Emily Care Boss had some questions arise during her Roach game at Jiffy-Con (http://www.fairgame-rpgs.com/). THey are good questions, so I thought I'd share them here with y'all. Here's what I told her:
There was some question about when you pick targets if you are not roach bound, and who plays non-required npcs.
If you are not Roach bound, you are free to look at your card and then pick any target you like.
The rules are fuzzy on who plays non-required NPCs - I find it best to assign them to others as soon as they are invoked. The person who plays them gets to choose which side the die will support ultimately. Sometimes there will be an NPC or group drawn in as color, but not really "played", for example somebody saying "And the scandal is on the front page of the Pemberton Pinnacle, whose staff is deeply involved in shaming you." In this case, the person who narrates it should just grab a die for the Pinnacle staff.
Does Pembertonian refer to the cast we have to bring into play or would that include any student/teacher as well?
Pembertonians are named, required NPCs, like Regina Sutton. Everybody else is just an NPC.
If you stake rep to get into a scene, if you're on the winning side you do get return on that gamble, right?
Right, everybody who bets and wins, whether they want to or not, gets the reward.
More from ECB:
So, okay, the non-roach bound can pick whoever they want after seeing their card, but they choose it at the start of the Event? Before any of the scenes start. Is that correct?
Interesting, that is 100% not clear in the rules.
I've always played that a non-Roached player gets to look at their card and then openly declare who they will target. It makes more sense for everybody to do it at once - more dramatic. But I should totally add in that you can change your target at any time, provided you are not Roached. Pitiful free-thinking humans have so few advantages...
Thanks, Jason. That helps clarify things.
Our game at JiffyCon, by the way, rocked. Pemberton U. was going down in a frenzy of carnivorous plants, corrupt bootlegging schemes and crazed modernist ultraviolent "musical" art. It was a very good time indeed.
best,
Emily
I am going to put off creating a Roach area on RandomWiki and collecting gameplay QnA... until my copy shows up. Then, expect it. :)
Doyce, once it is up let me know and I'll go populate it with fun stuff.