Tag: Thoughts

Gone Quiet But Still Here

December 31, 2019
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| Musings of the Mistress

I know I’ve gone quiet since my last post about leaving the Academy. Since then I’ve been giving some thought to a challenge I gave myself nearly a decade back, but hadn’t been able to fully realize … until now. The challenge revolved around the development of a rules system, the specifics I’ll share later. Over the past few months since leaving the Academy I’ve been working on that challenge. The prior attempts I’ve made in earlier years (somewhere around a half-a-dozen) have ended in me halting work and putting the system aside until I learned more, had an…

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My Gamer Type: Immersed Storywriter

November 21, 2018
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| Musings of the Mistress

One of the first things I did when I started at my current company was take an assessment that helped me understand my gaming style or type. I realized that I never really shared this out, and I find it very telling about myself and my RP/game style and key motivations. I’m an Immersed Storywriter: I like to hold my character’s actions and fate in my hands, allowing me to feel completely engrossed in the role-play experience. I like feeling a sense of control and freedom as well as an emotional connection to my characters. For me playing a…

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The GM-PC Conundrum

November 18, 2018
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| Musings of the Mistress

It’s amazing what playing in a game can do to spurn thoughts, and this one is something that I’ve seen done well, but also seen done disastrously: GMs/STs who also have PCs in the game. Much like the recent posts this one was inspired by a conversation I had where mentioned that “I feel as an ST/GM that you need to look at your game first, not your PCs.” I am very much an advocate of if you’re running a game, find a game to play in, with one major caveat: it should not be your own game. Find…

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Game Boundaries, Expectations, and Letting Players Go

November 16, 2018
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| Musings of the Mistress

I was chatting with one of my STs/GMs the other night after I’d decided to retire my character from play. My reasons for doing so aren’t important here, but over the course of the conversation surrounding the character’s retirement I also learned more about the nature of the game that was being run and the system that was being used (I was new to this edition of the game system) and realized that it wasn’t one that fit with what I was looking for in a game. Despite myself pointing out several times that “this system just isn’t my…

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On Players, Characters, and PC ties

November 16, 2018
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| Musings of the Mistress

PC to PC ties can be a great way to help web and network a new character into a game, but that only works if the characters that a PC is tied to are around, active, and able to be engaged with for that tie to be meaningful. Otherwise it just becomes a background point that fades into history. I see two types of ties: the ‘handwave tie’ and the ‘deep tie.’ The handwave tie is a tie that is very background and really won’t come into play in any significant way, and when it does come into play…

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Revisiting My Guild Seeker’s Interview Questions

March 15, 2016
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| Musings of the Mistress

In an earlier posting I shared my Guild Seeker’s Interview Questions, but I didn’t go into depth of why I ask them and what I hope to learn from each one. I figured it would be good to revisit them. I also want to expand them from those I ask as a potential guild member to the recruitment team or leadership to include their counterpart that I’d ask as a member of guild leadership to a prospective member. One thing that people might notice is that the list has expanded by two questions. It’s gone from five to seven,…

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Bad Behavior and Organizational Culture: A Follow-up

February 26, 2016
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| Musings of the Mistress

When I posted the earlier post, it generated a lot of discussion on my personal Facebook page. One of the comments posted included the following: “I’m still left wondering why they tolerated such behavior to the degree they had.” I feel a need to share my answers because I think it elaborates not only on the situation, but on the quote in the initial article: Some people have a hard time enforcing rules because they don’t want to upset an individual, they’re too passive and accepting … of any behavior. In the case of RainFurrest, I think it came…

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Bad Behavior and Organizational Culture

February 25, 2016
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| Musings of the Mistress

“The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.” I was reading about the demise of RainFurrest (no, I’m not a Furry, however it was a major area con and I do pay at least passing attention to such things) and a comment in reply to the ex-board member’s long post had this quote. That quote had me thinking about some of the organizations, groups, conventions and games I’d been a part of in my past. There are some games and/or organizations that I will NEVER* play or be a part…

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