[PTA] Request for assistance (reassurance?).

[Chris Goodwin]

We pitched a series tonight, though we didn't get to the first episode or even all the way through protagonist creation. 

The series title is "The Long Way Home".  It's space-operaish in nature, something of a cross between Firefly and Star Trek: Voyager. 

The core of our series backstory is this: there's a transport system (the "waypoints") that can be used for interstellar travel, the protagonists are the first to activate the one in the Sol system. 

The Builders are the shadowy, mysterious race who created the transit network.  No one is really sure what they are, but there are legends, and very many things about humans correspond with what is known about the Builders via these legends.  Each system (many, most, or all of them) has a waypoint located in it, and it is supposed to be easy to activate (via somewhat unspecified means) once a race is capable of reaching it.  Interstellar society has many, many alien races; the sudden appearance of a new one is met with mild curiosity at best. 

The protagonists are an asteroid survey team whose ship (the Long Shot) is, barring emergencies, capable of staying out for weeks at a time before needing to return for refueling and resupply.  They are the first ones to (accidentally) activate the one in the Sol System, and once they activate it they won't be able to easily find their way back home.  They'll need to keep their ship running, fueled, supplied, and repaired, until they're able to do so.  The waypoint system will think the humans are the Builders. 

We've had a hard time hashing out exactly what the transit system is and how it works; we're all a bunch of SF geeks, and it was pretty natural for us to want to spend two hours discussing it (and we had a hard time coming to agreement!).  I know we've probably overthought it and overdiscussed it, but we all enjoyed the process. 

But: the above is all we came up with.  Whenever we tried to pin down the backstory more on how the waypoint network works, we ended up with suggestions that didn't gel for everyone, didn't click.  I'm asking for opinions here from those who have played more Primetime Adventures than I have: do you think what we've got here is enough?  Too much? 

We decided to go with what we've got and hash out the rest in play.  Protagonist creation got short shrift because of all of this, though we knew we probably wouldn't be playing tonight.  We've got at least three (out of four) protagonists with good issues; I could already see ways to press them in play. 

Of the five of us playing, four of us have played Primetime Adventures once before; the other one couldn't make it the last time we played.  We're a pretty socially functional group, all of whom have been playing together for a long time.  The four of us who played PTA before all really enjoyed the hell out of it; the fifth one has been a bit of a harder sell, but he seems willing and also seems to be taking everything in the spirit in which it's intended.  I don't foresee him doing anything to screw it up or any issues showing up from a social standpoint, though his is the protagonist I don't have as much of a handle on; he didn't seem to take part as much in the inter-player discussion regarding protagonist creation, and he's not shy.  Red flags here? 

[Alan]

Hi Chris,

I only have time for quick response.  I recently inroduced a group of old-time gamers to PTA.  I noticed that some caught on quicker than others.  The one who participated the least in using player-empowering things like scene requests began to understand the game, but, while making lots of suggestions for everyone's scenes, never really grabbed the reigns.

First, I think we met old gamer conditioning, then once we got past that, we found out who really had strong sim preferences.  Play two or three sessions, then let any who aren't interested drift away (as they will).  They can always join you again for a game they like.

- Alan

[Frank T]

Hey Chris,

Standard if somewhat cheap reply: "You can always make it up on the fly." Well. The system is built to handle that. It clearly defines who gets to say what, and when. That doesn't mean there cannot be any suggestions by the rest. And if you take a suggestion, be sure to hand out some fan mail. But if it's your turn to narrate, you are in your full right to establish facts.

I do understand the "SF-geek" desire to understand how everything works. This is not a bad thing. If it's fun for you to discuss this for another two hours, by all means do so. As it appears, though, you don't seem to be finding an agreement. I'd suggest you let the rules handle that for you. Use your Next Week On and any conflict narration to establish facts. If you establish many facts, maybe you should write them down.

I'd also suggest to address this before you start play. Make sure players don't insist too much on their ideas and are willing to go along with what other people introduce. Collaboration is really the key to PtA.

- Frank

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

I'm with Frank: stop worrying about that stuff. It's not that story. If that stuff doesn't come out of the story, you'll probably forget to use it. I think the rules even say that somewhere.

I took a cue from Matt when writing Shock: Social Science Fiction and canonized the universe-creation process as an in-process thing. Matt's less explicit about that in PTA, but in my experience (which is several series of varying length), the stuff you make up at the beginning just gets ignored when the rubber meets the road and the story's barreling along. Relax about it and start playing. If someone's gonna take the game in a direction you don't like, throw fan mail against them. If someone has a good idea, give them fan mail or support their conflicts. Hashing everything out in the pitch just takes forever because you don't have the resolution rules to support you.

[Blankshield]

Something that might help you and your players agree to let it come out in play instead of right away is simply this: You're creating a TV show.  When's the last time you saw a TV show that had all the cool stuff explained in the pilot?  Write the setting like it's for a TV show: start with broad sweeps, which you've got now, and fill in the details as you need 'em.

James

[Callan S.]

I think it might be cool, to play scientists, each with their own theories on how it works, and have that two hour arguement in character.

[Chris Goodwin]

I think it might be cool, to play scientists, each with their own theories on how it works, and have that two hour arguement in character.

Who knows, we may just end up with that.  Two of them are playing scientists (one a geologist, one a medical doctor/SF geek).  Those two plus one other player all have science or engineering backgrounds in real life (that's how we got there in the first place). 

Thanks for the responses, everyone.  You've been very helpful.