[Perfect] Varying roles of narration, collaboration

[joepub]

So... tonight I ran a third playtest of Perfect. (second in-person play).
I think that everything that went successfully tonight...
went well because the same things had gone less-than-optimally during the online playtest last night.


I had three players – one who had played Perfect before. One who had played another game, with me GMing (Carry). And one who had never played an RPG before and really didn't have a clear idea what they were.

I intentionally picked this blend, to see whether it was possible to reach varying groups or not.

I debated for a long time whether or not to post the character sheets... but decided to, because they are really good ones:


Jen
Jen has never played an RPG before.
She asked such questions as, "So, we're like... telling a story? And that's all we do?"
Which was perfect. I really loved having someone that needed to start from scratch.
Even if it slowed the game to a crawl.

Jen required a lot of prompting, and spoon feeding ideas to.... But that was okay.

Georgia Defoe (age 19)
Status: Lesser Citizen (red)
Archetypes: Archivist, Inquisitor, Romantic.
Certifications: Archivist's Ticket, Foreign Ambassador Ticket.

Intolerance: I cannot bear vulgar men.

Freedom of Privacy
(umbrella, can ask inspector to leave a room she owns, can't invite others in, +2 IP if broken)

Freedom of Assembly (metal card, access into organizations, cannot be in assemblies with higher status, fails discovery test if broken.)

Image: Memory of parents being loving.
Gain: You may re-roll your die.
GM banks 2 points for future scenes.

Image: Molestation.
Gain: +4.
No numerical bonuses to next roll.



Image: Hearing blacklisted music
+1
No fallout

Image: Falling in love at 17
Gain: +3.
On a 5 or 6, permanently add a level 2 Fallout to a tool.

Evasion: Secret Hiding Place
Gain: +2
On a die result of 1, lose Payout.

Evasion: Ask Questions
Gain: Re-roll GM die.
On a die result of 1 or 2, lose Payout.

Evasion: Act Innocent
Gain: +3
GM gets +2 to remaining tests this cycle.

Remaining build points: 3.

Steve-O
Steve-O had his first RPG experience when I play tested Carry a few months ago (which, by the way, was hella fun.)

This was, thus, his second RPG experience.
He loves taking the spotlight, so this game worked really well for him: He got his scene, and had nearly complete narrative control over it. Which worked out great.

What was really interesting was that originally Steve wanted to be an Inspector. I was like, "sorry, that's one rule: You can't be an Inspector." But then, through chargen he slowly created: a sadist who has Freedom of Investigation and is nosy.
Basically... a heartless and mean man, who acts

Edward Milton
Status: Lesser Citizen (red)
Archetypes: Anarchist, Vandal, Sadist
Certifications: Foreign Ambassador Ticket, Abigail Historical Society.

Intolerance: I can't bear the religion I am forced to attend.

Freedom of Investigation
(bowler, can question citizens, cannot use trusts, GM gets 2 points if trust used)

Freedom of Privacy
(umbrella, can ask inspector to leave a room she owns, can't invite others in, +2 IP if broken)

Image: Memories of before Abigail
Gain: Remove fear points bid so far.
Lose 1 Build Point

Image: Trying to find lost family
Gain: re-roll my die

Image: Father killed by investigator
Gain: +3
Roll 1 or 2 and you lose your payout

Evasion: Cloak
Gain: +4
No numerical bonuses on next test.

Evasion: Fake ID
Gain: remove inspector points bid so far.
Lose one build point.

Evasion: Blaming Lower Classes
Gain: Re-roll GM die
GM banks 2 points for future scenes.

Evasion: Good Liar
Gain: Remove inspector points bid so far.
No numerical bonus.

Remaining Build Points: 3.

Mat
Mat played in the first Perfect playtest, where he was a "my judgement is above the law" type murderer. I was really pleasantly surprised to see how he really switched it up this time.

Hugh Greggor IV
Status: Lesser Citizen
Archetype: Inquisitor
Certifications: Abigail Historical Society, Archivist's Ticket

Intolerance: I cannot bear suspicious looking people.

Freedom of  Thought
(scarf, cannot speak, cannot be interrogated, automatically fails Calm test if discovered).

Freedom of Privacy
(umbrella, can ask inspector to leave a room she owns, can't invite others in, +2 IP if broken)

Image: Being beaten as a child.
Gain: Remove Fear points bid so far.
GM banks 3 points for next scene

Image: Dreams of blue skies and green fields
Gain: +4
GM banks 3 points for next scene

Image: I want to tell my life's story
+2
Can't use this tool again this cycle

Image: Catching a suspicious person
Gain: +2
Can't use this tool again this cycle

Evasion: Don't say a word
Gain: Remove Inspector points
GM banks 3 points for next scene

Evasion: Adrenalin Rush
Gain: +2
Can't use again this cycle

Evasion: Stone Wall
Gain: +4
GM banks 3 points for next scene

Evasion: Mental Awareness
Gain: +2
Can't use again this cycle

Remaining Build Points: 2

Things I liked about game set-up:

I made sure to set a tone amongst players, asking "do you want to be heroes?"
I got a lot of shrugs at first, then Jen piped up, "I want to do mediocre crimes. Like... things that would be okay in our society, but not theirs."
Steve-O chimed in, "I want to make an impact, but not a positive one."
So, I saw very clearly who was going in which direction... where the discrepancies would be, etc.

Mat set his Intolerance.. and I was like, "Mat, you did say you wanted to be a bit of a stalker type, right? If your intolerance is suspicious people, it means you can't narrate them."
He was like, "Yeah, I know."
And I thought about this for a second... how the player of a stalker (who stalks suspicious people) wasn't able to narrate suspicious people.
And then I was like, "... Cool. I dig it now."

Steve-O setting an Evasion as "Blaming the Lower Classes".
I think there's a problem in that people have a hard time creating cool Evasions a lot of the time...
Steve-O's was the most intriguing one so far (to me), and it subtly emphasized part of the colour: the invasiveness of status and rank.

How people fed off each other.


I'm planning to do a post on the actual scenes of the game (there were 3), but that will have to wait till tomorrow... I am tired right now.

[joepub]

Okay, now onto the actual playtest report.
The coolest thing, by far, was that each player was on a different level, and headed in a different direction.

Mat had a firm grasp of the game, played in a very straightforward way.
I'm going to write out an approximate script of how this scene went, because i REALLY liked how it flowed...
In essence, it was possibly the ideal scene for Perfect.

Mat: I am in the back of the Abigail Historical Society building, in the room where they keep blacklisted books.
Joe: Are there others there?
Mat: No, just me. No one followed me in.
Joe: Are there any Inspectors there?
Mat: No, they are in the front of the building. It's just me. I'm going to steal a book?
Joe: Okay, cool. Why?
Mat: I dunno... I just, my character is an Inquisitor. I want to learn more about the truth of this government.
Joe: Nice, man. So, are you going for any specific book?
Mat: Not really. Just whatever catches my eye. I'm only taking one though. What books are in the room?

Jen: (interrupts with a question) Does Joe have to list the books?
Joe: Nope.
Mat: Nope. I could tell him what books I find, but I wanted him to tell me. I'm just fishing for something here.
Joe: Okay, there's.... {lists off a bunch of books}
Mat: "The Pros and Cons of Abigail's Rule"! I'm defiintely picking that one up.
Joe: Cool. a bunch of pages are torn out, and some are painted over in black paint.
Mat: That's fine. It'll just take more decryption.
Joe: Cool. So, if that's your entire crime, you can initiate a crime cycle.
Jen: (interrupts with a question) And the scene has to include a crime cycle, right?
Mat: Yes. Exactly. And I'm going to call this a crime cycle.
Joe: (adds up IPs) Stealing Government property (2 IP), Blacklisted items (1 IP). 3 IP. What do you set tension at?
Mat: This is fairly big for my character, so I'll say 7.
Joe: Cool. I set mine at 5, cuz it's not THAT important to the government.

We roll the tests, and he wins both the Discovery and the Calm.
He invokes a bunch of his images and evasions... Some I'm like, "oh, that totally fits"
Some I question, and he rationalizes how it helps him. One or two I said, "Mat, that totally doesn't fit for this crime. Sorry."
He was cool with that.

He won both tests, so got to narrate for both. He narrated how he kept his cool, and how he walked out with a smirk, the book in his back pocket. He narrated how he headed towards home, ready to read.

WHY THIS SCENE WAS REALLY GOOD, IMO

First of all, Mat had a clear idea of the direction his character was going in.
He was an Inquisitor archetype, he couldn't speak, he was a member of the historical society and the archivists.
His character was going to involve sleuthing, delving deep into mysteries, being sneaky.
Having a template taht says "My character is going in this direction" made it easier to create cool scenes.

I think I really grokked the position that the GM has to fill: Asking questions. prompting.
When he said he was stealing a book, I asked "Why?"
And after a minute, he came up with a really clear, provocative answer.
Instead of describing the scene, I asked "Are there any Inspectors there?" He said no, and I narrated teh silence of the back halls.
Asking questions, and then providing small prompts (ie, listing the books he uncovered).

The scene followed this pattern:
Player set scene, GM asked questions to help create a more shared vision, Player narrated action, GM narrated setting responses...
Player declared waht the crime cycle entailed.
We set tension levels, quickly discussing why it was/wasn't important to us.
We played out the two tests, and a brief conclusion to the scene.

That template worked really, really well.


I've got two more scenes to discuss (in less detail), but will have to post later.

[joepub]

So, Mat's scene... he had a direction he was going, and used me to flesh out the idea at spots.

Jen's scene... she had no idea where she was going... and felt like she didn't know what she was doing.
She started by saying "I don't know... I suck at this... I have no idea. *whimpers*"

After a bit of prodding, she decided "I'm in the office I work at."
We establish that her job is filing crime reports.
She's really stuck, so I provide her with a bit of a hook, "A report lands on your desk with your father's name on it. He broke into the art gallery, stole 3 pieces of art, and set them aflame in a town square."

Jen decides that Georgia goes to his house after work.
She narrates him inviting her in, then turns to me and asks "Father, why would you do something like that?"
"Those pieces of art were going to be blacklisted. The government can't steal what doesn't exist. you see?"

We narrated that he offered to show her, first hand, how destroying something was more beautiful than letting it fade away.
She said, "If you can prove yourself, maybe I will tear up that report. Otherwise, it gets filed tomorrow."

I smiled at this. I was like, "very nice Jen. Way to tie it all together."
She smiled, and started to get more involved.

Father went into the building, and Georgia followed a few minutes later.
Jen narrated losing her father, and being all alone, having broken into the building and now lost and alone.

We decided that her crimes were Breaking into a building, and destroying public property.
Even though she herself wasn't ruining the art, we BOTH felt that she was an accomplice and that counted.
If we hadn't both agreed on that point, then I woulda said "Okay, Jen. I'll go with your opinion."

Anyways, we did the Discovery test first.
The nice thing about this test is that you can do the tests in whatever order makes the most sense.
So we tested Discovery at the scene of the crime, agreeing that we'd test Calm when she arrived at the office the next day.

She won the Discovery test, narrated the Inspector walking past her and not seeing her.

She narrated going home, and going to the office the next day.
She narrated "I see that very same Inspector, in the office. He's filing a report about the crime."
(I thought to myself, WICKED!... But I didn't want to interrupt her now that she was rolling.)

We tested for Calm, and she lost... which means I narrate how she lost her cool.
I narrate office workers watching her pale as a ghost, hands shaking, sit down at her desk.
One of the workers mentions this to the Inspector. He talks with them briefly, and then goes over to her.

We test Interrogation and she succeeds, narrating how she uses "Act Innocent", "Ask Questions" and "Secret Hiding Place".
She asked questions like, "Why, what happened at the art gallery?"
When I bid more points, I said "He asks you whether you've seen your father?"
She says "I lock that information away inside my head, in my little mental hiding place"
I was like... okay, cool. Originally I was challenging her use of "secret hiding place", but she worked it in.


WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THAT SCENE

Jen started off having no idea what her crime would be, and so we just narrated back and forth till we got something.
When someone doesn't have an idea, dialogue plays a huge role. Silence can sometimes be stifling.

When she did get an idea, or a direction to move in, she totally took the steering wheel. It was "Well father, I've got a report to file on your criminal activities. If you want me to tear that report up, I need to know you aren't doing something foolish."
"It isn't foolish. It is beautiful."
"Show me."
"I'll show you when I enter the gallery again, tuesday."
"No. show me tonight." Then she narrated them preparing and walking.
It was cool, cuz she totally took command when she had a vision.

How the Discovery test was narrated as "at the gallery", and the Calm test was narrated as "the next day".
There is no time stipulation for how long a scene is. She simply has to finish all tests before the scene is 'over'.
Thus, holding the second test "the day later" worked really well. I liked that flexibility.

How I challenged her invoking a few tools, and she justified their usage. so that it "rang true" (which had been an issue brought up earlier.)


One more player to post about.
Will do that immediately.

[joepub]

Steve-O took a different tact as far as collaboration and narration.
He started talking. and talked for like 3 minutes straight.
Then he stopped, breathed, and said. "So that's my crime. okay with everyone?"

I was like... "Sure."
It was cool to see how the game worked when I took a backseat role (with mat), a push role (with Jen), and almost no role (with Steve-O)

His crime was actually a string of crimes.
He lit fire to a Historical Society building... narrated that it was the same building Hugh (mat's character) had just left...
He ok'd this with Mat then continued:
he ran into a back alley, bumping into Hugh. Hugh's book falls out of his back pocket.
Edward bends down to pick it up, and at the same time an Inspector turns around the corner.
Edward realizes that the Inspector could catch Hugh for the book and Ed for the fire...
So he slits his throat. Hugh picks the book back up, and Edward dons his cloak and runs away.

I asked them if they wanted to consider this crime a "Collaborative Crime Cycle" at that point.
Mat was like, "Yeah, sure. Does that mean that I am equally responsible for his IP 9 crime? Yeah? Okay. sure."

So, Steve-O (Edward):

He passed his Discovery test, and narrated ducking away from pursuers.
He then failed his Calm test, and I narrated his neighbour watching suspiciously as he entered his home.

I was like, "Inspectors enter your house, and begin questioning."
He replies, "I use my Freedom of Privacy, and ask them to leave immediately."

Haha! Finally, Freedoms got to play a frontseat role, rather than a backseat one.
I was like, "They do. But... you failed your Calm test, so that means before the cycle ends you need to take an Interrogation test."

So he thought for a minute and was like, "Just to enfuriate them, I won't come out for a week."
"Okay. they take shifts waiting for you to leave your home."
"Finally I do, looking smug. I ask them what's the matter?"

He failed his Interrogation test too... meaning that because the Infraction points for the crime were 9, I got to add to his tools some Fallouts... which had a combined level of 9.

I added the same level-3 fallout - "GM banks 2 points for future scenes" to 3 different tools.
He was like "grrr."
But then he got his Payout, and added an additional +4 to his Cloak... making the cloak bestow a +8.

Then I'd spent almost ALL my points. so I fail miserably on Mat's tests.
And he gets away scot free. (Which he DOES deserve to, probably, because he was an innocent bystander really.)

And then...

I was like, "Now would be a great time to create Trusts, if you want."
Steve-O liked the idea, and gave Hugh (Mat) a trust called "You watched me kill a man"

Mat gave Edward (Steve-o) a trust called "the silent guy" (He had Freedom of Thought, so very fitting)

We decided this was to be the first of many peculiar encounters between them...
but unfortunately were out of time for that session.


WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THIS SCENE

The only words I said during Steve-O's entire narration were "And why does he do that?" and "What's the reason?"
It was cool to go from Jen's scene... where I provided a lot of hooks and prompts... to this one.

I liked how he incorporated his evasion: Cloak into it.
For the Discovery Test, he narrated donning it as he fleed the scene.

When it was the Interrogation test, the Inspector said "You look awfully suspicious with that cloak wrapped around you."
And he chose to invoke the cloak... saying:
"I take the cloak off and hold it up. Why, this? This is my most prized possession. I wouldn't be seen without it. See how it shines? Isn't the texture elegant?"
He used it in one test as a way of changing his appearance, hiding himself... and in the next test as a way of distracting the conversation.
Very cool.

um... I like how the crime was so BAM!
There was a stolen book,
then a break-in,
and then Steve-O's crime of arson and murder.
Very neat contrast between the scenes.

I like how Steve-O narrated the crime so aggresively, then narrated throughout the tests how he pulls back from the world because he is afraid that someone will find out about his arson. Instead of starting small and working up to a big bang, he played that in reverse.