Never say never!Rukellian wrote: Clarence Dufonte (the now-named-ghost) may have seen through Summer's lies, but I am building him up to be the good guy kind of archetype, but was a wall flower all of his highschool life up until his death. So though he may know someone's secret, he won't use it as blackmail or leverage, or at least doesn't think of such things. He's got his own problems right now...
You're roleplaying teenagers. You're supposed to have some element of being fickle because you don't know yourselves, you don't know how to live in an adult's skin, and you f*ck things up all the time because you're all elbows & thumbs.
Yeah, the Ghost skin says you've been in someone's bedroom to watch them sleep. That's damn creepy. Who fascinates you?Rukellian wrote:The ghost skin said that I have a string on someone and someone has a string on me, does it have to be a PC? I originally had an NPC have a string on me, for she knew that I was actually dead and how I died. I planned on her being a witch named Vanessa Lokhart that generally hated and was disgusted by everyone around her, except Clarence. Clarence was the only one who she could hang out with and not feel uncomfortable. Though it was never intimate, I'd like to think that they were very good friends, perhaps on the verge of taking it to the next level? I may be thinking a bit too far ahead here or demanding too much of what I'm allowed, but hey, I'm open to changing my character sheet.
If you don't feel comfortable pushing that on a player's character, yeah, we can go with an NPC. And the NPCs can have strings on you too.
During the Seating Chart exercise, you can define NPCs. I'll ask leading, provocative questions about your NPC... but it doesn't mean your answer can't rope in what you're thinking about a story that you'd like to run down later. If you have ideas about your NPC, hold onto them... but once the NPC gets in play, get that string in play because it's an NPC.
NPCs exist to make you better. They're YOUR supporting actors. They need to push your art, to make you run harder, and make you run like the roleplaying machine that you can be.
(The book says I am to treat NPCs like I would drive a stolen car. Have fun, step on the gas, and go all out because it isn't meant to last. It's a brilliant analogy.)
Last note... if you want to swap Backstory strings around during the Seating Chart phase, I'm cool with that. Someone else might come up with a freaky awesome idea that you'd like to STEAL for your own character's story. Hell, two of you might come up with the same love interest or something. THAT'S AWESOME!
Once we start the game itself, then the sheets get locked down... but I don't consider the Seating Chart to be the game. We're just talking prep work with the Seating Chart.
