Category: Gaming

WISH 54 is about one of my favorite character generation issues, background hooks.

Do you like to have bits and pieces from your characters’ backgrounds appear in the game? Do you write hooks into your character background for the GM to use in the campaign for your character? Do you like it when the GM gives you a background hook into an adventure or scenario with a previously unknown hook, such as creating an old friend of your character’s who is somehow involved? What are some examples of cases where hooks have worked or not worked for you?

Yes! I love background hooks, I’m big on background hooks, background hooks make me squirm in glee. I don’t write big complex backstory for my characters before starting play, but I do sketch out loose backgrounds, and I invariably put some hooks in. Usually it’s something that would cause the PC problems if it came out.

I also tend to include a couple of strong attitudes. Paul was a devout Catholic, Reese is a bit jingoistic, and Amelia/Andy hates weak women. I’m not sure that’s the sort of hook Ginger had in mind, but I think it provides the same function.

Since I like hooks a lot, I like it when a GM pulls on ‘em. I’m also OK with it not happening. After all, sometimes people go through their lives without their little quirks ever causing serious issues.

Now, an interesting thing about hooks: they’re one of the ways in which you can buy spotlight time during character generation without spending any points or getting high rolls on the attribute dice. Spotlight time is one of the most important currencies in roleplaying. If the GM takes advantage of your hooks, you’re getting spotlight time for free — which touches on Scott’s point about overdoing hooks. Interesting.

Finally, I’m stealing Kynn’s PC requirements for my next game. Cool stuff.

WISH 52 asks what Robin Laws classification fits you best. I’m Iron Man! Um.

Robin Laws identifies several types of gamer in his book of GM tips: The Power Gamer, the Butt-Kicker, the Tactician, the Specialist (plays one type only), the Method Actor, the Storyteller (plot and pacing fan), and the Casual Gamer. Which of these types do you think you are, and why? Most people aren’t pure types, so multiple choices are OK.

I’m some unholy blend between the Method Actor, the Storyteller, and the Tactician. The first two are fairly obvious — I like playing interesting characters, and if you want to call that immersive you can; I also like backstory. Maybe that doesn’t make me a Storyteller, but there’s no Lawsian classification for “people who dig a coherent world.” Unless it’s an aspect of Method Actor, which it might well be.

I blame the Tactician in me on too much exposure to Hero gamers. On the other hand, I do really like D&D 3E grid combat. It’s an interesting challenge at about the right level for me to be interested in it. Wargames and miniatures do not capture my interest, but pushing a little lead figure painted to represent a Celtic Bronze Age priest of Mercury around the map? That’s quality fun!

WISH 51 asks:

What are three genres that you’ve had limited exposure to as a gamer that you’d like to try or play more of?

Hard question, cause I’m not sure what limited exposure means. I’ll take it as “haven’t played a lot in.” Lesse.

Off the top of my head, I might say pulp, but I think the old Feng Shui games I’ve been in qualify. They were more Asian pulp, but pulp nonetheless. Dear old Clarice, British counter-terrorism expert, was pretty much a pulp character down to the quirky name for her gun. So OK, I’ve played pulp.

I’d play to play in a good horror game. There’s one. It’s a pretty wide field, but I’d be happy with anything from the esoteric horror of Whispering Vault to the gnostic horror of Kult to the conspiracy-driven horror of Vampire. This desire is likely to be satisfied very shortly by an interesting Ravenloft game… which, come to think of it, is slated to have a pulp element as well. Would that all my desires were so readily satisfied.

OK. I’m gonna give in and say pirates, and I swear I was thinking of this before I saw Ginger’s answers. I like pirates and I want to play in a good pirate game, preferably in the Tim Powers vein. Unknown Pirates, anyone? I’ll have to reread the UA rulebook tonight to see if there are possibilities in that direction. Man, Plutomantic pirates… the gold weighs you down but it buys you freedom. Intriguing.

The third is hard. I’d say conspiracy, but UN PEACE was a pretty conspiratorial secret history kind of a game. SF? I want to play in a good near-future game (OK, OK, I want to play in a Trinity game) but I can’t really say I haven’t had exposure to that given my freelance Trinity work.

So I’ll punt and steal Tim Hall’s final answer. Alternate Worlds it is. As long as I’m dreaming, let’s make the GM work a lot.

WISH 50 is all about being a professional in the game business:

Have you ever considered trying to publish something professionally in the gaming industry? Why or why not? What are the good points and bad points of being in the industry?

We’re presumably talking about pen and paper here, rather than computer games. With that in mind, the answer is yep. I have, in fact, published something professionally in the gaming industry. I have a decent-sized handful of White Wolf credits, most happily in the Trinity line; I’ve also done work for Atlas and I have something in the queue for Eden.

However, my drive to freelance tailed off a little once I’d done some of it. It doesn’t pay well, so money’s not a strong motivator, and now that I know I can do it I don’t feel the urge to prove it again. This leaves the pleasure of doing work I care about as an incentive.

I don’t get as much pleasure out of working in someone else’s vinyard. This isn’t a financial issue, it’s a creative control issue. One of the reasons I enjoyed working on Trinity so much was because my editor gave me lots of room to lay down tracks. When I wrote Psi Law, I was defining certain elements of the Trinity universe all by my lonesome. That was fun; sharecropping, not as much fun.

If I ever discover myself rich, I expect to get into the publishing business. I think there’s a place in gaming for the small press concept — games published for artistic motives. I don’t want to publish extended lines with a GM screen and splatbooks, I want to publish interesting one-offs with high production values that are complete in one book. That will, alas, probably always remain a dream.