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With everything else I have going on, you thought I was going to forget about Exceptional Women Friday, it’s okay. I’m a little surprised I didn’t myself!
I got about a bazillion recommendations for awesome women to inspire setting, characters, and history in your games. Really, a bazillion. So I thought I’d start with someone close to home. (IE: Right straight out of my comments on this here blog.) Thank you, Joe Mcdaldno for pointing her out in previous comments.
You can of course, and should, read up more about here, you can start here, for the quick run down. Further reading is ALWAYS a good idea. But you know that already.
The short story is that Agnes was a revolutionary who used words instead of guns. Her efforts as a journalist and a person was to
enlighten and educate, effecting the tides of revolution and change by encouraging people to look at what they were doing. We love the image of the lady revolutionary wearing the beret and carrying an uzi, but violence isn’t the only way to change the world. Agnes fought for birth control, women’s and children’s right locally. But she also supported a British-Free India and wrote with sympathy about the Chinese revolution. Oh. And spies. There were spies involved. But you can read up on that more yourself. What I wanted to do is use her actual history as a spring board for things you can do with this real world historical ass-kicker in your games of many flavors. Also, I get to use bullet points. Which I love.
- Look Edumacated: If you are playing a modern character with revolutionary leanings, (Carthians, Anarchs, similar White Wolf splats, I am SO looking at you,) than you should have this lady’s name on your lips. She’s a great talking point during your game of Misspent Youth or while playing a vivaciously independent White Court vampire in Dresden Files. (Look at the name drops.) She’s an example modern revolutionary characters can draw from when trying to convince your iconoclast team mates that maybe MAYBE shooting your way through the status quo isn’t so brilliant a plan. Plus, it makes you look SO SMART.
- Foreign Aid Abroad: Maybe you’re playing in a fantasy setting. Maybe you’re playing in a fantasy setting where there’s conflict going on, war, unrest, civil nonsense between two countries, but you AREN’T actually in either of those nations. That’s okay. Sympathy for the plights of others is a big motivator for some people, as shown here by Agnes tireless efforts to support India. It could be a very interesting character trait if your character is, say, trying to collect gold and support for the plight of Orcs in the Northen country even if he or she is not an orc themselves. A background motivation that isn’t directly tied to whatever McGuffin you and your buddies are trying to collect from whichever dungeon adds dimension and gives you motivation to do stuff. Better still, a good GM will use that against you. Erm. I mean, will use that for added drama and story!
- Spy Stories: Playing Blowback with your friends but you yourself are having trouble coming up with a character that’s an spy? Or maybe you’re looking for something different when playing around with Spycraft? An activist journalist fits very very nicely into stories about espionage. (So much so, I think it’s a fairly common trope, isn’t it?) You’re not there on govermental behest. No shady group is working behind you. You’re there to get to the truth, and that’s a damn powerful motivation. Better still, think of the potential excitement and in character interaction possible while your team mates work hard to keep you as a loyal asset without giving away anything that could get them killed by their higher ups. Drama of the best sort!
I could go on, but I should also probably work on, yanno work, but the reason we need to say ‘these women exist’ is so that we can bring them into our games. Not just as proof that ‘hey, women are cool too’ but to demonstrate great ways to showcase how women are cool.
So, who and how, that’s what you should be thinking. And sharing. Who’s exceptional to you, and why? What would you draw from Agnes’ story for your game or your character?
