(Followed you here from your post on the intercon LJ -- I played the Prime Minister in Madrian Secret. :) )
I had a similar-yet-different experience in Madrian Secret (which I also thoroughly enjoyed). I read my sheet and said "OK, I'm the person in charge, who can pretty much only be hurt by anyone at all accomplishing their plots or even just poking at anything, and probably most of game will be against the status quo that I'm in favor of." I have played a similar role a couple of times before, so I recognized it. :) But because I recognized the position ahead of time, I was able to say "This is not about winning; this is about providing worthy opposition for other people (without trying too hard to crush all plots), and about having fun character tension/drama for me." Going in with that attitude, I didn't have to stress out too much, nor worry too much about trying to shut down game (which rarely works and is no fun when it does).
I don't always think outside the box like that, but I was glad I did in this case. (Had I seriously tried to Win, playerwise, I think game still would have been fine for everyone else, in that I would not have succeeded, but it would have been less fun for me.)
Sort of the opposite of your starting-out-in-trouble situation: if you start with nothing, you can fight real hard and win your way up; if you start with everything, the best you can do is minimize your losses.
I had a similar-yet-different experience in Madrian Secret (which I also thoroughly enjoyed). I read my sheet and said "OK, I'm the person in charge, who can pretty much only be hurt by anyone at all accomplishing their plots or even just poking at anything, and probably most of game will be against the status quo that I'm in favor of." I have played a similar role a couple of times before, so I recognized it. :) But because I recognized the position ahead of time, I was able to say "This is not about winning; this is about providing worthy opposition for other people (without trying too hard to crush all plots), and about having fun character tension/drama for me." Going in with that attitude, I didn't have to stress out too much, nor worry too much about trying to shut down game (which rarely works and is no fun when it does).
I don't always think outside the box like that, but I was glad I did in this case. (Had I seriously tried to Win, playerwise, I think game still would have been fine for everyone else, in that I would not have succeeded, but it would have been less fun for me.)
Sort of the opposite of your starting-out-in-trouble situation: if you start with nothing, you can fight real hard and win your way up; if you start with everything, the best you can do is minimize your losses.
(And: love plots -- they're great! :) )
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