"Nightmare nineoneone" (PTA)

[Cabbagetom]

Greetings Forge!  I joined so that I could discuss Prime time and any other games we've tried out.  My group of players here in edinburgh scotland have varying tastes and styles but we've been playing together for over 15 years so we're quite adaptable.  A couple of us are still very much into the D&D classic fantasy stuff, but I've been pushing Prime Time since I got it in April and last week we got round to playing.  Here was our show:

"Nightmare nineoneone"

Dragged from the rubble of the world trade centre, three brothers enter a collective coma from which they can enter, and influence, the dreams of other fevered minds.  Can they awake back in their own bodies?
(so cop drama, hospital drama, the sandman and quantum leap all rolled into one.)

-The oldest brother Charlie is a cop who appears as the protective rock in a family with no father.  However Charlie has had many years of corruption under his belt, and just as he starts to contemplate going straight, his shady connections with the mysterious gangster Scaglietti start to catch up with him.

-Boyd O'Donnell, the middle brother, is a senstive communicator and an excellent paramedic, but wracked with guilt over their father's death.  Can he admit that he was culpable in the 'accident'

-The youngest brother Jason has always lacked the wit and intelligence of his older brothers, and constantly feels in their shadow.  He is a brave firefighter, but this doesn't allay his feelings of inadequecy.

There is also talk of a sexy phychic sidekick who sits by the hospital beds, but we didn't really get to her in the pilot episode.

The session started at the Mom's birthday, in which Jack (jason) tried to impress the mother with a gift of a video camera, which she wasn't.  It was nice to role play conflict that was, whilst gentle and not action based, still high stakes for the character.  I think this is what Prime Time does best. 
We then had various action scenes in the World Trade centre, with Mike (charlie) turning up late cause of his dodgy dealings and running in after his brothers to rescue them.  We had folk that wouldn't leave their offices etc.  Their bodies were all dragged from the rubble and the hospital is so full that they are put (conveniently) in the same room, attached to the same apparatus.  Wierdly their heart rates are sychronised...

The session ended with them all in their favourite bar- only the dream version- and exiting into a 'metal corridor'... where on earth are they???

like the system a lot and I find that, as a GM, it gives me exactly what I want- for the players to engage in creative aspects of the storytelling.  For the first half of the pilot I let all the players narrate their own scenes, and only started to take the narration over as the episode drew to a close so that I could throw in some 'oooh' moments.  Anyways I don't know if we'll carry on with this game or try another, but thats the beauty of doing a pilot episode, and there was plenty of stories to get excited about.

[Eric J.]

Welcome to the Forge!

I'm glad to hear that you had a good time.  I have a few questions, though.

How did you guys decide the setting?  Why?  It sounds intersting, something I've never considered.  I've always wanted to do a cop drama.

How did the players take it?  Are you guys new to this kind of thing in general?  I've encountered a lot of resistance from players playing Indie games, especially from D&D players.

What are you planning for next session?  How involved were your players in the story?

I'm happy that you had such a good time with this game so immidietly.  I want more, though!

May the wind be alway at your back,
-Pyron

[Cabbagetom]

We basically did what every Prime Time Adventures game should start with - a brainstorming session.  Its a case of 'what kind of show shall we make?'  which is in actuality 'What kind of game do we all want to play?'  This means that from the off the players are investing in the whole concept of the game.  The thing about PTA is that everyone gets a chance to be narrator at some point, and the medium of TV shows is something that everyone can recognise and really get into.  My players always like to act out in character and 'do the voice' so I encouraged this in PTA, although of course they have more knowledge than their characters as they are actor, director and audience rolled into one.

Although the group has been very D&D centric in recent years they're not new to indie games in any way.  We are actually more from a gurps background.  I think anyone could get into Prime time though.