"Entertain the GM and she will entertain you in return"

I view gaming as a collective experience. I am not doing all the work, but I don't expect you to do it all either. However, I also expect that I'm certainly going to be providing you with plots and hooks and working off the hooks you provide me in your character. And I expect that you will be reacting to stimuli and perhaps creating situations of your own as well.

In other words, we're writing this together. I'm the director, but I want the players to be an active part of the story. I am more than happy to shift plot to react to the characters.

I run a character based game. The plots will revolve around the characters in some manner, and will be based on character (both PC and NPC) motivation.

I manage this, in some ways, by running a "no holds barred" game. I have very few buttons myself, and I enjoy pushing the character's buttons. You see, that is what drives a character. Conflict and reward. The more that happens, the more the character grows, just like anyone in real life.

That said, I have NO INTENTIONS of pushing the players' buttons. That would be bad. I want the players to enjoy the game, even if their character is frustrated at the time. So this means communication is of the utmost importance to me.

I need you to tell me if there are things that really bother you as a person. For example, I get antsy around topics of death. I've only ever called a scene once when it was being played, and that is because it dealt with death in all its gory detail, and me causing it, and it just going too deep and detailed for me. Didn't bother me that my character was an assassin. Bothered me to play it out too deeply. I've had players with problems with betrayal, with perceived betrayal, with homosexuality, etc. And there are a host of other topics I can think of that could be problematic, from gaming styles, to whatever.

If you are uncomfortable telling me these things right up front (and let me warn you, the above topics are definitely fair game -- I don't think I've run a game with all straight NPCs, and betrayal's one of my trademarks) then just let me know if something comes up. You don't have to say why a scene bothered you -- just "Y'know, that kinda bugged me and I'd rather not deal with that" and as long as you can give me enough to fix the situation, I'm happy. I want to keep you happy and enjoying the game. But in order to do that, I just need to know what's going on.

I'd prefer not to retcon. I loathe it, in fact. If I screw up and hit a button, or make some other mistake, I'll do my damnedest to find a way to go through it and still come out right. I just hate playing through something and then saying "oh by the way, forget that."

This game will be unusual for me. I haven't run a diced game in ages, but I am going to use the system, and the dice, this time. But don't expect dice to rule my life. We will be story oriented first, and then the dice. But do bring them. The rules will combine with logic to make the game as best I can.

I run dark games. I like rollercoasters. The characters will go through high points, then low points, then high points again. Change, and growth, constantly, throughout the game. You will always be discovering new things about your character.

I do not like futility. You may believe something is futile, but that usually just means you're thinking about it in a different way than I am. There is nothing which has no answer... just things which have no obvious answer.

I'll admit it, I don't like killing characters. If you act true to character, I'll find a way to warn you off of something deadly. But if you do something that is just, well... wrong. I won't pull punches.

Now, the final part. Required reading.

There will be an actual questionnaire as time goes on. Think about the questions above so that at the first session you can answer the questions I've asked. But in the meantime, I also want *you* to get to know *me*. To that end, I'd like to you to read through some various areas of my blog in order to understand some of how I think. This may intrigue you. This may scare you off. Neither response will offend me, and neither will really surprise me either. If you've never gamed with me, and think you know me, you may be surprised. Cuz you probably don't. *smiles*

Required Reading

The Voices in My Head -- Meta Gaming and fiction... just read through the blog entries (you can walk through the history when you're in an individual entry). Some of them are meta-gaming which will give you an idea of my view on those topics.

Artifacts of Winter -- These are the few stories written up from the beginning of the crossover fantasy campaign I ran about um, five or six years ago.

Adrienne is the character from the FTF game I was in which just ended recently. Perhaps one of my most twisted characters, although a lot of the most out there stuff isn't actually on the site. Ah well. And no, my gaming won't likely get *quite* this odd, but then, this is Superworld, not Amber. My Amber games are weirder. *smiles*

A Moment in Time (excerpt) -- Meet Laurie, one of the main NPCs from the White Wolf game I ran for years. He came alive, and has a published story to his credit. And he explains why some people have to tell me not to let characters flirt with their characters. (Did I say that relationships drive a lot of plot, because relationships drive character motivations? Damn. Well, I should have.)