Begin RPG Play W/ Robin & Realize My Problem W/ Fiction Writing

It took a little while for Robin to find a couple hours here and there to start rolling up characters for our Ghastly Affair roleplaying story game I’m starting, but once she did we were on a roll!

I am giving instructions for players to create one “main” character, and one “secondary” character who is a little less active, but gets a view on a whole different aspect of the setting. Like– Cat’s main character is a werewolf who brews beer at the estate (and catches rats while she’s at it) but her secondary character is the spoiled daughter of the lady of the house, being trained to hunt faeries. The characters will rarely interact, as one is a worker at the estate (who doesn’t even live in the manor) and the other is total inner-circle uppity up. Robin created a main character a bit like herself, a stereotypical fictional romantic gypsy who has spent time in prison, and a secondary character who is a True Innocent man who comes to the estate to tutor the children and teenagers. He’s led a protected life, is a total nerd and nature/science enthusiast who is also a most fervent Christian (those things existed together once…) He’ll see very different things than the gypsy who camps on the cursed lands outside the estate! Running 2 very different characters is a complex way for me to “show” other angles of what’s happening as we go down the timeline that starts in March of 1765.

I was nervous with Robin, just like I was with Cat, that she’d find the whole business kind of boring– especially rolling up characters, which involves a lot of rules-reading and figuring out technical things. But Robin said even that part was fun, and so I replied that if she thought just thinking up new people to play was entertaining, was she ever in for a treat when we actually just started playing! And I relaxed a little, because this form of interaction is something I haven’t done with Robin since we were kids playing house with baby dolls! LOL!

Just like with Cat’s characters, Robin’s characters gave me easily dozens of new story arcs whizzing through my mind! I know how to EASILY create adventures for them to roleplay through and I’m stupidly excited about it. One of the ways I relax is just imagining up settings and scenarios and characters. But then, when it comes to actually writing down those adventures in a one path way that leads to an ending, I don’t tend to get very far…

But THIS–! This type of writing, of setting everything up for OTHERS to make one-path stories out of it, I’m perfectly suited for! My big problem for fiction writing is that I see too many possibilities to settle on just one. However, that very open-endedness and stupid attention to minute details (which I find incredibly relaxing because it makes my mind focus) is exactly what makes for a great GM (gamemaster) or ST (story-teller). AND– when I actually go forth and share my worlds with others to play in, I don’t feel like I’m just mentally masturbating, but I’m doing something that benefits more than just me. The fact that I’m contributing to something socially gives me a real charge. I’ve missed this SO much! I did some roleplaying, about half the time as a GM, 20 years ago around the same time I was leading a pagan Circle. The social playing… man, have I missed it.

It’s a little intimidating to introduce a whole new dynamic into a very old friendship, but maybe this is just what we need… something positive and fun. Robin and I rotate through negative bitching about life for the most part, and though it’s a needed outlet, it can be cumbersome to circle the same things over and over. To have another place to go with our social time together seems really freeing.