How do you cope with the absence of a player, either in a single session or repeated absences?
In one word: poorly.
Much as Ginger related, characters of missing players will often develop Etherealness, or just fade into the wallpaper. What’s done often depends on the size of the group and the style of game played.
I’ve recently read a few books and just returned them to the library today. The three books I returned are:
Katherine Kurtz- In the King’s Service
Jude Fisher- Sorcery Rising & Wild Magic
Currently reading:
Poul Anderson- Three Hearts and Three Lions
Books checked out today:
John Betancourt- The Dawn of Amber
Ray Bradbury- One More For The Road
John Barnes- A Million Open Doors
Raleigh Trevelyan- Sir Walter Raleigh
(from Matt Snyder)
1. What is the first RPG you ever played?
D&D (basic), back in 4th grade.
2. What RPG do you currently play most often?
We’re in the middle of a Dogs in the Vineyard campaign, but Dad’s starting up a 3.5D&D campaign after the holidays.
3. What is the best system you’ve played?
Vampire: The Masquerade. When he’s on, Will can really make a session hop. Pendragon has also been cool.
4. What is the best system you’ve run?
Mage: The Ascension. Mostly because of my players and love of its color, more than the actual structural underpinnings.
5. Would you consider yourself an: Elitist/ Min-Maxer/ Rules Lawyer?
Yeah, I’m probably an elitist. I want systems that support gameplay without too much bookkeeping and overhead. Distributed narration is a big plus. (DiTV is great.)
6. If you could recommend a new RPG which would you recommend? Why?
Dogs in the Vineyard. It manages to make even “talking” tense, backs it up with system… and tempts you to escalate. The GMing advice is very good at getting you to create a town “properly”, so the system doesn’t wind up twisted into traditional tracks.
7. How often do you play?
About once a week, though we’re on hiatus til Emily’s bounced back from having her kid.
8. What sort of characters do you play? Leader? Follower? Comic Relief? Roll-Player/ Role-Player?
I often make a complimentary follower type, plugging holes that the system requires. That often means a Cleric type (in D&D) or other general support role, though if the bases are covered I’ll indulge in vanity characters. (Like Alanora the Bard, or Nathaniel, of FoodMaxx and dance fame.)
9. What is your favorite Genre for RPGs?
Modern or Sci-fi. I can get irritated by badly done history or poorly extrapolated fantasy.
10. What Genres have you played in?
Fantasy, Modern (White Wolf), Sci-fi (Mech, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun), Super Heroic. [Edited to add: Western(DiTV), Amber, and more that I’m probably forgetting.]
11. Do you prefer to play or GM? Do you do both?
The preference is weak. I’d rather GM a good game than play in a bad one, but if someone else has a good game, I’m all for letting someone else run it.
12. Do you like religion in your games?
Not really. I can’t do the mindset justice in my portrayals, and it’s too often reduced to a bare line on the character sheet and ignored.
13. Do you have taboo subjects in your games or is everything “fair game”?
Most everything is fair game. I’d be hesitant to play “deeply” with the old Saturday night group, and sorcery as demonic/evil magic is a sore spot for some players, so I’d avoid that as well.
14. Have you developed your own RPG before?
Yeah, mostly adaptations of other people’s stuff. Nothing terribly worthwhile in retrospect, but it was fun doing.
15. Have you ever been published in the Gaming Industry? If so…what?
Nope.
Wow, I can’t imagine I’m writing the word wow. This article is very very interesting.
What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?
by Melissa Scott
A well written relatively near future SF book, with heroes you can root for and good plausibility. While it’s not among the first books I’d recommend, it’s better than many.
Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs, by Chuck Klosterman
A light book covering a number of interesting thought experiments and rambles, that Dad & I enjoyed enough to read together.
Kerry Endorsement Gets it right. (from Obsidian Wings)
Media Matters’ new book, Misstating the State of the Union
Bush’s National Nightmare of Peace And Prosperity Over with hyperlinks to where the ‘predictions’ came true. Urgh.
Card Game (strong, party game): Big Idea by Cheapass Games
Board Game (interested, but not strongly): Ideology by Z-Man Games
Board Game (strong): Feudo by Zugames
Recent Books (returning to library today):
Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs, by Chuck Klosterman
Vanishing Point, by Michaela Roessner
The Burning Hills, by Louis L’Amour
(From a commenter, PD Shaw, on Dan Drezner’s site)
On stereotypes, I like the article I read the other day (sorry don’t remember where), which said:
Republicans fear that a Kerry presidency will lead to endless appeasement of terrorists and the French, culminating in the subsequent presidential election of Hillary Clinton.
Democrats fear that a second Bush term will lead to a state of endless war and the introduction of an economic system known as feudalism.
Some links from the last few days, to be organized, etc.
Updated to convert links to hypertext– the plaintext was annoying me.
Tons of old links to various threads, rpgs, etc. It’s all raw… but better than cramming it in a text folder on my hard drive. (Insert whistling here…)