I love surprises

Welcome to Lee, my amigo who is gonna post in this space with me from now on. We are probably going to have at least 2 more contributors, our friends and co-gamers Jeff and Ebo. So hooray for us!

The title of this post is meant to be ironic. It's not that I don't like surprises, I do. But I have spent plenty of everyone's time over this weekend complaining about things that have taken me by surprise.

The aforementioned Jeff is one of the most frequent GMs in the gaming group to which I belong. His games tend to be epic and while they don't typically continue for more than 6-12 months in total. He has recently started a new game with the promise of a long running multi-faceted saga stretching from one end of the game's universe to the other.

Maybe I will give more details about the game if Jeff himself decides not to post some details, but for the time being, suffice it to say that it is a game that uses the rules mechanics from White Wolf's World of Darkness but very little of the setting details. For instance, there is a fair amount of space travel in the game that we've played so far. It sound weird but it works pretty well and we are all very familiar with it.

It seems that in his efforts to maximize the longevity, cinematics and pacing of his game, he has introduced several ancillary groups of PCs. We will spend the majority of the time playing the flagship group of characters and slip into these alternate personae as needed to keep the game engaging and tantalizing. Basically, Jeff saw an anime that he liked and decided to jack the narrative style it used.

So now, not a moment too soon, I will get to the meat of my complaint.

When first pitched to me, this idea for more PCs, more games, more POP; it sounded awesome to me. We got a brief rundown of the role that each of the sub games would be expected to fill and roughly the sort of characters we were going to be making. In all cases but the original characters, we were gonna be natural characters with no special abilities or paranormal natures. The main characters, by contrast, obtained supernatural powers after the start of the game and have been learning about them ever since. These normal people are all in very exceptional circumstances, much more so that our original group when the game began.

The big surprise, the one I mentioned way back in the title and first paragraph, was that the sub groups, who all began with no special characteristics have, in the first session of play, developed into supernatural beings as well. What makes this worse, or at least more difficult to accept in my opinion is that these characters have become being that are describe in published WoD games. The original party have received traits which Jeff designed himself which were uniquely relevant to the universe in which he has designed this game.

If he had asked me to play a Geist game or a Changeling game I would have been all for it. But, Changeling in space? It strain credulity. I still expect for it to be fun. Hey, I can get myself into a mood for almost anything rpg-wise. I am just resentful of the way this idea was pitched. It wasn't.

I won't go too deep into anecdote-land but what follows is the capstone of my displeasure. So one of these sub-plots, or so we were told, centers on a group of people who are very influential to the point that their plans have an effect on a great many creatures and planets. Really potent stuff. These characters, or so I thought, were going to have big plans and exercise far greater control of their circumstances than our original party. Then they were kidnapped by faeries. While I admit that playing through the durance in the faerie world was very interesting, but the helpless feeling specifically contradicted what I had thought (in hindsight hoped might be truer) was going to be the point of that group.

That point being control. We had all control taken away from our characters and ourselves. This is my character. It is the only thing that is under my control in your game. When that control is taken away, it is a real kick in the balls.

Changelings in space?! A kick in the balls.