Boys do Trollbabe

[droog]

My HQ players haven't been showing up, so I've been taking other indie games along. So, of course, three out of five turned up last night, and me without the game.

I suggested Trollbabe, to which they all agreed pretty readily. Up for anything, these guys. They're all new at the club like me.

The 'babes:
Akris - huge-horned, black-mulleted, bearing a lute and a ceremonial troll club.
Barbarella - big bouffy blonde 'do, black ram's horns, bearing a pet rock and leather riding gloves.
Joshuette - she never got hair and horns sorted, but she has a ball of gnarled wood and a book on astrology.

Okay, there was a lot of laughter, but slightly uneasy. Lewis kept shaking his head and grinning (and groaning, but he made the best character). Dante decided to play 'Barbarella' as Perky, and kept on piping up with 'Oh save the kitty, Joshuette!', etc.  Sam was a bit bemused and didn't know whether he was supposed to take it seriously or not. I wondered whether it would work better with girls.

'Think of it as an underground comic,' I said. But these kids are too young to have even heard of Vaughn Bode. Their visual references are somewhat different, and Dante's chr sheet has under appearance Clothing style: Alex from Crimson. To which I had to plead ignorance, but he did show me the comic.

I gave them the spiel, reading out bits from the book about how narration was organised. Then I gave 'em three stock scenarios (the white cat, the captured troll, and the troll assassin in the woods). We were off.

It was all still a bit uneasy at first. I kept on gritting my teeth at forced humour, falsetto voices and a general how-can-this-possibly-be-serious tone. But then the system started to fire. Lewis grabbed the ball and ran (Akris's failure in a fight on the docks led eventually to her being swallowed by a whale--all through failed conflicts that L. initiated). Sam (Joshuette) decided to make friends with the hunters and forgot about the white cat entirely). And Barbarella got herself into a serious pickle when Dante took her first into a conflict already injured, next kept re-rolling to the bitter end.

'Shall I choose life or death?' said D. 'Life!' said S. 'Death!' said L. Then he wished she'd died....



So, the upshot was: we had fun, the boys want to play again, I need more prep next time, the system is very different in play. Now, I've read over those rules several times and taken notes, and I thought I'd more or less internalised them. But I still got a faint shock when I realised that there were no dice for me to roll. None? But, er... oookay... guess it's just me....

I wish I'd had this game around all those times I have tried to introduce somebody to roleplaying. A little ripper. You're a bad man, Ron Edwards. I only play once a week and you may have killed my nascent HQ game with your new-fangled 'indie' stuff.

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Hooray!! I think this situation might have been the hardest sell possible for this game, because it's strictly no-go in a traditional group. So congratulations on getting it to fly.

Out of strictly clinical curiosity, did any of the trollbabes get laid? I have been interested in a strong tendency for one male player, per group, to initiate (acquiesce in?) such activity, and often to form a strong bond with a male NPC by doing so.

Best,
Ron

[droog]

I think these guys are actually too polite to do anything of the sort. Imagine three fresh-faced uni students, halfway through their first year. A cry/titter of embarrassment goes up if I even mention sex. Dante said that he might make up a new character after the troll had his wicked way with Barbarella. They make me feel pretty crusty sometimes.

But I'd say that their youth and relative inexperience may be a good thing here. Much of the club seems set in its ways (lots of d20/WW/Magic). I find it difficult to get much interest up for something new, with just a few exceptions including these boys. For example, I've been showing the cover around out of curiosity and there's a general bemusement and rejection of the concept. The boys, however, just went 'Uhh, okay. Hee hee....'

Anyway, the game itself did most of the work. If we'd been playing any old game where the characters were seven-foot warrior-women, it's hard to see it getting past the drag jokes. The guys were intrigued by the idea of calling the game world into being with their self-initiated conflicts, and by the rule that players narrate failure. Lewis showed how it was done (very fast learner in such things; he was also quick to grasp augments in HQ). Barbarella's fate demonstrated quite effectively that conflicts can turn nasty (if you let them), which also got rid of some of the silliness. And they all realised that their characters were pretty important for a change.

I raised the idea of playing with women and Dante said something like, 'Oh, they'd probably play properly.' So the whole camp schtick was partly a shield against embarrassment (again, notably, Lewis's character Akris was pretty straight). They all agreed that it would be an excellent game for gamers' girlfriends and sisters. Who knows, this game might be good for my young men.

[droog]

I find it difficult to get much interest up for something new

Correction: I find it difficult to get up much interest for something unknown.