Under The Rock

Aaron Cross · Joined: 22 Mar 2010 Posts: 198 Location: In your mom's bed

I feel this will improve some things:

Success in interacting with the Storytellers is very important to success in the game. Unfortunately this is also a common area for some fairly egregious missteps. For some reason, some people quickly forget that they are dealing with fellow, fallible, and occasionally wrathful human beings when they are talking to the Storytellers. These people bitch, whine, demand, make vague and useless complaints, and for some reason never express gratitude. Maybe it's tunnel vision or something. Here is a rule of human behavior that, believe it or not, is just as true for our vaunted Storytellers. If you are rude to someone, if you piss them off, if you treat them unfairly, if you make their life difficult, if you are disrespectful, then they will dislike it and they will hold it against you. Subconsciously they will try to get back at you, and since the Storytellers hold your character's fate in their arbitrarily powerful hands, they will probably succeed. It is patently idiotic to treat them badly. This is not to mention that since they are volunteering and working hard on your behalf, being shitty to them kind of makes you a douchebag, doesn't it?
Ask for things!!!!
If you want something from the Storytellers, then ask for it. No vague complaints. No frustrated silence waiting for them to pick up on your needs. No angry demands. If you want some help, ask them for help. You have no right to expect things that you don't ask for. If you want them to do something for you, ask them right out. Don't mince words or dance around with chickenshit indirectness. Ask them nicely, but directly, for what it is you want. Be ready for a no. Be ready for a yes. Be ready for them to ask for some clarification. Also be ready to redirect things back onto your question until you get an answer.

Make it clear what you want them to do
The problem with vague complaints is that they are worthless. If you are having a discussion with a Storyteller or the Storytellers and you want them to do something � and why would you be talking to them unless you do � it is your job to make damn sure they know exactly what that is. This means that you identify areas where there may be ambiguity down the road in advance, and plan ahead for them. If you're taking an action that will then allow you to do some future action or cause other future things to happen, you should lay those things out. While it can be fun to surprise people, this causes stress on the Storytellers and they will resist you and be suspicious of things you do in the future if you surprise them with too many things

Minimize their work
Complicated plots happen. They can come from anywhere, and it will often happen that players will want the help or cooperation of Storytellers when developing or participating in plots. That is ok. The important thing to remember is that however much work you are putting into your side of the plot, multiply that by 8 or 9 and that is how much work is being created for the Storytellers. Your goal in everything you send to the Storytellers is to require as few words and as little thought as possible for them to satisfy you. This means several things.
Don't make them have to think of complicated things to make what you are doing possible. This means that ambiguous questions about how exactly you are accomplishing what you mean to accomplish are a no-no. If you don't know how you're doing what you're trying to do, figure it out before hand or ask them for help with it, separately, beforehand. But definitely put some thought into it yourself beforehand. The Storytellers should only have to think about one variable: what happens as a result of what you do.
Minimize the amount of controversy in what you do. Most people know about what kinds of things are controversial things to be doing, but just in case I will enumerate a brief though incomplete list: killing other characters, using NPCs to affect other characters, doing things that require a large-scale response to be realistic, causing explosions or other damage, and doing broken things. If you can think of a way to accomplish what you are doing without involving controversy, you go ahead and do that. You'll be better off, the game will be better off, and the Storytellers will be better off. It's a big win all around.
Keep them apprised of what you're doing, and give them enough information about it so they don't have to put off the results, other people's questions, etc. to wait for you to tell them something. As much useful detail as is practical is a good thing to have here.

gts0508.jpgBe cool, damnit!!!!
If you get angry at the Storytellers, you lose. Things are going to go against you. There are going to be swings that you won't like. Rules calls might be problematic. A million things could happen. Now, if you actually want to improve your situation, do not get angry. Do not lay blame. Do not be accusatory. Be cool, period. I cannot count the times that players have fucked themselves over because some little thing goes wrong and they just can't handle it.
Think for a second of the last five times some asshole has yelled at you. In any of those times, were you doing something for free as a volunteer that was meant to benefit them? How about in the last ten times you've been yelled at? I am willing to bet that most people were not doing anything like the noble work of the Storytellers in the last ten times they were yelled at. Probably they were doing something that deserved being yelled at. Now think about what sort of feelings you had when you were yelled at. Did this yelling make you more inclined to do what the yelling asshole wanted? Or, more likely, did it piss you off and make you want to tell them to go fuck themselves? Yes. The Storytellers are the same way. If you are cool to them, they will be cool to you. If you become a dick, then all I can do is wish you luck.

Never whine
This is pretty self-explanatory. Don't be whiny. It's not going to make things better for you, except perhaps out of pity. And pity is not the road you want to start down with the Storytellers, because it will be very difficult to get off and no one is going to take you seriously while you're on it. If you have a problem, come up with a constructive solution, and go talk to the Storytellers about it reasonably.

Say "thank you"
Storytellers deserve thanks now and again. Actually, strictly speaking they deserve thanks at 15-minute intervals during every game, but it's not practical to have the whole game break character every quarter hour and line up to thank people. But Storytellers do deserve to be thanked by at least one person every game, and I always try to thank them any time they put in serious work on my behalf. I don't always remember. But it's the polite thing to do, it's the considerate thing to do, and it's the nice thing to do. Make sure they know that you appreciate what they're doing
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Aaron Cross Warlord, SNY, Knights of Rockland
X-Enforcer "KOR"
X-GangLeader/Enforcer "Rapid Blaster"
X-GangLeader/Enforcer: "Chow Time""
X-GangLeader: "Something Violent", Lord of the North"
Gorgeous-6, Bruiser, Silence,