Amber related, life related, you name it, we've got it. Welcome to the Lost and Found.

 
I've got an idea I'm trying to articulate, about major skill niches and the Princesses of Amber and why I've set up conflict between Sand and Fiona, but it's not coherent yet. It's coming later... But the short version is that Fiona felt her niche was threatened by Sand and tried to take steps to eliminate the threat. Hmm... I have to go off and think about this some more, and get someone who has logical skills to read over it...
posted by sandrayln at 11:48:00 PM ( )

 

WISH 43: In Character Rewards

What was the best in-character reward one of your characters ever got? Why was it so good?

Okay, this one's a tie. It's between the silly reward, and the interesting long-term reward, both for my Pooka Faline.

The silly reward was the chimerical/magical tumbleweed. It was just a tumbleweed that she picked up and liked... and then discovered that it drank water and ate lettuce. She named it Fauna. It is currently, in-game, being ...weed-sat by a friend. It was just cool; she acquired it when we rescued large numbers of chimera from an evil Nocker named William. With the assistance of some Nevada Eshu who were skilled at round-ups. *shakes head* It was... interesting.

The long-term one is the fact that our group has managed to take a tiny side-point and turn it into a major production. We have managed to convince the elite of the World of Darkness Boston to chip in money and resources to save a little stage in a park that is serving as the freehold of a group of Recaps. (Of course, my character was just happy that she got to paint the props for the charity play...)

And here's one from my boyfriend:

Dust: "Probably when my D&D ranger finally found his Familiar. I'd had him call for one, the instant he attained the requisite level... But we had to get to town before the GM would allow the familiar to come... So it was like a whole session-and-a-half before we managed to get back to town...

"And so we get there and (the gm had had all this time to develop the personality and form of my familiar) suddenly, there's this VULTURE that comes swooping outta the sky and lands at my characters feet. And starts nuzzling him.

"So that's my familiar. A friggin' carrion bird. But that vulture (whom the party named Lassie) became the single coolest PC-owned animal I have ever had experience with.
"She was loyal...and intelligent...and resourceful...and useful. She even dealt the finishing blow to an injured dragon once. I am totally confident that it was the only time in the history of D&D that a vulture ever killed a dragon..."

Me: "*teasing* what about carnie?"

Dust: "Well...carnie is her equal. In fact, if I was writing the gamewish, I'd have to put them as a tie."

Me: "now, he hasn't killed any dragons that you know of..."

Dust: "Yeah, but his personality is just AMAZING. You outdo yourself every time he appears. Besides, he does do more damage than the vulture.

"LOL But the vulture never disrupted any birthday parties and she never started a bird revolution. So the convenience factor has to go to Lassie."
posted by sandrayln at 1:23:00 AM ( )

 
Oriana's first diary entry, Interference, is now written, HTML-ified, and posted online. Next up is her thoughts on encountering (what the player knows is) a Black Road manifestation...
posted by sandrayln at 5:27:00 PM ( )

 
Well, I've done next-to-nothing today... Ah well.

However - before I head to bed, I'm determined to finish Oriana's first diary entry and put up more quotes from the L&F session, which seems to be stringing itself out over a couple of days, and then if I'm still feeling ambitious, I'll apply my limited experience to this week's WISH...

Right. Working now.
posted by sandrayln at 10:37:00 PM ( )

 

WISH 42: Reusing Characters

Do you ever reuse characters from game to game? When you reuse characters, what do you bring from game to game: a name and a personality, stats, or more? What kinds of characters do you reuse and why? If you GM, do you like to have players bring in existing characters? Why?

Hmm... This one is riiiiight on the edge of "I haven't gamed enough to answer this..." But I'll make a stab at it anyway.

I have reused a character, once; one of my Amber NPCs became a PC for a DnD game. (I know this question is geared towards reusing PCs from game to game, but I've played, what, three games? Five if you count one-shots. Experience pool is kind of shallow... Please refrain from diving...) The name and some of the personality stuck, and her areas of strength were as close to the same as you can get between Amber and DnD...

I'd actually like to use some of my NPCs as player characters - there are a handful that have strong enough personalities that it would be do-able for me to play them without undue mutation. As for my PCs...
The Toreador might get recreated with a personality at some point, but I doubt it... If she does, she's keeping the phone receiver and cord as her pet weapon...
The Pooka probably won't get reused. She wouldn't work well in a more serious game, I don't think. It's not a silly game... but I don't know that she could handle High Horror (or even necessarily Low Horror) and remain who she is, and I don't think I could bear to break her.
The Redcap for that one-shot? Hmm... Actually, she might. She was kind of entertaining, even if the game ended up being less PC interaction and more "let's kill things."
The DnD char? Nah. Don't think so. She's had her shot at PC-hood; she can go back in the box.
Oriana? Hm. Could be. Might be fun.

*grins* That's the list... No - wait - I forgot the Gangrel from that game we played with the Gamer group on campus... But she's pretty forgettable... and that makes six games if you count one-shots...

I think I wouldn't mind a player bringing in a pre-existing name and personality, so long as that personality wouldn't cause immediate all-out warfare among players or PCs... Id be willing to negotiate on history, and probably even stats if they're reasonable...

Yup. The well's run dry. Ask me again in a few years...
posted by sandrayln at 3:37:00 PM ( )

 

Puzzling...

This is driving me batty.

Rob-GM ran me through some more backstory for Oriana last night and the night before (Gotta stop staying up late...). There's one or two things I have to explain before I can explain what's bugging me, so here goes. And sorry for the Angelfire links in advance - erg, popups.

I gave the GM a story in addition to the character quiz. If you don't want to read them - short form is, tons of little tidbits in there. The important ones for my puzzle is that she has a fairly new friend in her Shadow: a silver-haired, pale-jade-eyed guy that goes by the name of Hunter. She also has other, older friends; the important ones out of that for this are Cortez, the oldest of her friends, and Boris, Kendrick, Wyatt, and Darius, four out of a set of five brothers that ascend in height as you go down the tree (i.e., the oldest is the shortest, the youngest the tallest).

Hunter joined her group of friends basically by filling in for her in a hockey game she couldn't go to and impressing Darius. Since they'd just had someone move and leave a spot open, it was offered to Hunter. During that first hockey game with Oriana, it was established that he can do a passable job of keeping up with her.

We're working with a pre- to early-Corwin chronicles universe.
Oriana does not like people messing with her friends. She is also... well, let's call it impetuous. It's not suicidally so... but sometimes she needs to think a little farther ahead.

So the setup was that Oriana went to breakfast and found out from Hunter and Cortez that something had happened at the factory where Boris worked - riots, some kind of chemical spill, something like that. (Well, they gave her the newspaper and reminded her that Boris works there. Not important.) So she goes to check with the other brothers to find out if Boris is okay - and probably end up at the factory if there's trouble. Hunter decided to come with her.

Fastforward. Short form: Boris and Darius were both working there when things went down. Oriana decides to go down there. Hunter comes with. Ori discovers that the factory has a green flame in the middle of it, a huge black cloud over it, and it doesn't like being messed with using Pattern. (I realized, two and a half hours later, that I was dealing with a Black Road manifestation. Boy, do I feel dumb...) Ori and Hunter went in. Silvery-green mist everywhere, and sickly green light. Ick. The green fire seen from the outside acted like a beacon inside, leading ever deeper.

Not too much later, these metallic green critters attacked. They used to be human, etc, etc, green furnace transformed them. Didn't know that at the time, but I'm sure readers will get the drift. Five of them attack, two on Hunter and three on Ori. Each of us killed one and dumped one over the railing; Hunter took care of the last one as he was trying to strangle Ori.

At which point he says, "You wouldn't happen to have your Trumps, would you? I really think it might be a good idea to call your father."

Insert awkward pause. Ori then asks, "Okay, are you Family or hired?"
Hunter: "Hired. Doesn't mean I don't like you, though."

Questioning-oriented characters probably would have asked who had hired him at this point. Oriana is not question-oriented, although she does try... (Caine's gotta be despairing of his daughter...) Nope, she decides to keep going.

Fastforward again. We get out to the middle; Hunter finds a safe place to hide while Oriana climbs around the ceiling trying to get the brothers down. She does so, but gets attacked and falls three and a half floors in the process. Ends up going into this furnace that was being used to transform People into Monsters. It does not like Pattern, and eventually something gives that isn't her and things go black. Then we get this:

"You momentarilly drift out of unconsiousness long enough to know you are being carried.... that there is green that you are pressed up against, but not the unholy green of the apparatus or mist... and a voice, you think Hunter's, saying "...sorry, your Highness.... I wish I could have called you earlier, but she...." and then darkness again."

At the point she wakes up, Oriana is assuming that Hunter was Father's Hireling, and that it was him carrying her. She goes in search of food, and finds out her buddies are fine - but Hunter has vanished.

So she goes home and calls Caine. He has no idea what she's talking about; he doesn't know anyone that goes by Hunter's name and description. The only people who are supposed to know about her are Caine and Gerard... And Hunter wasn't Gerard's either (Caine asked him; Gerard also claims to have told no one about her...).

Caine has no further light to shed on the subject, other than "be careful," "I'll look into it," and "don't trust your relatives; it's dangerous" (she really hates the words "it's dangerous..."). He won't even say who he suspects. (*wryly* Thanks, Dad...)

But that's only the first part of the puzzle... The second part came as she went to bed after talking to Caine. She found this note, addressed to one of her aliases from when she decided to play at being a mercenary:

"Rising Sun, I was surprised to see you so far from the lands we used to work. Let me say I am impressed. You never gave any clue you were from Amber. As a professional courtesy to a former ally, let me give you this warning. They know who you are now, and can reach you at any time or place. Be wary. The next time we meet it may not be as allies. This is not personal. As you should understand, it is Business. Your Brother in Arms..... Blade of Chaos."

This Blade person was someone she knew of as a merc, a master of disguise that worked on similar jobs. But the "of Chaos" part is something new to Ori...

I'm trying to figure out who it is that's keeping an eye on her now, independent of my character. Now, I don't know colors on whatever cousins Oriana might have... but based solely on Corwin's chonicles... here's my categories of information for part 1 of this muddle:

People with green in their colors: Oberon, Caine, Fiona, Llewella, Brand.

Person I can immediately discount: Caine, who has been reasonably straightforward with Oriana so far... Unless he's lying about everything, which is entirely possible...

People I think I can discount for various extremely prejudiced reasons: Llewella - not interested, I think. Fiona - wouldn't be carrying Oriana by herself if someone else was around to do the work for her. Brand - could have had a use for her as a corpse, maybe even more use, so why rescue her? (that one's flimsy.)

Person my gut says it was: Oberon. No real reason... just a hunch.

Now we come to part 2. That's a little tougher... All I have are a chain of assumptions and wild guesses...

I assume that: this person was either Hunter or the person who carried me.

I'm guessing that: by, the wording of the message, it wasn't Hunter. He'd been around for a while at the point this took place - need to ask how long that was next time I talk to Rob-GM - so why would he still be surprised about Ori's location?

I'm guessing that: shapeshifters could be involved... because if it was Family that left that note, Ori's seen the Trumps. Master of disguise might mess this up... Hmm....

So, here's my theory.

I think it was Oberon that carried her out. I'm not sure about the rest, but I'm speculating that either Oberon himself is the Blade, or possibly that it was Hunter (although I maintain that the note is worded strangely if so). If it was Hunter, I want to say that there is a shapeshifter iinvolved, since Oriana didn't recognise Hunter from anywhere... But on the other hand, it doesn't have to be a shapeshifter if it was Oberon as the Blade, although we know he is a shapeshifter...

Arg. My brain hurts.

So, gentle reader (*g*), care to speculate? You've got the all the information I have, barring me posting the entire session online...
posted by sandrayln at 9:20:00 PM ( )

 

On Names

I know too many people with the same name. Four Jasons, three Roberts, five Chris's, two Carls, two Nicks... sheesh.

So my ex-roommate (who knows the same number of Jasons, Chris's, Carls, and Nicks, but only knows one Robert) and I came up with a way to refer to them and know who we were talking about. It's <something distinctive>-<name>, or sometimes the other way around.
So the Jasons became Gamer-Jason, Jason-Green (well, that's his last name), Barbarian-Jason (for his D&D char), and Actor-Jason. The Chris's became Gamer-Chris, Door-Chris (weird guy in the dorm that would stop and talk to us if our door was open), Blonde-Chris, Christina, and Christopher (my cousin; my ex-roomie had a different Chris who went here). The Carls became Gamer-Carl and Dustin's-RA-Carl. The Nicks? Gamer-Nick and Mage-Nick.

The Roberts I know are acquiring nicknames now too. There's Dork-Boy-Robert (hey, he answered to it one time when I was trying to get his attention), and just plain Robert (who will probably end up as CompSci-Robert before all is said and done)... and now there's Rob-GM.

I keep using these nicknames in conversation with my bf now; he is... acquainted with the jargon, and we really do have to use that many nicknames just to keep them all straight. I definitely know too many people with the same name...

[edit]
You'd think, with as much HTML as I've done, that I'd remember that I have to use escape characters for < and >...
posted by sandrayln at 12:25:00 PM ( )

 
I've been working on Oriana's website... Here's a little fodder for the GM story I wrote as a day-in-the-life thing as I tried to get a handle on the character... *grins*

The first half to three-quarters references hockey somewhat extensively, so if you're not familiar with terms, this site is a pretty good reference.
posted by sandrayln at 2:19:00 AM ( )

 
Well, Delwin's journal finally made its appearance in-game... and the reaction I got was even better than I'd hoped for... *grins* It's satisfying to make a PC realize he has to be just like an NPC he hates...

With apologies for the pop-ups, the full journal is here.
posted by sandrayln at 1:11:00 AM ( )

 

WISH 41: Coherence

How coherent do you expect a game world to be? Is a game world merely a stage for the characters, or does it have a life of its own? How deep does it need to be to satisfy you? How do you contribute as a player or GM to making the game world more coherent, if you do?

I am very good at throwing myself into the game and not worrying about the world around me when I play. I do the same thing with books - as long as the story is good and the exchanges between N/PC characters engaging, I probably won't notice little inconsistencies and incoherencies. Big, nasty, jarring ones get noticed, however. And if I'm not engaged in the play, I'm likely to find other ways to amuse myself, one of which is picking at the world to see what oozes out. (Okay, that was gross.)

In terms of GMing - I've been told that I present a coherent front... It's something about my style of brief-panic-followed-by-blurting GM'ing that creates that, I assume. I've never heard comments about a world being inconsistent - not even the one with the grey humanoids with wings that live in nests and are all named Sir, Madame, Mister, or Mistress... I don't sit down, for instance, and plot out what my Amberites are doing - I mean, jeez, I've only got what, fifty or so to keep up with? When someone wants to talk with an Amberite, I basically decide on the spot what they've been doing.

I'm cool with the world going on without my character - after all, that's what worlds should do. Depth, for me, only matters if it's something that I need to (or sometimes really want to ) know about for my character. Let me use my Pooka Faline as an example. Faline could care less about the police system in Boston - but you can bet she knows every art store within walking distance of her place: who runs them, and what artists frequent them. And she knows all the regulars at the art store she works in, and probably has intimate knowledge of the museums in town. I will, within limit, go looking for these answers, but I usually want generalities and details important to the situation, not the little nitty-gritty details. I'm finding a tendancy to add to worlds in the same way, at least when it came to fleshing out Oriana's home Shadow a bit more the other night (the way my Pooka goes, she doesn't so much add to the world as entertain the world and then find out things from the GM by accident). There is a great deal of detail about the ice in her world and the entertainment system, but when it came to the police force, it was, "Kind of like late Victorian London bobbies."

But I'm not going to turn down the little touches that indicate how things that I'm not interested in work in the world. You know, the nice little touches like all the chefs covering the desserts they're making and leaving when a security guy walks in carrying a small silver fox by the tail and tells them to go. Or that construction workers start locking up their blasting caps after you steal a bunch of them.

I think when it comes to the stage vs. live of its own thing, I'd rather it be a bit of both. I like things happening that I don't affect, but if something that I can affect is going to happen, I'd like a shot at affecting it. Do I expect that opportunity to wait for me? Well, if it's time-sensitive, not any more than the time allows; otherwise, yes, please, but make it reasonable enough to include things like a person not remembering what you need as well as they would have if I'd come earlier, or whatever.
posted by sandrayln at 2:49:00 PM ( )

 
Okay... it's 11, and I'm crashing. Gotta go shower and sleeeeeeeep... But we got another session of Lost and Found in... Quotes are up now.
posted by sandrayln at 10:49:00 PM ( )

 
Well... pulled an all-nighter last night. Doing, oddly enough, background to why Oriana has Pattern with the GM instead of the more common all-nighter idea, studying. I am running on three hours of sleep, a shower, and a Dr. Pepper, in the hopes that I will make it through three hours of boring class. Should be interesting.

And I can tell (aside from the inside knowledge, of course...) it's the first time I've gotten to play Amber instead of GM it. I virtually had to physically restrain the urge to squeal like a fangirl when Caine (who is officially Oriana's dad...) showed up. (Fangirl. I don't do schoolgirl. And just "girl" would be redundant.)

[Edit]

Well, three hours of wakefulness behind me, and I'm still upright and functioning. Fascinating. And I'm still resisting the urge to squeal like a fangirl. *grins* Because... erm... I'm getting to play Amber now... And I'm insatiably curious as to what Caine thinks of his daughter...

A few gems from last night:

Me: okay, do the halls for the boxes come out at one point, or is this one of those undefensible theaters with two stairwells?

Mom got shot in the head, Uncle Jesse was crushed, and Uncle Saliman lost a swordfight. On funeral arrangements:
Me: okay, so we're going for closed caskets...

Me: ooc: arrrrgh! good to kill enemies.. bad to scare ex-boyfriend...

First words to Father:
Me: frowning at the guy in green. "Okay, do you want to explain all this now? Or try to kill me? I assume you're going to do one of the two."

GM: sucks to find out that your family are smugglers by everyone dying off, doesn't it?

Caine: "I think the first question I would have asked in your position would have been 'Who the Hell are You?'"
Me: "Well, it went kind of quickly from that to 'you're not trying to kill me, that's a start.'"

Caine: "I apologize in advance if I grow irritable as the trip winds on. The necessary fiction of you being my cabin warmer precludes the presence of the genuine article."
Me: he officially gets an "i so didn't need to know that" look.
posted by sandrayln at 1:25:00 PM ( )

 
Okay... getting around to this now... Via It Slices! It Dices!...

Years roleplaying: Around 7... I think that's right.
Favourite three characters? (that I've created) Oriana, Faline, and Cecilia Angelina.
Least favourite character? (that I've created) Callisto... or that Gangrel I created and only played once... I think her name was Jenna...
Male or female characters? Female, but I'm not adverse to playing male.
Oldest character? Callisto... the most useless Toreador on the planet... *chuckles*
Newest character? Oriana
Most popular character? (to others) Probably Faline, the pooka. She's waif-like, somewhat hyper, and, being a fox, has the puppy-eyes down pat. Try and dislike her. I dare ya. *grins* And she's pretty popular in our group outside the game... something to do with the things she gets involved in, I suspect...
Character you've (made and) never played? Umm... Two, offhand... Dame Josephine, Sidhe Knight of House Dougal and computer programmer/hacker extrodinaire; and Beatrice, daughter of Brand, whose favorite activity seems to be getting other people to paint on her...

Which character of yours would be most likely to...
Jump off a bridge? Faline, if she could figure out a way to not get hurt; Cecilia, for the kicks.
Get drunk and pass out? Cecilia
Kill somebody in a very unorthodox way? Cecilia, on general principle, and Oriana, if she's mad enough and feeling ironic.
Get married? Besides the ones already that way? Couldn't tell ya. None of them are married - come to think of it, most of my current stock of characters don't really have love lives...
Be far too hyper for their own good? Faline.
Rape somebody? Be raped? Not answering it.
Get lost and refuse to ask for directions? Faline. Been there, done that; don't try and navigate Boston with a map of Uganda, it doesn't work no matter what the other Pooka claims. Even if they did get there eventually.
Get lung cancer? Cecilia. She was a one-shot character, but I can see her smoking.
Star in a horror movie? Callisto. Something about being hapless, clueless, and armed with nothing but a pay-phone receiver and cord...
Star in a whore movie? No clue...
Star in a video game? Oriana
Make the world a better place? Faline
Have a torrid gay love affair? (and this isn't their usual proclivity) No clue... That whole "no love life" thing...

Relate each word to a character of yours:
Love: No idea.
Hate: Alexandra
Money: Oriana, because she's got cash like crazy. Not that she lives that way.
Seduction: No clue...
Lies: Faline (who can't help it but always means well), and Alexandra (who doesn't mean well at all)
Tragedy: Faline, but mostly if she goes Unseelie.
Manipulation: Alexandra
Violence: Oriana, Alexandra, Cecilia...
Politics: I GM Amber; does that count?
Fire: Oriana or Cecilia
Ice: Alexandra

Would you ever...
Play a prostitute? Probably not as a primary profession, but why not.
Play a musician? Yup: Oriana.
Play a pilot? *shrugs* Sure, why not.
Play a homosexual? I might, but I'm not sure I'd do justice to that particular facet of the character.
Play a pedophile? Severely doubt it.
Play a politician? Ahem... as I said above under Politics...
Create a character for the sole purpose of smut? I don't think so.

Lastly, take each of your characters and assign a song to them:
The only one that has a song is Cecilia ("Cecilia," by Simon and Garfunkel). The others... oof. I have no idea.
posted by sandrayln at 5:41:00 PM ( )

 
Finished up the character quiz for Oriana a little while ago and sent it off to the GM. I dropped it into an online format first, though, so that my BF could read it. *grins* I think it creeped him out a little - she's got this absent-minded semi-callous thing going... Like, the first person she killed was this poacher... and her comment at the time (it was an accident - she was aiming for a different body part than his head and he moved wrong) was "Oops."

She plays hockey... I mean, this isn't someone who has Issues with violence. It's just... well.. "Oops." And her idea of revenge is basically, "Now, and make it hurt worse than what they did in the first place." I think the thing is, she's not nearly as worried about people as she is about her things.

One of the questions was on her first or most memorable love affair. Well... turns out she was involved with this guy who had three other girlfriends, and she didn't really care (and was even friends with the other three) until the guy married one of the other girls and asked if Oriana and the other two wanted to stick around.

*chuckle* Yes, it should be interesting... She's one of the most physical of the PCs I've created so far... LOL Which isn't hard, since my first two kind of go out of their ways to not look for fights where they can get hurt...

Rambling...

But here's a cool concept... didn't know this existed. "Ice fire" is apparently the damage to grass that gets covered with snow and then burned by the sun. But "ice fire" sounds cooler. *grin* And the Norwegian word for it is supposedly Isbrann. (I needed a Shadow name.)
posted by sandrayln at 11:45:00 PM ( )