Exchange of Realities

I talked yesterday about how the gray area between two otherwise separated groups is a perfect place in which to put PCs. As you’ve probably guessed, this is one thing I’ve had a lot of fun trying.

In my group’s case, the group barrier that they straddle is between Heaven and Earth. On the one hand, you have the most complex, most powerful, most out and out incomprehensible bureaucracy the world has ever seen (so much so, in fact, that some within it would probably joke that it’s for good reason that it is not actually placed in the world itself). On the other hand, you have everyone else. In between, there are the PCs. This isn’t how they began, but after certain events in their first arc, and given how much I love the Celestial Bureaucracy, it made sense to put them there.

It works out pretty well, all things considered. Knowledge-wise, the situation is perfect in several respects. One is that the group doesn’t have to worry as much about what they don’t know (particularly useful when you consider that we’ve added and in some cases subsequently subtracted three characters in the last year and a half); while they might get laughed at a bit for their lack of knowledge, it’s more “Awww, isn’t their ignorance cute?” than “You idiot, everyone here knows that.” Another is that I can have all the conspiracies I want and can stick to giving them clues from things they find out in game, not things they would already know but don’t because the player never asked. And a third is that when the knowledge is New and Interesting, I can expect them to treat it as such rather than having a background that causes them to take it for granted.

Position is even better. Because of their particular skillsets, there are a lot of things that they are better suited to than the insiders—or more expendable on and more able to spare the time for than the insiders. (The insiders would mostly say ’same difference’.) That way I don’t have to stick to sending them on errands where subtlety is the most vital skill, submerge them too much in politics, or do something else that’s completely my style and fitted to that group but not so much in every player’s interest.

And the attitude—well, given the kinds of ‘nobody’s tried this before’ missions this group sends itself on, I may as well give them an impossible social position to go with their impossible goals. That way, it doesn’t quite reach the point of being termed sufficiently impossible as to be unfeasible.

My fish who act like fowl seem to do pretty well despite being out of water half the time. What about yours?

And to my Stateside audience, happy Independence Day!