| From: | Ereskanti <Ereskanti@***.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | K's Dark History (A Real Warning to the Munchkin Kind) |
| Date: | Thu, 7 May 1998 22:43:07 EDT |
sorts. For years here in Lafalot, I was just about the only major SR GM
around. Others were there sure, but none had the group resources or time
availability that we did.
We played, By all the Gods, Good or Evil, did we play.
Started as Shaper/Vampire mixtures, simply because they made a good lure for
players with inner feelings all their own to be "really different".
Years passed, then we started adding the "Immortals", which wasn't that big a
deal because Vampires were immortal too, they just weren't that old (yet
anyway :)
Then one day, someone took my Primary Personal GM Rule #1 and ignored it
completely...
"I do not care what kind of character you play, no matter the power or type.
I just ask one favor. Remember that I will adjust the power of the game to
better balance everything out so as to give all involved a challenging and
enjoyable time. So please remember the rest of the group as well as
yourself."
One guy came along and decided he was far more important than the entire group
combined. I should have outright killed his character while I had the chance.
I one day overheard him talking with some newer players to the particular
campaign say..."Keith won't kill us, he'll just bring us back somehow".
The straw didn't break. I lit it on Fire. I took science to the final limit
in SR, by taking the rumor of "biogenetic development" to the final limit. I
invented someone that even if he killed, he would come back. I brought about
Clone Wars. For almost 3 months the group homed in on anything even remotely
related to this "Ulta-Villain". It cost several characters and what seemed
for so long like no limit to the friendships in RL. In the end, only a few
remained as part of "my game group". Mike was just starting his 'career' as a
SR Player when this was happening. I kept reminding every player for all that
time of my phrase and they each kept looking at me as the fault. Perhaps I
was, perhaps I wasn't. That's in the past now. Those players decided that a
personal vendetta had been created, even when I made attempts to cut the power
back. In the end, it (the entire campaign structure) simply collapsed and I
walked away from a game storyline I had created 9 years earlier in an entirely
different game system.
Now, after 7 years or more of SR gaming, I still live in that "Historic
Shadow". Occasionally some of "the Old Group" show up or we run into each
other. A few of them and I actually sit down, have some drinks and talk about
stuff. Most of the time, I try and keep the conversation off of gaming to
some extent. But because of who/how I GMed before, they had to know what I
was doing.
Power, a Drug Best Left having never been tested....
Now Mike is GM, and I will only finish the PBEM and occasionally give him an
oft' needed vacation so he can play out an idea or too really quick. Most of
those players still play the same way they always did, and I remain very
distant whenever possible.
Yes, we (the current group) is trying to play out characters to the "never-
ending end". Binder has been around for ages now, and it's fun watching him
continue to change and grow and remain the same all at once. Two of the
players here about two months ago came to a public statement of "we've never
had a single character this long or this powerful, we aren't sure what to do
now..." Our response was more or less ... "just keep playing, make longer
plans, create a character with a "Soul" for lack of better terms."
They have.
They really like it.
Characters with family ties, contacts, connections, more interest in B/R
skills than any other category (we are all currently in a "Toy" competition).
PCs who have found ways to continue growing.
"Threats" (the Sourcebook) has become a guide of sorts, just not direclty.
Three of us are directly a part of one aspect of that book (Erik probably can
guess which one). The tale I mentioned where a PC unleashed his fury on an IE
was about the extents and sacrifices that we have made in order to keep the
character alive. To go the final steps and then keep walking. Mythos (a
friend of Rob Nesius by name of Steve once had a girlfriend who knew Duane
Brickler who nearly joined a PBEM some 6 years ago now) is someone who has
gone through a ringer I wouldn't have put Binder through in all honesty. And
when you sit back and let Duane play the character and just leave him alone.
It is AWESOME!!!!
No, he wouldn't be able to beat an IE toe-to-toe, but he knows he make things
as hard as possible. We also know he as a PC has something that no NPC is
ever going to really have, lest the author of the NPC takes over. A "Soul".
He shares part of my belief that I have given to Binder. The Power isn't the
ultimate goal. Living Is. As long as you can remain a live, you can continue
trying to be whatever you can be. The only thing greater is letting someone
else have your gift. Meaning when you care so much about something that
"Character Sacrifice" can be done with real, deeply rooted, Role Playing
Intentions.
What am I saying now? I know, it's more of an aimless Rant. I guess I am
trying to say to anyone who "knows they aren't a munchkin even if they are in
truth" is pay more attention to what you point the finger at. Maybe we aren't
all "Munchkins", but I think most of us are deeply. I think most of us want
to feel invulnerable, feel powerful.
Especially if we've had a particularly bad day at work.
Especially if we've lost a good friend recently.
Especially if we've discovered that no one is going to let us forget our own
mistakes, least of all ourselves.
Anyone really care what level another character is? If so, you can find the
"Hoosier Hacker House" and find a very tamed down version of Binder. But I
ask a favor if you decide to do so. A chain of favors as it were.
Remember that when looking at this, it is not not merely a collection of
numbers and HTM code.
Remember that it is something someone poored an awful lot of time into.
Remember that it is something that, though maybe not right for youself, it was
right for someone else.
Remember that it is something that belongs to someone that cared more about
what other people wanted to ultimately do that he wanted to do himself.
Imagine the fun and literally -THOUSANDS- of hours of enjoyment that this
character may have created. Not only for the person to whom played it. But
for everyone that played with that person as well.
Imagine the level of the term "Epic" that must have surrounded this character.
Imagine that this "Nightmare" is not your own, it was something someone else
went through and is now offering up to the world to see. As a sort of memento
of what has happened before and what could happen again if people aren't going
to learn to understand "Sacrifice" one damn bit.
No, Binder is not a character for every campaign world. But he is something
that works in ANY campaign world. But that isn't the character I guess. I
guess that is the lessons learned by the player of that character. Who has
had his own games cross the lines of near-extinction more times than he cares
to remember (and he remembers them all sadly). Were Binder to be in your
games, as NPC or PC (an event that if I win the Lottery ever, I would love to
do) I only ask that you think about the type of person he represents.
Not his power level, as numbers are so hard for most of us to see past at any
given moment.
Not the fact that you know you aren't reading everything, simply because so
much of the sheet has (10+) or (20+) written on it the strangest of places.
Just remember that the guy who made him isn't a destroyer of a game. He's the
one who made an 14 (I finally added them all up right) year promise come to
fulfillment.
The promise?
I made a promise once to one of the guys that taught me how to play AD&D all
those years ago that I would never forget their story, regardless of whatever
happened to us as people.
I didn't. And it took me enough perserverance to rival Christ I like to think
to see that story to the end.
That character is part of that story.
No, not every character with these power levels will be like this. In fact, I
can probably guarantee that most of them won't be. I wish everyone out there
would simply enjoy the game all the time. Most of us do, otherwise we
wouldn't want to spend hours a week (some of us a day, hey Nexx??? :) to
getting to know what other gamers like to do. What makes them and their game
worlds tick as it were.
What would happen were I allowed to play "Binder" with a number of the "Old
Group". I don't know. He'd probably get them all into a big bar, like the
Rhino in Seattle or something, make sure he bought them one good round of
drinks with a toast "to Old Friends and Older Memories".
He'd then toss in more karmic force and desire into the casting of a single
spell, one that could only be cast by a magician once ever in his life.
Because it would utlize his Life as the power behind.
He'd probably kill them all, especially the ones that thought they knew him
and wondered what happened when their "friend" decided they weren't
"friends"
anymore.
Of course, he'd die to. Only the Hat would be left behind, knowing that
stupid legend that surrounds it now....
-K
PS...sorry for the rant. I do honestly know the difference between a "Power
Gamer" a "Munchkin" and "Role Playing". I just added
"Patience" and
"Longevity" to the list as well....
