PTA - insights from 3 / 5 "Cuckoo's Nest" Episodes

[REkz]

Gamers,

Our group has played 3 of 5 episodes for the 1st season of Cuckoo's Nest.
As the game Producer, and this has been my 1st time playing PTA,
here's what I've observed so far and hope to pass on to you & other PTA gamers:

• Players have to step up and actively play & create like few other games
• Players need to be understand their issue so they can use it often
• The producer's job is to KEEP THE GAME MOVING
• Having the Acts work precisely is quite difficult
• The Producer needs to let the players move the story
• The Producer may have to stop players from completely narrating scenes

We'd been playing for awhile, but I got jammed the 1st game with Budget/FanMail economics,
and now only after the 3rd game have I found (online) the following clarification:
Traits can only be used as many times as you have Screen Presence per Episode,
with ONE additional use of ONE trait regained after a scene at a personal set

Prior to that, I just winged it and said players could use traits as much as they had them on their sheets. 
Unfortunately, I think that gave them too much use-ability.

My biggest surprise has been how often players have said, "This isn't roleplaying". 
I couldn't figure out why they said this until a friend joined in for 1 Episode,
and when we were done he said, "It's more like a writing group than an RPG". 
FINALLY I GET IT!

I think the issue that really bothered RPG'ers is that they have to be constantly creative,
constantly engaged, there is no exp or hit points or treasure, and the whole game is about STORY.

Finally I get their arguments, and I disagree. 
I think traditional RPG'ing isn't really roleplay, it's more about rules for players to move miniature beings
virtually around in someone else's world with strictly controlled potential impact. 
In fact, D&D and d20 show that most clearly,
bc they're really miniature wargaming where players control one figurine. 
A 5' step in D&D/d20 can be crucial to a battle! 
But how crucial is a 5' step REALLY to roleplaying?

I think that monitoring a 'stat block' to describe your character,
and using complicated equations to figure out if you can or can't do something
is actually an obstacle to real roleplaying.  For creatives like me, it's not WHY I roleplay. 
But I can see how certain people really like crunching those numbers to min-max themselves
an amazing war-machine that can deal out hundreds of points of damage per round.  Good for them! 

And I'm glad to have found a game that I can enjoy too!

I really have enjoyed Producing and playing in this game. 

(When I think of all the inspirations to roleplaying games,
I can't think of any stories that emphasize STATS and STUFF more than STORY,
and most never mention concepts of HIT POINTS or EXPERIENCE.)