In order to bore my self to sleep, I'm organizing gaming stuff. The paperworks part. Luiz and I have been sharing a few quick sheets, but there's still always skimming and looking for stuff. I have been forgetting my kith's blessings and curses, and forgetting to apply my merits in combat. This should help with that.
Also, I might bring my netbook next time, with all the book PDFs stored. The machine is smaller than a hardcover book, and I'll have stuff like Rites of Spring and Second Sight at my fingertips, thus relying less on the ever patient and accomodating GM to find info for me, and hand write a contract. What a saint.
Also, I looked through things, and spent my expees. Tasha can now drive, by god, and she has Fleeting Autumn 3.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Au Courant
What's happened, till now:
Session One: Our group, led by GM, with Delphinia, Rupert, Aurelia, Tatsuaki, who we only called "Joe" at the time, and Tasha. Luiz's and my first time with the C:TL rules. We spent a lot of time generating T & A's characters, hashing out particulars, discussing our characters, and we had a game session that involved a pretty cut and dried "I've gathered you all here together, because you're new here, and I need a favor" sort of quest. It was light hearted, well thought out, plenty of twists and turns. We were asked to find a Fae evil clown named Nicklesmart, who had come to Seaside to find a replacement for one of his escaped slaves. Minx and Jinx used to be his captives, and they got away, to take up residence in Seaside Point and run a tattoo parlor. He'd sewn Minx's mouth shut, and as long as she didn't utter a peep, everything would be fine. But she started talking, and now Nicklesmart is looking for not one, but three replacements for her. He popped up in Seaside Point during the Clown Festival, losing himself among the masses, and trying to abduct children. We found him, thwarted him, chased him down the boardwalk in a high-intensity chase scene, almost gave up, found him again, and had the final showdown in the haunted house ride. Very cinematic, and it was a great time. Not too complicated or intense for the new players, yet still interesting and fun for the seasoned players. Joe finally remembered his real name, Tatsuaki, only we still call him Joe (among other clever names)
Session Two: We got together, still, and played a board game called Descent, just for a lighthearted kind of thing. It was a lot of fun, and I could go for playing it again, for sure. Not instead of C:TL, but also.
Session Three/Four (I'm not sure if we played twice without Rupert and Aurelia, or once, but I'm rolling them together either way). Two of the group couldn't make it, so we went on without them. This time, the courts had changed over to Fall Court, and Jasper, an ogre, was the leader. He was asked by a vampire to help intercept a truck shipment of tax free cigarettes, so that it didn't go to a biker gang, which was growing in power, but to deliver it back to the vampires. Right-O boss, vampires, and this is about cigarettes? I thought it was some huge weapon shipment, or something. We tried snooping around the bar where the biker gang hung out, staying "low key" as TJ the vampire instructed us...but that ended with a firefight outside the back of the bar, and Joe killing one of their members. He got bled all over, and his coat started acting all kinds of funny. We did discover that there's more to these bikers than meets the eye, like the leader, Bulldog has a funny eye, and he can "see" us. We stole a car, returned it, bought a car...that talks to us. The coat talks too, but only to Joe. Delphinia's hair was acting funny, too, it had changed into catnip, and she has mobs of cats following her around, which provided a lot of laughs. Speaking of following, some dude in a late model car kept turning up at odd times. Can't really get a bead on what that's all about, but I'm guessing he's with the vampires. I feel like we really got *into* our characters and our game plot advancement stuff during this time. Lots of detailed stuff, "oh shit" moments, and laughs. A lot of weird happenings, that could only point to huger things down the line, which really got me excited about where this is going.
Recent session: Rupert and Aurelia came back to the fold, and there was some brief filling in. I like that we didn't spend the whole session replaying stuff, although I sensed it almost going that way. We started by getting together, and doing more with the now definitely Haunted Coat. Then we went to a bar, first to learn more stuff, but it wound up being closed. The coat, which Joe left at home, met him at the bar, in a very creepy scene. I jetted the fuck out of there. We wound up hitting another bar, and causing a scene, on purpose, to generate glamour. Hilarity ensued. I wanted to go home after that, prepare for this truck heist, and get a good night's sleep to repair bashing damage and refill willpower pools, people had other ideas. We returned to the scene of where the heist would take place, unarmed and unready, only to find the deal going down right in front of us. Which was cool, and the whole thing wound up unfolding well. My dice were against me, but it made for some great gaming moments. I tried to sneak in and throw my only knife all stealth like at the biker gang leader's head, (and motivate everyone into action), but I failed spectacularly at the throwing. Here's where GM is awesomely permissive. Our old DM would have been like "you fail, they see you, and now you're fighting one on one with this biker gang leader, godspeed." Then threw a handful of dice and rendered me into so many bits and gobs, spread out on the tarmac. (although, he did wind up making me immortal, all the better to abuse my character, I'm sure). GM, however, in the interest of being a peachy dude, let me back the fuck up, into the shadows, no harm, no foul. I don't mind abuse, but this was a nice gift. Joe blasted the head guy with lightning, missed, but stunned the group, and Rupert charged on in. He's great for that, point him in a direction, and he runs in swinging. I can admire that in a party member, he took a LOT of hits. It allowed us to do some footwork with the truck, and hopefully save the as-yet-uncovered cargo (which I'm thinking is still like some kind of high end contraband weapons or something). I could sense Aurelia's human sort of losing focus, and Delphinia's human had wandered completely, to the point of GM just saying something along the lines of "ok, you ran into a corner and hid, that's cool" And it is. I get that some people can't stay into it for a long time. A clean break was good, in this case, to keep the game rolling for the rest of us. We fought the rest of the bikers, and Aurelia, for whatever reason decided to light the cargo of the truck on fire. Again, nice GM. Old DM would have been like "well, you're fucked now, honey..." He was all about collateral damage, but I digress. I was pretty much out of combat, and rather than join the fray as she originally planned, she decided to check out where the smoke was coming from, only to stand helplessly by, and watch the truck begin to go up. My meta-side was like "NOOOO THAT"S FUCKING POINTLESS AND DESTRUCTIVE WHY WOULD YOU...why...agh..." but it did make for some funny in game moments, so, of course, it's cool. Everything happens for a reason, amirite? Someone, Rupert, after beating the biker leader to a paste, I think, found a fire extinguisher, and started putting it out, I hopped in there to see what was what, and discovered four coffins! Vampires! Crazy, total surprise. Joe scuffled on the ground with the last remaining biker, who was decidedly not human! Not The Lost, either. We jumped in to help him, as he was losing ground with this non-human, and I got to play a little cranium golf with a tire iron. Aurelia inexplicably lit a carton of cigarettes and threw it at the guy. Rupert was pretty fucked up, by then, but I think he actually shot 6. Great ending. We saddled up, and took the truck back to the vampires.
Here's what I wish I did. I wish that I eyeballed Bulldog, as he was a bloody pulp, on the ground. I checked over 6, the one that Joe was fighting, and it was inconclusive. I wish I'd checked out Bulldog's eye better. I wish I'd grabbed up his gun, and went through his pockets, as well as the other bikers. That would have been in character, but I could tell that everyone was getting tired and antsy, so I sort of fast forwarded, through delivering the truck back to the vampires.
It's my plan to at least do an entry like this after every game session, recapping it from Tasha's perspective. This game is really taking on a life of its own, and I always kicked myself for not documenting other campaigns, so here's hoping I stick to this one.
Tasha the Con Artist vs. Lili the Player
So, first we have Luiz's character Tatsuaki "Joe", who's all "BANZAIIIII" getting into fights, and attracting loads of attention to us. He's like "WHY YOU NO FIGHT MOAR! RAR!" They understand each other in their own way, but it must frustrate Joe to no end, that Tasha is ever the "coward". It's the kind of opposite playing styles that really creates stories within stories. Not to continuously drag up old games, but Damona's brother was a hardcore fanatical hyper religious self righteous priest. She was a berzerking dual wielding swashbuckling slut with a head for science, loose morals and a heart of gold. It was an RP goldmine. I can see that same fertile ground with these two characters.
If that were the only dichotomy to develop, then that would be a perfect setting. Luiz is really coming into his own as a gamer, and needs very little encouragement. I do sense when he gets tired, that he has to stare at his dice and numbers more, to make sense of things, but since it's second nature to me, I just glance it over, and call out numbers, for him. This only really happens late at night, though.
The road blocks I'm running into come in when we analyze my human role in the group. Some of the other members of the group are new players, they're all enthusiastic, but differently engaged, some go through the world in a slightly puzzled sort of way, some have a hard time keeping interested at all. My role in the group, I feel, is to kinda guess at where GM is going, gamewise, and help translate it to my fellow players, without strongly leading anywhere, but keeping things moving, all the same. I play a different role than my intention, being flirty and funny to play off Delphinia, and keep her interested, and I have a lot of "HMMMMMMM, what do YOU think" kind of moments, trying to get everyone's gears turning and problem solving. I'm really careful to not be aggressive, and all alpha gamer. In my old crew, we spent a lot of time competing for attention, and it wasn't very polite, with everyone talking and moving and rolling dice, hopping up, shouting, swinging things, making diagrams with pretzel nuggets, that sort of thing. Very much a change of pace, here, but I really like it. I've been in on developing groups, many times, but this might be the first time I'm with a bunch of developing gamers, too. I can only hope that everyone gains a love for it that I have, and I'm really trying to help create a great experience, as a fellow player. I hope, soon, I can lay off the "Scooby Doo" narration, though, and get down to the more advanced gaming stuff. Like fucking with the GM. :)
I feel like I have to rant a little. This is not about changing anyone's playing, or forcing a group to be what constitutes as a "good group" in my eyes. Everyone's different, and I'm now playing with three earnest non gamers, so take this rant for the jaded uppity bullshit that it is, and with many grains of salt. I just have to get it off my chest, though, then I'll be fine.
I hate when people don't pay attention. I HATE IT. You're at the table. There's nothing but you, some snackies, papers, and the other people. You're all focused on the same goal, which is whatever's going on in the game. Why do I have to explain fourteen times where I'm walking to, did we take the car or didn't we? What time is that thing happening? Are we in a parking lot? It really sucks me dry to have to constantly re-explain the situation (not the rules, but simple things, like "we walked there? I thought we drove? I want to sit on the car! The car's not there? Where are we? Are we inside?"), or sit through the re-explanation of the setting. I'm all into it, and then we have to go out of character to set things straight over and over, because people are listening to the ice cream truck music in their heads, or fooling with their phones. People, it's like 2-3 hours a month, let's try, ok? But, again, I must temper this with understanding. I get the sense that the two other women are there simply to make their SO's happy. If I was forced to sit through some TV award show, or a shitty move, I'd be all "duhhhhhhhhhhhh" too. So, it is what it is. The hardcore gamer core of me goes "fuck, I wanna play a real game, sometimes. Is it too much to ask for only the people that wanna be here, be here?" The social friendly part of me, who genuinely likes and adores these people goes "aww, it's nice to just have them around." I bet other gamers go through it. Hell, I had this problem when Irv first started playing WoW. It's an adjustment period. He got into WoW and learned stuff all on his own, after a short time. I'm patient. I was frustrated at first, though. Like now, only the frustration for this is minor compared to when Irv entered into "my world", so long ago. I have had much worse gaming groups. Ones that ended with our characters all killing each other, and the group fighting in real life. Like, fantasy bullshit that ended with RL drama (the story of the clanking schizophrenic dwarf. I might use this blog, sometime, to relate old memories, too.). This is nothing, really. Just a blip.
If that were the only dichotomy to develop, then that would be a perfect setting. Luiz is really coming into his own as a gamer, and needs very little encouragement. I do sense when he gets tired, that he has to stare at his dice and numbers more, to make sense of things, but since it's second nature to me, I just glance it over, and call out numbers, for him. This only really happens late at night, though.
The road blocks I'm running into come in when we analyze my human role in the group. Some of the other members of the group are new players, they're all enthusiastic, but differently engaged, some go through the world in a slightly puzzled sort of way, some have a hard time keeping interested at all. My role in the group, I feel, is to kinda guess at where GM is going, gamewise, and help translate it to my fellow players, without strongly leading anywhere, but keeping things moving, all the same. I play a different role than my intention, being flirty and funny to play off Delphinia, and keep her interested, and I have a lot of "HMMMMMMM, what do YOU think" kind of moments, trying to get everyone's gears turning and problem solving. I'm really careful to not be aggressive, and all alpha gamer. In my old crew, we spent a lot of time competing for attention, and it wasn't very polite, with everyone talking and moving and rolling dice, hopping up, shouting, swinging things, making diagrams with pretzel nuggets, that sort of thing. Very much a change of pace, here, but I really like it. I've been in on developing groups, many times, but this might be the first time I'm with a bunch of developing gamers, too. I can only hope that everyone gains a love for it that I have, and I'm really trying to help create a great experience, as a fellow player. I hope, soon, I can lay off the "Scooby Doo" narration, though, and get down to the more advanced gaming stuff. Like fucking with the GM. :)
I feel like I have to rant a little. This is not about changing anyone's playing, or forcing a group to be what constitutes as a "good group" in my eyes. Everyone's different, and I'm now playing with three earnest non gamers, so take this rant for the jaded uppity bullshit that it is, and with many grains of salt. I just have to get it off my chest, though, then I'll be fine.
I hate when people don't pay attention. I HATE IT. You're at the table. There's nothing but you, some snackies, papers, and the other people. You're all focused on the same goal, which is whatever's going on in the game. Why do I have to explain fourteen times where I'm walking to, did we take the car or didn't we? What time is that thing happening? Are we in a parking lot? It really sucks me dry to have to constantly re-explain the situation (not the rules, but simple things, like "we walked there? I thought we drove? I want to sit on the car! The car's not there? Where are we? Are we inside?"), or sit through the re-explanation of the setting. I'm all into it, and then we have to go out of character to set things straight over and over, because people are listening to the ice cream truck music in their heads, or fooling with their phones. People, it's like 2-3 hours a month, let's try, ok? But, again, I must temper this with understanding. I get the sense that the two other women are there simply to make their SO's happy. If I was forced to sit through some TV award show, or a shitty move, I'd be all "duhhhhhhhhhhhh" too. So, it is what it is. The hardcore gamer core of me goes "fuck, I wanna play a real game, sometimes. Is it too much to ask for only the people that wanna be here, be here?" The social friendly part of me, who genuinely likes and adores these people goes "aww, it's nice to just have them around." I bet other gamers go through it. Hell, I had this problem when Irv first started playing WoW. It's an adjustment period. He got into WoW and learned stuff all on his own, after a short time. I'm patient. I was frustrated at first, though. Like now, only the frustration for this is minor compared to when Irv entered into "my world", so long ago. I have had much worse gaming groups. Ones that ended with our characters all killing each other, and the group fighting in real life. Like, fantasy bullshit that ended with RL drama (the story of the clanking schizophrenic dwarf. I might use this blog, sometime, to relate old memories, too.). This is nothing, really. Just a blip.
Tasha
So, my original concept with Tasha was this: Sort of a streetwise kid, good with working people over for money, telling their "fortunes", relieving them of their purses, and doing anything to survive. She likes to hang back, watch, listen, learn, and she uses knowledge as a currency. I tried to pick contracts that reflected that kind of living. Tasha isn't combative, if she can run, she will, or if she can make you think she's running away, she will, but she might come back and slice your hamstring while stealing your wallet. She'd use the information in the wallet, names, addresses, account numbers, as well as she'd use the hard cash in it. She's a survivalist from a long line of petty thieves, cutthroats and con artists.
Since I knew little about the Hedge, and the C:TL lore, when I made the char, I was focusing on how she could be now, leaving the Fae time as a blurry memory. She was the daughter of a Lebanese family, posing as Gypsy fortune tellers on the boardwalk of Seaside point. She was taken by the Fae at age 7, when wandering around, bored, in a crowd, unsupervised. They put her to work in a Fae carnival, telling fortunes, almost mechanically, in the sideshow. Think of a little kid trapped in one of those freaky Mme. Zoltan machines, sitting in one position all the time, staring into some magic crystal ball. You look into that ball enough, and it will eventually start looking back at you. God knows what it was made out of, out there in Fae. Tasha's eyes still reflect the luminous magic she absorbed from the ball, and her arms and fingers grew long and reedy, from holding it. To the humans, she keeps the rest of her appearance very low key, able to dress up or down, and blend into crowds, or stand out and get attention. Her eyes are still very unusual, they've turned from big black doe eyes, to multi colored bright hazel, which looks somewhat unusual in her darker complexion. She's very small and scrawny. Her dark hair is super short, home cut by a cheap buzzer. For her fortune telling business, she often wraps flamboyant scarves around her head, and wears a cheap somewhat dingy costumey peasant shirt and flowing skirts, topped with lots of cheap baubles, which she never wears outside of her booth. On her own time, it's generally dark colors, utility clothing. Leather jacket, black jeans, soft black boots, or sneakers. One would be hard pressed to connect the flamboyant, outspoken, jangling girl in the booth to the quiet, intense woman outside, unless of course, they see her eyes. She aged normally, and now she's about 21, but her family has packed up and moved back to the home country, partially out of grief for losing their only child, and partially because the fortune telling business wasn't so hot. Tasha returned back to where she was taken, not knowing where else to go, or what to do, half expecting to return to her family in some normal fashion. Upon discovering that they took off back to Lebanon, she decided to stick around the boardwalk and see what life has to offer. She has managed to reopen the stand, and make a go of it, living mostly from hand to mouth, and sleeping in a back room, where she bunks with Joe. She has no idea where her family is, and has no way of contacting them. She's kind of ok with that, for now.
Since I knew little about the Hedge, and the C:TL lore, when I made the char, I was focusing on how she could be now, leaving the Fae time as a blurry memory. She was the daughter of a Lebanese family, posing as Gypsy fortune tellers on the boardwalk of Seaside point. She was taken by the Fae at age 7, when wandering around, bored, in a crowd, unsupervised. They put her to work in a Fae carnival, telling fortunes, almost mechanically, in the sideshow. Think of a little kid trapped in one of those freaky Mme. Zoltan machines, sitting in one position all the time, staring into some magic crystal ball. You look into that ball enough, and it will eventually start looking back at you. God knows what it was made out of, out there in Fae. Tasha's eyes still reflect the luminous magic she absorbed from the ball, and her arms and fingers grew long and reedy, from holding it. To the humans, she keeps the rest of her appearance very low key, able to dress up or down, and blend into crowds, or stand out and get attention. Her eyes are still very unusual, they've turned from big black doe eyes, to multi colored bright hazel, which looks somewhat unusual in her darker complexion. She's very small and scrawny. Her dark hair is super short, home cut by a cheap buzzer. For her fortune telling business, she often wraps flamboyant scarves around her head, and wears a cheap somewhat dingy costumey peasant shirt and flowing skirts, topped with lots of cheap baubles, which she never wears outside of her booth. On her own time, it's generally dark colors, utility clothing. Leather jacket, black jeans, soft black boots, or sneakers. One would be hard pressed to connect the flamboyant, outspoken, jangling girl in the booth to the quiet, intense woman outside, unless of course, they see her eyes. She aged normally, and now she's about 21, but her family has packed up and moved back to the home country, partially out of grief for losing their only child, and partially because the fortune telling business wasn't so hot. Tasha returned back to where she was taken, not knowing where else to go, or what to do, half expecting to return to her family in some normal fashion. Upon discovering that they took off back to Lebanon, she decided to stick around the boardwalk and see what life has to offer. She has managed to reopen the stand, and make a go of it, living mostly from hand to mouth, and sleeping in a back room, where she bunks with Joe. She has no idea where her family is, and has no way of contacting them. She's kind of ok with that, for now.
I deleted what was here before
I feel like I have more to talk about, in gaming, than just trying to plan my own campaign. I've moved my own private stuff over to a word file, and am using this somewhat public place to discuss stuff in general. I have lots to say about our monthly C:TL game, and I feel like it's unfair to our GM to unload everything on him, especially since some of it might come off as a rant, and whatever I have to maybe rant about is outside of his control.
Besides ranting, it's a nice place to take notes, recap, and plan for the next time, involving my character. Right now, I'm playing a Wizened Oracle named Tasha, she belongs to the Autumn court. I have big plans for her, as a character, and I'm trying to develop her in a certain way. I'm finding a few minor roadblocks, but I think overall it's going where I like. I might make that my first real entry here.
Besides ranting, it's a nice place to take notes, recap, and plan for the next time, involving my character. Right now, I'm playing a Wizened Oracle named Tasha, she belongs to the Autumn court. I have big plans for her, as a character, and I'm trying to develop her in a certain way. I'm finding a few minor roadblocks, but I think overall it's going where I like. I might make that my first real entry here.
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