No Attraction in the First Date

[Bryan Hansel]

Thanks for sending the game right away, Emily.  I got it before Valentine's Day and was able to give it my Ilena for a V-Day gift.  I actually gave it to her on the 13th, because I was pretty sure she would like this game.  It's only the 2nd RPG that she's played.  The first was the one I'm working on.  She liked it BTW.  But that's not the reason I'm writing...

We played out the first date last night and tonight, we're going to do the second.  During the first date, we each scored every dice possible and every reroll possible, but never got more than two successes on the dice during a turn.  This meant that at the end of the date, no Attraction boxes were checked.  Does this happen often or we just very unlucky with the dice?  It seems that if these two characters are going to stay together after the third date, they would have to be very very lucky on the next two dates.  Does this seem right?

Thanks,
Bryan

[Andrew Morris]

Hey, Bryan. I had a similar experience in my first attempt at playing BtI. The questions in that thread might be helpful here. Specifically:

How many dice were you rolling in each scene?
How many scenes did you have?
How did Conflicts come into play

[Bryan Hansel]

I just read over your play post.  There are a few simulates between the two characters and even some of the events between your first session and ours.

The first date was five scenes.  I didn't keep notes about the exact number of dice, but in each scene an attraction die was earned, then three bonus dice, and then disadvantage dice for each failed roll.  The re-roll dice were around 2 or 3 in each scene.  In the first few scenes we waited until all the re-rolls were finished before conflicts came into play, but in the last two scenes, we brought the conflict into play before even all the bonus dice were rolled.

So, let's see:  7 dice per scene and 2 to 3 re-rolls per scene.  Overall, 35 dice, plus 10 to 15 re-roll dice.

It basically went down like this: They went on a picnic, she got sick from allergies from the food, he lost his keys.  She got pissed called for her limo, he found the keys, she canceled the limo.  They went to the lake, a fishing hook got stuck in his arm, they got it out, then went to dinner, he spilled his drink, tried to clean up, made more mess, she stormed out, took her stained white skirt off and threw it in his car, they made up.  They went skinny dipping in the lake, and ran into an X, she got pouty, wanted to be taken home.  He walked her to the door, they didn't kiss, he forgot to get her number, then went back to get it, lost the number, and got into his car and left.

There is a ton of complication that I'm leaving out, because we tried hard and got every re-roll dice.

[Emily Care]

Crikey, Bryan!  From what I've seen this is not very common.  Once you break the barrier of the first new Attraction, it really builds on itself.  Each additional bonus die gives you another possible re-roll die, so the likelihood of gaining enough successes gets much stronger quickly. 

Sounds like you were rolling as many dice as you could--though the maximum for re-rolls is 4.  Were you getting at least one success in each set of Bonus dice/Attraction die? That would explain why you had a maximum of 3.  It may just be psychological, but there may be an advantage to rolling your Conflict dice first, before you do anything else. Then if you get successes with them, they don't get subtracted out of your Re-rolls, giving you a larger pool to roll. 

Man, it sounds like it wasn't meant to be for those two this time around. However, it is still completely possible that things might turn around in the second date. It would just mean that their long-term chances might be weaker.   And if you would like to increase your bonus die pool to 4, just to be sure, that might be a good idea.

But then, I guess we've all had dates like that once in a while...

best,
Emily

[Bryan Hansel]

Were you getting at least one success in each set of Bonus dice/Attraction die?

We were getting between 1 and 2 successes.

We played the second date last night, and it started out a little more roughly than the first, but by the end we were getting the hang of the shared narration, so the date played out in about half the time as the first one.  We ended up with four attractions and one compatibility.  Then failed on the first roll to make the Attractions permanent, but made two Attractions permanent using re-rolls.

It got much easier to succeed as those Attractions built up!

Still, that first date resembled my worst date ever...not even the most romantic locations in town got a response.  We're going to play the third date tonight.

Thanks,
Bryan

[Emily Care]

Glad to hear it, Bryan.

Makes me think of my worst date The date itself was okay but not catastrophic. It was in high school, my senior year. Went to a movie, the movie was pretty bad. I believe it was The Fly 2, which ain't up there in my top 10. Or even 100, but anyway... We had a nice time, though he did say I looked "cute" in what I was wearing, which is pretty much death when you're a 16 year old tomboy wannabe-intelligentsia geek.  Cute! I tell ya... lousy...

But then, it got really good : ) After I went out with the fella, the next day in school I got cornered by his ex-girlfriend's best friend. She (the best friend) and I were in French class together (I being all nerdy mostly got ghettoed in with the other collge track eggheads, and this was one of the classes where we mixed--man, did I mention that I'm glad I moved from CT? brrrr...)

Anyway, the best friend's name was Daun, and she was the goth in the school. Let's see, this was like '88-'89 in surburban Connecticut. It wasn't real upper crusty where I lived, but it was wicked square.  It was so square we didn't know the word goth. We were all stuck in "don't wear white before labor day" land, and wearing black was just de trop. So, in my high school the technical term for folks like Daun was "freaks". (sigh) Daun was the pre-eminent freak among freaks, and here she was calling me out on account of her friend.

She comes to me during class and asks why I was macking on her friend's turf.  I'm like, "I didn't know he was seeing anybody" and "What's the deal?", and then she lays it on me: "He might even be her kid's daddy!" 

Oh. my. god. What the fuck was he thinking? What am I getting in to?  WTF?

So I skeedadled home after that and called him up, and he tells me he's not seeing the girl anymore, it's been over for a long time and she's been bugging him, etc., etc.  I guess I'd had a bad enough time with the dating scene in high school that I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. I tried to hang out with him another time, but it just wasn't going on.  And whenever I saw Daun in the halls, it made me wierded out. 

So, one day I called him up & had him meet me by the beach near my aunt's house.  Nice day, nice place. I think it was around sunset.  And I gave it to him. I said "it's been cool, but I'm going to college & I'm still not sure about all this stuff with your ex, so let's just leave it at that." He was cool about it, though one friend told me she'd heard he was still sad about it some time later.  It totally boggled my mind because I just wasn't in the high circulation zone in HS dating. 

But anyway, I never did hear exactly what was up with the ex-girlfriend. I did hear that it was just a false alarm about the kid. And Daun never ambushed me with a switchblade on the way to class, so I count myself lucky. (Actually, Daun was a terrifically cool person, which made it worse that she was mad at me.)

But, like I said, we probably all have some kind of story like that. Hope things are much better for your intrepid duo, Bryan. :)

best,
Emily

[Bryan Hansel]

That sounds like a horrible date.  My worst one was after I finished college.  I had been working seasonal forestry jobs and decided to take the following year off and go on a six month backpacking trip.  In order to save some money between layoffs and June when I'd start hiking, I moved home, and my highschool friends talked me into gettting my long hair, past my shoulders, cut into a MTV Dan Cortez style.

Well, the haircut took forever and one of the hairdressers in the place was flirting with me the whole time.  I left, but later that night I ran into my hairdresser at a bar.  Her friends, my friends all sat down and had a few drinks together, and before the night was over, I had been set up on a date with the hairdresser that I had flirted with.

On the date, she didn't want to get anything to eat, didn't want to do a movie, and didn't really want to do anything.  So, I took her down to the Lock and Dam (on the Mississippi in Dubuque, IA).  I thought it would be fun to watch the boats lock through, because to me there's not more Dubuque than the river.  I figured we could talk a little.  My bad.  That didn't work, so I resorted to heading to a bar.  One that I hung out at, but not her flavor of bar.  Well, she was trashed after two beers - I had one - and the conversation was going nowhere.  It had to have been the most boring and worst conversation I ever had.  Both of our faults really.

Well, I had to walk her to my truck (F150) and she couldn't get in the thing, so I had to help her in, and then at her house, I had to help her out.  Either she was faking drunk or was a real lightweight, because I had to help her into her house.  She invited me in, and once inside, I realized that the house was either my great grandmother's before she had passed away, or one that looked just like it. It was on the same street, which I knew when I picked her up.  I hadn't been in the house since I was about seven, so it still is kind of foggy.  Well, she gave me a tour and the way she had it decorated was similar to what I imagined how my great grandmother's house had been.  I mentioned such, and it really went downhill from there.

I left shortly after, got sick of my Dan Cortez haircut within two weeks, go my hair cut even shorter, started hanging out with an ex-girlfriend of mine from highschool, and in June left Dubuque, IA for good.  I visit two to three times a year now.  That date still stands out as the worst date ever.

We haven't played the third date yet, because we went to town (two hour drive), but we'll do it tonight.  Should I do a post in Actual Play after we finish the date?

Bryan

[Emily Care]

Hey  Bryan,

She invited me in, and once inside, I realized that the house was either my great grandmother's before she had passed away, or one that looked just like it. It was on the same street, which I knew when I picked her up.  I hadn't been in the house since I was about seven, so it still is kind of foggy. 

Wow, that must have given it all a surreal edge... Hey, at least bad dates give us stories to tell. Builds character. It's amazing how things just sound "like a re-roll" in retrospect though. The thing in mine when Daun confronts me in French class was *totally* a re-roll to keep attraction between dates. 

I'd love to hear the full tale of these two once you are done. Have fun!

best,
Emily