[UtB] Cody's First Day!

[coffeestain]

(Reposted from the Glyphpress forum)

I finally got to play my first session of UtB last night and the rules held up quite well (though there were a couple of confusing points, a few of which I'll address later).  The actual play can be found here.

I was impressed with how well the game just created engrossing story, which is probably a combination of the rules and the fact that everyone, obviously, has an intimate relationship to the subject matter.  I was also a little surprised how infrequently the actual toys came into play, particularly since I promoted the game as being about the toys, ala Toy Story.  Only Sarah (the player of the Kite and Silly Putty) actually had her toys take any independent actions and I don't believe I ever even narrated my toys into the scenes (though I was very fond of the block).

Initial toy casualty was high, and we lost two of our three in the first set of conflicts.

We hit a couple of stumbling points when it came to determining who narrates what, and that may have just been a result of my not being terribly familiar with the rules (and only skimming them again before play), but we handled it like so:

Opposition:  Frames scene.  Answers where, what's at stake, who the opposition represents.
Toy:  Narrates all exchanges during the conflict apart from the Opposition's use of its traits.
Winner:  The winner of the conflict narrates the final outcome and closes the scene.

Fortunately, we were very collaborative and a lot of this just occurred naturally, with everyone throwing in suggestions and agreeing readily.

Other problem points:

1)  Ties.  We ruled that ties are re-rolled without any further narration required.

2)  Tokens.  The token system worked pretty well for us, but I can see how it could get unwieldy if we continued all the way to 6 tokens - we stopped at 4 due to time constraints.  In addition, we ran across one situation where the winner of the last conflict was also the only one with a token remaining in the hat and, since she couldn't narrate for herself, we randomly selected another player to be her opposition.  In retrospect, it seems like a good rule in this situation might be to have the player with the most tokens play her opposition.  Any thoughts on this?

All in all, we had a really good time and enjoyed Cody's story.  Once we became a little more comfortable with the rules, the narrations flowed much more smoothly.  Also, while I don't mind a cut-throat, competitive game, our third player was relieved to find that the rules really provide all of the mechanical adversity for the other players and his role was just to bring that adversity into the narration.

So, thanks for a great game, Joshua!

[energy]

cool i will have to check it out.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

(Paraphrased from said conversation on the glyphpress forum)

1: The Toy wins ties.
2: Put everyone's coins back in the hat before drawing the next Toy.

Daniel's basically right about the responsibilities of the Opposition and the Toy player.

I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Could you get Sarah over here to discuss?

[angelspit]

Hello, 

I played the Kite and the Silly Putty and this was my first time with UtB.

Things I liked:
- How the shared narration inspired me to "one up" the other people by bringing in harder and more taxing oppositions for the person I was narrating a scene for. 
- That unknowingly, we all ended up tapping into some part of our own childhood challenges and fears to throw across the table and how that was ok.
- I REALLY like how toy creation was handled.  To stare at those three traits and see "Impressionable, Agile, and Flexible" and have someone say "Dude, you're so Silly Putty" and it just fits. 

Things I had trouble with:
- Narration.  I had a hard time bringing in my traits for some reason.  It was difficult for me to figure how to use adjectives to drive a return scene, but I think with more play this will come naturally.  Just a learning curve thing.
- Wrapping my head around the idea that in one moment I was rooting for the kid to help him and the next trying to put the biggest hurdle I could think of in his path.  Once I got to this point of separation I was able to work more towards giving good opposition, it was just tough.  Once I started thinking of it for the sake of my Toy it also go easier.
- Toy death.  Only because my Kite died right in the first scene with him and I had high hopes for that toy.  I was attached and it made me sad.  However, this worked well to drive me to be the most popular so I wouldn't have to lose my Silly Putty and I "won" the game.

Odds 'n Ends:
- It was interesting to me that the other toys didn't do anything.  I was expecting much more Buzz Lightyear type of actions and I think in the next game I will push for this more.  Only because I am curious about how the game will play with more of a fantasy element as opposed to just playing the traits as though they are the kid's and not the toys.

I've been excited to play this game for a while so I was very glad to have a chance at it.  I was not disappointed at all.  Great game, much fun had all around the table.  I appreciate what everyone brought and how collaborative it was and how immediately invested you end up being in this kid because of how the rules and the system end up working so everyone gets a chance to shine and contribute to the story.

Definitely want to play this one again!

-Sarah

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Welcome to the Forge, Sarah! I'm very pleased to have brought someone in who so clearly gets it.

I can't say how happy I am to read your post. My comments:

I played the Kite and the Silly Putty and this was my first time with UtB.

Silly Putty is a popular favorite, but I don't think I've ever seen a kite before.

Things I liked:
- How the shared narration inspired me to "one up" the other people by bringing in harder and more taxing oppositions for the person I was narrating a scene for. 

ROCK the FUCK ON.

- That unknowingly, we all ended up tapping into some part of our own childhood challenges and fears to throw across the table and how that was ok.

I'm very happy that worked out well. I've never seen it work out really badly, but I've seen crying more than once. I'm not sure if it makes me a bad person that I love seeing that. I don't think so.

- I REALLY like how toy creation was handled.  To stare at those three traits and see "Impressionable, Agile, and Flexible" and have someone say "Dude, you're so Silly Putty" and it just fits. 

Hooray!

Things I had trouble with:
- Narration.  I had a hard time bringing in my traits for some reason.  It was difficult for me to figure how to use adjectives to drive a return scene, but I think with more play this will come naturally.  Just a learning curve thing.

It's a hard thing about the game, and I wish it wasn't so hard. It gets easier with time, but it's a weakness in the design, to be sure. Until I figure out a better way to do it, it seems to really push players to come up with challenging material, and that's good. Sorry about the hard, though.

- Wrapping my head around the idea that in one moment I was rooting for the kid to help him and the next trying to put the biggest hurdle I could think of in his path.  Once I got to this point of separation I was able to work more towards giving good opposition, it was just tough.  Once I started thinking of it for the sake of my Toy it also go easier.

This is the same issue as above. Good effect, hard to get it, and all my fault.

- Toy death.  Only because my Kite died right in the first scene with him and I had high hopes for that toy.  I was attached and it made me sad.  However, this worked well to drive me to be the most popular so I wouldn't have to lose my Silly Putty and I "won" the game.

You guys had more Toys die than I've ever seen before, but still, the mortality thing is an important theme to the game. You reacted to it how I hope people react to it; it puts you in the double-bind that's at the heart of the game.

Odds 'n Ends:
- It was interesting to me that the other toys didn't do anything.  I was expecting much more Buzz Lightyear type of actions and I think in the next game I will push for this more.  Only because I am curious about how the game will play with more of a fantasy element as opposed to just playing the traits as though they are the kid's and not the toys.

This is an interesting phenom, and one I'm not sure I can readily dissect. Sometimes, without the tool of fantasy, games get too difficult, too close. It doesn't sound like that happened in this game, though. So, good. The Toys are sort of a floatation device, though; swim without them at your peril. And, seriously, that's not a macho thing: I find that you can address serious issues more comfortably when the Toys are acting because you're not constantly feeling the overwhelming empathy for the child. It's your job to put the kid in danger, don't forget.

I've been excited to play this game for a while so I was very glad to have a chance at it.  I was not disappointed at all.  Great game, much fun had all around the table.  I appreciate what everyone brought and how collaborative it was and how immediately invested you end up being in this kid because of how the rules and the system end up working so everyone gets a chance to shine and contribute to the story.

Definitely want to play this one again!

I'm totally tickled by this post. Thanks, Sarah, and welcome!