911rpg automatic typing design 'method'

[Call Me Curly]

For your consideration: http://callmecurly.blogspot.com/2006/07/911rpg-45-minute-rpg.html.

I just started typing with no conscious premeditation, and this interview-format rpg-thing came out.
The coin-flipping moral victory mechanic was as spontaneous as the rest.

Warning: may not make a lick of sense.

Goodnite!

[Callan S.]

I really love these two questions

*The disaster was such a wild intrusion on a sunny day.
What expectations for the day carried over, against all reason,
even after the attack? Did your character think he was still
gonna be able to bid on that eBay item later?

*What did he do then? Many witnesses in Chinatown felt they had to
keep doing their shitty jobs.

And then...for me it goes into blurry 'make a roll and then kinda use that as a springboard to make up other stuff but don't realise were making a choice while doing so'. This is just me, however - there are many other successful designs around the forge that use that (and tons of other posters dig it).

I'd love those questions to be gotten into in more depth - for some sort of bidding system so players could add smaller micro facts to the questions for characters other than their own.

[apeiron]

Interesting.  i've not see anything remotely resembling this.  Not sure where it would go, but the idea is compelling.  Post more about it so we can all dig into it.

[Call Me Curly]

It occurs to me that, since I just typed whatever jumped into my head,
the game lacks a conscious 'what is this game about' criteria.

So it's impossible to judge whether the game succeeds-- at a
criteria which doesn't exist.

I just ran a quick actual play with a single player-- a woman in her 30's
who was in NYC on 911.  She has some 'declare stakes and
narrate conflict res.' play experience.

She generated a plausible 'where were you on 911' story, if that's the goal.
(A visiting gymnastics teacher, in-charge of a bunch of 13-year-olds, is
on the Staten Island ferry to Manhattan when the planes hit.  Her lingering
'fear of ny' leads her to fail to seek guidence from locals.  The group stumbles-around
lower Manhattan until one of her kids takes charge and walks them over the Brooklyn Bridge.
There the teacher badly wants a beer, and gives-in to drinking in front of the kids.
Beer leads to Regaining Composure and re-asserting her leadership. The end.)

She said the game evoked the feeling of the day, if that's the goal.

If the goal was for the Moral Victory coinflip mechanic to focus play
on Story Now theme...  I don't think that mechanic delivered.
But maybe it could be made more-central to another game.

Nor was I impressed with the Story Now effectiveness of the mechanic of
say-what-your-character-wants-badly-then-voice-the-'thematic result'-
of-attempting-to-get-it.

The mechanic which did carry the burden of giving the story shape, was how the
sequence of questions corresponded to the sequence of events on
that actual, historic, dramatic day.

That last mechanic amounts to little more than Prompting:
using the power of suggestion to provoke player's ideas.

Not unlike a psychic saying "I see someone walking toward you... who is it?"

"He opens his hand and shows you something held in his palm... what is it?"

Drama resolution.  With some coinflip Fortune to throw some curves. In other words:

Callan's analysis is accurate.


Lastly, if the goal of the game is 'one player play', I think any of you
could play it alone with the written rules and coin results as the only
"GM" input.

[xoet]

I think we are entering an age of automatic typing we were in the age of automatic writing   er scribbles and such    but    this being that this is    is that which has a force to it   where things er intentional things are discovered as far as rpg   I tend to play multiple Rolls simultaneously usually existing as a rembrane between the membranes of my mind and the universe with that said    are there ways to do this that would allow for multimedia   for example the picture of the boat creating reactions by all involved (yep went to the blog))   I find allowing madness to rule the fingers is well like it was once said    in a totally free society people tend to copy one another and lack original thoughts of there own    (paraphrased)

911rpg

why nine One 1 yet it is understood as dramatic   and now a movie   

why this keyboard and why my fingers might be on the keys
what is there left to do at this hour or hours before sleep

where do we type these things of new-ankhs  parallel construction sites where things don't worry them selves to the bitter end any more would be more to type ...

Bill

[Mike Sugarbaker]

The interview format here actually would dovetail well with the other 911 - actual calls to a 911 operator. The same sort of leading dialogue could set up some very dramatic situations. "Where are you?" "Help, the building's on fire!" et cetera. Not sure it could handle much besides setting up an initial emergency, though. For followups and getting a more complete picture of the way the incident affected life thereafter, you could go to the format of debriefing with a fire-department rep or investigator, the press, and so forth.

Also, it might be worth having a look at Annie Rush's InTERRORgation... which, um, I haven't done. But my impression is it uses a similar technique.

[Call Me Curly]

Mike--  911 operator idea  = Cool!

You've also reminded me of the play CVR: Charlie Victor Romeo: Cockpit Voice Recorder; in which the actors simply recite the transcripts of actual black box recordings of 6 crashing planes.

xoet--  Ouch!  The magic of extemporaneous creativity is less apparent on the receiving end!

[xoet]

911 - call - aaa hi, had to kill my wife.  She was the devil.  The thing is she really died.

911 - operator - where do you live?

911 - call - I guess I am still in hell.

911 - operator -

ooc:  is that what a possible 911 could be..continue if you like...