Karen really is fabulous. I've a lot of time for her, and I like the way she challenges me to take another look at some of the media I may have taken for granted. Thank you for interviewing her :-)
A couple of games I've been involved with resonated on reading this interview. First was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game that I was involved in a few years ago. The guy running the game was used to having players of the old-school dungeon bash variety, and had to rethink his style of game quite a bit when faced with a gaming group made up of people with interests in theatre and film-making, one of whom hadn't played an RPG before in his life.
Certainly, my compatriots seemed to do a decent job of creating characters and situations that carried a Whedonesque flavour to them - once we were discussing our last "episode" in a supermarket and someone nearby actually asked what channel it was on. It was a lot of fun, and the mechanics supported what we were doing without inhibiting it untowardly, so I'd definitely call it a success.
Second is my current Thursday night Shadowrun game. For a change of pace from our old Seattle-based "Cyberpunk mission of the week" style game, we've gone to a very street-level game set in New Zealand. Even though our only real audience is ourselves, it's been interesting trying to find ways to make a world that successfully merges local culture, demographic trends and mythology with the fantasy/technology elements and world events of the existing millieu. Our Christchurch of 2070 has a more cosmopolitan feel to it, with an influx of refugees from the EuroWars and strife in east Asia changing the ethnic makeup tangibly, but Maori culture is more prominent too - especially as something tapu could have a very palpable magical effect in the post-Awakening world. With a bit of research and some care to avoid clangorous reliance on stereotypes, it seems to have come together okay.
I still have a bit more to do in the realm of airship piracy myself, but that's a story for another day.
A couple of games I've been involved with resonated on reading this interview. First was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game that I was involved in a few years ago. The guy running the game was used to having players of the old-school dungeon bash variety, and had to rethink his style of game quite a bit when faced with a gaming group made up of people with interests in theatre and film-making, one of whom hadn't played an RPG before in his life.
Certainly, my compatriots seemed to do a decent job of creating characters and situations that carried a Whedonesque flavour to them - once we were discussing our last "episode" in a supermarket and someone nearby actually asked what channel it was on. It was a lot of fun, and the mechanics supported what we were doing without inhibiting it untowardly, so I'd definitely call it a success.
Second is my current Thursday night Shadowrun game. For a change of pace from our old Seattle-based "Cyberpunk mission of the week" style game, we've gone to a very street-level game set in New Zealand. Even though our only real audience is ourselves, it's been interesting trying to find ways to make a world that successfully merges local culture, demographic trends and mythology with the fantasy/technology elements and world events of the existing millieu. Our Christchurch of 2070 has a more cosmopolitan feel to it, with an influx of refugees from the EuroWars and strife in east Asia changing the ethnic makeup tangibly, but Maori culture is more prominent too - especially as something tapu could have a very palpable magical effect in the post-Awakening world. With a bit of research and some care to avoid clangorous reliance on stereotypes, it seems to have come together okay.
I still have a bit more to do in the realm of airship piracy myself, but that's a story for another day.
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