Play by Post vs. Real Life

As I briefly noted below, I've just gotten involved with a play by post AD&D2e Planescape game. You can read about it here. With only a little more than a day under our belt, I think it's shaping up nicely. The other players are enthusiastic, and the DM (noisms from the monsters and manuals blog) is setting a wonderfully old school tone.

I'm really trying to play a type of character that I'm not sure I've ever played in an rpg before - someone who's very precise and bound by harsh cultural customs (you know, like duty, honor, and hierarchy). In other words, someone who's lawful neutral. It's fun but definitely challenging. Especially because I don't want to piss off the other players who I don't even know with an overabundance of inaccessibility and arrogance. (It's all in character - I swear it's not me!)

It's hard to say whether this type of game has the staying power of in person games (though who am I kidding about the staying power of these). But I'm definitely enjoying the writing aspect. I'm trying to look at my character as I've heard great comic book writers talk about their characters: It's all about distilling the character down to the handful of core elements that make that character cool and make that character tick. So, I made a list of some elements, and I'm going to try to keep them on the screen next to my browser as I post.

At the very least, the writing saves me from embarrassing voice acting.

RPGs and Comic Books

I'm one of those people who's rarely satisfied by my gaming experiences.  I've always loved gaming more in theory than in actual practice.  Waxing nostalgic yet again, I remember being 13 and looking forward to D&D marathons much more than the experience warranted.  I was never happy with our DM - he knew he loved power even at that age - and he was always better at arguing over the rules than me.  But even on the best of days, I never felt transported to that world that lurked right behind the doors and the DM on the cover of the DM's guide.

On the other hand, I love comic books.  A lot.  The tales we created when we gamed never came close to those of good comic books.  I think I still feel this way, and it makes me sad.  Comic books are so good these days.  Gaming...well, let's just say that the mainstream games are too mechanical and the indie games still have far to go if they want to consistently produce scenes of strong characterization.  Or maybe it's just us - we may just be much worse much players than my favorite comic book creators are comic book creators.

Speaking of which, I wish Bendis would just get off the Avengers et al. already.  These massive crossovers and plot threads that unfold over years are fine, and certainly a forceful display of supreme organizational writing skill.  But I miss my old Avengers.  How good would it be to see Brubaker write a classic lineup of Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Vision, and Hawkeye?  If anyone out there actually reads this, who do you think would be a good artist for this?