Contenders in 80's Chi-Town

[Yokiboy]

Hello,

My gaming has been on fire lately! We're in the midst of a Dogs in the Vineyard campaign that's just fantastic. The group consists of three of my friends and I, we are all experienced (read: damaged) roleplayers, and have had a tough time coming to grips with story now play, but Dogs is changing that in a big way!

I have chronicled, in exquisitive detail, our path to learning how to game together in a cohesive fashion built on trust, where everyone has fun all the time, but unfortunately it's in Swedish. Once we started trusting each other 100% you could almost hear an audible click, as our gaming switched into high gear, and now we're having more fun than ever!

However, this week one of my friends couldn't game, so I brought a stack of games that we could get started without prep. The games included Dead of Night, Lacuna Part 1, carry, Best Friends, and Contenders. carry actually generated the most interest and will be getting played after a few more sessions of Dogs. carry seems a better fit for a larger group, than two players and a GM, and I had not finished reading the published version, and personally really wanted the chance to play my own character instead of GMing, so Contenders was selected.

We decided on setting the game in Chicago in the 80's. None of us have really spent any time in Chicago, apart from at O'Hare, but that was part of the appeal. We wanted a bleak, windy and rainy setting, so it's fall in Chi-Town sometime in the 80's.

We ended up with the following Contenders:

Lars played Harvy-Lee "Flower" Sims, a Southerner in the mold of Butterbean. Lars' choice of playing such a fat boxer made us all decide to play Heavyweights. Harvy-Lee was closer to 40 and a near has-been, with perhaps one final shot at glory, or so he hoped. Harvy-Lee's connection is his son Bart, with the hope that he would forgive Harvy-Lee for abandoning Bart's mom, and getting enough money together to send Bart to college. Harvy-Lee was afraid that Bart would end up dissing his dad and joining a gang.

Dahlman played Antoine "A-Train" Barkley, a large ex-gang member and troubled young man. His connection was to his mentor, the university professor Dean Bradley. Antoine hopes to attend the university on his mentor's recommendation. Afraid of proving that he's nothing more than a gang banger.

I played "Fighting" Pete Plunkett, an Irish-American with a connection to his father the cop. Pete was afraid that his dad would be killed over gambling debts, while Pete hoped to pay off his father's debt.

We created three un-named NPC boxers, and other NPCs were quickly improvised on the fly. The NPC boxers turned into Filippo "Iron Fists" Gonzales, a hot hispanic boxing prospect of very sleazy character, who had an affair with Pete's dad's fiance - a girl who helps him spend money he doesn't have. We also had Boris "the Beast" Makkarov, who is the nephew of the local bookie called "The Russian", who of course is the guy Pete's dad owes money to. Lastly we ended up with Hakatori "Big Buddha" Tanaka, a Japanese ex-pro wrestler of surprising skills.

Harvy-Lee Sims works for Sammy Fish, in the fish market. Sims normally hauls heavy crates of fish around for exercise, and is not above breaking a leg or two to help out Sammy. Jimmy Wong, owner of the Red Dragon restaurant in China town, and of course connected to the Chinese Triads, is one of Sammy Fish's largest, albeit bad at paying, customers.

Antoine Barkley is a former gang member, but is having a hard time walking the straight and narrow. He is the youngest of our Contenders, and totally unproven in the ring.

Pete Plunkett lives in an Irish section of town, where he usually trains on the street, or at the local YMCA. He works at Big Bob's Trucking, hauling boxes from one truck to the next. His dad's name's Sean, and he's a rather crooked cop, providing security for Don "the Shark" Salvatore's boxing events, and racking up an impressive debt with Makkarov "The Russian". Sean is engaged to Sue, whom we referred to as "the Gold Digger", and as mentioned Sue has an affair with the NPC boxer Filippo Gonzales.

We had a great time playing, but we felt a bit harried by how quickly it was your turn in the spotlight again, and were sometimes caught a bit flabbergasted. We also felt like some opposition would have helped us out, that is, a game master of sort. However, you are paid off in spaids by the fantastic fight mechanics of this game. The boxing matches are just awesome!

Every time we played cards for any conflict, we would first deal out all the cards, but without anyone looking at them, then flip them up one at a time, and sort of narrate a bit as we went along. Especially during matches, where we had announcers altnernatively mocking or cheering on the action. Great stuff!

We had all our established NPCs showing up at every boxing match, this provided fantastic color. Especially my character Pete's dad Sean holding his betting slips, and betting against his own son, then after Pete proved himself the first time out, against Harvy-Lee "Flower" Sims, Sean Plunkett actually bet on his son the next time, or so he thought, but Sue had instead bet on his opponent Filippo "Iron Fists" Gonzales in secret, and didn't tell Sean about the win.

Lars and Dahlman unfortunately don't post here, otherwise I could've used their help in adding a few more details. I loved the game, and think it will be even better next time around. I have created to CDs of the soundtrack for our game. A lot of 80's hard rock and metal, along with some decennial favorites.

TTFN,

Yoki

[Malcolm Craig]

We had a great time playing, but we felt a bit harried by how quickly it was your turn in the spotlight again, and were sometimes caught a bit flabbergasted. We also felt like some opposition would have helped us out, that is, a game master of sort. However, you are paid off in spaids by the fantastic fight mechanics of this game. The boxing matches are just awesome!

Hi Yoki,

Just out of curiosity, how did the quickness of scenes coming round affect your play? Were there moments where someone couldn't think of an appropriate scene for their characters and so forth?

In our experience of play, the lack of GM opposition wasn't really a problem. In fact, looking at the game as a whole the way it is set up really encourages everyone to be in opposition (in a dramatic sense) and be supportive towards the each player.

Every time we played cards for any conflict, we would first deal out all the cards, but without anyone looking at them, then flip them up one at a time, and sort of narrate a bit as we went along. Especially during matches, where we had announcers altnernatively mocking or cheering on the action. Great stuff!

That's an interesting take on the card display choice. Certainly seems like it increases tension and allows the insertion of csome good commentary into the game. Was this a learned point from previous experiences of Contenders or just something you decided to try to see if it would give added impact?

Lars and Dahlman unfortunately don't post here, otherwise I could've used their help in adding a few more details. I loved the game, and think it will be even better next time around. I have created to CDs of the soundtrack for our game. A lot of 80's hard rock and metal, along with some decennial favorites.

For me that was one of the great parts of our own recent Contenders game. Talking about appropriate music, bring music into scenes was a great way of establishing atmosphere and tone. Simply referencing a song that was playing in a bar during one characters scene really did lift it by pinpointing exactly what kind of place this was. And making up a compilation CD for the game is a great idea. I'm now encouraged to bring music more into games from that experience. Not by playing it during the game (which I find distracting and offputting) but by referencing it more or providing CDs of appropriate music to the players as something to enhance the tone that we're trying to achieve.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Yokiboy]

Hi Malcolm,

Just out of curiosity, how did the quickness of scenes coming round affect your play? Were there moments where someone couldn't think of an appropriate scene for their characters and so forth?

It wasn't so much that we couldn't think of a scene, but that we were surprised that it was our turn again, and had been so engaged by the story that we hadn't thought about what we wanted to do next. All it ever took was a nudge in the right direction in the form of advice or a reminder from the other players, or even a quick look at the numbers, to now what to do next.

In our experience of play, the lack of GM opposition wasn't really a problem. In fact, looking at the game as a whole the way it is set up really encourages everyone to be in opposition (in a dramatic sense) and be supportive towards the each player.

We didn't have any Threat Scenes, Brawls or Connection Threats, I think once we do, it will up the ante. We also reviewed the actual Endgame mechanics, apart from knowing Rep 10 was the goal, at the end of our first session. Know I realize that I can just up my Rep enough to be better than one player, and then get rid of his Connections to trigger Endgame. I will explain this to Lars and Dahlman, and we'll see if this will help feed opposition.

That's an interesting take on the card display choice. Certainly seems like it increases tension and allows the insertion of some good commentary into the game. Was this a learned point from previous experiences of Contenders or just something you decided to try to see if it would give added impact?

The first few scenes we would slap down the cards at the count of three, or a "ding-ding-ding" sound during matches, but we felt it lacking and tried revealing them just one at a time instead. I think it was Lars idea, he is very much into immersion and this was a great suggestion on his part, it worked wonders for us.

For me that was one of the great parts of our own recent Contenders game. Talking about appropriate music, bring music into scenes was a great way of establishing atmosphere and tone. Simply referencing a song that was playing in a bar during one characters scene really did lift it by pinpointing exactly what kind of place this was. And making up a compilation CD for the game is a great idea. I'm now encouraged to bring music more into games from that experience. Not by playing it during the game (which I find distracting and offputting) but by referencing it more or providing CDs of appropriate music to the players as something to enhance the tone that we're trying to achieve.

We did this the first time in a game of Primetime Adventures, and it rocked so much that it has now carried over into all our gaming. We actually find that some background music, fitting the mood of the game, enhances our play. For the mentioned PtA game it was 60's flower power music, and for this Contenders game it's 80's hard rock and metal.

Thanks for your comments Malcolm,

Yoki

[Yokiboy]

Here's what the characters ended up looking like after one session of play.

"Fighting" Pete Plunkett (my character)
Heavyweight: 95kg (209lbs.)
Record: 1-1-0, no KOs

Hope: Contender 2, Connection 1
Pain: 5
Cash: 2
Rep: 4

Technique: 3
Power: 3
Cover: 2
Conditioning: 4

Harvy-Lee "Flower" Sims (Lars' character)
Heavyweight: Big tub of lard
Record: 1-1-0, 1 KO

Hope: Contender 1, Connection 2
Pain: 6
Cash: 6
Rep: 4

Technique: 2
Power: 5
Cover: 2
Conditioning: 2

Antoine "A-Train" Barkley (Dahlman's character)
Heavyweight: 120kg (264lbs.)
Record: 0-1-0, 0 KOs

Hope: Contender 0, Connection 1
Pain: 4
Cash: 2
Rep: 4

Technique: 4
Power: 1
Cover: 5
Conditioning: 2