[Inspectres] King Kong meets Octopussy

[montag]

I've recently tried to move our group a little more into a narrativist mode of play, partly out of curiosity and partly to satisfy a personal inclination towards that mode. ;-)
I offered "kill puppies" (thanks to Vincent for going out of his way to let me have the game in time), "my life with master", "DustDevils", "thePool" and "InSpectres", but they were unwilling to go "hardcore" so the speak, so InSpectres was the game we settled on.
I was a bit worried that players might not "get" the new mode, and thus spent the entire preparation time on considering "moderator" techniques and reading old actual play reports and intentionally made up neither plot nor NPCs. In the end, I dropped the explanation on "brainstorming", "fortune in the middle", "artistic rejection" and merely explained the difference between task and conflict resolution beforehand and made the players aware of the fact that there wasn't any plot, and that I would only roll up a client for them from the book. I briefly explained the rest of the rules, and used breaks in the action during the rest of the game to re-emphasise key points or provide further explanation.

Characters where created together, and we ended up with:
Angus McMullen, former grocery store clerk, skilled with people
Allan McMullen, Angus younger brother, who had worked as a bouncer
Jean Biggs, the secretary and bookworm, able to "see dead people"
Miguel, the SysAdmin, formerly at General Dynamics, the tech guy
(yep, we're German, but we choose to play in the US anyway)

During franchise creation (McMullen and Partners) everybody rolled extremely well, so they got an abandoned fire house, with a golden pole to glide down on, an broken elevator only Miguel could use, an classical "noir detective" office for Angus, with an rather suspicious looking coffee machine which nonetheless produced some of the finest coffee in town (Chicago), computers the equivalent of a small Cray and an old yellow schoolbus for the team.
Miguel went through the applicant interview, but since none of the others was familiar with the film "Shallow Grave", this interview was pretty normal.
To start the story, I rolled up Agent Smith from the local IRS branch, who complained about strange noises and sought _discreet_ help. Jean invited him over, and he told them pretty much the same story again, after which he left. At this point people started using a series of confessionals, establishing the "octopus thing" and some infamous detail "back from school" in Allan's life (Miguel's player had gotten hold of virtually everything from Allan's past with a tech roll previously) which was too embarrassing to mention. Miguel's player also mentioned in a confessional, that Jean would find out she was pregnant on the following day.
Jean's player was a bit left out at this point, so I had her lesbian ex-girlfriend call, and handed the impromptu named Tamy to Alan's player (I nicked that trick from Cockroach soufflé). The girls went out for a drink and it turned out, Tamy was working at the IRS as well, and her boss had recently acquired a statue of a three-headed monkey. Both girls got drunk, and we left the rest of the evening pretty vague.
The next day the group drove to Miguel's friend Bob the mechanic, to bring their bus up to shape before embarking on the IRS mission. Miguel's player, who is generally lucky beyond belief when rolling dice came up with a 1, so – regrettably – Bob took care of the bus in the way any typical mechanic working on a junkyard would. Knocking out Bob to avoid having to pay, they stole the lovely yellow cube and a possessed pickup, which came in handy in the following traffic jam, seeking a detour on its own.
Arriving at the IRS ten minutes late, Alan's player jumped into a confessional and explained they'd been very lucky, since the building blew up right before they arrived.
I tried to save some semblance of a plot, by having Smith arrive, late as well, freezing up and making strange noises. At this point, Jean's player saw a gigantic ape-ghost standing in the ruins of the building, and meant to photograph it with her ghost-cam to show the others. The 1 she rolled, unfortunately meant, that the photo she showed to the rest was one taken the previous night, showing Jean, Tamy and an octopus in an unspecified supporting role. While the giant ape proceeded downtown, smashing a few buildings on on its way, Smith attacked Alan, but was quickly dealt with.
The group was at some loss at this point, and Jean's attempt at another photo (another 1) showed a close-up of the "deep involvement" the octopus had in last nights events. The – positive – pregnancy test she took shortly afterwards suddenly acquired an entirely new meaning.
Next the 3-headed monkey was inconvenienced by a trip wire (yes, someone had brought rope!) but that merely took out the power in the area, and the ghost-monkey continued towards St. John's school for "special" kids. Two more confessionals established, that the school was a secret NSA research facility and that Angus and Allan were possessed by the ghosts of the former teachers for music and religion respectively.
Chiding the armed guards for their misbehaviour, Angus got them to sit in "his" music class and sing along to the piano he was playing, while Alan beat up some other guards for smoking on school grounds.
A little later the monkey had broken through the roof, kids were running everywhere, Jean had persuaded the ghost to go for the General Motors tower (yes, I'm sure there isn't one in Chicago - who cares?) instead of abducting her, and Miguel's ex-girlfriend called. He managed to have her (played by Angus player) destroy a disk with potentially embarrassing material, but Angus player took revenge and explained she'd sent her "slightly" oversized underwear to Miguel. After Angus persuaded the ghost to leave him and take over the piano instead, people were at a loss what to do, so I brought in the NSA guys with the big guns, plus a Professor Xavier style commander, and they pursued the monkey (who'd turned green and fully visible after sitting in the magical school pond) by helicopter.
Miguel was knocked unconscious after trying to blackmail the NSA guys with some stolen info, and his beloved laptop died on him (twice! he wrote an impromptu OS the first time, but then the battery went down) as did his ex-girlfriend, who had been grabbed and dropped by the 3 headed giant. When they brought in the piano to have the music teacher's ghost play the hymn of the golden banana it became necessary for Miguel to rescue Jean from the approaching piano, Allan was knocked out from stress, and Angus managed to persuade the ghost to play the hymn, amplified through the sound system Miguel had beefed up earlier, and the monkey crumbled to bits.
Though it was mentioned repeatedly, we never learned what the embarrassing thing from Alan's school days was.
All in all the mission was well worth the 23 franchise dice and lasted four hours from the start of play (including char-gen and rules) to completion.

Analysis:
- GM behaviour: I repeatedly regretted not having a character of my own, the little plot input I provided could easily have come through a character. OTOH managing order of speaking and clarifying on rules was necessary, and I think everybody was more comfortable knowing that one person was keeping track of the – somewhat elusive – big picture.
- Stress rolls and confessionals were abundant, the former, because players always rolled well in the initial phase (so I had to bring them down, right?) the second because everyone was using them to inconvenience other characters or add colour.
- We played loose with the rules, several confessionals by players per scene, descriptions that went way beyond the dice results, both in terms of outcome (success/failure) and in terms of scope. At the time I decided not to intervene, because everyone was on a roll and having fun. In retrospect some more structure would have been useful to establish a more coherent story. OTOH this might easily correct itself, should we play again.
- The aforementioned colour might be evidence that we played in a "Simulationism with player-empowerment" mode instead of genuine Narrativism. To early to tell probably, but I'd be interested in opinions on the Simulationist pitfalls a premise=fun* game like InSpectres might have. *(Yes, I know, the franchise's success should provide premise, but on a one-shot basis I'd say that's not really relevant, is it?)
- I was astonished (surprise is no longer adequate) to see how well the game ran itself and how easily everybody took control of the story. These are WhiteWolf players, playing predominantly Sim (all of the following is "according to my amateur analysis"), Angus player is one of the most dedicated immersionsts I know, Miguel's player tends to have a gamist streak, though "winning" usually equates to "doing cool stuff" so that usually adds to everybody's fun instead of getting in the way. Alan's player is IMHO the most Narr inclined besides me, whereas Jean's player has a pretty unique style (both as player and GM) which I haven't been able to "get" yet.

Notes:
– Two of the players (Alan's and Jean's) were female, plus we've got several disabilities and weight problems between us, so please don't bother to comment on the treatment of minorities in our game.
– The account above may not sound particularly funny, despite the fact that we had lots and lots of fun. I apologise for my dry style and the limits of my English when it comes to writing funny stuff.

[Mike Holmes]

The – positive – pregnancy test she took shortly afterwards suddenly acquired an entirely new meaning.

I love lines like this. :-)

Analysis:

- GM behaviour: I repeatedly regretted not having a character of my own, the little plot input I provided could easily have come through a character.

So why didn't you introduce an NPC for that reason?

OTOH managing order of speaking and clarifying on rules was necessary, and I think everybody was more comfortable knowing that one person was keeping track of the – somewhat elusive – big picture.

Hmmm. Seems that they didn't get that they were in charge of the Big Picture. Why was that?

- Stress rolls and confessionals were abundant, the former, because players always rolled well in the initial phase (so I had to bring them down, right?) the second because everyone was using them to inconvenience other characters or add colour.

Cool.

- We played loose with the rules, several confessionals by players per scene, descriptions that went way beyond the dice results, both in terms of outcome (success/failure) and in terms of scope. At the time I decided not to intervene, because everyone was on a roll and having fun. In retrospect some more structure would have been useful to establish a more coherent story. OTOH this might easily correct itself, should we play again.

I hope it does correct for the game's sake. The structure is very good when it's adhered to.

- The aforementioned colour might be evidence that we played in a "Simulationism with player-empowerment" mode instead of genuine Narrativism. To early to tell probably, but I'd be interested in opinions on the Simulationist pitfalls a premise=fun* game like InSpectres might have. *(Yes, I know, the franchise's success should provide premise, but on a one-shot basis I'd say that's not really relevant, is it?)

Actually, premise comes from the contradictions in keeping the franchise afloat amidst all the wierdness. You get a lot each session. And I think I can see it in your play in a disjointed way.

- I was astonished (surprise is no longer adequate) to see how well the game ran itself and how easily everybody took control of the story.

Interesting how mode is only contentious when it's not understood, eh? Meaning players can enjoy lots of modes. I put to you that your "sim players" are only sim because of the games they play.

Mike

[montag]

Hi Mike, thanks for taking the time to give feedback.

- GM behaviour: I repeatedly regretted not having a character of my own, the little plot input I provided could easily have come through a character.

So why didn't you introduce an NPC for that reason?

Sense of duty? I seriously don't know, it seemed wrong to bring in "the GM's favourite NPC". Bringing in another character later might have seemed like I was going to show them how to "do it right" and might have interrupted the free flow of ideas across the table. That make sense to you (or anyone else)?

OTOH managing order of speaking and clarifying on rules was necessary, and I think everybody was more comfortable knowing that one person was keeping track of the – somewhat elusive – big picture.

Hmmm. Seems that they didn't get that they were in charge of the Big Picture. Why was that?

I de-emphasised the Big Picture in my introduction on purpose, to establish a lower threshold for output and reduce "stage fright". This worked, in the sense that we indeed got an enormous amount of ideas, much like in a brainstorming session (where I got the idea from). Unfortunately we didn't quite catch the point where the raw input is processed and refined (which also happens in many brainstorming sessions ;)

- The aforementioned colour might be evidence that we played in a "Simulationism with player-empowerment" mode instead of genuine Narrativism. To early to tell probably, but I'd be interested in opinions on the Simulationist pitfalls a premise=fun* game like InSpectres might have. *(Yes, I know, the franchise's success should provide premise, but on a one-shot basis I'd say that's not really relevant, is it?)

Actually, premise comes from the contradictions in keeping the franchise afloat amidst all the wierdness. You get a lot each session. And I think I can see it in your play in a disjointed way.

Could you elaborate a bit on that? I don't quite get it.

- I was astonished (surprise is no longer adequate) to see how well the game ran itself and how easily everybody took control of the story.

Interesting how mode is only contentious when it's not understood, eh? Meaning players can enjoy lots of modes. I put to you that your "sim players" are only sim because of the games they play.

Actually no, I think they like Sim just fine. But we are able to drift ;)

[Bob McNamee]

Here's the question about the franchise...

Are the players excited about continuing the franchise? Seeing where these characters and the business go?

Did they spend franchise dice etc on vacations and such...to deal with the results of Stress etc from the episode?

I know when we played our game...we were all interested in seeing how it would go in the future.

[montag]

Are the players excited about continuing the franchise? Seeing where these characters and the business go?
Did they spend franchise dice etc on vacations and such...to deal with the results of Stress etc from the episode?

AFAIK (and I just checked again) one _must_ spend the franchise dice on vacations to regain abilities, otherwise they stay down. To be perfectly frank, I don't see much of a choice here.
Since they incurred a net loss in franchise dice (mostly because they sometimes used confessionals to drive the story, when they could have rolled) the only choice was between restoring their abilities and restoring the dice from the franchise (gym etc.). They obviously restored their abilities.
AFAIK they were not particularly interested in the future of the franchise or the future of the characters, since we'd agreed beforehand to play a one-shot. Everybody had lots of fun, but continued interest ... probably not.

[Valamir]

AFAIK (and I just checked again) one _must_ spend the franchise dice on vacations to regain abilities, otherwise they stay down. To be perfectly frank, I don't see much of a choice here.

This is where the start up company angle comes in.  I think it helps to actually give some corporate titles to the PCs to shift the "we're a party of adventurers" mentality to a "we're employees of a company" mentality.

So one player is the president of this company.  They come back from a mission where they spent alot of dice from the company pool...the company is going to need new equipment, etc. etc.   Now here comes your Three Stooges employees whining about how stressed and freaked out they are and wanting to blow the payment for the job on vacations?  One job and they want a vacation?

No way, or at least not a very long one, I've got a business to run here...of course, I'm feeling a little exahasperated from dealing with these yahoos myself...I could use a week in Jamaica...


Now alot of groups might be a little more egalatarian then that, but you get the idea.  The Franchise is really a character in itself and a pretty important one at that.  Running Inspectres as a one shot works great, except it removes most of the importance and interest of the Franchise as a character.

[Mike Holmes]

Sense of duty? I seriously don't know, it seemed wrong to bring in "the GM's favourite NPC". Bringing in another character later might have seemed like I was going to show them how to "do it right" and might have interrupted the free flow of ideas across the table. That make sense to you (or anyone else)?

It makes sense to avoid abusing your ability as a GM to introduce NPCs. But that doesn't mean that you can't introduce NPCs. For example, someone from corporate comes down to watch the new guys on their first mission. The NPC can even be an antagonist that they have to deal with. But he can still be a source of information that you want him to be. Remember, just because the players are making stuff up as they go, that doesn't mean that you can't participate yourself. In fact, that's one of the GM's primary jobs in the game (just like any other RPG). InSpectres doesn't hand all the power to the players, just an amount based on rolls.

I de-emphasised the Big Picture in my introduction on purpose, to establish a lower threshold for output and reduce "stage fright". This worked, in the sense that we indeed got an enormous amount of ideas, much like in a brainstorming session (where I got the idea from). Unfortunately we didn't quite catch the point where the raw input is processed and refined (which also happens in many brainstorming sessions ;)

I can see where this would occur. In every game I've seen there have been unresolved little bits at the very least, since nobody has final responsibility to wrap these up. But for the Big Picture, the players do need to be thinking about coming to some conclusion at some point.

Actually, premise comes from the contradictions in keeping the franchise afloat amidst all the wierdness. You get a lot each session. And I think I can see it in your play in a disjointed way.

Could you elaborate a bit on that? I don't quite get it.

InSpectres is about the absurdity of the corporate condition to some extent, and about the absurdity of modern life in a more general sense. These things are broght into stark relief when your character finds that he has to fill out a 27B/6 form in order to eliminate a Ghost. By having the situation be extreme, and still having the trappings of modern life, the absurdities of that lifestyle become very apparent. From a narrativist POV, the humorous statements that the players tend to make are all about these issues.

Actually no, I think they like Sim just fine. But we are able to drift ;)

I wasn't implying that they didn't like sim. My point is that I find that most players like any mode as long as the game does it well. That is, I don't think that there really are many Gamists (or whatever mode-ists), in the sense of players who dislike Sim and Nar. What I think you see a lot more are players who haven't seen a coherent game in the other modes, and so stick to the mode in which they've seen coherent play. Once they do see coherent play in another mode, most players realize that it's just a different kind of fun that they can enjoy, too.  

Mike