1 August 2001
Last year: This was news to me.
Happy August!
Three days in a row, now, I've stayed up past one in the morning without intending to... The gods of sleep deprivation are demanding my devotions once again, I suppose.
Last night it was another mock-combat for the 7th Sea play-by-email game, this time for Ashby's benefit. I think, now that he's done with his character, that the actual game will be starting soon. I'm excited! I'm just hoping it will be a story-driven campaign rather than combat-driven. Once again, I picked out a great character concept, but because of the things I piled into the concept, she's less effective in combat than I think she should be.
(It doesn't help that I'm unfamiliar with the sword schools, and the one I wound up taking - while great for the concept - isn't really all that effective.)
And I hope that our combat sessions start earlier in the evening than the mock combat sessions did - they take forever to run!
I did screw up a little, though. I went and got emotionally invested in the fight. I actually let the Villian's taunting reach me, just a bit, and I was *so* determined to take him down that it was something of a blow when I went down instead. I thought I was holding it together - reminding myself that it was not only just a game, but not even a real session of the game - until I found out just how badly I'd been overmatched.
I'm not sure why, but that just made it worse, and I couldn't refrain from snapping at Matt, who was GMing the session. And then of course, I felt guilty. Of course we were overmatched. Villians don't have to actually be played, so all of their creation points can go straight into the skills that make them the nastiest. They can be bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, tougher and deadlier because they don't need a source of income, or to speak more than one language, or non-combat skills, or have to plan for being caught without their preferred weapon, or any of the other stuff that's necessary for a player's character to have. And, of course, they don't have to start with the beginning number of points at all.
"Who said life was fair? Where is that written?" --The Princess Bride
Ah, well, there's your lesson, boys and girls: Never, but never fight a 7th Sea Villian one-on-one.
Though I must say Ashby's desperate attack after I went down was very impressive. I think Matt fudged the Villian's wound check because I'd snapped at him. But I'm not complaining. It was beautiful.
I think I should get some sleep soon.
Word of the Day:
aught - not nothing, anything; all, everything
Currently Reading:
- nothing
Current Projects:
- drawing
- Hall stuff
- garden