review of Breaking the Ice on RPGnet

[azrianni]

I've posted a review of Breaking the Ice on RPGnet: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12397.phtml

[Emily Care]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks very much for the review! I'd love to hear what happened in your game. I've revised my shipping costs to $3, just fyi. I was interested by a couple things you said:

The dates were a little awkward at first as we got used to the mechanics, but the need to earn those dice did drive narration. And that's when I started to figure out that the reason for all these different kinds of dice is to drive different kinds of narration. If you want to just describe your character being perfect and saying all the right things, fine, but you won't be able to earn enough dice to have a realistic chance of building anything.

Yes. The use of dice is in BtI is different very different from the usual conventions.  It is meant to do exactly what you said: direct people to coming up with different aspects of the narration of the story of the dates.  Which leads us to:

What confused us about this was that a couple of times our characters doing stupid things or being (usually unintentionally) hurtful would actually end up increasing attraction or building a compatibility. I understand that the mechanism helps to encourage balanced and dramatic narration, but it seems a little odd.

Figuring out how the negative stuff ends up creating more attraction is an interesting and tricky part of the game.  I think of the bad stuff as openings for the characters to understand one another more--if I fall on my ass, you could think I'm stupid and graceless, or you could empathize with me and help me stand up again, feeling closer to me for having shared that. Or if I insult you, instead of clamming up and thinking I'm a jerk, you could actually let me know how my words hurt you, and I can give an honest apology again creating the possibility for us to see each other more as real human beings.

And, on the other hand, if a character does something mean or abusive to another, that can be what that character is looking for, sometimes relationships are f&cked up, and BtI does not rule that out.  However, if things go well for the two, as the game progresses the players may rely less and less on the conflicts and re-rolls to get things going. So the problems in the relationship can be overcome in time.  That's not accidental! : ) (The hard part was making sure that some bad stuff/complications keep getting included, which makes the story stronger). 

It's worth noting, briefly, that playing the game did not immediately put us both "in the mood," and we didn't end up kissing uncontrollably or anything. There were some sweet and romantic moments in our story, but it wasn't an intense romantic experience.

Very worth noting.  BtI can be conducive, but inter-player romance is not required. 

all the best,
Emily