I don't post in forever... and it's a meme?!

[jaegamer]

This meme brought to you by krrayn

1 question...
1 chance...
1 honest answer...
That's all you get...

Ask me 1 question.
Any 1 question, anything,
no matter how crazy it is.
An honest answer.

No catch.
Except one. All comments will be screened so your question stays private between you and me, and only you will get to see my answer to your question.
But I dare you to repost this
and see what people ask you.

My own addendum:  If the question/answer are something I don't mind sharing with the internet, AND you don't mind having it unscreened, I am willing to unscreen individual comments/answers.  Mention screened/public in your reply.  If you don't, I'll assume screened.

Comments

[yeopard.livejournal.com]

What is your birth name?

Screen or public as you see fit. ;)

[jaegamer.livejournal.com]

Jane Ann Walker - or rather, that's my adoptive name. I was adopted at birth, so I suspect that's probably the first name I got (other than baby girl doe). There's no one living who calls me that, however.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

[raconteurx.livejournal.com]

What would you turn to for entertainment and socialization if you found, like me, that you could no longer enjoy your dearest, most cherished pastimes or the friends associated with same?

Feel free to unscreen or not, as the whim strikes you.

[jaegamer.livejournal.com]

Tough question... My most cherished pastime is gaming, and that hobby is the source of most of my friends. If I couldn't play/run any more for some reason, I'd be bereft.

On the other hand, I'd probably catch up on my reading. During my lengthy period of under/unemployment, I made a lot of use of my local library. Even if I lost my car, it's on the bus route, and the books can be checked out free. If they don't have the book you want, they can borrow it from another library for you. If I ever have enough money to make a substantial donation, it'll be to the library.

[jaegamer.livejournal.com]

The dumbest thing I've ever done running RPGs? That would be the great Jack the Ripper/Time Travel story. I ran a Chill (contemporary horror) campaign from 1987 through 2000, with a year break after JTR/TT.

I had this clever idea... After I primed them to research (in and out of character) Jack the Ripper and the various theories (using Candyman as a jumping off point, no less), they attracted the attention of the Candyman entity, which had also perpetrated the JTR killings. I had wonderful players - they did all kinds of research and quickly became JTR conversant.

When they went to consult a JTR expert Candyman murdered the expert in front of them and attempted to use the energy from that to banish them to a hell-realm. Only he flubbed it (this was my plan...) and they woke up to find themselves inhabiting the bodies of various investigators and others connected to the JTR murders. Including Mary Kelley, the last confirmed victim. There was cross gendering and cross-race as well.

All in all, a creative story with a lot of horror and roleplaying potential, right? Yeah... except that I dropped them in just after the *first* killing. With the last killing *months* later. Bad, bad timing. My players were the "live every moment" type, and slogging through months of investigation and waiting for the next attack does NOT make for interesting play.

Furthermore, they did just what creative, intelligent players do. They staked out the known location of the next killing and *stopped* Jack the Ripper. Before he ever even got the name. Good players - very bad for story. They've now radically changed history, and I really hadn't considered where I would go when they did that. I was stumped.

Oh, and they also contacted the first generation of SAVE (the central organization which had just gone under due to a massive attack by Bad Things) and *warned* them of the threat to come. Most organizations might shrug it off, but not one dedicated to fighting the supernatural...

So... I jumped them back forward to a divergent future... only now I had really painted myself into a story corner, because how was I to get them back "home"?

I was a coward. I used Quantum Leap to get them back to their own timeline and called a hiatus on the game. When you have to use Quantum Leap to resolve your story problems, the campaign has jumped the shark.

Lessons I took away from this:
1) No time travel. Ever. At best, visit as an observer unable to affect events, which is no fun for players, so no time travel. I hate time travel. It *complicates* things and I can't get my poor monkey brain around it.

2) Always - always - plan at least one way to end the story that makes sense. You probably won't use it - the players generally come up with something MUCH more creative - but just in case, make sure you have a back door.

3) Never assume. If you plan 3 options, the players will take the 5th. I chose years ago to let the game be about the player characters and to follow where the players want to take the story. This means that there are certain things I just can't do as a GM (like plan a literary-style story). That's okay - I just need to *remember* it.