Some random thoughts
Been a while since an update. LJ says 17 weeks, in fact. Things have been happening, but for the most part I've just not mentioned them here...
I probably won't address academic stuff yet, since that could get long and I don't feel like it yet. On random other topics, though:
- Wing Chun. My training in this is continuing; while I've not tested it in real situations yet, and know I have some weak areas in it, I do feel that I'm getting better. Officially, I've not been shown by a teacher any of the second form yet (or the techniques encoded within it), but I've kinda been examining it with students who have. Dunno if that's good or bad, but it's interesting. I've noticed, though, that there's quite a spread in ability amongst those who know form 2, so it's hard to try to guess when or why one should learn it.
Another thing I've noted whilst training with people is the way I correct people is very... soft? Weak? I mean, even if I'm pretty sure they're doing it wrong, I'll tend to explain the problem in an uncertain way, passing on what I've heard without stating it as fact. I seem to do the same thing in general interaction with people too; rather than confidently stating stuff, even when I am certain, sometimes I find myself artificially pausing to make it look like I had to think about something. I don't know why. Seems kinda weird...
I also wonder if that trait is something I've only started to do recently, or if I do it online too, or such. As a chibi I used to have a reputation as 'the smart one', but I've noticed I rarely (LC being the exception) get mentioned as being in that role these days. I dunno if it's because of the people I'm around (say WL people are extra smart, for example, I may be at or below average), or the way I've been interacting with them (not doing enough to make an impression, for example), but... it kinda feels like my defining traits have changed in a way that I can see; previously people would note me as being smart, now they would tend to say 'nice', so are my memorable points now in different places?
- Fencing has been less interesting than WC, so far. This might be due to the heavy emphasis on footwork, and how they've said barely anything about swordplay; while, this might be a fair representation of stuff, as positioning seems to be critical for this sort of thing, it feels inefficient - stepping can be trained pretty much anywhere, while waving (capped) pointy bits of metal around can only be done with the proper equipment.
Another thing that's come into play is the issue of skill. Might be because I'm not particularly tall, or in possession of arms or legs with a range advantage, or I might just be slow, or I may have drawn particularly good opponents - but for the most part, I've tended not to do well in the pseudo-duels there have been about twice so far. It might also be me just not being a physical-activities type; while that could get cancelled out in WC because I'm diligent about attending a full four hours training every week at the Union building (unlike many others), fencing is about one hour per week. I can't get an advantage there the same way, seems like... Though, perhaps I should try training footwork alone to see if that helps at all?
- In terms of creative stuff, for some reason I've been a little more active than usual. Been writing a few bits of stories, and having a lot of thoughts about how to develop others. Might even be able to write another 'ep 1' type story for a new setting I've been playing with recently.
Said setting developed from thoughts about how to map forum-people (in this case LC's inhabitants) to generic-fantasy-RPG classes in the style of RO or D&D or such. It had some interesting results, but it did remind me that forum-fic style stuff is pretty hard if there's a character mapped to somebody whose behaviour you don't have a really good feeling for. I'd be interested to hear what anyone who's tried writing that sort of stuff has to say about the issue.
- I've kinda given up attending offline RPGs this year. It occurred to me at the start of this term that I've tended to play with roughly the same group of people, in particular playing three games under the same GM. Looking back on this, that's no surprise; most others either played D&D (which one should remember I'm not a fan of) or Vampire (likewise; White Wolf's stuff in general I tend not to go for), or some random Sci-fi thing that didn't catch my interest. I've also kinda started to doubt the value of randomness in RPGing, or even the very concept of playing an actor in the GM's story (particularly as playing another role to a physically-present audience is not really something I think of myself as good at). And possibly other things too.
A few other factors came into play too: firstly I didn't know of anyone planning to run any games I had any interest in the concept of, and secondly it seemed unwise to take up fencing and not drop something else to balance the extra time loss. Especially as I'm on a somewhat mre intensive course this year. So, overall, I thought it best to drop the weekend RPGing.
- Online RPGs are a somewhat different case, though. LoC I've sortof let die down again, which was partially due to it getting a little... confusing? Frustrating? What I mean, is that we had, basically, a new character turn up and start causing chaos, without being as subtle about it as I'd like. I mean, dropping a character straight into the plot when the main party is about to have a major scene in a different plotline felt... slightly annoying. Like everything else going on was upstaged, kinda. It didn't help also that they were not designed in a way I was happy with - there was little capping their powers, and they were the insane 'kill everyone' type, so things seemed destined for a bad end. Quite possibly for them, as Elizabeth was in about as dangerous a state as she's ever been, and there were various allies around to play backup.
The situation eventually got resolved with the character in question having an sudden attack of sanity and deciding to retreat, though in a questionably slow way; a slight problem, since the logical thing for the main party to do there is press the attack and eliminate the threat. Should've just retreated to somewhere a long way away.
The other issue that left me concerned was other new characters: firstly, this same player decided to bring in two other characters and introduce them pretty much straight away, which I think is a violation of some sort of story-structuring principle. I mean, who cares about them at the moment? It's the established characters that should be in the spotlight most of the time, right? Others get mixed in slowly, as and where they're relevant to the plot. That's what happened with the other two players playing more than one character...
I also had a slight dislike of these three new characters because they felt like they didn't really fit? Remember how RMF is a Rozen forum, so it felt questionable that these characters gave me such a 'Rozen characters with the serial numbers filed off' feeling, mostly in their powersets.
Secondly, there was another new character introduced, by a different player. I don't mind that, but said player was a bit... hopeless. In the 'accidentally introduces plotholes through not thinking about established facts or reasonable actions' sense. So, these two new people felt to me like they were pulling the story in a different, and inferior direction.
I should probably have done something about this, but instead I ended up just leaving it. I think early on I was thinking I'd post after letting somebody else clear up the mess - the three-new-characters player was vague about what happened where, and I think other things might have gotten tangled; normally in such a situation I'd clear things up by using the start of my next post to resolve inconsistencies and confusion somehow, but... I didn't feel like it that time, partly since I'd been trying to push those two in the right direction recently anyway.
Overall, I kinda feel like things went wrong because the new players didn't perform to the standard of previous ones. Such is the nature of open-to-anyone RPGs, though, I guess?
MW, though, has still been going on. It's slowed down recently, since there was a bit when a lot of the players were busy (activity on all forums I'm on seemed to drop off around then - what's up with that?), but the plot has been moving forwards. I kinda owe a post soon, though; I've been putting it off because it will require quite a long section of skilled writing, as well as some complicated choices about how to handle things. And while I've found time to do lots of random stuff, that task is one I've just not got around to yet...
I probably won't address academic stuff yet, since that could get long and I don't feel like it yet. On random other topics, though:
- Wing Chun. My training in this is continuing; while I've not tested it in real situations yet, and know I have some weak areas in it, I do feel that I'm getting better. Officially, I've not been shown by a teacher any of the second form yet (or the techniques encoded within it), but I've kinda been examining it with students who have. Dunno if that's good or bad, but it's interesting. I've noticed, though, that there's quite a spread in ability amongst those who know form 2, so it's hard to try to guess when or why one should learn it.
Another thing I've noted whilst training with people is the way I correct people is very... soft? Weak? I mean, even if I'm pretty sure they're doing it wrong, I'll tend to explain the problem in an uncertain way, passing on what I've heard without stating it as fact. I seem to do the same thing in general interaction with people too; rather than confidently stating stuff, even when I am certain, sometimes I find myself artificially pausing to make it look like I had to think about something. I don't know why. Seems kinda weird...
I also wonder if that trait is something I've only started to do recently, or if I do it online too, or such. As a chibi I used to have a reputation as 'the smart one', but I've noticed I rarely (LC being the exception) get mentioned as being in that role these days. I dunno if it's because of the people I'm around (say WL people are extra smart, for example, I may be at or below average), or the way I've been interacting with them (not doing enough to make an impression, for example), but... it kinda feels like my defining traits have changed in a way that I can see; previously people would note me as being smart, now they would tend to say 'nice', so are my memorable points now in different places?
- Fencing has been less interesting than WC, so far. This might be due to the heavy emphasis on footwork, and how they've said barely anything about swordplay; while, this might be a fair representation of stuff, as positioning seems to be critical for this sort of thing, it feels inefficient - stepping can be trained pretty much anywhere, while waving (capped) pointy bits of metal around can only be done with the proper equipment.
Another thing that's come into play is the issue of skill. Might be because I'm not particularly tall, or in possession of arms or legs with a range advantage, or I might just be slow, or I may have drawn particularly good opponents - but for the most part, I've tended not to do well in the pseudo-duels there have been about twice so far. It might also be me just not being a physical-activities type; while that could get cancelled out in WC because I'm diligent about attending a full four hours training every week at the Union building (unlike many others), fencing is about one hour per week. I can't get an advantage there the same way, seems like... Though, perhaps I should try training footwork alone to see if that helps at all?
- In terms of creative stuff, for some reason I've been a little more active than usual. Been writing a few bits of stories, and having a lot of thoughts about how to develop others. Might even be able to write another 'ep 1' type story for a new setting I've been playing with recently.
Said setting developed from thoughts about how to map forum-people (in this case LC's inhabitants) to generic-fantasy-RPG classes in the style of RO or D&D or such. It had some interesting results, but it did remind me that forum-fic style stuff is pretty hard if there's a character mapped to somebody whose behaviour you don't have a really good feeling for. I'd be interested to hear what anyone who's tried writing that sort of stuff has to say about the issue.
- I've kinda given up attending offline RPGs this year. It occurred to me at the start of this term that I've tended to play with roughly the same group of people, in particular playing three games under the same GM. Looking back on this, that's no surprise; most others either played D&D (which one should remember I'm not a fan of) or Vampire (likewise; White Wolf's stuff in general I tend not to go for), or some random Sci-fi thing that didn't catch my interest. I've also kinda started to doubt the value of randomness in RPGing, or even the very concept of playing an actor in the GM's story (particularly as playing another role to a physically-present audience is not really something I think of myself as good at). And possibly other things too.
A few other factors came into play too: firstly I didn't know of anyone planning to run any games I had any interest in the concept of, and secondly it seemed unwise to take up fencing and not drop something else to balance the extra time loss. Especially as I'm on a somewhat mre intensive course this year. So, overall, I thought it best to drop the weekend RPGing.
- Online RPGs are a somewhat different case, though. LoC I've sortof let die down again, which was partially due to it getting a little... confusing? Frustrating? What I mean, is that we had, basically, a new character turn up and start causing chaos, without being as subtle about it as I'd like. I mean, dropping a character straight into the plot when the main party is about to have a major scene in a different plotline felt... slightly annoying. Like everything else going on was upstaged, kinda. It didn't help also that they were not designed in a way I was happy with - there was little capping their powers, and they were the insane 'kill everyone' type, so things seemed destined for a bad end. Quite possibly for them, as Elizabeth was in about as dangerous a state as she's ever been, and there were various allies around to play backup.
The situation eventually got resolved with the character in question having an sudden attack of sanity and deciding to retreat, though in a questionably slow way; a slight problem, since the logical thing for the main party to do there is press the attack and eliminate the threat. Should've just retreated to somewhere a long way away.
The other issue that left me concerned was other new characters: firstly, this same player decided to bring in two other characters and introduce them pretty much straight away, which I think is a violation of some sort of story-structuring principle. I mean, who cares about them at the moment? It's the established characters that should be in the spotlight most of the time, right? Others get mixed in slowly, as and where they're relevant to the plot. That's what happened with the other two players playing more than one character...
I also had a slight dislike of these three new characters because they felt like they didn't really fit? Remember how RMF is a Rozen forum, so it felt questionable that these characters gave me such a 'Rozen characters with the serial numbers filed off' feeling, mostly in their powersets.
Secondly, there was another new character introduced, by a different player. I don't mind that, but said player was a bit... hopeless. In the 'accidentally introduces plotholes through not thinking about established facts or reasonable actions' sense. So, these two new people felt to me like they were pulling the story in a different, and inferior direction.
I should probably have done something about this, but instead I ended up just leaving it. I think early on I was thinking I'd post after letting somebody else clear up the mess - the three-new-characters player was vague about what happened where, and I think other things might have gotten tangled; normally in such a situation I'd clear things up by using the start of my next post to resolve inconsistencies and confusion somehow, but... I didn't feel like it that time, partly since I'd been trying to push those two in the right direction recently anyway.
Overall, I kinda feel like things went wrong because the new players didn't perform to the standard of previous ones. Such is the nature of open-to-anyone RPGs, though, I guess?
MW, though, has still been going on. It's slowed down recently, since there was a bit when a lot of the players were busy (activity on all forums I'm on seemed to drop off around then - what's up with that?), but the plot has been moving forwards. I kinda owe a post soon, though; I've been putting it off because it will require quite a long section of skilled writing, as well as some complicated choices about how to handle things. And while I've found time to do lots of random stuff, that task is one I've just not got around to yet...