InsaneJournal

Current mood:	thoughtful
Current music:	NIN - Year Zero
Entry tags:	exalted, l5r, roleplaying

A RP update.

Current games I'm in
- Wardragon 40k, an Exalted 1st ed. game in an AU First Age, run by a friend of mine (Greymane). The PCs are all Dragon-blooded in a Creation devastated by a seemingly neverending war with the undead. This is probably my favorite game EVER to play in right now. I play Archana Avanti, an Earth Aspect with a custom Celestial Martial Art I designed (Ivory Dragon Style). She's part commanding officer, part warrior priestess devoted to the Terrestrial Dragon of Earth, and probably one of my most strong-willed chars with a powerful, uncompromising presence.
- Legend of the Five Rings: Like Orchids in Winter, run by my husband. It runs pretty sporadically, but still, I know from Jon that he's willing to run it for the long haul no matter how long it takes. It's a game that starts pre-Clan War and he plans to take us all the way through that war so that we might impact things and make the outcome different, potentially! My char is an Earth shugenja by the name of Shiba Yamiko, part of the Phoenix Clan but with a strong Crab Clan lineage. Her father is a pretty important figure in the Empire and she rather hero-worships him. ^^;
- Another game that... doesn't have a name, but is set in 1890s America, again using Ex1 rules. My friend Selina runs it. Again it also runs periodically (this is why I can have so many games going on... a lot of them don't run regularly ^^) but it's started off with this sorta murder mystery plot with demons and dark sorcery involved, interesting stuff! My PC is a Sidereal of Endings, Clarissa Alethea Landen, a highly educated sorceress and social activist with a vision to put an end to outdated modes of thinking in politics and civil rights. Or something... well it sounds cooler in concept than execution, so far!
- I'm also going to be playing a one-shot game in a couple weeks with a person I met a little while ago. Not sure how that will go, but it's another Exalted game and I'll be playing a Solar (probably Night caste) from the South.



Current games I'm running
- Ember Days, which I've already mentioned before. Dragon-blooded game set in the Realm, running Ex1 rules (I intend to keep it that way, despite my growing interest in Ex2). Socially and politically oriented, potential civil war, Sidereal revelations, etc! Right now it has 3 players plus one I want to introduce very soon. I hope it will work out. ^^;
- Soul Collectors, which I've given a lot of preliminary details about here. I intend to run it with the Exalted 2nd edition rules I've been either ignoring or just... not figuring out properly until now. :O


I think I really need to branch out from playing Exalted, because it's all I really know (well, I know L5R pretty well, but it's been slow-going, and Jon knows it better than me). I'm kind of shy about going into a new game system though, particularly if it's with people I hardly know. I think that's the hard part... finding both the right system and the right group to play it with. Exalted has been relatively safe because I've built up a small group of people I actually do like playing with, and I feel reasonably confident running it, as well -- except for those bouts of anxiety that mess me up now and then. *sigh*

I've also built up some expectations when it comes to RP. Online, at least, I like to experience a certain level of immersion with a character and game. I like to play with people who are serious about portraying their characters and histories... I like games with involved plots that tend towards the dark, even bleak, a sort of 'RP as social commentary' perhaps, or even questions of morality involved. It's hard to find this, because everyone RPs for different reasons. Many do it for an escape from reality, and like more light-hearted, uninvolved games. Me? I RP to create a story with my fellow players and GM. In Exalted games, particularly, I take the moniker of "Storyteller" very seriously. I'm weaving something less of a game, I think, and more like an interactive novel with combat and social rolls now and then. That kind of play, I think, requires a certain amount of commitment, trust and common tastes/interests among all those involved. So... it's harder to find players for me. Sometimes frustratingly hard.

There is, of course, the worrying potential of TOO much immersion. I have found myself at that threshold before, and at least once have stepped past it, and regretted it. I think that *because* of mistakes like that, though, I am better able to keep that separation between reality and fantasy intact. I do NOT by any circumstance ever believe that RP should be more important than RL.

That's all for this rare IJ post of the moment... Maybe I'll write again soon!