[Camp Nerdly - PTA] END/Sexitricity

[Travis Farber]

Julian was the spotlight character in the first episode.  His 6 year old daughter Rosemary was the most important thing in the world to him.  I had envisioned Julian as a rising star in this twisted little community until his daughter came into his life. 

The Spotlight episode started with Rosemary's caretaker basically dumping Rosemary on his door step.  He didn't have enough money to keep her safe any longer, and had to figure something out to do.  Knowing that the world would soon be destroyed he promised to get Rosemary off this planet no matter the cost. 

While Julian is out trying to find a solution to his problem he leaves Rosemary in the hands of Donnie.  Donnie takes her with him to his gladitorial practice area where he is soon confronted by his evil brother Booker.  Booker tries to convince him that he should just give him Rosemary.  At this point Melody steps in and between Donnie and Melody they have cut a deal that the girl will go to Booker, but not without Melody buying some time.

Melody then takes Rosemary and they get to have a nice conversation.  At one point Rosemary very scared asks Melody for a hug.  Being the cold hearted bitch she is, she responds with "Hugs should only be meant for your family, and you should have a new family very soon".  (After the game, Tony said it best when he said Hugs were the first sign of weakness)

Julian learns that his daughter is going to be handed off to Booker.  He grabs Donnie and they get his gladitorial partners together so that Julian can try to get to his daughter.  As Rosemary is being taken away Donnie and his group charge at the Bookers gang and a big fight ensues.  Julian takes this time as a diversion and races to reach Rosemary.  As Rosemary and Julian get within an arms length of one another one of Donnie's boys unintentionally hits Julian and he falls in the dirt.  The last he sees is his own outreached hand drop the locket he was going to give to Rosemary and her being carried away.

I'll try to write more later...

[Travis Farber]

This was my first experience with PTA.  Needless to say I was very impressed.  Being as I had never even met anyone in the group let alone gamed with them before the weekend I was really impressed with how well the group interacted with one another. 

Remi did a fantastic job with getting the energy level up right from the beginning and it seems like the group really fed off of it. 

Overall, it was one of the best one shot games I've ever played. 

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Travis, thanks for being such a motivating force in the game. You really brought the crisisis(es) to life.

[Kicker]

Remi is kind to not name me as the person who (almost?) harshed the vibe.  I'm not ashamed of making the mis-step, as it is a tiny but crucial step from:

"But the Companions don't seem to have goals, just a philosophy."

To

"The Companions would be cooler if they had a (preferably ugly) goal rather than a philosophy."

There's no real excuse not to say the latter; The exact same thing is being expressed, as far as I was concerned.  I mean, if I was actually committed to wording it negatively, what the hell was I doing playing a game with other human beings?  Although, it would have been great if, before the pitch, I had heard an example of this wording, rather than needing to be made an example of.  I certainly didn't mean to put anyone down, and if I had been warned in this easy-to-internalize fashion, I would not have even inadvertently done so.

As far as being included, my character's screen presence was 2/1/2 through the game, and I was lucky enough to have an obvious method of subordinating my issue ("Family") to that of the first spotlight character's ("My Daughter").  I hate to throw up my hands and chalk up to luck that my first PTA game was so daring yet still went so well, but there you have it.  I guess I understood to only push to do one or two cool things that highlighted the main deal, thanks to watching lots of HBO and reading Remi's adorable PTA summary cards.  But I have to admit that I needed to be prompted a couple of times, since I was so absorbed just watching what was going on.

Which I guess is a good sign.  It is supposed to be like good TV, right?

Every game I had the pleasure to play at nerdly made me want to play it more and more, but none more so than this one.  Thank you so much to everyone.

I guess it's the tragedy of one-shot PTA that it can't be bottled or savored.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Nick, despite Remi's forceful "No saying lame!" you really played positively and contributed pretty hardcore.

Everyone was really on, including you. Remi gave us license, but, as I said to Remi, thanks for bringin' it to the bringin' it party.

[Remi Treuer]

Nick,
I was surprised by how strong I reacted. Honestly, that's the first time that's happened to me and it was sort of scary on my end, too. Thank you for riding it out and taking us to the good place. I was really keeping an eye on you all game, because I didn't want you to feel that I had negative feelings from earlier. I was really pleased with how your play evolved, how you weren't afraid to fearlessly play and inhabit a character who was pretty damaged in an really ugly way.

I will definitely be using this as an example in the future, because you're right that it would be better to have it up front. Another note on the road to smooth sailing.

I'd like a little feedback on my play during the game, though. There was a point where I introduced Matur Yu, and she had a strong personality, but then I had another Matur come in, and he was similar to Yu. I got called on this, and from then on out I took a moment to think about what each character was like when I introduced them. Usually I asked the player who had that NPC as a connection what that NPC was like, and used the stunned silence and, "Uh, I don't know, uh . . . " response as time to think about what would make the most interesting contrast to the previous NPC introduced. Was this gambit obvious or annoying? Were the NPCs relatively distinct in your minds? What could I do to improve this?

I have a tendency to make all NPCs jerks, and I was happy when Julian's kid ended up being sweet and likable.

Further, beyond the up front 'positivity only!' statement, is there anything I could do to further streamline (or make more comfortable) the series creation segment?

Are there any particular places you guys would like to hear my thoughts on how play went? What I was thinking at a particular time?

Apologies that it took so long for me to post again!

[iago]

I'd like a little feedback on my play during the game, though. There was a point where I introduced Matur Yu, and she had a strong personality, but then I had another Matur come in, and he was similar to Yu. I got called on this, and from then on out I took a moment to think about what each character was like when I introduced them. Usually I asked the player who had that NPC as a connection what that NPC was like, and used the stunned silence and, "Uh, I don't know, uh . . . " response as time to think about what would make the most interesting contrast to the previous NPC introduced. Was this gambit obvious or annoying? Were the NPCs relatively distinct in your minds? What could I do to improve this?

Just to interject here (even though I wasn't in the game) -- this might be the sort of situation where it'd be a good idea to apply Paul Tevis's "Law of Conservation of NPCs" to the situation, and make the two Maturs be the same character.  Granted, you'd want to do this with the approval of both affected players, but that's the sort of thing that I imagine could tighten up the stories/relationships attractively.  Am I off the deep end in suggesting this?

[Remi Treuer]

The only problem with conserving NPCs in this case is that each PC has a connection to a specific NPC, and by combining them I'm essentially lowering their unique effectiveness (If both PCs are in a scene where they're trying to influence the NPC, they both get the bonus. However, the NPC would show up in more scenes, so maybe it would balance out). I'd really want to make sure each affected player was OK with this before I went ahead, and I would be a little sad that I had squandered an NPC.

See, once I had decided to start the contrasting game, it became much easier. I needed an NPC for Krista's character, Kandra, to hole up with, since Kandra ended up on the outs with the School because she had refused to become a kept woman. I hadn't hit one of Solin's NPCs, a rich benefactor who was addicted to drugs. All of the NPCs up to this point had been strong personalities, with lots of drive. I decided that this guy had basically been lobotomized by his addiction to 'Purple Dust', and his entire empire was being run by underlings.

I was super-satisfied with this set-up because introducing ambitious, daring Kandra into this mix meant that she would be able to manipulate this situation to her advantage. Or perhaps, even more honestly, form a true bond with Mr. Druggy McMeltabrain, and use that as her new power base. If I had been conserving NPCs, and not insisting on fleshing them out at they entered the story, I may have missed this excellent opportunity. I almost did, as I had basically announced that the drugged-out NPC would not be a part of the story, but the very act of doing that made me reconsider.