[Contenders] New York, 1913

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I actually think we might need to rush to get to endgame, though.  Doesn't Clinton have 7 rep?  He'd need to be in 2 matches and win one of them to force endgame, wouldn't he?  And then endgame is another set of boxing matches, or am I remembering wrong?

Brawling will give me a rep, and I use my pain (which is in it. Not that I would brawl - I'm the nice boxer.

[Jason Morningstar]

I think it'll all go down smooth as carbolic acid with a phenol chaser next week.  Any idea how many scenes we're averaging in an evening?  It seems like quite a few.  Shane, maybe your Connections need a good hammering next week.  Although I feel sad that I took the low road with John McGurk Jr, I, for one, am dedicated to the proposition that no one leaves the table with a happy ending.  So watch out!  If you want it you're going to have to punch through me to get it.

[ShaneJackson]

I'm confused if you mean I need to punch through you, John McGurk Jr, or you, Jason Morningstar, so I'm just going to pick one and beat the hell out of him/you when you/him aren't looking.

[Uruush]

Man, this sounds like fun.  I am seriously jealous.  Contenders is one of my favorite games, but I haven't really really got to play it much past a demo.  I'm going to keep pitching this game until I get to play it.  I'll be curious to hear about any perceived imbalances in the boxing mini-game part of it.  I'm wondering if there are some alternatives to Threat scenes, and some other possible Scene types that might be house-ruled in...

[Jason Morningstar]

Our third and final session was last night, and while it was the softest of the three, it was still like a marching band of awesome parading through our brains while on fire.

Going into this session we had good ideas about where characters were headed, and we just pushed for end-game.  Remi and I knew, mathematically, that our guys were doomed to a sad end.  Clinton and Shane had a chance of pulling out a positive conclusion, but it would be difficult - in Clinton's case, pretty much everything would have to go right.  And since Remi and I had nothing to lose, that was going to be really hard, and in fact didn't happen.  Nobody pulled any punches, if you'll pardon the pun.

Remi's character had degenerated into this bestial nut-job (at one point he bit off John McGurk's ear).  But there was redemption, a reapproachment between the Butcher brothers, a touching moment before the literal slaughter of the end-game fights.  We set those up as a ladder, with the two winners fighting the title card.  Gentleman John McGurk took out The Doubloon, and the Butcher brothers had an uneven fight where Paolo pretty much let his brother win.  So it was me and Shane for the title, and due to a single mis-step I not only took the title, but did it with a 9-card knockout.  That's a lot of win.  Shane decided that since 5 cards is a regular knockout, 9 cards killed him in the ring.  Vincenzo's spine snapped like a gunshot and it was over. 

The epilogues were sad and fun to hear.  Shane's was "ambivalent", and the rest were all tragic.  Nobody had a happy ending.  My guy had 13 pain and 7 hope. 

We all felt that the end-game was the weakest part of Contenders (which is honest criticism rather than an indictment; "weakest" in this context is still pretty damn good), and spent quite a while hashing out possible tweaks to make it more fun.  I'm hoping the guys will weigh in with some of our conclusions.  Overall this run of Contenders was one of our more memorable and fun games as a group, definitely top 2-3 material, and we are all in love with Joe Prince, Jr. 

[Joe J Prince]

Thanks guys that was too awesome!

The ambivalent ending was dying in the ring?! Holy crap.

Good observations on the mechanics. Connection Threat Scenes only really work in your Contender's favour if you force the opponent into a 'must lose' match. Otherwise yup, they're a bit of a dickweed choice for when your guy is already screwed...

Clinton's bang on the money with Cover countering defensive strategies. A reason to develop an oft neglected Trait.

As for NPC boxers, you're right it's more satisfying to beat up each other! But I know some RP groups who don't like PvP conflict at all, so the NPCs are for them and to give players a chance to test the waters before tackling one another. The game Ron posted about a while back also had some really cool uses of NPC boxers.
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=21003.0

If you've any suggestions for Endgame tweaks I'd like to hear them.

Love you all too!

Cheers
Joe