So, I've been thinking a lot about the game I'm playing in, with Simon C MCing.
It's been a hard start - both in-game, due to the way that the little trading post we're based it got made up, and the fact that it took all three of us players a little while to get into our characters' heads. Last night's session - the 4th (although one player has missed one) - everything really seemed to come together and it has got really interesting.
There's a couple of places that the game's hitting hard for me. The big one, is that my battlebabe Sunset, I made him super lethal. So he's got a default way to deal with anyone who stands up to him, i.e. blowing them away. That, plus the fact that we're in a total anarchy, not even a hardholder around to enforce some order... well, it makes dealing with trouble difficult. Maybe it's a mindset thing: he can seduce or manipulate with the best of them, although I haven't often been in a position to do so. Then, at the end of session two, I took the advance to gain a gang (I'd previously killed the leader of these guys), so I've been in the position of having to run this group of violent bastards. This isn't easy when your default way to resolve a conflict is a deadly ultimatum. I'm finding all this pretty fascinating (and disturbing) to work through. I didn't really have a strong concept for the character at first - I was planning to let that fall out in play. I think what has ended up happening is that the game start was a turning point for him, when he decided working as any chump's bodyguard or muscle wasn't good enough, and that he'd try to do some good instead. I don't think I've managed yet, but I'm trying. Man, heavy stuff.
The other thing that came out last night was this incredibly sad and poignant series of events around our brainer, Lively. She'd been in a psychic maelstrom induced coma for a few days (i.e. the missed session) and we left her in the care of Pepper, a refugee we'd rescued from the gang that I now lead. Lively's been a profoundly broken, creepy brainer and her relationship with Pepper gave her someone to protect coupled with a tenderness that had previously never been hinted at. Later in the session, Lively blew an acting under fire roll and had to make an ugly choice - let the bad guy shoot her or Pepper. She choose Pepper, who died of those wounds. That left Lively angry, and she went to kill Millions who she decided (irrationally) to blame for the death, but couldn't bring herself to do that when the moment came (because Millions, a kind of ogre-matriarch, has all these kids who would be left behind - at least, that seemed to be the reason. Maybe also that the death wasn't really her fault in any way). So... wow... that play was really intense and awesome.
In the aftermath of that, the characters made a plan - to get out of this doomed trading post and look for a holding secure enough to ride out the storm that's coming, and hire on there (or maybe take it over if we have to). That shared decision and plan for them is the final piece of things falling into place, I think. I am really looking forward to the next session, to see where it goes.
I'm not really going anywhere in particular with this - I think I needed to write it all down to work through some of it. Plus, I figured some of the others in the game might be interested (and the rest of you, watching from the sidelines). Steve, if you read this, I'm not leaving Must out because your stuff isn't interesting, too. It's just thay I didn't need to process any of it to that level, myself.