Re: Commune - Report pt2

From: johnlee@hinterland.fesnet.co.uk (John Lee)

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Well, the game started at  2:00 - a bit late but we were waiting for a
few more people. Amazingly it seems that no-one no-showed - I'm
sitting here in a toasty warm room with 25 of the finest players I've
ever been in a room with

Pisses me off that I'm the crappest

Like I said, the game started at 2.00. Everyone dragged up chairs,
cushions, crash mats (Roy pulled a blow-up armchair from somewhere)
and we all sat down to..

MUSIC
Deadened by being covered by a blanket we listened to late seventies
dance-music until someone got bored, leant forward and asked
"So what the fuck are we supposed to be doing?"
[PRESENT TENSE]
Another of the GMs smiles - adjusts his coffee and suggests that we
all take the velvet hoods from our heads and maybe have a look around.
A number of us peer rather dubiously at others.
Angela (GM3) smiles slightly and asks who's removed their hoods.
Everyone does.
"Good.." she says,. Roy takes the blanket off the stereo and the music
is no longer muffled, "You're standing on the edge of a large,
old-fashioned Disco dance-floor. You count about twenty - twenty-five
other people. They're all holding hoods and looking around as if
they've no idea what is going on."

I look across at the guy who plays possibly the most unpleasant, evil
characters at the game. He's grinning at me and everyone else..
"Is there a bar here?" he asks
"There is - It's stocked with both alcoholic beverages, as well as
soft drinks."
"I want to walk across and get the baseball bat that's underneath
it.."
...

That was a good seven and a half hours ago. Since then we've
determined the reasons why we've here. We've decided who we could and
couldn't possibly work with - We've even made the sort of alliances
that would never be made anyone other than the desperate. Some of us
have taken lives whilst others have in some way changed our entire
viewpoints of our privileged, Elite lives

.. and I for one am loving it.

The others are either eating, drinking or tucking into a quick game of
Quake 3 at the moment. Two of the three GMs are sitting in the corner,
tapping things into a couple of palmtops and talking quiet enough that
a number of us are getting edgy about what they're going to do to us
next. The group has split into two - I'm currently holed up on the top
floor of a Draco-held building with eight others. They're sending
ComSec SC (special circumstances) snipers up the stair wells to take
us out before one of our number does a 'spectacular' and gets us out.
ComSec don't yet know that we can see the snipers using internal
security cameras rigged into a rather gucci laptop.
No-one knows that I'm a ComSpec Operative (currently attached to
Room10) (yeeeehaaa!)
They'll find out soon.

This is the first time in a game when I've been genuinely worried
about my character - I'm worried that I'm going to die.

Sooooo How does Face-To-Face in a PBM world with PBM GMs against
fellow PBM players compare to real PBM?

Different! Enjoyable! I don't think anyone who plays RPG PBMs can ever
understand a GMs thinking until they've met, chatted to - shared a
drink-with etc. their GM. When you've got three of them who really
seem to enjoy what they're doing, along with good players who've got
the same understanding of the game-world its certain to turn any
enthusiast into an addict.

The addiction will continue overnight I reckon. Pizza Huts a
half-an-hour and a motor-scooter ride away, the coffe/beer/spirit/etc.
is still flowing

When you spend your time playing games that come on paper or thru the
web you can't help but feel detached from everyone else in some way.
Here in this room, on a really cold, dark night overlooking the old
ruins of Dale Abbey - You start to realise why you really might get to
like these games. ..
Coffee time I think.

John Lee
"The devils in the Dreaming
He tells you I'm not sleeping in my hotel room alone
With nothing to believe in
You dive into the traffic rising up
And its so quiet
You're surprised
And then you wake."

References

Commune - Report from a PBM Gathering
johnlee@hinterland.fesnet.co.uk (John Lee)
Sat, 18 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Commune - Report from a PBM Gathering
johnlee@hinterland.fesnet.co.uk (John Lee)
Sat, 18 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000