Bob's First Game (2 player)

[Bob McNamee]

Hi all!

I finally got the chance to play Universalis.  It was a two player game with just myself and my wife (who is fairly a novice to roleplaying, but has played a bit of D&D recently, and traveller, long, long ago.

We played for about an two hours. It took some extra time from my need to flip through the book to double check that we were using the rules correctly. (I've read the rule through a couple times, my wife has partially read the book)

It went well, and we're both interested in seeing where it all goes from here!

Mechanics?
I had some thoughts of where I might like it to go, Setting/Genre/Story wise, but I didn't talk about it in order to see how things come out when winging it. [different idea than I had thought of ... we ended up with Fantasy Ancient Egypt]

We started with 25 coins each at the Tenets phase and built up a basis of a few story rules... (I think we spent about 3 each) then we went to prebuilding a couple characters and a simple location just to demonstrate... We spent around 10 coins each.

So at this point we just dove in and played...I won the Bid and Set the first scene, prebuilt location, added couple prebuilt characters, added two new characters... and some narrated action.
In all we played 3 scenes, with a complication in Scene 2 that was easily understandable, we kept most of the victory Coins for it (each spending about 3 of won coins (8 ish)

Where's the Story, Bob?
I'll post the story stuff later (my wife wants to type it up).

Thoughts?
I see the appeal of setting a building phase, followed by a playing phase from a Coin Economy standpoint. It would have been nice to start with 25 coins at the first scene framing point. We've already discussed perhaps uping the scene refresh or a one time gift idea to address this, or maybe we'll just let the Complication mechanic handle this.

My wife thinks she spent a lot of time asking if describing this act or Event or another costs a Coin during narration.  We followed the book here at one main action per coin.
Afterwards, I said that "It comes down to our personal preference ultimately about what  can be done for one coin, and we will probably reach a happy medium over time." and "That to some extent  this question/problem would go away if we were richer in Coins"

We did quite a bit of cross table "does this sound good?" "Negotiation"... which is a game strength to me.

Fun stuff, It went well with not too many long pauses to think. It should go faster as we get more comfortable with the system and the Story starts moving out of  the opening credits.

Bob McNamee

[Valamir]

Thoughts?
I see the appeal of setting a building phase, followed by a playing phase from a Coin Economy standpoint. It would have been nice to start with 25 coins at the first scene framing point. We've already discussed perhaps uping the scene refresh or a one time gift idea to address this, or maybe we'll just let the Complication mechanic handle this.

Do you mean refreshing player wealth to full Coins after the Game Prep phase?  If so, that is one of the Add-ons I intend to put up if I can ever get caught up.  It has a certain logic to it.  That being that the person who spent the most Coins to set up the game (the implication being they have the strongest vision for the game) may then not be able to afford to control much of the first scene.

Or did you mean something more drastic?  Like a 2nd pregame phase.
Game Prep followed by Setting Building followed by regular play?

My wife thinks she spent a lot of time asking if describing this act or Event or another costs a Coin during narration.  We followed the book here at one main action per coin.
Afterwards, I said that "It comes down to our personal preference ultimately about what  can be done for one coin, and we will probably reach a happy medium over time." and "That to some extent  this question/problem would go away if we were richer in Coins"

You are 100% correct.  Mike and I struggled for a while to find a way to define what could be accomplished with 1 Coin in a way that left things open to the infinite creative things players would try, but was still a practical and useful limit.  

Our solution was the Event Rule:  1 Coin can describe an Event that identifies one or more of the following feature:  An Effect, A Component Causing the Effect, and a Component Receiving the Effect.  Effect is left intentionally vague, but any mechanical items (like adding or altering Traits) must be purchased seperately so there is a built in scale of relative cost because Effects that involve such things will wind up costing more.

The example in the book about "Marissa shoots the gun at the Buzzer" vs. "Marissa pulls the trigger on the gun.  The gun shoots the Buzzer" might be a good one to have her read.  But it sounds like you explained it perfectly.

We did quite a bit of cross table "does this sound good?" "Negotiation"... which is a game strength to me.

Love to hear that.  My intent was for the game to be collaborative using both cooperative and competitive techniques.  Challenges and Complications can tend to lean towards the competitive side.  I was hoping that the addition of Negotiation as an explicit (rather than implicit) part of the Challenge would be a strong balance to the cooperative side.

Look forward to hearing about the story.

Also look forward, when you have the chance to play with multiple people, to hear your thoughts on how the game plays differently with a group vs. just 2.  Mike has noticed some significant differences and it would be interested to get a discussion going about them.  A good topic to get turned into an eventual essay.

[Bob McNamee]

Do you mean refreshing player wealth to full Coins after the Game Prep phase?  If so, that is one of the Add-ons I intend to put up if I can ever get caught up.  It has a certain logic to it.  That being that the person who spent the most Coins to set up the game (the implication being they have the strongest vision for the game) may then not be able to afford to control much of the first scene.

Or did you mean something more drastic?  Like a 2nd pregame phase.
Game Prep followed by Setting Building followed by regular play?

I mean perhaps a onetime 25 coin refresh bonus before the first scene. That way some one who spent a lot to define the game would still be at a lesser Coin amount than someone who sat back, but that there would still be a good amount of coins to dive into the first scenes with.  

Our game may be a bit conservative because we  have lower Coin totals, but its not that bad.  

I could see the point of a more drastic, two part build phase then go to scene play, as discussed in one of the other threads, if we were trying to pre-establish a detailed setting, but I have to admit that the Discover-in-Play aspect of Universalis is a Big Plus for me.
Why spend much time on something that you may not use?

Our solution was the Event Rule:  1 Coin can describe an Event that identifies one or more of the following feature:  An Effect, A Component Causing the Effect, and a Component Receiving the Effect.  Effect is left intentionally vague, but any mechanical items (like adding or altering Traits) must be purchased seperately so there is a built in scale of relative cost because Effects that involve such things will wind up costing more.

The example in the book about "Marissa shoots the gun at the Buzzer" vs. "Marissa pulls the trigger on the gun.  The gun shoots the Buzzer" might be a good one to have her read.  But it sounds like you explained it perfectly.

Thanks!
Now that you mention it, I'm sure its in the book... I just didn't remember that when she asked.

Love to hear that.  My intent was for the game to be collaborative using both cooperative and competitive techniques.  Challenges and Complications can tend to lean towards the competitive side.  I was hoping that the addition of Negotiation as an explicit (rather than implicit) part of the Challenge would be a strong balance to the cooperative side.

I like that too... especially with only two players. It hardly makes sense to waste any coins on Challenging unless its really importantto you. The Complication rules are cool for two players...maintains the sense of GM-like mystery.  Self driving from a player Wealth standpoint, I was at first afraid that we might just "pass the conch" in a two player game. Our complication, while not being a 30 Coin extravagance, did net us several coins each, we both introduced effects to the scene, kept the leftovers, and ended the Scene thus getting a decent value from the Scene (even though I believe I'm even for the scene)

Look forward to hearing about the story.

She had classes today. I'll let her know ya'll are interested!

Also look forward, when you have the chance to play with multiple people, to hear your thoughts on how the game plays differently with a group vs. just 2.  Mike has noticed some significant differences and it would be interested to get a discussion going about them.  A good topic to get turned into an eventual essay.[/q

I'm really interested in this too!
I'm sure it gets better and more creative the more players you get. I'm thinking it levels off after 6 or so like in most of my roleplaying experiences.
We have a friend whose only experience with roleplaying was helping my wife and I do a one session partial playtest of my Tarot-based Game. Last time she stopped by she read 90% of the Universalis book and wants to play. So we'll have a three-player game somewhere along the way.
I'm also planning on using Universalis as a Background game for  my Supers game coming up (probably a 3 person game too)... using it to establish the tone, color, expectations, social contract for the game... and if they are intrigued maybe use it like one of your playtest groups did to track the goings on of big wheel NPCs. I might even suggest to them to do a 30 min warm-up game of Universalis before we start the "Regular Campaign" session.

Bob McNamee

[Bob McNamee]

Ok, my wife has been busy with homework from a Tax course so here's my attempt at a transcript as best as I remember...I'm not the writer in the family. :>

Hope you don;t mind the Play-by-play nature of the post

Universalis Game – Bob and Pat  Session 1 (2hrs approx)
b=Bob p=Pat

Game Set-up Phase
Tenets
b-Magic flows along Ley lines & collects in crystals
p-low technology, pre-industrial
b-cats are magic
p- humans can bond with cats
b- old Egypt setting

Character / location prebuilding
p- pass
b-character
name:“Kenarsis”      role: Scribe/magician
Runic magic, Forgetful, Follower of Ptah, Collector of Knowledge
p-character
name:”Pi Wa’ Ket”  role: Servant in the Temple of Bast
Agile, Nubile, Communicates with cats, Trained Dancer, Daring
b- character
name: “Lo-set”        role: Cat
p-pass
b-location
“Temple of Bast”
trait:Many cats

Scenes
Scene 1 (won by Bob)
Time: Midnight
Place: Temple of Bast, altar room
Who: “Pi Wa’ Ket”, “Lo-Set”, ”Seer of Bast”(added), ”Snake #1”(added)
   Name:”Seer of Bast” Prophecy, Oracle, Old, Slow
   Name: “Snake #1” Poison Fangs, Sneaky

b- Pi Wa’ Ket is preparing the Temple for tomorrows service, Lo-Set is among the cats in the Temple, The Seer of Bast enters the altar room for her midnight meditation. She slips deep in prayerful meditation. The flickering torchlight casts dancing shadows about the Temple walls… unseen a Snake sneaks up behind the Seer, suddenly “The unseen Snake bites the Seer, Poisoning her”(add the Poisoned trait to the Seer), she collapses to the floor.
b-ends turn
p-takes Control of  “Pi”
“Pi Wa’ Ket” rushes to her, sees the snake, and the bite. Then she calls upon her ability to Communicate with Cats. She commands “Lo-Set” to “Go get a Healer, quick!”

p-ends turn
b- “Lo-Set” Exits the Temple

End of Scene 1

Scene 2 (won by Pat)
Time: immediately after Scene 1
Place/People: Scene 1 continued

“Pi Wa’ Ket” run to the nearest wall and grabs a “Torch” (created Item) uses it and her Daring nature to drive the Snake away from the Seer (no complication). She then tries to kill the snake, but is afraid.  She calls on a “Group of Temple Cats x3” to kill the Snake while she distracts it with the torch. (Complication:This becomes a 3 dice to 7? Dice roll: Pat 7 beats Bob 3 dice, Pat gains 12? Bob gains 7[I forget the specifics of this comlpication])
p- spends 4 Coins -  Event Cats Kill Snake, Snake – 3 traits (dead), b-suggests added “Snake Killers” trait to “Group of Temple Cats x3”, p- 1 Coin adds trait to Group,p-done
b-1 Coin adds Seer of Bast to Temple Location card, spends 1 Coin on Event “Seer has a Prophesy”
“I See the City overrun by the forces of the Evil Snake God, unearthed by the wild tribes of the far desert”
p-“Pi” calls on “Mykat” (buys a new character)  a temple Cat to inform the Elders of the Church of the Prophesy
name: “Mykat”  role:Temple Cat   Knows all Paths in Temple, Can talk with high ranking Priestesses
p-ends Scene 2

Scene 3 (won by Bob)
Time: Concurrent with Scene 2
Location: Herbalist shop(1 coin:Name) down the street from the Temple
Who: “Lo-Set”, “Juba” (added)
                           name:Juba    role: Herbalist    Fat, Healer

“Lo-Set” dashes through the Herbalist’s shop, rushing about setting jars and containers to wobbling. “Juba” gets up from grinding some herbs.  Suddenly, “Lo-Set” bounds over to where “Juba” had taken off his charm bracelet and “Slips it over his head” (also added traits of Thief, and Lucky Charm Bracelet of Juba to Lo-Set). “Lo-set” exits the herbalist running for the Temple with and angry “Juba” puffing along behind.
(no complication)  b-ends turn
p- nothing to add to scene
b-ends Scene 3

at this point Bob has very few coins left and Pat has quite a few…
It seems so short when put this way, but it took some play time making sure we did the rules right.

Enjoy...we did!
Bob McNamee