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Pop Culture |
| 2021-06-21 |
Pop Culture
It's hard to play a higher INT character, and probably as hard playing a higher WIS one.
The ruler might decide that only STR, CON, and DEX are used to "model" characters, that INT, WIS, and CHA are not necessary and that the players will roleplay it all.
Still, playing a role is putting yourself in the shoes of the character, it might be hard driving a character whose knowledge and culture is less voluminous and is certainly very different from yours.
I remember feeling cheated at the beginning of Excalibur, Merlin is invoking a dragon, we don't see the dragon, just fog, I know what a dragon looks like, just show it!
Imagine being a ten year old fourth or fifth century briton lad. What's a dragon supposed to be and look like? The mouth of a wolf, the scales of a snake, the wings of a bat, ... No paper, no parchment, no heraldry yet, and the legion eagles are an old man souvenir, their wax tablets gone. no "Dessine-moi un dragon !"
Your head is probably full of practical knowledge, necessary for the hundreds of small routines around a household or a farmstead. Women are spinning wool, their hands never seem to stop, and they swap stories and laugh a lot. The priest might be organizing very early versions of passion plays, but he's probably more into impressing you into respect or fear for the church. There are many stories being told and retold around you, travellers are questioned and those with a knack for describing the world at large and telling the stories there are certain to be offered a bowl of soup and a seat by the fire.
Rhymes and rhythms wrapping some of them, the inspiration of the moment for others, still stories have to be re-told, almost performed each time.
Your character hasn't seen all the movies and plays you've seen, he hasn't read the comics you've read, he hasn't unravelled plot after plot after plot. He hasn't died a thousand times and wasn't respawned one more time. What fed his imagination isn't what fed your imagination.
But the character is in your imagination, and he and his imagination fit in there.
