Author Topic: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis  (Read 27054 times)

clockworkjoe

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #15 on: February 02, 2010, 12:39:41 PM »
well whatever. I just changed permissions so regular users can no longer delete their own posts.


Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2010, 01:37:53 PM »
Okay, so we're sort of swerved away from what I intended to do with this topic.

As the topic says, this is for treatment of players who ALWAYS climb into the light blue section of the BioWare morality system.

Why 'treat' people for being good, you ask?

Because extreme behavior, good or bad, is annoying.

We're using Aaron as a sign board here because as everyone likely agrees, he is a very very 'good' player. His characters tend to be hyper moral and always seek the most beyond ethical course of action. I'm not saying the Aaron is the 'worst' out there, he's just the one we have close at hand.

This behavior can be just as disruptive to normal gamers as the polar opposite, the player who destorys everything and seeks to cause mayhem whenever possible, because in both situations everyone is playing around the character and must plan ahead for the extreme reactions they tend to have.

So, the real purpose of this thread is to determin how to treat or manage this kind of player/character because they are rarer than their counter part. Many groups experience hyper destructive characters. Fewer have to deal with an exceptionally moral one.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2010, 01:40:28 PM by Tadanori Oyama »

Boyos

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2010, 06:06:39 PM »
again maybe i should pay attention more your right tad, most of the post was in why i love tom threads. sorry for the confusion.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2010, 11:45:19 PM »
If you want to see Aaronitis in full effect, you must listen to the new AP episode

This image sums up my reaction pretty good


Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #19 on: February 03, 2010, 12:07:05 AM »
So, in the effort to rerail this topic:

Ross, how would you compare your experience with Aaron's boy scout play style in this game to playing with a more cliche sort of problem character?: one who refused to talk to NPCs at all and simply caused endless destruction.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #20 on: February 03, 2010, 12:21:27 AM »
that kind of fucktard is easier to deal with - you kill his character by baiting him into a fight he can't win and see if he either gets the point or he leaves the game.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #21 on: February 03, 2010, 12:38:05 AM »
So you can't bait a "good" character the same way you can with a bad. Can you distract them?

With a destructive player you can sometimes sidetrack them with destruction of minor things and get them to leave the plot points alone. Can you provide a good character with small things to keep them busy? To name a few cliches, helping a kid find their mother or helping an old person get someplace.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #22 on: February 03, 2010, 01:06:28 AM »
the thing is there's a big difference between 'good' players and 'bad' players in this context

good players will buy into the social contract of the game

bad players do not give a fuck about the social contract

this is not an iron clad rule because you will get some good players who are really just ass-bergers who looooveeee to follow the rules


Mckma

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #23 on: February 03, 2010, 01:06:47 AM »
If you want to see Aaronitis in full effect, you must listen to the new AP episode

This image sums up my reaction pretty good



I'm like 6 minutes in and I can already see the writing on the wall...

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #24 on: February 03, 2010, 01:16:26 AM »
the thing is there's a big difference between 'good' players and 'bad' players in this context

good players will buy into the social contract of the game

bad players do not give a fuck about the social contract

this is not an iron clad rule because you will get some good players who are really just ass-bergers who looooveeee to follow the rules



The player may buy into the social contract but if he insists on playing his character in a manner which is disruptive to the game than the differences don't amount to much because the game is still being disrupted.

I'm about 45 minutes into the CoC game with Aaron and so far the conflicts sound fairly minor. Your characters are very different but not impossible to work together. I'm assuming it doesn't get better as things go forward.

IDaMan008

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #25 on: February 03, 2010, 01:31:55 AM »
While I've never had to deal with this type of player before, I'm hesitant to agree that it poses as big a problem as the much more common hyper-destructive player. Yes, taking the moral high ground on every issue may bring the boy/girl scout into conflict with the other players, but it also depends on his/her attitude. Tom plays a lawful good character in Ross' New World Campaign while the other characters prefer to play it morally gray, but he's not exactly argumentative about it when the others try to do something questionable. If a player's behavior is disrupting the game--if he's belligerent or rude to the other players because of how their characters choose to act--then he's probably not someone you want to be playing with in the first place. However, if it's just an in-game conflict between characters that's holding things up, I would do one or both of the following: make the decisions that the character has to make harder--i.e., don't give him a "good" choice--or emphasize the consequences of making the "good" decision. Personally, I think that in an interesting story, the moral high road is often difficult to take, or difficult to distinguish. If you're having problems with a character who is too "good," put him in a situation where the best he can hope for is to take the least questionable action. Make it hard to be good.

Mckma

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #26 on: February 03, 2010, 01:35:57 AM »
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that one of the bigger issues here is the consistency in the behavior.  When playing in a game, I'm sure that having the "boyscout" character is somewhat annoying to deal with if you are playing a more morally gray character, but something you can deal with.  However, it probably gets more annoying when you are always dealing with the same issues with a player...

TigerStorm

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #27 on: February 03, 2010, 03:06:44 AM »
Tom plays a lawful good character in Ross' New World Campaign while the other characters prefer to play it morally gray, but he's not exactly argumentative about it when the others try to do something questionable.

From what I can tell in listening to the AP's, he's not too argumentative because he doesn't always know the truth behind things. (for example: they got him to come along without actually knowing that he was helping a vampire... I'm pretty sure he would have been against that)

Boyos

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #28 on: February 03, 2010, 05:27:25 AM »
Tom plays a lawful good character in Ross' New World Campaign while the other characters prefer to play it morally gray, but he's not exactly argumentative about it when the others try to do something questionable.

From what I can tell in listening to the AP's, he's not too argumentative because he doesn't always know the truth behind things. (for example: they got him to come along without actually knowing that he was helping a vampire... I'm pretty sure he would have been against that)

And he tried hard to figure it out right at the start but the dice did not let him, later on he did find him out but the vampire left right as he found out and the minator was a more pressing issue. im sure tom wont let it go in the future episode that he was helping out a vampire. he usuly allways trys to get the lose ends wraped up.

I enjoyed B12 today, Aaron may have been a bit boy scoutish and yes he did some dumb things but in the end he explained his logic and it was sound with what he felt his character new. you gotta admit if you were prob put into that same setting in real life, most of his actions were made the same a normal every day joe would do. now if aaron plays that character again in a future campain I would not expect him to act the same, now that he knows there are real sewer monsters. If the problem continued I could see the issue.

trust me I was loling when he insisted his doctor spent his free time in free clinics helping the poor and homeless, but atleast ross and tom convinced him that he had a contact in the pd cause he also helped shot up gangsters that might have loose lips in time of pain. So atleast he is a work in progress. O still feel aaron will turn out to be a strong player and has a lot of potential, and hey every good story has to have a good guy in it right.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Prescriptions/Advice for curing Aaronisis
« Reply #29 on: February 03, 2010, 11:53:48 AM »
Some of what he did could be explained by begin naive but my god, some of it was just astounding. I think in alot of those cases the average 1920s 'joe' would've just kept his head down and not done anything.

Ross's near meltdown in the speakeasy was amazing. "No, don't fire gun! They don't know yet, we can get away!"