The Four Winds' Secret Origin:

Keep in mind I have a pathetic memory (anyone remember Mr. Short Term Memory? I'm worse...) but I think it vaguely went something like this...Sometime in January in 1999 David posted a thread on the V+V message board at Webrpg requesting players for a straight 2nd ed. game of V+V. The tone would be pre-dominantly four-color a la the Keith Giffen/Kevin Mcguire run on the Justice League. Many comics enthusiasts know this run on the title was hallmarked by a large dose of slapstick and whimsy but also some very strong moments of emotional realism. You got the chance to see how these spandex clad heroes spent down time with one another, what the Martian Manhunter's favorite snack was, and that some "good guys" are pig headed jerks!

I had come to the board a few months prior when I made my return to role playing and had just sputtered out on two campaigns: One I was running for Roger, my nephew Jonathan, and myself (maybe someday Task Force: Justice will see the light of day again <g>) and my first PbeM that barely got off the ground before it died (Roger was along for the ride too). Both failed games saw me playing characters that were in some way different from the "grim and gritty" archetype I played in my teens. The first character was code named Templar and was an African-American super-soldier that led C.H.E.S.S.' Knight division who had an element of patriotism that was new for me. The other character was called Warhawk and was an airborne inventor that had a layer of self-doubt that was also fresh in my character concepts.

David's post came at just the right time...I wasn't finished with my trek off the beaten path. I called Roger and told him about the opportunity and my interest. He wasn't convinced PbeM was the way to go for gaming but was willing to give it another shot. One of the strong points in the Giffen/Mcguire Justice League was the friendship between Blue Beatle and Booster Gold (although the Beast/Wonder Man dynamic from the late 100s/early 200s of the Avengers is still mt fave "buddy" depiction). I wanted our characters to be this campaign's "The Blue and The Gold", to have that sort of "partnership" quality already built into their pre-game history. Roger and I started rattling off symbiotic names and after a few eye squints at "Cloak and Dagger" settled on Sound and Fury...from there it was quick work figuring out that they should be the Brothers Faulkner. The family name begged a certain level of angst so we threw the sick father, AWOL stunt, and hated relatives into the mix. It wasn't long after that call that we whipped the characters together, mailed them to David and were accepted into the game.

Ho Ho Ho:

Thank God for the US postal service!<g> We finally all got our secret santa goodies. We had a few stipulations going into the gift giving: Keep things relatively inexpensive and ideally game related. After entering everyone's names, social security, and birth weights into a very complex mathematical equation I arrived at an acceptable list of who got who as their santa. Here's how things turned out:

SECRET SANTA	GOOD LITTLE BOY OR GIRL	THE GOODIES
Bec	Dave	Some new dice (here's hoping she had them blessed in our favor before mailing them!), a nice card (Dave almost demanded nothing else, the Scrooge<g>), and a "bubble thingy shaped like a frog" (you might be confusing GMs here, Bec)
Dan	Jeff	A hockey action figure and an IOU for some slime (I finally found some btw, Jeff...)
Dave	Roger	A really bitchin' key chain light that shines in a cone for like a mile. Natch, Roger blinded himself with it first time he used it...(if we squint just the right way maybe this is symbolic of Fury's need to see the light and re-join the team...)
Jeff	Bec	Planetary #1 (you think things are weird in KY...you have no idea...)
Roger	Tone	"God Loves Man Kills" an X-Men Graphic Novel (ok this one takes a little explaining -- As it turns out Tone is a huge Kurt Wagner Nightcrawler fan...and he shines in this story)
Tone	Dan	2 Noel Friedline CDs (they're kinda fun Tone) and enough tix to choke a horse to the AMC (now I might have another reason besides IKEA to go to Jersey...and thanks for noticing my "hot crossed buns")

The Allston Gaming Personality Assesment:

I managed to find my old as the hills copy of Aaron Allston’s Strike Force suplement for Champions when I went to visit my family over Thanksgiving. For those of you who are unfamilar with the sourcebook it is basically a chronicle of a campaign world he ran for many years complete with character write-ups, rules mods, histories, and gaming observations.

Allston notes that most players have "traits of two or more of these following stereotypes":

BUILDER: wants her character’s to have a lasting impact on the world

BUDDY: primarily in the game because a friend is

COMBAT MONSTER: FIGHT!!!! Each session needs to have some battle/action

GENRE FIEND: conventions of the genre need to be present ad naseum to make this player happy.

COPIER: comes in two forms: 1) models on pre-existing characters a lot or 2) consistently remakes the same character (or some variant) over and over.

MAD SLASHER: if the combat monster must fight then this player type must kill! kill! kill!

MAD THINKER: lives to match wits with the villains. needs puzzles as much as the CM needs action.

THE PLUMBER: this player elaborately details her character’s background, personality, etc. and should be presented with scenarios that allow her to develop the character even further.

PRO FROM DOVER: "I’m the best there is at what I do."

THE ROMANTIC: this player thrives on personal relationships. the GM needs to supply the char with NPCs to have connections with (be they familial, professional. initmate, etc.) or they won’t be happy.

RULES RAPIST (aka MUNCHKIN): this player is the one most likely to try to convince there GM to let them have 3 Heightened Agility Bs, 2 Heigtened Speeds, and Heightened Intelligence B and Weakness Detection bundled together in a Mutant Power...

THE SHOWOFF: this player must have her chaarcter in the fore of the game at all times.

THE TRAGEDIAN: like the title implies this player lives to punish her character emotionally. this type is a great vent for evil GM impulses.

...so how do some of the players rate themselves? Glad you asked -- I have that right here:

Bec: 50% TRAGEDIAN, 25% ROMANTIC, 25% PLUMBER

Dan: 50% PLUMBER, 20% ROMANTIC, 20% TRAGEDIAN, and 10% Copier (I tend to gravitate toward Batman type characters -- Sound is one of many attempts to break this habbit)

Jeff: 40% TRAGEDIAN, 40% PLUMBER, 20% BUILDER (he'd like to be a MAD THINKER but that 9 Intelligence gets in the way <g>)

Sort of explains all the angst doesn't it? Especially since we have an Evil GM (who according to Dave are equal parts Builder/Genre Fiends/Reverse Tragedians...)

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