Have Things Changed?

One of the players in my virtual Everway game at U-Con last weekend asked what was different about running Everway virtually, and was it more difficult to run Everway online? 

That's a really interesting question. 

My biggest fear in preparing to run Everway online was character creation. I was able to address this issue by creating a form-fillable version of the ready-to-run heroes in the Players' Book. There's really an embarrassment of riches when it comes to signature characters in Book I, and the publishers of the new edition had the brilliant idea to publish the characters as almost complete: they are missing the third of three images, and the brief narrative that appears under that image.

To prepare my games, I have created a folder with a lot of different fantasy images from different sources the internet. I invite players to select an image that speaks to them, and then to figure out what it stands for or illustrates with respect to completing the character's background. 

Then we do 2-3 Questions per character.

All of this takes about 45 minutes with a group of 3-4 players online. It creates a very cohesive set of player characters and establishes a holding environment for the game of mutual respect and interest in each other's characters. 

This is time well-spent in a virtual game, and probably works out similarly in-person.