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Anything in particular you want advice on, anon? :)

Anything, really! Just general... stuff.

All right, let's see what I can whip out here... (Sorry this is a little late; I got kind of busy yesterday. Hope this can still help!)

I guess my first piece of advice is, as far as a game situation goes, it can be difficult to get Katniss out there if you're not actively working toward it. She's not exactly the most social butterfly in the world, and if something doesn't have to do with herself or the people she cares about, she has a tendency to pretty much not give two shits because it doesn't really... fit into her world, if that makes sense. (Remember, a lot of her driving motivation in life is to protect people she cares about, and even in Mockingjay, a lot of her sympathy for the people at the Nut stems from the fact that they're miners like her father was.) Sometimes, this can present challenges to getting her engaged in a game setting, as well as keeping her engaged. I'd definitely just work on building up her CR base, and letting her find some people she'll grow to care about.

No, it'll never be Prim-level. Nothing will ever be Prim-level. But if you find some people for her that can break down her walls a little bit and find a place in her "circle of trust" (as I half-jokingly like to call it), I think you've got the key to keeping her engaged in a game. Of course, it won't be an easy task, because Katniss has very understandable trust issues. But if shit goes down, yep, she'll be there, fighting to keep them safe.

Secondly, keep your canon point in mind. She'll be pretty different depending on things that have happened in her character development. I've tried her out at different places, and I've found that I almost have to get into a completely different mindset to play her, say, post-Mockingjay, than at other points. I'd maybe just... read around the area you want to pull her from a few times, just to get a good sense of where she and her mental state are at that point. (This is one of the good things about the narrative being told in first person!)

Thirdly, I think another important thing to remember is that, no matter what point you pull her from, really, Katniss is struggling with some serious psychological issues that are the result of the aftermath of trauma exposure. If you haven't yet, I'd familiarize yourself with the symptoms of PTSD, which I'll link here: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=165# (These are the current DSM-IV symptoms, and you can also read about revisions being considered for DSM-V.) The DSM isn't an absolute regarding anything by any means (I'm going into psychology myself and have so many issues with it), but Katniss exhibits a lot of these symptoms at various points in time and in my opinion would, by definition, meet criteria for PTSD. Understanding PTSD, I think, is a good tool to help with understanding what Katniss is going through and how she tries to cope with it.

I know that playing a character with these types of issues can be a tricky balance to find in RP sometimes. The biggest thing to keep in mind, I think, is that while these issues are always lurking, ever-present, something she has to struggle with, they don't define her. She'll have her moments. She'll have her good days and her bad days. She'll have things she can deal with and things that she'll cope with in the worst way possible. So while I wouldn't emphasize her issues, I'd always be cognizant of them, and keep them in the background of your play.

I could probably do this all day, so I think I might stop here :) But I hope this helps! If you have any questions, and/or other points you'd like for me to expand on, I'd be more than happy to, or you can PM me at this journal (since I decided to go ahead and de-anon) and we can talk more there. Katniss is seriously one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, and, well. I really could talk about her forever, lmao

Edited 2012-08-26 15:58 (UTC)

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