Your name and work or occupation
My Real Name is Jimi and I currently work as a Nightclerk at a major hotel.
How did you meet rpg's?
I first was introduced to RPG when I was 12 as some of my friends had just
begun playing a year before. As I am a very "imaginative" person
it caught my interest and I tagged along for a session or two...then I was
hooked.
Do you remember your first role
session? Its 16 years ago, so sadly I dont.
What was the first game you played
? I belive it was the swedish game Dragons and demons (drakar
och demoner).
Which is your best memory from
this session? The sensation of sharing your dreams with good
friends and the sense of belonging.
Which is the worst?
Dont recall any bad times..it was all good.
What percent of your friends play
role games? From the people I consider really close friends that
makes up 90% of my friends. We have stuck together for 16 years now and
I would trust them with my life.
What do you like about RPGs?
Ohh...pretty much everything. I like the good times you share with your
friends, the sensation of sharing daydreams with others, constantly meeting
new interesting people and to explore other ways of life through your characters.
What don't you like?
Hmmm...only thing I dont like is the constant infighting Online where people
have to force their point of view, or try to change things to their liking
instead of just enjoying the experience. The powerups are also a downside
where the powerlevel of the characters becomes more important than the roleplaying
experience.
What do you like about role players?
I like the fact that roleplayers in general are more openminded and more
imaginative. Roleplayers are in general friendlier and less conscerned with
teh status quo which I find refreshing.
What don't you like?
Powerplayers, wiseguys and people with no flexibility conscerning rules
and settings.
What good things has the role
games brought to your life?*smiles* RPG has brought me the best
friends found on this planet, a way to cope with stress and pressure without
resulting to drugs of any sort, my fiancee Jenny, stability and security
in life as well as a controlled imaginative thinking. Just to mention a
few things...RPG has made me the person I am today.
What negative things?
I often wonder how else I could have better spent my money...
What do you think about the stigm
of "satanism" which sometimes have the RPGs? RPG has
brought me no negative aspects, only good things has come from it.
What do you think about the stigm
of "satanism" which sometimes have the RPGs? Its human
nature to fear what you do not understand and to wish to hurt what you fear.
If I was a parent and realised that my son or daughter was playing out the
role of of a demon, vampire, ogre or some other being we consider evil,
I would be conscerned as well. only those unenlightened will ever consider
RPG evil and call it "satanism". Hopefully the Roleplayers out
there enlighten their parents and others that dont know what RPG is all
about.
And what is the RPG about?
Why and how did you began to be
a storyteller? I have always been a builder, or architect of
things imaginative, so it came natural that I after some time took the step
from being the actor in the play to the directors chair if we compare to
the big screen. Being a person with a very active imagination my friends
pushed me gently until I got the confident to try it.
With which game? My
first game I was Storyteller for was Mutant, another Swedish RPG and a game
called Laserburn that probably dont exist anymore.
How was this first time?
My first session was not bad, but as I was unexperienced it was a bit to
linear and to complicated...My friends enjoyed it anyway and that all that
matters.
What type of games do you prefer
now? I am an all-eater, I will try any games as long as its entertaining.
I am just as content to play a session of Paranoia for a good laugh as I
am playing a session of Rolemaster or Twilight 2000.
What do you direct actually?
In real life I dont direct much these days, I am to busy with the Homepages
and work, but I have been asked to participate in a event coming up in april...so
who knows. The last campaign I ran was a Mortal game taken place in Nexus:
The dark City. It was good. On the web however I direct all the WoD games
from time to time, mostly Vampire and Mortal though.
What do you play actually?
I play lots of games, even if in the last years they have been far between.
We have a campaign in Rolemaster put on hold right now and I have been known
to play Fantasy Hero, Delta Force, Rolemaster and many other games. In my
career I have played dozens of games.
Which is the best RPG or which
are ? Why? There is no best RPG simply because the quality of
the game depends on so much more than just the game, or its system and setting.
With good friends and a good Storyteller you can make any RPG the best there
is, regardless of setting and system. The quality of an RPG is in the eye
of the beholder.
Ok, in these terms, which game
you could take and change to meke it better?
Which the worst? Why?
Same thing here...there are many poor RPG systems out there that makes little
sense, but with an experienced storyteller they can be just as good as any
other system. Same thing with great systems. They can be ruined by a poor
ST or bad players...
Which game would you like to play
or to direct and you haven't been able to until the moment? I
played Lord of the Rings a long time ago with the Rolemaster system and
I have just purchased the new game which I am looking forward to testing
out. Other than that I would like to try all games out there, both as ST
and as a Player.
About LotR, what do you think
about the movies?
Is there a Role Play culture at
your city? My friends was part of building the RPG culture in
this city and to some extent it has been revived lately after falling dormant
for a few years after they left for other jobs outside the city, leaving
the groups unsupervised. Now the whole sweden is experiencing a surge of
renewed RPG fever and this city has astrong presence of LIVE players and
of course Tabletop players.
Why do you think it?
On several occasions the RPG groups have been presented in the media and
the Library has on several occasions lent their facilities to the RPG groups
during events here in my town. I can personally mention 20-30 people that
play RPG on a somewhat regular basis, which is planty in such a small city
as this is.
The role players are a disgregated
group? why is this way? or aren't they? In the past we were a
bit "odd". in todays society of RPG computer games and with a
huge player base that is organised in ways no one could imagine 15 years
ago I would say we are not. Roleplayers are still often strange peoples
with a strangely positive disposition, a wildly imaginative mind and quite
often display great creative of intellectual skills, which still makes us
a bit "odd", but in a good way. For some reason 75% of all the
computer geeks seem to have played RPG at some time...go figure.
What do you know about the role
players in other cities of your country? Sweden is a small country
and the Roleplayers are pretty well organised here so I know a bit of the
situations out there, even if I no longer maintain a connection with conventions
and other means to get together. all in all RPG is growing once more, which
is good. Of your continent? around the world?
My continent would be Europe and since i dont get around much I know only
what the web tells me. From my players on Nexus and from various webforums
and mailing lists I hear that what happend in sweden is also happening in
other parts of the world. I am pleased to hear that countries that are considered
less involved in Tabletop RPG such as Asia, South americe, Africa, Russia
and the Arab countries are on the move and RPG is growing there as well.
RPG is really breaking any boundary, including race and country.
About it, why do you think South
america is considered this way?
Why the RPGs don't have the best
image? Traditionally RPG got a bad reputation because kids starting
to stay indoors instead of playing outside like "normal" kids.
The strangeness of having "mature people" play out their daydreams
was considered weird and it was heavily ridiculed during the early 80's,
just like Martial arts was considered "goofy" and dangerous during
the 70's. The people that played were also a bit strange as pioneers always
are. There were computer geeks, punks, hardrockers. blackrockers, goths
and many other minor social groups involved in the RPG revolution and of
course the societies view on the new phenomen was flavored by that.
What motivated you to put online a role website?
The urge of creation. I had been playing on Ashland for a while and it was
going to be shut down, which created a vacuum for the Online RPG people,
so like so many others I made a variant of it. It started out as just a
fun thing, but eventually grew to be something more.
Define your site please
A work in progress. It started as just an idea and for 3 years it has evolved
and it probably will continue to do so for quite some time. With the Upcoming
Nexus: City of legends I will explore the past of the Realm nexus which
will further evolve the site as a whole.
Which were the original objectives
of your site? To create a place where you can come to play and
socially interact with other people with similar interests.
Are all of them fulfilled? Why
do you think that it happens? I think so. Lots of time and effort
from a lot of people have ensured that it happened. Today we have 800 registered
players, which is way more than I could ever imagine when we first started.
We have also grown out of our server space and now take up 110MB of webspace.
Do you write for rpgs?, draw?, other?
Nope. I have friends that do some of that, but I have been preoccupied for
the passed 3 years with building Nexus. I do some work using Photoshop however
from time to time and I have been approached about a new RPG, but nothing
more.
Two things which all role players
must know. *smiles* The golden rules of course: Its just a game
and Have fun!!
Two things all role players must
avoid while playing. Dont take the game to serious and keep the
goofing around to a minimum unless the game requires it.
Role players are principally male?
Why? this question is because looks like is this way here Nope.
The games attract Males and femals alike. Males makes more noise and gets
more attention though.
From what age could girls and
boys start playing rpgs? It all depends on the kids. From what
age would you let them watch a cartoon or play videogames? I would say for
most kids the age of 11-13 is ok, but an older ST is to recommend to keep
the games in order.
With what type of games?
Fantasy games and Comedy games is best suited for the younger players as
they both stimulate the fantasy in a less serious way than say a wargame
or science fiction game would since they focus on weaponry and war where
the lines of good and bad is less defined than in fantasy games.
An anecdote from your life in the
RPGs. *laughs* During my early days I was known for the one that
always got my characters killed in a spectacular way, or making wild and
crazy storylines and one of the things I remember is when we played laserburn
that is taking place is a distant future. For some reason the group was
being chased and I took a seat behind one of the stupidest people in the
group (In the game, not real life) on his jetbike, which is a bit like the
jetscooters of Starwars. my character did not like high speed of heights
much so when the person in front of hom blazed on in quite high speed and
high altitude he creamed "stop it!!", and the guy driving said
"sure" and turned the jetbike off, causing us to drop instead..:)
Needless to say my character screamed and wanted the person
up front to start again and after some failed attempts he managed, just
a few feet off the ground. Unfortunately the throttle was in full gear to
prevent us from crashing so we ran the bike straight into a building, crashing
through the window, through the livingroom, into a door where i fell off
on my own weapon and died from impact, then through the bedroom and the
wall between the bedroom and the toilet where the driver slammed into the
toilet and died, then the bike proceeded through that wall to and exploded
in the elevator..:)
This was also the game where I had character with the most
weird names. How about these: Härsktremé, Tsethiethargl Tsatjethilgar
mithar. :)
I also recall a convention where I ended up storytelling a
game of war between Rambo and the russian army, using paperclips as markers
(red for Rambo and brass for the army). We were so convincing that someone
actually asked if he could by the rules for it...which was a bustable.:)
it was early in the morning after a few days without sleep.
Please a picture, image or avatar
to illustrate your interview.
Thanks.