kent_allard_jr (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kent_allard_jr) wrote2010-04-07 12:02 pm
kent_allard_jr) wrote2010-04-07 12:02 pm
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RPGs for the Mundane GF (including Jane Austen RPG Blerg)
My GF is a mundane, but an open minded one. I never hid my hobbies from her -- I devote an entire room of my apartment to RPGs, so that would have been impossible -- and she's shown some interest in learning about them. So on Sunday night I decided to introduce her to the hobby the conventional way: Having her roll-up a character.
First, I asked "what kind of character would you like to play?" and she said "an otter." So I pulled 4th edition Gamma World off the shelf and we created a mutant otter with a carapace, air sails, a "poor dual brain" and "density control (others)." (Man, I love that crazy game...) She was amused at first, but was turned off by all the number crunching that followed.
So I turned next to Everway. She came up with a fairly original concept from the Vision Cards, a woman who read minds, was surrounded by darkness and had children without male contact. We assigned our 20 points and did the whole thing with the Fortune Deck, which she thought was kind of goofy. (Admittedly, so did I.)
Afterward she asked "is there a Jane Austen roleplaying game?" I assured her that there had to be one, possibly several. The idea was so obvious! Oddly enough, though, a quick Google search didn't reveal any. Sure, there's a "choose your own adventure" Austen pastiche on Amazon (with poor reviews); there was a group-storytelling effort at Yahoo! in the early aughts; a couple of discussions of playing Austen with existing rule systems. (Yeah, I'm sure the GF would love GURPS Age of Napoleon for that sort of thing...) Naturally there's some talk of RPGs for the "Jane Austen with Monsters" sub-genre, but to me that's cheating. Rules for called shots to the head don't belong in an Austen game! Anyone who knows better examples can point them out to me.
Honestly, I suspect the best way to approach the problem would be to create a semi-RPG like En Garde in reverse, then add opportunities for roleplaying as they come up in game. Everyone plays an aristocratic lady looking for a good match, each defined with a set of simple non-numeric traits, along with variable factors like wealth and reputation. I would have to read a Jane Austen novel before I could go further -- and I don't think they're my kind of books -- but I'd be happy to hear from those who have.
First, I asked "what kind of character would you like to play?" and she said "an otter." So I pulled 4th edition Gamma World off the shelf and we created a mutant otter with a carapace, air sails, a "poor dual brain" and "density control (others)." (Man, I love that crazy game...) She was amused at first, but was turned off by all the number crunching that followed.
So I turned next to Everway. She came up with a fairly original concept from the Vision Cards, a woman who read minds, was surrounded by darkness and had children without male contact. We assigned our 20 points and did the whole thing with the Fortune Deck, which she thought was kind of goofy. (Admittedly, so did I.)
Afterward she asked "is there a Jane Austen roleplaying game?" I assured her that there had to be one, possibly several. The idea was so obvious! Oddly enough, though, a quick Google search didn't reveal any. Sure, there's a "choose your own adventure" Austen pastiche on Amazon (with poor reviews); there was a group-storytelling effort at Yahoo! in the early aughts; a couple of discussions of playing Austen with existing rule systems. (Yeah, I'm sure the GF would love GURPS Age of Napoleon for that sort of thing...) Naturally there's some talk of RPGs for the "Jane Austen with Monsters" sub-genre, but to me that's cheating. Rules for called shots to the head don't belong in an Austen game! Anyone who knows better examples can point them out to me.
Honestly, I suspect the best way to approach the problem would be to create a semi-RPG like En Garde in reverse, then add opportunities for roleplaying as they come up in game. Everyone plays an aristocratic lady looking for a good match, each defined with a set of simple non-numeric traits, along with variable factors like wealth and reputation. I would have to read a Jane Austen novel before I could go further -- and I don't think they're my kind of books -- but I'd be happy to hear from those who have.
no subject
2) Check out www.boardgamegeek.com for the GF friendly board-games (things like Lost Cities, Ticket to Ride, etc.). Suggest having a board-game night with some of your friends or her friends (or some of each).
3) Look forlornly at your RPG collection; I rather doubt you'll get her to play any of it unless you suggest you two pick up and play something both light and fan-friendly, like a media spin-off franchise (i.e. Doctor Who, Buffy, Ghostbusters) using pre-generated characters with some of your casual gamer friends.
::B::
P.S. 4) There's a good reason there's no straight Jane Austin RPG (nor a Shakespearean RPG, nor a Romance-Thriller RPG); gamers wouldn't play it because the topic is too mundane, and mundanes won't play it because its one of those weird RPG thingys. Now, if you want to strive for a unholy homebrewed hybrid of the two worlds (say an RPG scenario based on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, that's another story).
no subject
An RPG with Integrity: A comedy of manners about young women looking for love in Regency England.
An RPG that Sold Out: A comedy of manners about young women, looking for love in Regency England, who use magic.
My biggest fear about showing Kim a Furry Con, though, is that she might go for it. She did ask to play an otter, after all, and it was inspired by this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno).