You Are Invited To Play!
Saturday, September 29th, 2007 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flwydThe days are getting shorter. The air is getting colder. The summer adventures among brooks and trees will soon turn to winter adventures among books and teas. It's time to make mulled cider and bring to fruition an idea I've been mulling for close to a year. Help make it a success!
Hey you. Yeah, you. You're invited to be part of my role playing game! Even if you've never role played before. Even if you don't own polyhedral dice. Even if your schedule is pretty tight. Even (especially) if I don't know you very well. If you're in the Denver/Boulder area (even occasionally), you can join the fun.
My goal is to tell interactively a cinematic character-focused story. Imagine that we're collaboratively creating a hit new indie TV show. You get to be a voice actor and story teller assigned to a fascinating character. There will be very little time spent "rolling to see if you hit the goblin." There will be lots of time spent thinking of creative ways for characters to solve interesting problems. There may be numbers which describe your character, but they won't be as important as the words which describe your character.
Character concepts will evolve as the game proceeds, so we'll start with some basics. When was he born? Where? When did he die? How? What sorts of things did she like to do? What was she good at? How did she struggle? Who was important in her life? These questions allow a lot of freedom. Different characters may come from different parts of the world (or a whole other world), from different times, from very different backgrounds. Perhaps you'll play a hero of ancient Ireland, killed by the English lord who stole his land. Perhaps you'll play a writer whose plane crashed as he was researching a book about a corrupt world leader. Perhaps you'll play a small furry creature from somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse whose planet was destroyed by a Vogon constructor fleet.
Although your concept will include the character's death, events in the game may change that outcome or at least right the wrongs done her and those for whom she cares. Perhaps one week the group will work to thwart the avarice of the Irish hero's nemesis and save his family from becoming farming thralls. Maybe the next week we'll learn how a band of concerned time travelers worked to ensure the author's research was published and the despot forced from office. And the following week the story might take place on a space ship fighting an intense diplomatic and physical battle against the mindless bureaucracy of the Vogons.
The game will progress in episodes. From time to time (once a week? once a month?) I'll pick a day I want to play and send a call to everyone who's interested. Some subset will be available to play that day (limit: something reasonable like six or eight); those players' characters will be the focus of the episode. The plot of that episode will revolve around events in one (or more) of those characters' lives. Not everyone will play in every game, but that's okay because not everyone will be able to come to the same place at the same time. Over several sessions, you'll have an opportunity to interact with a subset of the interesting bunch I call friends.
Interested? Drop me a line. I'll ask you some basic questions like "When's generally a good time to play?" "What RPGs have you played before?" and "What sort of character are you thinking of?" I'll then work with you to come up with a character that will be interesting for you to play and a setting that will be good for telling stories. Once I've got a feeling for the characters people want to play and the stories they want to tell, I'll pick a system and we'll say some things formally about the characters. The system will probably be on the free-form end of things and will mainly be used for a tool where an uncertain but structured outcome is desired.
So what are you waiting for? It only takes a few seconds to respond and say "I'm interested!" Then the ball will roll where it may.
Hey you. Yeah, you. You're invited to be part of my role playing game! Even if you've never role played before. Even if you don't own polyhedral dice. Even if your schedule is pretty tight. Even (especially) if I don't know you very well. If you're in the Denver/Boulder area (even occasionally), you can join the fun.
My goal is to tell interactively a cinematic character-focused story. Imagine that we're collaboratively creating a hit new indie TV show. You get to be a voice actor and story teller assigned to a fascinating character. There will be very little time spent "rolling to see if you hit the goblin." There will be lots of time spent thinking of creative ways for characters to solve interesting problems. There may be numbers which describe your character, but they won't be as important as the words which describe your character.
Character concepts will evolve as the game proceeds, so we'll start with some basics. When was he born? Where? When did he die? How? What sorts of things did she like to do? What was she good at? How did she struggle? Who was important in her life? These questions allow a lot of freedom. Different characters may come from different parts of the world (or a whole other world), from different times, from very different backgrounds. Perhaps you'll play a hero of ancient Ireland, killed by the English lord who stole his land. Perhaps you'll play a writer whose plane crashed as he was researching a book about a corrupt world leader. Perhaps you'll play a small furry creature from somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse whose planet was destroyed by a Vogon constructor fleet.
Although your concept will include the character's death, events in the game may change that outcome or at least right the wrongs done her and those for whom she cares. Perhaps one week the group will work to thwart the avarice of the Irish hero's nemesis and save his family from becoming farming thralls. Maybe the next week we'll learn how a band of concerned time travelers worked to ensure the author's research was published and the despot forced from office. And the following week the story might take place on a space ship fighting an intense diplomatic and physical battle against the mindless bureaucracy of the Vogons.
The game will progress in episodes. From time to time (once a week? once a month?) I'll pick a day I want to play and send a call to everyone who's interested. Some subset will be available to play that day (limit: something reasonable like six or eight); those players' characters will be the focus of the episode. The plot of that episode will revolve around events in one (or more) of those characters' lives. Not everyone will play in every game, but that's okay because not everyone will be able to come to the same place at the same time. Over several sessions, you'll have an opportunity to interact with a subset of the interesting bunch I call friends.
Interested? Drop me a line. I'll ask you some basic questions like "When's generally a good time to play?" "What RPGs have you played before?" and "What sort of character are you thinking of?" I'll then work with you to come up with a character that will be interesting for you to play and a setting that will be good for telling stories. Once I've got a feeling for the characters people want to play and the stories they want to tell, I'll pick a system and we'll say some things formally about the characters. The system will probably be on the free-form end of things and will mainly be used for a tool where an uncertain but structured outcome is desired.
So what are you waiting for? It only takes a few seconds to respond and say "I'm interested!" Then the ball will roll where it may.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 06:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 03:01 pm (UTC)I'm saying no, I'm saying no, I'm saying... *sigh*
Sunday in the afternoon or Saturday night, but no more than once per month; only ever played GURPS; any character as long as they're not 2D.
I can't commit to anything but if Brendan is interested this sounds like a crapload of fun.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 04:29 pm (UTC)You need to do one online, yup yup yup. Maybe use some type of free audio conferencing in addition... or something.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 05:55 pm (UTC)BTW, pick-up games of whatever's on hand have become more and more common in the shop as the days wear on. Just FYI, as it's something you had inquired after a bit ago.
TTFN!
-DL-
no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 10:05 pm (UTC)Back in college, I played D&D once, for several minutes. I was running a male magic user and a female cleric, both obviously completely wet behind the ears. The DM was running a 50th level hobbit character as a guide. He'd say things like, "We're going into the haunted castle," and I'd say, "Why?" and he'd say, "To gain experience points. And I'd say, "My characters don't want experience points. They want to stay alive." He'd furrow his brow at me and say, "There's a closed door, and a hole in the opposite wall. What do your characters want to do." And I'd say, "They want to go home."
He also appeared convinced that I could telekinetically influence the dice, so he wouldn't tell me why I was rolling the dice, or what sort of roll would be good.
Since magic users have, perhaps, one weak spell, and can't carry weapons, and since I had no experience and as such no savvy in dealing with this, I had the hobbit lead, with the magic user pseudo-valiantly second, but really to keep the cleric, who at least had a spear, behind him.
As the hobbit was picking the lock on the door, two six foot were-rats came tumbling out of the hole in the wall. The magic user valiantly picked up the hobbit like a shield and quickly stepped in front of the cleric. It made sense to me; he was the only one of us with a snowball's chance of fighting off anything. And the DM yelled at me that I was doing it all wrong. So I quit and did not play another role playing game until about two years ago.
I think it was running the LARP at a birthday party for JD or Taliacyn or Somebody. Or it might have just been a party. I don't remember things well. I played a female entertainment android, loosely based on the reality of Tanith Lee's book "The Silver Metal Lover". Having no ethics, I dispassionately colluded with the bad guys and sabotaged my fellow players, detected only by , but all the other players thought she was meta-playing and didn't believe her.
That is the total of my life's gaming experience and I am still afraid I'm going to do it wrong and get everybody mad at me.
Most of the time, I like to play Cranium - not to win, but to have the most fun. I don't like it when everybody is trying to win.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-01 01:44 am (UTC)Colluding with the bad guys isn't necessarily "doing it wrong" in a LARP. I played in a LARP on 12/31/1999 in which I chose to destroy the world to spite those who'd done me wrong.
The only way you can role play wrong (in my game anyway) is if nobody's having fun. So if you're up for some semi-spontaneous storytelling, I'd be happy to have you.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-02 03:32 pm (UTC)A
new game
Date: 2007-10-04 03:45 am (UTC)Very little gaming experience, but have a fairly good imagination, and am willing to learn
Interested!
Date: 2007-10-10 06:41 am (UTC)