[P.T.A.] The Pitch and the Brainstorm Uncovers: Chronos Commandoes

[Judd]

I've been wanting to get these buddies together and Produce a game of PTA for months now and finally, tonight, the stars were right.

I told them about the show and my experiences with the brainstorming process.

Kurt blurted out: Time Travel!  And everyone was down.  There was no pain, no rejection, no agonizing until the CLICK occured.  Kurt just said time travel and then everyone started nodding.  I didn't even TELL them about OverTime, my first foray into PTA-dom until later, when we were all done.

Then they began to narrow it down like pro's.

I jotted things down like mad.

Time travelers
Fantasy switch is on
Searching for something that unifies the group.
Main Characters Can be From Different Times
Objects/People/Words/Actions Can be Keys for the Time Portals
Every show has a time portal
Time traveling Nazi's!! with alien tech
Venusian Snake People from pre-history
Sets: Roads thru Time
subtley changing nexus
Antarctic Nazi Base, seized by Alllies
Submarine

3 Time Travel Groups
Historians: The Informers (mysterious)
Nazis: Ziet Schmidts (Time Smiths)
Imperial Temporal Corps.

[/tt]

The game was taking on a very World War II vibe but it would range far from that initial concept.

Characters:

Player: Janaki

Concept/Name: Just out of college commanding officer, new recruit


Issue: Relating to People

Traits: Edge-Academic, Dead Little Brother (who shows up in different timestreams alive), Old Professor from College

Further Notes:  She talked about one of those just out of college officers who has lots of book smarts but not  people smarts of field experience.

Pilot
1 -3

2 -1

3 -2

4 -1

5 -2

Player:Lily

Concept/Name: Abigail, 1940's occultist worked with Crowley on a spell that went terribly wrong - Crowley died soon after and I am convinced that it is my fault.

Issue:  Grief

Traits: Connection - Grandmother's Spirit (occasionally possesses people to talk to me), Edge-Occultist, Edge-Lack of Confidence

Pilot
1 -1

2 -3

3 -2

4 -1

5 -2

Player: Kurt

Concept/Name: Snake Man from Venusia

Issue: Wrath

Traits: Great Physical Strength Fearless Soldier, Cold Blooded, Relations-Inner Self who shows up in different forms in different timelines, like himself in different incarnations

Kurt drew a little pictures of the Snake Man, as he always does on his character sheets.

Pilot
1 -2

2 -1

3 -3

4 -1

5 -2

PlayerPete

Concept/Name: Hans Dobringer, German turncoat

Issue: Attonement

Traits: Edge-German Commando, Edge-Scientist, Connection-Claus Drecker, officer and old friend from fencing fraternity in University

Further Notes:  Former member of the Zeit Schmidts

Pilot
1 -1

2 -1

3 -2

4 -3

5 -2

We came up with the name Chronos Commandoes amidst great groans and whispers of the word, corny.  But the name stuck and none could think of better.  We decided that since there were no Americans on the show, it must be a BBC production and that all of the special effects budget was spent on Kurt's Snake Man, making his lower half digit.

The intro would be historical stock WWII footage with odd bits throw in.  German banners flying over step pyramids, zeppelins and dinosaurs, pterodactyls in dog-fights with messerschmitts.

The brainstorming process was really fun.

I'm excited to play this one's pilot next Tuesday.

[Judd]

                         Pilot   1   2    3    4    5
Lily's Occultist        2 |  1 |  3 |  2 |  1 |  2

Pete's German        2   1    1    2   3   2

Kurt's Snake-Man    2   2    1   3   1   2

Janaki's Officer        2   3    1   2   1   2

I think its really interesting the way this broke down.

The pilot will be a general overview with everyone's issues brought to the surface but only so that we can begin to, as players, get a grip on them and, thinking of this as a TV show, the audience can get the premise.  I've got an idea for the pilot that I'll spring on ya Tuesday, as its the Producer's responsibility to set the first scenes.

The first episode is all about Janaki's Officer but Kurt's Snake-man has a 2, so he is a prominent
background character, should be interesting.

Episode 2 is all about Lily's occultist, everyone else with 1's, really as background characters.  I see some
flashback scenes with Lily back with the Golden Dawn and Uncle Al.

In episode 3, everyone has a fairly important episode but fundamentally, it is about Kurt's Snake-man.   Could be that the episode will be a timeline where the snake people's culture never collapsed and we really get to see Kurt's character shine and confront his own wrath as the Venusian culture and the adventures there really bring everyone's issues out in some manner.

Episode 4, again a spotlight episode with lots of flashbacks.  I love the idea of using flashbacks in a show about time travel.

Episode 5 is where we tie up loose plot ends, deal with issues across the board and wrap it all up in case the show isn't renewed for another season.

Thoughts?

[ScottM]

It sounds like a show I'd like to watch.  I didn't see anything in the original pitch that would have led me to expect 2 of your 4 people to have spirit/dead connections.  How did those 2 players introduce the idea?

Have you decided what thing they're looking for (the thing that unifies the group)?  Or is it that each person is seeking something... but not necessarily the same something?

Scott

[Judd]

It sounds like a show I'd like to watch.  I didn't see anything in the original pitch that would have led me to expect 2 of your 4 people to have spirit/dead connections.  How did those 2 players introduce the idea?

One of the first things we did as a group was talk about whether or not the fantasy dial was on or off.  Once we said it was on, all bets were off, anything goes.

Lily's has always had a big interest in Crowley and has tried to work something magical or Crowley-related into almost every character I've seen her play when it made sense.  When the time period was in place, it just made sense for her to play a Crowley adept.

Have you decided what thing they're looking for (the thing that unifies the group)?  Or is it that each person is seeking something... but not necessarily the same something?

We specifically did not decide what they were seeking, deciding to define it through the show, letting it come out through play.

Thanks for the questions, Scott.