Profiling: Real Life

[xiombarg]

Okay, more and more people on the "Profiling: Day Jobs" thread are saying their job has little effect on their gaming. Since "what you do" seems real important to a lot of Mundanes, it seemed like a fruitful topic. Ah, well.

So, at the risk of the Wrath of Ron, I'd like to broaden it a bit. What non-fiction, real-life experiences have had a direct impact on your gaming? And how? This can include something from your job, but doesn't have to. We're talking personal anecdotes here, stuff you learned the hard way and then applied to your gaming.

I'll start out. Perhaps because of an allegy that ensures half my nose is usually stopped up, I'm very scent-oriented. I find you can tell a lot about a person from the way they smell, tho some of my best examples are perhaps a bit too R-rated to relate here. Regardless, this creeps into my descriptions as GM: I always try to make sure the players know how things *smell* as well as how it looks. I'm funny that way.

[Ron Edwards]

Oh man. More of this?

This thread is provisional. It's perilously close to Vanity Webpages and (shudder) Personals profiles.

If it doesn't turn into a real, Actual Play type of discussion toot sweet, it's closin'.

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

Well, one really good example I think, is that I draw heavily on the people that I've met in the military for NPCs. You come across so many people, and a large percantage are really memorable characters. So when I need an NPC, I just pluck out some person that I met along the way, and voila, instant personality.

I'm sure that most GMs draw on RL folks for inspiration for NPCs, no?

Mike

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Jared walks in, dazed. He's dressed in a black bathrobe, his normally perfect coiffure is all fucked up.

"Whoa...is this RPG.net? What's the best superheroes game? If you were a die, how many sides would you have? What "Superfriends" character are you most like?"

He wanders off, muttering something about the Rolling Stones.

[Gordon C. Landis]

Er . . . OK, here's my attempt to help guide the thread into useful/productive ground . . .

Given:  Everything we do influences everything else we do.  Therefore, you could have an endless catalog of small effects from your life in your gaming.  I submit this is not particualrly valuable/useful.

Some common life influences:  Knowledge/understanding of a particular domain results in difficulty accepting poorly-imagined versions in gaming.  The programming/cyberpunk thing is an example.  Or . . . I was very into spelunking for a while - I can't help but notice absurdities like granite stalagtities.  Conversely, properly bringing real-world knowldege of a subject to bear on a game can result in more fully imagined game elements related to that subject.  Again, I submit these are NOT particularly useful/valuable bits of information.  Specific examples of *how* to apply real-world knowledge to gaming IS interesting, if it's not simply "I know how guns work so my players can't argue with me about it" kinda stuff.

I confess, I have no example I consider sufficiently "meaty" to contribute here.    Mike's "use real people you've met as NPC templates" *is* good, IMO - folks can use that, even if they aren't lucky enough to have the large "library" of such personalities that he accumulated while in the military.

As I too-often say - hope this helps,

Gordon

[Blake Hutchins]

All I can think of is my experience of European travel, scavenging impressions of various places in France, Sweden, and Spain for ideas, locations, quirky personalities, and the like.  Nothing special.  Otherwise, yeah, I'm with Ron on this one.  I'd rather see this recast as a more concrete thread on GM/gaming techniques.

Best,

Blake