idoru

[Bailey]

Got a chance to play this little gem yesterday with my normal group.

First questions anybody had were how many GMs does it need and how many are we going to use.  No GMs at all.

That was kind of bad for a while.  We eventually decided that we needed a GM to kickstart the whole thing but once the action started that person could go back to just being a player.

Basic kicker was that this idoru "rhi" had a limited clientele of fans who paid handsomely so that she may use her tokens to create fabulous clothing that were popular in physical space.  This fashion design firm was space one for the game.

Space two was the trendy cocktail parties in the City.  The players were partygoes who wore rhi's designs and made the scene of high society.  This space made the bulk of our game.  Pettyness and namedropping were the rule.

Space three was the after hours area when the magic of the party was over and everybody was on the tube home.  Each main partygoer got their own scene on the train.

Space four was the intersection of the two spaces with the partygoers attending one of rhi's events in Brite Landing.

The Good: We all did the freeform thing well since it's the main way we game.  Once the scene was set things largely fell into place.

The Bad: We had some problems with there being no character ownership in idoru.  Even though the GM wasn't needed in play we did need someone to do the set up for the group and to cue the scene change once things were lagging.

The Ugly:  Not sure if we got it right since none of us know cyberpunk that well (except for Rob who knows it from anime) so we couldn't really apply it fully.

It started looking like something on E! and then like one of those shows on HBO.  The tube ride had a sort of ugly feel that I thought reminded me of All Tomorrow's Parties.  And in the end we came full circle to the fashion show.  In the end we had fun but there was a definite feel that nothing changed, none of the characters took any action based on the longings to be in the other place Jared mentions often in the document.  When it was mentioned there was a little frustration but nothing came of it.

The whole thing had a surreal cable tv feel.

[Paganini]

Quick question. What's Idoru? Is it a Cyberpunk game? I've been looking for one...

[Jared A. Sorensen]

http://memento-mori.com/idoru/

It's not cyberpunk. Ah, maybe it is...I dunno.

[Bailey]

Quick question. What's Idoru? Is it a Cyberpunk game? I've been looking for one...

It might be cyberpunk.  But not hackers and street samurais.  More of the virtual idols that are in some cyberpunk anime.  I don't know.  It lists some books by William Gibson as references, and I recognize that name as being connected to cyberpunk somehow.

I don't know since I don't read fiction.

[erithromycin]

I've used some of the concepts in Idoru to successful ends in a few cyberpunk games, but it's not 'Shadowrun' as much as it is 'All Tomorrow's Parties'. Though it does mix really well with clockworks. Honest.

[Paganini]

Bailey:

I read it. Like Jared said, it's cyberpunk. Ah... maybe it isn't.

:)

William Gibson is pretty much *the* Cyberpunk author, but I haven't read All Tomorrow's Parties, so I didn't recognize the reference.

Bu, sheesh, man! A gamer that doesn't read fiction?! The apocalypse is nigh!

[GreatWolf]

All Tomorrow's Parties is from the second Gibson trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties).  This series is less "chrome and neural jacks" than his previous work, but I think that it still touches on Gibson's basic themes.  In fact, in many ways I found them more powerful than Neuromancer.  I know, I'm a heathen.  :)

IMHO, part of why Jared is unsure about whether idoru (his game, that is) is cyberpunk is because the answer depends on your definition of cyberpunk.  Without going too far afield, Jared and I both think that cyberpunk is less about cybernetic implants and neural interfaces and more about a particular kind of modern/postmodern alienation of the human.  Or something like that.  (It's one of the few things that we agree on, so I treasure it greatly ;))

So, does idoru have the normal tropes of cyberpunk a la Shadowrun?  No.  Does it deal with themes similar to Gibson's cyberpunk themes?  I think so.

(Please correct me if I'm misrepresenting you, Jared.)

I'd highly recommend the Gibson books that I mentioned.  I haven't played idoru, but I'll bet that your enjoyment of the game will be enhanced by them.

(I should also note in passing that the definition of "cyberpunk" is debated in a lot of circles, and I don't want to bring that debate here.  Just trying to offer some helpful information.)

[Ron Edwards]

H'm.

I'm going back to the original post, as the cyberpunk-or-not discussion isn't sparkin' much for me (Seth, that makes me a  real heathen in most SF circles ...).

Bailey, what I'm really interested in is whether the game opened up new role-playing territory for anyone. A lot of the "little neat idea" games out there - Soap first among them - may not be themselves the Great New Game for a given group, but playing them does offer lasting insights.

What's Idoru's "score" in that regard, as far as you're concerned?

Best,
Ron

[Bailey]

To Ron: It opened up the notion of playing without character ownership which was the single sticking point we normally have with the exception of our multiple GM Everway games.  This wasn't explictly mentioned in the text. but the game seems to imply it.

It also was our first experience with no GM, but we couldn't really grip that one as much since a couple of us have no real base on Gibsonian cyberpunk (wheter or not idoru is cyberpunk is unimportant.  we thought that it was cyberpunk and that shaped our play) and so we deferred to those who were in the know.  And each scene was pretty much under someone's guidance.  It was more like one troupe style session than a GM-less experience.

So it's non-ownership yes, non-GM no.

To Paganini:  That's right, I don't read fiction.  I do listen to music so Velvet Undergound and Nico influenced the section that I provided guidance on (tube ride home) and I assume the novel All Tomorrow's Parties is somehow connected to the song of the same name.

[joshua neff]

Yep, Gibson's a huge fan of the Velvets. In an interview he said the biggest influence on his writing was not other fiction but Lou Reed & the Velvets.

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