Wishlist

What I'd Ideally Like, GM-wise

1) a Cultist of Ecstasy. This is damn near imperative.

2) at least one member of one of the "older" Traditions. Verbena for preference, Chorister or Akashic for giggles.

3) someone with a Destiny rating (already guaranteed this).

4) generally, for people to get a move on. Most people should have enough info to at least pick a Tradition by now...

I go do work now.

Thess

Fact or Fiction

Server handling the LastWord system is down. Which means I can do just about what I like if work isn't involved. Whee. Actually, I could be doing the splitting. I don't feel like it right now.

What I feel like doing is complaining. But I can't in all good conscience because ... well, my job as a GM is to use what tools my party gives me and make adventures out of them. However, they're not giving me a whole lot in the way of tools. Just heard from 50ftqueenie and I have another Orphan -- only this one is a Hollow One instead of being loosely affiliated with them. Meanwhile, Wakaranai looks set to revamp his Cultist because he's too much like Vin Diesel (finally figured out who he meant by Xander Gage or whoever) and I have no word from the other guys.

Gah. That's all I can say. Gah.

This only bothers me in that, with the exception of the Euthanatos, no one bloody well likes the Hollow Ones. Even other Hollow Ones don't call on each other in times of crisis. They don't seem to have much in the way of crisis. They're non-Technocracy mages, yes, but they don't go in for the Ascension Wars because they don't really believe in Ascension. This means that, apart from being big prime juicy targets for Nephandi, they're not a whole lot of use in story terms.

nightskywarlock said something telling the last time I spoke to him about this -- something I wish everyone would keep in mind. THIS IS ROLEPLAY; NOT A MARY SUE FANFICTION! It's such a chance to expand your horizons and play something entirely different from yourself; why the hell do you want to go and make it a better, mage version of yourself? For instance, the character he came up with isn't an archer, isn't into computers, isn't amusingly sarcastic -- hell, isn't even male. There's a point at which using what you know becomes overkill. I'm not sure if Baa-Baa Black Sh33p over there has gone beyond that point yet, because I haven't seen her background, but I'm telling you if marysues got a hold of the picture I saw with the general background I've seen, heads would roll.

Okay, this is me being bitter. But what else can I do? I can't tell her to change it, any more than I can tell him to maybe pick a real Tradition. (Actually, given his character's background, I can't tell him to pick a real Tradition without screwing with all the work he's done, and most of it is damn good.) Okay, technically, I could, but that's not exactly fair, is it? They've got to have some say in this, or it's just me power-tripping.

Overall, I'm not very sure about this anymore. We're unco-ordinated, unbalanced and woefully underinformed. While it'd be a great tool for some of us and a great horizon-expansion for others, this complete clusterfuck does not give me high hopes. Maybe when people have settled on Traditions (and please GOD no more Hollow Ones or characters out of bad movies or Mary Sues In Training) and I actually start us playing the game, things'll get better. I'm nothing if not organised.

I'd lead now, but it's like I said -- I don't want to interfere with other people's creativity. On the other hand, I'd like to see some creativity from more than one source. So while I can't tell the Wooly One to change her Tradition, I can bat the baby-blues and plead. And also point out that how happy I am with the outcome of character creation will probably directly affect how nice I am come game time. (I know it's blackmail, but damn, I'm good at it.)

Now the computers are working again. Back to the grind...

Thess

Two Game Wardens, Seven Hunters and a...

Further update: totality of clusterfuck now complete.

I apparently have two Hollow Ones, two Virtual Adepts (one's not decided AFAIK, though) and whatever Wakaranai turns out to be.

Also, Mr Orbitus shipped me stuff on GURPS that'd be damn useful if I didn't run a 286 at home.

If you need me, I'll be beating my head against a wall.

The Whippings Will Continue Until Creativity Improves

Well, one blessing -- major one. And of course, it comes from Nakanaide. He came up with a Son of Ether character who would fit well into a group with a Virtual Adept but isn't one himself. I'm liking it and seeing lots of scope open up already.

This little niftiness came after I e-mailed the group and made my suggestions. If they follow my suggestions as well as Nakanaide did, I will have:

an Orphan with a Destiny (nightskywarlock)
a Son of Ether (Nakanaide)
a Cultist of Ecstasy (50ftqueenie)
a Verbena (Wakaranai)
a Virtual Adept (Gamer)

Now, is that a party or what?

Of course, if no one else listens to me, I will have:

an Orphan with a Destiny
a Son of Ether
a Hollow One (an Orphan by any other name)
a Virtual Adept (still Gamer)
Vin fucking Diesel

Either way, it's better than two Orphans, two Virtual Adepts and Vin fucking Diesel. Domo arigato, Nakanaide.