August 09, 2000
RP Irritation
I have contracted a devastating syndrome, that after a careful discussion with my colleagues online today, I will call the Idawanna Syndrome. I should be doing my monthly data entry but... Idawanna. I should be passing out the reports no one will read... Idawanna strikes again. Outside of my day job, I have several writing projects that need work, including editing the first draft of my book. I'm not doing it. Why? You guessed it: Idawanna.
Just one of those listless, blah sort of days. Oh, don't get me wrong, my mood is good, still as good as last week. My energy's just sort of down. It's the sort of day I'd love to spend just sitting and staring at a television, except I can't, so I'm sort of staring at my monitor.
I've started getting active again on Something Wicked This Way Comes. After a good month-long hiatus on roleplaying there, I've started playing and even running a plot or two here and there. I'm afraid I may have irritated a few people last night. I bent a relatively Sacred Rule of Gaming: The PCs Always Win. Although we ended on a sort of cliff-hanger note, it looks as if the PCs have, in fact, lost the challenge they were trying to meet. I was getting some pretty frantic messages last night to the effect of "But we can't lose!"
But I'm getting there, trust me. I can't say too much because some of the folks involved are reading this, but anyone who's been in stories I run should know by now that I'm a great proponent of the 'darkest right before the dawn' scenario, and just when all hope seems gone, well... that's when the cool stuff happens. Tempers were rather high last night (including mine), and the fact that it was around 1 am didn't help matters any. I felt very frustrated, partly because if certain other storytelling parties (read: Brand) had used a similar plot device, no one would have said a word. There also wouldn't have been some of the questioning of my decisions that went on.
I think that's what irked me as much as anything. The problem with being an average player running a plot on a MUSH (as opposed to a staff member), is that there's a certain lack of authority seen there. Also, because I don't have quite the STing reputation that Brand does, folks (even good friends) haven't quite learned to trust me when the story takes a left turn. Am I jealous of his reputation? Maybe a little. I think more it's just irritation at the assumption that I'm somehow going to screw characters over by not letting them 'win'. I should explain this much: they challenged what is apparently the ghost of a Celtic god, further, one who, in life, was called the Master of All Skills. This isn't somebody you beat with a couple of dice rolls. :-)
I said it last night several times: "The good guys do not always win."
At least not the first time around.
Posted by Lisa at August 9, 2000 01:00 PM
