[PTA in IRC] Sky Prophets

[Vaxalon]

It's not a fully-formed "rule" yet, it's just an idea... so wysiwyg in that regard.

I'll post more when I have worked out a few little wrinkles.

[LordSmerf]

Vaxalon's post gave me an (I think) workable solution.  You are allowed a number of lines of narration equal to the number of dice rolled for a single side of the Conflict (bigger conflicts have more narration).  Each line of narration needs to be free-standing so that the other players can get in and react in between them.  You also get the final word with your last narration...

It would probably take some playtesting, but I believe that it would provide more consistency than a number of lines related to the high roll.

EDIT: Crossposted with Vaxalon.

Thomas

[Vaxalon]

That makes sense.

Also, the numbers the narrator uses aren't completely sequential.  He leaves out as many numbers as he feels there ought to be lines of dialogue in between.  If there's no room for dialogue, then there's no dialogue.

If the conflict IS dialogue (such as the scene between Alex and Julia), then the narration consists of a description of what happens in the next few lines of dialogue.  So if there were four lines of narration granted in the conflict, the resolution between Alexandra and Julia might have gone like this...

1. Alexandra asks why Julia has been blocking her application to join the teams.
4. Julia explains her reasons.
8. Alexandra loses her temper, and reveals that she has gone over Julia's head.
10. Julia makes it clear that there will be consequences.

[Nathan P.]

A quick update...

The game continues apace. We're almost all the way through the pilot (due to a certain someone being very late...but he'll make up for it via confectionary, apparentely). We're starting to find a better groove, and everything was flowing better this session than last session. In comparison to the first session, and in contrast to some other PTA threads I've seen, we've been pushing less for conflicts in every scene, rather than more. We've also been having a lot of discussion about the general plot and pacing we want, which I think is also a contrast with some other PTA games. Not owning the game, I dunno what the actual text says about this kind of thing, but it's been working out for us, I think.

Plotwise, we had a flashback to see why Damien was in on the expedition, and also why Haimi dissapeared in the first place (an accident with a prototype device that Damien designed, tying in nicely with Damiens Issue). In "realtime", we got back to Sky (amid some impressive visuals, courtesy of the producer), and then explored Haimi's new arm a little more, discovering that it wasn't Sky technology. Julia, Alexandras nemesis, got this info and went to the council with it.

For next session, we're planning to finish up the pilot and hopefully start in on the first real episode, I believe.

PTA may just have to be my next RPG purchase.

[Vaxalon]

I have reached GMing nirvana.  A great session, with absolutely no preparation whatsoever.

I just ran the whole thing off the seat of my pants.

The players decided that the pilot would consist merely of explaining how each of the members got on the team, and set them up for their first mission, without actually DOING anything, in terms of accomplishments.

Fine with me.

I concentrated on introducing as many of the fascinating NPC's.

I am pretty proud of the introduction for Nils, though.

[anonymouse]

Our Producer is the biggest post-slacker known to man. -.-

Third and final session was pretty short; Jackson had an Aztec-basketball game with Croesus (which he lost, and so volunteered for a twelve-month stint on the patrol), then we had the swearing-in ceremony; bit of convo with Jackson and an NPC (one of his Contacts, I think?) and Damien with a couple of his contacts.

And that pretty much wrapped it up.

PTA is weird for me. I veryveryvery much want my game up front with some dice; I've barely touched the dice at all. It's still been okay fun. I'm still sorting Haimi out, and I seem to take a good hour-hour and a half to really get that gaming groove on (I basically off-screened Haimi in the last session due to this; it was a short wrap-up bit, and I didn't really have my warm-up time).

Plus, Haimi's somehow been pivotal to this whole thing so far, so now I'm stuck with Presence 3 for the first real ep. Argh. >_< It kinda bums me out; I would've preferred to do a couple of lesser SPs just to work up the character more. Now I feel like I'm blowing it all up front and the best I can manage is.. I dunno. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Not sure how I feel about PTA as "roleplaying game" the way I like to define it. It's neat, it reminds me of my MUSH days in some ways, which I've missed.