Ryan Eames Interview
Added : 13th July 2007
Interview with long-time Blue Dwarf member Ryan Eames who talks about his time in the JMC Blue Dwarf sim. This article was created for a spotlight article on pbemplayers.com and simmingleague.com.
Background information:
My name is Ryan Eames (Sean Mayer, my writing name), I'm 24 years old and currently living in Aylesbury (North of London for the non Englanders).
Q) Any fun or interesting facts you would like to share?
I once fell out of a tree and landed in the same tree! (That's what I call thinking with portals.)
Q) How long have you been playing PBEM games?
A) I've been playing only the one PBEM for just over six years - with intermittent spurts of writing and joining in between years 2 and 6.
Q) How did you start?
I have a fellow poster, the player of Doctor Keto, for that beginning. He'd found a red dwarf PBEM and was really excited about playing on it, I watched and helped him design a character for it and then promptly forgot about the incident.
It was three or so months later when he lamented that he wasn't really able to post much that I said I would join to give him a writing partner.
Q) What was your first impression? Did you for example feel overwhelmed, excited or instantly hooked?
My first impression was one of insanity. The place was buzzing and a mad house, there was a lot happening and all of it fun and varied. I wanted to join in in anyway I could and I was welcomed by a great number too.
Q) Do you still feel that way? If not, can you explain how your feelings changed, and why?
For a some amount of time I wasn't able to post any more and I had difficulty creating any sort of post for my character. I actually took permanent leave from the PBEM nearly a year ago because I'd felt I'd worn out my character. Moving into a flat with the player of Doctor Keto (still an active poster) got me back into the PBEM again.
Q) What types of games (IRC, PBEM, [....]) do you play?
The only game I play is the Blue Dwarf PBEM. I had played a couple of table top RPGs, but that was back when I had people who were interested in playing them around me.
Q) What do you like the most about simming, the least?
I like the creative feeling I get the most. Being able to just run wild without having to concentrate and create kooky ideas is great entertainment. The Blue Dwarf is always a bubbling pot of wacky posts. (though I get the feeling that this sort of freedom in a PBEM is not often seen on other sims!) I also adore the creative development behind orchestrating a character's back story.
What I like the least is probably when stories die out halfway through and no one is really sure where things are going. It can be difficult to get out of those kinds of dead ends.
Q) What would you change to make simming better?
More and more players in our game!
Q) Who are your main characters?
The character I joined with and the one who appears to be most loved by the other crew is Chief Surgeon Dr. William Shakespeare. As his name suggests, Dr. Shakespeare is actually our favourite playwright William Shakespeare. The body doesn't belong to him, but the mind does. He's a genial and warm character, very good at surgery but preferring to use slightly archaic methods when performing certain procedures - drilling a hole in the head to cure sinus infections. He also talks as though still living in the sixteenth century, (though not officially accurate due to his state of mind) adding eth or 'st to a lot of his words. He's been unfortunate enough to die but has always found a way back to the Blue Dwarf.
My second character (now currently defunct) came about in a plot to divulge the reason's why Shakespeare is Shakespeare. Shakespeare's mind inhabits the body of mental technology specialist Commander Lawrence Trisees. Trisees is one of Saturn's most brilliant scientists and was working on a way to enhance the brain. Sadly, whilst using his prototype device he sent his brain into a state of temporal flux. He was subsequently mugged and on reawakening the flux had allowed one of his past lives to take control of his body - the past life being Shakespeare. Trisees returned after Shakespeare unwittingly sent his mind back into the flux and was sent back into the depths of the mind. Trisees was last seen nearly a year ago, shortly before I stopped playing - I've not explained what happened to him yet. Trisees was bad tempered, nasty, brilliantly intelligent and condescending. For these reasons he got on fabulously (and is the only crew member to have ever done so) with the Chief of Medicine.
My third character (who has become more utilised than my other two) is Ensign Jennifer Wildflower. She is a trainee surgeon and chanced upon the medibay during a routine check up. Dr. Shakespeare used the wrong medical ointment on her and proceeded to mutate her appendix into a sentient telepathic creature. Wildflower, sans appendix, then hung around the medibay generally annoying the chief of medicine and starting up a friendship with the Big Pink Tree. She's been part of the medicrew ever since, training under Shakespeare. She's daffy, funny, friendly, caring and deceptive. She's the only person I've not gone into as much detail with yet but I am waiting for the right moment to unleash all of her back story on the crew!
Q) Do you have any good stories or fond memories (related to playing these types of games) you would like to share?
There have been so many fantastic and stand out moments I've had since being a part of the crew.
One of my favourite story lines was a side plot when the medicrew had to chase the mutated appendix across the ship without alerting the other crew members. The interaction between Wildflower and the Chief of Medicine had me laughing so very hard!
Whilst not being a great storyline example, the act of being able to play as Trisees for the first time as a character and part of the crew will always stick in my mind. The crew detested Trisees and his abrasive personality. It wasn't easy to write as him or ingratiate myself with the other crew, but the fun of showing what a troubled past he had allowed some sympathy and it got to the point where he was almost missed. The plotline itself was helping to raise the Blue Dwarf from a crash landing it had made thanks to the Chrysler Manoeuvre. Trisees had to invent flotation devices to prevent it sinking further which he achieved by deceiving a large part of the crew.
The two story lines where I first set up Shakespeare's mind entering the temporal flux, then revealing gradually the character of Lawrence Trisees was my favourite to write. It was great to take a lovable character, turn him on his head and see the difference in reactions. It also allowed me to set up a moral issue of whether or not Shakespeare or Trisees has the most right to be alive when they first began working on a cure.
When the crew all gets together and pulls off a fantastic storyline, such as one instance when time was accidentally altered and a communist society grew up from two of our medical crew members have to be the highlights in this game. The cohesion and sheer fluidity of the progressing storyline is a joy to be a part of.
Q) describe a few things you feel it is important for a GM.
I'm not a GM or even a moderator, but I feel that if you are to GM well, then you need a decisive idea of how you want the story to proceed, you need to know ways to get the action back on course should it get sidelined and you need to have things planned out so that the pace does not falter.
Luckily our GM's have a great success rate with it!