Exposition Session

Indeed, enjoy the vacations !

Alright I'm back. How was everyone's New Year?

Welcome Back! So far so good! :)

Happy New Year (a bit late, I guess) !
And good enough to me, how was yours ?

Nothing crazy. Had the nephew's over and played games until midnight.

Anyone come back with any baller ideas?

Most of my brain energy right now is turned toward my exams, to be honest x). Speaking of which, would it annoy anyone if we start after the 15th, since I'll be way more available after that ?

I still haven't done anything with my character and having some difficulty with the requirements. The thing I liked about the earlier versions of rpg's is that character motivation wasn't really required. What are my personal motivations? I have none. I live day to day, just hoping to live through that day. At my age that's all you can ask for. As for identity, the only thing I do is look in a mirror. If I see a face I recognize, I have identified myself. Anything beyond that is way over my head. As for themes and character evolution, I have to go back to my personal life. I evolve using my eyes and my brain. I see the world around me and read the printed page and learn from that. If there is more to evolution than that, I don't know what it is. So with all that said is it still beneficial to have me in this group since I have no idea how to create the necessary character.

The real question is if you feel its too much work to play. This is supposed to be fun not work. I think we can help you come up with something and maybe ease the trouble.

Lets start with the legend you liked, the god of dreams. (I do have a question as to why you switched from Azathoth? I love Cthulhu myth.) We can work from the legend out to the person it is expressing itself through.
What kind of power or abilities will this mythos give your character?

Azathoth, being a blind idiot god, in an attempt to outwit the Elder gods, finds that he can only see by invading people's dreams. It's but a quick step from seeing people's dreams to entering them and altering them into nightmares. Azathoth has had plenty of time to worm his way out of the chaos at the center of the universe and find a world that he can devastate. His next step is to try to not only control the nightmare but also control each being's waking life and thereby the entire world. His only difficulty is what he will encounter in the power of the human mind.

Now, the power that this mythos would transmit to my character will take some thought and discussion. I would have to go back and analyze the goals of the characters of this game and find out what the others are doing with there character's powers. I would think that my character's power would have something to do with people's minds. Mind control is probably way too powerful at least at the beginning. Mind reading is a possibility but there are a large number of variables to be had there. Perhaps if the thought is within a certain range and it's a powerful enough thought and it's directed toward him or someone close to him. Then, if that's too strong we can talk about reading simple emotions. Like I said, I don't know what the others are doing and what you would accept.

I personally find the modern design trend of RPGs to point character building back to motivation to be refreshing and important. Even in Ye Olde RPGs, you had Alignment (moral and ethical motivations), and simple motivations built into adventure design. Most adventurers wanted to get hold of treasure, slay evil monsters, or just feel alive with the thrill of combat, action, and exploration.

Motivations don't have to be complex to be compelling. At his root, my character wants to maintain his comfortable status quo, but also to exert more personal agency in his life. All of the context is built outward from that, and I've taken some care to build conflicts into the sheet thematically, but that's all icing on top of that simple motivational core.

Heck, being able to live a normal, boring life and return to mundanity is a compelling motivation in a setting like this. Look at Cypher in The Matrix. Or Oz's Dorothy Gale, a character that can almost be read as reactionary to Alice's sort of feckless wanderer, who has a clear but mundane motivation to just get home safely.

(See also the entire subgenre-made-genre of Trapped In VR Animes for more examples.)

Good, clear motiviations also are really important guideposts for GMs, giving them good clues about the themes the players want to explore, and what dominoes to set up in a scene or session to create emotional challenges, resonance, and arcs, beyond the mere physical facts of a given situation. Character creation that compels you to express those motivations and get them written down lets you express them to the GM through the process of character creation, rather than having to pry it out.

A character who wants to live a normal life will react much differently to things that disrupt their lives and threaten their connections to loved ones than quixotic adventurers who want to shed their humanity and become larger than life. Threatening the job of the assistant manager at the local Pick n' Save who wants to be a dragon and one who doesn't will play out totally differently for either character because of their motivations, even if they have all the same powers and statistics.

@GreyGriffin fantastic words, they have given my feul to help with story building.

@Aldrusian mind control is not too powerful an ability. It would be the theme book and you'd answer the question for the theme that best fits it. After that we would figure out the power tags and how they work.
It's your job as a player to think of the most interesting and fun character you would want to play; it is my job to build a story around that idea to keep you interested.

Just checking in on you all. Not sure about the rest of you but I've had a lot of distractions at the moment. I am still here and will try keep a twice a week posting schedule.

Now, where is everyone with their characters? Aldrusian was contemplating a mond controller with the legend of an ancient god.
GreyGriffin has the legend of the white rabbit.
There was a terrible event during a convention(I'm drawing a blank on what the public thinks happened.)
What are the rest of you thinking of going for?

Should be able to complete my sheet this weekend, personally. I have a very precise idea of what I want to go for.

I should have the sheet done by early next week

I'm having trouble finding the appropriate themebook for my character. Every place I go on the internet gives me another long list of sites to choose from. I select one of them and get another long list. It's never ending.

KaeJae and I got together last night and knocked out a significant portion of our character sheets. This evening, I slammed my head into the wall (literally and unintentionally), so I may wait till tomorrow to finish...

Putting the finishing touches on the last Logos theme. But my brain hurts >.< Tomorrow, it will be done. Sorry it's taking so long!

Personally, I'm finally done with my Themes, so all that's left is to finish the backstory/origin, I guess. And maybe the Crew Tags, too ?