Okay, I have an idea for character I'd like to play for a change. Those of you who have read any quantity of my previous posts on pen & paper roleplaying will know they tend to revolve around ideas for games, worlds, settings or mechanics, enchanted artifacts and such, as I mostly GM.
Every now and again however, I conceive of a character I'd like to play. And I live in hope that one of my friends or acquaintances will create a game for me to enjoy from the other side of the table from time to time.
The idea of this character has really been born out of two notions:
1) The idea of collaborative story-telling in an RPG. The sort of thing John Wick bangs on about. And the sort of thing I embarrassingly have never tried myself. Too old skool, too much of a control freak. But the concept does intrigue me. Taking part in a game where the players don't just participate in, but to some extent actively modify the plot to a certain degree. And...
2) I've been watching a lot of Sherlock Holmes recently. Most notably Benedict Cumberbatch's modern reworking of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic, to CBS's most recent adaptation set in New York.
And it struck me that playing a character like Holmes, displaced into a fantasy genre (so approaching, I suppose, to some degree the forensic eccentricities of Depp's Ichabod Crane) such a character could create a number of ad lib'd hooks for the GM to utilise in a collaborative style pen & paper RPG. I've always wanted to play a character whose priniple 'weapon' was hypnotism too. So I'll throw that in there as well.
This is the way I see it working:
The GM sets up the scene as per normal. But whenever the Sherlock character begins to investigate the area, the player (that'll be me for a change) adds in detail that the GM didn't explicitly mention at the time - and may not have even considered, but the GM then uses these hooks to further develop the story.
So I get to say things like: Yes the barkeep at the Drowned Goblin seems like a pleasant enough fellow, indeed. But appearances can be deceptive. His clothes had a familiar odour, that of winter roses, an expensive perfume favoured by Lord Heldrum's mistress. Moreover, the barkeep had abrasions on the back of his left hand, resembling marks left by teeth but with a noticeable indentation not present, commensurate with an upper left canine, missing from Heldrum's mistress's handmaiden, Flossie. Moreover the Drowned Goblin itself is built on the old part of the town, atop the ancient catacombs that run the length and breadth of the merchant quarter heading towards the cliffs overlooking the bay. The barkeep's boots were black with mud and yet it hasn't rained in days. I'd wager that if we explore the cellar, we'll find a concealed entrance to those dank catacombs and a trail that leads directly to Heldrum's mistress's cottage on the outskirts of town towards the east.
I think you get the general idea. From a GM's point of view players' actions inevitably require some ad lib'ing to weave them effectively into the story. With a character like the one sketched out above, the GM will have if anything a surfeit of ideas to aid them in this endeavour. And it would be a great opportunity to try out some of this collaborative story-telling all the kids are talking about. :-) I remember when all this was fields.
Now if I can just find someone interested enough to run such a game.... ;-)
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