Week Four - Extraordinary?
I didn't really have much to report on Sanctum with this particular test-session.
Everything appears to be running pretty smoothly, although I admit that I have a few concerns; I'll go through them here.
Two sheets, one character?
I'm a little concerned. The player of Joy asked if she could have two character sheets since her character had a split personality and one side was a pathalogical killer; I had a problem with this. I wanted to be on the same level with Adam and so after talking it over, we came to the same conclusion; there should never be more than one character sheet for a single character. While the goals and how someone might manage those goals may be different, they -are- all the same person. Superman and Clark Kent are two persona's, but even they are one person and the abilities don't change, even if one personality doesn't use those abilities, or appear to have those motives.
My concern extends a bit beyond this though. We allowed the player to buy an additional Ends to account for her personality split, but I don't think I'm comfortable with the change after seeing it in play. With the original backstory, the character was raised in a pysch ward and sheltered from the world, never having seen the outside world, etc. With the change, her alter-ego is a murderer as well. I am fine with the killer/killing aspect but I'm also a little concerned now. The character is being played as a trained assassin who is exceptionally good at what she does when in her alter-ego; I see a big problem with this.
The biggest conflict that jumps to mind is I believe that with the new changes, an ordinary character has suddenly become extraordinary...and this is against the concept of the game for this playtest. (Not in sanctum in general but with this playtest) While a child raised in a psych ward with split personalities isn't extraordinary; having the split personality having been trained/brainwashed to be a extremely well trained killer is.
I couldn't pinpoint what was bothering me at first, but now that I've filtered it through, I think I am going to have to communicate my expectations better, and talk to the player; as well as Adam when he gets back from Mexico. I don't think it was very clear to me what was intended until several NPC deaths later and some of the explanations given for things that happened during those scenes.
Joy is no longer ordinary with the changes to her sheet. While I have nothing wrong with a character becoming extraordinary, the change wasn't made in a way that suggests it happened because of Sanctum. This isn't really the player's fault; I think the concept just evolved past what she might have intended and that it got carried away a bit. Going back to the foundation of Sanctum with this playtest though, Joy has become something that doesn't fit with the standard of ordinary. I'm going to have to talk with the player about what to do to fix the issue, and I'm going to have to make sure that as a Stage-Hand, I make sure that it doesn't happen in the future.
