Since my last post, I've been thinking about the Skill die, and how I could differentiate it from Talents.
Now, this is something I'm quite excited by. I was sitting here, staring at my screen, and then it hit me! What if the Skill die is instead the ACTOR die? This is a game about being an actor on a TV show, so what if it's the die that determines how the actor playing the character performs the role--it's not the act itself that's important (well, it IS, but that's what Talents are for), so much as how it's undertaken, and it's this performance that in turn leads to Applause. Because that's how Applause happens in real life, right? It's not JUST doing something well, it's doing something well that the audience cares about.
Forget Skills like "Creativity" and "Mechanical". They're great Sims-inspired callbacks, but anything a "Creativity" Skill can do, a "Painting" Talent can also do. It also unnecessarily limits players by requiring that Talents must be paired with particular Skills. I don't run D&D like that, and Skill-Attribute pairs are kind of one of the main rules! I've never liked it, so why would I include it?
Instead, I'd like my Skills to be roleplaying aids first and foremost--it shouldn't necessarily matter which one you use (it's your Talents that determine how well you roll), instead I'd like Skills to be more about how you roll. And Attributes--being personality traits--being why you roll. Your motivation as an actor, on the sitcom you star in.
So, checks are divided into the Why (personality traits, i.e. your Attributes, or perhaps simply "Motivation", as in what's my motivation?), the How (styles of acting, your Skills, or perhaps "Techniques", as in acting techniques), and the What (what you're trying to accomplish, your Talents).
Now, for acting Techniques, what about...
- Emotionality
- Precision
- Spontaneity
- Cooperation
Emotionality (a.k.a. Classical Acting)
This is your stage-style, Broadway show, exaggerated-so-the-people-in-the-cheap-seats-can-still-see performance. Your Shakespearean actors. Your John Lithgows, your Angela Lansburys, your Kelsey Grammers, your Patrick Stewarts. Put simply, this is your "Persuasion" Skill from D&D; it's the Skill for accomplishing tasks with only your voice--but in my version, it's not about convincing other characters, it's about convincing the audience.
Me? Posting a thirst trap as the first image so it shows up in the thumbnail? Heavens no, I'd never!
Yeah... Angie and John aren't buying it either.
Anyone with a "Sir" or a "Dame" in their name is probably a Classical Actor, and your character might have some feelings about doing......... UGH.... television. Is it beneath them? Is it just a job like any other? Do they spend the off-season doing King Lear? Did they go to Juilliard and find a way to insert that factoid into every single conversation? Is their cocaine habit starting to affect their behaviour on set? Do they no longer do wide shots because the camera will pick up their ankle monitor?
If you answered "yes" to any of these, Classical Acting might be just what your character needs!
Now, make me FEEL something!
Precision (a.k.a. Method Acting)
Probably the most famous acting technique out there, Method Acting evolved from the Stanislavski method, developed by Russian actor, director, and acting teacher Konstantin Stanislavski. Where the Stanislavski method had actors simply empathise with their character, imagining what it would be like to live their life, Method Actors instead fully embrace their character's persona, aiming to embody them both on- and offstage. Where Classical Acting is a quintessentially British style of acting (a tradition stretching back to Bill Shakespeare), Method Acting is often seen as very American.
Method Acting is often attributed to Lee Strasberg, a student of Stanislavski's, who championed the use of "emotional recall"; remembering real events in an actor's life and repurposing them for their character (why many Method Actors "prepare" for roles by joining the occupation their character works in) but Stella Adler, another of Stanislavski's students, instead recommended using the power of ones' imagination to come up with backstories and motivations for their characters. Many actors considered Method Actors, including Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando, utilize Adler's techniques.
One could argue that both the Strasberg and Adler techniques, and the Stanislavski method they derive from, all are types of Method Acting--in my game, there's probably no need to consider them separate Skills, as they all share the same DNA.
In Nobody Poops on TV, Method Acting might place an emphasis on practical skills. Classical Acting is about emotion, about making big heroic speeches and making the audience feel something. Method Acting is about doing things, about being a real person in a fake world, but making the world SEEM real. To be a Method Actor, an actor must prepare, prepare, prepare, and so Method Acting will be a Technique that emphasises doing things that might not take a long time to learn in real life, but take a long time to learn how to do well.
It's about precision.
However, Method Actors will have a hard time differentiating between on-set and off-set, and may be difficult to get along with behind the scenes. Jared Leto reportedly terrorized his castmates and the crew on Suicide Squad, but this is really on the more extreme end of the "Method Actor" spectrum. Sometimes it's just speaking in a bad accent, even when the cameras aren't rolling.
To prepare for Taxi Driver, De Niro actually got a job driving cabs!
And Hilary Swank put on 19 lbs. of muscle (about 8 kg) and trained as a boxer for Million Dollar Baby.
To prepare for her role in Only Murders in the Building, Meryl Streep actually murdered Paul Rudd and is currently serving six consecutive life sentences.
For legal reasons this is a joke.
Spontaneity (a.k.a. the Spolin Technique)
Developed in the 1950s in Chicago, this is your classic SNL-style comedy acting. Anybody and everybody who got their start in the Second City can trace their acting style to this technique. The Second City was co-founded by Paul Sills, Bernie Sahlins and Howard Alk, and began as a theatre that involved scenes based on improvisational games devised by Viola Spolin, who was Sills' mother.
These theatre games are improv exercises, which allows for extremely spontaneous performances and attentiveness between co-stars during scenes. RPGs already make heavy use of improv, but a Spolin-focused character might also roleplay being a good improviser! Did your character get their start on a sketch comedy show like SNL? Do they looooooooooove deep-dish pizza? Are they being headhunted as the next host of the Tonight Show or Daily Show?
This would be a great choice for any character who has to salvage a scene after another actor's roll goes disastrously wrong. It's the acting school for when you need to "yes, and". Why yes, my co-star did attempt to do their own stunt and has accidentally destroyed a camera and set the stage on fire, exactly as we both intended to happen! What a funny situation this situational comedy has found itself in!
Spontaneity is the Technique for players who say "Hey GM, can I try something?"
You know the ones.
(It's me, I do this)
Bob Odenkirk, Tina Fey, and Fred Willard all passed through the Second City, learning from Spolin's techniques.
Cooperation (a.k.a. the Meisner Technique)
Sanford Meisner's school of acting is all about getting out of ones' own head. When an actor is too cerebral, it becomes harder for audiences to connect to a character, as there's layers and layers of character depth that an audience will simply never see. Did De Niro need to learn how to drive a cab? It made for a good performance, sure, but the audience will never know about price surging and tariffs and which routes get you to your destination faster. It's fat that can easily be trimmed.
Meisner was a contemporary of Strasberg and Adler, and his technique also shares a lot with more improvisational techniques like Spolin's. One example of a Meisner technique is what he termed the "repetition exercise"; two actors would sit across from one another and repeat a phrase over and over, learning and adapting from each other's performance. Instead of focusing on what's in their own heads, actors using the Meisner technique are encouraged to focus on the other actors in the scene.
At its heart, the Meisner technique is about teamwork. It's about knowing that acting isn't a solo exercise, it's a team sport. It's a communal experience.
Cooperation, in Nobody Poops on TV, would be the Technique for when you're doing a task that requires two or more characters to achieve. This is the Technique for being a good--nay, the best--supporting actor. Do you prefer to play Bards and Clerics? Then this is the Technique for you.
Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Grace Kelly won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Mogambo.
Much like Grace Kelly, Tatiana Maslany and James Gandolfini have both been known to utilise the Meisner style of acting, though they're better known for their leading roles, going to show teamwork is important for the team captain, too!
Do I need more Techniques than that? Probably, but I think it's a great start.
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