The Real Life, True Story of the Death of Mandrake the Magnificent

[Alan_Parsons]

My uncle was city desk editor at the state capitol newspaper in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when I was a teenager and one of the things he did is let me sneak in at night to play games on the new multi-million dollar smart terminals they had installed.

The game that had me hooked was, "Zork".

A few years later I was in school in California and a roommate casually said, "Want to play D&D?". My observation of the people playing this new fad were that they were mostly, "unable to deal with normal life". I had a real disdain and made it clear that I did. He went on to defend the game and he was a nice guy so I listened. At some point, I realized the game he was describing was a pen-and-paper version of Zork--so I told him I'd give it a try.

Luck would have it that the guys I started with were all miniatures battle re-creators before they started in D&D and they treated that game the same way: It was a strategic simulation where you moved a set distance in combat, weapons had ranges and the actions your character did had consequences and chances to fail or even just not be possible. No conjuring imaginary weapons because you didn't want your characters to die--and yes, your characters did die...sometimes a lot.

So I found myself hanging out with these misfits--but I loved the fantasy genre, was a huge strategic game fan and really loved using the "role-play" part of the game to allow play that would never work with a board game or a standard "rule book".

After about six months or so of playing mainly one day on weekends, "Game Masters" started asking me to fill in for them when they couldn't make it. I really was not comfortable doing this because once you were IDd as a GM/DM the RP addicts treated you like their personal drug dealer and tended to camp your house and phone 24-7 looking to score another game. Still, I went ahead and did it on occasion and ended up being one of the guys "everybody wanted to play with".

Because I started out as a fill-in "temp", I played in a lot of other people's "worlds". They had their own styles and atmosphere--some were brutal, some were care bear, some were detail, etc., etc. I tried not to pull the rug out from under their regular players when I subbed and overall, I did a pretty good job of keeping everyone happy.

In all of this, there was one very small group of gamers who almost never rotated out of their private games. They always played together and only in their own world. Sometimes I'd see them taking turns GMing their games. They were a quiet bunch who didn't interact a lot with the others but when people were sitting around a game shop eating pizza and swapping "epic tales of their characters" these people couldn't wait to jump in.

I noticed a few commonalities over time as they told their tales....their characters had the most high-level, incredible gear you could imagine. In fact, none of us knew anyone but them that had items comparable to some of the ones they described. Their characters were levels that screamed, "Hunh!?" to the rest of us but their explanations of how they got there made it sound as if their GMS were the most brutal taskmasters imaginable.

Now how you got your levels and stuff was a big issue because all the GMs allowed "crossover character" from other GMs on a "Gentlemen's Honor" basis. As long as you vouched that your characters weren't artificially inflated, leveled or equipped and could inventory what they had then most GMs would let you in with your character and stuff.

Because I was a fairly nice back guy then (not like the cynical old fart I am now), some of them eventually warmed up to me and one day they asked me to play with them. To be polite, I said "OK".

It wasn't five minutes into it that I realized how awkward that game was going to be--these were some really socially insecure people. They also were the most cocky and risk-taking players I had ever seen. I had sweated over "my good stuff" and my good characters but these guys would jump into a dragon's mouth with a dagger and leather armor laughing like they were invincible.

Turns out they were. One of the magicians playing opened a box that had some horrendous, instantly fatal poison in it. He failed his saving throw and I thought, "Holy carp! This guy just blew away that 89th level mage for nothing!".

It was then I saw how these guys had made it up so many levels.

The GM was his fellow player (they took turns GMing for each other remember?) and when he saw the quivering lip and teary eye of the supposedly dead mage's owner he offered, "How about we just make him really sick instead?".

The player beamed a huge smile and quickly said, "And since I have a healing potion so that will have no effect on me at all!". Then, like a kid in a candy store, he literally rubbed his hands together and said, "Since that trap was so bad, their must be a HUGE item in the chest! What do I get?". The GM blinked, grabbed a chart of the most powerful artifacts in the manual, rolled a die and promptly announced he was indeed correct. He then was given some incredible item and in the next twenty minutes, the GM made sure we all got an item similar in nature. So in less than half an hour our party of five had five of the games most powerful ARTIFACTS (not mere "items") and zero casualties. Did I mention that in that half hour we all shot up five full levels too?

So the sickening realization of how these guys played sank in and I realized how they could join in with our conversations and claim without batting an eyelash that they had "really earned" their stuff. At this point I WANTED my character to die so I could just get out of the game without hurting anyone's feelings-but, like I imagine is true in Hell--there was no escape. It just went on and on. I stopped writing down how many levels and items I had because it was so ridiculous and unnecessary that there really was no point. In fact, more times than not the GM dispensed with die throwing completely and just said, "Tell me what you want to happen to your character".

I thought it could not get anymore grueling when we finally decided to make camp for the night. It was then the "campfire stories" began. An entire hour was spent talking about the color of our characters clothes, who tailored them, what hairdo this one or that one had and followed by descriptions of how all of our characters felt about it. One character expressed they were romantically interested in mine and I had to sit in silent horror as the three-hundred pound man next to me talked about how his elf princess had the hots for my thief.

The night was a blur after that--there may have been a psychotic incident or two, some PTSD and maybe some sort of chemical fumes. It's hard to remember...or maybe it's just that my subconscious has hidden the memory from me for my own good.

So the next day, one of these formerly timid players asked to join one of our games (fortunately I was not GMing). He argued for ten minutes with the GM about letting his 90+ level thief/mage/magic user/cleric bring all of his items into our game. Throughout the game he insisted on "star billing" and sulked and pouted and got angry when he didn't get it--and God forbid if something he wanted his character to do didn't work. He finally stormed out of the game claiming he had "leveled up" and was not going to subtract any of the items he was told he had lost because, "We all cheated".

Over the next week, I was constantly pulled aside by members of his own play group who talked about what jerks all of the other players were and urging me to hook up exclusively with them. Having already seen the face of Cthulhu in the last game, I shudderingly declined.

Well as it turned out, the offended player wanted another shot at coming back with his character into OUR game. He apologized (think of the sort of apology Sheldon might give on the TV show "The Big Bang Theory") and insisted he was willing to play on our usual terms.

We all noticed that his magician, et al, character, "Mandrake the Magnificent" had since leveled and equipped up even more--suspiciously in all the areas where he had been vulnerable in our last game.

So everyone of us created a starting level character so Mandrake could "lead" us into a low level dungeon. What he didn't know is we all played as chaotic evil assassins and were loaded with every lethal trap, weapon and poison we could lay hands on.

In the end, Mandrake died--after pulling every artifact, weapon, spell and item--in and never in the game--out to try to save himself. After dismembering, decapitating him and then burning the remains we divided his items and donated them to the local CE temple. He stormed from the room saying he would never play with us again and that he hadn't died becasue he had an item he didn't tell us about "back at his castle" that instantly resurrected him and returned all his items lost before his death.

So, the punchline....

Freelancer is a space and combat simulation with role play added. We fly virtually real spacecraft that can suffer weapons damage or have components destroyed, we have to spend virtual money to finance, purchase and upgrade them and we have to "work" to get all that money. It's a reality simulation in that sense--very much like the miniature based fantasy D&D adventures I had started on.

Now we come to the role playing--which is something great because it allows layers of detail and reality the game engine just can't provide--and this is where the problem starts.

There are a lot of players who feel--like Mandrake: Their RP trumps game rules and mechanics. They shouldn't die or suffer loss and their character should be able to imagine any victory and tell endless campfire stories about it with no interruption by other players and their in-game actions. Like Mandrake, they prefer to play with themselves--all of the world is their stage and we are but actors on it for them.

Also like Mandrake, they are enraged when someone else's actions or story interfere's with theirs and like Mandrake are quite willing to be juvenile and selfish about it. This is where a lot of the demands for nerfs and rephacks and the like over time in Disco have come from.

What gets lost when these sort of voices dominate is the "free" part of Freelancer. The game mechanics are changed to force people to "play the way I think you should"--not necessarily just to balance things for fairness or structure so people don't just power up and destroy all humans with no rhyme or reason (like in Eve Online for example).

The devs here have done a great job in using flhook mechanics to govern play actions rather than "lawyer rulings from forum sanctions" as used to be a huge problem. The only remaining problem is the constant effort by agenda'd players who want to manipulate the hard-coded limitations imposed to force people to play "their game".

"This sort of player should never be powerful"..."This sort of player should never be rich"..."This sort of player should never be allowed near me".

MMO's are social--you're meant to be exposed to one another--and RPGs are meant to have environmental and group dynamics that project uncertainty and risk into everyone's play decisions and allow clever players to advance beyond less clever ones.

I don't want to run this place and tell anyone else "how they must play"--but I surely do not want Mandrake doing it either. Lay down the environment and structure and let us alter it with our actions and let our actions be altered by it...on a level, unbiased playing field.

So here is my suggestion and if nothing else it is how I structure my own RP:

• My RP must take place within the server's decreed "legal rules".

• My RP can not violate already established and valid RP of another.

• My RP must by it's nature be affectable by the valid RP of other players.

• My RP can not require another player to alter their RP first in order for it to be made plausible.

• My RP cannot be pure, unadulterated invention created with no interaction or acceptance of any sort by other players. It must be established as 'actual" by precedent in-game.

That sums it up in a nutshell--there are plenty of other things that can be thrown in this but it's the simple version. Feel free to comment.

PS--If you actually read this far you ARE a fanatic.

[Timbuktu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb-sCNfE0bM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP3GYdrW450
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqk0mcpC_WU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US0aBXO36Es
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FZrkDgpsF8

More you watch this, more you find discovery in it. At least I did.

[Gentlefood]

An interesting read. I doubt many people can live up to those standards however.

[Veygaar]

"2milordai"

That's why this idea wont work (for everyone, if you hold yourself to that standard then good on you).

Disco is a PvP server with Role Play "kinda-sorta" wrapped around it...

...for better or for worse.

---

Veygaar for Admin Moderator 2013!!!

[Alan_Parsons]

I can actually live with the player who isn't as capable or experienced. I don't mind playing with them and in fact, as much as I can, I let them bounce my own RP around when it happens.

It's people who want to spell it out for everyone else and demand it that gets under my skin.

I'll check the links up there now.

Checked and LOL. Thank you sir. The "Fear of Girls" one is frightening because I have seen it in real life. Actually, I feel kinda bad because I have seen it in real life. I never dissed anyone who was there--you never know what's going on with someone. No one needs to be kicked.

I hadn't realized the concepts were so hard for some people. Back in the day (waaay back) RPers were pretty well versed. I'll try to keep that in mind.

[Tyber.Zann]

I'm glad you took the time to write this, and I took the time to read it.

Your experiences aren't exclusive. I thoroughly enjoy using my imagination and this game allows me ample opportunity to do so. I find that basic aspects of RPing are lost on many who play here. However, I also find rich stories and amazing talent invested in forums and storylines played out here and ingame; fun interactions with others pretending to be space cops, pirates, and even the occasional robot (haha).

I find it fun to inspire other's imagination. Sometimes it's just a matter of defining terms. "//Dude, it's make believe. I'm just pretending that... it isn't real". 'Ohhh, that's cool'. Surprising enough that's not an uncommon response here. What pleasantly surprises me is that many who start there actually begin giving it a try and make a point of interacting with me inRP after that. I have a whole little group of players who interact with me in my little created corner of space here.

The ones who don't care about my characters and just want to shoot everything or aquire imaginary fortunes regardless of how they do it? So. They rarely actually interupt me. The ones who just want to play by a pre-set script are also not a real concern to me. Again, I know they're there and either ignore them or incorporate them into my ideas, whether they even know I have or not. (If you want to picture my character as a furry man-beast vampire alien zombie when we interact I'm okay with it, it doesn't hurt my fun).