Last weekend, I had the good fortune to be at a really interesting Mirror, Mirror event. The game was, as per usual, fun and more than a little exhausting. However, the really interesting part was the huge influx of PCs. Honestly, I have never seen so many PCs enter a game at one time.* This meant that there were many, many introductions. Introductions at MM are kind of fascinating for a few reasons. We're working with some pretty unique "getting to know you factors":
1) This game is high fantasy with a little extra high fantasy, just for kicks. People come in as really bizarre and unexpected things.
2) Because of IG and OoG rules, players can't necessarily say exactly what they are. So if someone says, "This, uh, might be rude, but... what exactly are you?" A typical answer might be, "Gee, well. I wish I could say, but, in this land, I just can't seem to say." The conversation then turns into an elaborate description that talks around the missing word.
3) Because most PCs come from disparate places, most PCs don't have experience with the majority of IG species and/or have different experiences of IG species. A related conversation: Person 1: I'm an elf.; Person 2: You, sir, are not an elf.
While MM has a reputation as a combat-heavy game (and it is very combat heavy), it's also some kind of expansive, elaborate brain puzzle that never ends. And that's what makes it so great, in my opinion.
However, as I mentioned earlier, this whole situation-- coupled with a huge influx of new PCs-- makes for some fairly interesting introductions. On that note...
Pick a character, any character. Well, pick a character (PC or NPC) with an interesting introduction. How does that individual introduce itself to new people? What have been some particularly good interactions?
* The frat house at Endgame being a somewhat close second.
1) This game is high fantasy with a little extra high fantasy, just for kicks. People come in as really bizarre and unexpected things.
2) Because of IG and OoG rules, players can't necessarily say exactly what they are. So if someone says, "This, uh, might be rude, but... what exactly are you?" A typical answer might be, "Gee, well. I wish I could say, but, in this land, I just can't seem to say." The conversation then turns into an elaborate description that talks around the missing word.
3) Because most PCs come from disparate places, most PCs don't have experience with the majority of IG species and/or have different experiences of IG species. A related conversation: Person 1: I'm an elf.; Person 2: You, sir, are not an elf.
While MM has a reputation as a combat-heavy game (and it is very combat heavy), it's also some kind of expansive, elaborate brain puzzle that never ends. And that's what makes it so great, in my opinion.
However, as I mentioned earlier, this whole situation-- coupled with a huge influx of new PCs-- makes for some fairly interesting introductions. On that note...
Pick a character, any character. Well, pick a character (PC or NPC) with an interesting introduction. How does that individual introduce itself to new people? What have been some particularly good interactions?
* The frat house at Endgame being a somewhat close second.
I think one of the words that tends to get people really tripped up is 'person'.
ReplyDelete"Are you a person?"
"Yes"
"You don't look like a Human"
(Clearly Kumir is *NOT* a Human. People <> Human even though Humans are people.)
"Are you an animal?"
"No, Kumir is a person that looks like a dog, but acts and thinks like a person."
"So you *are* Human?" *sigh*
I played in a game once that was a true multi-genre. Explaining someone from a cartoon world to someone from Warhammer 40K was...interesting. Toss in a gal from Victorian England, and it's a wonder we ever got anything done.
ReplyDeleteHad a funny exchange with some people at Omi at MM:
ReplyDelete"So what do you do?"
"I'm a farmer"
Other PC in question shoots me *extremely* dubious look while eyeing my speark meaningfully.
"Um... I was a farmer? Now I'm a healer most of the time?"
"Got it."
Which is mostly funny to me because 'I'm a healer' explains giant white spear not any more than 'I'm a farmer' did.
Also, repeated several times this weekend:
"Are you human?"
"Yes."
"A REAL human?"
"Yes?"
"Like not possessed or ancient or with a demon bound to your soul?"
"Yes..."
I love the sheer joy and enthusiasm some people have at encountering "human humans."
DeleteI like that on the Mosaic team at MM the only "Real Human" is the evil necromancer. That one threw some people off a bit.
DeleteAnd yeah, being a healer doesn't really explain having a spear anymore than being a farmer.
For some reason, people seldom introduce themselves to me. Apparently I'm introduced to them though, in absentia.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, its religious conversations. They begin with "What's a god?" and often go through "What's a demon" and then on to "so what's your Goddess of/like/do?"
With all the NERO players coming in, their short answer tends to be "Oh, so that's like an Icon?"
Tev is usually pretty fun, if mostly because people introduce me for me.
ReplyDelete"So, I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?"
"Tev."
"Um, ok, what are you?"
(Other player) "A Tev is kind of its own thing."
"Ok then, what do you do?"
"Sit in my cave mostly. Counting things. Talking to echoes."
I like letting other players discover what exactly it is that a Tev does, other than think pretty highly of herself. One thing she *does not* do, however, is rifle through dead things pockets. Because that's nasty and tacky.
***
Corvus, of Cottington Woods, is also a lot of fun to introduce. Mostly because she stands in her family group of rather well-dressed people, all of whom have very long names.
Introductions go a little something like this.
"A pleasure to meet you. Lady Corvus corax Amanita, of House Nekros. And my older brother, Lord Cathartes aura Agaricus, also of House Nekros. And our vassal cousins, the Brothers Arigo. Nobilis the Eldest, Seru the Middle, and, of course, Rheiade the Younger." A beat. "Have you accepted the ephemerality of all things extant, and the inevitability of some final death? No? What about the inherent beauty of decay? Consider the mushrooms..."
Speaking of the Frat House at Endgame...
ReplyDelete"I'm Sunshine III! The first two were cats, brah."
People often start singing.
"Ain't no Sunshine when she's gone..." or "I got Sunshiiiine on a cloudy day..."
Which usually prompts someone to say, "literally!"
That's fantastic.
DeleteAnd... oh, those dulcet tones.
It's nice that the name prompts people to sing, because it means people tend to remember the character's name, even though I've only played twice.
DeleteAlso, I've had this conversation once or twice.
"So Sunshine, huh? Your parents must have been hippies."
"Sunshine's a nickname, brah."
"So what's your real name?"
"Harmony Grove. ...So yeah, my parents were hippies."
and
"So how'd you get the nickname Sunshine?"
"I'm from California, brah!"
"...Isn't Florida the Sunshine state?"
"Sh'yeah, but by the time we realized it, the name had already stuck."
"...I... see."
"Just gotta ride the wave, brah!"
At Mirror, Mirror a common intro for Bedlam goes something like this.
ReplyDelete"Hi, I'm Bedlam."
"Hi Bedlam. Aren't you cold? Why don't you have pants on?"
"I'm a pirate and I lived in the tropics."
"Ahh, um, OK. Why don't you have pants now?"
After that introductions about what kind of thing we all are and trying to explain things to each other generally goes pretty smoothly.
"Because pants are for suckers."
DeleteToo bad Bedlam's nice.
DeleteAn unromantic part of me wants to rationalize the MM system.
ReplyDelete"Ok, everyone. Here's the form of basic questions you'll be expected to answer..."
I call my species ______
It appears my passage into this land has altered my appearance slightly, as I used to look more like _______
I'd call my profession _______
but here, I find myself able to [ ] Fight [ ] Heal [ ] Blast
I venerate a being(s) called _____. They are powerful, in my land. My veneration includes these values: __________
...etc.
The costume issue is a big one, actually, and maybe the single biggest reason MM introductions are so hard. Are you wearing a mask, or is that your face? Is that armor you are wearing, or built-in protection?