Gaming misfits.
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 12:49 am
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.
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.