[PTA] Animal Firm

[GB Steve]

We had a fine game of Prime Time Adventures this evening so here for your delight is a summary of play:

Set in the town of Orville, Animal Firm charts the careers of three real estate agents who all work for Mr Winston, the chain smoking Beagle. Kitty Foo is his siamese PA and Boarson is the saddleback big hitter but the real stars of the show are:
- Dan Sapien, the immature monkey whose many schemes never really amount to anything
- Joe Morino, the white sheep of the family who is trying to break with his Flock background
- Mu(riel) LaVache, ecoconcious heifer who is looking for acceptance in society

The day starts as always at the Trough, the animal friendly café downstairs from Winston's Real Estate. Mu is peddling up the street on her bike as Joe parks his sportscar out front and Dan practically falls out of a taxi. Their regular drinks are waiting for them on the counter although Rip the barrista has once again over nutmegged Dan's banana smoothie. Does he have it in for our simian chum?

Joe places the golden hay bale on the table, the prize to the day's best seller. Before anyone can take up the challenge, Boarson, stuffing a bacon bagel sideways into his fat mouth, grabs the bale off the table and wanders off, grunting something about a Mansion deal in the Heights that will clinch the prize for him.

A cowbell sounds for Mu to pick up her moobile. It's Winston. Where is everyone? They're late for the sales' meeting! The crew pile into the office as Kitty makes some catty remark about early birds, sheep, monkeys, whatever. Mu gets the Chicken Farm out on Route 3 whilst monkey boy has to play second fiddle to Joe. If they can't clinch the abbatoir redevelopment deal on the Lower East Side, Dan will be taking home his bananas in a cardboard box.

Cut to a nice downtown restaurant. Dan has wangled a meeting with Gracie, 19 year old daughter of local property developer Mr Black. With talk of Federal Development Grants and a well trained local workforce, Dan gets Gracie's interest and almost clinches the deal. But he has maxed out on his credit card and the rather snooty Maitre D' show him up. Gracie cools off somewhat.

Meanwhile, out on Route 3, Mu finds out that the Chicken Farm is not what she thought it was. Their might be chicks here, but they are strictly the pole-dancing kind. Rooster comes on strong to her but she's not impressed. He can't keep up the payments and the whole thing must go. But what's this? With the help of Click Clack Moo and a loan from the local Green party she starts up a collective and the buying power of the whores is enough to buy out Rooster and go independent. Girls are indeed working for themselves.

Back in town, Joe meets with Bernardo, Old English Sheepdog and shady consigliere of the Flock. Benny has a buyer lined up for the Abbatoir, it's Mr Tumpy and out of town pachyderm. His heavy guy, Dumbo, is flying in tonight to clinch the deal at the Chamber of Commerce annual buffet. Whilst the monkey goes ape in the background, Joe stands up to Bernardo. Even though Mr Tumpy is promising the kind of money that would win Joe the hay bale, he stands firm when Bernardo tries to worry him and "escorts" the dog back to his car. Bernardo departs rather with his tail between his legs.

That evening at the Chamber of Commerce buffet, Mu confronts the president, Snap Johnson, the Good Ol' Florida Gator. She's not happy with Mr Value-Mart's animal exploitative grill. Snaps not bothered until he spots VM's shoes. Yep, finest crocodile and VM finds that he's persona non gator.

Joe is smoothing out things with Gracie and Mr Black. They are on the verge of clinching the deal when Dumbo and his boys muscle their way across the floor. The deal looks doomed until Don, disguised as a waiter, slips a plate of vol-au-vents under the pachyderms none to nimble feet. Suddenly it's an elevanche. Dumbo skids across the floor clearing all before him as Joe rides him sled style. He shoots past Boarson grabbing the golden bale from the air as he runs him down and careers into VM's grill. The party is certainly over for the out of town mob. Joe clinches the deal and Don's job is safe, but Boarson gets the award. It doesn't always go your way but something interesting is bound to happen in next week's episode of Animal Firm.
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Given that we played Polaris last week, it was quite easy to fall into the narrative way of things again, possibly even more so as the agenda is more controlled by the players. I'm not even sure that the role of director is necessary. I think I could have quite easily played a character too without unduly influencing things. As it was I felt slightly left out although not too much as things were done in a fairly cooperative way.

The resulys of the system seem to be fairly random - I'm not sure anyone with 5 cards ever won a hand. In fact, given the general agreement on theme and tone, I'm not sure the conflict resolution added much to the play. I suppose the winners and losers may have been different though.

This was actually the pilot but we'll carry on next week to see what effect differing screen presence has. I'm sure it will be just as positive an experience.

One final note, all the animals in the game were sourced from the toy box of the six year old daughter of our host.