Mask play (was Re: [UA] Players screwed over)

[sneadj at mindspring.com]

"James O'Rance" <jorance at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I've seen four main modes, actually. Rather than prattle on for pages,
> I'll quote a post to rec.games.frp.advocacy on the topic:
> 
> Token play, in which the character is simply a bundle of game
> resources for the player to manipulate.
> 
> Type play, in which the character provides a "shell" of abilities and
> roles, and the personality is essentially provided by the player. 
> (This is not necessarily "playing yourself" because the abilities and
> role may distinguish the PC clearly from the player, but the PC
> personality is a reflection of the player personality.)
> 
> Character play, in which the character's personality is distinct from
> the player's and the player attempts to figure out what the character
> would do.  This is what most recent published rules advocate.
> 
> Mask play, in which the player imaginatively "becomes" the character
> and knows intuitively what the character would do.  This is usually
> referred to as "immersion" on RGFA; an older name was "deep IC" (where
> IC stands for "in character.") <<<
> 
> These are not the terms that I typically use, but I'll refer to them
> here for clarity.
> 
> I agree that token play is pretty basic stuff, and would bore the hell
> out of me. I see a mix of type play and character play in my
> roleplaying circle; it seems to be a matter or preference, although
> some people complain that the "type players" always seem to play the
> same character (including other type players!).
> 
> Mask play I don't see often, although I have gone there in freeforms
> and occasionally in table-top games; it might be a bit intense for
> some people, and perhaps too elusive to recognise.

<snip>

>  >>>UA seems to require a mode of play that stops just short of full
> immersion with strong token aspects of "this is how my token will
> react to having his arm ripped off."<<<
> 
> I'm guessing that you're talking about character play when you say
> immersion; I can hardly imagine a whole group of people in "mask play"
> all of the time. Perhaps you'd be a little more comfortable with a
> mixture of character and type play in one game?

Actually, that's exactly how folks in my group play (well, to be 
honest, we're likely only doing Mask Play ~ 65-85% of the time, 
but it is by far the dominant mode of play).  Then again, we're all 
fairly odd - all of us have had multiple in-character dreams (not 
regularly, but they happen occasionally).

It makes for *very* intense and emotional play and is basically 
what I'm looking for when I game. Character play can be OK 
sometimes, but it really doesn't have much *zing* to it.  I'e never 
seen the point of the other two modes.

I'm now remembering an incident that happened a year ago.  As 
part of our unofficial group contract, the death toll is quite low.  We 
all know that the GM is willing to let characters get seriously hurt, 
ripped off, and screwed over, but PC death is very rare.  Well, we 
hadn't had any in the game we were in then (that one had been 
running for almost 2 years).  Then one player decides he wants a 
new character sometime soon and asks the GM to provide a good 
exit for his PC.  Nothing happens that session. The next session, 
the group is making a deal with some really shady types and are 
planning to double cross them. 

We send in two people (one wearing a wire) to distract them and 
gain info, and the rest wait outside to bag the guard and rip them 
off.  All goes well, until the person guarding the two inside PCs 
gets suspicious when his guard has been gone a bit too long.  He 
pulls a gun, the PC whose player wants to change characters then 
kills the lights (having positioned himself by the only light switch), 
and then like an idiot charges the guy with the gun head on (rather 
than waiting for magic types outside to come and save him).  
Gunfire ensues and when it's over the PC is lying dead on the floor. 
Even better, the GM doesn't tell us he's dead immediately, so my 
character tried to stabilize him him and fails utterly (him being 
dead).  Nothing was planned, but the GM decided on the spur of 
the moment *not* to fudge any rolls so the PC died (the player, 
being a bit of a dim bulb at times actually expected to have his 
character succeed).  It was shocking, very sudden, and all of the 
players were in virtual shock afterwards.  Almost everyone was 
somewhat subdued the next day.  

That's what real gaming is for me, and this is why I feel Mask Play 
is really cool.  However, this is also why I *strongly* avoid games 
where the GM gets too into suffering, angst, random death, or 
dismal failure. I want the games I'm in to be more exciting than real 
life, but I don't want it to be particular more depressing or pointless 
than real life, I get enough of that while not gaming.

-John Snead sneadj at mindspring.com

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