Once Upon a Time

I've been watching the first few episodes of Once Upon a Time, and I think that the premise is way cool. I'd love to be the main character in a RPG where I found myself confronted with this huge mystery with ties to fairy tales. However, I'm finding myself unsure of whether I want to continue watching.

The script is actually pretty good, all things considered and the special effects are great for a TV show like that. Some of the characters are very intriguing, and it's interesting to see how the creators choose to interpret the human forms of the various characters, and what their punishment or careers might be. Gepetto, for instance, never got a son.

Snow White in her fairy tale was so much more kick ass than any version I've seen of her. I loved the fact that she was a "Princess-turned-bandit", rather than just the housemaid for a bunch of dwarves before being randomly rescued by a prince. Total win. And Prince Charming (aka James) was totally cool fighting past the evil guards to Protect his daughter and has proven to be one of the most likable characters in the show.

The problem is, there are several things I don't like about the series. I don't really like Henry. He's a (way too obvious) macguffin, and while I understand that the creators wanted someone who could act as a guide to the lost princess, having it be her long lost son seems like way too much unnecessary drama. Additionally, he makes Emma's feelings of being left behind less potent, since in the end, she did the same thing to her child as her parents did to her. It makes her anger and grief seem more petty than if she hadn't committed the same "sin", as it were.

Speaking of Henry, how is it that no one can leave the town (and if they try, something bad happens to them), but Henry can steal a credit card, hop on a plane, and get a cab? And no one even batted an eye that a ten year old has a credit card? I know it's a fairy tale, but the premise is that the characters are in the real world, so the real world outside of Storybrook should behave normally.

Admittedly, Snow in the real world is kind of a let down after her coolness in her fairytale form. James (or 'David' or whoever he's supposed to be) being married to someone else forms some interesting drama, but it's kind of lost because real world Snow is so fragile that all its going to do is lead to 30 episodes of "Should we, shouldn't we?". I can just feel it.

And then the big kicker... I don't like Emma. I mean, I understand why she's got such heavy armor that she uses to keep people away from herself. And I know that she's supposed to be tough so that she isn't afraid of taking on the Mayor. But she's not easy for me to relate to as a female. And the fact that she was abandoned as a child being such a huge chink in her armor is dulled by Henry's presence (since you've not got the same plot element twice - lost child looking for their place in the world).

Overall, I'd give Once Upon a Time 3/5 stars so far. Not liking two of the main heroes does kind of spoil things for me a bit. I might watch a little bit further to see if they grow any as characters, but so far the only thing that might save it for me is if Henry leaves.

GM Tribute

I've noticed, over the years, that players will sometimes offer tribute to their Game Master. Sometimes it's little things like cooking dinner when you've invited the group over to your place to play. Other times it's more obvious, like when a player hands you a chocolate bar and asks, pleadingly, "Please don't kill my character."

Most of the time I'll accept the offering and give a little bonus, like a +1 in a situation where the character would normally fail without the assistance. However, I make no promises of when the aid will happen, and no amount of bribing will make me take pity on a player who has done something foolish that doesn't help further the story (like attacking merchants in the city street because they're your racial enemy).

So far, my player's favorite bribe is chocolate. What do you other GMs get bribed with? And do you actually give your players any leeway when they try to bribe you?

Fake Gamer Girls

I heard the term “fake gamer girls” for the first time about two years ago, and largely blew it off as some jerk who didn't know what he was talking about. I mean, half the people I work with in the Tabletop RPG industry are women, and none of them seem "fake" to me. But then I heard the term again... and again. Pretty soon, no matter where I turned in the geek community, I was listening to people talk about “fake gamer girls”.

I've been playing roleplaying games since I was ten years old and went to a Star Wars game using the old West End Games d6 rules. But the fact is, I've been a gamer my entire life. From the moment I picked up a doll and started playing with it, I was a gamer. We all are. Human love games. And toys. And shiny things. It's just part of what we are.

So the concept that a girl “is not really being a gamer” is totally alien to me. When we've run the vendor's table at PacifiCon and ConQuest we've met lots of women, and it's pretty clear they were all gamers, and girls, and not fake at all. And we've had females in our games from the age of 9, all the way up into their seventies, all of them enjoying the games.

A “fake gamer girl” is supposedly a woman who isn't actually interested in gaming, but likes the attention she gets from hanging out in gamer social circles. I've met a couple people like this, but they've been of both genders, not just female. And while it can be frustrating if the person is being disruptive, if they're just observing or even contributing to the play, they can be just as fun to be around as the “true gamers”.

But to be rude to total strangers and assume that they can't be a gamer just because of how they look? That's getting into the realm of bullying. I connected with my fellow gamers because they understood how it felt to be an outsider; to be bullied. So to turn around and torment someone because they don't fit in? It's so many shades of hypocrisy it makes me kinda ill.

There are plenty of people who join hobbies because it's the cool or trendy thing to do. That's just part of being human. We want to fit in. But by trying to create this illusion that playing games makes us part of some elite club, we drive people away from our hobby. We should be creating a place where people can come to be themselves, and not press our values onto them and make them behave the way we do.

So, to all the gamers out there, let's keep it real, and the next time a girl shows up at a roleplaying game, or at a convention in cosplay, or logs on to a MMORPG (or whatever), remember, she's here to play the game just like you.

Because playing is what makes us gamers.

[reposted from Savagemojo.com]