This may be an odd question, but what (if anything) is known on turning NPCs into PCs? (Insert your own term for this division here, it seems to be a standard thing AFAICT.)
I mean, it’s usually easier to just recruit existing PCs, but …
Take the leadership feat, and hope your GM is lazy enough to let you level them. More practically, is it a skills problem or as I would guess an agency problem? Can impress on them the importance of acting vs not? Lend them the Power of Accountability? 7 habits of highly effective people? Can you compliment them every time they show initiative? etc. I think the solution is too specific to individuals for general advice, nor do I know a general advice book beyond those in the same theme as those mentioned.
More practically, is it a skills problem or as I would guess an agency problem?
Agency. I’ve just noticed how many people I interact with are operating almost totally on cached thoughts, and getting caught up in a lot of traps that they could avoid if they were in the correct frame of mind (ie One Of Us.) But you have to be … motivated correctly, I guess, in order to turn to rationalism or some other brand of originality. Goes my reasoning.
I think the solution is too specific to individuals for general advice, nor do I know a general advice book beyond those in the same theme as those mentioned.
Yeah, could be. I figure it’s always possible someone already solved this, though, so I’d rather find there’s already a best practice than kick myself much later for reinventing the wheel ( or worse, giving up!)
Agency. I’ve just noticed how many people I interact with are operating almost totally on cached thoughts, and getting caught up in a lot of traps that they could avoid if they were in the correct frame of mind (ie One Of Us.)
Sometimes I even think that I would profit from having some cached thoughts that give me effective habits that I fulfill at every occasion without thinking too much.
When the alarm bell rings it would be good if I would have a cached thought that would make me automatically get up without thinking the decision through.
I don’t think the state of being paralysed because you killed all cached thought is particulary desirable. I think I spent too much time in that state in the last year ;)
I think it’s more a question of focusing your energy on questioning those cached thoughts that actually matter.
When it comes to agency I think there are some occasions where I show a lot but others where I show little. Expecially when you compare me to an average person the domains in which I show my agency are different.
I can remember one occasion where I took more responsibility for a situation after reading the transition of McGonneral from NPC to PC in HPMOR.
I think that HPMOR is well written when it comes to installing the frame of mind you are talking about.
Oh, we evolved them for a reason. Heck, your brain almost certainly couldn’t function without at least some. But when people start throwing type errors whenever something happens and a cached though doesn’t kick in, they could probably do with a little more original thought.
That said, there’s more to agency and PC-ness than cached thoughts. It was just particularly striking to see people around me fishing around for something familiar they knew how to respond to, and that’s what prompted me to wonder how much we knew about the problem.
This may be an odd question, but what (if anything) is known on turning NPCs into PCs? (Insert your own term for this division here, it seems to be a standard thing AFAICT.)
I mean, it’s usually easier to just recruit existing PCs, but …
I suspect that finding people on the borderline between the categories and giving them a nudge is part of the solution to this problem.
What do you need PCs to do that NPCs cannot do? Zeroing in on the exact quality needed may make the problem easier.
Take the leadership feat, and hope your GM is lazy enough to let you level them. More practically, is it a skills problem or as I would guess an agency problem? Can impress on them the importance of acting vs not? Lend them the Power of Accountability? 7 habits of highly effective people? Can you compliment them every time they show initiative? etc. I think the solution is too specific to individuals for general advice, nor do I know a general advice book beyond those in the same theme as those mentioned.
Heh.
Agency. I’ve just noticed how many people I interact with are operating almost totally on cached thoughts, and getting caught up in a lot of traps that they could avoid if they were in the correct frame of mind (ie One Of Us.) But you have to be … motivated correctly, I guess, in order to turn to rationalism or some other brand of originality. Goes my reasoning.
Yeah, could be. I figure it’s always possible someone already solved this, though, so I’d rather find there’s already a best practice than kick myself much later for reinventing the wheel ( or worse, giving up!)
Sometimes I even think that I would profit from having some cached thoughts that give me effective habits that I fulfill at every occasion without thinking too much.
When the alarm bell rings it would be good if I would have a cached thought that would make me automatically get up without thinking the decision through.
I don’t think the state of being paralysed because you killed all cached thought is particulary desirable. I think I spent too much time in that state in the last year ;)
I think it’s more a question of focusing your energy on questioning those cached thoughts that actually matter.
When it comes to agency I think there are some occasions where I show a lot but others where I show little. Expecially when you compare me to an average person the domains in which I show my agency are different.
I can remember one occasion where I took more responsibility for a situation after reading the transition of McGonneral from NPC to PC in HPMOR.
I think that HPMOR is well written when it comes to installing the frame of mind you are talking about.
Oh, we evolved them for a reason. Heck, your brain almost certainly couldn’t function without at least some. But when people start throwing type errors whenever something happens and a cached though doesn’t kick in, they could probably do with a little more original thought.
That said, there’s more to agency and PC-ness than cached thoughts. It was just particularly striking to see people around me fishing around for something familiar they knew how to respond to, and that’s what prompted me to wonder how much we knew about the problem.