Handing Out Fanmail Before The First Conflict

[Matthew Glover]

Hi!  I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of the new edition, so I had a friend of a friend pick one up at Gencon and got it mailed posthaste.  I recieved it on Sept 1, we dreamed up a show and characters on Sept 4th, played the pilot Sept 5, and played the first episode last night, Sept 7th.  I was the one really excited about PTA, so I'm Producing.  The other players were a little dubious at first, but now they can't get enough of this game.  Everybody loves it.

Our problems are minimal so far and I think they'll get ironed out as we get more experience with how to drive conflicts.  We've had a little trouble setting the stakes in conflicts with multiple protagonists and I've felt like most of the conflicts that we've set up could've been stronger, but even so it's been really powerful and engaging for everybody.

So here's the reason I'm posting:  One problem that everybody brought up was having no Audience Pool until after the first conflict.  People wanted to hand out fanmail, but couldn't.  Has anybody else run into this?

Thanks,
Matthew

[Meguey]

I ran at GenCon, and started with two fanmail for each player. Fanmail is way too fun to have it not come into play ASAP.

[Matt Wilson]

Hey Matt:

Don't listen to Meg. She's the whispering voice that shepherds the armies of the night.

Oh, fine, you can, but that's crazy unorthodox unauthorized version stuff she's talking about there. Your warranty is void.

Anyway, here's the thing: as soon as there's a conflict, which should be the first scene of the game, there will be an audience pool to dip into, and you can always say, "that thing you did earlier in the scene, there, there's fan mail, because it was cool."

So if there's no audience pool, which there isn't when each show starts, then you better try and find conflict all quick-like and help the producer think it's worth spending a lot of budget on.

Oh, Matt did that for no good reason, they all think, and this way would be much more fun. Bah! Learn you nothing from Vincent's animated diagrams? Play as written or taste the whip (like in the Burning Wheel 'Deviant Play' lifepath)! You must earn your reward! Watch as Primetime Adventures teaches you about capitalism! If you have no fan mail you have only yourself to blame!

Did I say anything useful in all that? It's been a long week.

[Matthew Glover]

Did I say anything useful in all that? It's been a long week.

Yes!  And it was this:

"that thing you did earlier in the scene, there, there's fan mail, because it was cool."

That was the sort of thing that I was hoping for.  That'll do just fine.  Thanks!