[Bliss Stage] Love and violence in Peoria

[GreatWolf]

i]Bliss Stage makes me think of this.

Broadcast Archive:  previous transmission located in database<Bliss Stage<Diapers and Briefs<Deep Probe<Deep Probe<Crystal as an anchor
Another angle on Crystal as an anchor
Gabrielle as an anchor<Jude takes care of business<Matchmaking in the world of Bliss Stage<Scramble!

There were getting to be far too many happy interludes.  Something needed to be done!  When in doubt, the aliens attack.  So I went with that.

I reused the mission layout from the original Scramble! which worked out pretty well.

Mission Brief<Scramble!<Reflections on the game<Rules question<this.[/i]

Broadcast Archive:  previous transmission located in database<Bliss Stage<Diapers and Briefs<Deep Probe<Deep Probe<Crystal as an anchor
Another angle on Crystal as an anchor
Gabrielle as an anchor<Jude takes care of business<Matchmaking in the world of Bliss Stage<Scramble!

There were getting to be far too many happy interludes.  Something needed to be done!  When in doubt, the aliens attack.  So I went with that.

I reused the mission layout from the original Scramble! which worked out pretty well.

Mission Brief<Scramble!<Reflections on the game<Rules question

[Ben Lehman]

Yay! Rules questions.

If you reach a "I did too!" "I did not!" thing in the interlude, the first thing to do is just act it out. If that fails, the GM adjudicates, but is instructed to give "victory" (whatever that is) to the character with the highest Bliss, noting that non-pilots don't have Bliss scores. (page 116, Maria) Also, note that for pilots with high trauma values, violence in interlude scenes can result in harm or death, and pilots with low trauma values have trouble with that. (page 124, causing harm and death during interludes).

As for missions, the anchor can take the mission goals in any realistic order: this is a question of providing the proper narrative guidance. If you're worried about that sort of thing, you can hard-wire the goal order during mission creation. But that's not how I'd do it.

Remember that all mission goals that are not accomplished are failed so, in your example case, the location hasn't been scouted (the probe is probably in a poor location) and the alien patrols have spotted it. So if the anchor moved directly to placing the probe, the aliens know it's there and it's in a poor location anymore: I'd be immediately segueing (no interludes except the privileged one) into a difficult "defend the probe!" mission, making it clear as the authority figure that this is all the anchor's fault for being too hasty.  Maybe something like:

Locate enemy scouts x2 (they're hiding throughout the area)
If completed, destroy enemy scouts
If failed, defend the probe
Scout new location for probe
Relocate probe

Something like that.

Actual comment in a bit.

yrs--
--Ben

[Gabrielle]

For some reason I don't like to look too closely at I used to prefer to role play male characters. I've mostly gotten over this, but looking back at my characters I don't think any of them actually had male problems. Or it was more like they had guy problems a woman would think they should. It's like reading a book with a male main character when the book is written by a woman. Sometimes the guys don't always act like they would, but rather as women think they would.

This isn't true with Marcus. His problems took me by surprise (even though I came up with them) because they aren't the problems I would have. The problems I would have if I were a character in our Bliss Stage run would be, well, horrifying, but also tailored to me which means they would be woman problems, it would be a woman's story. Marcus's problems are not my problems, are not a woman's problems. He's struggling on what it means to be a husband and a father which is very different from struggling with what it means to be a wife and mother. And it has been bizarre and strangely enlightening to watch a man struggle with these issues from inside his head.

[Ben Lehman]

Gabrielle: That's awesome. It's totaly in line with my design goals for the game, which was like "I've always had this awkward time playing female characters... wonder why that is?" So the game is set up that you've almost got to play cross-gender (although, hey, is Seth playing all male characters? Hmm... *rubs chin thoughtfully*) and the issues of the game are the issues where gender and sexuality comes to the forefront: sex, love, childbearing, and community building. Yay! It's awesome to see it working, and I'm really glad that it's useful to you.

It's really interesting to me, although not totally surprising, how different your game is from the last time I played the game on-going (the somerville resistance cell). Our group was two long-term-but-unmarried couples and one single guy, all of us in our mid-twenties to early thirties. So you can imagine that we have pretty different issues on the table.

Here's a thing: In a game that specifically incentives bisexuality and polyamoury, that's not an issue for you guys at all, and it was a huge issue for us. But likewise, in a game that specifically incentives pregnancy, that didn't come up at all in our game, and it's all over your game. All of us played pilots of the same gender, and the pilots' issues were love and loyalty issues.  You guys are all opposite genders, and your pilots issues are all children and responsibility issues. Not surprising, but really cool to see it in action.

I wonder what our game would have been like with cross-gender pilots, and what your game would be like with same-gender pilots...

Oh, and on a geeky note, I totally love the anchoring set-up that you guys have.

yrs--
--Ben

P.S. Oh, and hey. Is Nathaniel Jude's son? As in: does that relationship have the extra point of intimacy or not?

[Gabrielle]

So the game is set up that you've almost got to play cross-gender (although, hey, is Seth playing all male characters? Hmm... *rubs chin thoughtfully*)

Seth is only sorta playing all male characters. He somehow got stuck with  the babies and toddlers of the group. The toddle is a boy, the four-month-old is a girl and the unborn is unknown. Personally, I think he's a boy, but we haven't decided yet. So that's one girl Seth is playing, but she doesn't really do much.

Oh, and on a geeky note, I totally love the anchoring set-up that you guys have.

Me too. There's nothing quite like props to help you get in character. Also, we keep adding to it. Last time we added a webcamera and our home phone just died so next time we can add that to the mix.

P.S. Oh, and hey. Is Nathaniel Jude's son? As in: does that relationship have the extra point of intimacy or not?

No, Jude was not part of the rape of Gloria, though he witnessed it and did nothing which, in my mind, is just as bad.

[Ben Lehman]

Hmm...

I have to resist the urge to try to GM the game from a distance, but I'm totally fascinated by the Jude / Nathaniel / Gloria / Joseph relationship set. Has Nathaniel showed up in any scenes yet?

yrs--
--Ben

[Gabrielle]

Hmm...

I have to resist the urge to try to GM the game from a distance, but I'm totally fascinated by the Jude / Nathaniel / Gloria / Joseph relationship set. Has Nathaniel showed up in any scenes yet?

yrs--
--Ben

That relationship set was created with a whole lot of potential and only some of it has come into play so far. In our last session the Jude/ Gloria relationship was broken, but I'll let Seth tell you about that when he gets around to writing it up.

Nathaniel has only been in one scene to date and the only thing he did was kick Jude in the shins. We've been focusing more on Jude's relationship with Joseph. Joseph as protector wants to keep the community safe from everything out there which includes, or at least included, Jude. Jude doesn't like Joseph because he's just a power hungry kid with a big ole knife who keeps getting in Jude's face. They came to a really fine place in their relationship last session, but again I will let Seth detail that in his next AP report.

[GreatWolf]

So the game is set up that you've almost got to play cross-gender (although, hey, is Seth playing all male characters? Hmm... *rubs chin thoughtfully*)

Hey, I'm playing the aliens!  That's not just cross-gender, that's cross-species.

And I'm working up my next AP report.  Should be up in the next day or two.