Example of play - pulp altnerate WWII

[Hudson Shock]

No questions or problems this time.  We played Universalis just before New Years and had an absolute blast.

We knew ahead of time that we wanted to do a really pulp action style game - sort of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", but without all the suck.

Tenets included
- Pulp action, specifically zeppelins
- Only women could be zeppelin owners or pilots
- Black and white, film noir style
- Must include one musical number
- Musical number will be in technicolor
- New York setting

And we were ready to go.  The story started on a foggy NY evening with the Hindenberg moored to the top of the Empire State Building and immediately exploding in a ball of hydrogen.  (With the interesting situation of a player paying a chip to create the zeppelin, and then immediately paying another chip to destroy it.)  

The explosion is watched through the fog by a lone man in a trenchcoat.  He lights a cigarette, pleased with a job well done, and prepares to leave.  He's stopped by a beautiful Nazi agent (with a heart of gold?) with a gun.  He knocks the gun away, and they kiss.  It turns out they're in love, but on opposite sides of the war.

All this is watched by the chief of police from the shadows of a nearby alleyway.  Why?  No idea.

This is *also* all watched from a nearby window by the Nazi agent's husband, an OSS secret agent posing as a broadway actor.  Love triangle is a go!  He makes a phone call to the owner of the zeppelin company that made the Hindenburg.

"Tell President-in-Exile Roosevelt that all is going to plan."

New scene:

Roosevelt is in the 49th state - the Phillipines - in his powered armored wheelchair.  He's reviewing plans to assassinate U.S. President-Elect Adolf Hitler at the premier of a broadway musical in just two days.  He heads out to the airfield to his personal armored zeppelin, the "Stairway to Heaven" (a lead zeppelin, get it?), piloted by the aforementioned female factory owner.  (Sorry I don't remember many names.)

BUT... up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane... no, it's a squadron of Blitzkriegeers, the elite, Nazi stormtroopers, flying in on their supersonic jetpacks, armed with superscience blasters!  All looks lost as they start firing on the airfield.

But in comes Tam Tagalog, Philipino air ace, pride of the 49th state, in his twin cannon fighter plane.  In a thrilling fight, he manages to take out most of the Blitzkriegeers, but his plane is destroyed in the process.  The few remaining Blitzkriegeers are taken out by the Stairway's (newly created) machine guns and cannons.

As the Stairway lifts off into the sky, Tam straps on his own personal jetpack and flies to catch up.  Turns out that he's secretly in love with the zeppelin captain.  They sail off across the Pacific to New York to see if they can take out Adolf Hitler once and for all...



We never did get to the musical scene.  Sorry.

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[Valamir]

And we were ready to go.  The story started on a foggy NY evening with the Hindenberg moored to the top of the Empire State Building and immediately exploding in a ball of hydrogen.  (With the interesting situation of a player paying a chip to create the zeppelin, and then immediately paying another chip to destroy it.)  

Perfect.  You could have spent all kinds of Coins to fully stat out the zeppelin before destroying it, but why...pure dramatic backdrop...well done.

If I were in a Rules Lawyerly mood I might have insisted on 2 Coins each (one for the Role of Zepplin one for the name Hindenberg) but really, with a universally recognized name like Hindenberg the name itself more or less is a role.

All this is watched by the chief of police from the shadows of a nearby alleyway.  Why?  No idea.

I love that sort of thing.  So easy for some other player to use the hook in the future, and in the meantime there's suspense for everyone.

This is *also* all watched from a nearby window by the Nazi agent's husband, an OSS secret agent posing as a broadway actor.  Love triangle is a go!

Heh, yet more confirmation that players are perfectly capable of figuring out what makes for good drama on their own.

BUT... up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane... no, it's a squadron of Blitzkriegeers, the elite, Nazi stormtroopers, flying in on their supersonic jetpacks, armed with superscience blasters!  All looks lost as they start firing on the airfield.

But in comes Tam Tagalog, Philipino air ace, pride of the 49th state, in his twin cannon fighter plane.  

I presume this was a big Complication?

Give us some of the mechanical details on how it was built.

We never did get to the musical scene.  Sorry.

[/i]

I hope you guys get back to this one and finish up the story.  Love to put it on the website.

[Hudson Shock]

If I were in a Rules Lawyerly mood I might have insisted on 2 Coins each (one for the Role of Zepplin one for the name Hindenberg) but really, with a universally recognized name like Hindenberg the name itself more or less is a role.

We actually thought of that afterwards, but figured why penalize him even more for a simply dramatic moment?

All this is watched by the chief of police from the shadows of a nearby alleyway.  Why?  No idea.

I love that sort of thing.  So easy for some other player to use the hook in the future, and in the meantime there's suspense for everyone.

Actually, by this point, a lot of us were getting pretty confused about who was in love with/married to who.  Somebody tried to make the police chief in love with the bomber, but I successfully challenged that on the basis that gay love triangles aren't "film noir" and, more importantly, it would completely detract from the pulp aspect.  Once you've got a gay love triangle, everything becomes about that.

BUT... up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane... no, it's a squadron of Blitzkriegeers, the elite, Nazi stormtroopers, flying in on their supersonic jetpacks, armed with superscience blasters!  All looks lost as they start firing on the airfield.

But in comes Tam Tagalog, Philipino air ace, pride of the 49th state, in his twin cannon fighter plane.  

I presume this was a big Complication?

Oh, yeah.

Give us some of the mechanical details on how it was built.

Well, I don't have the notes, but it went something like this.  I created a Master Component of Blitzkrieger:  Nazi(1), Elite(1) Stormtrooper(1) with Supersonic(1) Jetpacks(1) and Superscience(1) Blasters(1).  Then I created a squadron that was actually two seperate groups of Blitzkriegeers.  (2x[Squadron(1), Blitzkriegeers(1), Group(1)], for a total of 6 chips.)  Ultimately, I ended up rolling 12 dice (everything for the Blitzkriegeers counted twice except for "Nazi").

Then another player took control of the zeppelin and introduced Tam Tagalog and his plane.  He was something like a named(1) Hero(1) Ace(1) fighter pilot(1) in his named(1) plane(1) with twin cannons(1) and one or two other advantages.  Then he added armor to the Stairway (which now counted for two dice - a named zeppelin(1) with armor(1)), and added Ace Pilot as a trait to the pilot (now worth 2 since she's named as well).  Tam's secret love for the pilot was also worth a die.

Anyway, he eventually ended up rolling 14 dice to my 12, but I ended up with 7 successes to his 5.  I didn't really want to destroy the Stairway, so I narrated Tam successfully fighting off most of the Blitzkriegeers, but destroyed his plane since, hey, he lost the Complication.  (I payed the full cost of the plane for that one.  Expensive.)

In retrospect, I suspect I didn't end up spending enough chips on the narration.  It's too easy to just say "Tam flies in and with a hail of gunfire, destroys half the squadron" (5 chips. spending 3 to destroy a squadron), rather than spend chips on a more colorful and complete description.

Tam's player used his chips to narrate Tam having his own jetpack and catching up with the Stairway to Heaven.

I hope you guys get back to this one and finish up the story.  Love to put it on the website.

Sorry, but I don't think it's gonna happen.  We're spread all over the states and only manage to all get together each New Years.

[Mike Holmes]

Somebody tried to make the police chief in love with the bomber, but I successfully challenged that on the basis that gay love triangles aren't "film noir" and, more importantly, it would completely detract from the pulp aspect. Once you've got a gay love triangle, everything becomes about that.

LOL!

That's got to be a first for a basis for challenge.

On the subject of the musical number tenet - you made a classic mistake of making the tenet unenforceable. Only if you had all agreed that a particular scene was the last scene of the game, and that, perforce this meant that this scene had to be a musical (or it could be challenged easily to make it so), then maaaybe it would have happened.

You need to put in some incentive. For example, how about the framer of a scene can declare it to be a musical if the previous one was not, and gets a 5 Coin bonus for doing so (or more ironically, that they have to pay to make the scene not a musical one if the tenet brings groans)? Or something of that nature. Or make the tenet "the last scene tonight must be a musical." Again, prone to error, but much more likely to work.

Mike