[PtA} Ohio: 4431

[Parsolamew]

My group has just started getting past the toe-dipping stage of indie gaming, having played a moderate bit of DitV, trading off GM duties and such.  I've been itching to try Primetime Adventures for a while now, but schedules being what they are, it didn't happen until tonight.  There'd been some (minor) discussion of the game before now, but nothing really concrete or world-building.  I don't think I've laughed this much in a RP session, ever.

The Show

I was busy finishing up prep work on dinner, so I didn't get to hear the opening discussions of a show.  By the time I got back into the room, the basic ideas had been agreed on and some smooth building of detail was going on.  I'm surprised at how well this went, especially considering how much of a sticking point this appears to be with PtA in other threads.  At the end, we've come up with "Ohio: 4431", a sitcom or comedy-heavy drama (I'm still not clear which) set on a space station orbiting Ohio, the only inhabited planet in this system.  The station controls the lives of the people on the planet below, in response to the orders of some multi-planet government.

The Players

After a pile of fantasy heartbreakers and the like over the last decade or so, the core group of players has whittled its way down to these five.

• Ben - Me, Producer for tonight.  Only one with a clue how the rules work at the outset.
• Wade - Has had a lot of good game ideas, most of which never come to fruition.  Is playing the ship's computer, an exasperated AI whose issue reads "Humans are Imperfect Tools".
• Arak - Another one of the old guard, playing "President", the genetically engineered super-president whose job is to interact via video-conference with the people on the planet below.  President is charismatic, good looking, personable, confident, and has an IQ of about 85.  His issue, "I'm a real president", relates to his belief that he -is- the most qualified person for the job, and his ignorance of his own genetically engineered heritage.
• Jo - Arak's girlfriend, playing President's Advisor/Handler, Sarah, who does all the real work and tries to keep him from doing anything -too- stupid on camera.  Her issue is an overly ambitious desire to get promoted to working for the -real- government, the afore-mentioned interplanetary overlords.
• Steve - Playing Jake Thornton, the station's new weatherman (read: weather-controller).  He's borrowed a lot of money from an illegal organ sales mob, and he's trying to avoid them here on Ohio until he has the money he owes them, so as to keep his liver and other sundries.

Character creation took a while, with the main problem being the same vapor-lock that hit the group in DitV. Picking skills from a list is much easier than being able to write -anything- as an Edge, but after I tried to push the idea of tying edges and issues together, things went a lot smoother.

The Pilot

The first scene opens with a cut-montage of televisions, all across the planet, all showing President.  He is calm, confident, everything a charismatic leader should be.  We break into the scene mid-speech as he's explaining some details of why weather-management is causing a lessened harvest this season, and how he's doing everything in his power to correct this.  The scenes across planet show the people reminiscent of Eloi; their world is beautiful, sunny, and they all appear at least content, if not happy.  The last cut is President, up on the station, finishing his speech. He's in a tiny room, with cameras on him, and as soon as they go off his aide bursts in, beside herself with frustration. "The cards! You're just supposed to read the cards!"  Conflict!  Sarah wants President to read the cards with no improvisation, and President wants to convince Sarah he knows what he's doing; after all, she's -his- underling, right?  Two points of budget later, they both lost their stakes, and Jo did an excellent job narrating the long, obviously-repeated argument as they walk through the station, heading to meet the new weatherman when he arrives.  This is an excellent tracking shot through sparking panels, open bulkheads, and generally everything that would show the audience how non-Utopian life up here is as compared to the planet.

Every scene was a jumbled mismash of shouted out ideas and laughter, and we loved it.  Repeating all the best bits would take up several pages while I'd try to write a transcript, so I'll just give a few highlites.

• Finding out that the grand purpose for which this station had been built was to control cinnamon production on the planet below, to increase supply for the intergalactic empire.

• The conflict between Sarah "Can you make it rain Saturday at 12:30 on South Springfield" and Jake "Actually reporting to you was a bad idea, I just want to leave the room", while President looked on and tried to make helpful suggestions.  Yes, the countries and continents of Ohio are all named after cities.

• The resolution of the above scene, where Sarah gets a "Friday, some time between 1 and 4 pm" out of Jake, and then we get to watch her beat her head against a soundproof window as President goes on camera to report that "Due to problems with Atmospheric Conviction, rain will not occur until Friday at precisely 1pm" while the end credits roll.
  

I realize this isn't the serious drama most PtA games seem to be, but dang me if this isn't fun.  It's a five-way GM-fest, and that gives a much broader creative palette.  I'm not sure how it's usually done, but during the character creation process, the group talked over a basic season plotline in order to place screen presence.  It seemed to work well, but I don't know how well it'd work in a more plot-driven show.

My only real question at this point is "How do I make my players stop being afraid of fanmail?".  I had to remind them that the option existed, and even then half my budget was sitting on the table at the end of the session.  Hopefully they get it, but advice would be appreciated.

It'll be a few weeks before we can get together again; I'll post more as it happens.  Matt, I highly approve.

Comments? Questions?

[James Holloway]

Hi Parsolamew! (What's your name, by the way?) You have what sounds like an interesting show there, and it seems like things are going well.

You asked:

My only real question at this point is "How do I make my players stop being afraid of fanmail?".  I had to remind them that the option existed, and even then half my budget was sitting on the table at the end of the session.  Hopefully they get it, but advice would be appreciated.

The easiest thing to do, for my money, would be to take one of your old hands aside, whichever player seems to you to be the group's bellwether, and say "look, here's thing about fanmail: it's kind of an odd mechanic, and it seems like people are sort of forgetting it's there. Would you do me a favor and, whenever there's something that makes you laugh, or something you want to encourage, make a point of giving fanmail? Don't worry about it running out; as long as we keep the Conflict coming, that's not likely to happen."

I suspect that'll sort it out.

[Matt Wilson]

Hey Ben (it's Ben, right?). Glad you guys are having a good time.

James' suggestion about fan mail is pretty good. You can also always yell out, "I can't believe nobody got fan mail for anything in that scene." Since you can't award it, you're in a good position to lobby for it.

[lumpley]

"Somebody better give Doug some fan mail, because I can't!" is what I always say.

For various values of "Doug."

-Vincent

[John Harper]

I say "Fan Mail," aloud whenever I think someone should get some. Even when I'm playing Dogs.

Your show sounds awesome. I love the premise and the characters. We need to get Channel 101 hooked up to PTA Actual Play so we can actually watch these shows someday.

[pxib]

Well Ben, the reason I kept recommending a sitcom was because:

A) There are too few high-concept sitcoms. They're mostly funny somebodies with  wacky friends/family/coworkers in anytown USA.

B) I like the inherent budgetary and stylistic constraints. Some stock footage of Ohio below, but most of the actual series takes place on a few cramped sets.

C) Half an hour, nearly a third of it commercials! Never a retrospective moment!

There's not enough storyline here to keep an audience engaged for an hour worth of plot every week, but there's PLENTY available to keep them laughing for twenty minutes. Jake is such a clever devil! Sarah is so sexy when she's mad! Everybody loves President! We're creating a critical darling and cult favorite that wouldn't last a month in prime time, but that works to our advantage.  We'll be remembered fondly for decades, and cable channels will run the whole series marathons "lost episode, never shown on network TV" and all.

I liked the scene with Jake in the jury-rigged shower, arguing with Sarah and Computer simultaneously. It made him immediately both likeable and absurd, and I should have sent him more fanmail.

---

Ben has forgotten to mention that we've got a tentative cast... though I'm not sure we'll be able to get every actor we want. They're not all in the "sitcom" phase of their carreer arcs.

Jake: Barry Pepper
Sarah: Gina Gershon
Computer: (voice of) Greg Proops
and
President: Adam West

-pxib

[thazdor]

Ben, I don't think you need to worry about the fan mail. We still don't have a good feel for the game. Hell if you asked me what fan mail was for I couldn't tell you. I'm sure once we start needing it, we'll be tossing it around like crazy. But for those of us who haven't read the rule book, the challenge of the pilot was learning how conflict worked, and establishing the show. Next time I'm sure we can focus a bit more on details of the game and minutia of the rules.

And I have to agree with Arak to some extent, sometimes mechanics get in the way of just playing the game.  We would probably love playing even if there weren't any rules at all. Remember how much fun we had playing dogs? And we butchered some of those rules. 


jo~

[Alan]

Each Fanmail = extra card in a conflict!

[Matt Wilson]

And I have to agree with Arak to some extent, sometimes mechanics get in the way of just playing the game.

Yes, sometimes, but not in this game! Ha! So there.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

And I have to agree with Arak to some extent, sometimes mechanics get in the way of just playing the game.  We would probably love playing even if there weren't any rules at all. Remember how much fun we had playing dogs? And we butchered some of those rules. 

I propose that you try the rules and understand them before you start modifying. They're good rules. They push you to make good stuff.

[Parsolamew]

I propose that you try the rules and understand them before you start modifying. They're good rules. They push you to make good stuff.

I believe you are misunderstanding the intent of the word "butcher" in the last post.  We weren't -trying- to modify anything.  Butchery was more on the scale of: *weeks later* "Wait, we screwed -that- up too? Good god."  Nothing drastically major, just a lot of things I wish we'd interpreted better.