[The Imp Game] Playtest and Review

[Zachary The First]

This is a brief synopsis of a playtest I ran for Neo Production's The Imp Game--Mischief & Mayhem.  I should add before I go any further, I also did a review of the product, which can be read at http://rpgblog.typepad.com/rpg_blog/2005/05/the_imp_game.html.


There were two players in said playtest, Rod (who played Roddicus, a Big Dumb Imp who was Friednly, Easily Distracted and Loved Insects), and Sammy (who played Eeper, a Devious Imp with Firebreathing and A Fear of Brooms).  Character generation and explanation of the rules took all of 10 minutes, which I rather liked.

I played Great Master Uniol, Destroyer of Worlds...er...well, Potential Destroyer of Worlds.  As evil villians go, he was still trying to build some prestige.

Anyhow, I, GM Uniol, told my minions that at long last, world domination was in my hands.  All I needed was the Key of Unmaking, which happened to be in a nearby cavern.  There was, however, the small detail of it belonging to the hoard of Xyrr the Merciless, the Scourge of Scourges, the Great Red Dragon.
But, since Eeper and Roddicus were my loyal minions, off they went.

The first obstacle they came upon was a pesky group of first-level adventurers.  Eeper managed to slide in close to their camp and overhear they were on their way to rescue some children from a hideous old crone who lived in the woods.

I wanted Eeper to use his devious skills to try to trick the adventurers, but before I could do so, he noticed a large beehive on a tree in the background.  He got it in the head of Roddicus it would be a great idea to go "pet the bees".  So off goes Roddicus, climbing up the trees--since the opposing characters were first level, he could have made even more noise than he did and they still would have been clueless.  Regrettably, he made it to about tree 2, tried to jump to tree 3, when he fell and landed in the fire.  His ragged little pants aflame, he ran around, catching the dwarf of the party on fire.  

At this time, the Devious Imp thinks it would be a great idea to scare off these adventurers (perhaps they have treasure for master!)  so he decides to throw a rock at the beehive--he spends a couple of Guts Points to ensure success.  However, he barely misses the beehive.  Since it was a miss only by 1, there really werne't any bad effects.  He tried once more, and BINGO!!!  the rock flew true and the beehive landed--squarely on Roddicus's head.

Roddicus, actually fairly happy to be around the bees, starts dancing around the fire.  He rolled to see how well he danced, and Eeper countered, hoping for him to fail.  He did, staggering around horribly--and I mean horribly.  In the process, he roughed up the advneturers pretty bad, and they ended up fleeing.

Indeed there was treasure!  Master would be so pleased!  However, before Eeper could collect it, Roddicus, so grateful for his friend's help, threw the beehive at him--and hit!  While Eeper ran around screaming at the bees stinging him, Roddy picked up a map to the Crone's house.  He also picked up all of 3 silver pieces!  (which he would a later drop at the mouth of the cavern).

We ended that scnee soon after, and started up a new one with the imps searching for this evil crone, with the logic she could be brought into master's service.  However, it proves to be a short scene.  The crone turned out to be a witch, complete with broom.  Eeper took one look at it and ran for his life.  Roddy, thinking his friend had been stung some more, hurriedly ran off after him. End scene.

The last scene of the night was in front of the entrance to the cavern, where foul black smoke from the nostrils of the mighty Xyrr the Red Dragon.  About 15 minutes was spent where the two wrestled, punched each other, tried to trick each other into going first.  Not one railed was a success.  Finally, Roddy was persuaded by Eeper that if Roddy got the treasure, Master might let him have a pet bug.  In he went...

...to find the dragon sleeping.  Quietly, Roddy snuck up, right in front of the giant head of the dragon, where the key of unmaking lay.  The dragon slept on....the key was almost in Roddy's grasp...

...when Eeper decided it would be a bad idea for Roddy to be successful.  He wasn't sure if could get it away from the Big Dumb Imp after he had it, so blind jealousy took over.  Eeper raised to activate Roddy's Easily Distracted Trait, and was successful.  

With a whoop, Roddy takes off after an ant that was crawling in front of Xyrr, waking the dragon in the process.  Xyrr wakes up, lets out a mighty roar, and the last thing Roddy and Xyrr see are giant talons and horrible, burning crimson flames.

2 weeks later, back to the dungeon crawl two very charred, sorry-looking imps.  The Grand Master is beside himself.  "Well, did you get the key?"

Sorrowful shakes of the head.

"You mean you failed me!"

Sorrowful nods.

"Fools!  Didn't you bring me anything?"

Without a word, Eeper comes forward and offers...a charred scrap of paper (once the map) and 3 silver coins.

Roddicus pulls his hands from behind his back and brings out...a beehive.

Screams ensue, lightining sizzles, and a curtain of charity is thrown over the rest of the scene.

------

So there it is.  I would have liked for my players to do more Trait Activation, but they are both very excellent role-players, and had a blast playing the characters.  They really did a great job sort of poking fun at some the fantasy conventions as well.  Next time we play, though, I think I'll see up upping the ante a bit as far as using trait activation and Guts Points, which I don't think they maximized the potential of.

Highlight of the game:  Sammy actually pulled three quarters out of his pocket to give me for the three sivler coins.  He did it so straight-faced I couldn't stop laughing for a full 2 minutes.

All in all, we had a blast....

[daMoose_Neo]

Interesting.
So I take it you ran with the Master, not with an Imp, as GM? According to the rules everyone has an imp, but tis interesting how having a GM may have changed play ^_^
Have to ask, how much did you guide the game, in a traditional GM sense, and how much was the players own momentum? I have to imagine the campfire assault was the players ^_^
All in all sounds like a good run! Very cool how your group latched onto the Traits and bidding- my first group did as well, seems to be a favorite aside from abusing the "Pull things out of thin air" ability.

Were there any problem areas, where you weren't sure where to go next or did it flow well?

[Zachary The First]

Well, I actually was also going to run an imp, but the two PCs were playing off each other so well I sort of let it go..I did have a small minion at the start of the game waiting on the Master, but he was more there for environment/mood.

I have to say I guided the game almost none at all.  The only thing I really did was the initial scene framing each time, and let them go from there.  Asdie from that, in all practicality it was like not having a GM, period.  The game was almost 100% character-driven, with me relegated to the spot of an NPC, almost.  I was fortunate enough to have 2 excellent RPers, so they sort of "got" the groove of the game.  The flow went well, though there were a few hems and haws with when to "end scene", as it were.

[daMoose_Neo]

Ahhkay!
Still sounds like an excellent session over all.
The heming & hawing isn't too alien to the game. Sometimes its because someone else is up to something that none of the other players get and one or two want to move on, sometimes its just they don't know when to stop beating the dead-horse ^_^ The more groups have played with it, though, the better they've known what makes a good scene for the game and what doesn't, so if your guys are up for additional play (which it sounds like they are), you'll see that vanish.
The character driven part though is a core part of play and its awesome your guys grabbed on to that, especially with exploiting each other! Its not a widely used option, most games I've run opt to use their own skills, but the regular RP'ers tend to use that option to their advantage and/or amusement.

[Zachary The First]

Oh, they're definitely up for addtional play.  As I said, I see it being a very popular "break" game for our group.  The interesting thing is, I played it with only 2 members of my gaming group.  I'm very interested to see how the game works when there are 4 or 5 imps present.  I can only imagine they'll be a lot more bidding, undercutting, and hilarious failure. :)

BTW, submitted my review to RPGNet as well.  Hopefully, they'll publish it and some more folks'll get the word.