[Inspectres] First game

[Salar]

Hi all,
I've been lurking here for a while just getting my head around some of the ongoing discussions. It's certainly been an education! I've been roleplaying on and off for about twenty years, but due to working shifts for the last ten I'd been unable to commit to a regular game. However, for the past year or so, I've finally been able to game weekly with a great bunch of guys who'd returned to gaming after a long hiatus. Reading these forums and heading off on the aether to check out the great game sites which feature so heavily here has been a joy. Since coming here, I've been doing my bit to help all those indy designers out there retire early. I've purchased DITV (the one that got me started here) MLWM, Kill puppies for satan, TMW, CoS (which I'd love to run in Harn), BW (another possibility for Harn), Elfs, Donjon, TSOY, sorcerer and of course Inspectres. Soooo...

After many months of D&D 3.5 (in various guises including Firefly and D&D) and plenty of NWOD (none of which I have any problem with, a game being what you make it rather than purely a system) there came the opportunity to introduce a more narrativist game into the mix. When two of the usual crowd were unable to make it, I suggested 'Cops! Ghostbuster style,' and I got a bite! I had tried to get interest going for DITV earlier, but was met with very dubious stares, hushed whispers behind guarded hands and strange stares with talk of 'burn him...burn him, he defileth D20 mechanisms everywhere with his talk of character driven narrativist storytelling!' So, with absolutely no preperation, a bunch of hastily printed character sheets, the memory of a game which I'd only skimmed through a couple of times (the game only came the day before!) and the preverbial 'wing and a prayer' I was in it very much at the deep end.

I really shouldn't have been concerned, these boys took to it like a non bird-flu infected duck to wet stuff! There were mistakes (many) on my part, but the lads were nothing if not enthusiastic and we managed to get through Character generation, Franchise generation, Interview and two jobs!

Character generation went relatively smoothly, with four characters generated quite quickly. I think the lack of any real skills kinda threw them for a very short time, and choosing talents in shuch a free form manner proved a stretch with those talents being chosen being quite narrow in range..(ride motor scooters on pavements for the pizza delivery boy for example) However, once we'd broadened the concept to Delivery boy scooter daredevil, things speeded up again. The individual nature of the characters past lives didn't really make the characters unique as their traits never really cmae into play. (again my fault)

Franchise generation was great, the lads with very little prompting (basicly the questions in the franchise chapter) came up with a small start-up franchise (7 points) working out of a disused fire station (complete with brass pole) in east london (Ripper territory). The lads even ended up in luminous pink skin-tight lycra jumpsuits with the company logo emblazened on them. One aspect of concern for me (and I think that down to my lack of preparedness) was equipping the franchise. The lads ended up with photon disruptors and an ectoplasmic neural interface (or whatever) and two bright pink london taxis as transport. None of this was a problem as they all the items provided were used imaginatively to further rather than disrupt the story. I was a little confused regading equiping the franchise as there seemed no limit to what they could get, just roll them dice and narrate the consequences. It was, however, during this stage that i was able to show the basic mechanic of Inspectres, including the concept of the Confessional. The lads loved the confessional! I swear I could see people's eyes light up when they realised what they could do. Generally it worked well (despite my forgetting the basic rules as laid out in the book) and I was surprised at how quickily everyone jumped in. The result was bright pink taxis with a running gag (a la faulty towers) of misspelled sponsors emblazened on the side of the taxi (Carphone Whorehouse in job one becomes Care-fan Werehouse during job two, followed by irate calls from the sponsors. We also ended up with top of the line PCs for the office (with chinese keyboards and instructions!) and a shitload of guns (taken from a chinese triad gang!!!!!) Problems with this aspect of the game came from the GMs chair (shouldn't? have used confessionals in the franchise set up, should have spent franchise dice for goodies?. However, it's important to add that the lads had a good time, so it's not a major issue, just something for me to tighten up on in another game.

I had been dubious of the initial interview, because I wasn't sure how the gang would take it. I was right to a certain extent, as the Cops! interviewer tried to get insights into how their first case had gone (first time screwing with their heads regarding a post game cut scene) I was met with a stony wall of silence followed by 'yeah, it went alright...' We swiftly moved on. Again, I think with a little more prep on my behalf and a better explanation for the gang and I think next time will be a winner.

First Job...'The snake-house caper.' I rolled for an angry motorist with a strange smell in the public zoo (as you do) and came up with a very irate reptile house currator from London Zoo who's extremely angry at the strange smell which has developed in the reptile house. The gang were off! They dispensed with research and went straight to London zoo and upon entering the reptile house they discovered a 10'x10' gelatinous cube giving off a rank smell, which one of the character found appealling and familiar (via confessional of another player.) There then developed a strange case whereby the apparantly dead mother of the character, who found the smell appealing, had returned from the dead and was looking for her 'naughty' son using the cube as a trap! (I couldn't have made this up...a gelatinous cube for fuck's sake!) The cube then began consuming the taxi driver, before one of the players used the 'ectoplasmic neural interface (or whatever)' to blast the cube into jello which covered everything in the room and turned the son bright pink from head to foot as his jumpsuit coloured ran into his body. Meanwhile, the character who was being consumed got pulled out by another character who ended up falling through a wall to find the ghostly appartition of the other character's mother seemingly operating the cube. He then (via confessional) realised he has a strange physical attraction to dead people (!!!???) and starts playing with her ethereal bits. (as i said, i couldn't make this up if i tried) The rest of the gang come in and realise that it's a cleverly constructed hologram, they destroy it and the jobs done!

What I found from the first game (a 14 point job) was that I need to be clearer on confessionals, use stress a lot more (they loved getting stressed!) and get clear in my head when to set things up for them and when to let them go. The gang were very impressed by the game and have asked for links to all the games. (I took them along to show them) One result which greatly surprised me was the level of support for TMW! I think that's great as I thought it was going to be a hard sell. Rock on The Mountain Witch!  I won't go into the second job we played 'Laurence Lwellyn Bowens work space of doom'  (the poms will get the reference) but needles to say this 34 pointer was a monster with a ninja attack spoiled by the photon disruptors (they want there guns back, yes i know ninja are japanese...sue me) LLB growing into a twenty foot monster, the return of their nemisis the PCs dead mother (now with another PC as long lost father...) a timer with self destruct which they stop by crossing the beams of the photon disruptors and the ectoplasmic neural interface (or whatever) to stop the clock at 5 seconds! Boy what a ride!

I must say that the guys all commented on how fantastic the game was and when I asked what could be changed, they stated 'nothing!' Having very limited GMing experience this was a blast, the first time I've GMed and enjoyed it and has opened the guys eyes up to the joy of a more narrative game. I will let you know how we go with TMW, DiTV etc etc etc.

Great moments for me...
'quick you guys! we've got the franchise dice! Lets wrap up this job and go home!'
The guys have created a nemisis tied directly to the group that will keep coming up i think.
The bang i tried (ninja guys) worked very well, almost as an Indiana Jones homage with PCs cool as you like pulls out the photon disruptors and leaves a pile of six black ninja pyjamas on the pavement.
One of the guys commenting on the ammount of freedom they have!

John

[Ron Edwards]

Whoa - this just leaped up and bit me:

the first time I've GMed and enjoyed it

(emphasis yours)

You wanna clarify that a little? Give me an example, specific with game and players and events, of what it was like for you to GM, aside from this time.

Best, Ron

[Salar]

Hi Ron,
I've not got a huge ammount of GMing experience. D20, Harnmaster, Palladium etc (rules heavy games) and it's been very infrequent,  (shift work really stuffs up any hope of regular gaming!...but now I live the life of a slack-arsed student!) I won't delve into specifics due to the length of time since I GMed last (prior to Inspectres) but I will give you the impressions I got after running Inspectres and reflecting on my previous GMing exploits. Hope that's OK.

In previous games, I found that I was struggling to juggle rules, setting, story and players, and in hindsight was shoehorning players into conforming to very rigid rules & setting parameters. It was very much my game not our game. My inexperience was a factor, in that trying to keep what I thought was important and vital to the game got in the way of the story (and presumably what the players/characters thought was important and vital). I basically was getting more tense trying to tie everything together within rigid rules and a predetermined plot. On reflection I think it's like where I work at the moment (The UK's National Health Service (NHS)) where a common saying is that the NHS would be the best service in the world...if it weren't for patients!) I was trying to GM and those pesky players kept getting in the way of my world!
...but I must say that since coming to the forge, my eyes have certainly been opened to the possibilities available. Even six months ago, I think I would have been very dubious of the games I now really want to play (DITV, Sorcerer, MLWM, Elfs, TSoY, CoS and Donjon) because of the lack of 300 page rules tomes running into 12 editions with source books and tables to estimate the average flight time of swallows! (African AND European)
It was liberating to hand over, no not hand over but expand, a (large chunk) of the creative process to include the players and not just to have them  go through the numbers to reach a predefined goal within a rules system that was more interested in the minutae of the little picture over the freedom of the big picture. That's why I really, really, really want to play and run DiTV.
To be honest, I think it all clicked while reading DiTV and APs for Vincent's game. (what lured me to the Forge in the first place) 'Say yes or roll the dice' has to be (in my opinion) the most important RPG rule out there, and it's certainly changed my approach to GMing.
It was a breath of fresh air to run Inspectres. I had done no prep, I'd read the rules maybe twice and running it was a spur of the moment event because some of the lads couldn't come that night. Sure, I made mistakes and the players were (I think) initially thrown by the ammount of freedom given them, but God, what a laugh. As one of the players said on the club forum '(it was)...a rare treat. I haven't laughed as much for ages!' High praise indeed. We had two very rough and ready games with very little structure and with some rules missed out entirely (traits! Doh!) and others just used wrongly. Didn't matter one iota. I was relaxed, the gang were able to build on a shared imaginary space and seemed to be having a blast. Last I heard was they were trying to sort out a bulk discount for the club so that they could get the game cheaper!
The bottom line is that for the first time my GMing was about players, and characters and story and NOT about system. Something I found liberating and resulted in a far better experience for players AND GM. I may be a late arrival to the cause but better late than never. The upshot of playing Inspectres with the gang is that I seem to have opened their eyes a little bit to the possibilities and there is alot of interest in the games I listed above. (DiTV, Sorcerer etc) Never a bad thing IMHO.
Sorry it's been a bit rambling, and I'm not sure I've even answered your initial question Ron. It's difficult for me to put across what I'd like to say but I hope you get the picture.
John

[Ron Edwards]

Hi John,

That was fun to read, if (forgive me) a little on the Attention Deficit Disorder side of the fence. It's still a little hard for me to wrap my mind around not knowing "say yes or roll the dice ..." But enough about me.

First of all, congratulations on a great time and a job well done. First-time InSpectres threads are very much alike - reading them, I imagine the same kind of look I've seen on people's faces after they've done well in a sparring session, or other dramatic physical activity over which they worried a lot, but turned out to be so easy and obvious given their preparation. I recommend running a search in this forum on the game title, and checking out some of them. If we were somehow able to organize a "I blew my mind with InSpectres" convention, I bet everyone there would be doing a conga line within the first hour, or something equally silly and bonding and fun.

Second, I am interested in a bit more detail. What game rules and systems did you GM before this? Or rather, the ones into which you put all that controlling effort that you describe?

Best, Ron

[Salar]

Hi Ron,
I'm not ignoring you, it's just that I've got university exams next week so bear with me. ;)
John