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Danger! Female Characters in a “Medieval” Setting

Sep 1st, 2011 by ladymedieval

In his last post, Gestalt wrote about creating characters with more traditionally medieval values in his fantasy games. Now in reality, if you are striving to recreate (for lack of a better term) the most historically accurate medieval fantasy game ever to exist, that’s going to be very difficult. Many of the pieces of literature and other historical accounts that we cite as examples of medieval values were written with a very specific, subjective agenda and should be taken as the behavioral ideal, not the behavioral reality.

The chronological boundaries of the medieval age are very loose, even for scholars so depending on the time we are talking about, it may be difficult to pin down particular values. The time of Charlemagne was drastically different than the age of Chaucer. But throughout that period of history, the status of women (though it improved significantly by Chaucer’s time), generally stayed the same; women were either exalted from afar for their modesty and piety or they were seen as the wretched daughters of Eve, the cause of man’s fall.

Here’s one reason why I do not think you should strictly adhere to what you believe is as “traditional” medieval system of values in your games: it severely limits the role of women. If you have a player who is playing a female character, she will end up with less flexibility in what kind of character she will play, and here’s why:

man or woman, I'm still kicking ass, taking names, and protecting the kingdom.

What if I wanted to play a knight? I could always choose to play a male character, but for me personally, it would be very hard for any of the other players to take me seriously when I spoke up in the party. It would be comical if I tried to sound like a man every time I opened my mouth and my normal voice, is well, unconvincing (just listen to the podcasts…I’m the one that sounds like a 5 year old).

So if playing a male character is not an attractive option and I want to play a knight in a “traditional” medieval setting, I am left playing a female whose knighthood necessitates some ridiculously complicated back story as I am as a knight, and must be an exceptional female who has to constantly prove herself to everyone to earn their respect.

And my question is: why can’t I just play a normal knight who just happens to be a woman?

There is nothing wrong with wanting to play a character that has an unexceptional back story; normalcy is often underrated. Normal men and women can become heroes when faced with adversity…a heroic back story is not a necessary prerequisite for a noble and courageous person.

Yet in a “traditional” medieval world where women aren’t off adventuring, there has to be a way to “explain” her presence in the party, and that siphons your female PC’s into one of two categories: you will force the player to either play his or her character as submissive (because she’s abiding by society’s standards for women) or belligerent (because she has no choice but to rebel against society).

My DM could also choose not to let me play a knight because I’m a woman, but that’s just plain silly. I’m playing in a fantasy RPG because it’s fun. I want to play a character that I find interesting and intriguing, and I certainly don’t want that character to be bound by sexism.

The end of the story is that whatever sort of campaign you are in, beware of hidden sexism. If you choose to play in a society where women are valued differently than men, beware of what it will do to your female PCs: they are forced to be either submissive or belligerent to “fit” the world. Women in real life don’t fall into just two categories, so female PC’s shouldn’t have to either, regardless of how historically accurate you would like your campaign to be.

Happy Gaming!

Lady Medieval

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Posted in Adventures, Character interaction, Characters, Dungeons and dragons, Inter-player conflict, RPG, Roleplay, Tropes, Uncategorized, backstories, storytelling, world building | 7 Comments »

Cowboys in Chainmail: Individualism and Medieval Settings

Aug 29th, 2011 by Gestalt Gamer

I am going to begin today’s blog post with an important caveat: this post is not intended to imply that any form of roleplay is wrong or that there is a right way to run games in a medieval setting. With that out of the way I can hopefully reduce the number of cave trolls that will attack me on reddit after writing this post.

While browsing Netflix and watching several western and fantasy titles I realized that the majority of fantasy literature and games do not actually depict a medieval setting. In reality, they depict values and heroic archetypes more commonly found in wild west settings and modern police movies.  I am referring to the tenets of individualism, which is so ingrained into modern western society that is more or less second nature. The dominant ideology of modern capitalist society is that we are all free individuals, able to choose our own destiny and live by our own moral code. We should, as individuals, be unrelenting in the face of societal oppression and stand against injustice and evil, especially when its source is the ruling authority.

The simple fact is that these ideals and their hero, best personified by the cowboy, did not exist in medieval society. In fact these ideas only really came into existence in enlightenment and only really took hold in society after the American and French revolutions. The problem is that this is the hero that we are most familiar and comfortable with as modern western people. We want to see the rough and tumble rogue with a good heart who is willing to stand up to the man, but the problem is that this archetype does not do justice to the medieval world. In a medieval world duty meant doing what you are told even if you were ordered to do something immoral, decency meant knowing your place, your loyalty went first to the king and honor meant keeping face.

Time and again I have turned a knight against his king in pursuit of justice for the people but the medieval reality would have been less idealistic. In the medieval world the sentiment that one individual would or should take it upon themselves to challenge society would have been lunacy. Remember that the Rogue, the class that bucks law and the normative forces of society, is mistrusted for being free and unpredictable. If the creation of a vibrant medieval setting is your goal, then be careful that you don’t end up with a party of rogues, whether they are wearing leather, robes or full plate. Remember that the individual was largely insignificant and that the dominant values of medieval society was fate, knowing your place and leaving justice to god.

In my current pathfinder game I created a knight who is the sword brother of the crown prince. He is a man of impeccable honor and martial prowess assigned to protect a drunken, philandering boy who won’t make half the king that his father is. Be that as it may, he will serve him to the death because he swore an oath to put the king’s desires above himself. It is his duty to do this and he believes that it is not his place to change the world, he hopes that the gods will reward his loyalty and honor in the next life and absolve him from all of the horrible things he has done to protect the prince.

I guess what it all boils down to is that I see so much opportunity for roleplay lost when the party out of hand decides to turn against a corrupt society to make things right. How much more powerful would a scene where a knight turns against his king be if it came after a long list of wrongs piled so high the knight could no longer stand to do his duty. Lawful good means to operate outside the established system and authority ONLY if all lawful options have been exhausted. I for one am going to try to recreate more medieval values in my characters and avoid creating a cowboy in chainmail.

- Gestalt Gamer (Dan)

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Posted in Adventures, Character interaction, Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Pathfinder, Roleplay, storytelling, world building | 3 Comments »

Killing Off Dependent NPCs

Aug 10th, 2011 by Gestalt Gamer

If you are a long time reader of More Than Dice, you know that I am big fan of player characters and NPCs having close relationships. If that NPC can be a spouse, ward, or family member, so much so the better. Today I want to talk about why those relationships are important: so you can put those NPCs in danger.

Placing a dependent NPC like a spouse, apprentice or child into mortal danger as a source of drama is a great way to draw out roleplay from a specific player. This is useful if the character and his/her backstory has taken a backseat recently. Also, if it is another NPC or villain that places them in harms way, then it can create a more complex motivation for the party to bring them to justice. Stopping a necromancer for the greater good can become flat after a while, getting back a party member’s son who’s going to be the sweetbreads special is another matter entirely.

To put this in perspective I will use two examples: one from my current Star Wars game and one from a game I played in recently. In my Star Wars game, one of the players inherited half a dozen Jedi padawans after a botched mission left their master’s dead. She reluctantly took them into her charge until she could get them out of the war zone with the Sith Empire. Without thinking she led them into battle in order to keep them close and safe. In short order, a Sith marauder cut down two of them, causing her and the rest of the party to fight frantically to make them safe again.

The second example is from a 4th edition game where we picked up an orphan girl who was the daughter of the player’s former master. She followed us around everywhere, using an heirloom invisibility necklace to remain safe as we continued our adventuring career after her father’s gruesome death. Before too long the game master had the same nefarious creatures that had struck down her father capture her and run off with her. We fought frantically and tore through the entire town with reckless abandon looking for her, ignoring anyone else who needed our help to  find this girl we had sworn to protect. When we found her dead at the hands of an undead monster, we swore vengeance and changed the entire course of the campaign to finding a way to destroy this particular monster.

I think you will find that if you cultivate and PLAY OUT your character’s relationships with NPCs there will be a lot more drama and urgency in the heroic activity of the party.

- Gestalt Gamer (Dan)

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Posted in Adventures, Character interaction, D&D 4th, Pathfinder, Star Wars, backstories | 3 Comments »

If it wasn’t for those meddling kids…

Aug 4th, 2011 by ladymedieval

As a player, one of my favorite parts about gaming is finding creative and unexpected solutions to thwart villains and move the party forward to new adventures.

Sometimes these creative and unexpected solutions are a little sketchy. One of my favorite examples from the Star Wars game I am in is when we were trying to infiltrate this communication control tower to shut down the Sith operatives on the planets. Our party’s plan was to kill a couple Sith officers, dress up in their uniforms and then put a party member on a stretcher and carry her to the control tower and demand to be let in. We rolled high enough on our bluff checks and were able to take over the tower using a pretty cliché plan, that in reality should not have fooled anyone.

Vader is displeased.

Another such bright idea was in our Urban Arcana game; three of our party members decided to teleport themselves into a dragon’s lair without a solid escape plan. Gestalt thought this was stupid but let them play it out (They almost died, but in the end the party was victorious.).

Despite these victories, sometimes we come up with ideas and Gestalt, in his own words, “lays down the hammer” by restricting what we are allowed to do or nixing certain plans. I was privy to a conversation between Gestalt and one of his acquaintances who were talking about how one of the most difficult things about running science fiction games is that the players can come up with immensely creative solutions–like making homemade bombs–and the players will get angry if the DM denies them that solution even though it  is a “possible” one the world of the game.

I was interested in this conversation because although Gestalt will occasionally nix certain things in game, I never feel like complaining about it, and it always seems to be for a realistic reason. Yet the conversation made me pause to think about this issue again and compile my thoughts as to whether or not DM’s should restrict their players in this way.

If I thought I came up with a really awesome solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem, I would absolutely be pissed if the DM just said “no” because my creativity left him bereft of other ideas, or found a way around a difficult encounter that he had been chomping at the bit to throw at the party. However, if the DM wraps his rejection in the cloak of realism, it is, for me, a little easier to accept.

For example, my character could absolutely make homemade bombs, but it’s going to look really suspicious to buy mass quantities of saltpeter. Therefore the DM can say, “okay you can try to make bombs, but you have to pass this save in order for the FBI not to come and lock your ass up”…and then make the save reasonably high, still allowing for “luck” but being realistic about the probability for consequences resulting from my character’s actions.

However, I am not a DM: these are just my thoughts about the way I like issues like this handled as a player. I’m interested in hearing other thoughts: Are there times when you don’t allow your players to execute certain ideas and why? How do your players respond?

In general, most of the people I have met gaming are interested in hearing their players come up with new and interesting solutions. If you or your cohort are having trouble thinking out of the box, there are a couple ways to improve problem solving in your games.

Read. Or, remember what you’ve read in the past at the very least. Books are filled not only with information but also stories where other characters come up with solutions to seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Things that I have read have been of incredible aid during gaming, especially in our D20 modern game. (If I ever play in a traditional medieval-based game, I’m sure my medievalist training and extensive reading in the fantasy genre will be equally as useful).

The people I know who are best at problem-solving in game are the people who have the most diverse knowledge in general. Anything that is already in your bank of knowledge can be used to formulate an idea; I’m not advocating doing “homework” to improve your gaming (although as I stated, reading widely does help). Creative problem solving is all about taking knowledge you have from one part of your life and applying it to another so the strategies you use to communicate and solve problems at work, in school, in video games, even in relationships can be applied to problems in game as well.

Happy Gaming!

Lady Medieval

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Posted in Adventures, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, RPG, Roleplay, Star Wars, Urbana Arcana | No Comments »

Rated ‘A’ for Adults

Jul 22nd, 2011 by Ironclad Penguin

In the video game world a game that earns an Adults Only rating generally must have one of two things in the game: sex and/or excessive gore. This kind of rating doesn’t really exist in the average pen and paper game because the content of the campaign is determined by the DM and the players. So why don’t I normally hear about or participate in games where these themes are present? One could argue that both sex and gore are not limited to video games and indeed exist in real life. So what keeps people from using said themes and what benefits could including them in your games have?

Now admittedly I think what keeps sex and gore (though mostly sex) out of games is the comfort level of the DM and players.

This amount of detail can get boring...

So that was a bit of a rhetorical question. I do however think that there are some benefits to using these themes occasionally in a campaign. I say occasionally because just like many other themes (comedy for instance) overuse can really just get cumbersome. Gore especially I find susceptible to the kind of overuse that wears away at the dramatic effect on the players. This is probably because most people are a little more comfortable with gore (especially in something like a hack-and-slash dungeon crawler) and therefore feel capable of using it more often. There are however only so many times descriptions such as: “And then I sliced his stomach open and watched as his blood and intestines spilled onto the floor…” actually grabs the attention of the players. It will eventually become commonplace.

Sex is a bit more of a tricky subject. As a DM, if you intend to use sex in a game you should talk to your players first. If it is a subject that will make one or more of your players uncomfortable it will lower their enjoyment of the game and therefore the enjoyment of the rest of the group. I would also recommend making sure you know the players before you introduce any amount of sexual themes into your game. This is because once the DM does something like that the players will most likely take it as an invitation to also use such themes and, for me at least, the last thing I want to do is listen to someone’s director’s commentary regarding their favorite porno while I’m trying to game.

So if you’re looking for something to try in a game I’m going to suggest adult themes. If you don’t usually use excessive gore, try it, your players will probably be surprised and the event will more than likely stick with them. If you and your group is comfortable with it, throw in some sort of sexual theme (if you can’t think of one just look on the internet, I hear they have things like that there) into a game whose system doesn’t provide for them or be crazy like me and play a game that has built in rules for sex like Apocalypse World. Either way it should prove to be an interesting session.

-Ironclad Penguin.

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Posted in Dungeon Mastering, Roleplay, storytelling | 3 Comments »

All the Table’s a Stage 3

Jul 21st, 2011 by ladymedieval

One of my favorite theatre personalities is Peter Brook (he directed a really influential production of Titus Andronicus that brought that play with all its gore and glory back into the theatre canon). In his book The Empty Space, he has a chapter called Deadly Theatre, a term which he uses to describe crappy theatre. One of the greatest problems that he sees in the theatre world today is that people are far too caught up in the idea of what a play “should be” than trying to create something new.

He speaks specifically about theatrical classics and how audiences go to see Hamlet or Oedipus and expect to see something grand and dramatic with period costumes and lots of spectacle. They go into these plays expecting high and aloof delivery of lines that they expect not to understand; the audience is not going to the play because its entertaining, they are going because it makes them feel cultured. And theatre companies feel like they have to deliver this.

Peter Brook (if you like theatre, read The Empty Space)

Now how does this  relate to gaming? Firstly, it’s a reminder that sometimes “stock characters” are boring. I may see Macbeth ten times in my life and if I do not see a slightly different version Macbeth every time, each production after  the first is going to be torturous. Just because you are a paladin, this does not mean that you have to try to copy each mannerism of every paladin you or your friends have played before this time.

Do not be afraid to go outside the set of expectations for the way your character should behave based on his class or race. Maybe he’s just odd; we have odd nonconformist people in the world, why can we not have them in games if they will spice up a campaign and make encounters more interesting for everyone?

There is a message for GM’s in Brook’s first chapter too. He describes theatre directors as “the blind leading the blind”. Gestalt and I have had conversations about the similarities of being a GM and directing theatre. To me as a director, Brook’s description states the truth: I have an idea of where I would like a production to go, but ultimately the actors and designers who are working with me are also contributing equally as much to how the world that the play is in looks and feels to the audience. Yes I am the leader, however, I also do not know for sure every turn a production may take.

Gaming is like that as well; a GM can plan the encounters and usher the party into the world, but it’s up to the players to manipulate what’s given them to problem solve and defeat the enemies. I am of the opinion that good GMs embrace that and allow for this kind of creativity in their games.

Happy Gaming,

Lady Medieval

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Podcast: Rise of the Black Prince 1.1

Jul 21st, 2011 by Gestalt Gamer

Today I have  a special treat for our Readers. The first session podcast from the More Than Dice crew. This Pathfinder campaign, entitled Return of the Black Prince contains two new players, four women and one Josh. It takes place in a steam-punk world of my own design called Vion. The first session was a little shaky as we are teaching two new people how to play but I hope you enjoy and follow us over the next few months as we post the sessions. You can follow the heroes in their adventures and misfortunes in the world of steam and sorcery.

 

Download the podcast in MP3 format.

Background

The Carnation: The Sigil of the Tarnese Royal Family

In my world technology has developed side by side with magic thanks to the relative scarcity of magic in the world and the general unwillingness of Arcanists (wizards) to use their magic for the benefit of mundane people. No one knows who will have magical power as it does not appear to be bloodline related. For generations the various kingdoms have turned over their magically gifted children to the Arcanists so that they can be trained and removed from societies that do not understand them. Recently, however, with the advent of steam power and the firearm it has been discovered that even the most basic enchantments can significantly increase the power of a steam engine or the durability of a firearm.

With this in mind the various rulers have begun withholding their magically gifted children from the Arcanists and teaching them the basics of magic using stolen texts or sorcerous, intuitive traditions. These military magic users have tipped the balance of power in the world and greatly angered the Arcanists who view each magically gifted person as a member of their great “familiy”.

The party is starting their adventure in the kingdom of Tarne which is the most technologically advanced human kingdom. The king rules as a benevolent absolute monarch and has traditionally used the power of the great bloodlines to maintain control. Recently however his embrace of the firearm has begun to trouble the six floral families (all of the high houses have flowers as their symbols). There is now a peasant army directly in service of the king where once the king was dependent on his lords to provide the bulk of his army and knights. Now the king now has a massive, professional army that’s loyalty rests with him and with the Tarnese patriotism he has instilled in the poor.

The party begins the campaign as strangers protecting a large shipment of powder and firearms coming from the dwarven fellblade clan, the foremost firearms manufacturer. Enjoy!

- Gestalt Gamer (Dan)

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Villain Profile: Gaius Kendrix, Sith Apprentice

Jul 20th, 2011 by Gestalt Gamer

Star Wars is choc full o’ iconic villains, from Vader to Revan to the Hutts – the bad guys are larger than life and diabolical to the extreme. Part of the charm of the universe is the stark contrast between good and evil and the galactic level conflicts that are generated by a handful of powerful men and women. This is one of the many reasons why I have yet to have an unsuccessful Star Wars campaign, everything is so huge and epic (in the truest sense of the word) that it sucks the players in. That having been said, not every dark jedi is a Revan and not every crime lord is a Hutt. Today I would like to share one of my favorite NPCs that I use as an example of how a Sith can be a potent enemy without being a cackling megalomaniac.

Gaius Kendrix is famous, he is kind of a “big deal” in the republic. He is the genius programmer and war-games specialist that designed the Coruscant defense grid. He is also a galactically famous business man and owner of Nebula Imports, the Republic’s leading exotic goods dealer. He is a loyal citizen and the intel collected by his fleet has been instrumental in curtailing the smuggling efforts of the Hutts. He has also been a member of the Sith order since he was 13 years old. Found by Revan and Malak themselves during the Jedi Civil War, he was placed into an advanced espionage training program due to his natural talent for mind affecting force powers. When Revan and Malak fell he left the academy, changed his name and assumed a new identity as a loyal citizen.

Using his knowledge of his former classmates, he helped the Jedi discover pockets of Sith scattered throughout the galaxy, all the while placing the most formidable of his former school mates into positions of power throughout the Republic. He collected favors and medals until no one would question his loyalty to the Republic and to the Jedi order.

Gaius never uses the force unless absolutely necessary or in complete privacy. He strives to maintain his cover and undermines the Republic, not because he is loyal to the Sith but because he is in position to become the most powerful man in the Republic. He cares not for a return of the Sith Empire or to rise as a dark lord, all he cares about is making money and using the force to become the most powerful man in both legitimate and criminal circles. He has taken what the Sith trained him to do and used it to become a sleeper agent that will never waken.

In a campaign he is particularly insidious because he is careful to never take any position of true authority, all of his power is indirect. Furthermore, he is so amiable in his manner that few if any would ever suspect him to be more than he appears. Despite having no apparent power or authority he has control over the defenses of Coruscant, the shipping lanes of the core worlds and many government agencies through his Sith associates.  In my campaign the players discover that Gaius is engaged in many illegal activities and thinking him a smuggler, investigate his business. Eventually they become enough of a thorn that he confronts them and defeats one of them using the force. The players manage to escape but now must convince a grateful Republic that its greatest ally is a powerful Sith. This is especially difficult since he has been a long time “enemy” of the Sith and he frames the party for the assassinations and slave trading they discovered.

So here is one of my ideas, tell me about yours in the comments below.

- Gestalt Gamer (Dan)

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From Back-stories to Bar Stories 2

Jul 18th, 2011 by Gestalt Gamer

So last time I talked about how – for some of us – it can be easier to think of a character’s background in relatively recent terms, rather than going Freudian and beginning in childhood. Today I’ll be talking about how hopefully all of us can benefit from knowing how stories like these get told.

For my Urban Arcana character, Alwin, I combined two of the three events I discussed last time: the class-based one and the story-based one. In regard to what was discussed last time, I have this to say: Alwin used to be an EMT when he was a med student, and once when he was called out on an ambulance call, he was kidnapped and forced to help a badly wounded goblin. After a while, he escaped his captors and left his patient to die. The story is relevant to his character then and now because it was his first time seeing an unnatural creature and the first time he broke the Hippocratic Oath. He’s now biased against goblins, less than sympathetic to others who have had the veil broken, and has far less of a problem with intentionally killing patients than he did then.

In regard to today’s post, I have THIS to offer. You needn’t read the whole thing; it’s the story I just told, as Alwin would tell it to a group of friends. I’m not a doctor, so I may have gotten a couple details in the story wrong, but having that story available to me, even if it were never written down, is really helpful to me. Similar to the way an actor may get into character by reciting their lines, I can just remember that story and really get into the character and the mindset of Alwin.

“But Nirkit!” You cry, interrupting yet another blog post. “My character is Batman! He doesn’t have friends to tell entertaining stories to because of his murdered parents!” Then how would he tell his therapist? What would he write in his diary? How will he tell his kids or spouse in the future? The point is similar to one Bette Noire made a while ago, about how giving your character an accent can help differentiate IC/OOC interactions, and help get/keep you in character. If you can’t give your character an accent, then what kind of colloquialisms do they use? What parts of their life stories do they find funny? Just as knowing where your character comes from can help you to make their decisions more consistently, knowing how they relay where they came from can help you to play them more consistently.

- Nirkit (Kurt)

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Jack of Spades

Jul 12th, 2011 by Gestalt Gamer

Hello friend, my name is Jack Connor. I was born in 1885 and I am immortal… Well, not exactly immortal. More like really hard to kill. I was the world’s greatest card shark, so good people used to say I was born with a deck of cards in my hand. Actually, I was the only one who ever said that, but you get the point. The story of my longevity begins with a high stakes card game with a high profile mark: Lucifer. Folks say you are dumb when you are young, but I was dumb enough to think I could cheat at cards against the original shark.

I met the devil at a dive bar in Arizona and he played me for the foolish boy I was. He bet me eternal life and good fortune and I bet my soul. The man with the strongest hand would be deemed the winner. I had been cheating all night and he’d never called me so I thought that I was going to put one over on old Lucy. Imagine the fame, imagine eternal life and a good fortune to match.

Pick a Card

The contract had some fine print and since I was a cheat the devil got his hands on my soul. I thought I was going to cook for eternity like a spring piglet but the devil thought it would be funnier to reinterpret our bargain. He gave me the eternal life but not invulnerability; he gave me fortune itself, good and bad in the Deck of Fate. I would be blessed with good fortune while everyone around me would be doomed to calamity and death. Everywhere I went Lucifer’s minions followed, making deals and sowing despair.

It wasn’t long till even the most dishonest folk were sick of the sight of me. I fell in with the worst of the worst, others who had the mark of the adversary on their souls, the “Hellhounded” we called ourselves as we wandered, doing the devil’s work.

What the hell is the Deck of Fate you ask? It’s pure chance, misfortune and prosperity in all their forms in 54 playing cards. Each of the cards represents a different fate: all the red cards bring prosperity and all the black cards bring ruin. Anyone whom I touch with a drawn card has their fate altered. It might be that they lose some of their intellect or if they are lucky they might lose that cancer they’ve been working on since they were 13. I can’t control what will happen to them, only whether I will change their fate for the better or worse. Deal from the bottom like a cheater to hurt, deal strait and honest to help a fella out.

So I wandered for a long while, doing the things that bad men do until a preacher showed me that no one is too far gone to be saved. He showed me that he himself had been branded by Lucy and that he had found peace and happiness in a selfless life. I figured if everything is equal in eyes of God I could stand to perform some good deeds.

So I am a hero I guess, though I don’t wear tights or a some silly costume like all these capes. Lucy and his cronies have been after me for years now but I don’t care, I found some people who can handle the bad luck I bring and I am going to do some good in this world. I just hope that when they finally catch up with me and put me in the dirt that the man upstairs will decide there is room for Jack.

———————-

Here is Jack of Spades as he exists in the Hero System

Jack of Spades

- Gestalt Gamer (Dan)

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