Claimh Solais

Gamemastering: Going Against the Norm

I've been listening to an audio book in the car the last couple of days. The book is Basket Case by Carl Hiassen. In it, there is a scene where the main character, Jack Tagger, catches someone ransacking his house. He sneaks to the kitchen freezer and pulls out a frozen lizard he had in his freezer. Then, he catches the mook by suprise and beats on him with a frozen lizard named Colonel Tom. In the book, it was already set up why Jack had this frozen lizard in his freezer and while it was a tad weird, it made some sense. However, it occured to me how bizarre thos would be to the mook as he's fighting a guy who is swinging a frozen lizard buy its tail.

Ain't this just like real life? Weird things happen. I'm sure every professional house burglar has stories to tell where homeowners confronted them using the strangest things as weapon.

As I was thinking about the briliance of this scene, I started thinking: How often are PCs in a roleplaying game the targets of these lizard-weilding opponents?" How often does a GM throw in something that seems really odd, has nothing to do with some sinister plot or magical weirdness and has a perfectly reasonable explanation? We GMs (including myself) tend to think of the cliches. If a PC is sneaking through someone's apartment and is confronted, chances are the tenant would threaten that PC with 1) a baseball bat, 2) a pistol, or 3) a shotgun. These are the cliches in homowner protection. How many people in real life have these items near their bed, anyway? Wouldn't most people need to improvise?

I'm thinking that a little weirdness like this could go a long way in improving the memorability of a game. Are PCs going to remember that scene where they fought off Jack Taggart and his baseball bat? Probably not. Will they be talking about that crazy guy with the frozen lizard in his freezer later? You can probably count on it.

So, I'm thinking about starting up a weekly Meme. If people are interested in participating, I will start a Meme for writers and GMs where each week I will post a cliche scenario that could appear in a roleplaying game or a piece of fiction. The participants, will write their own version of this scenario where things just get a little weird. Here's the kicker. Participants should then give a somewhat plausible reason why this happen.

For example, in the book I mention above, Jack Taggart has a lizard in his freezer because it was his pet that died last year. He didn't want to throw Col. Tom out in the garbage, so he put him in the freezer until he found the right time to give Col. Tom a proper burial. A year later, he still hadn't gotten to the point where he was ready to let Tom go. When getting ready to confront the intruder, the lizard was the only good weapon he could think of.

Yeah, it's still a little weird but with other quirks Taggart has regarding death it makes sense.

So, would anybody out there be interested in poarticipating in the "Wednesday Weird"? Like Bryant's "Monday Mashup" and Ginger's "WISH" memes, participation each week would be optional. Don't have anything to write for a topic? Wait until next week. Anyone could participate simply by either replying in the comments section or posting on their own blog and linking to it below. (This blog has Trackback. So if you're using Moveable Type, it's even easier.) If at least two people show interest, I'll start the Wednesday Weird this week. If you have ideas for scenarios to tackle in the Wednesday Weird, feel free to email me at Nuadha at SkySeaStone dot net.

[EDIT- A coworker just told me about some couple he knew that had a frozen monkey in their freezer for a year because it was a pet that died and they were waiting until they moved to a new home to bury it. I guess the frozen lizard is more plausible than I even thought. A monkey!? That had to take up a lot of freezer space.]

Posted by Nuadha at February 1, 2004 1:27 PM