Action - Reaction

This is the core of the roleplaying. You wouldn´t go anywhere, or do anything with your character if you didn´t get any reactions at all. How your character choose to react is the ball-playing. Someone acts, and hands the ball over to you. If you don´t react, nothing is going to happen. The other player can´t decide for you what your character´s reaction will be. She can only react to your reaction, etc.. That´s how stories are played out.

Babajaga´s vanity has always been a source of interaction with others. If you know Baba´s character well, you can do a lot of nasty things, like pay someone to get a dress just like hers for example. Althea did that once. Or, like Prue - insist that the green-dressed Baba tried to copy her, or - pretend you don´t see the difference between Baba and Entil´Zha.

Baba´s reaction is usually pretty violent. She goes ballistic, I have to play her that way because I made her vain in the first place. And a reaction is the reward for those interacting with her. They can´t however dictate how the reaction is made, she might as well fall down and cry. But, there HAS to be a reaction. Consistency and logic requires that it is.

A friend of Baba made that : I can´t see the difference between you and Entil kind of comment, and later told it was just for fun. Baba doesn´t like being made fun of, so she quickly put the former friend on the foe list. And the player of the character then replies : That´s why I don´t roleplay, it always ends up with someone getting hurt.

Oof da, as Shrug would put it. I never got around to explain to the player in question, so I will try here. Baba´s vanity is usually made fun of by her enemies. It´s ooc there FOR exactly that, to be a way to "get" to her, an Achilles heel if you will. It´s been a source of a lot of fun happenings. The player needs to know whenever they choose to let their character play with that, they must also be ready for the reaction. If you can´t take the heat, don´t bother acting in the first place. IC, it´s a thing her enemies do. If the character is a friend, logically she will question the friendship, if her "friend" does the enemy-thing.

I think the player in question had thought up beforehand a reaction from Baba that he thought would fit, and then when she reacted differently - he was surprised. Instead of flowing with it, he broke character. What the reaction was, was a ball from me to him. Ok, so - now you are on the foe list. Do you want to stay there - react accordingly. Do you want to get back on the friendlist - go for another reaction. Do you want revenge - go for a third etc. Action - reaction, and then the ball comes back to you. Where do you go from there? There are many choices he could have made. If you know the character Baba well, it´s not even difficult to make her fall down and cry and repent. A reaction is a ball that comes back to you, and there are always many directions in which you can throw it.

Stories do not start with an action alone. They start when someone REACTS to your action. And the reaction is your reward for the action. If you don´t want a reaction, don´t act. My favourite example is from a player that pushed someone into the dark cave, got sued - and in court said " But I was only roleplaying!".

If Baba gets hold of a tree giant and lures it to town square to see a whole load of newbies fall, wrecking havoc all around. If not one character reacts to that, I would be terribly disappointed. If she commits murder, treason - whatever, and not one character reacts, I will be terribly disappointed. It´s in the reaction stories are made and comes to life, not the action alone.

If you don´t want your character to get sued, karmabombed and generally abused - don´t kidnap Algernon.....