Shout out

WISH 45: Accolades and Warm Fuzzies

Who are some gamers you admire and appreciate? Name three (or as many as you like) gamers you admire and/or appreciate right now, and explain why.

Okay, slightly different approach: I’m going to list everyone I game with regularly and explain why I gots da love for em.
Jackie: Support. Support Support Support. No one gives me a sense of appreciation like Jackie does when she had a good time. As a player, I now admire (I didn’t used to) her ability to be completely confrontational when she’s in character — she never backs down in favor of possibly give a bad impression of herself — her characters always follow a hard line even in the face of … hell, everything.
Justin: He’s a dorky twelve year invariably forced to play with veteran games who’ve been doing this for decades.
And he does okay. That doesn’t sound like such great praise, but we’re talking about ***Dave, Me, Jackie, Robert, Lori… god, everyone… great roleplayers, great planners, great tacticians; and yet every so often, Justin’s the one with the idea, with the great portrayal, or with the tears-in-the-eyes funny joke.
Then, watch him play with kids his own age… it’s amazing… he is to them as we are to him.
Randy: It’s no small thing that Randy has introduced us to so many other of the people on this list. What I like about Randy is the thinking — he will noodle at design problems or an IC situation like no one else I know. Bonus: he’s the only active GM in the group besides me right now, which means “Randy = I get to Play!” (Also, his knowledge of good over-the-counter cold medication is unparalleled. 🙂
***Dave & Margie: Dave develops history and background for his characters. That’s it: the thing he does that I love — I could read his character bios all day (I have spent days doing that, in fact). It doesn’t matter if it’s a one-off or a two-year campaign: everything gets that kind of attention.
It would be fascile and unfair to mention Margie’s cooking. I like Margie as a gamer because she always has a plan: for her character advancement or the problem at hand or whatever — she’s the one with the game plan.
Dave G & Lori: Dave’s strength is rules knowledge — I like having him at a table because he’s one of the reliable ‘rules monkey’s’ I can always turn to. That said, his ability (as a #200+ man) to convincingly play sex-kitten female characters is uncanny and wierdly mesmerizing. 🙂
When it comes to in-game enthusiasm and joy, no one matches Lori. When the game’s over, she’s just spent — completely wiped out. She comes into the game tired sometimes too — where she gets the energy from sometimes I don’t even think she knows.
Robert & Lori: Robert keeps me honest as a GM — I don’t have the luxury of not knowing how to handle a scene. Also, he loves playing with Justin 🙂 Lori keeps me honest as a GM: she is my double-check on whether or not I communicated well. She is a classic DnD player 🙂
Rey & Juli: Rey my idea guy — the two of us can carry each other to amazing heights powered by nothing more than the lifting power of our own hot air. 🙂 Juli has a simple desire that games be both wondrous and make sense — every GM needs someone like her around.
John B. Everyone needs to play with someone smarter than they are. I have several, but John is the one who constantly reminds me just by playing his character.
Stan: Stan always cheers me up. He always just has so much damn FUN. In a lot of ways, his effect on the game is alot like Lori’s. Also, he’s a planner — sort of a combo of Lori H and Margie 🙂 (Isn’t that great, Stan? You’re a hybrid!)
Mike: Mike’s commitment to the concept of his character in the face of overwhelming pressure is remarkable. I know I couldn’t manage it.
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FINALLY, THE INTERNET.
Gah. There’s no way I can start this: Meera, Arref, & Epoch for ideas, and the incredible unspoken debt I owe to the Umich Amber players (especially Kris Fazzari for putting the game stuff on the internet — their gamelogs from the mid-90’s are what got me into Amber in the first place and got me putting stuff up on a web page).