Universalis & Sleeping Beauty: Traits in Literature

[Shieldage]

I browsed for this 1919 version of Sleeping Beauty.  Most tellings have great examples of the giving of 'traits' as well as a 'challenge' (or is it still a 'complication'?).

From Young Folks Treasury excerpted by Antelope Publishing

The first stepped forward and said: "She shall always be as good as gold"; the second: "She shall be the cleverest Princess in the world"; the third: "She shall be the most beautiful;" the fourth: "She shall be the happiest"; the fifth: "She shall have the sweetest voice that was ever heard"; the sixth: "Everyone shall love her." And then the wicked old cross fairy strode over to the cradle with long quick steps, and said, shaking her black crooked stick a the King and Queen: "And I say that she shall prick her hand with a spindle and die of the wound!"

At this the Queen fell on her knees and begged and prayed Tormentilla to call back her cruel words; but suddenly the seventh fairy, the youngest of all, who knew Tormentilla well, and had hidden herself behind the curtains for fear that some such thing might happen, came out and said:

"Do not cry so, dear Queen; I cannot quite undo my cousin's wicked enchantment, but I can promise you that your daughter shall not die, but only fall asleep for a hundred years. And, when these are past and gone, a Prince shall come and awaken her with a kiss."

http://www.ongoing-tales.com/SERIALS/oldtime/FAIRYTALES/sbeauty.html

Two ideas for this thread: Review Sleeping Beauty and its merits under this system, or Find more stories that resemble players interacting during a game of Universalis.  Your choice  (:

[Mike Holmes]

Hmm. I think that in general, you'll find that classic narratives like Sleeping Beauty resemble Universalis play in their straightforward introduction of traits in exposition, yes.

But what "merit" do you refer to? Are you proposing a game in the Sleeping Beauty universe? Then, sure, I think it's an OK place to jump off from. But I also wouldn't be surprised to see it play out just as expected. By starting off with such an ingrained story, you're bound to get some of the same elements. I'd be surprised if Beauty wasn't saved by a prince charming sort, for example.

So, does that address your idea, or am I missing the point entirely?

Mike

[Valamir]

An astute observation Shieldage.  I'd agree with Mike that most "fairy tale" esque narratives probably would translate well as a session of Universalis.   The gingerbread house occupied by a witch who eats children is just the kind of somewhat trippy setting detail that often gets created in the game.  Cinderella's transformation would be easily handled (I can think of both a quick and dirty method and a crunchy version without much effort).  The dialog between the billy goats gruff and the troll would be hard to envision happening in most RPGs, but would be fairly typical for Uni.

This is probably not a great surprise given that one of the core influences for Universalis was the Once Upon a Time card game which, of course, is all about creating these kinds of stories.

[Shieldage]

Heh, thanks for approving.  Not exactly what I was thinking, but a good direction for this thread.  I'll explain more in the future.

Okay, that why it's 'Once Upon a Time', I'd heard about it but hadn't considered the Premise...

Mike, As far as recreating fairy tales goes, I wouldn't be surprised if Sleeping Beauty turned out suspiciously looking like Shrek.  Valamir, Billy goats gruff acting like Universalis sounds good to me.  And, you're right, there are a lot of fairy tales that maybe could only be played here, especially with things like Importance already in place...  Hmm.. As you said fairy tales are great for trippy settings and portable innovations.  Good examples and I'd like to see more in this thread.  You mentioned two methods for Cinderella's transformation?   I'm interested in how you handle the expiration date.

I really like something in Sleeping Beauty: Conflict between guys in the Authour/Director stance resulting in the story changing.  In the case above Player (Fairy) 7 decides ahead of time to pass her turn.  Players (Fairies) 1-6 each give their Component (the baby) a Trait they approve of.  Then Player 8 adds a potentially life/story destroying Trait.  Player 7 steps in, Challenges it, and mitigates it in a way that results in a much better story than if Player 8 hadn't put her two cents in.

That's what attracted me to Universalis in the first place.  I like areas where different Fairies/Gods/Aliens/Djinn/Narrators/ Name Givers conflict in the dispensing of Traits, especially when they start to one-up one another.  There was the Gameworld Trilogy awhile back that had a Fantasy Heartbreaker turning real, and this happened a lot, but I hope there's others laying (lying?) around.

-edited for mood, content, and rearranged paragraphs

[Valamir]

Well the simple version is simply to assign a trait to Cinderella called "Transformed by Fairy Godmother" and buy it multiple times to give it more oomph.  I'd then propose a rules gimmick that says the Trait will only last for the duration of the next scene and when the next scene ends it will be 11:59.  Using logic similar to that of the Medic Kit Rules Gimmick example (which you haven't seen yet) I'd propose that the above trait should only cost 1/3 as much because of this time limit (or 1/2 as much or 1/4 as much or whatever the group will accept) which makes it much cheaper to buy at +6 (or whatever level is significant relative to the games other traits).  Slightly more complicated would be if the group required greater specificity in naming Traits in which case there might need to be 3-4 traits instead of one (Lavish gown and accessories, Grace and charm, etc).

The complicated version would involve creating two completely seperate characters (ala Clark Kent and Superman) and a rules gimmick which regulates which character ("simple Cinderella" or "enchanted Cinderella") gets introduced into any given scene.

Specifically for the timing issue there are many possible ways to handle.  The above scene deliminated one is perhaps the easiest and most straight forward.  Once could also say that midnight is 4 hours way and from this point on every Coin spent advances the "clock" by 10 minutes (or 15, or 30 or whatever).  Or one could say that each player's turn is 1 hour long (no matter how many or few Coins are spent).  Or any other method that players wish to encapsulate into a rules gimmick.

Which method is "best" really depends on the effect the group wishes to experience.  The first idea of time based on scene length is the lowest "pressure" rule.  Players have as much time as they want and as much freedom as they want to do virtually anything knowing that Cinderella isn't going to be trapped until the Framer ends the scene (which can be Challenged if the Framer tries to end it before others desire to see it ended).

The other methods turn the ball scene into more of a countdown, which might be effective if players desire a "we don't really know whether Cinderella will escape or be exposed" effect.  Combined with another rules gimmick that requires certain Traits be bought before the Prince's interest is raised there could be a level of competition to see whether or not those Traits get purchased before Cinderalla turns back into a scullery maid.

[Shieldage]

Cool.  This is going to be great.

[Shieldage]

This may be silly and definetly not part of the original tale, but in Disney's/Bill Peet's The Sword in the Stone Madam Mim and Merlin set down the Tenets of the Wizard's Duel one by one, and she finishes it of with (something like) "No purple dragons or other silly things".  They play out the battle following the rules and then, when she's about beat, Mad Madam Mim takes her final form and says: "I didn't say no pink dragons, did I?"