Indie Sunday (some time in November 2006)

[muddlepud]

I ran another Indie Sunday event some time in November. Time slipped away and the crazy season started so I haven't had the chance to write up anything.

This time around we played two games:

The Shab-al-Hiri Roach
Agon

Firstly, Jye ran a session of The Shab-al-Hiri-Roach for 5 players. I sat out since I didn't want the crowd to be too big and was content enough to watch. There was character creation which was amusing to watch for the game. Unfortunately I can't remember much on the characters or the session itself since it was a while ago. But I remember the game progressing through the events and the Dean's wife seemed to have slept with just about every character in the game. There was also the possible appearance of an evil twin of one of the professors, but that may have been an excuse for some of his nasty actions. Watching the game, I felt I really wanted IN on it - to play and I wish I had. It looks like a lot of fun. The other thing I remember is that NO one actually won the game. All characters but one had the roach and they were powerless to do anything in the end!

One of my main gaming groups had been playing Agon recently and I felt I knew enough of the rules to give running it a shot when the players asked for it. I had an idea of what I would want to run if I did, but quickly rolled up an island in the back to mesh with my idea. We ran through character creation for the group of 5 players which was rather quick really and then launched into the game.

So for a 2 hour demo for the players there was a short story ahead -  The heroes, on a ship approached an island. There were a number of fishing vessels near by trying to fish. The island looked mostly uninhabited, full of tall rocky cliffs except some great beast was throwing down great rocks onto the fishing vessels. The heroes met with a priest on one of the ships who said they would normally fish here at this time of year and a great bouny would be found to bring back to the Festival of Zeus at the homeland. But some great beast had taken up residence on the near by island and was destroying their vessels.

Of course the heroes had to do something about it. There was a mad race to get onto the island itself, the glory going to the hero who beat all the others to the top. There was no sign of the beast, or cyclops as they found out from the priest. The next task would be to find where it was on this barren island. There was not much for it to hide behind.

Before setting out to find the monster, a great volley of boulders started raining down upon them! It was an effort to avoid the danger but a few emerged unscathed by the rocks that would fell a normal man. The cyclops had disappeared as quickly as it had emerged and the heroes discovered a great crevasse, with tunnels that led underground. Following the tunnels, the heroes came across a massive chamber with a grand temple. There they readied to fight the cyclops. It emerged from the temple to slay them, great hounds of Hades at its beckon to also destroy the heroes.

An fight ensued that resulted in one side of the cavern being torn down and exposing the temple to outside.
Many heroes struck blows and the beast was felled.
One of the only problems with the last fight, is that those that knew the system put everything they had into beating the Cyclops. Fate and Divine Favour was spent really quickly and the Cyclops was beaten a bit too quickly and without some of the other players having a chance to really get in on the action.
I continue to think that Agon is loads of fun - probably only in short bursts though, or a small campaign would work the best.

[Jason Morningstar]

The other thing I remember is that NO one actually won the game. All characters but one had the roach and they were powerless to do anything in the end!

That sounds like a fun game!  I'd love to hear more about that outcome, if you remember any details.  I know it was a while ago.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Scott,

Here's the part that jumps out at me:

Watching the game, I felt I really wanted IN on it - to play and I wish I had. It looks like a lot of fun.

I know exactly what you mean. I have found on numerous occasions that a number of recent games are a hell of a lot of fun being watched, as well as played. This flies directly in the face of 30 years' cant that states role-playing is necessarily boring to watch.

Top candidates in my experience are Trollbabe and InSpectres, but I have no doubt that the Roach and many other games with similar features qualify as well.

The other thing I remember is that NO one actually won the game. All characters but one had the roach and they were powerless to do anything in the end!

This puzzles me a little ... the player of the one character who didn't have the Roach should have won the game, if I'm understanding the rules correctly. "Powerless to do anything" shouldn't mean anything - it's just a matter of Roach and Reputation, at the end of the last scene. I know you weren't directly involved and that it was a while ago, but this note is provided for the Roach-curious.

Best, Ron

[Jason Morningstar]

Interesting, Ron - at a recent convention I ran a game of Dogs, and one of the player's friends arrived too late to play, but was definitely engaged.  He was really excited, and sitting just back from the table between myself and his friend.  This happened once at a Roach event as well, where someone just pulled up a chair and watched the entire game, clearly enjoying herself.  I thought it was an artifact of convention play (having just started going to conventions after a twenty year break). 

[John Harper]

That sounds like a nice quick game of Agon, Scott. The challenges you set up were great, especially the rain of boulders that no normal man could survive. Reminding the heroes that they're superhuman is an excellent technique.

Thanks for posting the report.

[muddlepud]

This puzzles me a little ... the player of the one character who didn't have the Roach should have won the game, if I'm understanding the rules correctly. "Powerless to do anything" shouldn't mean anything - it's just a matter of Roach and Reputation, at the end of the last scene. I know you weren't directly involved and that it was a while ago, but this note is provided for the Roach-curious.

I'm just trying to remember exactly what happened....what I think is that the last player without the roach did not have any Reputation left while everyone else did. That and I think the last stakes of the last scene were that all the other players were going to force the final one to take the roach on!

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks, that's interesting.  It sounds like the rules got drifted a bit, but no harm done. 

I'm really interested in your observer role - how engaged were you?  Did you offer suggestions, or was it passive observation?  Did you feel any investment in certain outcomes?  Did you cheer for particular characters?

[muddlepud]

Thanks, that's interesting.  It sounds like the rules got drifted a bit, but no harm done. 

I'm really interested in your observer role - how engaged were you?  Did you offer suggestions, or was it passive observation?  Did you feel any investment in certain outcomes?  Did you cheer for particular characters?

It could either be my vague recollection or our unfamiliarity with the rules at the time.

I'd say I was pretty engaged. As well as watching the roleplaying fun between the players I was trying to gain an awareness of the game rules itself and how it was pieced together (since I hadn't read the rules at the time). The situation leant itself to me being interested to keep watching. These bickering professors and crazy ways they were trying to ruin each other's reputation. I wanted to make more suggestions - kind of the wanting to play thing but kept mostly to myself. I think I was also offered to voice an NPC or two whilst watching for a scene. Personally, as everyone started taking the roach, I wanted the player without the roach to win the game but things were just against them.

[Jason Morningstar]

That's great - I'm glad you got to get involved a little.  I think the game lends itself to that, actually, since NPCs are fluid and disposable.  That guy totally should have won, according to the rules!