One-offs
I found myself in a less-than-ideal gaming situation last session, and handled it less-than-ideally.
The game was a Shadowrun one-off; we’re killing a little time until we can switch campaigns. (Rat is going into storage for the nonce; Afletana will be returning.) Since I don’t own any Shadowrun materials, I asked if anyone would be willing to make a character for me. I rather looked forward to it; the best thing about the GenCon round I played was doing something with a character I’d never seen before.
The GM agreed, saying he’d bring several and let us choose. He showed up with several characters found online. I chose one with an interesting backstory.
I had no idea what the run was going to be. When I found out, it so happened that the character I had chosen had precisely zero reason to want to get involved. And since it was a one-off, it was difficult even to postulate a connection with the other runners.
So I found myself asking the parodic method-actor’s question, “What’s my motivation here?” Whatever motivation I found (it wasn’t much, “survival” mostly), it didn’t seem to satisfy the other players, who occasionally gave me odd looks.
(All right, all right, so I do tend to play characters for whom survival often hits the back burner. Still. I can’t play against type?)
We’ll finish the run next session, and I can then consign Father Jerome to the dustbin of failed characters. Even so, I wonder how to deal with total mismatches between character and plot/setting.
Normally I deal with them by avoiding them in the first place; I don’t bring a character into a campaign who has no reason to be there, and I am careful to build in-game ties between my character and others to smooth over plots that wouldn’t otherwise engage my character’s interest. That’s my responsibility to the game.
When I’m stuck with an unmotivated character through no fault of my own, though, what am I supposed to do?
Not that it’s a big deal for this particular game. But in general.
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