plotting, character death, and “common sense”.
These three things, in my opinion, make a fun and open RP completely impossible in the long run. Instead, it creates a system in which one person’s laws and moral codes (probably the GM’s) dominate the entire tone of the RP.
Alas, I’m getting off-track, and I apologize. What this meant for Kuroshin was that I had to alter his character somewhat and make him a far more proactive and reactionary character to RP with. I needed to make him think less and act more, which would become an eventual theme for all of my characters.
Well, that’s about it for the first installment in this series. I hope you found it entertaining and interesting. Stay tuned, and next time I’ll talk about Takebachi Soramaru.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Bleach Character Lifespans
How Fast Do Bleach Characters Age?
I was doing a bit of musing today about the lifespans of Bleach characters: specifically, Rukongai citizens and shinigami. We know that it's possible to grow old in Soul Society, since Rukia and Renji both went from kids to adults, and Yamamoto is an old man. However, how long someone can actually live in Soul Society is rather ambiguous, since certain character so less signs of aging than others. For example, Hiyori Sarugaki had the appearance of an early teen (13-14 years old) in the Pendulum flashback arc, but she has almost the exact same appearance 110 years later. By contrast, Nanao Ise was a small child during the flashback chapters, but is a grown woman today. And then we have Yachiru, who's never seemed to mature beyond than five years old.
So what's the deal? Exactly how long does it take for souls to live their natural lifespan?
Well, I Googled the question and was quickly prompted with this forum discussion, in which the topic creator estimates that the average human soul lives about 800 - 900 years old. That sounds pretty good so far, and he also states that shinigami live somewhere around 2000 years. That sounds pretty close to what I estimated, since Yamamoto has been a shinigami for a millennium or two.
However, my ultimate guess is that most characters' lifespans are dependent upon their Reiryoku (spiritual power) level. Rukongai citizens, the bottom of the reiryoku barrel (aside from ordinary mortal beings), live roughly 800 - 900 years, but shinigami tend to twice that time. A bankai-level individual (such as old man Yama) would live between 2000 - 3000 years, if not longer.
Okay, so now we know how long they live, but how do they age? Yamamoto's been old forever, and there's still the Hiyori/Nanao puzzle I posited a while back. Well, it seems to me that shinigami age in a manner similar to trees--that is to say, they mature from childhood to adulthood relatively quickly, but they remain at peak maturation for a long time afterward. Once again, let's look at the Pendulum arc. The characters who were children at the time (Hisagi Shuhei, Akon, and Nanao) have all grown to adulthood within a century, while the characters who were already Adults (Kisuke Urahara, Juushiro Ukitake, Sousuke Aizen) hardly show any signs of aging. But again, part of the problem is that these are bankai-users, so they could be exceptions rather than the rule. Soifon, it seems, was a late teenager during the Pendulum arc, but now she's a fully mature woman.
I can't find a concrete answer to the question, and what we've got to work with is horribly confusing, so I suppose all I can do is give my own estimation. As far as Hiyori/Nanao, I believe the simple answer is the fact that Hiyori became a Vizard during the Pendulum arc, and thus halted all further aging. Like Claudia from Interview with the Vampire, Hiyori seems to be stuck in the body of a child forever, no matter how grown up she actually is. This would also make sense considering that Lilynette states that Arrancar don't age (this also implies that their physical forms don't reflect the souls' actual age). It would make sense that Hollow don't age either, and thus, a shinigami with an inner Hollow (a Vizard) would possess the same effect.
So, what does this mean for Substitute Shini like Ichigo? Who knows. Ichigo breaks all of the rules: he's still mortal, and his shinigami body is separate from his physical body. Therefore, it's possible that his physical body will age while his soul will remain that of a teen forever. (Kind of interesting when you think about it, hm? That would mean that Ichigo would still be a force to be reckoned with even after he's become an old man stuck in Depends diapers.)
As for Yachiru, I honestly have no clue, since we don't know exactly how much time has passed since she and Kenpachi met up. That makes any speculation kind of pointless. Yes, I'm aware that the Pendulum arc hints that Zaraki became the Kenpachi just shy of a century ago, but he's never shown during that arc. So, until I know for sure, I can't make that call.
So, let's recap. Time for an official Bleach Channel ruling:
I think that pretty much sums it up for now. Whew. I need a bit of a breather.
http://www.bleachchannel.com
I was doing a bit of musing today about the lifespans of Bleach characters: specifically, Rukongai citizens and shinigami. We know that it's possible to grow old in Soul Society, since Rukia and Renji both went from kids to adults, and Yamamoto is an old man. However, how long someone can actually live in Soul Society is rather ambiguous, since certain character so less signs of aging than others. For example, Hiyori Sarugaki had the appearance of an early teen (13-14 years old) in the Pendulum flashback arc, but she has almost the exact same appearance 110 years later. By contrast, Nanao Ise was a small child during the flashback chapters, but is a grown woman today. And then we have Yachiru, who's never seemed to mature beyond than five years old.
So what's the deal? Exactly how long does it take for souls to live their natural lifespan?
Well, I Googled the question and was quickly prompted with this forum discussion, in which the topic creator estimates that the average human soul lives about 800 - 900 years old. That sounds pretty good so far, and he also states that shinigami live somewhere around 2000 years. That sounds pretty close to what I estimated, since Yamamoto has been a shinigami for a millennium or two.
However, my ultimate guess is that most characters' lifespans are dependent upon their Reiryoku (spiritual power) level. Rukongai citizens, the bottom of the reiryoku barrel (aside from ordinary mortal beings), live roughly 800 - 900 years, but shinigami tend to twice that time. A bankai-level individual (such as old man Yama) would live between 2000 - 3000 years, if not longer.
Okay, so now we know how long they live, but how do they age? Yamamoto's been old forever, and there's still the Hiyori/Nanao puzzle I posited a while back. Well, it seems to me that shinigami age in a manner similar to trees--that is to say, they mature from childhood to adulthood relatively quickly, but they remain at peak maturation for a long time afterward. Once again, let's look at the Pendulum arc. The characters who were children at the time (Hisagi Shuhei, Akon, and Nanao) have all grown to adulthood within a century, while the characters who were already Adults (Kisuke Urahara, Juushiro Ukitake, Sousuke Aizen) hardly show any signs of aging. But again, part of the problem is that these are bankai-users, so they could be exceptions rather than the rule. Soifon, it seems, was a late teenager during the Pendulum arc, but now she's a fully mature woman.
I can't find a concrete answer to the question, and what we've got to work with is horribly confusing, so I suppose all I can do is give my own estimation. As far as Hiyori/Nanao, I believe the simple answer is the fact that Hiyori became a Vizard during the Pendulum arc, and thus halted all further aging. Like Claudia from Interview with the Vampire, Hiyori seems to be stuck in the body of a child forever, no matter how grown up she actually is. This would also make sense considering that Lilynette states that Arrancar don't age (this also implies that their physical forms don't reflect the souls' actual age). It would make sense that Hollow don't age either, and thus, a shinigami with an inner Hollow (a Vizard) would possess the same effect.
So, what does this mean for Substitute Shini like Ichigo? Who knows. Ichigo breaks all of the rules: he's still mortal, and his shinigami body is separate from his physical body. Therefore, it's possible that his physical body will age while his soul will remain that of a teen forever. (Kind of interesting when you think about it, hm? That would mean that Ichigo would still be a force to be reckoned with even after he's become an old man stuck in Depends diapers.)
As for Yachiru, I honestly have no clue, since we don't know exactly how much time has passed since she and Kenpachi met up. That makes any speculation kind of pointless. Yes, I'm aware that the Pendulum arc hints that Zaraki became the Kenpachi just shy of a century ago, but he's never shown during that arc. So, until I know for sure, I can't make that call.
So, let's recap. Time for an official Bleach Channel ruling:
- Pluses (wandering, earth-bound spirits) don't "age" so much as they deteriorate into Hollow.
- Hollow, in any form, do not age or possess a level of maturity to begin with.
- Rukongai citizens live between 800 - 900 years, showing gradual age during this time.
- Shingami live approximately 2000 years, although adulthood and middle age last for a very long time.
- Bankai-level shinigami live for 3000 years or more, depending on their level of strength.
- Vizard do not age. However, a Sub Vizard 's mortal body will age as normal.
I think that pretty much sums it up for now. Whew. I need a bit of a breather.
http://www.bleachchannel.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
On Intelligence
There's an enemy hidden amongst RP writers. A vile fiend who pretends to be their closest friend, but all the while sucking the very life from them and everybody who they collab with. This friend is someone you all know, and you all want, but must be avoided at all costs.
This enemy is named Intelligence.
Did you know that in Bleach canon, the captains (and presumably all shingami) are ranked by six stats from a scale of 0 to 100? These six stats are as follows: Offense, Defense, Strength, Kidou, Agility and Intelligence. Here at Bleach Channel, we're doing our best to emulate this. Offense and Strength are pretty much incorporated into the Hakuda and Zan stats. Defense and Agility tend to go hand in hand, so those have been all but combined and Footwork has been separated to distinguish it. And Kidou is a no-brainer.
So, what of Intelligence? Why is there no intelligence stat?
Well, the simple answer is that most people don't feel obligated to post their character as "unintelligent". In fact, exactly how do you rank intelligence anyway? Captain Kurotsuchi and Kisuke Urahara are obviously smart guys, but most of their intelligence shows in the form of plot devices such as the Hougyoku or Mayuri conveniently having a deus ex machina for anything Szayel Aporro Granz can throw at him. They're smart, but only because the writer has bothered to withhold information from us and then spring it at the last second as a big reveal. Before Aizen mentioned it, did you know that the Hougyoku existed? And before he said so, did you know that Kurotsuchi could take out his own organs and replace them with "dummies"? If not, revealing these as proof of "intelligence" doesn't count; if we'd known about it beforehand and got surprised by later, that's when it would count.
So, does this mean that you can't have your character be "smart"? Absolutely not...but you may not want to. As I said before, Intelligence is your enemy...not your friend. You'll find yourself having a lot more fun writing a character of average (or below-average) intelligence than one who's supposed to be smart all of the time.
When you describe your character as "smart", that puts a lot of pressure on you to constantly prove it. You'll write your character introspecting and thinking more than actually doing things. You'll make your character analyze everything everyone says with a fine-toothd comb, and he or she will fail to trust 70% of the people they meet. After all, smart people tend to be curious and suspicious, so your character will question everything. And so will you.
Not only does this make writing a chore, since you want to make your character deeply ponder every single thing that happens, but your collab partners will wonder just when the heck you'll just shut up and throw a punch. And, speaking of punches, that brings me to my next point: Intelligence in fights.
Most people fight to win. After all, isn't the very nature of a fight to crush someone violently? Well, yes and no. Here at Bleach Channel, there's no threat of PC death (NPCs are a different story of course, but we frown upon doing so without the RPer's permission), so there's no pressure for your character to always win a battle. If your shinigami finds himself face-to-face with an Arrancar of higher power, you don't have to crap your pants and worry that Johnny won't make it home to his orphaned brothers in Rukongai. Johnny will be just fine, so just enjoy the ride.
However, when you RP an "intelligent" character, this character will also be driven to win. Or, at the very least, to succeed. You'll instinctively want your character to do the smartest, most tactical thing in order to win or gain an advantage. There is nothing inherently wrong with this--everybody should fight with a game plan. However, you DON'T have to make your character do everything right. Have you ever seen a boxing or a mixed martial arts match where both fighters did the smart thing? Even someone who's considered to be a fighting genius can do something stupid in the heat of battle. Your character should be no exception.
When I RP in a fight, what I want more than anything is for both myself and my opponent to have fun. So, I don't mind having my character do something utterly brainless or ignorant every now and again. This takes pressure off of me to always try and be one step ahead of the other opponent, and it keeps the fight rolling. Who cares whether I win or not? It's just a game.
Intelligence, people, is not your friend.
This enemy is named Intelligence.
Did you know that in Bleach canon, the captains (and presumably all shingami) are ranked by six stats from a scale of 0 to 100? These six stats are as follows: Offense, Defense, Strength, Kidou, Agility and Intelligence. Here at Bleach Channel, we're doing our best to emulate this. Offense and Strength are pretty much incorporated into the Hakuda and Zan stats. Defense and Agility tend to go hand in hand, so those have been all but combined and Footwork has been separated to distinguish it. And Kidou is a no-brainer.
So, what of Intelligence? Why is there no intelligence stat?
Well, the simple answer is that most people don't feel obligated to post their character as "unintelligent". In fact, exactly how do you rank intelligence anyway? Captain Kurotsuchi and Kisuke Urahara are obviously smart guys, but most of their intelligence shows in the form of plot devices such as the Hougyoku or Mayuri conveniently having a deus ex machina for anything Szayel Aporro Granz can throw at him. They're smart, but only because the writer has bothered to withhold information from us and then spring it at the last second as a big reveal. Before Aizen mentioned it, did you know that the Hougyoku existed? And before he said so, did you know that Kurotsuchi could take out his own organs and replace them with "dummies"? If not, revealing these as proof of "intelligence" doesn't count; if we'd known about it beforehand and got surprised by later, that's when it would count.
So, does this mean that you can't have your character be "smart"? Absolutely not...but you may not want to. As I said before, Intelligence is your enemy...not your friend. You'll find yourself having a lot more fun writing a character of average (or below-average) intelligence than one who's supposed to be smart all of the time.
When you describe your character as "smart", that puts a lot of pressure on you to constantly prove it. You'll write your character introspecting and thinking more than actually doing things. You'll make your character analyze everything everyone says with a fine-toothd comb, and he or she will fail to trust 70% of the people they meet. After all, smart people tend to be curious and suspicious, so your character will question everything. And so will you.
Not only does this make writing a chore, since you want to make your character deeply ponder every single thing that happens, but your collab partners will wonder just when the heck you'll just shut up and throw a punch. And, speaking of punches, that brings me to my next point: Intelligence in fights.
Most people fight to win. After all, isn't the very nature of a fight to crush someone violently? Well, yes and no. Here at Bleach Channel, there's no threat of PC death (NPCs are a different story of course, but we frown upon doing so without the RPer's permission), so there's no pressure for your character to always win a battle. If your shinigami finds himself face-to-face with an Arrancar of higher power, you don't have to crap your pants and worry that Johnny won't make it home to his orphaned brothers in Rukongai. Johnny will be just fine, so just enjoy the ride.
However, when you RP an "intelligent" character, this character will also be driven to win. Or, at the very least, to succeed. You'll instinctively want your character to do the smartest, most tactical thing in order to win or gain an advantage. There is nothing inherently wrong with this--everybody should fight with a game plan. However, you DON'T have to make your character do everything right. Have you ever seen a boxing or a mixed martial arts match where both fighters did the smart thing? Even someone who's considered to be a fighting genius can do something stupid in the heat of battle. Your character should be no exception.
When I RP in a fight, what I want more than anything is for both myself and my opponent to have fun. So, I don't mind having my character do something utterly brainless or ignorant every now and again. This takes pressure off of me to always try and be one step ahead of the other opponent, and it keeps the fight rolling. Who cares whether I win or not? It's just a game.
Intelligence, people, is not your friend.
On Turn Structure
Collab writing is fun, but it's also quite challenging . . . especially when it comes to fighting. Most people new to RPing do remarkably well within their own chapters, but not so well when collabing with others. It's easy to pace, remember the details of your own characters, and work out your PC's reaction to any situation you can think of, but it becomes quite challenging when there's another person with their own ideas and characters to work alongside. Some people adapt to collabing right away and do remarkably well, and some get frustrated by the ordeal. Regardless of which category you fit into, it's my hope that this article will assist you to become a better turn writer.
In my experience, turns are comprised of three parts: Reaction, Action, and Response.
Reaction is the what your character(s) does based on the events of the previous turn. Did your character think it was funny? Was he or she shocked? Surprised? Unimpressed? Did your opponent take damage or skillfully avoid it? The first part of your turn should address these points.
Because of this, most people begin the timeframe of their turn immediately after the last action taken. However, some also like to write their character's reaction to the entire turn, from beginning to end. This idea should only be used when necessary.
Here is an example of a necessary instance: If a team of shinigami are fighting a hollow, and the hollow attacked with some sort of fireball, the first member of the shinigami team would typically write his reaction to the fireball at the beginning of the turn, then he would write the rest of his turn. Then, his teammate would post his reaction to the fireball, and then to whatever the other shinigami did before writing out the rest of his turn. And the next person would do the same. You see? Here, it's necessary because almost no one wouldn't have any reaction to a gigantic fireball coming at them.
However, this tends to ruin the flow of a collab if it's done every turn, or if the events reacted upon were mundane. If someone is speaking to another character and begins their turn by insulting their mother before going on to talk about other matters, it might be tempting for the responding writer to begin his turn by writing a response to the wisecrack. But, tends not to be a good idea, either because it amounts to a minor form of modding.
How is it modding, you ask? Well, let's look at what "modding" is in general: taking control of someone else's character without their consent. So, in this case, you're reacting to an insult. Okay, that's understandable. But, you have to remember that the previous writer elected to have his character continue speaking or acting once he or she said the insult. Would that person really let you get the last word like that and go off onto a completely unrelated subject? Wouldn't it be better to save your response until near the end of the turn, so that they can react, too?
Action is rather obvious. After your character reacts, what else did they do? In fights, this would be the time for your character to quickly shift strategies, or try to get a new positioning, or maybe unveil their secret weapon. This part of the turn can be as short as long as needed, but it should once again be about pacing. If a fight is too wordy or has too many long pauses, it can be boring to read. So, sometimes, it might be a good idea just to have your character simply use the Reaction portion of the turn to dodge, then quickly shift to offense and prepare to attack. Short, simple and to the point.
Outside of fights, though, this is usually the part of the turn that keeps the story rolling. Now that your character's reacted to the previous one, how is he/she going to contribute to what's happening? It's usually a good idea to be as proactive as you can, as that keeps the collab from stagnating for a really long time.
Response is the part of your turn where you give your partner(s) something worth reacting to. Did your character throw out an attack? Tell a joke? Introduce something new? Attempt to escape? What?
In my opinion, of all of the components of a turn, this is the least necessary but the most crucial to good collabing. If I read a turn that's nothing but a Reaction and Action, it's hard for me to figure out what to do next. If your character just sneers at my joke and walks away, what do you want me to do? Chase after him/her? Apologize? Continue laughing? WHAT?!
On top of this, a response should be short and simple. Don't complicate your counterattack with a lot of unnecessary details that will only confuse your opponent. If all you did was throw a punch, then just describe the punch and post the turn. If you convolute the resoponse with too much information, you force my Reaction to be that much longer and specific, and that hurts my creativity.
Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned for the next article!
In my experience, turns are comprised of three parts: Reaction, Action, and Response.
Reaction is the what your character(s) does based on the events of the previous turn. Did your character think it was funny? Was he or she shocked? Surprised? Unimpressed? Did your opponent take damage or skillfully avoid it? The first part of your turn should address these points.
Because of this, most people begin the timeframe of their turn immediately after the last action taken. However, some also like to write their character's reaction to the entire turn, from beginning to end. This idea should only be used when necessary.
Here is an example of a necessary instance: If a team of shinigami are fighting a hollow, and the hollow attacked with some sort of fireball, the first member of the shinigami team would typically write his reaction to the fireball at the beginning of the turn, then he would write the rest of his turn. Then, his teammate would post his reaction to the fireball, and then to whatever the other shinigami did before writing out the rest of his turn. And the next person would do the same. You see? Here, it's necessary because almost no one wouldn't have any reaction to a gigantic fireball coming at them.
However, this tends to ruin the flow of a collab if it's done every turn, or if the events reacted upon were mundane. If someone is speaking to another character and begins their turn by insulting their mother before going on to talk about other matters, it might be tempting for the responding writer to begin his turn by writing a response to the wisecrack. But, tends not to be a good idea, either because it amounts to a minor form of modding.
How is it modding, you ask? Well, let's look at what "modding" is in general: taking control of someone else's character without their consent. So, in this case, you're reacting to an insult. Okay, that's understandable. But, you have to remember that the previous writer elected to have his character continue speaking or acting once he or she said the insult. Would that person really let you get the last word like that and go off onto a completely unrelated subject? Wouldn't it be better to save your response until near the end of the turn, so that they can react, too?
Action is rather obvious. After your character reacts, what else did they do? In fights, this would be the time for your character to quickly shift strategies, or try to get a new positioning, or maybe unveil their secret weapon. This part of the turn can be as short as long as needed, but it should once again be about pacing. If a fight is too wordy or has too many long pauses, it can be boring to read. So, sometimes, it might be a good idea just to have your character simply use the Reaction portion of the turn to dodge, then quickly shift to offense and prepare to attack. Short, simple and to the point.
Outside of fights, though, this is usually the part of the turn that keeps the story rolling. Now that your character's reacted to the previous one, how is he/she going to contribute to what's happening? It's usually a good idea to be as proactive as you can, as that keeps the collab from stagnating for a really long time.
Response is the part of your turn where you give your partner(s) something worth reacting to. Did your character throw out an attack? Tell a joke? Introduce something new? Attempt to escape? What?
In my opinion, of all of the components of a turn, this is the least necessary but the most crucial to good collabing. If I read a turn that's nothing but a Reaction and Action, it's hard for me to figure out what to do next. If your character just sneers at my joke and walks away, what do you want me to do? Chase after him/her? Apologize? Continue laughing? WHAT?!
On top of this, a response should be short and simple. Don't complicate your counterattack with a lot of unnecessary details that will only confuse your opponent. If all you did was throw a punch, then just describe the punch and post the turn. If you convolute the resoponse with too much information, you force my Reaction to be that much longer and specific, and that hurts my creativity.
Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned for the next article!
The Bleach Channel Blog
Hello and welcome to the all-new Bleach Channel blog. This is Vyse, your administrator and Game Master for the site. This blog is designed for myself (and other Administrators) to write general columns and thoughts about not just the RP, but any other related topic that crosses their mind, such as Bleach canon or anime, manga, and comics as a whole. Really, anything can be talked about and shared with our members. The idea is to give you guys an insight on how our thought processes and operations go. Hopefully, this will help you become better integrated with the site, as well as become a better writer an RPer.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have fun. Bye!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have fun. Bye!
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