Andy Jones Interview - Rosette

Added : 6th March 2009

Andy Jones (SMAndy) has had quite a few characters since joining the Blue Dwarf group, firstly an unstable character named Jack who had multiple personalities, who was later revealed to be Jack Febuggure, a relative of Phil's. A sentient gun named simply "The Gun(TM)" which became far too powerful for it's own good. Then Jenny Bond, a spy working for Queen Brittany who had Seymour's baby, then most recently a mercenary called Rosette who is half Human, half Hymenoptera.

 

How long have you been a member of the Blue Dwarf now? And does it feel like a long time, or not that long?

SMAndy - It's been 6 years now... My god, thats a long time.  I started when i was still in school, and this year i get my 5 years long service award at work!  It's scary...

 

Rosette has recently turned into half Human, half Hymenoptera. Is the struggle between good and bad hard to write about?

SMandy - Very much so.  It's hard to keep a balance between whats her, and whats the Hymenoptera... It's rather difficult to try and think of EPIC ways that they can fight each other, without doing things that have been done to death in other places.  

 

Rosette's evil Hymenoptera side is potentially quite powerful. What are you doing to make sure she isn't TOO powerful that it breaks rules about god-modding?

SMAndy - God-moding isn't a problem for this ability, i think.  You've got to remember that all Hymenoptera have a weakness to Alcohol.  This is the same for Rosette's Hymenoptera side.  Not only that, but she can't control it fully, and never will.  Regardless of how much her power helps the good guys, there will always be times when it can turn against her friends, and companions.  For every good deed she does, there may well be something equally as bad.  Also, the TransMed corporation is still after her.  This means she needs to lie low when in civilisation.  She'll not be able to transform of her own will when she might get found out, or else have to run for a long time.

 

Do you plan to have Rosette cured of all Hymenoptera afflictions, or will she stay like this for a while?

SMAndy - Just because there is no cure currently for such an affliction, doesn't mean there won't be one in the future.  All I can say is that it's very similar to therianthropy.  Were-creature legends have never had a cure beyond the death of the afflicted in stories, so this may well be the case here too.  It all depends really on how well she fits in with the crew.  If it becomes too much of a burden for her, then she might go on a spirit quest to purge her soul of the corruption!
 

When you first joined Blue Dwarf, your first character was Jack Febuggure. Are there any plans for him to come back?

SMAndy - No. He's dead and buried.  The reason I killed him off was because he was too difficult to write for.  I gave him abilities that made it hard to not god-mode, due to my inexperience as a roleplayer back in those days.  If i were to bring him back, he would be totally different to how he was then.  Basically, I'm enjoying my current character too much to be thinking about bringing back an old (and dead) character now.
 

Your second Blue Dwarf character was a spy/assassin called Jenny. Jenny had Seymour's baby and is still mentioned occasionally by Onion, who now controlls her character and has her living in some other dimension called the "Karangeth Universe". Do you have any plans to write any more for her character in the future?

SMAndy - Jenny has actually turned out to be an 'Avatar' which gives her abilities beyond time and physics.  It would definitely be a test of my writing ability to not overuse such toys.  While I would gladly take up her role again in future if a second mind and pair of hands were required, I don't think I'll be actively writing from Jenny's perspective again.  Basically, she's an NPC.  I've written from the perspective of other NPC's before, so I may well write from Jenny's once again!

You have played two female characters on Blue Dwarf. As a bloke, do you find it difficult to write about female characters?

SMAndy - It's definitely a challenge, and to be quite honest, i don't know why i do it.. But it feels like a better way to make my roleplaying better, as playing a guy would immeditately have similarities to me.  Roleplaying is a way to get out of reality, and playing someone who is completely different to me in every way is one easy way to do that.
 
 
One of the NPC's you created early on was called "The Gun(TM)", which seemed to be getting more and more high-tech in each post. What happened to it?

SMAndy - The Gun(TM) was a creation of someone very new to PbeM roleplaying.  In all other places i'd played, the game had rules, stats and things to stop anything like it from being created.  Later on, I realised that everyone hated it because it could do everything, and then realised that they didn't hate it... It was a god-mode weapon.  With it, I could never be beaten, so it had to go.  The fact that it's never come back shows that I have given up the God-Mode option.
 

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