InSpectres (omigod, Jared's posting in Actual Play...!)

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Yup. I played three games this weekend at a Maine game con (well, three RPG's and a few games of tag-team Superior, rockin'). The games were Unknown Armies, Deadlands: Hell on Earth and InSpectres...

Blah blah I'll spare you the full play-by-play. I started the game with three or four people "signed up" to play and had seven by the time the game started (!). Yikes. Luckily, it turned out okay. A new New England franchise trying to solve a local mystery that was driving away tourists (a dense, pea-soup fog of suitable dark portent rolling in every year on the same day in April).

Hold onto your hats, folks...

What started out as a few funny scares (slosh slosh, slosh slosh...the spooky, gaff-wielding  "I Know What You Did Last Summer" fisherman type turns out to be some chick's beefy beau dressed in a yellow rain slicker) turned out to involve a colonial sloop manned by a crew of "little people" exiled from England, led by a one-armed midget pirate who was a great-great-great-great grandfather of one of the InSpectres (the agent in question was also a midget, and one prone to speaking in the third person). Then, the crusty old sea captain (a descendant of the doomed sloop's first mate) subdued the team with drugged coffee, then it turned out to be the midget agent who drugged everyone (including the sea captain)...and as they woke from their stupor, they saw the midget playing poker with a bunch of Innsmouth-ish fish people, with the InSpectres team as the "kitty."

It turned out all right in the end.

The fog was just cover for a yearly poker game between the crusty sea captain and the fish people. The team ended up recruiting one of the fish-men, and talked the fish-men's leader into applying for some kind of tribal gambling license as they were indigenous "aquatic" americans.

A good time was had by all.

And the whole point of this is to offer a suggestion that popped into my head during the game: set aside a comfy chair and reserve it as the "confessional seat." When someone wants a confessional, they just sit down in the chair...

The group at hecon  was really interested in playing another round (except this time using UnSpeakable or In-Speckers) but alas, scheduling could not permit it.

[Ron Edwards]

Lookit, everyone, he's asking for money and now he's actually playing his games!

Geez, I guess Jared's ... (wait for it) ... SOLD OUT, NOW!! (Fuck man, I remember when he was cool, before his stuff got all commercial. Now everyone likes his stuff, so me'n all the cool people know for sure, he sucks.)

Can you totally just hear the tone of voice in that paragraph? I kill me, I'm so funny.

Anyway, this post actually does have some content. What I was going to say, before the Great Humorous Bird squatted on my shoulder, is that I'd really like some way for people's actual play of InSpectres to get archived on the Memento-Mori website. Kind of a fill-in-the-blank thing. It's simple and fun enough to make for great reading. I mean, I've played the game a whole bunch of times and every franchise was a treat in itself.

Best,
Ron

[Bob McNamee]

Hi,

I have a quick question about InSpectres... When playing the game, the Confessionals are allowed one per scene, right?

Is that during one section of the game, like Research, Equiping etc,or during each "scene" within a section.  Any hints on how ya'll handle the various sections? Can research become a main Franchise dice winner?

Ok, I guess that more than just a couple, I probably should have posted to the other area.

Bob McNamee

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I have a quick question about InSpectres... When playing the game, the Confessionals are allowed one per scene, right?

Is that during one section of the game, like Research, Equiping etc,or during each "scene" within a section.  Any hints on how ya'll handle the various sections? Can research become a main Franchise dice winner?

S'okay, Bob.

Each player gets one Confessional and no more than one Confessional per scene. In practice I tend to play this fast and loose -- it's more to prevent a "'this happened' / 'no, this happened' effect." And a "scene" is very loosely defined in the game (if it is at all). Think of scenes in InSpectres like scenes in movies/TV shows -- changes in time (like day/night/) or location (like inside/outside).

The game is designed to allow players to earn Franchise Dice doing whatever they most enjoy. So if your players are all about research (ie: making up stuff about what happened in the past), then they'll do that...and as long as "story" is being created, it's all cool. Likewise, if the players are action fiends (ie: making up stuff about what is happening right now) then they'll earn Franchise Dice for doing that.

Confessionals (ie: making up what happened in the future...of the job, at any rate) don't earn ya Franchise Dice, but you can get bonuses due to roleplaying your characteristics...AND you can make stuff up without worrying about stress or skill rolls.

[Bob McNamee]

I have a quick question about InSpectres... When playing the game, the Confessionals are allowed one per scene, right?

Is that during one section of the game, like Research, Equiping etc,or during each "scene" within a section.  Any hints on how ya'll handle the various sections? Can research become a main Franchise dice winner?

S'okay, Bob.

Each player gets one Confessional and no more than one Confessional per scene. In practice I tend to play this fast and loose -- it's more to prevent a "'this happened' / 'no, this happened' effect." And a "scene" is very loosely defined in the game (if it is at all). Think of scenes in InSpectres like scenes in movies/TV shows -- changes in time (like day/night/) or location (like inside/outside).

The game is designed to allow players to earn Franchise Dice doing whatever they most enjoy. So if your players are all about research (ie: making up stuff about what happened in the past), then they'll do that...and as long as "story" is being created, it's all cool. Likewise, if the players are action fiends (ie: making up stuff about what is happening right now) then they'll earn Franchise Dice for doing that.

Confessionals (ie: making up what happened in the future...of the job, at any rate) don't earn ya Franchise Dice, but you can get bonuses due to roleplaying your characteristics...AND you can make stuff up without worrying about stress or skill rolls.

Cool... Thanks...
I just love the looks of this game...can't wait to try it with some players!

Bob
Love those character / Franchise sheets too