purplecat

A couple of incidents recently have caused me to ruminate upon the Tragic Heroes of my youth.

I was leaving a comment on a piece of Hamlet fanfic which I realised amounted to "wasn't Hamlet an idiot and trying with it! I'm sure he deserved all he got.*" I don't think this was my view of Hamlet as a teenager and its possible that I would think differently were I actually to re-read the play. I don't think I've read or watched Hamlet in a decade and that means, of course, that my memory of the poor man has become filtered through the lens of the Twilight phenomenon. I can't help feeling, though, that Hamlet would have been somewhat at home among sparkly vampires.

In a related incident I've been slowly GMing my way through an old MERP module based on Gondor's Kinstrife. One of the central NPCs in this module is Neithan, who tragically disobeyed his father, got manoeuvred into a situation where he was forced to behead his best friend, and then more or less accidentally fell in with the forces of darkness. My party took a somewhat different view of Neithan's tragic history than I recall having when I first played through the module or indeed, as the character was originally described to me. In the party's view, Neithan had entirely brought his troubles on himself, was petty, vindictive and would make a terrible ruler. After several years of clearing up his messes they took the step of challenging him to a duel and then burying his body in an unmarked grave. This single action has, in fact, vastly simplified matters.

I'm wondering how many of the heroes of my youth are doomed to this kind of re-evaluation in the light of impending middle age. Or is it just me? I do recall horrifying a cousin of mine years ago by describing Anna Karenina as a very silly woman: "The greatest tragic heroine in western literature!!" he stuttered in outraged tones...

*I believe Very Bad Things happened to him in the fanfic in question, though I skipped those bits so I couldn't say for certain.

In which we discuss what to do with the stolen maps; we are spied upon from on high by Celebrindor’s ghastly, grim and ancient raven; Celebrindor threatens to take matters to Heruvorn; the maps are hidden; Pimm shoots Celebrindor’s raven is shot out of the sky - hurrah; Dringol loans Bergil’s alta parma to Brand for copying; Celebrindor, with four cronies, attempts a burglary of the Moonswan; Pimm shoots Celebrindor in the strongroom – nasty; preparations are made for departure, including returning Bergil’s original manuscript to Dringol.

( From Ragnor's Player )

All Diary Entries
Part 16

In which Ilvren returns; we buy gowns from Morwen the Red's dress emporium; Pimm buys drinks for everyone at the Eagle & Elf; Dringol agrees to discuss Pimm's uncle Bergil's alta-parma; Celebrindor talks about his travels and ambitions, he asks whether we know of a legendary artefact (Calvolului) but when we demure he wields a Word of Power at the dinner table - an outrage!

( From Ragnor's Player )

All Diary Entries

In which we return to Minas Ithil; Aerin puts in some time at the Houses of Healing in the shanty-town, only to find herself embroiled in a clash between the refugees and a crony of the local governor; meanwhile, Ragnor and Brand read Lasbelorn's notes, discovering that there's a(nother) secret vault hidden in the walls of the Tower of Moon, approximately where to find it and how to open it; returning to the Moonswan, Ragnor finds himself invited to observe the torture of little girls, meet with a possible Black Numenorean and is invited to breakfast with a civil servant; breakfast with the civil servant proves pleasant, informative and (for Pimm) possibly lucrative; a day in the library confirms Ragnor's worst fears regarding the Karma of Aldarion, where to find it and why he needs to; finally Aerin pleads for Ragnor to intercede, which he refuses.

( From Ragnor's Player )

Out of interest has anyone on my flist ever emailed a GM and asked for extra experience?

As a novice GM I'm a little surprised to be in receipt of such an email, especially since I don't feel I've been particularly stingy with XP* and I've made it clear that it is automatically available for writing campaign diaries and cooking for the roleplaying session.

* we're playing Warhammer and I'm aiming for 30-40 XP per session which means players can buy a new skill or take an ability advance every 2 to 3 sessions.