[Business Solutions] Three Ladies

[Jason Morningstar]

[GreatWolf]

Quote

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

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks Seth, I appreciate that. 

You're right that the attraction to Slice-of-Life is telling, and I need to think hard about that, but I absolutely want it to be playable and entertaining in ridiculous mode.  I think that's the sweet spot, because this stuff will be closer to home for some people than for others.  If framing it as a Mexican telenovela gives you the distance you need to have a fruitful game, I want that to be fine.  Ultimately tone choice is not a driver as much as people might think it is.  In a perfect world, a group that wasn't too comfortable really digging in to the larger implications the game raises would play it gonzo, then play it again half-straight, and then play it straight and have it be rewarding each time. 

I've gotten a lot of knee-jerk feedback along the lines of "I play games to escape my work life!", which is sad.  Not sure what to do about that. 

[GreatWolf]

You're right that the attraction to Slice-of-Life is telling, and I need to think hard about that, but I absolutely want it to be playable and entertaining in ridiculous mode.  I think that's the sweet spot, because this stuff will be closer to home for some people than for others.  If framing it as a Mexican telenovela gives you the distance you need to have a fruitful game, I want that to be fine.  Ultimately tone choice is not a driver as much as people might think it is.  In a perfect world, a group that wasn't too comfortable really digging in to the larger implications the game raises would play it gonzo, then play it again half-straight, and then play it straight and have it be rewarding each time. 

Well, based on my massive experience of one playtest, I found that we actually constantly adjusted this in play.  We chose "Slice-of-Life" and then proceeded to create exaggerated characters, both for techs and clients.  Now, those exaggerations were rooted in our own work histories, but they were fairly zany, all within the "Slice-of-Life" category.

Playtest will tell, to be sure.  But given the knee-jerk reaction that you cite, I wonder if the better way to "sell" people on the game is as an opportunity to lampoon their work experiences.  And that actually requires a more serious tone from you to give them space to be crazy.

Like the employee handbook text on your blog.  People will respond emotionally to that in play.  I know that I do.

Hey!  What if you had to read from the handbook during play?  Like Radio Lightning in Grey Ranks or something like that.  Maybe a different section for each day?  Just a thought....