My little world of role play.

[Quixotica]

I hope this is the right place to share this. I am happy to find a group of people who have a like-minded goal of building, creating, playing and just talking about table-top RPG's. I am a dreamer and an artist and all these things just drive and compel me to play.

So here are a list of influences on my life of Role Playing.

Of course, almost like every individual I met, my first RPG experience was D&D. At the time however, I was already reading novel's like Tokien and CS Lewis, so my 12 year old GM didn't make D&D very attractive. So I started to create my own. I created a board game with cards and lego men, it was Munchkin on steroids!

I got into Robotech and MechWarrior and wrote about three or four other games until I came across S.P.I.T.E. online. It was a film NOIR spoof, with a lot of great aspects of free-form story telling within a fantasy enviroment. Then I went with a few of the regulars and started about looking for new ideas and got together with new friends creating other online experiences.

In one of them, a friend of mine at work, noticed that I was into a bunch of RPG's online and invited me over to his RPG home groups. My first response was based on my memory as a 12 year old kid, and I accepted with hesitation. He introduced me to Vampire: The Masquerade and I fell in love with it. My friend was and still is one of the best GM's I have ever met. His intellect, wit and real life experience really made this game one to be remembered.

We played all White Wolf games, and since my friend hated Mage, we played the earlier Atlas Games version, Ars Magica. From there we played the Hero system, GURPS, Cyberpunk, Call of Cthulu, and I also returned to D&D which was absolutely different from what I was at 12 years.

I have some great stories and memories and continue to play with new groups. Video hasn't killed the Paper and Pen in me. :) I have constant ideas and though I don't GM myself, and that is only because I have been blessed with a great leader who is able to moderate a game evenly and fairly and quick! He says he wants me to run a few games because he is now getting tired.

There is my small introduction to my little world of role play.

[Andrew Cooper]

Quixotica,

First, do you have a real name?  I like to know the real names of people on here for some reason.  You haven't committed a faux pas or anything, it's just a personal preference.

Second, can you share any actual play moments that were really cool to you?  How about ones that sucked rocks?  Get kinda metagame with them to and explain why they were cool or why they sucked to you.  Were there any long term games that really seemed to work for you?  What'd the GM and the players do to make them "work"?  What set them apart from the long term games that didn't work?  (By long term, I mean games/campaigns that lasted over 5 or 6 sessions.)

Basically what I'm asking for here are actual play moments that either you hated or loved and why.  These will help us get a feel for the kinds of play you enjoy and the kinds of play you don't... at least theoretically. 

Third, how much of the Articles and Provisional Glossary have you read/digested?  This isn't required at all.  It just lets me know how much Forgey jargon I can use when dialoguing with you.  If the answer is "none at all" that's perfectly fne and workable.  If it's, "I'm an expert at Big Model theory."  that's cool too.

[Quixotica]

As for my name, it is Craig. I author a few theological essays which have a fairly large group. They do not know I am a gamer, and some feel that fantasy, sci-fi and other such creative forms of expression are rather, ungodly and so the respect for my theological work might go to hell, if they ever found out.  I have nothing to hide from you guys however; I am actually very interested in publishing a few of my games and stories related to them. Not many in my personal circle (other than those who I game with) who have any idea how to get this off the ground. My gaming friends recommended this forum. I am just looking through the forum, so I am not very familiar with previous stuff yet.

I enjoy games with depth, with a story line which has complex problems that can be solved many different ways. In otherwords, a great Game Master, is one who anticipates many outcomes of a story line and able to accomodate the creativity or inability of a group to play a certain campaign.

So let me share a great "first" experience to table-top when my friend introduced me to his gaming group. In the group there was a fifty year old, forty year old, thirty six year old, twenty nine year old and myself (who was twenty at the time). I created a Gangrel Skate-Boarder who was awoken in Vancouver, Canada. I learned the politics of the city and being a over-confident, dare-devil who decided to befriend the were-wolves. Now this was not part of the GM's plan for my character, or even part of the story line, but he allowed it. Later I was captured by a Black-Spiral Dancer, and corrupted by the Wyrm who wanted to use me to infect the were-wolves, essentially the beast took over and I lost my gangrel to the evil of the GM. So in continuation of the campaign, I created a Nosferatu former Nazi from World War II, who was made a Nosferatu as a punishment for the treatment he procurred to the many different races in the furnaces. We ended up having to later fight my former character in a big boss battle. Essentially, the actions of the players created the outcome of the story, the GM just facilitated that story.

[ScottM]

Nice examples.  Mind talking about them a little more?

For example, your Gangrel sounds like a fun character.  How did the GM react to your decision to befriend the werewolves?  Did your overture work, or were you just appreciative that he didn't kill you for messing with his story?

It sounds like he did a good job of working your activities in-- had you had much cross-over with the werewolves before you sought them out?  It sounds like they became a big part of the campaign, if the Black Spiral Dancers wound up being the character's end.  Did you mind losing your character when it happened?  Were you happy when he showed up in the finale, even on the wrong side?

Glad to have you.
Scott

[Quixotica]

Nice examples.  Mind talking about them a little more?

For example, your Gangrel sounds like a fun character.  How did the GM react to your decision to befriend the werewolves?  Did your overture work, or were you just appreciative that he didn't kill you for messing with his story?

It sounds like he did a good job of working your activities in-- had you had much cross-over with the werewolves before you sought them out?  It sounds like they became a big part of the campaign, if the Black Spiral Dancers wound up being the character's end.  Did you mind losing your character when it happened?  Were you happy when he showed up in the finale, even on the wrong side?

Glad to have you.
Scott

Sure Scott, my Gangrel was very fun. The interaction with the rest of the team was incredible. I believe that a good RPG session deals with all the players interactions. These guys were playing vampire for about 6 months before I showed up and so being a n00b in the session and playing a recently made vampire must have been refreshing for them. I chose the dare-devil and over-confident Merit and Flaw, which as I a role-player I make sure to play it.

Now this session was a long time ago, but what I remember is that I was warned by the Prince and the other vampires to stay away from the Were-wolf Cairn in Stanley Park and so it was very dangereous for me. Unforutantely the best skate-boarding in the city was by Stanley Park, so what was I to do? Dangerous? Not much of deal and my character was over-confident. So my GM had me not only role-play the interactions but also the tricks! For one huge death-defying trick off a ramp over the Cairn, I decided to make it a difficulty 9 trick which if I failed would have me plop right into the were-wolf guardians. I rolled six 10's! It was so impressive, that my GM gave me a small group of skater groupies who made it very easy for me to drink (gave me two dots in retainers). Anyways, my fearless display got the attention of the Spiral Dancers which we played out. I was not upset for my GM taking my player, it was played out and in fact it was because of my over-confident nature of my character that he walked into the trap of more power offered by the Wyrm agents. So pretty much, I didn't realize that the gifting of more power would corrupt my PC into a NPC. I learned my lesson but it was fun.

So now there was a Uber-Vampire who became a big thorn in the Princes side. So the Prince called together a few vampires (the PC's) to go hunt down the rogue vampire down. It was an uneasy truce between the Were-wolf and Vampire society and this was enough to put that into a full scale war. Vampires do not want to wage war with were-wolves because were-wolves are still awake during the day and we all know that vampires are really under-powered to deal with Rage induced Silver Fangs. So we needed to group up and have a plan. In this session I built a ex-Nazi Nos, who was huge in potence and melee. He knew a bit about the underground caverns of Vancouver, being that he was a Nos, but that didn't help to find the Wyrm-tainted tunnels in which it was thought my former character was found. There were awesome puzzle's and traps we had to think through as players, and just some pure luck that we were able to defeat a few of the enemies we were put against. At the end, we teamed up with about five were-wolves in an unlikely team to take on my Gangrel, who severely kicked our butts! Killing about half our party and the were-wolf companions, my gangrel escaped into a dark portal not to be seen again...

...Then, just as we thought things were good, Vampires from the Orient, Day-Walkers take claim on the Harbour and China Town...


Hope that was a bit helpful?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

I'm interested in the interactions of the real people at the table. For one thing, it's clear that the GM used high degrees of success to add in effects that I'd call "Positioning" - making the character more significant (or his or her role clearer) in the game-world by adding relationships and status, in this case. It's a technique I used all the time as a Champions GM back in the 1980s, and I know it was pretty common. Did he or she do that a lot?

And if so, then I'm interested in how the group latched onto that technique. For instance, when you rolled the six 10s, did the other players get excited, because they knew the GM would make this a story-significant moment?

Tell me more as well about this:

I was not upset for my GM taking my player, it was played out and in fact it was because of my over-confident nature of my character that he walked into the trap of more power offered by the Wyrm agents. So pretty much, I didn't realize that the gifting of more power would corrupt my PC into a NPC. I learned my lesson but it was fun.

I assume you mean "taking my character," not "player," in the first bit there.

I think you left out an importance sentence. Did the GM decide to make your character into an NPC? The rest of your post makes that seem like what happened. But I'm not sure exactly when.

Was it right after the skating incident? Or later, after your character became more powerful, and then encountered the Wyrm and made his overconfident decision?

And I have a final question ... can you explain, exactly, why you didn't become upset when he took over your character? I realize you were new to the group, and whatever they were into, you were going to have to accept. But I also think it's kind of strange that the primary reward for doing well is to see your character become important ... and that somehow becoming important means that you, the player, no longer get to direct the character's actions.

This has a lot to do with what the word "storyteller," as used in most White Wolf games, really means, for a particular group. If I'm not mistaken, then in your case, only the GM is the storyteller, and if a character becomes story-important, he must therefore become the GM's character.

Did this exact transition - (1) do something important, (2) become an NPC, (3) become a key part of a later story or fight - ever occur again with this group? Did you get the idea it had ever occurred before?

Best, Ron

[Quixotica]

Hello Ron, I noticed a few spelling and grammar mistakes, but I was unable to edit it. Then I noticed that "Editting" was turned off. :)

No matter let me correct my phrases:

I assume you mean "taking my character," not "player," in the first bit there

Yes 'player "character"' was what I was thinking, as later on you will notice I called him a PC to a NPC. Good eye on detail Ron, I wrote this a bit late last night, was sleepy!

I'm interested in the interactions of the real people at the table. For one thing, it's clear that the GM used high degrees of success to add in effects that I'd call "Positioning" - making the character more significant (or his or her role clearer) in the game-world by adding relationships and status, in this case. It's a technique I used all the time as a Champions GM back in the 1980s, and I know it was pretty common. Did he or she do that a lot?

In this game, the players had already been playing weekly games in this chronicle for six months before I showed up. Every game I have played with him, always seemed to be an epic. The players were three of the players were 45, one was in their late 30's and two were in their 20's. I was the youngest in the group and my gangrel was actually a throw away character, so I wasn't unhappy to lose him in the first place, there just was some very lucky rolls that made him live and last. Essentially, my GM does make most of the actions we do have some sort of reaction. Most recently he did this, but I was not happy with it, when I was with a police man who turned vampire hunter. The only reason he turned vampire hunter was because I was posessessing his partner and I botched a dominate roll. I wanted him killed on the spot, but 'some-how' he got away. A few times it works and other times it is just implausible, this last one I think was a forced plot line because the GM was being lazy.

Was it right after the skating incident? Or later, after your character became more powerful, and then encountered the Wyrm and made his overconfident decision?

Yep, it seems that type of dangerous act around a Cairn and the fact I was a vampire caught their attention. So while we as a group did some stuff in the main plot line, ever so often my gangrel was visited by a couple agents of the wyrm who liked to feed his ego. Just something I liked to add, the gangrel also had a driving goal to be the best skater ever. So that kind of played into it. He wasn't much more powerful than a Generation 8. My GM sure liked using everyone's flaws in his stories. It made the players sure not to put 'enemy' or 'amnesia' in their character's flaws because he would have more fun with that. I understand a GM has to have fun too.

And I have a final question ... can you explain, exactly, why you didn't become upset when he took over your character? I realize you were new to the group, and whatever they were into, you were going to have to accept. But I also think it's kind of strange that the primary reward for doing well is to see your character become important ... and that somehow becoming important means that you, the player, no longer get to direct the character's actions.

There were hints that if I took their power my character would be lost to the void of darkness. I had many chances to escape the grasp of the wyrm, but I failed a will power roll to get away after I realized it would be gone. He warned out of character if I continued the path of the spiral, that I would lose him should I fail to keep the beast within. I guess the real reason I was not upset was because all the players were equally treated and given fantastic opprotunities to get powers outside XP (in the gangrel's case, have some Wyrm powers but retain my gangrel mind) but they were gambles and I missed my willpower rolls to keep him from going to the beast. For role playing my character well, he actually gave my next character a few rewards. It appeared he more appreciated the player instead of the character. This way good role play is rewarded.

Did this exact transition - (1) do something important, (2) become an NPC, (3) become a key part of a later story or fight - ever occur again with this group? Did you get the idea it had ever occurred before?

No it wasn't done again until about 6 years later when I was a Prince and I stupidly let a strange vampire convince me to meet in private. I was killed in a private game session before the game started and so I played the Prince but now was the Red List until they could figure it out. This time however, I played my character because the GM didn't want anyone to find out that I was actually killed.