Personal Mythos: The Reverend Mr. Black
Oct. 19th, 2004 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zdashamberThere are stories, quotes, lyrics, poems that I have internalized, that ring through my life when it brings me things that resonate with them, and hum quietly in the background at every other moment. I think of these as my personal mythos.
For some reason, "The Reverend Mr. Black" is among them. I've only ever run into the Kingston Trio version, though it sounds like an old folk song. I'd link to lyrics, but it recently occurred to me that I have a website for a reason, so right-click this link (2.8MB) and download it for yourself...
The other songs I've mentioned on this LJ that you should download for yourself are:
Anyway... The part that especially rings out to me is the chorus:
What brings "The Reverend Mr. Black" to mind is that knowing it made it really easy for me to come up with a character for Dogs in the Vineyard, which I got to try out Sunday. Bernie came back from GenCon interested in the game, and I've been interested to play it since I started reading the IRC Forge thing linked from Doyce's blog, the game that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beingfrank is playing in... So since Dave and Mary were watching the Farscape thing on their enormous TV Sunday, there were few of us enough for Bernie to give it a whirl.
Well, sortof. Four Dogs is a bit too many to descend on a town... The town we dealt with, the Steward locked up his daughter because he didn't like the boy who wanted to court her, so his wife started going behind his back and badmouthing him. We eventually forced everyone to talk to everyone else and blessed everything and left.
I had fun with traits, including stuff like "I sure can cook" and "I'm a mountain of a woman." Alas, we didn't get to roll a lot of dice; we're too used to games where talking doesn't mean rolling dice. I think we can do more with dice in the future. Likebeingfrank, though, I don't really see what Relationships are for. If you can't say "I think back to what my father [pushing dice forward] used to say...", then they hardly come up at all, and the "Strong Community" background... I dunno, are you supposed to show up in a town and devote dice to named NPCs? I suppose I ought to buy and read the book, what with the nifty dice-for-talking mechanic to support.
We did get a few choice quotes:
For some reason, "The Reverend Mr. Black" is among them. I've only ever run into the Kingston Trio version, though it sounds like an old folk song. I'd link to lyrics, but it recently occurred to me that I have a website for a reason, so right-click this link (2.8MB) and download it for yourself...
The other songs I've mentioned on this LJ that you should download for yourself are:
- Harry James and Helen Forest - I've Heard That Song Before (3.5MB)
- a Glorious Unknown Bach Fugue (4.8MB)
Anyway... The part that especially rings out to me is the chorus:
You got to walk that lonesome valley
You got to walk it by yourself
Oh, nobody else can walk it for you
You got to walk it by yourself
What brings "The Reverend Mr. Black" to mind is that knowing it made it really easy for me to come up with a character for Dogs in the Vineyard, which I got to try out Sunday. Bernie came back from GenCon interested in the game, and I've been interested to play it since I started reading the IRC Forge thing linked from Doyce's blog, the game that
beingfrank is playing in... So since Dave and Mary were watching the Farscape thing on their enormous TV Sunday, there were few of us enough for Bernie to give it a whirl.Well, sortof. Four Dogs is a bit too many to descend on a town... The town we dealt with, the Steward locked up his daughter because he didn't like the boy who wanted to court her, so his wife started going behind his back and badmouthing him. We eventually forced everyone to talk to everyone else and blessed everything and left.
I had fun with traits, including stuff like "I sure can cook" and "I'm a mountain of a woman." Alas, we didn't get to roll a lot of dice; we're too used to games where talking doesn't mean rolling dice. I think we can do more with dice in the future. Like
beingfrank, though, I don't really see what Relationships are for. If you can't say "I think back to what my father [pushing dice forward] used to say...", then they hardly come up at all, and the "Strong Community" background... I dunno, are you supposed to show up in a town and devote dice to named NPCs? I suppose I ought to buy and read the book, what with the nifty dice-for-talking mechanic to support.We did get a few choice quotes:
"So you knew they were sinning? So you didn't stop them?" - Ada Black (Me)
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't gut shoot you now." - Mike, ooc
"Accessory to fornication!" - Jeff, ooc
"I never expected to spend so much time in a roleplaying session combating sex out of marriage." - Mike
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 03:37 am (UTC)Having played a second session, I'm starting to see more of what Relationships are for. They're best used when you say at the start that the conflict is going to have resonance with one of your relationships. Like directly with the person, or when it's a parallel, say talking to a man who mistreats his kids when you were mistreated in the same way. It's a way of saying 'this echoes, this is important and makes a difference in this conflict.' But I haven't got the rules.
I also had the same thing with rolling dice for talking. But I'm getting used to it because the rest of the group has plenty of people who are used to using dice for that sort of thing. Keeing the maxim 'say yes or roll' in mind really helps. If I want to argue, then that's when I should roll. And it gives discussions are really interesting dynamic. The conversation is won by who has more at stake and who has the best luck, rather than by the player who is the best arguer. And the conversation gains texture because everything is either a block, reversing the blow or taking the blow. That's fun to work with.