More character creation madness

[subplotkudzu]

Not in my group mind you. You may recall some time ago I commented that the central characters in John M Ford's _The Dragon Waiting_ were clearly made up by players who had not talked to each other or the GM about the nature of the campaign, and much of the (wonderful) book is finding a way to tie them together.  More such tales, with likely a worse outcome. 

For Christmas I got several Books on CD purchased at deep discount as stocking stuffers. Most look really good. One, however... well, here's the first paragraph of the back cover text

"In Europe for a crucial NATO summit, US President John henry Harris faces a deadly fate. As secret cabal orders Harris to have the president of France and the chancellor of Germany assassinated. Refusal, he knows, will mean his death. Afraid to trust anyone, the president flees for his life. Pursued by the Secret Service, the CIA, and Spanish Intelligence, Harris joins forces with former LAPD rogue detective Nicholas Martin and the beautiful but enigmatic French photojournalist Demi Picard."

Lets put aside all of the insanity of that plot and focus on the character creation session for that game.
Player 1 "I want to play a retired rogue LAPD detective!"
Player 2 "I'm gonna be a beautiful but enigmatic French photojournalist!"
GM: "OK, I can easily work those together. And you?"
Player 3: "I'm the president of the United States!"

D'oh! 

Comments

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

"But, the Justice League does it all the time!"

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Could be worse, I suppose... you could have the player whose every character has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.

Imbri thought those things olph dreaded ones would her free rupt.

[(Anonymous)]

Pleased Reborn Year[url=http://sdjfh.in/flexpen/],[/url] one! :)

[rydra_wong]

Here via a random text search, hope that's okay and not too weird:

You may recall some time ago I commented that the central characters in John M Ford's _The Dragon Waiting_ were clearly made up by players who had not talked to each other or the GM about the nature of the campaign, and much of the (wonderful) book is finding a way to tie them together.

That is a marvellous and hilarious and scarily insightful reading of the book (I've been thinking about the way it riffs on RPG tropes myself). I haven't been able to find your previous comments on the book -- might you be able to link me to them?

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

http://brianrogers.livejournal.com/106588.html

happy to oblige.

[rydra_wong]

Much appreciated!