An Aside

I need to express a concern. It's not a real concern. It's a small concern. Okay, it's not a concern at all. It's mostly an excuse for me to tell a small story. A way to expand the blog for another post. I know I don't have enough posts to last the 3 1/2 weeks until the project starts. I've counted. So a small filler post is what you get.

One of my favorite past times is games. Among games, I particularly enjoy tabletop role-playing. This involves gathering together with friends, creating fictional characters, and then using those characters to tell a story. Numbers are generally used to represent the character's strengths, weaknesses, and talents. Dice are generally used to reflect the randomness of life or, more accurately, the opportunity for failure. Dungeons and Dragons is the most familiar version of this type of gaming but there are others; my friends and I prefer self-created versions known as home-brewed.

Generally, one of the players is in charge of creating the story. They are called the "Game Master" (GM) or other variations of ____ master. The GM presents the player with options, narrates the setting, describes the outcome of character choices, and controls the opponents.

The group I am in tries to take turns in the role as GM. However, my friend Kevin (name changed) is incredibly skilled at it. His stories are delightful and his ability to adapt to unexpected choices from the players only enhances the experience of playing games with him. He is good at determining short-term consequences, and then merging those into unexpected long term consequences. He sees the entire picture. I enjoy talking to him about story because he seems to have an intuitive understanding of what makes a good interactive story. He should be writing Choose Your Own Adventure books. Instead he became a doctor. Go figure.

Kevin's ability as a storyteller becomes problematic for him when he is a player instead of the GM. Several times when I have been the GM I have presented the characters with a scenario for them to resolve and Kevin's brain goes to work. He imagines all the potential solutions to the problem and comes up with some clever ways of resolving the situation. He also considers possible outcomes. He especially considers (though I know he tries not to) what he would do if he was the GM. Then he has an epiphany about what I am going to do and says it out loud to the other players. And he's completely wrong. But, in this way, he has unintentionally given me better ideas than I previously had. Worse, the ideas he had supplied generally made life more difficult for the players. It generally causes all of the players a lot of grief (thought I still try and keep the game fun)

Sometimes you can see it on Kevin's face. He knows he said too much and instantly regrets it. He should have kept his mouth shut.

I'm having that same feeling as I write this blog. I am fairly sure that some of the 24-Hour theatre project organizers are reading the blog. I might be giving them ideas. Bad ideas. Things that I don't want them to do. Shakespeare lines I don't want them to use. Genres that I would rather not try and work under. It gives me a little, "Oh dear" feeling.

But...this isn't really a concern. The organizers are not going to give the cast grief just to give us grief. If they do get any ideas from this blog I am sure it will only be for the benefit of the performance. Still, I can't help but wonder "Should I keep my mouth shut?"