OK, I�m going to rant. Read it because at the end, even if you aren�t in Adam�s werewolf game, if you play in my games, there�s a point that applies to you. If you have to go to the bathroom, do so now� (Spanish Flea)� You done? Good.

Firstly, I realize I�m not the greatest storyteller on Earth. But, that said, I think I�m pretty damn good. And I think that that gives me the right to comment on when somebody is pretty damn bad. My current frustrations with Adam�s werewolf storytelling are fucking immeasurable. Or� I don�t know, maybe you could measure them, but you would need huge fucking tools to do it, like, beyond what any community college keeps in their Emotion + Insanity lab. The first few werewolf games that Adam ran were sort of so-so, not good not bad, and I don't fault him, no one was really fully in character, even me, though I tried pretty hard. And I understand, it takes people time to fall into their grooves. The last few sessions have been considerably better, thanks to the players really getting into their characters. Adam�s caliber of storytelling has remained fairly low though not abyssmal, but the players MADE the game good. We�ve played our characters well. We may have broken the rules of the world, but hell, that�s what our characters fucking DO! Especially Sabbra Cadabra (me).

To depart from that for a moment, I�ll come back to it, we play in very public places, like in the Belly Of The Whale. As such, there are people hovering around on the periphery of our game, and obviously, we�re distracted sometimes. Hell, my players get distracted and we play in an enclosed place, but it�s kept fairly minimal in both games. Adam gets all upset about it though, if we aren�t 100% focused all the time. He also gets angry if you argue with him over things (rules, general "this doesn�t make sense you foolish storyteller" stuff, etc). The fact is, sometimes storytellers make mistakes with things, but that in itself isn�t too bad. I do it too, but I expect my players to argue and say, "this would have happened" and sometimes they�re right and sometimes they�re wrong.

Anyway, the conclusion to all of this is, the last game we had, every player did a fantastic job, acting utterly in character, becoming a united pack, attempting to solve problems without crazy violence, being intelligent� and none of us got a single XP. And Adam expressed nothing but contempt for our performance. I like Adam as a person. Hell, Person Adam is great, I love him. But Storyteller Adam... I�m still in his game for now because I like playing Sabbra Cadabra, and if I can do that in a good environment, I would do it without XP for the whole chronicle. But in Adam�s game, that is a big if. So, we�ll see.

Anyway, now for the point of all this that applies to anyone in my games. That�s right, I wasn�t really just ranting like an angry lunatic. I want my players to know a few things.
1. I always appreciate the job you�re doing, even if I don�t say so. You know my feeling that games are (or at least can be) an art form, and I consider you all good artists.
2. I don�t feel like I�m a tyrannical dictator with you guys, but if somehow I am and I�m just blind to it, I want you to let me know. I never want you guys to feel like I�m running the show and you�re just my puppets, whom I can spank if your arm twitches this way instead of that way. You players ARE the game, in the end, your performance makes the game great as much as mine does.
3. Feel free to argue points with me. I will try as hard as I can to never EVER use the "I�m the storyteller and so I�m God" argument to say that this happens this way and there�s nothing you can do about it (something that Adam does at least once per game session, usually more). Sometimes, of course you lose the argument, (when the Rat killed Psidon and Kathy really didn�t want to, but she was frenzied and it made perfect sense by the Vamp rules), and sometimes you win, (when Sam, after the session when he had been at the stock warehouse and forgotten to write down weapons let me know that logically, Hercule really would have taken weapons, and he was right).

Well, I guess I�ve said my piece. Thanks for reading, you all rock.

Sage