[Bliss Stage] We wrap Bliss Stage

[GreatWolf]

url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWRiO34alJk]this[/url].

Broadcast Archive: 

• [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24696.0]Saved through childbearing[/url]
• [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24790.0]Love and violence in Peoria[/url]
• [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24808.0]Jude gets better, plus alien tentacles![/url]
Bliss Stage book has one point of Trauma.  I wonder how a book gets Trauma relief?

Last night, we finished our Bliss Stage<Pods of Darkness

I wanted to keep the pressure on, so I started us with a briefing action.  Jared summons Marcus and tells him to go track down those alien growth pods and destroy them.  Jared is really not doing well at this point.  He is tired and strung out, and he is slowly losing control of everything.  But Marcus goes anyways.


Mission Brief<Pods of Darkness<A Change at the Top<<Infiltrators

But it was not yet time for peace.  Marcus came to see Jude the next day.  They had spotted incoming aliens, and he needed Jude out in an ANIMa.  So Jude launched.

Because Gabrielle was now the GM, I received ownership of Leah, her anchor.  So, for the first time, I was able to anchor a mission.  Yay!

Mission Brief<Infiltrators<Our Happy Home<Post-Game Reflections

First, just to get this out of the way:

Ben!  I played a girl!  Are you happy now!!!?!?!??111eleventyone<Conclusion
Broadcast Archive: 

• Saved through childbearing
• Love and violence in Peoria
• Jude gets better, plus alien tentacles!
Bliss Stage book has one point of Trauma.  I wonder how a book gets Trauma relief?

Last night, we finished our Bliss Stage<Pods of Darkness

I wanted to keep the pressure on, so I started us with a briefing action.  Jared summons Marcus and tells him to go track down those alien growth pods and destroy them.  Jared is really not doing well at this point.  He is tired and strung out, and he is slowly losing control of everything.  But Marcus goes anyways.


Mission Brief<Pods of Darkness<A Change at the Top<<Infiltrators

But it was not yet time for peace.  Marcus came to see Jude the next day.  They had spotted incoming aliens, and he needed Jude out in an ANIMa.  So Jude launched.

Because Gabrielle was now the GM, I received ownership of Leah, her anchor.  So, for the first time, I was able to anchor a mission.  Yay!

Mission Brief<Infiltrators<Our Happy Home<Post-Game Reflections

First, just to get this out of the way:

Ben!  I played a girl!  Are you happy now!!!?!?!??111eleventyone<Conclusion

[GreatWolf]

One Rules Question

[Christoph Boeckle]

Great APs as usual Seth!
I have never been really interested in giant robot fiction, but Bliss Stage has got me interested, even more so thanks to your play reports.

Your post-game reflection resonates with some experience I had playing Clinton's Paladin ([Paladin 40K] #2: Nurgle (why did I feel bad?)) two years ago. We had actually discussed it together at the time!

A new interpretation I have grown to take on that situation and similar ones is that when players in a group are addressing premise, chances are great that they don't have the same opinions on how it should be addressed.
Seems like what could have happened in your ending. And you can't do anything about it. That's a really tough part in story now that I'm slowly coming to accept better (I used to be the GM a lot in participationist play and that small Paladin campaign was my first steps out of it). Sometimes the story that just happened does not agree with me, and that's it. I need to get over it and go on.
Your post-game reflection is perhaps what you needed to go on, just like I needed to talk to the players and focus an AP report on it.

Some form of "I will not abandon you" done well, in my book.

[Gabrielle]

I feel like I should have a lot to say, but I fear Seth already said it all for me. Most of it anyway.

It was an odd feeling to suddenly move into the GM seat at the end of the story. For some reason when we role play the seating configuration is important. Whether it's simply how we were sitting when we started and just haven't changed or if it's more purposeful we sit in the same places around the table each time we play. For Bliss Stage Crystal and I sat across from each other and Seth sat at the head of the table. We would set up the Anchor console on one side and then just switch seats when we changed who was Anchoring, but after the mission we went back to our regular seats. And then suddenly Marcus Bliss out and I was the GM. Jude had to run a mission then and Seth needed to sit at the console so I sat in his chair. I had never realized how different the game looked from the side. There was radio chatter and camaraderie going across the table that I was completely excluded from mostly because of where I was sitting. I was sitting outside of mission looking in. And I was trying to call down badness on the Pilot I had just been rooting for. It was too sudden and stressful an experience to be heady, but given more time I think I could get used to it.

I have thought since the first session that Bliss Stage is the perfect game for us. I regularly feel bad for Seth because we are the group he can consistently role play with and we are such girly women. Crystal and I are women focused on crafting a home into a haven and raising children. This affects the stories we tell and what we care about. We set our resistance group up with a multitude of possibilities for conflict and then we went and picked all the stresses involving marriage and babies. That's because that's what Crystal and I are focused on. And we are suckers for babies. Seth, on the other hand, was able to make us stop talking about our character's feelings by making us run missions. We got to emote and have charming conversations in character and Seth got to make us stop and go blow stuff up. Yes this is an oversimplification, but it is closer to the truth than not.

Thank you, Ben, for giving us this game. I had a very fine role playing experience and I would definitely play again, though I perhaps with a slightly different group.

[GreatWolf]

Man, those threads are a blast from the past.  I'm reading    
[Paladin+W40K] #1: Khorne (Introduction to the game) , and now it looks like a primer for playing Dogs in the Vineyard.

But anyways, to the point at hand.

A new interpretation I have grown to take on that situation and similar ones is that when players in a group are addressing premise, chances are great that they don't have the same opinions on how it should be addressed.
Seems like what could have happened in your ending. And you can't do anything about it. That's a really tough part in story now that I'm slowly coming to accept better (I used to be the GM a lot in participationist play and that small Paladin campaign was my first steps out of it). Sometimes the story that just happened does not agree with me, and that's it. I need to get over it and go on.
Your post-game reflection is perhaps what you needed to go on, just like I needed to talk to the players and focus an AP report on it.

I agree with what you're saying, though I want to pitch out an important clarification.  I'm specifically not saying that my rights as a co-creator were somehow trampled upon.  Absolutely not!  This was a functional and enjoyable session.

Rather, I'm talking from an audience perspective, which is what post-game reflection is all about.  This is the time, after the movie is finished or the book is closed, that you evaluate the story that you've just viewed or read.  How did this make me feel?  What did I like or not like?  Why is that?

And yes, you're absolutely correct that this style of play requires that players be willing to embrace story outcomes that they didn't actually like.  But, beyond that, I'm trying to model how post-game reflection can be helpful as part of your life by taking the time with your fellow players to pick apart why you didn't like the outcome.

This is a major area of potential development in roleplaying that I'd like to see expanded.

[GreatWolf]

It was an odd feeling to suddenly move into the GM seat at the end of the story. For some reason when we role play the seating configuration is important. Whether it's simply how we were sitting when we started and just haven't changed or if it's more purposeful we sit in the same places around the table each time we play. For Bliss Stage Crystal and I sat across from each other and Seth sat at the head of the table. We would set up the Anchor console on one side and then just switch seats when we changed who was Anchoring, but after the mission we went back to our regular seats. And then suddenly Marcus Bliss out and I was the GM. Jude had to run a mission then and Seth needed to sit at the console so I sat in his chair. I had never realized how different the game looked from the side. There was radio chatter and camaraderie going across the table that I was completely excluded from mostly because of where I was sitting. I was sitting outside of mission looking in. And I was trying to call down badness on the Pilot I had just been rooting for. It was too sudden and stressful an experience to be heady, but given more time I think I could get used to it.

That's right!  We have pictures of me at the Anchor console.  Have to get those up.

And this moves nicely into something that I forgot in my original post.  The GM transition is a really cool idea, and I liked the dynamic that Gabrielle describes.  In some ways, Jared was my "pilot" in the game, and when I lost the GM role, I felt the transfer of authority.  (Switching seats helped with this, too.)  The table dynamic shifted when Marcus took over, and it was very cool.

However, there is a potential problem, in that the new GM doesn't actually have any prep work done.  For our game, I simply handed over the last mission that I had prepared, which worked out okay.  Gabrielle exercised veto power over a couple goals, and that was that.  However, had the game continued, it could have been awkward, simply because Gabrielle would have needed either to hack together more missions on the spot or close out the engagement to give her more prep time.

So, any suggestions for handling this transition?

Finally, over here I wrote this:

	Logged

Seth Ben-Ezra
Dark Omen Games
producing Legends of Alyria, Dirty Secrets, A Flower for Mara
coming soon: Showdown

[GreatWolf]

Oh, and as promised, pictures of me at the Anchor console:

Me looking really dopey
Me looking less dopey

(I hate pictures of myself.)

[Christoph Boeckle]

Yes Seth, we agree and I like your refinements. I don't quite see how this could be a major area of development in RPGs, but it should certainly be addressed by the group. I'll be looking out for this topic of discussion in the future.