Bluestockings: A Thousand Faces

Character: Poe Game: Monsterhearts 2 Episodes: 2 Theme Song: Dead End Friends by Them Crooked Vultures Keywords: Flustered, apathetic, high Oh Poe. Why you gotta be so simple? In our most recent episode of Monsterhearts, Poe got a bit more entangled with people. The ghoul made her appearance, and Poe wanted nothing to do with her, not really. But they got high together and talked about Poe's demon, because fuck man, no one believes her anyways and this girl wasn't going to either. Probably some freak who talks big. The episode was intense. The vampire reached out to Poe via text, and when they met up for lunch, rather than be sympathetic (my original plan), I chose to have Poe call the vampire out on being kinda rapey towards the hunter, Cage, and not biting people consensually. Poe doesn't... care... that much, but mostly wants to keep the vampire away from her. He's a fucking serial killer and she's not convinced that he won't do it again. So the mor...

Character: Justice the Raven of Ravenhall Game: Fall of Magic Episodes: 3 Theme Song: Dust in the Wind by Digital Daggers Keywords: Watcher, knowledgable, angry Everyone knows I love Fall of Magic. On the way to Dreamation, for the game I was facilitating, I had decided if no one chose it I was going to play a Raven of Ravenhall. And she would be a spymaster. That's all I knew. Somehow I associated ravens with spies, probably because of Leliana in Dragon Age Inquisition. It's important in Fall of Magic not to go in really knowing anything about your character because you find all that out in game. It's a difficult challenge. But the more I find you stay present and don't get into your head about the characters or your next scene, the better your play experience will be. I didn't describe Justice until someone asked me to. I described her as nondescript. Darker skin, eyes, and hair, with a brown cloak and brown clothes and fairly forgettable in an almost ma...

Character: Emir Game: Mars 244 Episodes: 1 Theme song: One Last Time by Jaymes Young Keywords: Tender, astute, loving There was a mine. Prisoners were sent to the mine to work. At first, this was acceptable. The colony on Mars didn't want to deal with prisoners. But then any crime seemed punishable by ostracism to the mine, even that of a child who simply knocked over some equipment. Any guardian of that child couldn't abandon them, could they? So of course they pick up their life and move to the prison, get a job there, and carry on. Always carry on. Follow the water. Learn to flow. I played Mars 244 despite being dead in the water mostly because I wanted check out a game by Rachel E S Walton and this was, by far, the best game I played at the convention. I played two characters, but I'm going to focus on my primary character, Emir. Emir was a care giver and sex worker who lived and worked at the prison where his adopted nephew was serving time. The prison being ...

Character: James "Bull" Toren Game: Carry: A Game About War Episodes: 1 Theme Song: Doin' All Right by the Fugs Keywords: Stupid, stubborn, angry Oooh boy. So this is going to be a little loaded. I want to preface this with I am not American. If you didn't know, I'm Canadian. So when I signed up for an emotionally loaded game about the Vietnam War, I wasn't think about this factor. I was thinking "I've read and watched a lot about this war and I'd love to play something that explores how fucked up this was." Carry is fucked up. It's amazing, go buy it and play it. But it is fucked up. Now all that being said, you don't get to make your characters. You get to pick up a character who already exists as part of the squad and play them. I'm cool with that. I looked at the characters and knew I wanted someone who would push back, who would be all American, and who didn't wanna fuckin' be there. James "Bull"...

Character: Officer Joanne Oakley Game: Noir World Episodes: 1 Theme Song: Beauty and the Beast by David Bowie Keywords: Scheming, impatient, hungry Saturday AM rolled around and I was in a game of Noir World. I had been wanting to try Noir World, mostly because I love the genre when it's not pulpy and I have a lot of feelings around the sexism and racism inherent in the genre. But I was fucking tired and I had zero spoons left when I sat down to this game. People were on the ball, all the other players and the facilitator, but I was so far down the rabbit hole of exhaustion I'm afraid I didn't have much to offer for story. I even grabbed a decaf coffee by accident. Ugh. I digress though. The list of options that came up as playable classes was impressive and expansive. I knew I wanted to play someone in power, I wanted to play a woman, and I wasn't interested in that woman being inferior to another playbook in terms of social clout. I wanted someone who peop...

Character: Hannah Jacobs Game: Velvet Glove Episodes: 1 Theme Song: Moonage Daydream by David Bowie Keywords: Quiet, careful, watching When the chance to play Velvet Glove came up, I was so excited. I'm a huge fan of Sarah Richardson's and I wanted to try out this game that offered a chance at exploring exploitation and the lives of girls and women, especially ethnic girls and women. We sat down and talked a little about what would happen in the game comfort wise, and then started making characters. I was originally going to make The Stoner, but then I saw The Valkyrie and was like "Welp" and took that. I honestly can say I didn't know what I was doing. I read the playbook and the basic moves and didn't find the Valkyrie what I thought she would be. The Valkyrie was all about helping her gang out of bad situations, as opposed to getting them into bad situations. I struggled with this, because it felt like she was meant to scoop in and save people, a...

Character: Squire Aleinete Loiselet Game: The Art of Power by Brennan Taylor Episodes: 1 Theme Song: Broken Crown by Mumford & Sons Keywords: Headstrong, stubborn, annoying There's a trope in fantasy/medieval fiction that A Knight's Tale perfectly demonstrates: young boy, wants to be a knight, but shit is in his way. When I sat down at Brennan Taylor's new game, The Art of Power, we got to choose from a large variety of powerful* women. Each character was a woman/trans/femme, and each of them had some sort of social clout. Normally I play pretty strong characters. I don't play a lot of functioning, high society teens who don't have much to worry about. Usually there are vampires or something and they end up inundated with real problems. So I decided I would play someone with way less social clout than anyone else, but who had one hell of a dream and was ready to test the limits of her abilities. Inspired by things like A Knight's Tale and the Disne...