Bluestockings: A Thousand Faces

Character: Paula "Poe" Stackhouse Game: Monsterhearts 2 Episodes: 1 Theme song : Hurts Too Good by Ruelle Keywords: Human, malleable, tempted We had our first game of Monsterhearts 2. I knew I had written a complicated character, but woof, did I not realize how much Poe was afraid of people disliking her and had zero social graces. There was no bite to back up her bark and well, I failed every social move that I rolled. This means, Poe basically flailed at people and had no recourse. At every turn, she was being manipulated or pulled in a direction and rather than stomp off and get angry, she just... did what people told her to. She was used to being on the losing end of any discussion, and has, on some level, just resigned to being the person that's mostly invisible. No amount of changing her face, getting piercings and tattoos and blue hair will change the fact she's a nobody. She's not important. She's the girl who says yes to whatever becau...

Character: Paula "Poe" Stackhouse Game: Monsterhearts 2 Episodes: Character Creation Theme Song: Devil Devil by Milck Keywords: Lonely, eager, apathetic I've always wanted to play an Infernal. Like always. But every time I've had the opportunity, someone else has been the infernal or it's been a one-shot. I got to play Poe briefly with Avery at the helm and it was such an interesting one shot that I wanted to play her again. So I did. I played her in a storium game and it was highly emotional and almost fulfilling. But it ended early and the story never finished. So inevitably, when Monsterhearts 2 came out, I finally grabbed the infernal playbook without asking what other people wanted and made it mine. Poe is a sixteen year old girl whose grandmother had a real thing for a guy in high school. So she made a deal with the devil to give her first born daughter to the devil in exchange for the love of the jock and a good fortune. She had three sons. But h...

Character : Elouise Game: Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne Episodes: 1 Theme Song: The Devil Within by Digital Daggers Keywords: Manipulative, sympathetic, dangerous If you're not familiar with the game, Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne is a game about a journey to a holy isle to burn a witch. Along the way, the players must figure out if the witch is innocent or guilty and act accordingly. Elouise is that witch. I was facilitating this game for a bunch of strangers. In preparing, I decided I would play the witch and use it as a way to act as facilitator, as the witch's role is a bit different. You get to decide if she's guilty or not. And because of the win mechanic, I felt like it would make sense to have the players try to figure out if I was guilty or not. As I read my questions on my playbook, I wondered if the witch was guilty and if she was, why. I decided that she was guilty. She had used witchcraft to create the black plague (as per the game). Why? I didn...

Character: Stacy Callaghan the Caretaker Game:  Saving Sunshine by Krissy Bullock Episodes: 1 Theme Song: Wide Awake by Katy Perry Keywords: unqualified, judgemental, overwhelmed If you haven't heard, I have a doppleganger. Her name is Krissy Bullock and she is, by far, one of the most wonderful people I've had the lovely chance of meeting. If this were an urban fantasy story, she would definitely be the good dopplganger and I the evil one. But it isn't, so fortunately, we can both be lovely people and exist in Canada at the same time. Krissy is also marvellous because she wrote a larp before she knew larps were a thing. Saving Sunshine is a game about a group of people of varying levels of qualification and involvement deciding whether or not Sunshine, an up and coming young starlet, should receive an experimental, expensive treatment for a fatal rare disease. You play one of the panel members who are making this decision. I was Stacy Callaghan, a once child-st...

Character: Eir the Valkyrie Game: Shooting the Moon Episodes: 2 Theme Song: Trophy by Bat for Lashes Keywords: Honourable, Powerful, Capable Today we finished our two-shot of Shooting the Moon. I have been playing a valkyrie named Eir, who started the game as a fierce, frightening, and vaguely platonic character, but we had only played one scene. I played the game with Rob and Rach, and all three of us love urban fantasy, so it seemed a natural choice for our game. Honestly, in review, I think that was a mistake. But let me be clear: We made an amazing story. Eir ended up bound to Rach's character, Maddox, and neither of them ended up with the beloved. Instead, the two ended up hunting him together to destroy him, as they (mostly Maddox) had helped create him. The story ended up being about this ancient elven line that had been all but eradicated by the valkyries and some other hunters because they were dark elves and were horrible. Eir had been one of these valkyries. ...

Character: Danielle "Dani" Nolan Game: The Hour Between Dog and Wolf Episodes: 1 Theme Song: And The World Was Gone by Snowghosts Keywords: Nosey, lost, aloof Awhile ago I played The Hour Between Dog and Wolf online with a dear friend. The game never ended, but I really began to dig my character, even though I found having an online character much harder to understand and play than face to face characters. But for that game I made Dani, a young but lively investigative journalist who had left the shitty city to go to a bigger, better city for school. Naturally, as the daughter of a nurse and a police officer, Dani was pretty adept at taking care of herself. But when her mother got sick, she returned home on the brink of being really successful. She had done a few big articles, and had been ready to be hired at some big time papers. Her mother got cancer, Dani went home, and shortly after, her mother died. Dani knew she couldn't leave her dad alone, so she moved ...

Character: Ashley Luckett Game: Blades in the Dark Episodes: 1 Theme Song: Soul of a Man by Steven Stern Keywords: Flirtatious, enduring, lucky Recently, as some of you may know, I joined the Gauntlet Podcast as a host on the show and regular part of their group. It's been an amazing experience so far, and part of that means joining their games and hangouts online. The first game I managed to sneak into was Blades in the Dark, a game I've heard so much about but have never had a chance to play. I jumped at the opportunity when there was a chance I could get in. As we sat down on our google hangout and began to be guided through character creation, I originally was making a female character named Magnolia, who was charming and lovely and very much the slide that the playbook wants you to be. The other two players also made female characters, and as I listened to them describe their characters, I decided I would play a guy, not because I didn't want an all woman par...

Character : Eir Game: Shooting the Moon Episodes: 2 Theme Song: The Sound of Silence by Disturbed Keywords: Unfaltering, tenacious, unsettling This week, while I was incredibly sick and still going to events to ensure they happened because I love launching new projects, Rob, Rach, and I decided to play Shooting the Moon from Emily Care Boss' Romance Trilogy. The three of us love urban fantasy fiction, and Rach and I had been writing urban fantasy fiction for Nanowrimo, which we're now reading, so we all had supernatural romance on the brain. But I didn't want to do something stereotypical, like a vampire or a werewolf fighting over someone, I wanted to do something different. I've been prepping to play a valkyrie in an Urban Shadows game that I'm coming around to facilitating. So Valkyries have been on my mind a lot. I loved the valkyrie in Lost Girl, and so as I was sitting there, in my fevered snotty state, I decided I would try out playing a valkyrie in...