Putting yourself into the story

[LordPhrofet]

So I have an unusual GM question that hopefully people can help me think through. I am going to be starting an urban fantasy game (Dresden Files, Fate system) soon with the players making characters LOOSELY based upon themselves. When the group started the planning of the game my SO asked "what happened to you? where are you in all of this?". My initial response was that I (as a person) do not exist in the world and therefore never met her or anyone else within the group. She didn't like the idea and instead proposed that I had disappeared while in college in Washington DC (the game and the gaming group are based in California). She even based her character concept around the idea so it is very important to her character (she became an emissary of power to a Native American shapeshifing love spirit).

Now usually when a player gives me a background like that I would use it somehow in the story since it would create some amazing RP. The problem with this particular scenario is that the plot device/opponent/etc. is ME which feels kinda "masturbatory" to me. I have always tried to limit playing GM characters or having overpowered GM tools since I have always felt it detracts from the payers. I love the concept of making the love interest a major villain but again it feels weird considering I would be playing myself.

So what are people's thoughts on the topic? Ways to do it right? Things to avoid?

 

[Mad_Jack]

Assuming that, despite having disappeared while in college, you still have some sort of connection to the group, I'd personally go all X-files with it...

I'd go with you being a non-present source of campaign info and/or plot hooks - there was a reason you disappeared, or were disappeared, and wherever you are, you're still finding ways to remain loosely in contact with the group... You're sometimes able to provide them with information they need to know, warn them of upcoming dangers, or send them on tasks to benefit whatever it is "you" are involved in that keeps you off-screen and on the down-low.

This way you can have as much or as little impact on the game as you want.

 

[pemerton]

My Fate-fu isn't super-strong, but from what you describe can't the lead be taken by your player? Presumably her PC has one or more aspects that relate to her lover who has disappeared. So she should be looking for ways to trigger that aspect. Which should, over time, build up some sort of picture of who "you" were in the imagined world of the game, what your past was that led you to DC, what happened to you there, etc.

I'm speaking here from theory rather than experience - I've never tried this - but it seems to me that letting it unfold in this way is likely to reduce the "masturbatory" dimension and let it emerge in a way that is more organic in play, and maintains the focus on the player(s) like you want it to be.

 

[TwoSix]

Now usually when a player gives me a background like that I would use it somehow in the story since it would create some amazing RP. The problem with this particular scenario is that the plot device/opponent/etc. is ME which feels kinda "masturbatory" to me. I have always tried to limit playing GM characters or having overpowered GM tools since I have always felt it detracts from the payers. I love the concept of making the love interest a major villain but again it feels weird considering I would be playing myself.

So what are people's thoughts on the topic? Ways to do it right? Things to avoid?

Total upside...it will be really easy to do an accurate voice rendition when the NPC shows up.

 

[LordPhrofet]

Mad Jack: My character would, currently, have no connection to the group. The thought would be to put tidbits about myself slowly as the story progresses and maybe use myself as a BBG or maybe as an active side antagonist.

Pemerton: That COULD work but I don't know if either one of us could accomplish that well. I do appreciate the idea though.

Two six: Oh man now I want to do a horrible impression of myself.

 

[S'mon]

I agree with Pemerton (!!!!)

The way I would look at it is, the "you" npc here is not you-you, and it is not your ideal Marty Stu self image of you either. It is your wife's in-game image of you. You need to take an external aspect on yourself and see "you" as an in game character through her eyes. So "you" have the personality aspects that matter to her, not what matters to you-you.

It reminds me of the time I created a male love interest npc. I don't have a romantic interest in men so I had to step out of my own view and look at characters written to be appealing to women, like Mr Darcy and Ser Jorah Mormont. This was way more challenging than creating a female love interest npc since there I can just write what would interest me. So maybe think about what makes you intriguing to HER.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

So I have an unusual GM question that hopefully people can help me think through. I am going to be starting an urban fantasy game (Dresden Files, Fate system) soon with the players making characters LOOSELY based upon themselves. When the group started the planning of the game my SO asked "what happened to you? where are you in all of this?". My initial response was that I (as a person) do not exist in the world and therefore never met her or anyone else within the group. She didn't like the idea and instead proposed that I had disappeared while in college in Washington DC (the game and the gaming group are based in California). She even based her character concept around the idea so it is very important to her character (she became an emissary of power to a Native American shapeshifing love spirit).

Now usually when a player gives me a background like that I would use it somehow in the story since it would create some amazing RP. The problem with this particular scenario is that the plot device/opponent/etc. is ME which feels kinda "masturbatory" to me. I have always tried to limit playing GM characters or having overpowered GM tools since I have always felt it detracts from the payers. I love the concept of making the love interest a major villain but again it feels weird considering I would be playing myself.

So what are people's thoughts on the topic? Ways to do it right? Things to avoid?

Why do you go with urban and not modern fantasy? We don't all live in cities you know. The modern world is mostly countryside, the cities are only a tiny fraction of the modern world.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Perhaps something like this could help:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion

They recognize you, but YOU think they’re all imposters.

Or perhaps the in-game you is a changeling of some kind. Either an entity mimicking your form (for its own reasons or doing the bidding of another), an incorporeal spirit possessing your body (whether you’re still in there or not is another question), or actually you, but from another reality with different key experiences.

Bonus points: if you’re clean shaven, make a construction paper/cardboard beard and mount it on a stick. When “you” talk, hold the beard up over your own mouth.

 

[pemerton]

I agree with Pemerton (!!!!)

Stick with the strength, I say!

 

[Blue]

This is a tough one. I've played as myself before (in a GURPS time-hopping game), and that me got rather messed up in the head (had to kill someone). But never has a player tried to insert me into a game when I was DMing.

I have to admit, I'd probably sidestep the whole issue by making my disappearance be my unsolved death, that leads the group to a campaign arc level plot going on. So "me" would have a meaningful campaign affect to satisfy the player writing "me" into their character's backstory, yet "me" wouldn't be in-the-game. Except perhaps in letters, recordings, left over voicemail, etc. Well, maybe if my death happens off-scene but after the start of play we can also have the cryptic text or whatever as a hook, but then dying after that might feel more like the characters failed so I'd be careful. Maybe a news broadcast about discovering "my" body would be useful.