Shifting Paradigms

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Ever stat up a character you created in one system in multiple other systems? It's an interesting way of getting a new perspective on the character, or on the systems.

This doesn't necessarily have to be a full job. I've occasionally said, "In GURPS terms, my PC has a 1 point quirk, Likes Soda Pop," or, "In Call of Cthulhu, my PC has a skill of Sing Badly."

I'm not a fan of D&D's alignment system, but I've had fun looking at what alignment characters in my homebrew Cthulhupunk game (which existed long before GURPS Cthulhupunk and is not much like it) would be; e.g., "Ah, so that explains the fire and ice relationship -- one of them is Chaotic Good, and the other is Lawful Evil. Yes, that really does explain a lot."

This makes the mechanics descriptive, rather than proscriptive.

All of which was actually not the point I wanted to make, though perhaps a better point.

The point I was trying to make is that I can get silly. Last night, at about 2 am, mnemex and I started describing which Hogwarts and Dragaeran houses various characters in the Cthulhupunk pbem (which I think needs to be re-named The Strange School Project) belong to. I posted this silliness to the game's email list, and reaped what I deserved.

At least 2 players want a Hogwarts thread, which can be justified well enough. I'm just lucky they don't want a Dragaeran thread.

We're a month away from the end of Fall semester, but possibly in the Spring. The questions are whether such a thread should or shouldn't be in continuity (my preference is for in continuity, so long as players can opt out, if they so choose, and still have fun, as well as Cool Stuff to do), and just how silly we want to get. mylescorcoran suggested having a teacher complain that he was miscast as Hagrid when he obviously should have been cast as Snapes, and thereby did I discover some of the limits of my suspension of disbelief.

That said, it was still an educational exercise. Using the Hogwarts schools as we think they should have been used does a reasonably good job of showing what characters value. I'll spare folks my rants on how I think Rowling should have handled the houses.

Shifting Paradigms

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Ever stat up a character you created in one system in multiple other systems? It's an interesting way of getting a new perspective on the character, or on the systems.

This doesn't necessarily have to be a full job. I've occasionally said, "In GURPS terms, my PC has a 1 point quirk, Likes Soda Pop," or, "In Call of Cthulhu, my PC has a skill of Sing Badly."

I'm not a fan of D&D's alignment system, but I've had fun looking at what alignment characters in my homebrew Cthulhupunk game (which existed long before GURPS Cthulhupunk and is not much like it) would be; e.g., "Ah, so that explains the fire and ice relationship -- one of them is Chaotic Good, and the other is Lawful Evil. Yes, that really does explain a lot."

This makes the mechanics descriptive, rather than proscriptive.

All of which was actually not the point I wanted to make, though perhaps a better point.

The point I was trying to make is that I can get silly. Last night, at about 2 am, mnemex and I started describing which Hogwarts and Dragaeran houses various characters in the Cthulhupunk pbem (which I think needs to be re-named The Strange School Project) belong to. I posted this silliness to the game's email list, and reaped what I deserved.

At least 2 players want a Hogwarts thread, which can be justified well enough. I'm just lucky they don't want a Dragaeran thread.

We're a month away from the end of Fall semester, but possibly in the Spring. The questions are whether such a thread should or shouldn't be in continuity (my preference is for in continuity, so long as players can opt out, if they so choose, and still have fun, as well as Cool Stuff to do), and just how silly we want to get. mylescorcoran suggested having a teacher complain that he was miscast as Hagrid when he obviously should have been cast as Snapes, and thereby did I discover some of the limits of my suspension of disbelief.

That said, it was still an educational exercise. Using the Hogwarts schools as we think they should have been used does a reasonably good job of showing what characters value. I'll spare folks my rants on how I think Rowling should have handled the houses.