Miscellany and a Second Letter Home

PLAYER CREATED VS. GM CHOSEN GOALS

This would make a good igtheme.

Goals range from the world-saving of Masks of Nyarlathotep to the simpler goal of beer brewing Spike descibed in Robin Laws' Icfrom campaign. In the Altclair campaign, there is an interesting blend of GM set plots/goals and player created goals, some of which developed far more than the players expected as Naomi took what we gave her and ran with it. Fall Quarter was largely gm-based, with several minor player-initiated plothooks that gradually snowballed. Winter Quarter started with a hint or two from Naomi and us running with it, and her running with that, and so on. In Spring Quarter, one bit I'd assumed was just a quick bit of performance art Justin would organize got seized on by Naomi who thought I expected her to do something with it, and the consequences of that are still haunting the PCs and delighting the players. And that's not even counting the disasterous longterm consequences of a particularly stupid decision involving Rashid. It can be fun when the line blurs.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON STALE IGTHEME ON CREATIVITY

In OTE terms, Justin has four dice of creativity, which also works as a two dice fringe power Maker/Magical Creativity. Naomi's been giving one experience die per quarter, plus I picked up an extra one by delivering what she thought was a very good line. I've played fairly, putting what I had into Journalism and Arabic, but for the Spring Quarter, I realized that the logical place for it to go was into Creativity. Did Naomi really want a 5 dice/3 dice fringe power character?

She decided to split the two traits, vetoing, as I suspected, the idea of Justin having 3 dice of Maker. But she said that I'd earned that 5th die of creativity by, well, being creative.

This didn't mean I did all the things that Justin did, but that I came up with creative ideas for Justin to play with. One nice thing, as Manny said, about role-playing, is that when your character comes up with an elaborate plan, you don't have to do the work of figuing out the details of the plan or how to carry it out. You just explain what the goal of the plan is and give a rough idea of how it is to be accomplished. So, my creativity here was mostly coming up with cool goals.

From a comment to Lee Gold

I can think of one time fatigue sort of came up in Altclair. Justin, who needs less sleep than most folks, but not no sleep, had pulled an all-nighter. The next day at breakfast, a friend took one look at Justin and told him to skip his first two classes.

Justin: I'm not skipping Arabic!

Ken: Okay, but skip Math -- I'll tutor you in that -- and Philosophy. I'll talk to Professor Macon.

Justin (as Lisa looks at his schedule, realizes she got it wrong, and figures Justin is tired enough to have gotten it wrong as well): Wait, it's Monday. I don't have Philosophy on Monday.

Ken: Justin, get some sleep.

He agreed to skip Math, so he set his alarm and put on a hat he'd made to help another friend sleep better, figuring he should test it first. Justin woke up eleven hours later, having slept through everything that might distract him from getting the sleep he needed.

Justin: Right. No nightcap next time.

Ken (under the understandable, but mistaken, impression that he knows what Justin's talking about): That's probably wise.

["Nightcap" can also mean a drink of something alcoholic before going to sleep]

[Addendum: I see I forgot to explain that Justin had created a magical nightcap, the article of clothing, that helped the wearer get a good night's sleep.]

A comment to Robert Dushay on how players tend to react badly when NPCs take their Stuff

In Altclair, Justin makes magic items, and for a variety of reasons, tries to keep track of them. Under certain circumstances, if one of his items fell into the wrong hands, it could result in the loss of some of his creativity, and perhaps, some of his identity as well. Also, he does worry about the ethical implications of some of his creations being in certain hands as well. But yes, there's also an element of "My toy! Mine!" Fr'ex, Justin tried to invent a cap of invisibility, something I did not expect Naomi to allow. She ruled that the cap did work -- everything it covered was invisible.

Justin: So, when I wear it, everyone can see what they suspected all along -- my head's empty.

Michael: I wonder what would happen if you turned it inside out and tied a knot in it. Would everything turn invisible?

Justin: You leave my cap alone!

From the Desk of Justin Thorne

Dear Mom,

Don't faint - yes, I'm sending you a second letter in the same quarter. I expect it to be shorter than my last letter and less painful.

Wait Until Dark has been cast, and Daniel has shown the excellent good taste to agree with me about Jim. (1) He also gave me an imaginary, but stinging whack with the 2 by 4 for pre-casting. I'm going to have to watch out for that.

Currently, folks are about evenly divided between Helen + the handcuffs and Daniel + the 2 by 4. I'm still pumping for my train, and Rashid took pity on me and backed them as well. Jennifer, however, pointed out that the train may be done long before the play. if so, I'm sure I can find another project. (2)

Meanwhile, Helen gave the handcuffs a quick test run. She snuck up on me while I was talking to Daniel and cuffed me to a chair. Then they carried it back to my room - don't worry, I made sure to yell a lot and put on a good show. They left me with Rashid, who was delighted to have a captive audience and talked to me in Arabic about the Caliphate. This worked out well for me, as I needed the preactice and enjoyed the history lesson, and Helen decided that five hours of listening to Rahsid was punishment enough for anything and I made sure not to enlighten her. My shoulders ached a bit, but I managed to look pathetic enough to con a backrub out of her.

Daniel wasn't finished with me, though - I gave him permission, in a moment of weakness, to do an experiment: Will Justin Thorne notice if a (smoke) bomb goes off under his chair while he's studying Philosophy? Answer: Once it sets off the smoke alarms, yes, but not before. I made plenty of noise so Daniel would know I'd gotten his present, and I did remember to air out the room. (3)

Ash agreed to let Jennifer and Jido live with him, going so far as to get a phone for them, although he refuses to touch it. (4) I no longer hate Jennifer, I think - I've been acting the part of a friend long enough that I'm coming to believe it. And Jennifer has been a friend to me, a better friend than I deserve. She paid me a tremendous compliment - I made her a bracelet last quarter, and since she's struggling to make ends meet, I assured her that I wouldn't be offended if she sold it. She said that she liked the bracelet and had no plans to sell it unless things got much worse, financially, than they are. When I finished grinning like an idiot, I told her that it was the best compliment I'd received in a long time. She said that that meant I should have been getting more compliments, so you see why, egotist that I am, I can't hate her.

She had some news for me: Jennifer is pregnant. With David's child, yes. (5) I am glad she told me on the phone where she couldn't see my expression. Michael figured out what I'd planned to do on New Year's Eve, and he may have told Jennifer, but if not, somehow, I don't feel the urge to explain it to her even though I would certainly have cancelled the plan.

In any case, she does want the child, but does not plan to tell David about her pregnancy until after the divorce is finalized. She says that they are being so civilized that she is sure visitation rights can be worked out after the fact - and she does agree that she owes him that consideration - but she does not want to slow down divorce proceedings by opening this can of worms.

I don't know. It's just too big for me, and I promised I wouldn't hover. And this one I really don't have any business sticking my nose into. I just hope it doesn't blow up in anyone's face. I intend to stay focused on my classes and the play so Iris won't turn me into a toad for bothering Jennifer. I think that's safest. (6)

Love,

Justin

---

(1) Justin was convinced that Jim would be perfect for the role of Mike Talman in Wait Until Dark

(2) This is the betting pool for methods to keep Thorne from driving the cast and crew insane. The three original candidates were Helen & handcuffs, Daniel & 2-by-4, and Thorne's trainset, later expanded to Thorne & assorted projects. Matt Denkla originally declined to place a bet, saying that all directors always drive their cast and crew insane. Thorne asked him if he'd care to place a bet on that. Matt did, and wound up collecting the pool.

(3) The smoke bomb test grew out of a conversation about whether Rashid was a terrorist. Justin, who knew that he was, just told Daniel that Rashid didn't keep bombs in the room. This led to speculation about whether Justin would notice if Rashid kept bombs around. Rashid was greatful that Daniel hadn't set off the smoke bomb when he was around.

(4) Justin was the one who suggested that Jennifer move in with Ash, on the grounds that she came to America because Ash asked her to, and this led, indirectly, to the death of her child and a very messy divorce. Ash actually will talk on the phone if someone calls; he just won't call out.

(5) Actually, unknown to Justin at this point, Michael subconsciously used his magic to make Jennifer pregnant with his child. He was also the father of the child who died, and he wanted the child back.

(6) Iris is Jennifer's teacher.

Justin and Helen

For some reason, Helen developed a crush on Justin. Justin, naturally, was oblivious. Helen, naturally, had no intentions of letting Justin know how she felt. Instead, she let Michael know, although she doesn't really like Michael.

Michael had a devious plan to set Justin up on a date without telling him it was a date. However, this got cancelled on account of Michael's girlfriend winding up in a brothel in 13th century Mongolia. Michael tried to get Justin to agree to go to Mongolia, or, if he wouldn't do that, to go on a date with Helen, which confused Justin, who had assumed that Helen was dating Jim. Eventually, Justin decided to table the question of Helen and go to Mongolia, which, as Michael pointed out, represented a journalistic opportunity not to be missed.

Before he went, Justin talked to Helen a couple of times, noticing that she did seem to get a lot happier when he was around. Nevertheless, she decided not to go to Mongolia, but agreed to help with Justin's attempt to sabotage whatever nastiness Daniel was trying to do with Faustus. Fortunately, Daniel was just trying to direct a good play.

While in Mongolia, Justin came to the conclusion that there was something attractive about a girl who did not wander off into a time machine and get into trouble, who did not have to have her boyfriend get his hand bitten by a fish so he could get her a soul (long story which you'll have to bother Josh for), and who had enough common sense to say, "I won't go to 13th century Mongolia. It's a bad place for women", thus giving the rescue team one fewer person to worry about. Okay, she was silly about insisting on the team bringing back a Mongolian pony, but said pony was invaluable in locating a green-eyed boy who turned into a green-eyed dragon, so it about balances.

Justin got back to campus, managing to survive not only Daniel's play, but also his rather justifiable wrath at Justin's vanishing to leave some weird blonde girl to do his job. After the cast party, Justin went to the student lounge to finish up one of his papers. Helen decided to bring him breakfast the next day, and he decided it was about time to figure out what was going on. Helen deserves several points for not dumping the breakfast tray's contents over Justin's head and then whapping him with it for good measure.

Justin: Do you really want to jump my bones or should I kill Michael?

Helen (caught completely off guard): Uh, I mean, uh, I like you and -

Justin: Oh, okay, so you want something platonic.

Helen: Only if you insist.

That caught Justin off guard, and the conversation got weirder from there. Justin tried to explain his convoluted reasoning, which brought Helen to the verge of tears. After all, he was essentially saying that he preferred going to 13th century Mongolia to dating her. This wasn't what he was trying to say. Not that it hadn't been true, but Mongolia made him decide that dating a normal, sane person might not be such a bad idea, although why on earth she'd want to date him was an interesting question.

Helen managed to maintain, simultaneously, that she was a glutton for punishment, and that she was a big girl who could take care of herself and get out of a relationship that wasn't working. She also parried Justin's attempts to warn her off. Yes, she knew he'd killed his stepfather. Yes, she knew he'd ignore her half the time because he'd be involved with Theater things or with any of the dozen projects he juggles at any given time. So? He'd do that anyway.

Justin figured that if Helen were going to be putting up with his bad habits anyway, he owed her a chance to see if a relationship would work. So, after confirming that she would not run off to 13th century Mongolia if the relationship crashed and burned, he suggested going out for soda pop on Friday. To make sure he'd remember, he pinned a piece of paper that said "Friday" to his shirt.

Helen wandered off, trying not to think about just how weird that conversation had gotten. Justin was also weirded out, but still too charged up to sleep, so he pushed his luck by knocking on Daniel's door and getting semi-honest answers to his questions. Daniel asked Justin about the paper pinned to his shirt.

Justin: What? (looks down) Oh. I'd forgotten about that. It's to remind me that I've got something to do on Friday.

Daniel: Thorne, you already forgot it was even on your shirt. Look, there's a board meeting on Thursday. Should we remind you that you've got something to do on Friday then?

By Thursday, half of the Theater department knew Justin had a date the next day. The other half assumed that the "Friday" note was just more of Thorne's performance art. Justin did have his act together enough to leave a rose with lots of thorns on Helen's pillow (climbing in through the window when she and Delilah were out).

A couple of weeks later, Jim did point out that dating Helen because Justin thought he owed it to her was not exactly a good basis for a relationship. Oddly enough, he thought that dating Helen because she could peel Justin off the walls and keep him sane was a good basis for a relationship. Justin remained dubious.

Jim: Isn't this the same Justin who was so excited about his first date with Helen?

Justin: I believe the word you're looking for is "terrified."

Jim: No, it's "excited."

Justin: Jim, didn't you just tell me to trust myself?

Jim: Trust yourself, Justin. You were excited.

Naomi agreed with my assessment: The word was "terrified". As the game moved into Winter Quarter, she asked me what Justin's sexual orientation was. After some thought, I said that Justin was probably gay, but hadn't figured this out, and while he might have figured it out in high school, accidentally killing his step father kind of gave him more important things to worry about. We liked the idea when Justin was trying to warn Helen of all the problems that she might have in a relationship with him, that it simply hadn't occured to him that he might be gay.

Naomi wanted to run with this, so I suggested how Justin might at least begin to get an inkling about it. Since he was directing Wait Until Dark, he needed to ease up on the journalist stuff he did, but he didn't want to stop it altogether. So, he asked the people in charge of the school newspaper to give him something quick and easy to write about, like, say, the clubs and other organizations on campus.

These include (but are not limited to) the fencing club, which Michael started, and with which Justin has an on-again off-again relationship with, depending on how intense the theater work is; the chess club; and GALA, the Gay and Lesbian Association. I said that what Justin would probably do was:

1. Interview whoever was there, taking lots of notes

2. Get aroused and a bit confused(*)

3. Take a cold shower

4. Make a note to talk to Helen

5. Write the best damn article he could write, since, as Naomi put it, while Justin may be confused about his sexual orientation, he knows what his majors are (Journalism and Theater)

6. Study for Philosophy

7. Lose the note

8. Have totally forgotten everything when Helen found the note buried under some papers on his desk three days later.

Helen: "Talk to Helen." Well, I'm here. What did you want to talk to me about?

Justin: I don't know. (shrugs, tosses note in the trash) Oh well, I'm sure it'll come back to me.

(*)This item got adjusted slightly, or at least, the reason and timing did. The GALA interview was fairly standard, though Justin did wind up helping with some painting. Somewhere during all of this, he suggested that Ken, the welcoming committee/unofficial president of GALA, stop by his room to read his door (I forget how this came up -- the door says, "I wasn't thinking. -- Justin"). Ken suggested Justin look at his door. Naomi described the picture Ken had painted on it, and I figured that would do the trick. It made more sense that way, since when Justin was doing the interviews, he was in Journalist Mode, and he tends to be obsessive when focused.

Meanwhile, Justin's mother asked, "Who's this Helen person you keep mentioning?"

Justin (accurately, if not honestly): Delilah's roommate. I told you that in my letters.