Help me almost win Game Chef!

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Help me almost win Game Chef!

Post by devlin1 »

Hey hey, people! My Game Chef 2010 entry, Action City!, has been selected as a Finalist. So yay, me.

The actual winner will be the game that's been playtested by the most groups before the December 5th deadline. I know that's... kinda lame, really (shouldn't it be the best game that wins instead of the most enticingly written game?), but I'm going to go for it anyway. What's the worst that can happen? I get a bunch of playtest feedback on a game I wrote? That's still pretty good.

Action City! is an RPG of (predominantly '80s-style) action movies and their attendant cliches. You'll need three or four players (maybe five, I guess, but that seems like it's pushing it), a bunch of d6s, a deck of playing cards, some index cards, and, y'know, pencils and such. The game text itself is only 18 padded pages long, so it won't be a slog to read, and I wouldn't expect gameplay to last longer than, I dunno, an hour? A couple hours? I have no idea. It's definitely designed to be a one-shot game, though.

If any of you do manage to play it, please let me know and either post feedback here or on my blog, or email me at the link provided in the document. Thanks!
Mike Olson
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

that's rad! i would be down to play this, if any of you out there reading this have an inkling.

congrats mike! i'm rooting for ya, brother.
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Post by cczernia »

I'm down for some Action City!
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

that's one!

i downloaded this and am reading it, and so far, i likes what i sees.
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Post by cczernia »


[quote="jimmy corrigan"]that's one!



i downloaded this and am reading it, and so far, i likes what i sees.[/quote]


I've been wanting to try this one for awhile as it looks like Devlin's best game since Leftovers (speaking of Leftovers, where the hell is the print copy?)



I'm up for some Saturday night play.

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Post by devlin1 »


[quote="cczernia"]I've been wanting to try this one for awhile as it looks like Devlin's best game since Leftover[/quote]
Thanks! I think it seems like a fun game, but I'm not sure I have the chops to actually play it. All that scene framing and making shit up... I dunno. As a player, I usually freeze up when presented with those kinds of tasks in a game.


[quote] (speaking of Leftover, where the hell is the print copy?) [/quote]
Um... working on it?


[quote]I up for some Saturday night play.[/quote]
Awesome. Let me know how that goes. You guys are the cat's knees.



Also! I found that there actually is an official place to post play reports: in the comments on the Game Chef blog at [url]http://gamechef.wordpress.com/2010-playoff-rules[/url].

Mike Olson
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Post by jimmy corrigan »


we got through the first act, until we collectively ran out of steam (sam's asleep as i write this). we will continue the rest when the revised edition's released. ;)



nice work, brother. good luck!


[quote="the champions playtest group"]
Action City!

Playtest Notes

11/11/10

by Andy Blanchard, Sam Carter, Chris Czerniak, Albert Park

Time: 2 hours



Notes:

- Villain generation table and cliche table rock!

- Great job on Doing Things section-- very clear.

- Everyone but Sam, liked the random character generation roll-off.

- Albert liked the double dice result for Friends.

- Suggestion (by Chris): Scenes and Acts sections should come before Doing Things section.

- Maybe players would be helped by a paragraph of an Example of Play, or an overview of how the author envisions a session.

- How do you come up with a sub-genre/premise for the whole movie?

- Suggestion (by Sam): Should there be a random table for movie premises determined by playing cards?

- Suggestion (by Andy): There needs to be a section at the beginning to discuss the premise of the movie, before anything else (a la PTA).

- Suggestion (by Chris): A way to determine the movie's rating (G/PG/PG-13/R/NC-17).

- Bottom of character sheet could do with a player action cheatsheet (a la Lady Blackbird).

- Perhaps too many rules for The Opposition to keep in mind.

- Badguy character sheet needs space for Bonus Dice.

- What are the immediate mechanical consequences or benefits to using cliches?

- "I don't really understand the value of edges." -Chris

- How do you set up a Setpiece? When do you declare rolls for Setpieces? Which player character does The Opposition base his dicepool from? There needs to be an explicit section for Setpieces with examples (like there are for Personal Scenes and Cutscenes).

- There should be a spot on the character sheet for Arsenals.

- What's the advantage of high dicepools if The Opposition gets to start with a dicepool close to yours?

- Suggestion (by Andy): The dicepool should be non-variable/set. OR Suggestion (by Chris): There should be set difficulties for The Opposition's dicepool, like 4/6/8.

- There's difficulty coming up with scenes that advance the plot, other than Setpieces. Or perhaps, we just need more examples.

- Playing cards seemed like a non-essential ingredient.

- Totally rad 80s vibe was achieved!

- Suggestion (by Albert): Get some sleep.

- Everyone liked the Arsenal.

- Marco "The Finger" Ricardo should not be allowed as a player name. Ever. This should be stated in the rules.



Players:

Bronson McMurdoch (Andy)- Hero

Sheldon Whitewall (Albert)- Friend

Millie Stewart (Sam)- Lover/Betrayer

El Jeffe/Glass Eye Jones/Goon (Chris)- Badguy



Act 1 Scenes:

1. (Personal- Bronson) It's the beginning of Officer Bronson's shift. Sheldon is a new transfer to the precinct, eager to work with Bronson-- but he's brushed off. Millie, a reporter and Bronson's old flame, is there snooping around. There's a conflict between Bronson and his father, who is precinct captain. Captain McMurdoch wants his son to be rise up the ladder, not be a mere SWAT team member, and gives him an application to become a detective. Bronson leaves to a crime scene in defiance. (Opposition difficulty: Cakewalk. Bronson wins, checking off first Arc box. Opposition gains Bonus Die.)

2. (Personal- Sheldon) Sheldon runs through traffic to join Bronson to investigate a possible new case, a murder scene. They team up, promising to scratch each other's back, to help their careers. (No opposition. Cliche "Run through traffic" used.)

3. (Personal- Millie) Millie follows close behind, eyeing a suspicious character in an early model Impala tailing McMurdoch. The suspicious foe tries to run McMurdoch off the road. But Millie deftly wedges her Cabriolet between them, honking her horn, warning Bronson. The enemy drives off a cliff, resulting in huge explosion! (Opposition difficulty: Close One. Opposition spends an Edge to gain Goons. Millie wins. Millie completes Arc, gains new Edge.)

4. (Cutscene- Badguy) A hired muscle with a glass eye on a large cellphone tells El Jeffe that the murder scene will be "cleaned up in the next ten minutes." Just then Bronson's GTO skids up and parks. (Opposition spends a Bonus Die to gain Cutscene. Introduces the Edge: Muscle.)

5. (Setpiece- Badguy) Glass Eye Jones, whips out an uzi and starts firing. Bronson jumps out of the GTO, takes cover and returns fire. Millie enters the scene in the grip of a goon, and she attempts to stomp the guy, but is knocked out by Glass Eye Jones. Sheldon gets stuck in the GTO, caught in the claws of a crane. Bronson knocks out the crane operator, and saves Sheldon. (Opposition difficulty: Skin of Your Teeth. Millie and Sheldon fail, gaining condition Pissed Off. Bronson wins, narrates, and gains an Edge.)[/quote]

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Post by jimmy corrigan »

let me know if you want me to submit the playtest notes onto the game chef blog.
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Post by devlin1 »


[quote="jimmy corrigan"]let me know if you want me to submit the playtest notes onto the game chef blog.[/quote]

Don't worry about it -- I'll do it.



Thanks again for the playtest. Lots of points there that would take me a long time to answer, assuming I could even think of answers for all of them.



Some of it, like "There oughtta be a section on X!", I can only answer with, for the most part, "Yeah, you're probably right. I have no idea how to write that." Even examples of play feel kinda beyond me, to be honest. I don't think I have the RPG chops to actually [i]play[/i] this game -- it seems to work and make sense in theory, but I leave it to you guys to put it into practice, because I would surely screw it up.



(Or worse, I'd just go "Uh..." when it came time to declare a scene.)



However! I think I can address safely address a few things.



[b]Should there be a random table for movie premises determined by playing cards?[/b]

That naturally appeals to me, although I was kinda expecting this to come out of the Badguy generation process. The premise is stopping him from doing whatever it is he's trying to do. If you're talking about the premise from the Hero's point of view, I suppose it'd be possible to randomly generate the Hero's Edge and Hang-Up, but it doesn't really seem necessary to me. In the interest of making this thing as easy to pick up and play as possible, though, I'll think about it.



[b]A way to determine the movie's rating[/b]

It's R.



[b]Bottom of character sheet could do with a player action cheatsheet (a la Lady Blackbird).[/b]

The character sheet is lacking in many areas. It was a rush job. This would be a good thing to add.



[b]What are the immediate mechanical consequences or benefits to using cliches?[/b]

There are none -- it's a stick, not a carrot. Every unused Cliche means another Edge for the Opposition later on. While I want players to want to incorporate the Cliches, I don't want to be too heavy-handed about it.



[b]"I don't really understand the value of edges." -Chris[/b]

Edges are red. Bonus dice are light blue. I hope this helps, Chris.



Seriously though, every applicable Edge means adding +1D to your dice pool, if you're a Hero or Friend. If you're the Opposition, Edges are just a resource to spend on making things more difficult for the other players. In essence, they're completely different, but Edge was one of the theme ingredients, so I wanted to use it as much as possible.



[b]Which player character does The Opposition base his dicepool from?[/b]

Each of them, one at a time. So if there are three protagonists in a scene where a tanker truck full of gasoline slams into a another tanker truck full of milk and there's a big explosion, [i]and[/i] the Opposition calls for a roll, each player in the scene sets his own difficulty and rolls against the Opposition in a separate roll.



That's an important change that needs to be made, though: It's not one roll per scene, but one roll per Hero or Friend [i]in[/i] that scene.



[b]What's the advantage of high dicepools if The Opposition gets to start with a dicepool close to yours?

- Suggestion (by Andy): The dicepool should be non-variable/set. OR Suggestion (by Chris): There should be set difficulties for The Opposition's dicepool, like 4/6/8.[/b]


The trouble with this suggestion is that 4D isn't going to be equally easy for everyone. If you're only rolling 4D yourself, then the easiest difficulty is equivalent to a Close One, not a Cakewalk.



The bigger your dice pool, the greater your chance of getting multiple sets. Plus, because the second tie breaker depends on the size of the pools in question (whoever has the smaller pool wins), choosing Cakewalk entails a slight risk that Skin of Your Teeth doesn't.



But I hear what you're saying. Maybe it should be that the -2D/+2D thing happens [i]before[/i] the Hero/Friend adds dice for their Edge(s). Of course, that takes away some of the sting of Skin of Your Teeth, so I dunno.



[b]Playing cards seemed like a non-essential ingredient.[/b]

Well, it's a pre-game setup thing. In play, they aren't used. I just needed a way to randomize those Cliches, and when I figured out I could probably come up with 52 of them, I went with cards. Using only d6s, it would've been harder to randomly generate them -- and much harder to insure that you didn't get the same one twice. It might be possible to do something more with the cards for Badguy generation, like making the numbers actually mean something, but I'd have to give that a lot more thought.



[b]Everyone liked the Arsenal.[/b]

Of course you did -- I stole it from [i]WotG[/i].



[b](No opposition. Cliche "Run through traffic" used.)[/b]

This "No opposition" thing won't fly. The Opposition [i]has[/i] to oppose the Hero/Friend in every scene, or things break down. Every scene has to have a conflict of some kind. In the scene in question, the conflict could've been looking for clues at the crime scene, or dodging traffic, or [i]something[/i]. A scene without conflict has no purpose.

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Post by jimmy corrigan »


cool. my fellow playtesters had more concrete opinions of all things mechanical, but fwiw in response to your thoughtful responses:


[quote="devlin1"][b]Should there be a random table for movie premises determined by playing cards?[/b]

That naturally appeals to me, although I was kinda expecting this to come out of the Badguy generation process. The premise is stopping him from doing whatever it is he's trying to do. If you're talking about the premise from the Hero's point of view, I suppose it'd be possible to randomly generate the Hero's Edge and Hang-Up, but it doesn't really seem necessary to me. In the interest of making this thing as easy to pick up and play as possible, though, I'll think about it.[/quote]
i can totally see the premise coming out of the badguy generation (and heck, all other character generation) phase. seems a pretty intuitive starting point for hashing out the overall premise. maybe an explicit mention of this in the first section of the rules would serve to cement this. i dunno.


[quote="devlin1"][b]"I don't really understand the value of edges." -Chris[/b]

Edges are red. Bonus dice are light blue. I hope this helps, Chris.[/quote]
||_ (o) ||_


[quote="devlin1"][b]Which player character does The Opposition base his dicepool from?[/b]

Each of them, one at a time. So if there are three protagonists in a scene where a tanker truck full of gasoline slams into a another tanker truck full of milk and there's a big explosion, [i]and[/i] the Opposition calls for a roll, each player in the scene sets his own difficulty and rolls against the Opposition in a separate roll.



That's an important change that needs to be made, though: It's not one roll per scene, but one roll per Hero or Friend [i]in[/i] that scene.[/quote]
ah yes, i can see how that would've made a big difference in the playtest. btw, that example's good in clearly driving that point home for me.


[quote="devlin1"][b]Everyone liked the Arsenal.[/b]

Of course you did -- I stole it from [i]WotG[/i].[/quote]
we thought it looked familiar. sam called it.


[quote="devlin1"][b](No opposition. Cliche "Run through traffic" used.)[/b]

This "No opposition" thing won't fly. The Opposition [i]has[/i] to oppose the Hero/Friend in every scene, or things break down. Every scene has to have a conflict of some kind. In the scene in question, the conflict could've been looking for clues at the crime scene, or dodging traffic, or [i]something[/i]. A scene without conflict has no purpose.[/quote]
this. totally. you know, i thought that seemed really weird that we didn't roll off or have [i]some[/i] sort of conflict crop up in this scene. in fact, i distinctly remember wanting to roll against the opposition, to have sheldon whitewall possibly be run over by the cars in traffic. i can't, however, remember why we finally decided not to.



p.s. i essentially served as transcriber/secretary tonight, if you couldn't already tell by the scarcity of my name in the suggestion attributions. overall, i thought the writing, especially in the tables and examples, was very evocative and pitch perfect thematically. it succeeded in serving homage to the tone and idiom of 80s action movies. with more rest, i'd totally play this again.

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Post by cczernia »

I think the most difficult part of the game for us was starting the first seen. None of us really knew what to do or how to start actually playing once all the setup was done.

Like you have the denouement you might want to have a special opening scene that gets things starts.

As for dicepools I think you should go one of the two directions suggested:

1. Remove the ability scores and just have a base value. Opposition gets a value +2/0/-2. Edges are than added to both sides.

2. Players get ability scores. Opposition gets a value based on difficulty.


Another suggestion: Act 2 players can't declare "Piece of cake." Act 3 all difficulties are "Skin of my Teeth"
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Post by mordraine »


[quote="jimmy corrigan"]
i can totally see the premise coming out of the badguy generation (and heck, all other character generation) phase. seems a pretty intuitive starting point for hashing out the overall premise. maybe an explicit mention of this in the first section of the rules would serve to cement this. i dunno.[/quote]


This is not a "maybe." This is a "definitely." We struggled with that aspect of the game and if you intend that the premise of the story comes from the badguy generation, then it's essential to add that to the rules. We floundered at the beginning because we didn't know how to kick-start things. Well, I floundered anyway, but that could be my general preference of trad gaming over narrativist gaming.



One of my other problems (in the personal scenes) was how to reconcile moving the plot along towards the premise vs. inserting sub-plot or hang-up elements. I didn't grok it right away. I was also confused about checking off the arc boxes. In order to do that, you pretty much HAVE to insert a sub-plot element. But if the scene unfolds where the sub-plot is inconsequential, even if I'm successful against the opposition, do I still get to check off my arc box? If I'm a friend and my sub-plot doesn't really have any kind of resolution at all during the scene, do I still check the box? I only have one of them. I didn't get that.



In the set-piece scene we were all just generally confused as to how it needed to be set up and carried through. There needs to be a section of how that works. The two things we all agreed upon that needed to be added was describing how to come up with the story premise, and describing how a set-piece scene gets set up and unfolds.



I'd be anxious to test play again once my confusions are cleared up.

Hey man, I'm slinging volume and fat stacking benjies, you know what I mean? I can't be all about spelling and shit!
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Post by devlin1 »


[quote="mordraine"]This is not a "maybe." This is a "definitely." We struggled with that aspect of the game and if you intend that the premise of the story comes from the badguy generation, then it's essential to add that to the rules. We floundered at the beginning because we didn't know how to kick-start things. Well, I floundered anyway, but that could be my general preference of trad gaming over narrativist gaming. [/quote]
Gotcha. I'll try to elaborate on what types of scenes, in very general terms, should happen in each act.



The Hero's first Personal scene should establish his status quo and introduce either his Sub-Plot or Hang-Up. That's the thing he's struggling with as the story opens, and what he perceives to be the thing that's messing up his life.



Then the Badguy comes along and [i]really[/i] gives him something to cry about in the first Setpiece. Whatever happens there drastically alters the status quo for the Hero. This is the [i]inciting incident[/i], the thing that seriously changes his life and gives him a new focus that lasts throughout the story. By the end of the First Act, the Hero's life has been pointed in a new direction -- toward the Badguy.



The Second Act is where the Hero takes more direct action against the Badguy. This is where the Sub-Plot or Hang-Up may be a little more difficult to integrate into the Hero's pursuit of the Badguy -- it's probably going to be more subtext than anything else. Remember, Personal scenes can be flashbacks, which should really open things up. For example, while the Hero's busy trying to hack the Badguy's corporate mainframe, he could be reminded of an incident that ties into his Sub-Plot or Hang-Up. Maybe he had an argument with his estranged wife about work vs. family, and now she's in the Badguy's clutches. No, she's [i]dating[/i] the Badguy, unaware that he's a Badguy! That's better. Anyway, the actual dice roll would take place within the flashback, since that's where the Sub-Plot element is coming into play in this scene that's supposed to be about your Sub-Plot.



Technically, according to conventional screenwriting wisdom, in the Second Act setpiece the Hero should fail or suffer a serious setback -- this should be the nadir of the story's arc, where things take a turn for the even worse. But I hesitate to mandate that for fear of invalidating the whole concept of rolling dice. I guess it could just be about failing forward -- all "no but" vs. "no and" -- but I don't know if I like the the idea of essentially changing what Cakewalk, Close One, and Skin of Your Teeth mean for that one Act.



So the Third Act begins when things are at their worst. It looks bad for the Hero -- he has a lot of adversity to overcome. Maybe one friend's been captured, maybe another's betrayed him. The Badguy's plans are about to come to fruition. Etc. It's an uphill climb, but naturally the Hero comes out on top. This is where Personal scenes get that much more personal, and the Setpiece is the big explosive climax. (Usually, anyway -- [i]Die Hard[/i]'s climax doesn't involve an explosion at all, f'rinstance. Just Hans Gruber falling to his death.)



(Pretty much all instances of the word "Hero" above can be replaced with "Friend" and still make sense. The only real difference between the two in play is that the Hero has a more involved Sub-Plot, and therefore gets to declare more Personal scenes. I.e., he gets more screen time.)


[quote]One of my other problems (in the personal scenes) was how to reconcile moving the plot along towards the premise vs. inserting sub-plot or hang-up elements. I didn't grok it right away. I was also confused about checking off the arc boxes. In order to do that, you pretty much HAVE to insert a sub-plot element. But if the scene unfolds where the sub-plot is inconsequential, even if I'm successful against the opposition, do I still get to check off my arc box? If I'm a friend and my sub-plot doesn't really have any kind of resolution at all during the scene, do I still check the box? I only have one of them. I didn't get that.[/quote]
Okay. I hear you. This is something else I obviously have to make more explicit. Whoever declares the Personal scene is the one who'll make a roll re: their Sub-Plot/Hang-Up. Nobody else gets to try to make progress in that regard in that scene -- it's all about the active player who declared it.



When you declare a Personal scene, you should go into it knowing what it is you want to tackle, your Sub-Plot or your Hang-Up. That's your priority. If anything, you'll shoehorn "the plot" into your Sub-Plot, or look at it through the lens of your Sub-Plot, if that makes sense. As intended, your Sub-Plot [i]cannot[/i] be inconsequential in your Personal scenes, because you're explicitly framing those scenes [i]around[/i] your Sub-Plot. The scene is about your Sub-Plot, with a guest appearance by the A-story if it makes sense. The flashback thing I mentioned earlier should make it possible to work in your Sub-Plot without too much trouble.


[quote]In the set-piece scene we were all just generally confused as to how it needed to be set up and carried through. There needs to be a section of how that works. [/quote]
Hrm. Yeah, I'd have to think about that. I'm not sure I can come up with universally applicable guidelines for Setpieces. Right now, obviously, the rules lean pretty heavily on the creativity of the players to fill in the gaps. I don't want to constrain overmuch, but I don't want to leave the players hanging either. What kind of thing would you like to see for this? I mean, do you have anything particular in mind?


[quote]I'd be anxious to test play again once my confusions are cleared up.[/quote]
Well, hopefully the above helped a bit. I feel like you and I are coming from the same general place on this -- traditional RPGs -- so if you're confused reading it, you can just imagine how confused I am [i]writing[/i] it.

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Post by cczernia »


[quote="devlin1"]
Hrm. Yeah, I'd have to think about that. I'm not sure I can come up with universally applicable guidelines for Setpieces. Right now, obviously, the rules lean pretty heavily on the creativity of the players to fill in the gaps. I don't want to constrain overmuch, but I don't want to leave the players hanging either. What kind of thing would you like to see for this? I mean, do you have anything particular in mind?.[/quote]


Part of my problem with the Setpiece was that it doesn't fit the scene model (being a Personal Scene). In a Personal Scene a player narrates until the Opposition says hell lets roll some dice.



That is not defines in the Setpiece. So, a Setpiece needs its own model. When do we roll dice? Does the Opposition narrate until the hero or friend says hell no?

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[quote="cczernia"]Part of my problem with the Setpiece was that it doesn't fit the scene model (being a Personal Scene). In a Personal Scene a player narrates until the Opposition says hell lets roll some dice.



That is not defines in the Setpiece. So, a Setpiece needs its own model. When do we roll dice? Does the Opposition narrate until the hero or friend says hell no?[/quote]

Yeah, I can see how that'd be confusing. I guess I saw it happening like this:



1. Opposition declares and frames a Setpiece.

2. Other players react.

3. Roleplaying happens.

4. Eventually the Opposition decides he's had enough and calls for a roll.



However, having Setpieces work like Personal scenes in reverse, with the non-Opposition players taking on what's usually the Opposition role, is an attractive idea. The symmetry is appealing, as is the idea of the other players essentially turning the tables on the Opposition. But whereas the Opposition has incentive to take those Personal scenes as far as possible before calling for a roll (so as to make their lives/situations as difficult as possible before ending the scene), it seems to me the reverse is not true. That is, the other players have no incentive to let the Opposition make their situation worse by drawing out the scene, and every incentive to put a stop to the scene as quickly as possible. Plus, which player calls for that roll?



If the Opposition declares/frames the scene and the other players act against him as if [i]they [/i]were the Opposition [i]but[/i] the Opposition is still the one who calls for rolls, then he can react to each Hero/Friend individually and still get to push his agenda in the process.



For example:

The Opposition declares the act's Setpiece. Based on what's gone on in previous scenes, he proposes that the Hero's investigation has led to a sprawling junkyard. He has his love interest Friend with him, and let's say the other Friend too -- the love interest's brother -- just for the sake of having them all together. Finally, the scene takes place right after the last Personal scene, in which the Hero and his love interest infiltrated the Badguy's files or something, culminating in a trip to the ol' junkyard. (The scene's subtext was actually about the Friend working through her Hang-Up, which, for the sake of argument, has something to do with confidence.)



I'm getting kinda far afield, but the important thing is we have our four scene-framing questions answered:

[b]1. Where is it?[/b] The junkyard.

[b]2. Who's there?[/b] All the other players.

[b]3. When is it?[/b] Pretty much right after the last scene, in the present.

[b]4. What's it about?[/b] Well, it's a Setpiece, so it's going to be about the Badguy advancing toward his goal, which in this case will be, I dunno, meeting with some foreign arms dealers to buy a high-tech railgun or something.



So the Opposition's framed the scene. Now the other players start in with what they're doing.



The Hero says he's looking for evidence of the Badguy and this meeting they (apparently) know he's having. Now, the Hero's player can say he finds whatever he wants, within reason, but he knows that if he gives himself too much the Opposition will call for a roll, and he doesn't want to roll in a Setpiece unless he absolutely has to (since failure carries a lasting consequence). So he just says he sees their meeting, but can't hear what they're saying. The Opposition is cool with that for now.



This having been established, the Friend says he's going to sneak down closer to get a better look. The Opposition knows that this Setpiece has to get violent and explosiony eventually, and this Friend could help get us there. So the Opposition calls for a roll, with a failure condition of "Your clumsy sneaking alerts them, and they immediately open fire on you and your buddies before you get close enough to hear anything important." Failure will also mean getting a Condition of Pissed Off. The Friend's victory condition is "I get close enough to hear the whole transaction and get an idea of what's going on." Dice are rolled, the Opposition wins, and bullets start flying.



Because it's only the First Act (let's say -- this all sounds like First-Act stuff), none of the PCs can be killed, so the victory and failure conditions all have to take that into account. Plus, the Badguy and Hero have to make it to the Third Act Setpiece, so putting either of them in the hospital right now isn't really an option. If someone's shooting at the Badguy, success can't mean "I kill him" or "I put him in a coma," and ditto for anyone attacking the Hero or his Friends.



The Goons shoot at the love interest; her player says she immediately takes cover and they all miss. The Opposition wants to make it harder than that on her, though, so he calls for a roll. The player doesn't want to risk her getting hurt, so he makes it a Cakewalk and makes it through the scene unscathed.



The Hero whips out his .45 and returns fire. He decides that success will mean that he hits a gas tank, and the ensuing explosions takes out one or more Goons. This will eventually give them more data on the Badguy's story when they're able to search the bodies. (He can target but not kill the Badguy, so he's going after the NPCs instead.) The Opposition says that failure will mean he kills a Goon but loses his gun when the Badguy flips on the giant magnet-crane-thing hanging over the Hero's head. The Hero makes it a Close One and succeeds, so an explosion happens and some Goons are killed.



The rest of the Goons, along with the Badguy, flee the scene. Everyone's had a roll, so there probably needs to be something in place that says that once every protagonist has rolled for something in a Setpiece, the Opposition narrates how the scene ends with regard to the Badguy. So in this case, he can say that the Badguy gets away, but he can't also say that a mountain of wreckage falls on the love interest and crushes her to death, because that's not about the Badguy. Also, once everyone's rolled, the Badguy can't continue to take harmful action against them -- he can only move on to the next scene.



Sorry this ended up being so long; it was pretty much just me typing off the top of my head.

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Post by devlin1 »

I took just about everything in this thread and put it into this document. I'll continue to add to it as we go, if more stuff comes up. Thank you guys again for the great feedback.
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Post by cczernia »


[quote="devlin1"]I took just about everything in this thread and put it into [url=http://venturehomenews.com/rpg/ActionCity-SpecialFeatures.pdf]this document[/url]. I'll continue to add to it as we go, if more stuff comes up. Thank you guys again for the great feedback.[/quote]

Cool, I think that will help a lot. It is funny that you use an example from Big Trouble Little China because one of our comments was that there was no mention of that movie in the original doc. We even did a search. Thanks for fixing that without us asking :mrgreen:

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Post by devlin1 »


[quote="cczernia"]Cool, I think that will help a lot. It is funny that you use an example from Big Trouble Little China because one of our comments was that there was no mention of that movie in the original doc. We even did a search. Thanks for fixing that without us asking :mrgreen:[/quote]

Yeah, for whatever reason, my constant reference was [i]Die Hard[/i].

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Post by devlin1 »

Just a note here that the playtest deadline has been extended to December 15th. A second playtest with the same group won't count, but if at least half the players are new to it, it will.

In fact, it'd even count as a playtest if everyone's played it before, but half the group hasn't played it with the other half. Which is... kinda wacky, but that's par for the course.
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Post by Skyman »

I have not played it. So if someone is jonesing to run it, I'm in. As for me running it. Yeah no dice. Me and new games don't mix well lately. My attempt at Nox was noxious and my Serenity one shot at Hyphen Con was not that great at 3am. So I'm kinda having an aversion to it.
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Post by cczernia »

Skyman wrote:I have not played it. So if someone is jonesing to run it, I'm in. As for me running it. Yeah no dice. Me and new games don't mix well lately. My attempt at Nox was noxious and my Serenity one shot at Hyphen Con was not that great at 3am. So I'm kinda having an aversion to it.
I enjoyed Nox and the only thing you missed was that bit about character gen which we were still able to generate our character based on what happened in the intro game.
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Post by SpaceMonkey »

jimmy corrigan wrote:we got through the first act, until we collectively ran out of steam (sam's asleep as i write this). we will continue the rest when the revised edition's released. ;)

nice work, brother. good luck!

.. You mean Vox? I thought that went fine.
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Post by devlin1 »

Thanks to your tireless efforts, I did indeed almost win Game Chef 2010 -- Action City! got second place! Thanks fellas!
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

congrats, dude!
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Post by mordraine »

Adding play-testing in to the mix is bogus.
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Post by devlin1 »

mordraine wrote:Adding play-testing in to the mix is bogus.
I agree, but what're you gonna do? The only Game Chef I've seen in which I actually liked all the constraints was the one where I didn't finish my entry. That was... three years ago? Two years ago, when I did Dino-Might, was Art First, and I wasn't crazy about that, then last year was the no-restraints, no-rules, take-as-long-as-you-want-to-write-anything Game Chef, which I didn't even bother entering. (Seriously, I don't need someone else to tell me I can procrastinate on a project.)

I liked this Game Chef's ingredients well enough, I guess -- nothing spectacular, but the lack of mandatory mechanical elements was disappointing. I do have to admit the whole thing led me to create a game I probably wouldn't have otherwise, so in that sense it was a success.

The playoffs didn't make any sense to me, though. There's a lot more value (IMO) in having a few judges give my entry a critical review than there is in me trying to convince people to play my game. I mean, what does that even prove? It doesn't say anything about how good or bad the game is -- eight groups could playtest it and come back with a chorus of "Yeah, that sucked," but that's still eight points for me.
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