Inizio Per i giocatori Player Profiles LadyRolePlay Profile Part 2 - Great Games or Bust

LadyRolePlay Profile Part 2 - Great Games or Bust

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk Nov 27, 2002

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What started as an innocent interview with the top player at NWConnections turned into a fine a two part Q&A on the world of role-playing through a computer medium. Martha Mc Dermott, A.K.A LadyRolePlay, has provided not just her thoughts on being a female RPGer but the broader world of role-playing.

Last Week: We introduced the fascinating LadyRolePlay, her background, how she got into RPG games, and the state of the union on RPG's from a female perspective. Read the first part of the profile here. This Week: LadyRolePlay expounds on multiplayer games, gives us anecdotes and tips on how to become a multiplayer gamer and how to get into a great game.

Part II: Anatomy of a Gamer

Q: What do you think of Neverwinter Nights as a medium for serious RPG fans to get together and play?

Well, the computer role-playing game can, and does, differ from the more hardcore D&D game. The important thing here, however, is that owing to the never-ending creativity and genius of fans to create new and unique content and the fact that many, many of the modules and Persistent Worlds use the Hard Core Ruleset (HCR) in some form which I love to use in a game. As a matter of fact, it is the rare game that I play that does not feature some of the HCR components. This makes a delightful game even more so, by adding realism such as having to eat, lug around water, sleeping and so forth. Similarly, all one has to do is to take a look at the variety of single player and multiplayer modules that are available, and the vast array of persistent worlds there are to journey through.

Finally, click on the multiplayer interface and click again on the list of servers that pops up and try to count the number of games open to the public as well as those that are privately run. Under any category, be it Role Play, Action, Social, Persistent World, Story or Story Lite, there is something for everyone.

As for me, happily, I am also a member of the persistent world A Land Far Away, and those folks have a series of interconnected servers centered on the Forgotten Realms and are very strict in their adherence to role-playing. BioWare has delivered a game, and a toolset, and says 'do with it what you will'. So far, the end result for gamers of all persuasions has been amazing.

Q: Why do you like playing multiplayer? What makes a great multiplayer game?

This question is somewhat related to the above question. In another game I play on the world of Dragonspire my Cleric finds a powerful magical sword worth about 5,000 gp and gives it to one of the players; a fellow named Riven. The only thing she tells him is when he no longer needs it; he is not to sell it, but pass it on to another, having the new owner make the same promise. Next game, he takes her outside her home (yes *smiles broadly* she has one) and pulls the sword out. With DM hahsoo's help Riven has had these words inscribed, "In her kindness and wisdom Arwen ab Alleric gave this sword to Riven. Now he would ask you do the same. When this blade you no longer need, sell it not, but give it to another. In this way the forces of good grow and perpetuate." It was a stunning moment, my mouth was open and I was moved to tears. Who in the world could have seen the outcome of that random act of kindness, and how in the world could any game company possibly write such a moving dialogue? The answer is that you cannot. It can only come about through the interaction of two sensitive people, playing an online game.

So in answering this question, what makes a great online game the answer is two-fold:

• It takes a great DM, a DM that is willing to help make things happen, one that is willing to structure the story around the characters. Once again I will go back to my two favorite DM's as an example, the first being hahnsoo. In the above example with the magic sword, he agreed to let Riven have the sword inscribed as a small example of DM intervention for the good of a game. It goes deeper than that, however; hahnsoo and Biocyde, his co-DM, are themselves masterful role-players, and take full advantage of possessing NPC's to drive the story, and drive the plot. Make no mistake, Dragonspire is a vital, ongoing world with it's own history and events against which are set all the personal triumphs and tragedies of the individual player. DM hahnsoo uses his finest minds (I think there are 16 players in 3 groups) to help plot out that story and drive it, and the players, forward. He will take his strongest role-players to drive the story of Dragonespire as a whole forward, as well as those individual player stories. At the end of every game there is a wrap-up session where everything is analyzed, with much back and forthing in the messages and chat rooms and boards, on what comes next. He is open to any suggestions (though he says 'no' a lot *grins*) and all is carried forward within the strict guidelines of D&D, complete with prestige classes and legacy weapons and all. Loads of planning and forethought go into to making Dragonspire. Because of all of the above, this world is real, it is dynamic, it is my home, and I love it.
  
  DM Kadarr is my other example of a great DM. His game shows a different approach as to how to produce an excellent game. His creation is called the World of Nurrana I play two different groups, two different games, under him. One game is played on Thursday nights, and the other on Friday. It's the same game more or less as they both take place in the world of Nuranna, but the experiences could not be more different in each. In one I play a neurotic, high strung, Elven Rogue, and in the other I play little Rasha as I call her, the dwarf that had been raised as a slave and is a simple, down-to-earth, good-hearted person. The world is the same as I mentioned, but the characters could not be more different, nor their experiences more different. Like hahnsoo, DM Kadarr bends over backwards to create stories tailored to his characters, rather than vice versa. Because there are fewer players each night, the impact on those characters is profound. For example, he was willing to create a situation where Rasha, escaped from her captures at last and began shadowing the current group she is in, watching their every move and interaction before she finally connects with one of the other players, Justinian. There was much messaging between Justinian, Kadarr and myself, to be sure, to get this right, but oh my goodness what a great piece of work it was. Kadarr in his rebuttals to his own reviews will say it is the players, not him, that makes the world, but that is only partly true, I assure you. The DM sets the stage, and Kadarr and hanshoo are masters at it. As a matter of fact, there is not one of the DM's in my top 5 who are not superb.
  
  
• Which brings be to the other necessary ingredient in creating a good game, and that is good players. You can put on an Oscar-winning performance, and if there are no others to respond to and interact with, then the game really never happens so to speak. There must be good players that can shape your character and, in turn, shaped by you. Lets take the Friday game with Rasha, who above all, has reasons to hate Orcs. Well just so happens we have a half-orc Fighter named Oswald, and, as a tank, Rasha is paired up front with him. Now, as the story has gone on Rasha has started to develop a romance with Oswald. Rasha wants to dress like him, use the same weapon like him, bash the foes like him. In other words, she loves him and, fortunately, he loves her. However, if Fenwald- who plays Oswald and who is himself on that list of top five role players- had not played Oswald as tender, loving, sensitive, and protective of Rasha, the romance simply could not have happened. Fenwald has deftly and skillfully played Oswald such that Oswald can be someone Rasha can love. Now do I have the slightest control over how Oswald is played? Of course not. I am dependant on the skill of another player to make it happen.
  
  So good DM's, bent on shaping their game to the player, and great players within the game itself, create the most memorable games.

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