Gaming misfits.

[lather]

misfit - a person not suited in behavior or attitude to a particular social environment.

I was going through a box of stuff and I found one of my first Rifts characters some time in the early 1990s. I recalled the game in which I played the character and our misfit GM. This in turn prompted me to think about Rifts gaming misfits I've gamed with. Of them, a misfit Game Master and a misfit player stand out particlarly strong in my mind.

I haven't actually gamed with too many people, but every time I game with misfits, I value the good ones that much more.

A Misfit Game Master

I would barely remember the campaign if not for the Game Master being so miserable at his job. Of the six Game Masters I've played with, he stands out as being the worst. We all have problems now and then when GMing, but this guy was a real piece of work. The word "misfit" defined him as a Game Master. He was a misfit in the truest sense of the word. I'm not sure where he picked up such a style, but he could not adapt to role of a good Game Master, even after we tried explaining it to him. Funny thing, in real life, outside of gaming, he was able, thoughtful, and understood things.

But once he put on his GM Hat, he knew what he wanted and he was unable or unwilling to change. It was his story, it was his game. Total ownership. The consequence of a GM such as he is this: near constant railroading. And that really crushed our ability to enjoy the game. We were actors in his script and that was it.

All dissent was dismissed and he often simply said, "it's my game".

Well, no, it's our game.

But he didn't get that because he was a misfit Game Master.

That's probably why he had so many damn NPCs. He had a story that he wanted to write and to tell and since we could not be trusted to tell it correctly he had NPCs to handle it. To ensure we gave a damn about the NPCs he saught willing players that would allow their PCs to be related to the NPCs. This helped generate motivation to do as the GM desired by manipulating the NPCs.

To make matters worse he was unoriginal and uninteresting with his rail roading (usually by way of a quirky sort of deus ex machina). I'll give an example that finally caused us to throw up their hands and abandon the Game Master. The good news for him is that he was such a misfit that he couldn't grasp the core of the problem and remained content with himself throughout since a few loyal like-minded idiots stayed on. Somehow they had convinced themselves that this (following the GM's script) was rewarding. I don't understand such people.

We were adventuring in northern Arkansas in the Ozarks. We finally had broken away from the majority of the NPCs and were on our own (well there were two NPC, just enough for the GM to rail road us). It was a full moon night and during one of the NPC's watch he was eaten by a werewolf. This, of course, was one of the PC's brothers. We decided not to pursue the werewolves but hold our position against further attack. The GM was clearly irritated but decided to actually roll with it. In all actuality though the train was mere running late.

As morning approached, a creature staggered towards our camp waving a ragged, bloody, but still somewhat white shirt as a white flag. We honored the flag. When I say "we" I mean the other NPC who was on guard at the time and went out of perimeter to get a closer look and decided all was cool and brought the monster back into our camp. And guess what, he was a werewolf and didn't want to be a werewolf and knew two things: all about the werewolves who attacked and had a scroll in his satchel that could undo the curse of lycanthropy, but it required a boat load of P.P.E. to perform. How he knew how much was never explained.

Not that any of us cared.

Because what else could we possibly do but trade for his knowledge of the murderers of our PC's brother by executing the ritual for the contradiction that is a diabolic inhuman monster with a guilty bone and humanity?

Now such an idea might be cool if done properly but of course this guy lacked any ability to cool properly. It just looked bad and while you wanted to wring his neck you couldn't help but feel pity for the bastard GM.

The worst Game Master I've gamed with ever. Hands down.

Some time later when I saw Dorkness Rising I jumped up in the middle of it and shouted the Game Master's name and pointed frantically at the screen as if somebody just scored a Safety during Monday Night Football and I had been drinking since 10 in the morning. If you have not seen this movie, it's a goofy (though well written) feel-good tale of a misfit Game Master's coming of age thanks a gamer girl. All Game Masters should watch it and reflect on it for a while.


A Misfit Player

I found a group that had a long-running game. I joined with a character that really didn't care about too much, living day by day without much of a thought to the future. It was a good fit because they had their way of doing things and I just wanted to play and not interrupt their flow. About a year later another player joined. He was playing a rugged biologist type of character and he was worked into the story as being (what else) hired on to assist with an expedition one of the other PCs was organizing to explore whatever was left of the Amazon basin.

It became obvious in no time flat that this guy was smarter than most of us. And he wasn't afraid to use that character's exceptionally high I.Q. attribute to its fullest. While we were in the staging area he pointed out something that he thought had potential to be a point of catastrophic failure. The organizer told him not to fuss about it. The scientist against raised his concern. So the organizer shouted, "who do you think you are! You're the biologist on this expedition!"

In other words, remember the pecking order and don't forget that I've been here for years and I have a level-10-uber something that eats demi-god crackers with dragon pate for a light afternoon snack.

So the Game Master called a break. We did something else for an hour and said things like "oh, he's a scientist, of course he's methodical about things." But we never addressed the fundamental problem.

We came back together and started playing again. Sure enough there was another explosion. This time I made the OoC comment, "why not delegate some responsibility to [the scientist]?" Whoopsy. The expedition's organizer was going to have none of it, and neither was the player.

Certainly one of the most awkward games I've ever been a part of. The misfit player seemed to have been compensating for something (too much pizza and couch potatoing) and relishing a little too much in his character's power to see things clearly. He saw a threat where there was nothing of the sort, and no amount of talking about it was going to change anything. As a matter of a fact, talking to him about it just dug his trench that much deeper.

The best players (the non-misfits) are those who are the complete opposites of these people I just described. They all work together and don't feel threatened when they are confronted with a situation requiring them to adapt even just a little. The older I get, the harder such players are to find. I thought that it would go the other way round. Perhaps as we get older, we get more rigid. Oh well.

I've recently got back into Rifts so we'll see what is ahead for me and this just jumped out at me as something I'd like to share.

[Bood Samel]

I'm a tad picky about who I game with. I just don't get along with and tend to offend the typical fat guy in his moms basement types with my gaming ideas and me personally as a person. Plus those guys are no fun for me to play with.

[sasha]

One of the best things about a game like Rifts is you can play anything you want.

One of the worst things about a game like Rifts is you can play anything you want.

In my experience it's usually only bad when there are players who refuse to accept that they are pretending to be something that they are not and have no real life experience to guide them (only their imagination and perhaps a movie or two) while sitting across the gaming table from others who know about what is going on. Rather than admit a weakness and use the strength of another to fill the gap, the player insists on having it his way and is willing to throw a hissy fit or other severe disruption in order to get the others to back down. After all, the character has survived this long, so he must be doing something right. But when that success is the result of being willing to do anything to have it your way, then it's wrong.

This didn't happen in a Rifts game; it happened in a no psychics allowed Systems Failure game. In real life, a player in a game had a relative who was a detective who worked on undercover operations (without ever going undercover) and so knew what it takes to run an undercover operation. At one point during the game our group decided to run an undercover operation (I never tried undercover operations in worlds with psychics and magic users and I'm not sure how I would go about it off the top of my head) to discover an up and coming warlord's arms supplier. The player's character started explaining that the undercover agent needs more than a good cover story, he needs an extensive support network backing him up. Undercover work is something that requires meticulous planning, careful attention to detail, and participation and dedication to the operation by several people and not just the undercover agent. It's not an insert and forget until the agent emerges with all the goods type of thing. It requires a ton of preparation. It requires a ton of work from the support units. It is unrealistic to conceive of an undercover operation during Friday's breakfast and have it underway by lunch and probably not even by Monday.

As it turns out, the team leader was just smiling and nodding, waiting patiently for the character to stop talking. "Alright, let's get him in position," he announced. Another character asked about one of the details of the operation that could go terribly wrong, and the response was (I don't remember word for word but it was basically this), "they won't be paranoid enough about the new guy for that to happen." We pointed out that you don't get to the status of "up and coming warlord" by being particularly trusting and accepting of strangers who seem too good to be true, because if it's too good to be true, then it isn't true. Or, "where there is doubt, there is no doubt" - I mean, if you're going to pick a movie to guide you, then pick a good one!

The Game Master's solution? Fast forward the game clock and simply declare the undercover operation a success.

One player spoiled the intensity of the moment because he was a baby who couldn't handle being one-upped by anybody.

And the GM wasn't a solution because he himself was both a part of the problem and he took any feedback that wasn't glowingly positive of him or his game as being unfairly critical and destructive to the game.

Up to that point in my gaming life I just rolled along without so much as a hiccup because I had been gaming only with close friends that I knew I could game with without even trying. This was the first time I gamed with folks I didn't really know very well. And it was this game that prompted me to do my best to never be that guy. That guy other gamers recall and say bad things about years and years down the line, or even that same day.

As a GM I do everything to ensure my players know that they can bring up any concern whatsoever about the game and there are no cabals or punishments for agreeing with an unhappy player or being an unhappy player. We sit down to the table and we play a game together, so I advocate actually playing it together and that means working out any issues that arise together. I agree, all the players have ownership of the game - not just the GM. It seems obvious to say but I don't think it's said enough: Rifts is supposed to be a cooperative game. If the players don't get along, somebody is going to quit or get squeezed out (usually by the one who either is the loudest or has the GM's favour).

And that somebody who exits the group is the one that the GM turns against.

The only alternative to turning against a player is for the GM is to be a team player and work it out with everybody. That still might mean somebody is out of the game, but it's a decision properly arrived at.

And while on the subject, I have always wanted to point this out but never really did. Now this thread gives me the excuse. There is an interesting line written in Rifts Adventure Guide and my thoughts are that it's an understatement because it's impossible to overstate. It's the one that goes something like this: characters that go through combat together are going to be bonded together in profound ways.

In a game like Rifts there are plenty of parties that engage in combat and persevere through various other life and death scenarios. Yet we are all sitting (relatively) comfortably at the table, perhaps even snacking on something, at the time our characters are in a fight for their lives. Now in real life we don't have gun battles with demons jumping through a Rift or a dragon defending its territory, but we do have conflicts where people do have gun fights and do take on determined and deadly opponents, at times in hand to hand combat.

Combat is a lot of things and there is nothing subtle or nuanced about it and it will intensely hit all of your senses. Combat veterans know what sort of powerful, enduring, and life-saving comraderie develops between each other. Run some characters through combat and they're going to be closer than brothers and sisters for life. It's a powerful bond and it's impossible to overstate the effect that it has on a person. So it's impossible to overstate what affect it would have on each of the characters going forward in the game.

It's not about accomplishing the mission. It's about destroying cliques and cabals, and doing whatever it is you are doing as a team. It's about taking care of one another, making it through. You care about each other more than you care about anything else, including yourself. When it hits the fan you will find yourself running the gauntlet for one other. It's powerful motivation to perform. You not only find yourself caring about the others, but you also do not want to let them down. You know that each one is giving his or best to you and they know you are doing the same to them.

It's instinct.

It's permanent.

Many times players just don't get it and have their characters do impossible things because of that.