"Black Is The Knight" 2 (Soap Dark Shadows-style)

[Roy]

We played our second session of "Black Is The Knight" last night using Soap by Ferry Bazelmans (see the s, Fer?).  Our first session can be found here.

We didn't have as much time to play last night, so we kept it short and sweet.

My comments concerning the game will follow the scene breakdown.

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SCENE 1:  LOCATION:  Knight Estate, Thomas Knight's bedroom.  TIME:  The same morning Cassandra Weatherbane found Maggie Winthrop's mutilated body.

Thomas Knight awoke to the sound of the ringing phone.  He answered it.  A feminine voice told him that something had happened at "his precious little paper".  Thomas' heart hammered in his chest as he realized he knew that voice.  It sounded just like his dead sister, Victoria!

SCENE 2:  LOCATION:  "Knight's Herald" building, outside Maggie Winthrop's office.  TIME:  The same morning Cassandra Weatherbane found Maggie Winthrop's mutilated body.

Cassandra Weatherbane put her head in her hands as the uniformed officer walked away from her.  Cassandra looked up in surprise as a detective in plains clothes approached her.  "Hello, William," said Cassandra.  "It's Detective Harrison, Cassandra.  I'm on official business here."  Cassandra nodded and asked William if Thomas Knight had been called yet.  William told her they were trying to get a hold of him now.  Cassandra asked William to tell Thomas to meet her in the coffee shop across the street when he was finished.  Detective William Harrison scribbled something in his notepad as Cassandra walked away.

SCENE 3:  LOCATION:  Coffee shop across the street from the "Knight's Herald" building.  TIME:  Later that same morning.

Thomas sat down at Cassandra's table.  Cassandra told Thomas that the beast she had followed last night was a werewolf and she had seen him change back into human form.  Thomas told her this wasn't the place to discuss it and quickly paid for their coffee.  "Come on.  Let's get out of here," said Thomas.  Thomas and Cassandra left the coffee shop and drove away in Thomas' black Maserati.

SCENE 4 (CLIFFHANGER):  LOCATION:  A roadside inn in the middle of nowhere.  TIME:  A little later that same morning.

"So, who is it?" asked Thomas.  "It's William," answered Cassandra.  "William?  The guy you were going to marry?" asked Thomas.  Cassandra nodded.

Thomas asked her if she thought William was involved in Maggie's murder, but she admitted she it could be anyone.  Thomas stood up, guilt and anger welling up inside of him.  "What are you trying to say, Cassandra?" stormed Thomas.  

Thomas quickly regained his composure and muttered an apology.  He threw some cash down on the table and quickly walked out of the inn.

"What's wrong with him?" wondered Cassandra out loud.  She got up and walked out of the inn after Thomas.

In a dark corner of the room, a man lowered his newspaper.  It was Detective William Harrison ....  

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Although me and my wife both really wanted to play, it was hard getting back into the flow of the game.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to quickly jump start the session?  

We tried stating the cliffhanger at the start of play, but maybe we should have started in the same scene as the cliffhanger and expanded it further.

Has anyone tried any kind of narrativism warm-up excercises to get the juices flowing before playing?  

The problem that really jumped out this time was the "one sentence per turn" structure used in Soap.  It's good in that it really forces you to be selective with your sentences, but there are a lot of times where you're really wanting to use multiple sentences to get an idea across.  We may experiment with buying extra sentences.

Roy

[Ron Edwards]

Hey,

One of the best warmups I know is to play a session or two of the card game Once Upon a Time. Great game for getting more comfortable with "one sentence with meat" announcements, and the constraint or effort to make a good story is relaxed in favor of fiendish & fun competition.

I also suggest that you and your wife are working with a very serious limitation: just the two of you. Soap, in my experience, benefits greatly from multiple participants, not only in terms of secret-guessing coming from various angles, but also in terms of what a token is worth relative to everyone else's.

Best,
Ron

[Roy]

Hey, Ron!

Great idea about "Once Upon A Time".  I hadn't thought of using it as a warm-up.  I'll have to try that.

I agree that we're limited with just the two of us, but our situation has forced us to get gaming where we can and when we can.  I look forward to playing Soap with more people after we resolve the issues preventing us from more gaming.

Roy

[Ferry Bazelmans]

(see the s, Fer?).

.

Yup. I'm smiling now. :)

Although me and my wife both really wanted to play, it was hard getting back into the flow of the game.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to quickly jump start the session?

Okay, this might sound extremely corny, but have you tried putting on an announcer's voice and saying: "Last time on Black is the Knight", followed by a quick recap of what happened and the cliffhanger. That warms you up a lot more than just stating the cliffhanger.

The problem that really jumped out this time was the "one sentence per turn" structure used in Soap.  It's good in that it really forces you to be selective with your sentences, but there are a lot of times where you're really wanting to use multiple sentences to get an idea across.  We may experiment with buying extra sentences.

If your problems stem from only having two players, then I say, screw the rules. If you buying extra sentences works for you, go for it.

Thanks for your feedback

Fer

[Roy]

Okay, this might sound extremely corny, but have you tried putting on an announcer's voice and saying: "Last time on Black is the Knight", followed by a quick recap of what happened and the cliffhanger. That warms you up a lot more than just stating the cliffhanger.

That's funny, but that's exactly how I did it.  Sure it's corny, but it really captures the feeling of a TV series.  I'll try to find us a good theme song and turn the lights down really low.  

We'll probably play again this weekend, so I'll try Ron's suggestion about using "Once Upon A Time" to warm up.  

Roy