So Monday I’m off on another trip, this one to Pasadena (again). Major audit report action, plus Talking Nice To People so that they will abide by the policies I’ve written. And smoothing some troubled waters, and bruised egos.
I enjoy my work. Really. I’m getting to do stuff I’ve not been able to do before — set policies. Hoody-hoo.
Getting people to follow them, of course, there’s the rub.
On the other hand, I have three (count ’em, three) performance evals to give. I hate performance evals. I could easily spend the rest of my career without giving performance evals. That’s because, to be frank, I hate to confront people. Oh, I’ll do it, and get me riled up enough, I’ll do it with ferocious abandon. But I hate doing it as a normal thing.
Maybe that’s why I enjoyed Brust’s Issola. Because, like Lady Teldra, I like being polite. I like being diplomatic. I like finding the right way to say things to make people get along and be happy. (Because otherwise, they’ll be unhappy, and blame me, and hate me, and then I’ll live out my life, unloved, living in a cardboard box and eating cockroaches. But I digress.)
Actually, that’s probably the problem I have with GMing games. I really hate to lower the boom on people, to say, “No, you can’t do that.” So that leaves me with two alternatives, neither of which is good.
1. I can use a system that is very heavily ruled, a very accurate simulation, something that requires dice throws every thirty seconds, and comes with tomes of rules. But I hate that, because it’s not fun, and because I hate rules lawyers. It’s not why I’m playing the game, damnit.
2. I can use a system that’s very free-form, very loosy-goosy, that will allow me to have free reign of my imagination. The way literature is. But then I have to deal with munchkins who will try to get away with things that they shouldn’t, and I’ll have to confront them on it. Or not, in which case the game suffers. But that’s not why I’m playing the game, damnit.
So why don’t I just write a book? Because I’m lazy.
I’ve actually written a book. Some day, maybe even soon, when I can allocate a few weeks to it, I’ll finish the final bits (i.e., give it one last read-through and edit) and post it somewhere.
If so, you’ll read about it here, first.