Deck of Many Things
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Welcome to the Deck of Many Things, the E-Zine of Metro Detroit Gamers (MDG)!
Where shall I begin? First, this is the reincarnation of the original publication produced by Metro Detroit Gamers many years ago. (MDG) is pleased to bring it back to you – the gamers of Metro Detroit and Michigan. What is our goal with this publication? Simply to provide the best in gaming news, information, and thoughts about all forms of gaming in the Metro Detoit area and Michigan. To make this happen, however – we need YOU. We need your input, your contact information, and most importantly – your stories and thoughts.
If you are running a cool game in your basement, we need you to send (MDG) an article with the details! If you have a game at a convention you’d like to promote, let (MDG) know. If you want to form a gamer’s club or have people come to your game night at a store – contact (MDG).
In short, Metro Detroit Gamers is seeking to rebuild the gaming community (more on that later) – and this newsletter is one vehicle with which to do so.
I sincerely hope you all see the benefits of connecting as a community of hobbyists, and will contribute articles for this newsletter. Without you, we have nothing – with you, the sky is the limit.
I would also urge you to look at our website: http://WWW.METRODETROITGAMERS.com, and come to our conventions. Metro Detroit Gamers has some big, big plans for the future – and you and your gaming comrades are the main ingrediant in making those plans happen.
Personally, I am happy to talk to any of you with questions, ideas, or concerns about Metro Detroit Gamers or this E-Zine. Feel free to write me at MDGGamingEvents@GMAIL.com.
-John Jamieson, Editor
GREETINGS ONE AND ALL!
This is a work in progress. I hope that you enjoy things so far!
WWDSD
WHAT WOULD DOCTOR SMITH DO?
That’s the philosophical question that has been rummaging around in my mind for the last few weeks since one of the Metro Detroit television stations has been running the classic sci-fi television show Lost In Space.
Dr. Smith in most episodes was at the heart of the show. The actor Jonathan Harris as Dr. Smith was an amazing performer. Dr. Smith is easily one of the most memorable sci-fi characters of all time. So memorable that Ral Partha even did a miniature called Zacharias that was obviously Dr. Smith. But then again Ral Partha also did a samurai miniature that had a cigar clenched in its teeth, an obvious homage to the John Belushi samurai from the NBC classic Saturday Night Live.
My point buried in all of these classic television recollections is characters; or more precisely, playing them. I am a huge maven for the Savage Worlds role-playing game. I am one of the D-Savages, the Metro Detroit demo team for Savage Worlds. Running all the Savage Worlds games I do at the conventions, if you play in one of my Savage World games, you will be playing with one my cast of hundreds, a pre-generated character.
I take pride in the characters I make. Making characters, assembling Attributes (stats), Skills, Edges and Hindrances are easy enough. The hard part is breathing life into them. Savage Worlds has by far the easiest, robust, detailed character generation available to a role-playing game. At Metro Detroit Gamer’s WinterCon 2009 convention I was running a Savage Worlds crossover game using Tri-Tac games Bureau 13 and Reality Blur’s Realms of Cthulhu. One of the things I did and will do at all of my convention games is create a character with people playing in the game. In that game it took the six players about twenty minutes to flesh out a character. And this was a character with motivations and a background that could be role-played rather amusingly.
Right next to our table somebody from the Paizo Pathfinders was running a Pathfinder fantasy game. I am not saying this to brag, but most of the players from that game were studying the goings on at my table. Next session the GM tried to do what I did, creating character(s) on the fly. That began just after 12 noon. When I packed up and left the room around 1:30PM they were still struggling to finish the character(s).
Last week I made a character based off Dr. Smith. I am trying to be objective when I detail those results versus my words making me sound like a braggart. At the heart of having fun in a role-playing game is playing a character of your choosing and being able to participate in the game and give enjoyment to everybody else playing. I captured the reality of Dr. Smith in that character. Its not that the character was shockingly easy to make and would be a blast to play at a convention. It’s a personality that contrasts so well against your conventional characters in a RPG.
Allow me to jump to Farscape for a moment to illustrate what I am saying about personalities. Rigel being self-centered made the rest of the characters in the cast more real by diverging from their noble efforts. That’s reality.
Another example of this is from the first Conan movie. Conan has just had his female warrior companion die. His archer companion starts crying over the loss, saying he does it for Conan because Conan can’t cry. That moment locks down the truth of Conan. It identifies Conan’s essence and gives it depth.
That’s it for now. Be good and have some Happity Gaming!
The site looks really great John and Alan. Nice layout, and very informative.
Thanks, John and Alan. I’ll take you up on your invitation now, and respond in kind.
Invitation- Space 1889 (GDW)
Metro Detroit Space: 1889
Wanted
People of strong constitution, courageous spirit, and good moral character to accompany the inventor Mr. Cyrus Grant on a short venture into the aether. Mr. Grant proposes a journey to Luna to investigate a mysterious phenomena on the far side. Those seeking positions need to present themselves in person no later than February 10th, 1889, at 145 San Francisco Street, Flagstaff, Coconino County, Arizona Territory. Those hired will recieve a stipend of $50.00. Only serious applicants will be considered.
This ad appears in newspapers all over the U.S.A. so you don’t have to be near the address in the ad. Remember when you make up your character concepts that you should be a diversified group.* After all, I know it’s fun to beat everyone up, but if you don’t have any knowledge about how valuable your treasure is you may be taken by those who do. Remember, all that glitters is not gold. Some of my treasures may not be obvious as such and can be subtle. For example, the most valuable item on Mars is “liftwood”. If you’ve never seen liftwood before you may mistake it for common wood (except that it floats in the air). Another treasure is a type of spice and if you don’t think spice is valuable just remember that is why Columbus came to the New World. -Joe,
jlassner@yahoo.com
* Thus far proposed player characters included a ex-buffalo soldier / pilot and a doctor / inventor.