Dang #3 (kill puppies for satan)

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

This is a followup on the threads [Le Mon Mouri & kill puppies] Dang! and Two [censored] at once!. I decided to post more discussions of our current games of Le Mon Mouri and kill puppies for satan separately, because, really, even though we're playing them in the same group on the same day, the two games are really different. About different stuff, with different sorts of conflicts, with different sorts of GNS goals, and more. Hence, different threads.

Anyway, this one's for kill puppies. The player-characters are Stan, who's a mainly fucked-up dubious accountant sort, Trixe, who's a mainly cold low-grade waitress, and Kimberly, who's a mainly mean teenage bimbo. Ready?

there's this porno tape that has spells coded into it but the one version is in the possession of darryl who's all this vigilante type whose ex-girlfriend michele is the female star on the tape and he's still in love with her and the demon hoccthulius convinced him to find her and bring her back to his heart and gun-festooned home. kimberly found an earlier version of the tape after killing the university mascot marmot and found out that you need to perform the acts on the tape while playing it to make the spells work. um, and michele is called lady gray on the tape but her previous porn star name when she did the real cheapies was tina beat. and this teenager named mata is this mob boss nicky's girlfriend nicky was one of the finance guys for the porn movie.

then trixie was convinced by hoccthulius after he fixed her sucking chest wound and rammed her head up her ass that she had to lead michele all over the place so darryl can cause as much mayhem chasing them as possible meanwhile hocccth. also gave darryl the ability to sense the earlier version of the tape so as to get it back and make less work for him. but kimberly has the second version of the tape and called trixie for help with it and they ended up going to the free clinic to fix kimberly's vaginal itch oh yeah but they collected michele one jump ahead of darryl and went to the boutique to keep her busy. but then mata showed up to kill michele because she thought her mob boss boyfriend nicky was cheating on her with michele and stan was following mata to frame her for the dumping of two tons of shit on nicky's blind brother tony for which nicky was gonna kill someone in fact he already killed the porno director dandy dinmont with a coat hanger. but stan's real problem is that hocccthulius needs a scapegoat for the shit-dumping and stan really did it so he's trying to frame mata instead.

um, the boutique was filled with smoke and water and ruined taffeta and darryl hung onto the speeding toyota's roof with a hunting knife and there was all kinds of mayhem which left everyone all low on evil but basically OK except for darryl in the trash can. so to finish up trixie's all set to go visit the pet store again probably planning on some kind of horrible death for darryl stan has mata all duct-taped for delivery to hocccthulius in her dad's SUV and kimberly convinced michele to partner her as a hot-lesbian-chick in an effort to utilize the spell rituals on the early version of the tape.

Yeah, that's what play was like. The interesting thing is that, originally, the players had made very minimal use of the "how we know each other" rules in character creation, and after the second run, I felt like I was GMing three very separate stories. I mentioned this at the beginning of this third run, only to find that the players were way ahead of me and had already independently decided to angle the player-characters toward one another.

I also think kill puppies needs a tad more system to handle IIEE, which we're doing OK because we get along and all, but really, there's not enough system there actually to support the gonzo-fast Sim that the game otherwise does so well.

Best,
Ron

[lumpley]

I also think kill puppies needs a tad more system to handle IIEE, which we're doing OK because we get along and all, but really, there's not enough system there actually to support the gonzo-fast Sim that the game otherwise does so well.

Not enough system, but that's okay because we get along and all, was exactly my philosophy when I wrote the game.  So, I'm not surprised, and I'm glad you get along.  Otherwise, yeah, it wouldn't support.

These days, though, less so.  Anyhow I'm open to IIEE-handling suggestions.

I've been having recurring daydream visions about someone hanging onto the top of a speeding car -- a Honda, but still -- with a hunting knife for WEEKS.  Unsolved Mysteries Voice: Coincidence?  You decide.

Can you say what the spell does, or would that be telling?

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Vincent,

Let's see: Darryl was hanging onto the roof of the car via his hunting knife ("Michellllllle!"), Trixie was trying to throw him off by driving the car with kewl driving mewvs, Michele was trying to climb out to Darryl (not very bright for a variety of reasons), and Kimberly was trying to hang onto Michele to stop her.

Pretty straightforward in terms of what they rolled: Darryl rolled Vengeful, Trixie rolled Mean (the same "thing" in kpfs terms as Vengeful), Michele rolled Fucked-up, and Kimberly rolled Mean. Basically all "skill" rolls except for Michele.

Here's another example: Mata was trying to blow up Kimberly in the dressing room of the boutique, Trixie was setting off the sprinkler system with her lighter to stop Mata, and Stan was also trying to subdue Mata mainly by leaping at and around her with his arms full of taffeta. I figured Mata rolled Mean, Trixie rolled Cold, and Stan rolled Fucked-up.

Now, in all cases, one or more of the actions was opposed, so whoever rolled higher succeeded and the lower failed, no problem. But it mattered a bit who did what first, so we just went by highest value, counting both the roll and the added attribute number.

Vincent, what would you do to handle that issue? Bearing in mind that I and my players vastly prefer to avoid "GM just says" for this issue in particular?

Best,
Ron

P.S. Tell ya about the spell next week. Just bear in mind that Hocccthulius is the Baron of Coagulating Body Fluids.

[Maura Byrne]

um, the boutique was filled with smoke and water and ruined taffeta and darryl hung onto the speeding toyota's roof with a hunting knife and there was all kinds of mayhem which left everyone all low on evil but basically OK except for darryl in the trash can. so to finish up trixie's all set to go visit the pet store again probably planning on some kind of horrible death for darryl stan has mata all duct-taped for delivery to hocccthulius in her dad's SUV and kimberly convinced michele to partner her as a hot-lesbian-chick in an effort to utilize the spell rituals on the early version of the tape.

Now Ron, kpfs can't afford capital letters -- it can afford punctuation.

Yeah, that's what play was like. The interesting thing is that, originally, the players had made very minimal use of the "how we know each other" rules in character creation, and after the second run, I felt like I was GMing three very separate stories. I mentioned this at the beginning of this third run, only to find that the players were way ahead of me and had already independently decided to angle the player-characters toward one another.

I think that we've had a net benefit from putting kpfs before Le Mon Mouri.  I think we're getting into the violence a little more by glossing it over.  My favorite kpfs description exchange:  

Ron:  Do you swallow the rat heads?
Me:  Of COURSE.

It took me a minute to stop and say, "Hey..."

This is the first game I've played where I'd be okay with it if all of the PCs wound up completely screwed by the end of the game.  Is this common?

[arxhon]

I was worried about Ron while i was reading that, thinking he had been hacked by a semi-literate fourteen year old . Then i realized he meant to write like that, and all my fears faded away. :-)

Reading this stuff makes kpfs sound like hilarious fun. Rat heads? WTF!

[Maura Byrne]

Reading this stuff makes kpfs sound like hilarious fun. Rat heads? WTF!

Actually, the book is a pretty hilarious read.  It's worth looking at, even if you don't ever play it.

[lumpley]

Ron, I see.

(Yours seems like a fine solution.  I lack actual play experience when it comes to those kinds of mechanics, though, so anything specific I might say would just be speculation.  Must rectify.)

Ron: Do you swallow the rat heads?
Me: Of COURSE.

It took me a minute to stop and say, "Hey..."

That makes my little heart all warm.

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Well, we played the final session of kill puppies. Although, as I said earlier, the game rewards more than one session of play, I don't think it sustains much more than a handful of sessions.

Part of this is the limited context: kpfs play, essentially, is splatter farce. It's Meet the Feebles, Pink Flamingos, and maybe a bit of Survivor, all honed to kick "we have kewl powerz and connections to the reel eevil of reality" role-playing squarely in the balls. As Elfs is to D&D tourney play (or as such was intended), kpfs is to the World of Darkness or to any other role-playing about dark/occult superheroes with angst.

But as such, and again like Elfs, it does only that one thing. I look forward to playing it again (I think), but once that farcical situation has played itself out, that's that. And the essentially Simulationist GM-driven Situation, which is to say, delivering "how it all comes together," represents a mode of play I've long since mastered and don't really enjoy much any more.

Anyway, so what happened? Obviously, I brought Satan into the story. I especially liked doing so when one player-character called another on a cell phone, which allowed me to use the ordinarily PC-driven "call Satan on the phone" ability in a sneaky NPC-driven way.

Ummm ... Stan delivered Mata to Hocccthulius. He did so even after the poor waif transferred her charms and loyalty (well, OK, a blowjob at the very least) from Nicky the mob boss to him! That was really, really low.

And ... Stan and Trixie convinced Darryl the vigilante that Michele really was a tramp (and here she was missing him, and pining for him!), digitized the videotape with the porn/spell on it, and put it all over the internet! See, the tape allows you to command Hocccthulius. Now that every feeb out there can do this, Hocccthulius becomes sooooo busy, that he can never bother the PCs again. I ruled as well that the overall effect is to split the demon up into a bezillion little teeny ineffectual imps as well.

Oh yeah ... and all this was made possible mainly because Kimberly and Michele were having hot sex all over the place while the other version of the tape was running, hence Kimberly was able to make Hocccthulius busy by commanding him to fetch cucumbers and the like, and not able to defend himself against the digitizing/internet posting thing. Um, and the whole Nicky/Mata angle was also neutralized ('cause Nicky was about to go blow Stan's and Trixie's heads off) because Kimberly roped him into the sex-scene using Hocccthulius' powers.

I especially liked the scene in which Stan, delayed by Mata seducing him, had to run into the Greyhound station to meet Satan wearing only his shirt and the hastily-grabbed city map from the dashboard of the SUV.

In some ways, it's weird: as Maura said, I think all of us would have been happy at the total hosing of the characters, but as it was, things worked out pretty well for them. Also, I guess the focus on play shifted a little from pet-killing (although there was a pet-store scene in this session) more toward just plain raunchy sex.

This really is the game that mothers worry about.

Best,
Ron

[lumpley]

Very fine.

In some ways, it's weird: as Maura said, I think all of us would have been happy at the total hosing of the characters, but as it was, things worked out pretty well for them.

It wouldn't surprise me if that's how the game generally goes.  I think I mentioned something like that back after your first session, um, here.  And it's like Spooky Fanboy's moral conundrum here, too.  Our characters suck so very much that can we bring ourselves as players to finally hose them?  Us:Them :: Them:Gerald Stebbins.

Sounds like it was a fun, fucked up game.  I'm happy.

-Vincent

[Maura Byrne]

Well, we played the final session of kill puppies. Although, as I said earlier, the game rewards more than one session of play, I don't think it sustains much more than a handful of sessions.

Anyway, so what happened? Obviously, I brought Satan into the story. I especially liked doing so when one player-character called another on a cell phone, which allowed me to use the ordinarily PC-driven "call Satan on the phone" ability in a sneaky NPC-driven way.

I don't think I can get away with a term like "deus ex machina" in this context, but it seemed like Satan showed up specifically to kick Stan and Trixie's storyline.  Both of us were trying to deal with Hocccthulius and survive, so we needed Satan basically to let us know that it was okay to fuck with him.  By the time the final run began, however, I'd decided that I was going to fuck with the demon whether I lived through it or not.  (I thought of the line from the kpfs book:  "yeah, like you're gonna die of old age, I'm so fucking sure."  Which, by the way, made me laugh hard enough to require a two-minute break from all things gaming.)

Of course, it's also entirely possible that it's so much fun playing Satan that no right-thinking GM could leave it alone.  I can almost see Ron prepping the last run, thinking, "I can't believe it.  Isn't anybody gonna call Satan?"

And ... Stan and Trixie convinced Darryl the vigilante that Michele really was a tramp (and here she was missing him, and pining for him!),

Just a moment to remind us whose side we're on, right?

In some ways, it's weird: as Maura said, I think all of us would have been happy at the total hosing of the characters, but as it was, things worked out pretty well for them. Also, I guess the focus on play shifted a little from pet-killing (although there was a pet-store scene in this session) more toward just plain raunchy sex.

By the end, though, we treated the raunchy sex much like we wound up treating the puppy killing.  We acknowledged that it was going on, but didn't really work at the details.  And the PCs turned out okay, largely because two of the three basically got to sit on Satan's lap and make a Christmas wish.  But from Trixie's point of view, the worst thing that could have happened would have been to have to go back to her job and try to deal with people civilly.  

Our PCs were all disagreeable, really.  That was another thing we glossed over a bit.  There was a lot of attention paid to short-term goals and, for my part at least, some serious pettiness.  Is that intended?  Or is that just what kpfs has in common with other role-playing games?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Maura has accurately divined and interpreted all of my GM-logic for this game. It's been interesting to play so many Simulationist-oriented systems lately, of varying degrees of graininess, because no matter what, I find myself playing dot-connector as GM, especially between sessions. It pretty much has to happen - oh, sometimes the players connect a few themselves and I'm back into bass mode, but games like Fvlminata and kpfs pretty much assume that the GM is on tap at all times for necessary melody when they don't. This is a fine thing, not a criticism, but it's remarkable how distinctive the difference is, compared to Sorcerer, for instance.

Best,
Ron