[InSpectres] Something old, something new

[droog]

I'm back in my home town for a week to attend a funeral, of a guy who was a true believer when it came to roleplaying. So tonight, a few days after the funeral and the wake, four of us gathered to do a bit of roleplaying in his memory.

We weren't sure what we were playing, but Colin brought along some RQ stuff and I, being without my RPG books, had printed out the InSpectres startup edition.

We just sat around and talked for ages. Nobody seemed that keen to get into playing the existing games, though we talked about them and our absent friend's part in them. Then Ian had an altercation with his neighbour over a parking space and everybody got stressed, so I suggested we try InSpectres ("It takes about four minutes to make up characters!")

I've played IS before, but not GMed it, so I read out the rules as we made up characters. The guys were all receptive--Colin had previously run Dust Devils with the other two playing. Confessionals were received with slightly apprehensive mirth; I think they can be a bit intimidating.

I read out this bit:

Client Interview
This will usually consist of some (or all) of the characters asking a prospective client about their particular problem. Such an interview is usually meant to "kick off" the story. In most cases, the client will contact the InSpectres and set up a meeting with them.

...paused a second, and did a phone ringing. The others looked at each other and laughed, and we were off.

To cut a short story short, we had an excellent and humorous time, and the guys really took to the shared narration. There was such a profusion of ideas pouring out that at times I had to call for a summary of what had actually happened. Colin (who usually GMs) did a Confessional, and Zane (who doesn't) might have been playing such games all his life. I laid on more Stress as I realised the importance of it, and the game got only more hilarious.

The actual story involved  an amusement park that had been built on the site of an old institution for children convicted of crimes, a death there ten years ago, and an energy-draining electric ghost that came out of the lights. The process of play got us laughing and having a good time while we remembered our friend and the good times we've all had together roleplaying. I, and I think all the others, felt distinctly more cheerful about roleplaying in the future. Thanks to Jared for a funny game.

[FredGarber]

I laid on more Stress as I realised the importance of it, and the game got only more hilarious

I've seen different feedback here on how often the GM should call for Stress rolls in Inspectres. 
Some GMs/Players have responded that failed Stress rolls eating at the player's pools decreased the fun, as players were less likely to risk stressful situations (and end up with a pool of 0).  Others have said the opposite: Stress rolls are the checks on Cool Dice banking. By allowing them to spend off the cool dice in between scenes (rather than between each case) liberates the PCs to leap into each scene with gusto.

Could you clarify what you meant by "the importance of it [Stress]" ?

[droog]

Hi Fred

I can't speak to Cool dice, because the mechanic doesn't exist in the startup edition. I found Stress to be important from my point of view because it introduced different elements; let's call them 'negative'. At the beginning, the players rarely made a roll without getting a 6. As things started to happen, Stress rolls began to appear and more funny things happened, both as direct results of Stress rolls and as a result of dice pools becoming smaller.

I'm going to need to play more before I can speak to whether losing dice is a downer or not. In this session, it wasn't.