[PTA] Souls of the Damned - Starting Without a Spark

[Standback]

So, after falling in love with PTA, I've finally found the time to run a full campaign. Yay! Problem - it isn't working.

I'm not sure why, but from the first pitch, things just aren't working out. You know how the rulebook - and forum threads here - describe that moment you're looking for, when things just come together, when ideas start to bounce off each other, when the group comes up with something unique and exciting and from there everything just comes flowing out? We didn't manage that. What we managed were two 3-hour long pitch sessions, where we managed to toss out some idea snippets that seemed very interesting to most of the players, but nothing that grabbed everyone and nothing approaching a full-fledged show concept. Despite my best efforts to encourage brainstorming, creativity, participation, and plain old chemistry, it was mostly very frustrating, and more and more we just wanted to get on with it and get to something we could actually play.

The result was that I, as Producer, wound up deciding on the show's premise, and even creating the actual character sheets. All heavily based on what went on in the pitch sessions, of course - the second one was largely devoted to coming up with character concepts in a given setting, so I had fairly established character concepts to work with. And most of the players were very happy with the series concept and with the characters I'd constructed for them. But the entire sense of collaboration, of collective energy, of bouncing ideas one off the other - we just haven't managed that yet. And as Producer, I feel like I've had my crutches kicked out from under me - I'd counted heavily on PTA's energetic to-and-fro to throw characters, twists, and interesting directions into the game; instead I'm scrambling to create it all myself, and I'm not managing that well enough to create an interesting game.

I feel as though if I just managed to run one good session, the spark would be formed and the game would be up and running. But so far, our pitch sessions were tedious, and the pilot session was very dull. I'm seriously uncertain if this campaign can be saved.

The series concept is this: in 19th-century England, a small group embarks on an audacious enterprise - to steal souls out of Hell, and sell them to whoever bids highest. Most of the group and I were very happy with this concept - it seems to have a lot of potential for all kinds of different challenges and conflicts, it puts the team in tight situations, etcetera etcetera. In the pilot session, though, I discovered two things. The first is that, until I hear differently, PTA doesn't seem to combine well with worldbuilding - in this case, creating our version of Hell, and for that matter our version of London. At every turn, the players weren't sure what to expect - and I, who had planned an opening scene mostly priming action and conflict, plus a few twists for advancing the plot, didn't have many answers for them. I'd expected that we'd nail down the details collaboratively - didn't happen, and the lack of definition made the game very uninvolving. Again, more group participation during the pitch may have created a richer, more detailed world, if only through Edges and Connections - but I didn't manage to get that going.

So - 1) lack of that initial spark, 2) trying to play PTA in an as-yet-undefined world. What say you? Should I be trying to fill in details myself, plan stuff out like a regular old non-PTA campaign to define things and capture interest until the game takes off? Should we go back to the drawing board, try to create the setting together before we continue play, and risk increasing the tedium? Or should I just give up on this campaign and try to start afresh? Comments, advice, support, disparagement, rants, and what-have-you are all very welcome... Thanks, y'all.