[DITV] Actual play : Thanks Mr. Baker!

[baron samedi]

I've just finished a 6 hour IRC session of DITV, in French... My irst experience with both IRC and DITV... it was wonderful. We only got through the initiation of 2 PCs, but it was intense. It forced us to think narration in new ways, and surprised us at the consequences of our choices.

The first character, a young idealist, had to face his dislike of guns. He won the challenge by quoting scripture with fire & brimstone, but ended up with the sinner commiting suicide with his gun, and the Dog kept his disgust for weapons.

The other character, a grittier cowboy, had to rehabilitate prostitute and ended up killing her cold-bloodedly on impulse, after she took too much Fallout. She didn't deserve it and this felt awful.

It was wonderful. Vincent D. Baker is a genius. This is the best game ever written about morality and responsibility, and a great tool to get people to think about how far they are willing to go to succeed. The feeling was shared among us all. We were genuinely impressed.

Chapeau bas, Mr. Baker! You're an artist.

Erick

[Christoph Boeckle]

Erick sums it up nicely!
Here is the "narrative" write-up of the session if anybody is interested and reads french.

It was my first time GMing DitV and I was a bit anxious at first, worried that I'd have to devise brilliant replies on the fly for conflicts and stuff, which is somewhat what I was used to in games before (and the stress of not being up to it had made me weary of GMing). But the system somehow makes everybody agree that raising with a huge sum will result in a fierce "blow", even if what I type is nothing exceptional. Anybody can round this out by imagining the effect of body-language, "just the right thing at the right time", etc. to make it work for their own standards if need be.
And I as the GM can relax somewhat and need not strive for excellence in actor performance, which has, as I already said, often stressed me, as the idea of the "GM must be good for a good game" is very widespread on various forums and in lots of RPG texts.

Good thing is, I still believe I made the effort the whole session through, but was able to concentrate more on the underlying situation.

Kudos to Vincent for the great system!

[baron samedi]

Don't belittle yourself, Christoph ; you were a great GM, a lot supple to let us use the best of the DITV system's spirit. I don't believe many GMs would have let me go with a Raised labled "And he spoke with fire and brimstone the words of the King of Life... And the clouds parted, showering the place with light as if the Heavens themselves enforced Ezechiel's words."

Anyway, narration wise, it was an original way IMHO to have someone narrate a Verbal action that overcomes a Steward in the midst of strangling someone... How can you desbribe beating someone who'se escalated to violence without having done it yourself? I think it worked, and I appreciate you let me try it, Christoph. Managing this weird system from my player perspective was forcing me to think creatively... Which is the point of it. :)

[lumpley]

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Let me know if I can answer any questions or help out with anything, of course.

-Vincent