[PTA] The Chosen, Pilot

[Glendower]

From their experiences last week, E and A wanted to try out a full episode of Primetime Adventures. 

When I arrived, A had some misgivings about the original series.  He explained that after creating the series, he felt that it wasn't exactly what he wanted.  He was interested in something similar to the Hellboy and Constantine comics, a contemporary Gothic supernatural series.  E liked the original series, but she didn't mind going through the creation process again.  I liked the original series idea as well.  But I also understood that when we made that series, it was very late everyone involved was quite tired.  I thought that this time, with everyone awake, we could find a series that people could get excited about.

With that, we went to the pitch.  Again, I went through the things we didn't want.  Comedy, Romance, Procedural Crime Dramas, anything set in High School, and extreme Science Fiction were tossed right out.  We agreed that the series wouldn't have any scenes of elaborate torture or graphic sexual violence. 

As for what we wanted, it included Conemporary "Now or near future", existence of Supernatural creatures, scenes of supernatural interacting with normal humanity, Gothic architecture (The original Batman was referenced here), vengeance, and maintaining the balance of the universe. 

From that we hammered out "The Chosen". 

A put together Donovan Grey, a professional jewel thief with strange powers seeking vengeance for his murdered lover.  His edges were "Strange Powers" and "Jewel Thief", his connection was the paternal Father Simon, who raised him as a son.  His issue is Vengeance, and his personal set is the ring he was going to use to propose to his lover, the night she was murdered. 

E created Lidya White, a demon hunter.  Her edges were "Demon Hunter" and "Expert on Supernatural Society", her connection was the leader of her Order and her trainer, known as Abraham.  Her issue is Interacting with the human world.  Her personal set is perusing the stacks of the the Order Library.

Now, I wasn't quite happy about Lydia's second edge and her Issue.  The character didn't seem quite right to me, it wasn't grabby enough.  I was concerned that she wouldn't have much to do, and as the scenes began to turn, I think I was right. 

Unfortunately, there was also only one point of fan mail awarded.  E awarded A a point for his scene of Donovan attempting to run over a demon with his car (which was very well done).  The pennies we used as tokens faded invisibly onto the table when I spent my budget.  I figure that using bigger multicolored poker chips would have been more effective.  I also should have reminded them of the mechanic more often. 

Recording the episode was also really difficult.  This series moved fast, and I didn't want to pause to make notes as it would have dissipated the energy built up.  I think that if I wanted to record what happened, I'd need to bring a my dictaphone, rather than give myself carpal tunnel making notes.  Not recording makes these APs damn hard. 

Finding conflicts in a scene was hard, this game is rough on the Producer as he essentially has to think on the fly.  The three questions (Agenda, Location, Focus) are great, but sometimes I just draw a blank.  I should have asked for ideas a lot more than I did.  I also ate my budget like candy, and in the future should probably measure it out a little more.  We got through about 6 scenes total before I ran out of tokens. 

Donovan's issue burned like a flame.  It literally defined every piece of his character, and drove him from scene to scene.  It made running scenes with him a lot easier than Lidya, who's issue didn't click with me, and I don't really clicked with E either.  A huge meaty issue is just crucial to make things work in this game. 

Both players were positive about the game, and we are scheduled to play through episode one next week.  Here's hoping The Chosen doesn't get canceled!