Re: [GRIT] {Meta} How to GRIT!
Author:   kumonryuu <kumonryuu@hotmail.com>
Date:     1999/03/09
Forum:    rec.arts.anime.misc

In article <36E46681.1090@yahoo.com>,
  Coorlim@yahoo.com wrote:
> tzubi@ns.sympatico.ca wrote:
> >
> > n the nature of "How to write fight scenes" and "How to
> > annoy Blade on a dollar a day" I now present the first
> > comprehensive post that gives advice about -How to GRIT-!

For instance, one good way to annoy Blade is to not give him any credit for a
post that you wrote with his help. ;p

> >
> > GRIT is an interactive multi-author script format dynamic
> > writing/roleplaying medium. I think it's pretty unique on
> > the internet... but probably not.
> Well, there are E-feds (electronic wrestling federations), RPG message
> boards on Yahoo, the now ML based CAPOW, certain stories on
> rec.games.computers.ultima.dragons, a coupla Red Dragon Inn type
> newsgroups... but GRIT is one of the best.

Granted, but we've checked many of them...and never found one that works
quite the same way GRIT does now.  Many of them never seem to get out the
early stages of GRIT...IE, everyone's an SI, no real plotlines, plenty of
breaking the fourth wall...granted, this is not always a bad thing, but from
the standpoint of looking at a continuous story with in-depth plotlines and
real  character development, I've yet to see any of them match up to GRIT.

Of course, I could have missed something. ;p  But if GRIT isn't -unique- in
its format, it's certainly quite uncommon.

> >
> > The basics of GRITing are as follows:
> >
> > 1) Each "Player" has a character (or a number of characters)
> > which they use as a sort of "avatar" (not to be confused
> > with Andy) in the GRIT world. The player has total control
> > over this character, called a PC.
> Some people have multiple PCs, but its probalby best to start with one.
> I, however, am an idiot.

*pat pat*  I wouldn't say that...virtually every new GRITer that's come in in
the last two-three years or so has started with more than one PC.

We just keep telling them not to. ;p

> > 3) You write the story in script format. When you do a post
> > you write a brief story, preferably open ended. During your
> > post you take control not only of your own characters but
> > all the other PCs and NPCs in the thread. By writing about
> > the interaction between the various characters and your own
> > PCs you continue the story. Once you are finished someone
> > else will post a follow-up to your post (ideally) and take
> > control of your characters for the duration of their
> > segment.
> >
> ...Or it'll die a horrible lingering death.  I've found its best to NOT
> start new threads until your characters are well known, and you know
> what you're doing.

What Aaron was trying to get at-not very clearly-is that you do this during a
fairly open space in someone else's thread.

And you're right...starting your own thread is quite frankly a virtual
invitation to be ignored, until you are extremely well-established and known
in GRIT.

> > Making your character UNIQUE is perhaps the most important
> > thing. Every GRIT veteran has a succesful character concept
> > because when the first introduced the idea it was -unique-,
> > in that it hadn't been done before.
>
> I could mention something about no idea being unique, but that would be
> horribly cynicle of me, wouldn't it?

True, but we mean unique for GRIT.  ;p  It's true, tho...all the successful
GRITers who came in had unique concepts.

As far as that goes, a little dissertion on how to build good GRIT-style
characters...

Do it the way Takahashi did.

What that means, basically, is that your character should have one or two
immediately noticable traits that stick out and identify them.  For instance,
in the Ranma manga, when Kunou Tatewaki is introduced, he's carrying a rose,
blathering in formal language to Akane, and being very smug and
self-absorbed.  Within the space of two pages, you already have a basic
knowledge of who and what Kunou is.

So, too, does one do these things in GRIT.  In your FIRST post, you should
play up whatever makes your character distinct.  Not to blow my own horn, but
I think Akemi was one of the classic examples of this.  In her first post,
she showed up, glomped Blade, crushed his rib cage in the process of said
glomp, blathered endlessly, and smited a few people.  In other words, all the
distinctively noticable things about Akemi were introduced immediately,
thereby giving people a grasp on how she should be written right away.
Remember, nobody else is a psychic.  If you don't make your character fairly
clear at first, noone will know how to play them, and then they WON'T play
them.

I don't mean that all characters should be two-dimensional cardboard cutouts;
when you have your one or two distinctive traits established, then you BUILD
on that, on-screen, and thereby add to your character, and since people will
be paying attention now, they'll pick up on it and continue to be able to
play the character.

Always remember, no man-or woman-is an island.  If you are the only person
who knows how to play your character, your character is doomed to obscurity
(this, incidentally, is another very good reason why you should not introduce
a complex past right away, or all at once).

> > This is harder for newbies to do now that time has gone on
> > and their have been many character concepts to grace GRIT
> > continuity, but not impossible. In order to make your
> > character
> > unique look through the GRIT guides and see what has been
> > done and
> > (perhaps more importantly) what has not been done.
> >
> > Also it is a good idea to have the personality and powers of
> > your character in some way related.
> >
> > Notes: While martial arts is a big basis for most of GRIT
> > because it draws heavily from the Ranma 1/2 manga, it is
> > getting old. Frankly nearly -every- form, style or vairation
> > of martial arts has been introduced and dealt with. Chi
> > powers and abilities have been defined to a great extent and
> > the flexibility of adding new powers is growing lower each
> > day.
> >
> > Do NOT just make your character a martial artist, that will
> > not get you anything! There are vet PCs who use lots of big
> > ki blasts, and do it better than any newbie PC ever will.
> > There are vet PCs (and NPCs) who are better at purely
> > physical stuff and will stay better than most newbie PCs.
> > If you decide to play a martial artist make your characters
> > style extremely unique! Every character and their dog has a
> > sword now-a-days. Don't just put a different name on the

Damn straight.  Like, quit it with the swords, people!  Yes, they're cool,
but it's decidedly overused now (yes, you could accuse me of being a
hypocrite, but Blade's former swordsmanship has been an established part of
his character for years, so <beeda> ;p).

> > effetively interchangeable ki blast and so on.
> >
> > Do not copy characters out of dual fandom wholesale. Come up
> > with a unique character, maybe incorporating dual fandom
> > elements but never play a character from another series.
> > This
> > process simply does not work.
> >
> > Making your character interesting is almost the same as
> > making them unique. To make a character interesting you must
> > be able to do two things, attract peoples attention, and
> > keep it. Here is how you do that.
> >
> > First and foremost start with ONE character. Every, and I
> > mean -every- veteran player started with just ONE character!
> >
>
> See?  See?

Don't worry...nobody else listened either.  But they SHOULD.

> > Do not think to get around this by intorducing one character
> > and then intorducing a second a month later, it doens't work
> > that way. The reason you should only have one character is

In fact, it just annoys people, especially when you start neglecting your old
character (no, I'm not accusing anybody in particular, but it's happened more
than once).

> > because then it is easier for other players to keep track of
> > who your character is. If you have more than one character
> > you just add more people for us to keep track of and we are
> > more likely to ignore you as we have better things to deal
> > with than trying to keep track of a bunch of newbie players
> > PCs.
> >
> > If your character -needs- other characters to make him
> > interesting... then scrap the idea because if a character
> > can
> > not stand up on its own two feet than it isn't going to go
> > anywhere. Be interesting as an individual first, not as part
> > of a group.

THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

Yes, one of your aforementioned easily-noticed character traits can be a
relationship to another character (take Lo Shin or the Heavensruns as an
example), but the character should be a CHARACTER first.  If their only
defining character trait is a relationship to someone else, they're an
appendage, not a character.

> > DO NOT have a dark and angsty past! I know that some of the
> > more interesting vets have dark past... but not nearly so
> > many as you would think. Mist, Blade and perhaps a handful
> > of others have dark pasts. Characters with a noticable lack
> > of dark pasts include such people as Jo, Scott, Steve...
> > well you get the idea. Having a dark past does NOT mean you
> > are interesting, in fact, when everyone has one it becomes
> > trite.
>
> Rave: Why is everyone looking at me like that?

*pat pat*

> > Virutally all of the vets did not start out with dark pasts,
> > or even -pasts- at all. If your character relies heavily on
> > an "interesting" past than prepare to be dissapointed.
> >
> > Characters with a lot of baggage when they are first
> > introduced have less going for them than character with
> > virtually no baggage. It takes a lot to keep track of so
> > much info in GRIT that is happening -now- without having to
> > also keep track of the elaborate pasts of every single PC.
> > Witness Kappa versus Rave.
>
> Rave: WHAT?!?  WHO DARES....!
>
> RL-Coorlim: Oh, do shut up.
>
> I apologise deeply to any poor unfortunate bothering to keep track of my
> characters and their backgrounds.  I feel I should write for DC
> comics...

REPENT!  IT IS NOT TOO LATE!  REPENT!

> > INTERACT with the other players. This doesn't just mean post
> > meaningless "me too" posts or insert your character into
> > threads without rhyme or reason. Also find a -purpose- for
> > your character to serve in the thread, something that you
> > can add to make the thread more enjoyable for -others- to
> > read. If you can't find anything for your character to do in
> > a thread, and no logical reason for them to be there
> > (coincidentally just happening to show up is not a logical
> > reason) then don't put them in!
> >
> > Some threads become hopelessly hard to follow when there are
> > too many people in them and many players then tend to ignore
> > them. Which means you lose valuable exposure for your
> > character.

IE, you might want to intro your character in a thread that does NOT have
every other participant of GRIT in it...OTOH, make sure there's at least a
few important participants if you want to attract any attention.  Balance in
all things.

> > Flexibility is easy to achiece if you follow the basic rule
> > of no (dark, complex, "interesting" or other kinds of)
> > pasts. To be flexible merely define your character in a lose
> > and vague way and then have the personality of your
> > character, as well their powers and abilities, infleunced by
> > the input of others over the course of the story.
> >
> > The personalities of many of the veteran PCs are not the
> > sole
> > results of their RL's efforts. Many people did small things
> > that
> > contributed to the personalities of such notables as Amy,
> > Jo,
> > Steve, Wing, Mist, U-chan, Al-X and on and on. Be willing to
> > adapt your
> > idea so that it can easily fit into GRIT, the best way to do
> > this is by having a loosely defined past where you -add- (as
> > opposed to -reveal-) bits and pieces to their backstory as
> > neccesary.

As, again, all current vets have.

An important corrolary of this is not to be STATIC.  All of your plotlines,
all of your character ideas, do NOT be afraid to modify or even scrap them in
response to somebody else.  Yes, if someone makes your PC completely out of
character, then retcon or fix it, but if they just did something you didn't
think of before, consider very strongly the idea of running with it rather
than away from it.  Aside from the fact it will help establish your
character-see the "noone is an island" rule-it can also lead to things that
are richer than even your original ideas.

And yes, this has happened to me.  Many, many times.  Anybody doubts me, just
ask me to tell you about the sordid saga of GRIT Tarou sometime.

> > Once you have an interesting, unique and flexible
> > character concept their comes the matter of getting yourself
> > to be noticed by GRIT proper. To do this follow three simple
> > guidelines.
> >
> Gods, how I wish someone had posted this sooner...

Better late than never.

(REPENT!)

> > Insert your character into an appropriate thread. Like above
> > make sure that the first appearance of your character will
> > be somewhat meaningful to the thread you introduce them in.
> >
> > Just having your character appear out of nowhere and say "Hi
> > I'm <insert name> how are you?" or having them appear out of
> > nowhere with no explanation is a bad way to intorduce a
> > character. A good way to introduce your character is to have

A HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE way to start a character. (I should know, 'cause I did
it, but we were all a pack of fanboys back then, so I got away with it)

> > them show up at a time when they would show up for a good
> > reason. For instance say you control a man who can teleport
> > anywhere and who has an interest in all dimensional
> > travellers. It might be nice to have him show up around when
> > a bunch of people are teleporting a lot or when they are
> > using Hammerspace for an extended period or so on and so
> > forth.
> >
> > DO NOT have a plot which the character is tied to follow
> > your character. If your character shows up and is being
> > followed by pursuers or so on that is a bad thing. Your
> > character should show up with no strings attached (visible
> > strings anyway) and remain that way for a long time. If you
> > try to bring your plot in right away you break one of the
> > cardinal rules of GRITing (see Adaption below).
>
> Forgive me, for I have sinned...

So have we all, my son.  "Yet it is written, that no man may fall so deep
into the Shadow that he may not once again walk in the Light."

> > Once inside post frequently and often. Don't post
> > meaningless "me too" stuff, have your character do things
> > wihtin their personality in intersting ways, often. The more
> > you do this the more others will enjoy reading about your
> > character, and thus involving them in their threads.
> >
> > Now you simply must follow the Cardinal Rules to Good
> > GRITing to become a prodcutive member of the community.
> >
> > First: Adapt to GRIT, do not try to make GRIT adapt to you.
>
> I don't THINK I'm guilty of this...

This falls in which what i said about not being static, above.  Always be
willing to change your ideas.  We all have, and usually have cause to be
grateful.

> >
> > This is simple to understand. Do NOT try to make things
> > happen -your- way in GRIT, be willing to work within what
> > the majority wants.
> >
> > Second: Don't powerplay.
> >
> > This means don't do anything major to a PC without the
> > permission of the RL of said PC. NPCs are easier to deal
> > with but it is suggested you get the permission of the most
> > frequent user of that NPC before you do anything.
>
> No problem... my PCs don't have that much of an impact...

Only you can change that, though.

> > Third: Patience and timing in all things.
> >
> > GRIT storyarcs take -years- not months to resolve. GRIT
> > takes a great deal of time to work through even simple arcs
> > and threads. If you expect to get a storyline finished weeks
> > after first introducing your character think again. You
> > should spend a year building up characters, plots and
> > interest in your story before it can become major and finish
> > on a pleasant note.

This is another extremely important rule.  Anyone who expects swift progress
in ANYTHING  in GRIT is being set up for frustration.  Now, things aren't
always as slow as some segments recently have been, but GRIT has never moved
at a fast pace.

> > Fourth: Contribute often and consistently.
> >
> > This means you should post to any thread involving your
> > characters at least once a week if not more often. Post as
> > many times as you can but avoid the annoying "me too" post.
> >
> This I will attempt...

Granted, this is the ideal, and we all post spammy messages from time to
time, but don't let it be a major part of your output if you can at all avoid
it.

> > Fifth: Always accomplish something in a post.
> >
> > This means avoid the "me too" syndrome. Every time you post
> > make sure that you make a point, do an important thing or
> > have something happen that effects the thread in some way.
>
> Herein lies the challenge...

Indeed.

> > Sixth: Follow the stories of others.
> >
> > Even if a thread does not directly effect you now, know that
> > it can have serius repurcusions on your future. It's just
> > common sense to read as much GRIT material as you can. For
> > one it means you can be prepared to deal with the future,
> > for two it means that you will not mistakingly obviate
> > anyone elses stories.
> >
> Oh, how I wish I had the time... and besides, I'm so behind its like

Don't we all.  But TRY to read as much as you can, because you never know
when something affecting your character, or that you'd like to be a part of,
might pop up.

> walking into a movie during the last 10 minutes.  I ask myself questions
> like "Who are thse people" and "How many Shampoos are there?!?"

Granted.  In this kind of thing, you ask people who've been around awhile,
and read the guides and such.

> > Seventh: Have fun!
> >
> > Self explanatory.
> >
> > Lexicon of important terms in GRIT
> >
> > Nantan: The uber-RL. The nantan is the founder and
> > "president" of GRIT. He has final say on any meta discussions
> > but only so long as he represents the interest of all of GRIT.
> >
> > Player: Refers to a person who writes GRIT posts, has an
> > active PC and contributes to threads. (see also RL)
> >
> > Vet or Veteran: Refers to a player with a great deal of
> > experience in writing GRIT post, ussually has multiple
> > active PCs gained over time as well as complex histories
> > also gained through playtime.
> >
> > Newbie: Refers to a recent addition to GRIT, a player who
> > has yet to grasp the basic methods to GRITing. Newbies are
> > allowed to make more mistakes than vets on general but are
> > expected to learn from them.
> >
> I feel I am still very much a Newbie.

Many people are.  Perhaps to our regret, GRIT is something of an old boy's
club; however, most of us are very willing to give a newbie a chance, or work
with one who has collaborative ideas.

> > RL: Stands for Real Life. This is used in two ways. One RL
> > is used instead of Player on occasion, and the use of RL
> > (insert character name) means the player of said character.
> > RL also refers to the "avatars" of certain players that
> > sometimes interact with characters or other RLs.
> >
> > Character: Any fictional personality and power construct
> > represented by a being in
> >
> > PC: Short for Player Character, a term borrowed from
> > roleplaying games. A PC is a character over which one
> > specific Player has absolute final say on what happens to
> > them.
> >
> > NPC: Short for Non-player character, a term borrowed from
> > roleplaying games. A NPC does not have a final arbitrater in
> > the form of a Player but often has a Consultant (see
> > Consultant) who knows a lot about the characters and has
> > almost final say on them.
> >
> > Consultant: A Player who adopts an NPC as a defacto PC. They
> > use them the most extensively so they should be asked before
> > you do anything to the NPC. Otherwise they may retcon your
> > post.
> >
> > Retcon: To remove a post from continuity retroactively. Also
> > to change the past so it better fits with the present or at
> > least what we want to past to be. All Players have the right
> > to Retcon stuff they don't like happening to their
> > characters.
> >
> > Post: To place a story segment onto the newsgroup.
> >
> > Thread: A word which also means "storyarc". A thread has a
> > title and everything which happens in the thread occurs
> > (theoritically) as part of the same storyarc.
> >
> > Follow-up: To post a continuation to a thread.
> >
> > Continuity: The accepted timeline of GRIT, detailing what
> > happened when. Continuity is soemtimes hard to keep track
> > of.
> >
> Yes.  'Sometimes.'

Actually, yes.  There's been long stretches of GRIT where things were fairly
simply to keep track of...

> > Plot: A series of threads which form together into an
> > overall story. Each leading logically to the next.
>
> Yes.  'Logicly'.

Depends on who's writing, I suppose. ;p

> > Sub-plot: A storyarc which occurs within a thread, ussually
> > involving less people than the thread as a whole. Sub-plots
> > take place over a long series of threads and may or may not
> > be connected to the Plot. (see Plot)
>
> Yes.  'Plot.'  Sorry, got carried away there.

*pat pat*

                             Blade