Topic: 'Godmodding' - What is it and how do I avoid doing it?

[SassyB]

I’m with everyone else on this, it all depends on your writing partner and what they deem as “Godmodding”. 

I was a solo writer and not into gaming of any sorts when I joined E.   It took a while getting use to letting the other person respond to a scene before moving on, and a lot of my earlier stories were all short, couple paragraph posts because of this.   

I’m pretty sure even now I’m guilty of “Godmodding” in some people’s eyes when I do things like this: 

Poor Cliff got coffee in a to go mug and a couple slices of toast shoved into his hand before she was ushering him out the door.  Since she wouldn’t tell him where they were going, she headed for her car.  She was pulling on her seat belt as Cliff tried to squeeze himself into the passenger seat.  She had to suppress a giggle when his knees hit off the dashboard.  “Jenny’s the only one that usually sits there.”  she grinned at him.

For me it’s not Godmodding,  because even though my character shoved toast and coffee at him while hurrying him out the door, I didn’t put any of the other persons character’s thoughts or dialog in.  The same with how he gets in the car, it’s her car and I also know his character is tall and athletic, so of course he’s going to have issues getting into the seat when it’s usual occupant has little legs. 

I can anticipate the response I will get back from my most of my lovely writing partners as I have been writing with them for years, but you need to build that relationship first.  Then again, it’s always fun when they throw you an unexpected curve ball! 

I have thought about writing a collaborative story with someone where our posts would essentially be written by the point of view of either character, including the other characters responses, reactions etc as you would do in a solo story, but it would take a lot of work in the background discussing etc.  Still could be fun to give it a try at least, if I find the right partner. 

[Geraint]

I’m with everyone else on this, it all depends on your writing partner and what they deem as “Godmodding”. 

I was a solo writer and not into gaming of any sorts when I joined E.   It took a while getting use to letting the other person respond to a scene before moving on, and a lot of my earlier stories were all short, couple paragraph posts because of this.   

I’m pretty sure even now I’m guilty of “Godmodding” in some people’s eyes when I do things like this: 
For me it’s not Godmodding,  because even though my character shoved toast and coffee at him while hurrying him out the door, I didn’t put any of the other persons character’s thoughts or dialog in.  The same with how he gets in the car, it’s her car and I also know his character is tall and athletic, so of course he’s going to have issues getting into the seat when it’s usual occupant has little legs. 

I can anticipate the response I will get back from my most of my lovely writing partners as I have been writing with them for years, but you need to build that relationship first.  Then again, it’s always fun when they throw you an unexpected curve ball! 

I have thought about writing a collaborative story with someone where our posts would essentially be written by the point of view of either character, including the other characters responses, reactions etc as you would do in a solo story, but it would take a lot of work in the background discussing etc.  Still could be fun to give it a try at least, if I find the right partner.

I have it on good authority that poor Cliff will grumble, probably smack her on the behind, and say something pithy, but be intrigued.  They both know that he would likely follow her, because he knows it's going to be an adventure of sort.  And they're having a very adventurous weekend. 

(It also helps that the potential for moving him was discussed in general beforehand which makes it absolutely not godmoding.)

[SassyB]

I have it on good authority that poor Cliff will grumble, probably smack her on the behind, and say something pithy, but be intrigued.  They both know that he would likely follow her, because he knows it's going to be an adventure of sort.  And they're having a very adventurous weekend. 

(It also helps that the potential for moving him was discussed in general beforehand which makes it absolutely not godmoding.)

Haha, how did I know you’d probably jump in after I posted what I did?   

But thank you for proving the point that partner discussions are important for what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to moving the others character.   

As for smacking Erin’s bottom....me thinks a discussion with Cliff will be required as Erin wants to know how hard?   

[Geraint]

Haha, how did I know you’d probably jump in after I posted what I did?   

But thank you for proving the point that partner discussions are important for what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to moving the others character.   

As for smacking Erin’s bottom....me thinks a discussion with Cliff will be required as Erin wants to know how hard?   

In terms of the discussion at hand, arguably as hard as he wants (within OOs), as long as she has the chance to react as she wishes ... and he is willing to accept the consequences.

[wjimmy]

I%u2019m with everyone else on this, it all depends on your writing partner and what they deem as %u201CGodmodding%u201D. 

I was a solo writer and not into gaming of any sorts when I joined E.   It took a while getting use to letting the other person respond to a scene before moving on, ...

Thanks, SassyB, for confirming that I'm not alone in being daunted by the intricacies of roleplay and the difficulty of avoiding godmodding (though I feel I've come quite a long way over the past few days as a result of this thread).

As for your subsequent discussion with Geraint, you seem to be demonstrating the potential pleasures of OOC discussion. I like the idea of smacking pretty bottoms too - if only in fantasy. 

[SereneJellyfish]

Everyone else here has provided lots of high quality answers on godmodding but I thought I might offer you some terminology that could help you find a partner who desires the same experience you do.

There’s another style of collaborative writing where each writer is controlling all characters and plot during their turn. This is called Round-Robin style writing, in my experience. It’s where a couple (or a small group) of writers pass a story back and forth between themselves, each writing a block or chapter at a time. If that’s something you really want to do, you could put that in your O/O (On/Off) thread.

I have written before with a few folks who came to role-play from the world of solo storytelling and they’ve all expressed the difficulty in handling the transition, so you’re definitely not alone there.

I think the biggest difference between the two is the focus or goal of the writers. When you’re writing solo, your biggest goal is to explore the plot (usually). It’s all about the journey to the climax of the story; how and why your lead character(s) get there and what they do when they arrive. Everything in service of the plot—and everything that doesn’t serve that purpose is (usually) meant to be edited out. Conversely, role-play’s focus is usually exploring the relationship between characters first and plot either takes something like a fifty-percent share or less of the focus. There’s a lot more weight put on how the characters feel at any given moment; how they feel about each other, the perspective from which they view the world around them, what drives their decision making process etc.



That said, really great solo fiction writing and really great role-play does BOTH of these things. The ultimate goal for solo writing if you had to strip all the rest away is still in service of the plot. In role-play if you have to strip away everything else, it is the emotional relationship. This means that in role-play, it’s not unusual to find writers who are completely willing to change, alter or even forego plotting entirely at times in order to explore the relationship part.



I have about half a dozen long term writing partners. Some of them prefer to plot extensively via messages on the side. Some prefer not to plot at all. The one thing that rings true across all of them is their desire to explore the human condition; what makes their characters (and mine) tick and think and feel.

[wjimmy]

... There’s another style of collaborative writing where each writer is controlling all characters and plot during their turn. This is called Round-Robin style writing, in my experience. It’s where a couple (or a small group) of writers pass a story back and forth between themselves, each writing a block or chapter at a time. If that’s something you really want to do, you could put that in your O/O (On/Off) thread.

Thanks, SereneJellyfish. I'll do that. Round-Robin style writing might be interesting.

[Avernale]

A bit off-topic, but the term "Godmodding" never sat right with me.  I had RP'ed for years before seeing the term, and I originally assumed it was a misspelling of "God-Moding."  That's a different thing, where your character is effectively invincible and unbeatable in a fight (referencing "God-Mode" cheats in games like Doom and Quake), which was considered a bigger problem in the RP circles I ran in up to that point.  Not that godmodding wasn't a thing.  I myself did it for the sake of expedience once, having someone else's character stab an NPC mine was fighting in order to fight mine herself. I was surprised how much that pissed that player off, given that her character really wanted to kill mine and I was pretty sure that would've been in-character for her.

Honestly, though I think I've always seen interactions within an RP as being more or less the same as interacting in real life.  If I wrote your reply to this post, that would be really weird.  As any seasoned Game Master will tell you, you don't really get to decide how other players will respond or behave.

[wjimmy]

A bit off-topic, but the term "Godmodding" never sat right with me.  I had RP'ed for years before seeing the term, and I originally assumed it was a misspelling of "God-Moding."  That's a different thing, where your character is effectively invincible and unbeatable in a fight (referencing "God-Mode" cheats in games like Doom and Quake), which was considered a bigger problem in the RP circles I ran in up to that point.  Not that godmodding wasn't a thing.  I myself did it for the sake of expedience once, having someone else's character stab an NPC mine was fighting in order to fight mine herself. I was surprised how much that pissed that player off, given that her character really wanted to kill mine and I was pretty sure that would've been in-character for her.

Honestly, though I think I've always seen interactions within an RP as being more or less the same as interacting in real life.  If I wrote your reply to this post, that would be really weird.  As any seasoned Game Master will tell you, you don't really get to decide how other players will respond or behave.

Thanks, Avernale. More useful background.