Thank you, Humphrey

One of the things I love to do at Norwescon is the infamous Friday Night Call of Cthulu game. When I took my first look at the character for the game, I was aghast: Roger, an Oxford PhD historian.

How the hell do I roleplay an Oxford PhD?

I sat gripped in panic for a good five minutes as the game got underway. Then, as we were introducing our characters, inspiration struck - Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Played by the gifted actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Sir Humphrey Appleby was a career civil servant in the series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister who constantly foiled his boss - Jim Hacker, the latest elected buffoon whose bumbling attempts to set policy always threatened years, even generations of work by the civil service.

Humphrey never used one word when five would do; never used one syllable when 25 were available. While I don't do a very good British accent, I seized on this verbosity as the defining trait of my character. I then proceeded to give my best performance of any roleplaying game to date.

Thanks, 'Humpy'. I could not have done it without you. (And requisat in pace, Sir Nigel).