State of the System + Call for Feedback: WtA

[mnemosyne]

Am I interested in making a go of a WtA game?

If you asked me personally: would you make a WtA character? I don't know. I like WtA and have really loved it in the past, but I am geniunely on-the-fence as to whether I am interested in it enough to take it up again. I miss some of the camaraderie of straight-up WtA one shots but my enthusiasm for WtA has really never gone back to the level it was back on Chicago. When I've created WtA characters since, it was either because of the activity levels in the system or because I wanted to play with some of the players I could only find in the system. So, that's a maybe?

From the site perspective, I think it would be really great if more systems were more active and there were oneshots and whatnot.

What have you liked about WtA games in the past?

I have a list of likes and dislikes, pet peeves and preferences, but when I think about WtA games that I have really, really enjoyed there is no set formula. I had ridiculous fun with a pack that was created to make havoc in a pretty rigid setting, but it wasn't just the intrapack play, it was also the interaction with other folks around. I had alot of fun in a setting with no caern and no ST where a bunch of literal misfits randomly came together and created a pack. I had fun running the WtA game on Chicago years ago with a big, overarching, bifurcated storyline where I worked really hard to involve loads of different people (while simultaneously running a separate storyline for the folks who had left the Caern) and where no one was in serious dice danger (we rolled behind the scenes then and I cheated in favor of PCs), but everyone thought they were. Also, FYI: in that game I predicted the economic collapse of 2008.

Seriously. The Wyrm in my game was selling subprime mortgages. Credit default stops and torture may or may not have been involved.

--

Then I, er, left. And came back and had alot of fun in the same setting with a thoroughly different character and diverse assortment of weirdos to-boot. Then I had fun with a WtA character who absolutely eschewed the Caern and ended up in the strangest little pack ever.

--

But regardless of admins or the lack thereof, contentiousness or cooperation, what made those circumstances fun was the diverse assortment of folks who would seek or start or show up for RP and who seemed genuinely interested in each other's characters.

Reciprocity, cooperation, interest and consideration.

--

I have this really great tennis metaphor that I want to develop, but it is kind of like playing a weird round-robin of tennis with various players shuffling in and out, but there's one ball, right? If I serve, you need to hit it back or we can't play. That is literally the definition of "the ball is in your court." Or, you have to go and pick it up and serve it back later. Sometimes you need to volley to keep things going. If you're playing doubles but only hit it to one person on the other team, and the other person never gets a chance at the ball. I mean, really, all my actual pet peeves come down to things that in my experience impede that ebb and flow. I want to be interested in other people's characters. I also: want them to be interested in mine. I like to see other people RPing together when it doesn't involve me. I like when people talk about SL things that happen to them in scenes when the ST is not around to tell them what to do. Fundamentally, I like space for people to be themselves within the framework of: also thinking about other people.

I don't know how to build that into a game because it's not about rules, it's about community that is both structured enough for interaction and elastic enough for loads of styles and interested and whatnot. I mean, some of those pet peeves, I resemble: Good Writing? Fuck, I like Good Writing. I don't expect it from other people, but for me - part of the fun is feeling inspired, and feeling like I'm writing well and feeling like I'm wiggling my way through strange thoughts and ideas that are on-the-verge of inexpressible with words, or when I am storytelling, maybe just creeping players out. And some of those likes (kin-garou relations) are sometimes some of my pet peeves. Here is a secret! I am: not a big fan of kinfolk as a splat. Seriously, I'm not. That has never stopped me from playing in a game with kinfolk or: playing kinfolk. I would be pretty happy with a kinfolk-free (or kinfolk NPC) but most people wouldn't so that would not work!

But: I don't think that stuff matters as much in the end as that back-and-forth, that engagement, which I really believe in, not on a chain-self-to-computer-level so much as an if-we-all-want-to-have-fun level.

I stayed up late tonight to try to corral these thoughts into something coherent, because otherwise it was not going to get done, so I hope that is helpful!