Exchange of Realities

I got this as a meme from Laura at http://thesinglefrugalton.today.com. Ordinarily I don’t pass memes, but this one looked like it’d fit my theme, so I made an exception. Besides, it fits with the idea of understanding characters by asking questions about them.

The challenge was simple: Get five questions, and answer them. Which gives me the following:

How did you become interested in writing? (Technically, this was Question #2, but it chronologically fit better as #1.)

I wouldn’t call my introduction to writing so much becoming interested as following my nature. I’ve always been a words-person, one way or another; I’m surprised I don’t bleed ink. I was “writing” picture books when I was six, mostly a bunch of nonsensical vignettes having to do with a time-traveling squirrel and a bunch of dinosaurs. Over the years, though, I discovered plot coherence, got over my addiction to exclamation products, decided internal consistency was a cardinal virtue, and basically shaped up as a writer. I even finished a couple of nearly novel-length pieces, though the worldbuilding was atrocious enough that I prefer not to share them (unlike some authors I could mention).

What made you interested in the world of roleplaying or gaming? (As you can probably guess, this is the original #1.)

A lot of things, really. My stepbrother is a gamer, as are my cousins; the former introduced me to wargames in the garage of our house, and the latter gave me my first really good D&D game. I liked the storymaking aspect of it, and it just sort of stuck. At the time, though, I had a more video-game approach to it—story over character, and most of my characters were pretty interchangeable.

In my freshman year of college, I found my style. My primary game group there the first year was run by an English major who happened to be in the same academic program as I was. The group was an eye-opener; it was the first time I’d ever seen characters alive enough to shape the story themselves, and situations driven entirely by intergroup personality dynamics. This really fit the idea, as I’d seen the games described, of “collaborative fiction with dice”; it was only a year of games before they all graduated, but I think it did more for my style than almost anything I’d done before, or since.

Who or what are some of your influences?

You sure this isn’t a post in and of itself?

My family, logically enough. Both my mother and father read to me when I was little, and both have supported me in everything, including this blog. The authors who have had an influence on my writing style are too many to list; I absorbed elements from all of them. (Even if some were more a case of what not to do than what to do.) My gaming was heavily influenced by my groups, the most notable being the aforementioned college GM and my deceased cousin Matthew Godwin (my role model both for the games and for the real world). My design ethic carries a certain amount of influence from the work of Rebecca Borgstrom, partly for the unique combination of symbolism and effect and partly because her designs gave me magic effects that I could put to uses for which they were not intended.

Then there are the two greatest influences on this blog itself. One was the oft-quoted Limyaael, whose work was what originally got me thinking about writing tips by weblog; the other was Ursula K. Le Guin, whose comments on the level of critique in fantasy and science fiction in her essay “A Citizen of Mondath” helped me define one of the goals of this blog as bettering the genre (you can see the post in which I explored the concept, along with the quote itself, here).

What suggestions would you have for someone new to role-playing games?

First is to make sure you know both your style and how it relates to the group you’re trying to get into. Style clash can destroy people’s enjoyment of the game, particularly a newbie’s; when the group seems to depend on knowledge of the world or a certain way of looking at it and you’re the only one who doesn’t get it, it can be frustrating, as can being in a group in which characters die every other session when you tend to create characters as people and despise character generation.

Ask a lot of questions. To the GM, ask about the world and how people fit into it, or the history. Either you’ll get back “I… never really thought about that”, or you’ll give her a chance to show off all the work she’s done. Similarly, ask the players questions as well—what kinds of situations they like playing out of character, what their characters are like in-character. This gives you a chance to try to mesh with the group, and the more you try to meet them halfway, the more concessions they’re likely to make for you in return if you ask for them.

And try to familiarize yourself with the mechanics ahead of time, so you don’t have to ask too many questions about those and so you don’t need to ask the same few questions multiple times. “For the umpteenth time” is one of the most frustrating phrases someone can say.

Do you conduct your games through the Internet or in person?

It varies. When I’m running games, I only do so online; this is mainly due to geographical constraints (the players in my game used be just scattered along the US West Coast, but now I’ve spread to other time zones as well). When I’m playing, I can do face to face, and I do like the social aspect, but I’m likelier to do so by Internet; again, partly due to the geographical constraints. Besides, I’ve found I’m several times more eloquent and effective by text than in person; I learned I could characterize a social monster well from one of my online games, and I’ve never really done the same face to face.

Want to be interviewed? Leave a comment, and I’ll look over your blog and email you with five questions.