Roleplaying

Wherin we continue our discussion of the possibility of playing a Primetime Adventures series based on the following premise:

“a show about a time-traveling William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln zooming across the heartland of America in a stolen ‘67 Mustang with a goth-chick waitress who’s on the run from the Irish mob in Chicago.”

Daniel Perez, Chuck Hedden and I have been flirting with the notion of taking this seriously. Some ideas came up in another thread and this post is here to keep the pitch discussion going, should anyone wish to do so.

In the continuing discussion on Daniel Perez’ blog about playing Vampire, I was reminded of a character I played about 9 years ago that I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned much online before. I played in a World of Darkness crossover saga about two mages and a werewolf who form a folk-punk band called ‘FoolsGambit’ and go around playing music and getting into various kinds of supernatural trouble. My character was the werewolf and bass player, and his name was Conor McBride. Conor was a type of werewolf called a Fianna Ragabash, which for those of you who are not into the terminology, means that he was 1. of Irish heritage and 2. was born under the moon-sign of the trickster-fool-shaman archetype. I chose to base Conor upon the appearance of Russell Crowe, and even made him a native Australian of Irish descent. Read the rest of this entry »

Pirate Jenny: Finally!

Danielle Lewon has released Kagematsu!

I got mine! Now you go get yours. Then, let’s play.

Check out the nifty cover design:

It has finally happened. After over 20 years of roleplaying with friends, peers, acquaintances, and strangers, I have -for the FIRST time EVER – ofiicially been asked by my friends NOT to participate in an upcoming roleplaying campaign, simply because it is about vampires.

And as you can clearly see below, I am extremely well-qualified for the task:

In all seriousness, I am totally fine with not being in the game, as a cursory reading of the comments here on Daniel’s blog will attest – so nobody get your pants in a twist on my account. But I thought this would be a great opportunity to share the picture and get in a fun dig at my pals, too. <grin>

… starring Rich Rogers, Chuck Hedden, Arnold Cassell, and Mick Bradley.

I’m writing about our recent pitch session for a new rpg series that the Canoneers planned to play using Primetime Adventures.

Ah, Primetime Adventures, affectionately known as PTA. ‘A game of television drama’, it says on the cover. I find that to be joyfully true, and thus PTA has become a fun and rather frequent part of my rpg experience over the past few years. Practically any type of premise, any type of fiction, is possible with this game, as long as it can be framed within the general boundaries of a TV series. You could play a high-school monster hunters series, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You could play a premise like The Office, but make the characters an office full of spies![1] You can play super heroes, sci-fi soldiers, Medieval diplomats, pulp adventurers, school-age emo kids, or an emulation of The Beverly Hillbillies if you want. You could do a show about a time-traveling William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln zooming across the heartland of America in a stolen ‘67 Mustang with a goth-chick waitress who’s on the run from the Irish mob in Chicago.[2] In fact you could even play a series about a group of Dark-Age adventurers who go around exploring dungeons, killing whatever monsters they find and stealing all their stuff. As long as it can be framed episodically and the in-play focus is on the characters and their issues, relationships, and QUESTIONS, anything is possible.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been asked to post about the end of our Lady Blackbird rpg series. this is up on Canon Puncture already, but ought to be here too, I think…

You’ll want to read these two other posts first, for context. Which means three very long posts altogether, just to unpack a wonky ending to a wonderful game.

AP Report from Daniel
AP Report from Rich

It’s been really difficult to unpack this situation in my head and then express it honestly while also avoiding pettiness and selfishness. I have not been able to do it via an AP report, as Daniel and Rich have done. I couldn’t even begin to try to express the ending of the session from Naomi’s (my character’s) POV. Besides, I think the two overviews of what happened in the fiction really cover it well, so I’ve got nothing of value to add to that, in Naomi’s voice or otherwise.

I was very unhappy with the last ten minutes of the session and I spared no passion in saying so to everyone at the end of the game – but I was too worked up at the time to give a good accounting of WHY I was so unhappy. And I owe that accounting to my friends Daniel and Arnold, because I yelled and cussed and ranted at them.

How do I maturely and helpfully express what kicked me in the junk? I think I’ve hit upon a good way to manage it without further whining and ranting. Here goes: Read the rest of this entry »

Rob’s got several juicy ideas to share here. I’ll quote the one that hit me deepest.

In other media, you may become invested in the characters, but in RPGs, the characters may become invested in you (or at least your character). The creation of a reality that looks back on the actor is huge, and it&apos;s often dismissed as mere sleight of hand since these people and places are not real, but I would counter that the fact that they are fiction does not rob this of its power. Most creative media rests on the idea that we may be powerfully and truly moved by fiction, and I see no reason to carve out an exemption here.

via Rob Donoghue: Considering the Medium.

That’s certainly why I keep turning to RPGs. They’re the only place I get the kind of reflective impact I crave. All I would add to that is that for me, it also matters a great deal that the act is extroverted and collaborative, so that there’s a whole slew of reflective potency weaving and surging around that moves everyone in ways that an introverted creative act can’t match.