Creating player characters

Thanks for your comments, players. I think I know enough about Master now.

Next to do is make up your player characters (PCs), who are minions of DCI Hunt...

Please post a comment in response to the following prompts:

1. What is your character's name and gender?

2. What is your character's job or role in Hunt's world? Examples: a policeman in his team, another member of staff at the station, an informer, etc.

3. What sets you above normal humanity, and specifically above the street criminals of Manchester? This is your more than and must be stated in terms like "Is able to X, except when Y." Where X is what places you above them and Y is a condition in which you cannot do X.
Example: Can beat anyone in a fist fight, except when drunk

4. What cripples you and makes you less than normal humanity? This is your less than and should also be stated like "Cannot X, except when Y."
Example: Hideously ugly, except when seen in reflection

5. Make up two connections, non-player characters (NPCs) with some relationship to your character. At the start of play, the relationships are unrequited or even unknown to the NPC or PC. The relationship should have an emotional context like love, protective concern or curiosity.
Examples:
Caught the murderer of Johnny's father and had him imprisoned
Secretly loves Angie, a prostitute
Learnt everything he knows from DCI Crabtree, for whom he has great respect

6. Allocate a total of three points between your weariness and self-loathing:
Weariness represents your inability to commit acts of violence and villainy
Self-loathing represents the extent to which you are a slave of the master and therefore a monster, in your own eyes
You can have no points in one and 3 in the other, or you can have 1 point in one and 2 in the other

Difficult? Here's a sample character from another game in which I played. The game had a default gothic setting.
Name: Anonyma, female
Job: Artist's model. (Master in that game was an artist.)
More than: Achingly beautiful, except when naked
Less than: Blind, except by moonlight
Connection one: In love with the voice of Master's coachman
Connection two: The cobbler in town knows Anonyma's past, although she has forgotten it
Weariness: 2
Self-loathing: 1

Still difficult? Post a comment with your difficulty and we'll sort it out

Setting up the game

And we're off ... kind of. The first thing we do is agree the setting...

So far the suggestion is to have My Life On Mars (aka My Life With Guv'nor)
This would be 1970's England with Master as a hard-nosed policeman
Please comment on what you think about that setting

Assuming you agree...

I haven't watched Life On Mars. The idea seems to be to base Master on Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt (DCI Hunt). We don't have to be faithful to the series. In commenting on what follows you should think about what kind of character you want as Master. (Master will be the main antagonist in the game. Your player characters will be "minions" of Master, i.e. people who are involved with Master and, generally have to do what he says.)

I have a few prompts about DCI Hunt:
1. Comment on the extent to which he is: corrupt, scrupulous, jaded, idealistic, intellectual, streetwise, inspiring, threatening
2. Comment on his need. I.e. what does he require for sustenance? Some thoughts of mine: arrests, convictions, get criminals off the street by any means (pick one of these, please)
3. Comment on his want. I.e. to what does he aspire? Some thoughts of mine: promotion, take down Mr Big, get married and start a family (again pick one)

Apart from that, think about who your character is going to be. One of Hunt's coppers would be a possibility, but you could also be one of his informers, for example.
One thing you can't be is his wife; it's a rule that Master is single. Another thing is his superior, unless he has some hold over you...

Blog open, no game yet

This is going to be for an on-line game of My Life With Master