[Primetime Adventures] The Heel, episode 3

[lumpley]

My group sometimes does and sometimes doesn't. I made a little animated diagram of it!

http://www.lumpley.com/images/syspta.gif

When we don't play by the rules as written, we tend to badly and unhappily pre-play the scene.

-Vincent

[Eero Tuovinen]

Does anyone play PTA strictly following the textual rules for scene creation?

I do. We've now played, what, three sessions (including the pilot) of that Jesus+disciples thing, and we go pretty much by the book in scene framing. It's a neat structure for the job, even if it's not strictly necessary for a functional group. It's the same with many other rules in games, actually; while some rules are required functionally, some others are there for psychological and aesthetic reason. This is one of those: I like the scene framing structure mainly because it's a change of pace from a more freeform scene framing.

I guess that the reason for our sticking by the book is that the group is overall more reticient than overbearing, so they're benefited much by having these simple, solid rules. Most players have no trouble answering simple questions like who's there or whether the scene should be about the plot, but they find it almost impossible to take a high perspective and describe the scene themselves from start to finish. GMing issues and hang-ups about creativity, mostly.

[Alan]

I've only played in playtests last year, with Matt as a player, but we did focus pretty much on the rules as you lay them out Ron.  As Producer, I found the distinctions useful for preventing the turn player from just describing the key parts of the conflict, and so blowing the whole purpose of playing a scene.

Also, our players didn't grab opportunities to drive their agendas as much as I would have liked.   That might be lack of familiarity with the PTA approach, or a lack of interest in the narrativist agenda.  I'm always surprised when people don't grab the powers given to them by rules like PTA and protagonize their character (or the spotlight character).  When I (rarely) get to play instead of GM such a game, I enthusiastically drive with those kind of mechanics.

[Ben Lehman]

For instance, Ben and Matt, I cannot tell from your posts whether you do this. Do you?

Best,
Ron

I do, with the addition of some kibbitzing from the other players.

yrs--
--Ben

[Matt Wilson]

I do, with the addition of some kibbitzing from the other players.

I consider kibbitzing to be a natural part of play (as opposed to 'be quiet, Carl's talking!'), so I would consider what you describe as "playing as written."

And yes, I play it as written. Wouldn't that be kinda dumb if I didn't?