Learning as we go

Most of us playing KTDARPG are neophytes. This is our first role-playing game (me included), so we're doing a lot of learning on the fly.

The easiest part to learn is the writing. Some weren't very confident of their skills when they started, but they've come a long way in just one year! I should say for the record, we don't worry about misspellings or grammar or sentence structure. It truly is the "thought" that counts--building a character piece by piece, creating realistic dialogue, staying true to your character even in difficult situations.

Those difficult situations can be...interesting. We're all different ages, so we have different levels of life-experience. So what some take for granted, others may not have experienced at all.

For example, my first character was a 17-year-old girl who had to come to terms with her own impending death. Definitely not something I was familiar with. We have 3 male-players who decided to create female secondary characters--talk about a learning experience! (They also inspired me to try my hand at male characters...I'll admit honestly, I've had to call upon the guys several times to help me figure out "appropriate responses" in specific situations. Thanks, guys!) Another player is getting into a first-love relationship where the physical part is all new ground. And another's character is pregnant. Sometimes we skip over some details, or just infer that actions took place off-scene rather than trying to show everything in the game. Whatever works.

Staying true to the character you create becomes the goal, in any situation. We ask questions of each other out-of-game, we research, we learn. We do the best we can. Along the way we've created a hell of a lot of really good storylines.

"Thanks" to our players who aren't new, the ones who always seem to know what they're doing and are generous with their advice. The rest of us appreciate your patience!

-Chyna
Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"