Sling
2008-07-27, 06:36 PM
Okay. Not sure if this is the best place to post it, but I guess Storyteller counts as a general RPG.
Due to my friends being martial arts fanatics, I picked up a long-since out of print Street Fighter RPG made by White Wolf. After a few weeks of preparation, we finally began last night.
It started off simply enough, in a tournament to find the next Street Fighter. My guy got knocked out in the first match, and had to spend the rest of the event in the infirmary, watching the fights through a big screen. Bit of a bummer, yes, but someone had to lose. Plus, when the fighting was over, I could use this setback to flesh out my character in roleplaying.
Two hours pass and the PCs have all fought. Time for the people who have been on the sidelines to see some action again, right?
Well, then the canon characters from the games all started fighting each other, and before we could do anything, M. Bison set off a bomb that leveled part of Tokyo. (By the way, I should also note that the Storyteller explained how everyone else escaped certain death but me, who he just quickly said that I was fine and teleported me to the next scene).
We wind up at another hospital where Ryu, Ken, and the other good guys give us a choice: either train to combat this new threat, or go home and risk being killed horribly. Needless to say, rather then give the illusion of free choice, our fate had kinda already been chosen.
After both a plane ride and a car ride (neither of which were spent actually roleplaying or fighting, just listening to the Storryteller humorously narrate the experience), we arrive in America where Guile personally sends us through boot camp.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, that sequence was two hours long. During that time, I did not get to utter a single line of dialog, or do a single action that wasn't immediately met with failure. We rolled no dice. We fought no one. We just sat through a Hideo Kojima lengthed cutscene.
I should also note that this whole thing feels out of character to me. My character is a kickboxer from the city who just joined the tournament to prove he was tough enough to. Now he's doing push ups while dodging Sonic Booms to fight someone he never was even aware he wanted to fight.
Eventually, I got tired of this blatant railroading. I mean, if the game's playing so well by itself, it certainly doesn't need me. So, much to the irritation of the other players, I left the game. Now, they're mad at me for being so whiny, and now I have to play another round of this so they'd leave me alone.
What should I do? Talk to the Storyteller and tell him that I don't like how he's handling this, and make an even bigger scene then I did last night? Do I have my character forcefully leave the camp and go off for his own adventures and risk being kicked out? Do I just refuse to play altogether and confirm that my months of excitement were for a lie? Should I just offer to be Storyteller next time (something we agreed we'd take turns on), a role I've never taken before and risk driving the whole thing into the ground with a shift in tone? Or, am I just being a sore player and I should enjoy this ride along the Street Fighter railroad and take comfort in the fact that no free will makes things easier?
What do you all think?
Due to my friends being martial arts fanatics, I picked up a long-since out of print Street Fighter RPG made by White Wolf. After a few weeks of preparation, we finally began last night.
It started off simply enough, in a tournament to find the next Street Fighter. My guy got knocked out in the first match, and had to spend the rest of the event in the infirmary, watching the fights through a big screen. Bit of a bummer, yes, but someone had to lose. Plus, when the fighting was over, I could use this setback to flesh out my character in roleplaying.
Two hours pass and the PCs have all fought. Time for the people who have been on the sidelines to see some action again, right?
Well, then the canon characters from the games all started fighting each other, and before we could do anything, M. Bison set off a bomb that leveled part of Tokyo. (By the way, I should also note that the Storyteller explained how everyone else escaped certain death but me, who he just quickly said that I was fine and teleported me to the next scene).
We wind up at another hospital where Ryu, Ken, and the other good guys give us a choice: either train to combat this new threat, or go home and risk being killed horribly. Needless to say, rather then give the illusion of free choice, our fate had kinda already been chosen.
After both a plane ride and a car ride (neither of which were spent actually roleplaying or fighting, just listening to the Storryteller humorously narrate the experience), we arrive in America where Guile personally sends us through boot camp.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, that sequence was two hours long. During that time, I did not get to utter a single line of dialog, or do a single action that wasn't immediately met with failure. We rolled no dice. We fought no one. We just sat through a Hideo Kojima lengthed cutscene.
I should also note that this whole thing feels out of character to me. My character is a kickboxer from the city who just joined the tournament to prove he was tough enough to. Now he's doing push ups while dodging Sonic Booms to fight someone he never was even aware he wanted to fight.
Eventually, I got tired of this blatant railroading. I mean, if the game's playing so well by itself, it certainly doesn't need me. So, much to the irritation of the other players, I left the game. Now, they're mad at me for being so whiny, and now I have to play another round of this so they'd leave me alone.
What should I do? Talk to the Storyteller and tell him that I don't like how he's handling this, and make an even bigger scene then I did last night? Do I have my character forcefully leave the camp and go off for his own adventures and risk being kicked out? Do I just refuse to play altogether and confirm that my months of excitement were for a lie? Should I just offer to be Storyteller next time (something we agreed we'd take turns on), a role I've never taken before and risk driving the whole thing into the ground with a shift in tone? Or, am I just being a sore player and I should enjoy this ride along the Street Fighter railroad and take comfort in the fact that no free will makes things easier?
What do you all think?