The Squared Circle: Credits

Credits

When Intercon Gazebo announced the games for their convention, one of them included PST Production's Bride of the Monster. I'd had a problematic experience in their Null Echo game at Intercon XVII, and wanted to give Greg Agostini and PST Productions a second chance.

As we got close to Intercon Gazebo (XVIII), we learned that there was a problem with Bride of the Monster. There weren't enough signups to run that game. However, Moira Parham, Denis Roma and I were three of the five people signed up.

The GMs were still interested in running a game, but it couldn't be their original plan. They asked us to supply characters for something that would work with the smaller player count, even though it was a very short time before the con.

I'd roleplay the phone book with Moira and Denis, knowing it would rock as a game. I've had too many fabulous experiences with them to even think about turning down the chance to do it again with them.

Besides, I had an idea and sketched out the outline of five characters. Denis supplied a "Dirty Dozen" plot suggestions. It was clear that we were very much in sync. I wrote the first draft of five interesting characters. These were passed around to the GMs, to Moira and Denis, and to the other one who was still signed up for the game. The fifth person had dropped the game in the meantime.

Moira made noises that "The Ferret" was hers. Denis wanted "The Austrian". I'd had "the American" in mind for myself, so we were set.

The GMs asked for more, even though we were within days of the con itself. Moira was in the last stretch of prepping the wonderful Little Petshop of Horrors. She took the time to submit one very devious and brilliant addition to the GMs. I added a lot more detail to the character histories and to the historical background. (Denis was also helping with Petshop, as an assistant to Moira and Suzanne Wayner.)

When the time came to run the unnamed game, there was only Denis, Moira and myself. I had five detailed characters, with all sorts of angst and interactions built in. We set out to bring two more players into the game. We were fortunate to find Mike Young ("the Greek") and David Lichtenstein ("the Professor"). (Mike and David are two more players that would make any proverbial "phone-book game" a great experience.)

The five of us had a lot of fun in the game. Much of it came from the materials I'd put together in the character sheets. It turned out that the GMs hadn't even seen the asked-for updates, so we had plots running that they had no idea were in the game. The GMs put together an environment where we could run freely with these creations. There were some pretty intense and amusing character-based moments, including one I'm not likely to forget. (Thanks, Moira!)

In essence, I'd written a five character game in about a week, and that game fit nicely within the greater framework erected by the GMs. However, these characters don't need that greater framework; they'd fit well into any number of scenarios. They'd fit even better into a framework designed for them, that uses more of the plot hooks that I'd built into the characters to begin with. I know what I would have done with these folks, had someone been kind enough to write dense, detailed characters for me.

Thus, The Squared Circle (my name) has been prototyped and playtested, in a fashion. We know the characters have a lot in them, enough for good LARPers to take them to the edge of the abyss, peer down, and lose plenty of sanity.

These characters will be back. This game will be back.