[PTA] - The Cuckoo's Nest

[REkz]

Gamers,

We just played a great game tonight of Prime Time Adventures.  I thought it went great and was quite entertaining.  I approached it exactly as discussed in the book -- with minimal prep other than familiarization of myself w/the book, and a few printouts for character pages & how the game works (dloaded from the PTA site).

We had 2 Protagonists (Chad & Jason) & myself (Producer).

After brainstorming on game ideas for awhile, somehow we came up with:
Crazies/Hallucinations, Asylum Patients, Modern Day, and Berkeley/SF (and possibly psychic stuff).  One question for the show is "Is it insanity?"  We wanted a humorous/dark comedy tone, and the only convention was that I requested that we NOT use psychosis or mental issues as the subjects of the humor.

Chad played Dave Hornsby, a 30-something slacker with the Issue: commitment phobia.  He plays a food delivery driver (at a different restaurant each show). 
His Traits are:
Connection: imaginary friend Chris,
Edge: TV Expert (we're thinking of changing this to some type of action edge), and
Edge: Con Man/Smooth Talker. 
He lives with his parents (who are his Nemesis) & younger bro Sparky.
His personal set is the basement bedroom in his house.

Jason played Douglas Fairbank IVth, a former UCBerkeley Anthropology Professor with an enormous inheritance.  His Issue is Obsession (with finding obscure meanings in things). 
His Traits are:
Connection: heiress lawyer Jamie (daughter),
Edge: Fringe Academic, and
Edge: Wealthy Heir. 
His Nemesis is his successful and jealous brother Julius, also a Cal Berkeley Professor of Law. 
His Personal Set is his bookstore named 'The Cuckoo's Nest'.

Additional Sets included: The Psych Ward, a Social Worker Office, the Hornsby House, the Fairbank Estate, and an (unnamed) expensive restaurant.

-- A summary of the Pilot plot: --

Opening Scene:
The characters are released from the Psych Ward.  Douglas was in for 5 years for assaulting his brother on Cal campus, and David was in 1 week for depression and possible delusions. 

Douglas sees a message to contact the Pizza Delivery Service on some wall scratching.  David immediately cons Douglas' daughter Jamie into thinking he worked in the ward, and he influences her decision to allow Douglas some freedom after his release.

A week later, David's driving and delivering pizza, chatting with his imaginary friend Chris about directions.  Chris gives him some concerned feedback about his next delivery. David shows up at Douglas new bookstore location with a shrimp and pineapple special pizza.  Douglas briefly sees "Jamie is in Danger" on the pizza cover.  As David joins him for the pizza (tossing shrimp bits everywhere), Douglas calls his daughter, and discovers his brother Julius is presenting his new legal theories at a big press gala tomorrow at their estate, AND Julius gave her some legal papers to deliver to Douglas.

David is a slob, and he destroys a few books and makes a mess.  Douglas influences him to make it up to him by attending tomorrow's presentation in his stead.

David has a home scene where he and his Dad have an insult-fest and his Dad demands more rent AND that David move out soon, and David's brother Sparky flips off his Dad and sides with David.  When David tells Sparky to leave, Sparky starts talking to HIS imaginary friend Chris.  David calls out to Chris and asks if he's talking to Sparky, which Chris avoids.  They both retire to watching the TV.

The following day, Douglas takes his daughter to a fancy restaurant.  He hallucinates and sees her laying dead in a painting.  She gives him the legal docs, in which Julius says Douglas isn't mentally fit and he will be taking legal custody of the estate shortly.  He nows sees himself dead in the painting as well, stabbed in the back.

That night, David approaches the press gala disguised as a protestor.  In a James Bond move, he deftly changes into a tuxedo and cons his way inside.  Jamie sees him and greets him.  Chris appears and warns David that something is very wrong.

Simultaneously, Douglas watches the event on TV.  He gets a call saying that if he challenges the dispute over the Estate he'll be next.  Then he sees a protestor take a shot at his brother.  He calls Jamie on the cellphone, but can't reach her.

Douglas finds Jamie and David in a shared hospital room.  David apparently took a bullet, and Jamie somehow has a black eye and broken arm.  David explains that he pushed Jamie out of harm's way.  The Fairbanks family doctor, Doctor Dankenfauknen, tells Douglas of their medical conditions -- and mentions he knows about David's mental condition.  Douglas covers for David so Jamie won't find out.

Meanwhile, David queries Jamie about her life b/c he's attracted to her, only to discover she's engaged - but then her fiance Roger calls and tells her he can't see her and that he's busy doing diplomat work in Europe.  David tries asking her out, but fails miserably as Jamie hurts herself laughing.  The scene ends with the 'rescue' on TV, showing David slamming Jamie's head into the ground and breaking her arm as he gets shot in the side by the supposed protestor.

That night, Douglas invites Julius to his bookstore.  Julius magnimously offers to give Douglas the store and pay him a small monthly stipend after he takes control of the inheritance.  Douglas winds up using Julius' own legal argument to block his legal attack.  Julius storms off to his car, furious, threatening "I will get the inheritence, Douglas, and next time I won't be so nice".

Closing Scene:
David drives up with delivery Indian food from Haji's (since was fired from the pizza joint) to Douglas' opening event.  David is wearing a complete Haji's driver outfit as Jamie introduces him to her fiance Roger.  David comes up with a tall tale  about why buying the restaurant and working in delivery for awhile to help out the business, which Jamie believes but Roger doesn't.  Chris appears to tip off David about some dirt on Roger, but when David tries it Roger appears unfazed and insults David loudly.

Embarassed, David sets up the food for the students and spectators.  Douglas' eye catches a small grafitti tagged on the side of his shop and sees "Beware the Ides of March", which returns to a picture of a bird.  Shrugging the disturbing message off, Douglas reveals the new sign on the bookstore, 'The Cuckoo's Nest'.

-- end of Pilot/Episode 1 --

Observations:
I had a great time.  I thought the system worked really nicely in collaborative play, and I liked that we could all chime in on scene creation.

It was difficult to narrate any conflicts that were only verbal, since the protagonists wanted to deliver their own lines.  We figured it might be better when it was more action focussed.  The card valuations, esp 'lowest card wins', was a bit confusing at first, and I also completely screwed up the 'Budget - Audience Pool - Fan Mail' economy, but now we all understand better how it's supposed to work.

I felt like this game was QUITE a lot of fun, am looking forward to finishing the season (fingers crossed), and strongly encourage other PTA groups to form.  This is a great game!

PEACE !!!
Ari

[Matt Wilson]

Hey Ari. Glad you enjoyed it.

It was difficult to narrate any conflicts that were only verbal, since the protagonists wanted to deliver their own lines.

Here's what I'd do for that. Get the conflict going early, and then base the dialogue on the outcome, with the "narrator" simply having supreme editorial power.

You could also do an intense discussion with that multi-flip option in the back.

-Matt

[REkz]

Matt,

Thanks for the quick response.  I am very impressed with your game.

Both players brought up that they weren't convinced this was 'roleplaying', but instead 'collaborative storytelling':

1 player commented that he didn't feel it was 'roleplay' but rather storytelling.  He was missing the GM provided puzzles and so on.  Another missed having rules in hand, dice to roll, and so on.

While I now feel that THIS type of game is more truly roleplay, and the more rules-focussed numbercrunching gaming is  more of a bad attempt at simulation. 
However, I do see their points -- but am not convinced that is a sign of real roleplaying.  I think we could easily come up with some puzzles that fit into PTA quite easily, but could affect the TV-style quick flow.  I can think of a number of Star Trek episodes that seemed like they were trying to figure out a puzzle.
And I'm quite fine w/o the dice or books for a Season.

I do have a couple CLARIFICATION questions, such as:

• Can a scene have MORE than ONE conflict?


• We tried the 'multi-flip' with dialog.  I really felt it worked, but one player felt it didn't work well.  So I was open to more options.


• How exactly does the low-card wins but hi-card narrates rule enhance the gameplay?  We were kind of confused by this rule.

Thanks a lot!  I'm VERY much looking forward to next weeks episode.  :)

PEACE

Ari