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What's someone else's gaming skill?
I started a thread asking people about what they're good at doing during games... and it's making me really joyful to read the responses.
So, I decided I'd like another thread like it.
Think about the people you game with (or have gamed with, whether once or a hundred times). What's something that someone at the table does really well?
It can include specific techniques, personality traits that lend well to the group, anything!
If you'd like to share what about the thing is so good, do so! If you want to reflect on whether you're capable of that same thing, also feel free, though don't make the post about you. There's another thread for that!
So, I decided I'd like another thread like it.
Think about the people you game with (or have gamed with, whether once or a hundred times). What's something that someone at the table does really well?
It can include specific techniques, personality traits that lend well to the group, anything!
If you'd like to share what about the thing is so good, do so! If you want to reflect on whether you're capable of that same thing, also feel free, though don't make the post about you. There's another thread for that!
Comments
It's like a tiny fishing lure that somehow manages to snag an entire school of fish, reeling them all in at once.
He's really good at taking people to their awesome threshold, but never quite crossing into that stupid gonzo territory.
It adds a lot to the game. It does make it very tempting to be lazy when writing scenarios, leaving it to Steve to fill in the details.
Graham
There's a separate skill called "tactful integration", where one inserts details in a non-derailing, scene-enriching way. Does Steve also have that skill?
Its happened more often on his blog than anyone else's (even Our Lord Vincent's) that I'll be reading along and suddenly go "OH SHIT! That's what I've been trying to get at but was too lazy to actually put in the thought and effort to get all the way to the conclusion. Thanks buddy for making that clearly expressed for me!"
Past that, I've friends with amazing gaming skills, but no one here knows any of them, so I can't see where you'd care that, say Leo Lingas brings the most amazing and infectious enthusiasm to games, or that Chris Claxton brings a focus and dedication to game that's a rare thing to see, or that Mo has a skill at creating full, round characters that is amazing to see.
Graham
Shane Jackson will slide into the role of any character like putting on a pair of gloves, from the first sentence his character utters. This is big for me, as it often takes me some time to "wind up" when getting into a character. But whether a cynic, a romantic, a man or woman, Shane really gets into his characters. That's probably why he is so into Call of Cthulhu.
Everyone at my table brings something to it (Quintin Stone = great with planning, keeping characters involved, Travis Bryant = great at character acting, etc). The above are just some specific examples.
-Andy
Bob will know the rules inside and out and will teach you how to build characters if it is one of those strategic, wargamey games like D&D.
Jere will attack his characters with gusto and haul ass, pulling the rest of the game along behind him. I have a really hard time GMing without at least one Jere in the game who I can bounce things off of and react to.
Shael will play strange, interesting characters to the hilt and address morality issues in the game. I always feel like we're breaking new ground whenever I have a game with him in it.
Tony LB is amazing at creating situations in which he plays these endearingly pathetic characters and then stabs you in the heart with sadness. I'm pretty sure that he wrote Misery Bubblegum just so he could do that a lot. I still remember our game of Ganakagok at last year's GenCon that went something like this:
Me: Wait, you're saying that YOUR EXISTENCE is a sin against the stars.
Tony: YES.
Table: ....whoa.
John S. (jenskot) is great at finding the dramatic opportunities in scenes where that isn't obvious.
Emily Boss is great at really listening to every player at the table.
Frank Hablawi and Rich Flynn can each express a character with clarity and distinctiveness through a few sentences of dialogue.
Jeff Colyer is great at structuring a session and facilitating group communication, including calling breaks or asking metagame questions at just the right moments.
Matt W. (Deliverator) can get really into character and simultaneously keep a keen eye on storytelling concerns like pacing and direction.
My buddies who none of y'all know: Dan G. can play characters via just facial expressions. John Z. is brilliant at drawing connections and inventing theories about "what's going on" in the fiction.
Jonathan White has this unique thing he does where he starts narrating, gets to a moment for dialogue, takes a second or two to formulate what he wants to say, then says it -- but somehow keeps the energy extremely high through this whole process.
Rob Sama always manages to come up with memorable, off-the-beaten path character concepts and breathe life into them in spectacular fashion. The sundress wearing wookie (who spent a lot of time discussing "the lifestyle" on-line with the handful of other transvestite wookies in the galaxy), Le Chef Magique (the arrogant awakened television chef who was forced into a life of shadowrunning after he punched a kid on his live Christmas Special), MacBride (who gave up a life of swashbuckling piracy to go to university and agitate for Democracy), you could always count on Rob to bring his own style to any game you played. (This description would help if you could hear him singing the Chef Magique theme song in French.)
Jeff Herrold is the best long-term campaign GM I've ever seen. One reason why is a supernatural willingness to ditch his own notions in favor of those of the player's. Example: at the end of the best campaign I've ever been in, he asked if we had questions. I remembered a point years earlier where the group had a choice between following two goals that led in opposite directions, and asked what would have happened if we had made the other choice. "One sec", he said, and left the room. He came back with two huge binders and showed us what the plan would have been in that case. What impressed me wasn't so much that he had done all that planning, but that he totally jettisoned it all without us even noticing, basically because we zigged instead of zagged.
It's the kind of synergy that, I suppose, only really comes from playing RPGs together for 14 of the last 26 years.
Ray Geoffoy brings The Epic. Bigger, shinier, more awesome, LET'S GET IT ON! (Family Guy reference there) It's not always what's needed, but for games like Exalted it's hella fun.
Drew Tatro and Janra Roberts will find a way to be eeeeeevil together in such a way that no one will ever catch or stop them, or even particularly want to.
Evan Hughes creates games where the PCs are caught between two large and dangerous antagonists, where there are no "good guys."
Joe S is terrifyingly good at plots and intrigue, which sort of makes it's own action.
Simone C is simply one of the best role-players I've ever met, and our styles align so well that it's just pure joy to play in games with her.
John Kim (who is here) I haven't played with much, but the LARP he ran at ACNW last year was really awesome, and just the sort of game I like to play in. He brings a LOT to the table, and you can tell he's really thought things through, but he let's stuff happen too.
Ben R has lots of ranks in Mentor, plus he can be counted upon to bring the incest.
I don't think any of you know Skaff - for a trad player who acts like he's all above freeform stuff he can really bring it. He's a creative force, and does some pretty awesome voices too.