Diversity, Discussion and Dice

I'm still on the high that I felt when this day was over. The organisation and running of this event was only possible because of the help and support of my wonderful friends and fellow roleplayers. I was surprised at the interest in the diversity day when it was first suggest as a concept. I had several people say to me that an attempt to address several issues in one day was really welcome as a lot of cons have an hour long slot for diversity in gaming as a catch all. Thankfully we had some fantastic entertaining speakers and participants who contributed thoughtfully and brought a lot to the discussion.

We had 6 talks throughout the day in two rooms:

Dealing with triggers while gaming which I ran as a workshop on the meaning of triggering different safety techniques which were currently used and how they could be improved. There was a nice turnout and enough people to split the group into 4 so that we could examine techniques in more depth. (There was a singing class taking place in the background so sometimes I'd make a point and hear some inspiring music well up behind me - I would recommend that to all nervous public speakers!)

At the same time in the other room Graham Walmsley ran a talk and discussion on Other histories: Positve perspectives on Queerness and Women

In the second slot Joanna Piancastelli ran a talk on how to play characters which are different from yourself both sensitively and well.

Anita Murray ran a talk called Playing with Sex, looking at the positive aspects of sex in role playing. There was also a very interesting facilitated discussion that arose from this which covered bleed, consent and whether roleplayed sex could be romantic.

In the final slot Helen Gould ran a talk and discussion called Leaving the West which was about looking at different ways to set roleplaying games and play characters outside a Western setting with a particular focus on Africa.

Karolina Soltys ran a talk on sensitive and realistic portrayal of mental health issues in roleplaying which then became an interesting discussion on bleed and whether games could be designed which portrayed mental health in an accurate way.

After that we had a gaming session with Stiainín Jackson running her game Court Whispers, Karolina running a hack of the game A family affair involving one of the characters having mental health issues and Richard Williams running B x B by Jake Richmond and Heather Aplington.

Some of the transcripts of the talks and a write up of the triggers workshop can be found here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-I8NCTgeqBbd0FlcnJfVHBhRkE&usp=sharing

It was a good day. There was a lot of enthusiasm and willingness to learn from each other. I hope that this can eventually be an annual thing and that next year we'll be back bigger and better!

Normal service to resume shortly

Sorry about the brief hiatus. Your regular gaming content will resume shortly:

Some things to look forward to (!):

• My attempt to GM Monsterhearts at London indie meet
• An account of a play test of a game I am designing
• Campaigns and world building
• and the possibility of Changeling the Lost with fairy tales hacked using the Fate

On character design

This entry is about descriptions of characters and how they shape their personality. Like a lot of this blog it probably mainly applies to indie games (although feel free to tell me I'm wrong) and is something that has recently occurred to me. It might be obvious to a lot of players.

                                                                          *****

In some games, no doubt for easy character creation, you are encouraged to consider your character's appearance as briefly as possible. What types of eyes do they have? What, if any, gender are they? What's their body shape?

This is particularly great for one shot games where you don't want to spend an hour creating a character description. It's also something I've done by choice. When described Fiasco characters in the past as 'male, brown hair, brown eyes, skinny and about 34,' for example, I've often only thought of them like that, without any real definition (at least until the game starts).

I was playing a game today where we were really encouraged to get into character description. I started off with the standard description of a 17 year old woman with stringy blonde hair. And then I started thinking, why is her hair stringy. Maybe she's making a statement that she doesn't consider appearance important. (Actually in this case she'd just survived the apocalypse so it probably wasn't the top of her agenda – but imagine if it had been, end of the world and she still cared about her hair, – you'd have a whole different character).

She had a light scar on her face where she had pushed past someone when the apocalypse started to try to get to safety. So, a fighter or a panicker. (I nearly always play characters who panic.I'm sure that this says nothing about me whatsoever.)

She was wearing ripped jeans and a hoodie top – possibly clothes to make a statement, particularly as her boyfriend was wearing something similar. (That was a coincidence but an interesting one). Could it mean something for the character? The relationship?

She was also wearing an old fishing jacket of her father's. Maybe that could say something about the relationship. He wanted to protect her and she loved him (or was obedient) enough to put up with the jacket. Something to consider when playing the relationship during the game.

She also had an old scar on her arm from when she had tried and failed to give herself a tattoo two years ago. I didn't specify what of but there are a few paths that could be taken with that. Obsession with something maybe? Or self destructive tendencies? Or teenage rebellion? Or peer pressure?

And you have the beginning of a character. I'm not trying to make any deeper point with this. Certainly there are lots of ways to shape your character e.g. through stats and abilities or merits and flaws. I just found it interesting that it allowed me to go into the game with more idea of who I was playing. I will also try to remember that just because the character sheet only gives me limited options doesn't mean that I can't have a more complete picture of the character in my head.