Fan Mail Question

[jporrett]

My friend and I were tossing around ideas for a show the other week and came up with an idea for a show:

http://ameagaru.blogspot.com/2004/12/pta.html

It was mostly just so we could see how the system worked, how to throw a show together, create a character, etc.  But it got me thinking.  Say you have a game with just two players, a Producer and a Protagonist.  How does the Protagonist get Fan Mail?  The Producer can't award it, right?

I know that ideally a PTA game should have more players, but what if you just had one as a protag?

[Chris Goodwin]

Well, there aren't many TV shows that truly have only one protagonist.  But if you look at most of the TV shows that have, say, two, there are both a stable of recurring guests (for instance, X-Files has Skinner, the Lone Gunmen, Krycek, etc.).  

But if you can only for sure scare up one player, here's how it works.  Both of you are both player and producer, trading off the producer responsibility as it seems appropriate; PTA is written and designed such that it can easily be run without a "GM".  Either bring in a second protagonist, or one of you plays the guest stars that pop up.  (Or you both do both, each play a protagonist and guest stars.)

[John Harper]

Hey Joe! Good to see ya round these parts.

I agree with Chris. Toss the Producer hat back and forth as needed. I know you and Ed can do this without any problem.

And your show is keen. Sphinx powers? Man, that's cool. I wonder how Talbot's issue is gonna work out in play, though. Running away from problems is not necessarily drama-inducing, unless you spend a good amount of time on the rest of the cast and the consequences of Talbot's issue in their lives. Maybe you can play it sort of like Doyle's issue in season one of Angel.

[jporrett]

Thanks John.  I lurk quite a bit, but pop up from time to time.

Well, Ed and I made the show mainly to see how it was done, but then the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do something with it.  We had just really skimmed the rules when we came up with it, and the character of Talbot.

I hadn't really considered his Issue much, but I can see your point.  I'll have to give it more thought.  Maybe we can re-tool it or refine it a bit.

It's funny you mentioned Doyle as I just picked up season 1 of Angel and watched all the Doyle episodes yesterday.

[jporrett]

But if you can only for sure scare up one player, here's how it works.  Both of you are both player and producer, trading off the producer responsibility as it seems appropriate; PTA is written and designed such that it can easily be run without a "GM".  Either bring in a second protagonist, or one of you plays the guest stars that pop up.  (Or you both do both, each play a protagonist and guest stars.)

So here's another thought; how would you handle budget in this sort of situation?  Say both of us make characters and swap Producer duties -- would you just have a communal budget based on both character's screen presence?  It seems to make the most sense to me.

[Matt Wilson]

If you only have one player - and that's a bummer - the trading producer thing is a good idea. I'd probably go with a communal budget, with each of you awarding fan mail from the pool as you would if you were another player, erring on the side of generosity.

Plus, your episodes are going to go pretty fast with only two people. If you want to play longer, it'd probably work better to wrap up an episode and then just start a new one, so you can replenish the budget.

[jporrett]

If you only have one player - and that's a bummer - the trading producer thing is a good idea. I'd probably go with a communal budget, with each of you awarding fan mail from the pool as you would if you were another player, erring on the side of generosity.

Thanks Matt.  You anticipated my next question, or I guess my original question in this thread re: fan mail.  Again, it's what I kinda figured, but I wanted to hear what other folks thought.

Actually, I just started a PTA game last Friday with a group of 3 protags. But when Ed and I play, it's often just the two of us, so I was curious as to how PTA could be tweaked to accommodate this.

Thanks to everyone for the advice!