Portrait of a member: Marion and the village post office
Marion has played at OCE Guild for three seasons and has led the same comedy campaign for two. Here she describes how a village post office became the most durable story in the house.
Who is Marion?
Marion arrived on a Tuesday evening, three seasons ago, in the rain, having rehearsed an apology in the car. She had never played a role-playing game and was quite certain that she would be bad at it. She was seated beside a Guide, given tea and a character with a very large hat, and by the tea break she had accidentally become the mayor.
She now leads a campaign of her own, a gentle comedy set in a village post office, with six regular players and a waiting list that she regards as an embarrassment. I asked her what the story is about, and she said that it is about parcels, though this is not entirely accurate.
In her own words
On starting
I was afraid of being the only person who did not know the rules. What I had not understood was that nobody knows all of them. The Guide beside me kept saying, “let us find out”, and that phrase has become the motto of my table.
On leading
I was asked to lead a short story during the game master school evenings, and I said no three times. The fourth time I said yes, because the Guide offered to sit at my elbow. I have never needed him since, though I still ask him to come for the tea.
On the post office
Every village has a post office, and every post office has secrets. Mine has a missing parcel, a rival postmistress and a cat who is possibly a spy. The players uncover one small mystery a week, and nobody has yet found out what is in the parcel.
On the guild
People ask whether it is difficult to keep a story going when members work away for weeks at a time. It is not. The story waits, and the players return with news. I find that a waiting story is a rather lovely thing to come back to.