Monday, September 3, 2018

4th Class: Practice & Rehearsal

I'd like to start by saying that while I may sound like I have all the answers, much of this content is as new to me as the reader. It has come about because of certain things that were said by readers two weeks ago, which produced the breakthrough that I wrote about in my 1st Class introduction.  That in turn encouraged me to follow up on content described on this wiki page, which led me to examine more closely the methods of prepation, that led me to reading materials on these things and then reinterpreting them for role-playing games. I'm not inventing new information, but rather translating academic research that already exists; nor have I been holding back this knowledge for the day when I could release it to the world.  Rather, I'm describing the material as I have understood it, sometimes having made the realization an hour or so before.

I would have included this material when I wrote my book, How to Run, but I didn't know it then.  Unlike many people on the internet who pretend to have all the answers, I will state coldly that I absolutely do not have all the answers and do not know everything there is to know about managing or preparing for role-playing games.  However, I am researching the concept and learning new things, which is a damn sight better than every other person I have ever read on this subject.  I feel I'm eminntly qualified to write posts like this not because I'm a know-it-all; but because I desire to know it all.  In the pursuit of that goal, I learn things.

What we tend to think when we hear "practice."
And so, if we can begin today's class, our subjects today are practice and rehearsal.  These are often confused and often understood to be the same, so we should take a moment and define the difference between the two.  Practice is a free expression of the individual's desire to explore and examine their own ability; it is largely done alone and is not subject to the will or actions of other persons.  Practice can be done any time, and for as long as one wishes.  On the whole, practice does not have a time element.  Rehearsal, however, is a group activity.  It is typically scheduled.  It is not an exploration of a personal expression, but rather a designed activity to achieve consensus, or a gestalt, among individuals working together.  There is a strong motivation not to make errors in a rehearsal, but to produce the desired result as perfectly as possible.  Practice is a method by which perfection in rehearsal is obtained.

And because practice leads to the success of a rehearsal, let's begin there.

Practice

The concept of practice does not normally exist in the role-player's lexicon, so it is upon us to demonstrate that it happens all the time and that it is something we do whether or not we are aware of it.  I'll take a moment and say one last time in this course that the game as written does not actually require anyone to give any time towards practice - but it is, in fact, very hard not to practise a role-playing game, once we have a clear idea what we mean by practice.

Practice is the act of repeating a physical or mental action over and over, and in the process improving the efficiency, or mastery, of that action.  For example, if I give myself to thinking about the various ways in which my player character might buy equipment, or choose spells, or express himself, or otherwise participate in the fictional world, and I continue to do so each day for many months, I will slowly master an elaborate set of resources and choices for the character, effectively improving my game play.  I will remember, by practicing to remember, to buy specific things when they are needed, to combine bought items in a myriad of ways, to draw attention to my dress or my appearance when I speak, to speak more clearly, to use my words better, to adapt those words to a character ideal in my mind, which I shall know much better through continued contemplation and so on.  If I try to live in my character's head as I do my own, I will remember more clearly what my character's abilities are, and how they will best be employed.  And I can do all these things whether or not I am actually playing in the campaign.

Moreover, this is what most players who are enamoured with the game do, whether or not they are told to do it, and whether or not they believe it will improve their play.  They do it because it feeds their compulsion to do it; but this is no less a form of practice for that reason.  To understand this better, follow the work of K. Anders Ericsson.

Allow me the benefit of an analogy, which may better express what I mean, since using a player character as a template is unfamiliar territory.  Let's presuppose a musician who chooses to practise.  Naturally, our thoughts reach for the musician's desire to play a musical instrument more effectively; say, in this instance, a guitar.  But there is more "at play" than the guitar.  The guitarist must obtain and slowly grow comfortable in the right posture.  Calluses must build up on various parts of the hands.  The fingers must grow more nimble, and stronger, to press down on the frets or hold the pick.  The guitarist grows more comfortable with not looking at the guitar so that music can be read; and one gets better at reading music more easily so that the notes can be heard on the paper as well as understood.  The guitarist grows more adept at tuning and maintaining the guitar, and at the way the guitar is put into a case, and the manner in which the case is carried, and the habit of remembering that the case must be managed as the guitar is carried from place to place.  The guitarist steadily learns more about other guitars and what are the best guitars, and why, and how the materials of a particular guitar will change the way that something practised will sound.  And the guitarist gets more comfortable with being identified as a guitarist, and being asked to play, and what songs to play for which audiences, and what things people will dislike, and getting used to some people being haters, and recognizing that not all people who like the guitarist do so for good reasons.  And so on and so forth.  There is a lot more to being a guitarist, and practicing at being a guitarist, than merely learning how the strings are played.

And a role-player is no different. There is lots to remember and lots to learn and many ideas to consider and a lot of details to manage and attitudes of players and a desire to play vs. a willingness to DM and so on and so forth ... and all these things require practicing a way of thinking about role-playing games and how we identify ourselves with them.  We don't think of it as "practice" but it is, nonetheless.  We are increasing our cognitive skills and our ability to use our senses in game play; we are assessing the skills of others and our own skill; we are giving ourselves feedback and comparing our efforts with past efforts, and with the efforts that we've seen others display; and we have the option of pushing for better skills in creating maps, designing characters and backgrounds, narratives and hundreds of details we seek to add to the game.

We don't "need" to practise, but we do.  We do through repetition and constant thought as we dedicate ourselves to something that interests us.

This is, incidentally, an argument against artificial intelligence.  When we, as humans, perform repetitive tasks, we are affected by a large number of hormonal impulses that produces a level of boredom that becomes a compulsion to stop doing a particular task.  We then intellectually argue why we should continue to perform the task anyway, because we can see an end result; but to counteract the boredom we start looking for ways to make the task more efficient (to reduce the time to reach the goal), or more interesting (by paying attention to details we did not formerly recognize or by making a game of it) or by thinking of other ways to achieve the goal without having to do the task at all.

Computers can't do any of these things. They don't get bored.  They don't perceive goals.  They can't identify an alternate route to a goal once a route has been established.  They haven't any hormonal impulses that compel them to seek any other action but to continue the repetitive task.

Because we will get bored with creating parts of worlds or adventures, if we push through that boredom or try to mitigate it, whatever we seek to practise will eventually become the part of the game that we are best at.  If we emphasize our willingness to be role-players, then we will view role-playing as the end-all and be-all of the game because that will be the part of the game that we are best at, and with which we are most comfortable. If we spend all our time designing for places in our games where rolls will need to be made, then "roll-playing" will be seen as the most important element.  We build our own prejudices by whatever part of the game we practise at thinking about or designing, just as a country singer will have a prejudice for country music, or a jazz guitarist will have a prejudice for jazz.

But Music, and Role-playing, exists with or without prejudices.

Rehearsal

While my definition for rehearsal (as linked above) states that, "... rehearsal is not the final outcome of practice," and goes on to make a distinction between a rehearsal and an original performance, we can bend those restrictions a little by recognizing that each session of role-playing between players and DM is, in a strong sense, both an original performance AND a rehearsal for the next original performance.  The DM ensures that the various elements of the game are ready to be played, whatever the level of preparedness, and that they are coordinated to make the best possible impression on the Players.  The Players, too, come to each session with ideas in hand and proposals to be made, and expect to impress or surprise the DM after their own manner.  Everyone is expected to give their whole attention to the performance of the game.  Even if errors, lapses in attention or interruptions are common place, it is understood that the game is more important than who did what at what place, or who said what the other day, or what might be happening outside while the Game is progressing.

We tolerate distractions and interruptions to be friendly and convivial.  But when someone says, "Let's get back to the game," no one groans as they might if someone said in a workplace, "Let's get back to our jobs."  We want to play or we wouldn't be there.

The purpose of the rehearsal is to coordinate the various dynamics of play and the participant's interaction with play.  The recently coined "Session Zero" is an effort to do this on first meeting without the attention issue of having to actually express what the players are doing in a setting ~ but the reality is that we should expect a group of players to take multiple sessions before expecting them to adjust to matters of the rules, the personalities of other players, personal take on the game, a group consensus towards purpose and many other factors that arise from people acting as a single entity.

If we were to join together to put on a performance of Othello, no one would be surprised to find that there were going to be 13 weeks of rehearsals with 30 to 40 specific nights where we would come together to prepare for the end performance.  Which doesn't include the private arrangements between Othello and Desdemona, or Iago and Brabantio, to run through the lines and blocking of a particular scene without the director or crew present.  Everyone is typically good with this investment, because it is understood that in three months plus a week, we're going to do this in front of a live audience and we don't want to look like fools.  Some of us want a good review, because we think of having a career as an actor.  And so, there's very little sympathy for anyone who doesn't put the play first ~ since a single bad effort by a supporting character, say the Duke of Venice, can wreck the performance for everyone.

So to settle things, we in role-playing take the time to get everyone to agree to the same rules, and the same methodoly of interpreting those rules (as written, by DM fiat or by group consensus).  We discourage a single player from hogging the DM's attention.  We put a ban on player-vs-player ... or we encourage it, because that's the sort of game we've all agreed to play.  We get everyone on board, a little bit more with every game session, because it makes the game session in the future better and better.

If we don't rehearse this way, however; if we don't arrive at a consensus; if the players won't surrender certain behaviors or attitudes; then each game session gets worse and worse, because there seems to be no purpose to going on if it's just going to be another boring fight every night.  Once again, as the goal with these players and this DM seems less likely to be the game we want to play, we quit and go find another game.  That is how we biologically function.  It's what makes us "intelligent."

The purpose for a consensus, or in choosing to see the game session as a proper rehearsal for future sessions, is not to play the game "right" or "well," but to play it more effectively as a group.  Which is why it can be difficult to let in a new player, who will fail to see the importance of this consensus (which is rarely explained, if even understood by the original group members) and will act as a discordant note for weeks and weeks, until they're pushed out or they conform to the standard the others have agreed to play.

As a DM, the more clearly we see that standard, the more clearly we can explain it to players, both old and new, and the more quickly we can jump from a bunch of people with separate agendas to a single working whole.  It takes time to do this without becoming an autocrat (which many DMs descend to becoming, because it is direct and easy), because it takes empathy, a fair ethical framework to look from and an awareness of both self and others that most DMs do not even care to possess, as they see no reason for it.  And thus we get the games we get, as we have all seen with our own experience.

This completes our introduction to preparedness.  With our next class, we will examine expertise, the process of gaining experience through practice, education and the various other elements of preparedness.

6 comments:

  1. I've watched game after game of my own, and my friends, fall apart because we had at least one person who wasn't... in harmony with the rest, to one degree or another. Sometimes a frank discussion helped the issues, sometimes not.

    My group over time has naturally whittled down to six people who are enthused to play in my games. They're not always available though, so I end up with one, two, or three players per session... which has been interesting to adapt to, on my DMing side, and for them as players. I've resorted to running online, which isn't my preference, but is better than no game at all.

    Finding new players via playing in public, recruiting coworkers/family, or taking in random internet strangers has been an experience. Recruiting internet strangers in particular has proven difficult, as consensus and coherent play among people who don't know one another at all, through the internet is challenging. Especially across shifting schedules and timezones. Not sure how Alexis manages it with his online campaigns.

    I feel as if I've exhausted the other options and am considering trying to run pick up games at a nearby local game store.

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  2. Alex,

    I manage it because, as you said, I'm intimidating. People think twice before deciding to say they'll run, so that those who agree are the sort to dig in and commit.

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  3. This rehearsal element is something I always feel, and try and express, but it feels like nobody really understands.

    When I make a character, at first it's a jumble of numbers and text, then as I play it out for a bit, it all starts to come together, and their relation to other party members and so on solidifies.

    I see other players with 12 pages of backstory before things start (hyperbole in most cases) and just wonder how all that will jive with how things REALLY play out when the shit hits the fan.

    When it comes down to it, and your character is up against the wall, will they still be an honorable stick by their rules? Will they do that at the expense of their party members? How does your backstory and personality of asshole combine when everyone else is being do-gooders?

    How about when you find the cool sword and your backstory has 8 pages on you being trained in a hammer? Going to just pass up on that?

    Sometimes it breaks down at the expense of the backstory, only being brought up when it conveniently matches some one in three session event. Sometimes it holds at the expense of the other players as everyone says "Hey, you're screwing us over with this! Just do the thing!" Sometimes I see it become the pillar everyone rotates around to bind the party together. Possibly at the expense of other epic backstories. Sometimes it holds at the expense of the player, as their character is broken on the sea of 'reality' in the world. (Who would have though townsfolk would have issue with kobolds? or necromancers or thieves or...) They usually quit (after drawn out non-attendance) or change characters then half-heartedly bail.

    And sometimes it works...

    But honestly, the rehearsal really helps me come together for me. Either the cool item, the opportunistic spell, maybe just the rolls in a fight trending one way or the other (Usually well, I am a bit charmed) brings the character together.

    I'm more of a roll-player, but I can do role a bit better 15 sessions in, and have the roll a bit sooner. I just LIKE crunching numbers, and all the practice pays off. Or helps me settle on a concept to rehearse with...

    I dunno, sorry to trail on, but this is where my thoughts went.

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  4. You'll remember how much Ahmet's backstory and my breaking of it upset the apple cart ...

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  5. This post was an interesting read, and have been helpful in shedding light on past situations, from a long time ago, as well as on what I can read here and there on the web.

    As interesting as it was, though, I didn't think I'd have something to get out of it for my current situation - I mean, some of my players and myself practice, and we all rehearse, so I'm good, no ?

    But re-reading it, I'm seeing it.
    I've had a new player, and he has taken some time to get used to the game, time that'd have been cut short if I had been more aware of the Rehersal.
    And I do practice, but what I lack I don't practice enough. And the Practice is more efficient - I think - if consciously decided and guided.

    Once again, this posts series clarify instinctive behaviours and bring them where they must be for my betterment.

    Thanks.

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  6. This series has been an excellent read so far. Thank you.

    The analogies above are excellent and I think they will help me to explain to a couple of my players why I spend the first session or two discussing expectations, creating characters, and getting to know each other. Both of them are long time friends and players of mine so I suspect that part of the problem is that they already like and know what I typically expect from everyone and are eager to move on to playing. However, after reading this post and reflecting on it I think there may be more to it.

    The first person I think is just really eager (and impatient) to get to playing. He is fairly flexible and willing to adapt to the group so as long as he is playing and involved, he's having fun. He's also one of my more proactive players who is all about what happens in session and less about backstory. He is very much a discover his character through play rather than a write a long backstory type of person. So I think he is fairly harmless and will come to understand why I want to set expectations and get everyone on the same page.

    My other friend on the other hand, I think may be adverse to it because he realizes (maybe not consciously) there is a chance that if we spend time actively discussing and setting expectations that we will end up with a game not to his liking. Knowing him he wants to keep things the way they've always been and doesn't want to incorporate new people's expectations. I don't know if he is even conscious of it but I'm pretty sure the next time we start a new game I have to speak with him about it.

    Once again, great posts. This really has me thinking about about the overall structure of our sessions and how we "do business" both individually and as a group.

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