Investing for the present and the future
Jan. 13th, 2007 07:58 amAs ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
netcurmudgeon's Space Marshal game just had the big reveal for the story arc and we only have one session left, I decided it was time to cash in a character trait I'd been investing in for a while.
I decided in the first session that my PC, Doc panda, had a habit of an amiable sort of non-complaining complaining, reminding everyone that as bad as this situation is, they have been in worse ones. This place is isolated? You remember the time we had to deal with the suicide pact on the ansible relay station? The one where the air filters had broken? That was isolated. Yes, this pile of data collection is tedious, but I remember you saying the same thing when we had to go through 10 million lines of financials looking for anomalous transactions - that was worse. OK, these guys are violent, but the gang on Sinclair station hopped up on KT 28s? These guys aren't that bad... and so on. I tried to work at least one into each session, two or three into the first - enough to establish it without hammering it into the ground.
This served three purposes: first, according toevynrudeit really helped her get into the spirit of the game and establish a comaraderie among the group because we obviously did have the long shared history I was referencing. Second, it gave Doc Panda a nice bit of color, a little character hook that made him slightly different from the doctors I've played in the past without being anything that would impair his efficiency or credibility. And finally, when I finally broke with tradition at the end of last session when everything came crashing down and told kriz1818's character "Well, you've stumped me. This is as bad as it's ever been" I was able to bring the whole room down.
Sure, it was 5 months of work to produce one laugh line. But you have to invest to get these sorts of payoffs.
netcurmudgeon's Space Marshal game just had the big reveal for the story arc and we only have one session left, I decided it was time to cash in a character trait I'd been investing in for a while. I decided in the first session that my PC, Doc panda, had a habit of an amiable sort of non-complaining complaining, reminding everyone that as bad as this situation is, they have been in worse ones. This place is isolated? You remember the time we had to deal with the suicide pact on the ansible relay station? The one where the air filters had broken? That was isolated. Yes, this pile of data collection is tedious, but I remember you saying the same thing when we had to go through 10 million lines of financials looking for anomalous transactions - that was worse. OK, these guys are violent, but the gang on Sinclair station hopped up on KT 28s? These guys aren't that bad... and so on. I tried to work at least one into each session, two or three into the first - enough to establish it without hammering it into the ground.
This served three purposes: first, according to
evynrudeit really helped her get into the spirit of the game and establish a comaraderie among the group because we obviously did have the long shared history I was referencing. Second, it gave Doc Panda a nice bit of color, a little character hook that made him slightly different from the doctors I've played in the past without being anything that would impair his efficiency or credibility. And finally, when I finally broke with tradition at the end of last session when everything came crashing down and told kriz1818's character "Well, you've stumped me. This is as bad as it's ever been" I was able to bring the whole room down. Sure, it was 5 months of work to produce one laugh line. But you have to invest to get these sorts of payoffs.
