The Weight of the Crown

Question: Does John EVER get to play? I know he's posted plenty of times (in the FAQ and on this blog) that he's the main storyteller, but does anybody else in your group storytell on occassion? Anne seems like she'd be a more than capable storyteller.

John made a sad face when this question came in and went to get a donut to soothe himself. Unfortunately, he plays very seldom.

Our original introduction to Scion was in a game run by a friend of ours, which was the seed for the Skeins of Fate game which is now still going strong; John played Colin Margaritas in that, much to the immense frustration and discomfiture of people who were not prepared for the character's truly epic level of insanity. But once he moved to being the full-time ST for the games, he was no longer able to play Colin because he was devoting his time to Storytelling, and a few sad sighs were heaved. Around the same time, he also very briefly played Art in an online campaign, but the game folded quickly and with it went poor Art.

A year or so later, one of our players did indeed take a turn in the hot seat with the Hong Kong game, so John was able to play again, this time as Maximus Graziano Giovanni VII. His brief run was a blast, but unfortunately life pressures made the Storyteller need to step down, so Max was retired as well and John has been Storytelling ever since.

Because John works so hard on his games and entertains everyone free of charge to the tune of many hours a week, the players and I get together once a year around Labor Day to throw him an ST Appreciation Party, which mostly consists of beer, cake, and somebody else Storytelling so he can play all day. Last year, the ever-fabulous Brent Not Broken of Modern Mythos ran an all-day one-shot game for nine people to let him be the star of the show, which was a total blast (even though Vivian's player ended up murdering John's character in player-versus-player combat. He started it). We know it's not much, only getting to play reliably once a year, but it's the least we can organize to tell John how awesome he is. If you have a local buddy who always seems to be in the ST chair, consider doing the same thing to show your appreciation - it's lonely always being the driver and never getting to enjoy the scenery!

In the meantime, John's characters are no longer PCs but they aren't forgotten; once in a while they make appearances as guest NPCs and plot movers and shakers, which is always a pretty awesome time. Just recently Colin has been making Goze's and Geoff's lives something of a minor, confusing hell with his mysterious demands and enigmatic refusal to part with useful information, and Geoff in particular is developing something of a vengeful dislike of the kid that might prompt him to take unwise actions in the future. It's fun to see them live on, even if no longer in the form they once were.

I'm flattered, by the way, by your faith in my abilities, question-asker! I am a decent Storyteller (or so I like to think), but I seldom run games for John; in keeping with being one of the most awesome STs ever himself, he's also a very awesome player, but that means he's endlessly creative and carries all the rules ever around in his skull all the time, and frankly my Wits + Academics roll is not as good as his (the fact that we have been together for eight years and are no longer good at hiding things from each other for surprise plots is also an issue). While I'm totally willing to run games for him, most of the time we mutually decline; it would probably just turn into John giving me a master class on Storytelling instead of a game proper.

It takes a special Storyteller to run for John, because he is himself a very special Storyteller. We salute you for your awesomeness, John, and as always thank you for running awesome games and writing awesome stories for everyone to take part in!