Lauren is the strangest character I've played so far. I didn't have much all that much experience with her, so after part one was complete I contacted the Heroes of the Grid facebook group and asked to show my post to people who had played Lauren more than I had. I was pretty confident I had a stellar post, even one that could have been definitive for the character. Hey, I get to have dreams and aspirations too!
The responses I got back really took me off guard.
Because most of the fine folks who looked at part one told me that they didn't play Lauren that way at all! They used Lauren as a leader to buff and then occasionally jump in to kick ass. That wasn't the part that floored me though. What floored me was that they confirmed that my experience with Lauren was completely and utterly valid, they just didn't want to play that way with her. And that they were grateful that the character was designed with such depth that they had the option to play it their way.
Lauren's character ability doesn't necessarily mean that she's using energy on herself, she could use it to donate energy confidently, secure in the knowledge that you'll be getting that energy back at the end. Disciplines could not only be used for other's rolls but that was their preferred usage of the card! Every part of the Lauren buffalo could be used to give others the break they needed to shine.
I don't make this post because I disagree with them. I made this post because I was a bit gobsmacked by what was said. The whole time I've played Lauren I was unable to see the character any other way than what I wrote in Part One. That was just what I saw. When I showed what I had written I was wondering if I had seen everything, but I wasn't expecting the level of difference that I heard.
I am struck by just how freaking flexible this game can really be, to allow for that level of dialogue between players. This is such a good thing! The game is already developing enough depth to where such conversations can happen. As the game continues and as we talk about more characters (particularly Zeo) we'll find this becomes more and more pertinent. How I play Zeo Red may be very different than how you play Zeo Red, for instance. Or Phantom Ranger. Or whomever. For ten cards there's a lot of depth of these newer characters, and Lauren is the harbinger of that. And I'm so excited.
The point is that my original vision for this series, to provide subjective input for how I've used the characters and enjoy them, has become more relevant than ever. Because there isn't just one way to look the characters we have coming out now. And as time goes on that will become more and more true, and we may eventually start getting characters for whom there are almost as many ways to play them as there are people. We're approaching an era where true player diversity is not just an exception, as it was with the core box, but the norm.
And I welcome that with open arms.
No comments:
Post a Comment