[Grey Ranks] Very belated Act 2 Playtest report

[Hans]

Ok, this is so belated as to be probably useless.  Jason, I apologize for the delay.  No excuse, although my burgeoning addiction to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion counts as one of many shameful reasons.  For your reference, this based on vs. 4.9.  This is very stream of consciousness, but should give you the important stuff.  Also, I have not read your most recent draft, so if the new version totally changes something below, feel free to make feel even more guilty for how long this took.

Piers, Mark, Erik and I played through Act 2.  Mark, Erik and I used the same characters as we used in our Act 1 playtest.  I won't go into the fictional content, but suffice it to say that all present found it incredibly satisfying.  We had no problem getting Piers a character, even though he had not played in Act 1, we simply started him in the corner that the three of us hadn't taken.

Here is the main message:  Grey Ranks is incredible.  Vs. 4.9, as we played it, was a publishable game.  Everything we have to say is really just fine-tuning.

Now, onto bullet points:

* We are still confused by the text on extra characters.  Most of this has to do with "What Jason M. intends".  It is not clear from this section if these are intended to be the ONLY other characters, or just a few extra important characters.  Is the "two or three" thing intended to be a limit or a guideline?  This is especially the case if someone takes, for example, "My Family" as the thing they hold dear.  Also, a number of named, important characters are created by the situations.  Do these characters not count as "community non-player characters"?  Finally, what purpose does giving an extra character a Reputation serve, other than colour?  We are either reading too much into this section, or not enough.

* It is not clear to us (again "What Jason intends") how "big" a scene is.  It should take place on a single day, we assume, but other than that, we have a hard time figuring it out.  In our own play, "vignettes" were really "scenes" by the standards of other games that use the terminology (i.e. Burning Empires), while the Scene was really a major piece of gaming taking an hour or so and covering a number of "sets" and often hours of game time.

* We assumed that the reduction or increase of die size due to age on the mission die happened when you handed the die to the Mission Leader to represent your contribution, and that the die size change to the Personal vignette happened at the moment you rolled.  Is this correct?

* Vignettes must include one other character...is this ONLY the PC's and "Crew" extra NPC's, or does it count other miscellaneous characters (Edmund Telakowski, for example).  This goes back to the comments above about the extra characters, and what their role is.

* No reduction to reputation die size change for failure is a VERY good change.

* The streamlining of the ways you can fiddle with your dice were excellent, and greatly improved the clarity of the game.

* There was some question regarding Things Held Dear invoking and destroying.  We loved the change in mechanics (re-roll any die), but we weren't sure about: Can you only invoke once, or multiple times?  Can you only invoke your thing, but destroy other peoples?  Can a thing be destroyed by someone else before you have had a chance to invoke it yourself?  We played it that only you could invoke the your own thing, but it was fair game for destruction once it had been invoked.  In this way, you could to some extent "protect" the thing you held dear, as long as you did not invoke it yourself. 

* We assumed that you only have to explain your decision of the Singled Out character, regardless of who you pick.  The text implies you only have to explain your decision if you pick yourself.

* LOVE Radio Lightning

* The grid continues to work marvelously.

That pretty much sums it up.  Really, we had very little of import to say because the game was working so well.  The intensity of the fiction is incredible. 

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks Hans, I appreciate the feedback, and it is never too late!  Some of your concerns have already been addressed in revisions, but if nothing else it is reassuring to see that you indeed struggled with them.

We had no problem getting Piers a character, even though he had not played in Act 1, we simply started him in the corner that the three of us hadn't taken.

This is good to hear.  I need to add some words on "plugging in" new characters later int he game, which should follow the rules for a pick-up game starting in session two.

* We are still confused by the text on extra characters. 

Needs clarification, obviously - all the text is really intended as guidelines.  There are no constraints on introducing new NPCs.  The initial NPC construction is a kick-start mechanism, and assigning these folks reputations serves the same purpose.  I learned this was a good idea with The Roach, where the "I love you/I hate you" at the start of the game is very effective.

* It is not clear to us (again "What Jason intends") how "big" a scene is.

It will probably help that "vignettes" are now "Scenes".  Because that's what they are.  Again, no real restrictions on narrative input.  Each group will find its own voice and boundaries.

* We assumed that the reduction or increase of die size due to age on the mission die happened when you handed the die to the Mission Leader to represent your contribution, and that the die size change to the Personal vignette happened at the moment you rolled.  Is this correct?

Yes!  I will clarify.

* Vignettes must include one other character...is this ONLY the PC's and "Crew" extra NPC's, or does it count other miscellaneous characters?.

Makes no difference.  The goal is to avoid soliloquies and to keep other players involved. 

* There was some question regarding Things Held Dear invoking and destroying.  We loved the change in mechanics (re-roll any die), but we weren't sure about: Can you only invoke once, or multiple times?  Can you only invoke your thing, but destroy other peoples?  Can a thing be destroyed by someone else before you have had a chance to invoke it yourself?  We played it that only you could invoke the your own thing, but it was fair game for destruction once it had been invoked.  In this way, you could to some extent "protect" the thing you held dear, as long as you did not invoke it yourself. 

You played absolutely correctly.  Only you can invoke, but once you've done that it is fair game for anybody to tamper with.

Thanks again, hans, your feedback is valuable and illustrates areas where the text needs to be tightened up.  I'm glad you had a good time, and I'd love to hear from the participants if they hang out here.  I'd also love to hear about the fiction, characters, and how things interrelated if anybody's up for that.

* We assumed that you only have to explain your decision of the Singled Out character, regardless of who you pick.  The text implies you only have to explain your decision if you pick yourself.