YLQ

[Meguey]

I'm now officially working on a new game (yes, you may laugh now, those of you who heard my protestations at GenCon).

It's called Miss Schiffer's School for Young Ladies of Quality, and it's set in the 1890s. All PCs are young lady scientists who travel the world and have grand adventures. YLQ is a product of the Reverse Engineering challenge led by Kevin Allen Jr.

A playtest draft will be ready by Wednesday Sept 13.

[Iskander]

That was so me in a former life. Sign me up to playtest!

[Meguey]

Happily, Alexander! I'm betting it'll work with anywhere from two to five players, probably a couple sessions of a couple-three hours each.. I'll e-mail it to you once I check on what the contest rules are about that, if any.

[komradebob]

Any further development to report on this project Meguey?

[Meguey]

I'm letting it simmer. I want to playtest what I've got, and get more feedback before digging in again. I know it's got some weak areas (what to do with the marvelous mechanicals, frex), and I want to do right by the idea, not rush it through.

[komradebob]

Is there anywhere that I can find just the background part for the time being? I've lost the old link.

[Meguey]

It was a Rev/Eng game at StoryGames.

http://www.kevinallenjr.com/reverseengineer/YLQMegueyBaker.pdf

[komradebob]

Thanks Meg:
I'd used what parts I recalled the last time my daughter was visiting. We were doing freeform minis with some Victorian Adventurers and it made a great backstory for the all-female team.

[Meguey]

Cool! I'd love to hear more about that game; it sounds like the type of thing I'm trying to write YLQ to support.

[komradebob]

Cool! I'd love to hear more about that game; it sounds like the type of thing I'm trying to write YLQ to support.

It's been a while since we played last, but I think I have some photos somewhere of the time the team ended up doing folklore research in Translvania.

Interestingly, with my daughter anyway, there's always an older matronly figure accompanying the team- a sort of codgerly figure that the adventurers have to deal with in addition to any "adventure" type threats.

[Meguey]

Was the matron an NPC? And how old is your daughter?

[komradebob]

The Matron in her safari gear( She's the one all the way to the right in the top row of the European ladies set) and the matron in her more everyday clothes ( the less insane versions of RAFM's parapsychologist).

My daughter ( Threnody) is ten now. We've been playing free-formish (several different very lite mechanics used) toy games for a while now (3-4 years).

NPC/PC doesn't really apply, since we switch characters back and forth. It's more like one person who has an idea invites the other player in to play a character that they aren't using, as needed.

Mostly the matron acts as a sort of contrasting fuddy-duddy, where the more adventurous late-teens early twenties girls are the main characters.

Interestingly, the matron (whose name I have scribbled down somewhere) is never actually Ms. Schiffer nor actually teaching faculty from what I can tell.

[Meguey]

I've been thinking this over, and I'm considering adding a well-detailed NPC for use in two-player games. The NPC would be the companion for the Young Lady, whuld have full stats and etc, and would be able to face one danger/challenge per excursion.

[komradebob]

Interesting. It brings up some possibilities for rioleplay, too. When would you allow the NPC Companion to come into play?

Another quick question: Have you tried out the die-roll for adventure location yet? I thought that was pretty novel, but could see some problems, too, unless there was a bumper on the map edges.

[Meguey]

Yes, the dice-roll for location is how we've played so far, mostly with good results. Standard d6 and a decent 3' map seem to work best.