[Primetime Adventures] Ghost Town

[Charles Warren]

My gaming group is gearing up to try out Primetime Adventures.  Very excited about this.  We've been pitching ideas for a TV series by email and we've come up with a premise and a few tenative ideas for characters.  Five players total, but only two protagonists so far.  We're meeting this week to hammer out the details of the series and to prepare for our pilot episode.

Here's the Premise:

Ghost Town
A gunfighter shot down in the street. A gambler who was knifed in the back. An outlaw hung by the neck. A banker taken by Consumption. They are here in the Ghost Town.

A group of Old West characters are killed, yet wake up again in a literal Ghost Town, a desolate, rough one street town, filled with an unsavory collection of people, who all remember their deaths, then only remember wandering lost through a wasteland until they've come to this place.

Imagine a rough and wild Old West town filled with all those who died in the west. (Not everybody who died there, but a good many). With no clue as to why they are there, they begin to try to survive. Drama among the different personalities in the town, some who are trying to take over, some carving out their piece of it, others just wanting to survive. And while some of them focus on what's in the town...others focus on what's outside it...the strange endless wasteland filled with ....?

Lonesome Dove meets Lost meets Deadwood meets Deadlands meets meets Riverworld.

Protagonists

C. Julian East is..

...a man of middling hieght and slight build in his late twenties. Julian has damp, unkempt dark hair, but light colored eyes behind his silver wire-rimmed glasses. He dresses conservatively though his clothing is of top quality. His complexion is sweaty, sickly and palid. Beneath his high starched shirt collar is a hidden reddish rope-burn. Julian exudes an aura that's a delicate mix of nervousness and tortured intellectualism. There's a subtle tremble to the way he stands.

Julian was a doctor by trade, though it was not a profession that called to him. In his heart Julian was always meant to be a painter, or a pianist,.. or ...or perhaps a dabbler in the new photography. Whatever the case, not a doctor. He hated it. The sight and smell of blood turned his stomach, he was constantly afraid of catching some plague, he drove himself to distraught with sympathy over those who he couldn't help, or who couldn't pay. He was miserable. If it weren't for the influence of Major East, Julian would have quit while still in school, dedicated his life to something pleasant. The Major wouldn't hear of that. His son had a duty, the same as the Major himself, to provide some usefull service to the world.

When Julian was ready to begin his own practice he went as far west and north as he could. Inwardly hoping that distance from the Major would give him the courage to choose his own calling, or that perhaps some happenstance would whisk him away into some frontier adventure.. It was not to be. He found instead poor miners who needed his help badly in a nearly lawless boomtown. Hate it though he did, Julian was a talented doctor and his practice couldn't help but thrive. The success was making him sick.

The laudnum helped that. It helped it a lot.

....

It was late at night when Mr. Wainright brought his daughter into town to see young Doc' East. He found the doctor playing piano by lamplight, eyes closed, swaying to the music, smelling ever so slightly of whiskey. He begged an intrusion, his daughter was awfully sick. Mr Wainright was a worried and desperate man. Doc' East looked the girl over reluctantly, Appendicitis was the prognosis, and bad. The doctor gathered his lamps and tools, Mr. Wainright cleared the music table and lay'd the girl down. She was given tincture of Laudnum and whiskey to ease the pain, the mixture already prepared. Her name was Elise. She didn't survive the operation.

Mr. Wainright wasn't furious enough to kill then. It took him the rest of the night to work up to that. Questioning himself: Was it his fault? Was it just her time? Was it the Doc's fault? Yes. The Doc's fault. Doc had a bit of a reputation, was probably drunk or worse and should have known better than to cut open a girl in that state..he should have waited, or got someone else, or .. something. Frustration and anger overtook Wainright, and by dawn's light he and three hands were shaking the doctor back to a rough consciousness. They found him sprawled across the piano. Julian was too numb with laudnum tincture and the exhaustion of stress and grief to put up a fight. A rope was looped around his neck, and he was hoisted to the music room rafters.

Issue: Addiction. (at least that's what I'm thinking at the moment... Self Hate, Grief, a more generalized desire for Escapism all come to mind as well..)

Owen Kelly

is a tall, stocky man with close-cropped dark hair, going to gray, a mustache, and a small tuft of a beard.

His normal mode of dress is a pair of high-heeled cavalry-type boots with a star imprinted on the front, black jeans and a collarless shirt. He wear a pair of heavy revolvers on his hip - the right one turned so that the butt in forward, while the left one has its butt towards the rear.
His skin is tanned and very leathery. His eyes are blue. He seldom drinks to excess - but, when he does, he is subject to violent mood swings and flares of temper.

In his time Owen Kelly has been a number of things --- he has been a farmer and a ranch hand; the slave of Commanche Dog Soldiers; a Texas Ranger; a bounty hunter; a town marshall, a deputy sheriff and a sheriff; a Captain of Cavalry with the Confederate States of America; a sergeant in the United States Cavalry; a member of the French Foreign Legion; a warlord in China; a sailor; a pirate; and a paid mercenary. He has been involved in violent conflict since he was ten years of age and has carried a weapon for exactly that length of time. He has been on five continents and speaks a wide variety of languages. He has made a habit of visiting strange and exotic locals, meeting interesting people...and killing them.

It gets old...the killing. Very old. Sometimes the faces blur together.
Towards the end...he came home...to the States. He bought a horse, an outfit, and he started riding. But no matter where he went he carried his past with him...and the dead are a heavy load to bear. He drank - trying to close his mind to their constant whispering, but drinking made him...less inhibited. He stopped avoiding fights, met trouble-hunters more than halfway.

Finally he got into a fight with a man in a saloon in Arizona - beat him hands down and left him dead. But the man had brothers and the brothers had outfits and he wound up in a running battle in the Arizona hills. For a week they hunted him, losing half their men in the process, until finally a lucky shot left him helpless in a cave...gutshot. After three days of agony he put a pistol against his head and blew his brains out.

******

I'll post more here after our first meeting.

[Charles Warren]

Still gearing up for our first planning session tomorrow.

My main worry is that the players won't be prepared for the level of participation that Primetime Adventures requires.  They're a great group, but many times I can tell that they are in the habit of sitting back and merely responding to what the Game Master throws their way.  What I find exciting about trying out PTA is the collaborative effort between the players and the producer.  I'll be working hard to draw my players out and inspire them to participate.

I can sense this a bit in the game prep phase that we are in.  In most games, the players expect to come up with a character and show up to play.  Reactive gaming, I call it.  But what I love about PTA, is the group creation of both the game world and the actual game play itself.  At least I am expecting to love it.  Not sure if my player's have "gotten it" yet.  With the exception of two of my players, group input has been like pulling teeth.  Hehe.  But maybe the first session will change that. I hope so.

Also, another worry of mine is a friend and fellow player who is a real Western buff.  I'm afraid he's going to go off on long "out of game" expositions on how the west "really was."  My plan is going to be to emphasize the TV show aspect of our game.  Once he starts his rant, I plan to say, "Whoa!  We just lost 4,000 viewers, who suddenly thought they were watching the History Channel and turned the channel!"  Hopefully that will keep him focused on the tone of our show.

Anyway, no more protagonist ideas, but we have put forth some Convention Setting and Tone ideas via email, so that we're prepared for discussion at our first meeting tomorrow.  Here they are:

What we want in Ghost Town

Want there to be some good souls in town, but it's dominated by selfish bosses and corrupt town officials.

Vague, undefined, dangerous, frightening wasteland surrounding the town.
I think it would be better to have the wasteland as vague as possible. Maybe it's a place no one comes back from. Strange noises in the night, conflicting rumors about what's there. More tension if we don't know. Maybe there's a few safe trails and a road or two, but it's just not safe to venture....

Dark Tone, not campy. But not too dark.
1/3 Byzantine Soap Operatics & Machiavellian Machinations, 1/3 Moralistic Fables, and 1/3 Horror stories with emphasis on psycological creepiness.

Mystery as to why every one is here.

The town to be established before the protagonists arrive

Anyone killed lies dead until next midnight, then rise again to walk into the wastes.

Sprit things in the wasteland

"Native Americans" in the wasteland as if living in the Spirit Realm.

no matter how far you ride - you should always...eventually...especially if you were trying to get away...ride right back into town. Or you disappear forever.

Economy should be mostly barter and favor based between the inhabitants. Many things bought on credit.
Everything should be bought by credit --- which a lot of the characters might not like...but it does two things. It places them under obligation to their benefactors, against their will. And it emphasized the artificiality of their environment

Some of the inhabitants may not be real or are never seen. Some stores seem to fill up on their own with no explanation.
There are people hustling and bustling around, but the things around which the town is growing never change...never seem to need...
Essentially you have a group of people who believe that they have died...remember dying...only to awake in a "typical" western community. Everything around them is familiar, but strangely altered...some of the people that they meet are very real, while others have a dreamlike quality, as if they are made up of - nothing.


What we don't want in Ghost Town

The protagonists will not have supernatural abilities. They will be normal.

[Charles Warren]

Well, my group had our first session, which was not actually a gaming session, but the planning session as recommended in the Primetime Adventures book.  It was wonderful.

I had prepared the players by weeks of emails, so that some of our groundwork would be ready and so we'd have stuff to discuss.  We already had decided on the show and some of the setting conventions.

We spent about an hour and a half talking about the setting conventions and tone, and about an hour discussing characters and writing them up.

Then right before we left, I got the group to describe the previews for our Pilot episode.  

I was amazed how well it went.  The brainstorming was so rich that the whole pilot episode kind of just laid itself out for me.  Using the character's issues and conflict inherent in them, (although adding in some stuff of my own) the pilot seemed to write itself.  Although I am nervous.  With my players calling for scenes, who knows what direction the pilot will take.

But we've got some great ideas.  And with a five episode season and five protagonists, the whole thing seems to be falling into place wonderfully.

We only hit two snags.  The first, was several of us couldn't disagree on some tone and setting convention issues.  Several of us wanted the Town to be sort of like the show Lost, in that everyone there was someone who had (in our shows case) died and had some issue in life that was unresolved.  More dramatic opportunities if the whole town is made up of interesting real people.  Others wanted a more twilight zone feel, with the townsfolk being unreal and sometimes not seeing you.  As if the whole town was operating around you without seeing you and such.  We settled on a compromise, where most of the town is real, with a few mysterious characters, such as the Coach Driver, the Pony Express Rider, and the Mayor, who are strange and unreal.

Second snag was that one player was having a bad night and was completely drawing blanks on ideas. The next day he was able to send me his completed character ideas which I emailed to everyone, so not a biggie.

We still need to flesh out some of the Connections before the game starts.

Overall, I am really, really impressed with PTA's ability to foster group creativity.  I've been a bit tired of games where the GM does all the work  and the players are reactive.  I really think that I'm going to see really proactive gaming here, especially with the fan mail system and with my players calling for the scenes and collaborating on the conflicts.

We are going to be playing biweekly, so I'll post here how our pilot episode goes.

Finally, here's some of the stuff we hammered out.  If you recognize names or anything, I'm borrowing the town layout and names from the OGL Wild West rpg book.

More Setting Convention and Tone stuff

Wastelands surrounded by Mists- The more vague and creepy, the better. Mists move in and out. Change.

Train tracks in town. Train never seen, but sometimes heard.

Mail comes and goes mysteriously via mysterious Pony Express rider.

For some people, every morning what they game to ghost town with reappears if they lost it.

Most people in town are real people who have died and don't know why they are there.

But some people are mysterious twilight-zone-ish people who seem to take no notice of protagonists or act very strangely.

Keep the town and explanations of the town as vague and creepy as possible to add to the mood.

THE CAST OF GHOST TOWN
(in order of screen presence)

*********************

James Sunderland
Played by A.J.

Concept:
This character is apparently inspired by a computer game called Silent Hill. A man who, after his wife's death, has received a mysterious telegram from her, asking him to meet her in a particular town. Following the instructions in the telegram, James finds himself in Ghost Town, where he finds a woman who looks just like his wife, but is she?

Issue: Searching for his dead wife. Finds a woman who looks exactly like her in Ghost Town, yet acts nothing like her and has no memory of James. Must deal with issues surrounding with his wife's death.

Screen Presence: 3-1-2-1-2

Personal Set: The Mail Post

Edges:


Carpenter by trade.

Well-educated.


Connections:


The Post Master- Pony Express rider, who doesn't see or hear anyone, yet drops of mysterious letters addressed to James.

May- A young girl who knows James, but James doesn't know how. A strangely knowing girl, creepy, polite and nice.

Liza- A whore who looks just like James' dead wife. She doesn't want anything to do with him. Yet, James obsesses over her. Snippy, caustic, mean.

*********************

Owen "Win" Kelly
Played by Jack

Concept:
See above post

Issue: Tired of working for other men's causes, yet is pulled back in that direction constantly.

Screen Presence: 1-3-2-1-2

Personal Set: A shed out by the livery stable where he keeps his tack and gear and watches the road.

Edges:


Mercenary Soldier/Adventurer

World Traveller

Well-Equipped


Connections:


Lotus-A young chinese woman who was sold into prostitution by her father to pay a debt. Works at the Riverboat saloon.

Claudette-A french woman with a questionable past who is the classiest whore at the Regency saloon.


*******************

C. Julian East
played by Tim

Concept:
See above post.

Issue: Addiction. (at least that's what I'm thinking at the moment... Self Hate, Grief, a more generalized desire for Escapism all come to mind as well..)

Screen Presence: 2-1-3-1-2

Personal Set: Piano at the Riverboat saloon.

Nemesis: Mr. Wainwright

Edges:


Doctor

Classically Educated

Musician


Connections:


Bartender at the Riverboat

Newspaperman, drinking buddy.


**************************

Bartholomew Johnson
played by Joe

Concept:
A cold-blooded gamber and gunslinger, sometimes lawyer, who lived a life he didn't want to.

Issue: He is a cold-hearted SOB. He needs to learn to feel before he is able to move on. Will be put in situations that move him and he will be torn on how to respond.  The stirring heart of a heartless bastard.

Screen Presence: 1-1-2-3-2

Personal Set: The gambling table at the Regency Saloon

Edges:


Lucky Gambler

Lawyer

Cold-Blooded Gunslinger


Connections:


Mr. Shu- Chinaman laundry owner, opium den owner, and boss of the chinamen.

General Store Owner.


**********************

Ghost Dancer (Tentative character name)
played by Tiffany

Concept:
An albino indian girl, who wanders into town out of the mist. She is visited in her dreams by wise men who tell her that she is to be the chosen one of the Ghost Dance prophecy, the one who will come to earth and lead all of the indian nations to destroy the white men.

Issue: Prophesied to be the Ghost Dancer. Is she destined to destroy the white men, after she has lived among them and grown to love them?

Screen Presence: 1-2-1-2-3

Personal Set: Her dreams, where she is vistited by her Spirit Guide.

Edges:


The Ghost Dancer/Indian

Mysterious Knowledge

Animal Empathy


Connections:


Spirit Guide

The Indian stableman who works at Slim's Corral.

[Matt Wilson]

Charles:

Seriously cool. Looking forward to the pilot episode.

[Bret Gillan]

It always amazes me when I think I have a brilliant, creative idea for a game or a campaign, and then I come here and see someone already doing it, and better.

I had an idea for a campaign like this one, but utilizing Sorcerer as the rules system instead. If you don't mind, I'd like to try this at a later date using your campaign as the primary inspiration, but I'll have to come up with a way to adapt it/work in demons, etc.

Anyhow, the campaign sounds great. Have you read the Dark Tower series? Because that was the primary inspiration for my idea.

Also, you've made PTA sound like an absolutely astounding game. :) The author couldn't ask for better press.

[Charles Warren]

Charles:

Seriously cool. Looking forward to the pilot episode.

Wow.  Thank you very much.  I just hope our game play lives up to this very cool game!

I admit, I'm nervous about the upcoming pilot, but I will let you know how it goes!

[Charles Warren]

It always amazes me when I think I have a brilliant, creative idea for a game or a campaign, and then I come here and see someone already doing it, and better.

I had an idea for a campaign like this one, but utilizing Sorcerer as the rules system instead. If you don't mind, I'd like to try this at a later date using your campaign as the primary inspiration, but I'll have to come up with a way to adapt it/work in demons, etc.

Anyhow, the campaign sounds great. Have you read the Dark Tower series? Because that was the primary inspiration for my idea.

Also, you've made PTA sound like an absolutely astounding game. :) The author couldn't ask for better press.

Thank you very much for the kind words, but honestly I can't take all the credit for it.  Our group pitched around 20 ideas for our premise, and then we discussed them for a few weeks by email.  Our final show really was the result of a group creative process, which I find very very cool.  Ghost Town was actually not my first choice, but it won out with the group.  Although I do admit I like it a lot.

I read the first Dark Tower novel years ago and really liked it.  So much so, that I based an Amber rpg character on it years ago.  The idea for ghost town came to me while I was brainstorming for show premises.  I remembered a short story idea that I had a looong time ago, really based on a play on the words "Ghost Town."  I thought, what if a ghost town, really was filled with ghosts.   This idea merged with the fact that I've been watching a lot of Deadwood and Lost lately and it just kind of came together.

Please feel free to use this campaign idea any way you like. I'd be thrilled to hear about how it goes too!