Just Some Things

[tablesaw]

First of all, let me show off my shiny new icon. Just one of the perks of being on the most awesome team at whedonland.

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The Smallville RPG continues to be awesome and lots of fun. It's really well made for episodic drama involving people with super or supernatural powers. Since that describes a lot of the TV shows I watch, I think it's fantastic. As a result of this, as I watch some of my regular TV shows, I keep flashing on the Smallville RPG structure as underlying the structure of the episodes.

And this is how I know the game is well made: watching unrelated TV shows is helping me to understand strategies involved in the RPG. Supernatural and Vampire Diaries both illuminated tactics and styles of play that I hadn't considered.

I shudder to think of what will happen if I rewatch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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Speaking of RPGs, talking with a new friend today, it became very clear that I need to get a new game of In a Wicked Age going. Describing it to her got me excited about the game all over again, and had her drooling over the prospect. Rereading the PDF now . . .

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And now, some animated icons:

http://i40.tinypic.com/6rlxs8.gif
Alt="The Joker (Cesar Romero) rises up from the bottom of the icon: WTF!"
Title="Holy WTF, Batman!"

In honor of César Chávez Day on March 31, I was inspired to make an icon of César Romero, because you don't know what César Chávez looks like.

Also, pixel art and animation recreated from Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Game:


http://i42.tinypic.com/2hmzfvs.gif
Title="Bad Horse (8-Bit)"
Alt="The Bad Horse Chorus surronds Dr. Horrible in the 8-bit, pixelated 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game.'"


http://i39.tinypic.com/epkw7l.gif
Title="I Like the Air (8-Bit)"
Alt="'I like your hair.' 'What?' 'I mean . . . I like the air.' Penny and Billy in the 8-bit, pixelated 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game.'"

Comments

[tahnan]

Skimming a review of In a Wicked Age, I'm intrigued, though I'd so very much love to flip through a copy before committing to buying it. (The downside of online sales!) Basically, I could only get the vaguest of ideas of how it worked, which makes it hard to tell whether I'd like it.

Mind you, I also fear I don't have anyone at all nearby who'd enjoy it.

[yeloson]

I can answer questions about it. It's pretty awesome for pulp fantasy grey-moral kind of stuff.

[tahnan]

The problem is that what I read is so confusing, in the sense of being so very different from anything I'm used to, that I don't even know what questions to ask.

[joshroby.livejournal.com]

The only solution is to give it a try. All you risk is an evening. ;)

[tahnan]

...plus the cost of buying it, which is what I was worried about in the first place.

[tablesaw]

Are you going to ConPac? I could try to drum up a game there. I found the game much easier to understand through play than by reading the PDf anyway.

[tahnan]

I'm intending to. I want to. It depends on money, which I'm going to sit down and work out this week.

Does it work as a one-shot? One impression I got was that it worked best over a number of sessions (someone somewhere said "at least five"?), perhaps because of the conflict resolution mechanic that, if I understood, meant trading off things this session for a position in the next session. Or something like that.

[tablesaw]

I've played it twice as one-shots, and it does work. I don't think it's too hard to buy in to the idea that you're playing the first in a cycle of stories, even if the others don't get played. (And who knows, if it becomes a yearly or biannual event, the saga could be played out eventually.) But my understanding is that as that mechanic builds over time, additional subtleties are revealed.

[tablesaw]

Also, look into JiffyCon. There's a convention (apparently free) this month focusing on indie RPGs of Western Massachusetts, of which IAWA is one. You can probably ask for a game to be run.

[tahnan]

Huh! Western Mass might be a little far away, but the Boston-area event in June sounds perfect.

[yeloson]

In a certain way, the game is very traditional - each player runs a single character, with clearly defined goals they pursue.

The setup is the most "untraditional" part, and it's really that you set up a situation before you play, and then create/pick out characters and run with it.

The other interesting thing is "Particular Strengths" which basically are IAWA's version of Feats, Powers, Spells, etc. Since Particular Strengths carry over between sessions, you can consider it a form of setting building - "The blessed boat of the Sun God", "The Sword of the Last Obsidian King", "The Forbidden Methods of Soul Drawing", etc. The things the group comes up with, become the themes that carry through the games, showing up throughout the stories.

[kate_nepveu]

SteelyKid is on my lap and saw this and starting waving her fists in the air in time. Just so you know.

[tablesaw]

I am so glad to have been a part of the encutening of the SteelyKid!

[yeloson]

Hey, you should check out Primetime Adventures, it's a really solid game for doing tv-esque things. It's got a really good mechanic for giving the flow of focus over several sessions.

On note of In A Wicked Age, there's three things that help it run smooth:

1) Keep conflicts to two sides (if you have three or more sides, break them down into 2 sided conflicts, perhaps roll off to see what order they go in)

2) People need to buy into their characters. Being "meh" or having an ok character doesn't do it. You gotta be excited about your character.

3) Make sure "Best interests" are really at odds. Having opposing best interests within characters is fun as well. Sometimes one person makes a set of Best Interests that don't directly cross with others, and that person ends up being secondary to play.

Also- IAWA works best over multiple sessions- you will probably want to do about 5 or so to really see the value of the We Owe list.

[tablesaw]

I own the book for PTA, but I haven't gotten it onto the table yet. Josh took some of the scene-framing stuff from PTA, but the grist of the conflicts is more involved.

The first time I played IAWA, we chose Best Interests while we drew a relationship map, which is something I plan to do as well. I think I've only done a three-way battle once, and it was when two players were clearly teaming up against a sole enemy (me as it happened).

And, yeah, I'm interested to see what happens in multiple sessions, since I've only ever done one-shots.

[yeloson]

2 vs. 1 still counts as a 2 sided battle- it's when you've got 3 or 4 people who want really different stuff you get wonky results. If you avoid that and make sure people have solid Best Interests things run smoothly.

via network

[softestbullet]

Oh, I love the Dr. Horrible icons. Nicely done!