Playing Against the Trend: Non-Villainous Anti-PSR, Reactionary etc. Characters

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

But all that sci-fi stuff is imaginary, except of course that the human cloning bit is possible if you don't care a fig about ethics. You have missed the context, I'm afraid. I was discussing the real world with a real world person in the post you quoted. It was tangential to the main topic.

Actually, I'm not sure it's a problem whether it is imaginary, or real-with-real. Either can be used to add perspective on the THS issues. So I don't see it as tangential as long as it keeps the discussion going and can be of use to my characterisation of Richard or (if I ever get to play THS again) a character with the same sort of views on the other side of the division.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Actually, I'm not sure it's a problem whether it is imaginary, or real-with-real. Either can be used to add perspective on the THS issues. So I don't see it as tangential as long as it keeps the discussion going and can be of use to my characterisation of Richard or (if I ever get to play THS again) a character with the same sort of views on the other side of the division.

No probs.

I was only addressing Mindstalk's apparent, and perfectly understandable, confusion about one of my posts taken out of context.

[vicky_molokh]

Okay, first, I would like to thank (again?) everyone who helped me flesh out the concept and raised interesting questions. Some of the things weren't obvious until I talked it over to you.

Second, I guess it's time to comment on how it feels in-game. I won't be writing up the whole chain of events since (a) the most important ones were part of a highly personal story arc, (b) Clancy is three sessions behind on his after-action reports anyway and (c) it might actually not be conducive to the interesting discussion of generally positive characters with highly (in popular opinion) non-positive attitudes.

Third, due to the way things went both in-game and in real life, so far there have no been RP opportunities that would produce interesting interactions between Richard's and other PCs' memeplexes. I'm looking forward to the future, but not yet.

Fourth, the more personal (player-GM solo scene) RP moments are already looking awesome. Okay, the prologues weren't all that unusual, but the solo session after the third 'global' session had a level of depth which . . . Well, let's just say that I think I finally found a GM who can GM personal stuff well. The overall style seems to remind me of the remarks by whswhs' players, though of course it's impossible to compare just how similar the two are.

Anyway, Major points that I found interesting while playing the concept so far:

Firewalling some of the bits is damn hard. One of the most difficult moments was when the minion joked about wanting a higher salary. It was just a joke - not sarcasm, not a bitter half-joke with a hidden implication of a wish of freedom (there are all sorts of in- and out-of-game reasons I know this is true). And yet, as a player, I almost cringed inside at that moment. Alien minds are alien, and THS is ultimately a game where aliens are ubiquitous (no matter what the MiBs tell you).

While it's not actually Lonely At The Top, it isn't exactly a cakewalk either. At some point before the game started, I paraphrased Caine's views as 'You cannot just buy a smartphone and think you can do whatever you want with it. Now you must regularly feed it with electricity, download updates, answer calls, and check email away from home. And feed it again.' As in, [near-]absolute power over someone comes with a big chunk of responsibility, which includes being there to take all the hits for your minion once some sort of trouble starts. E.g. while Cherry could and did get some essential emotional support from Caine in the time of need, the reverse isn't exactly an option. A master is supposed to keep a stiff upper lip. (The characters are under a moderate but constant emotional pressure due to the memetic environment of the location.)

Not quite PSR-related, but indirectly related to the above paragraph, among other things. Playing a character with chutzpah is damn scary on the inside. Particularly when in real life you're nowhere near competent to pull off the stuff your character can reliably pull off. It's also highly satisfying to then read comments from people claiming that Caine seems highly proficient at those things, particularly when contrasted with expectations of real-life acquaintances (basically, ties in to this issue).

Minor points:

While it didn't come up to the very top of the issues, it's interesting to combine such strong asymmetry of social ranking with an equal level of respect for the master and the minion. It was a bit weird when Cherry brought stuff to the whole party, and Richard was the only one [edit: wrong; Kitsos thanked her too] who paid any attention and said thank you. (This was during a scene with all the other PCs discussing the contract.)

An affair seems to be brewing between Cherry and a Duncanite kid, and there are a myriad of ways this could turn popcorn-worthy (in the social sense). PSR and anti-PSR issues may or may not show up between them. I'm predicting the kid jumping to some sort of wrong conclusion Real Soon© (he's rather impulsive).

Having a meme that is more likely to 'jump' from person to person than to be 'copied' seems somewhat unusual/interesting. Particularly when the person feels almost physically relieved after sharing a disturbing thought with someone else. Then again, I'm not sure if the Montréal meme worked similarly.

It's slightly annoying to imply some long-term high-tensile hooks, only to have them employed already during the first half-dozen sessions.

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Flyndaran: what are 'creature comforts'?