Resisting the Story

In simple terms, resisting the story means being antisocial. It means putting your character and your character's motivations ahead of the rest of the group, and forcing them into doing things they don’t want to do. Sometimes the concept of character and what a given Hero would or would not do threatens to overwhelm other elements in the campaign. Don't let this happen.
When reading the above paragraph, it's easy to think "I’m not a jerk, so I won't do anything that disrupts the campaign like that." Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Resisting the story rarely comes about through personal idiosyncrasies (although that can disrupt a campaign just as much). In fact, it usually arises from a perfectly innocent desire to play "right": that is, according to the character's ethics and personality. If you create a character with a fanatical hatred of the Holy Light, for example, you want to play him as hostile to everything that religion represents; you’ll challenge Light-worshippers to duels, cheer when paladins are defeated, kick Light-loving dogs in the street, etc. All of those actions rise from the perfectly logical pursuit of the character's given ideals.
Let’s say our Light-hater is in a party who kidnaps a paladin from Varian's court. The paladin is suspected of many heinous hate-crimes and is to be brought before the Warchief to face trial. The other characters have sworn on their honour to bring him back to Orgrimmar. Everything goes fine until they have the noble in their clutches. The Light-hater argues that they shouldn’t take him back to Orgrimmar - they should just kill him on the spot After all, Garrosh will have him killed anyway and the long journey before them may give the captive opportunities to escape. Better to finish him off now and be done with it. The other party members argue fiercely against it. They have their honour to maintain, and even if he is guilty, it is not their place to determine his fate. In the midst of this, the Light-hater's player decides it would not be in character to let the others argue him off this point. So one night, while everyone else is asleep, he walks up to the kidnapped lord and slits his throat.
Now there’s a big problem. What had been an interesting debate suddenly derails the entire campaign. Their captive has been killed as he lay there helpless; the Light-hater has committed murder. The other characters now have to explain to the Warchief why they have failed their duties; the orders they belong to may strip them of their ranks. In order to preserve their status, they may have to kill the Light-hater, or at least bring him up on charges. To do otherwise would he a violation of their character concepts, forcing them either to attack the Light-hater or junk their own characters' beliefs for the sake of party unity. So now we have the characters at each others' throats, because one player put his character's motivations ahead of the party's. Such schisms rarely get left behind in the OOC.
Avoiding such situations is simple: don't poison the pool. Don’t act destructively just because "it’s in character" and don’t force other players either to ignore your action or kill your character because it's in their characters. Know where the line is and make sure you – and your character – never cross it. This doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be any conflict within your party. On the contrary, some of the best and most rewarding roleplaying experiences come from moral or ethical disputes between Heroes. As long as you know where the limits are and when engaging conflict becomes irreconcilable conflict, feel free to pursue arguments with your fellow Heroes.
To return to the Light-hater example, above, perhaps the character can argue passionately with his fellows, trying to convince them that their captive is too dangerous to live. Perhaps he can petition the Warchief for an execution. Perhaps he can even "allow" the captive to fall into enemy hands, where he will surely perish. There are multiple options he can pursue, none of which foster the schism that an openly antagonistic approach would.
It’s fun to develop your Hero as much as you possibly can. just remember the story your group is telling, and work with it rather than fighting against it. The more easily you can resolve the differences between the character and the storyline – the more often you can find the middle ground to express your character without destroying everything around you – the smoother and more enjoyable your RP will be.
Category:Guides