I've started this thread because a lot of people have found themselves getting upset during the Race Around Ancient Greece.

Part of this is because some strong emotional attachments are being formed with the characters being written about. People are becoming their characters.

This can be fun but it can also stir up other strong emotions when things are happening to their character that they aren't happy about.

THE LOUNGE is not a place to complain or discuss tactics. It's a place to come and talk about any strange or strong feelings you are having. It's a place to stand back and realise that you and your character are separate identities.

The best way to do this is to talk about how you're feeling (NOTE: NOT what you think other people are feeling). Have a laugh. Tell someone else what you've enjoyed about their part of the story.

In the end, I hope, we're all mates trying to have some fun.

Now, come in and kick your shoes off.

You know, Hera is a cold, cold person.

I mean, would it hurt her to lighten up once in a while?

Sometimes it's fun to write her but sometimes I feel like telling her to get the poker out of her arse.

There. I'm done.

Ta for this Argy.

I never liked Livia during the show but I'm attached to the ol' girl now.

Her ruthlessness bothers me, I have more of a sense of fair play and integrity and I think I instilled that in her in the game.

It bothered me to see that just fly out the window. Sara would never break her word like that, but Livia might. And therein lies the difference.

I'm much cooler than Livia.

It's funny, I'm interested in watching some Xena eps after reading the Race story. I think I've gained a new appreciation for some characters I wasn't real keen on.

Most because of how well they've been written.

It was strange how easily writing Looney Livia came to me. Made me wonder just what kinda mental woman is lurking there in my brain.

Most of the "terms" came to me on the spot. lol although even I don't know what a few are supposed to mean. Maybe I'll write a Looney Livia Dictionary after it's all over.

I think if I re-watch eps with Liv in 'em, I might just appreciate her more. Until she turns into Eve.

I'd never been all that crazy about Callisto. It took her heavenly lobotomy to make me appreciate the psychopath.


Playing her has been really fun. She's so singleminded that nothing else much matters. I loved how she used to twist the knife. Remember that fireside chat with Gab?

This has been a hellova learning experience for me with regard to roleplaying but it's been a fun experience--now i want to get a bunch of XENA dvd's--especially with Minya in them!

I actually found Hera's vulnerable side in Hercules when that kid died and Hercules found him--then Hera brought him back to life as well as her and Zeus bringing that birdie back to life--i see Hera as cold and jealous yet underneath full of love. It just had to be discovered.

Fun game tho! Totally got me back into Xena! Now to rent some DVD's!

onward!
minya

I've just discovered some fun things to do:

* walk around your house pretending to be mad Livia
* picture Alti with her morning's kill on her head
* attempt to drink as much rum as Minya

I'm sure I'll find more.

Thank you, Hera for this outlet. I've had some things on my mind.

I've been shocked and hurt by the amount of hostility there is towards Eli. I'm trying to stay true to his character and never do anything outright to anyone, yet sometimes I just want to haul off and ….

Nevermind. I'm no savior. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be one after this experience.

Pet peeve- I can't stand it when people put words in his mouth that I know he wouldn't say! There are so many misconceptions about people of faith. That's one thing I'm taking away from this experience for my own life. You have to love even those who see you differently than you are.

The writing has been magical. I've noticed that my everyday experiences lend themselves to the story. I get ideas all over the place! It's as if the world is handing me things left and right to use.

Lastly-After a restless night, I have decided that I will no longer write the character Eli as type of Jesus. (For me, there can be only One.) It hurts me too much to see him reviled as he has been. However, in the world of THE RACE we will see that the Way of Love is still powerful, but the way of Eli is long dead

i've considered offering up a "hey...i'm in character--a totally evil character--here" disclaimer early on but decided everyone was grown up and able to figure that out on their own. specific to Eli, i doubt that Alti would have much respect for him. perhaps my own dislike of the character Eli (the character) made writing derisive bits about him come easier though...

i've always been a real Callisto fan...she's my kinda crazy, but i never really thought about exploring the mind of Alti much. it's pretty creepy. (creepier still since she's taken to chumming up over beers with Eli's head and random strangers). i wish i had more time to devote to doing her justice...

I'd have to agree with zoom. Livia had no need for gods, save for Ares and that was more her using him to get things she needed. Faith wasn't high on her list of things to have, power was.

It's the biggest reason I chose to play Livia instead of Eve. I don't believe her conversion for a moment. It was too rushed, too contrived, completely unbelievable to me. And I have issues with the whole 'blindly following the faith' thing.

I couldn't believably write Eve, because I, Sara, can't step into her shoes and take on her blah blah redeeming spiel. Plus, I have issues with religion and faith. I didn't want my character to suck and do a disservice to Eve, so I chose instead to write someone I could write well. Enter the Champion of Rome.

It felt, in the case of Eli (the character), that he was trying to be like Jesus way too much. That unsettled me, because Eli was a messenger of the Way of Love, not Christianity. While we can make allusions to it, they're two different things, at least to me. I don't know how others saw it, but s'what I took from it.

It's hard to be "good", on the side of good. I think it's easier to play evil people, personally. Everyone who's written characters normally aligned on the side of "good" gets some props from me.

quote:

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Originally posted by Hera:


THE LOUNGE is not a place to complain or discuss tactics. It's a place to come and talk about any strange or strong feelings you are having. It's a place to stand back and realise that you and your character are separate identities.


Now, come in and kick your shoes off.

---

Dear Hera,

I'm having a very very very strange feeling. Like there's this voice pounding at the sides of my head saying, 'i'm xc, let me outta here!' Is there an xc? If so, should i let it out? If i do, should it kick off its shoes cuz i betcha that'd clear the Lounge really quicklike?

yadda yadda yadda
dite's afro

I like Alti hangin' with Eli's head. If only his head could be transplanted onto her body. That'd make a great tribute to the film, "The Thing with Two Heads". I love cheesey storyline twists!

I too love what Eli has done with Alti in the last entry. Great twist! Also the history of Alti is really cool, great stuff dite! hmmm what will end up happening with her? this gets more and more interesting.

Minya has been educational for me--at first it seemed we were free to recreate our charactars any way we wanted, but that got a little out of control during the 'teething problems' hera mentioned. but i love the way things are shaping up, the way we all came together in Caesar's entry and the third chakram was discovered--great stuff.

I too love what Eli has done with Alti in the last entry. Great twist

can you honestly say that's in character for Alti????? i mean yeah, it's a 'great twist' sure, cuz who the hell would expect it. i've found it extremely difficult to write for a character when other peeps write them so out of character. i've tried to be respectful of all the characters and tried to give them real voices as such. (that's not a complaint so much as a frustration, in case them pesky gods are listening...).

i guess it was the way it was written....i think the idea that Alti CAN be redeemed is interesting....certainly I wouldn't have thought of it but it was interesting that someone did. But it wasn't written in such a way that it didn't have Alti resisting all the way the idea of even considering drinking with Eli or talking to him about stuff. In other words, what made it in charactar was her resistance, even though in the end she did it. Maybe she's got so much on her mind and is so frustrated with Xena for all the many reasons--that she just is like--whatever, he's a head, he can't do anything to me anyway, and I can always throw it in the fire if need be...(not that i'm giving anyone any ideas, the gods have made it clear that the killing has gotten old, but maybe an attempt can be made only to have eli rescued by someone.).

At any rate, you brought up a good point. I think in any roleplaying game which I'm learning....we all give up a certain amount of control over what others will do with our charactars in the story thread. For example, stuff was done with Minya that i did not intend. But that's someone else's interpretation. Regardless of our own personal plans for our charactars, a lot of people have story ideas that may contradict that to an extent.

however, it is important to respect the integrity of the charactars to the best of our ability--to read each other's diaries at all times, and totally understand where we are all going with our charactars. It's hard sometimes, I found recently with one player that she had a different idea totally for her charactar than i thought she did. It happens, especially when certain subtleties are missed. But i think the idea of a possible redemption for Alti is interesting and maybe even believable, the way it's been suggested. Just mho.

I don't know if Nanzar's last piece was REALLY in Alti's character. Mind you, I don't know that it was REALLY in character for Xena to chop Eli's head off, in the first place.

But I do know this.

Eli losing his head, and drinking with Alti, has been bloody funny.

quote:

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Originally posted by dite's afro:

Dear Hera,

I'm having a very very very strange feeling. Like there's this voice pounding at the sides of my head saying, 'i'm xc, let me outta here!' Is there an xc? If so, should i let it out? If i do, should it kick off its shoes cuz i betcha that'd clear the Lounge really quicklike?

yadda yadda yadda
dite's afro

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Dear dite's afro

The best way to clear your head of unwanted voices is to chak yourself. Or so Livia told me.

As for xc kicking off his shoes, let's not go to "xc-ess". (no groaning now, or I shall smite thee)

Lots of Love
Hera

i've obviously been having some trouble differentiating between people attacking my character and people attacking me. i'm just a very paranoid person - don't take it personally. hera's pointed out that everyone's just really into their character and that no one thinks about me (maddie) enough to warrent attacking me, so i should just get over it and move on. i'll try.

i hear ya maddie, i guess it's hard not to take it to heart sometimes--I too(well in the beginning) have caught myself almost getting annoyed at the way minya was treated sometimes lol--i just remind myself that the show being what it is, some charactars are ridiculed or shunned, i.e. Caesar for being villainous and all that, and minya for being kind of silly and blowhard-like hahaha. We can work with what we're given and turn around and make them integral in our own way--even villains have some qualities people admire, as do blowhards lol, and that can be worked with.

Anyway have fun!

ok, so what hera *meant* was, that no one's thinking of attacking me. i chose to take it badly (and we're what, surprised by this?) being that i've been in a pretty crappy mood lately (well duh) and also did i mention "paranoid"???

sorry for any confusion
(gods i love franjellico - really takes the edge off )

Let's blame Dr Phil.

I was sharing with Maddie the other night that Dr Phil said, "You wouldn't worry about what other people thought of you if you knew how little they actually did".

It sounded kinda cool, to me. Had to share.

I love Dr Phil!

I love what elinor roosevelt said.

"no one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

the gods are wicked and capricious.

i admire that in a god...