Wilderness of Mirrors – spy game. I played Ariel the “shade”, meaning I was meant to be the best at sneaking around. Something about this game didn’t really work for me, but that may just be because I was looking to play something which was on the whole sillier. I am pleased that I made all the spies take the names of Disney heroines as aliases though.
Best Friends – I ran this after dinner for a wonderful group: Matt, Debs, Luke, Erik, Nick, Conan and Fraser. After some discussion we decided our group of girls would all be superpowers and on a ‘Big Brother’ type reality TV show. We decided that the week before the last man was voted out of the house, and that’s why it was all girls left. The players spent some time deciding on superpowers that related to their character issues, and worked out relationships between them.
The best thing about this group was that they were fully into screwing themselves over story wise, so the work I had to do was pretty minimal. I had fun being the voice of Big Brother, inspired in part by the voice of the Computer in a Morgue run Paranoia game many many years ago. The game covered one ‘episode’ of Big Brother: Superheroes edition, and roughly two and a half days for the housemates. It had a compulsory task section, a reward* for the winning team and an eviction. I encouraged the housemates to have confessionals, alone with the camera and the Big Brother Voice developed a crush on Nick’s character.
The characters were all wonderful.
Erik played Legion, an angelic figure from a Hell dimension sent to Earth. One day her head will explode and hundreds of demons will pour forth from the gateway created and destroy mankind. And possibly the planet. Erik brought real emotional depth to this character, and I felt really sorry for her a lot of the time. Sample quote: Belladonna’s power is creating poison, but she can still help people out! All I can do is end the world!
Fraser played Mirage a self-promoting and somewhat morally questionable lady who had the power to create illusions. She used this power to play pranks on housemates and make herself look thinner. Sample quote I'm so glad I've been able to spend time in this house. I've developed a fantastic relationship with....uh...the really hot girl.
Debbie played Belladonna a Poison Ivy type villain whose body made all sorts of poisons and venoms. She managed to get 5 points of pretty and nothing else in character creation, so she was a bit of a bimbo. Sample quote: Why don’t I ever win the eviction prize? I could be a great Miss Eviction! I could represent evicted peoples!
Matt played Blue Steel a heroic woman made of metal. She represented the Steel Workers of America Union and wore a pair of overalls with the letters “BS” embroidered on the front. She only had one expression and was the subject of a botched makeover.
Sample Quote: I wish the Power Squad hadn’t broken up. Those were good times. Iron Commando was really hot.
Luke played Stellar an all rounder, previously a superhero but lately turned to the dark side. She was a bit bitter about not having one stand-out power, and she had issues from the past, including the break up of the Power Squad. Sample quote: So you're superpower is that you're lucky? Have you ever tested that, by like running at knives or something?
Conan played Serendipity, the super-lucky heroine who was extremely easy going and nice. She formed a bff kind of bond with Legion and got evicted in the end scene. (Because if it was time to leave the house, then it would certainly mean that there was something awesome for her outside...) Sample quote (Talking about Blue Steel): I knew she was hurting deep deep deep deep deep deep deep down. Or her furnace wasn't working.
Nick played Streak, a speedster hero. She was kind of the straight guy to all the other craziness, especially the Big Brother Voice, and her sample quote is directly related to that. Imagine a superheroine in the confessional room: I don't like being in this room. I feel like I am talking to myself.
BBV: I love you Streak
Ok, this entry took longer to write than I thought it would. I publish it now.
*a wheel of brie, a 5000 piece jigsaw with pieces missing and a pogo stick