Suggestion for PTA con demo?

[Claudia Cangini]

Hello,

I'm here looking for suggestions or links to previous thread treating this subject.

I'd like to run a PTA demo at a local Con.
I love the game and I already played it but every time the pitch took an awful amount of time and I never managed to have both pitch and first episode in the first session.
Being this a demo I'd really love to play at least a episode or a good part of an episode.

So, how do you demo PTA when you have a time limit of max 4 hours?

Thank you in advance for the help.

[Matt Wilson]

Hi Claudia! Buongiorno!

Four hours is probably enough to create the show and play an entire episode. Since the show creation process is less specific than the rest of the game, you might want to bring a handful of ideas to get things started. From what I've seen, the idea shows rarely are chosen, but they help to get people thinking.

Once you establish the show and characters, everyone should decide either to do a pilot episode or one character's spotlight. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

If it's a group that enjoy playing "in character," then as producer I would try to get conflict established soon, then let them roleplay using the results of the conflict as guidelines.

I've never played Primetime Adventures longer than four hours at a time.

[Remi Treuer]

Here are my two Big Thoughts on running a PTA con game:
One of the strengths of PTA are the shifts in Screen Presence, and I'd hate to lose that in a Con game. I've run (rather successfully) a 2-part 'miniseries' where a screen presence shift happens in the middle. The mini-series also provides a familiar structure to base the action around. Plus, it promises a complete experience. Shifting screen presence helps quite a lot in shaking up the roles people play throughout the game. Plus, it's nice to have a 3 screen presence character. You may want to play with your budget allotments for each section of the series a bit, as I found that the Producer was winning quite a bit in the game I played. I'm running another miniseries event at Camp Nerdly, and may make it a 3-part series,  shifting every hour, but we'll see.

If you're going to do series creation (and I think it's a quick enough to do in 45 minutes), first have everyone stand up, check in with each other (make eye contact), make sure everyone's mind is at the table, then go around to each person and ask what they're excited about. It can be books, movies, music, whatever, but it should have them jazzed. When this is out on the table, start mixing and matching from these things. Take elements, themes, motifs, etc from all the things people are excited about. Make sure everyone gets some input. I find this to be faster, and more positive, than simply brainstorming from the ground up.

[Claudia Cangini]

Thank you very much Matt and Remi for the suggestions: I'll try to make good use of them.

I'd like to delve a little bit on something Remi said

Here are my two Big Thoughts on running a PTA con game:
One of the strengths of PTA are the shifts in Screen Presence, and I'd hate to lose that in a Con game. I've run (rather successfully) a 2-part 'miniseries' where a screen presence shift happens in the middle. The mini-series also provides a familiar structure to base the action around. Plus, it promises a complete experience. Shifting screen presence helps quite a lot in shaking up the roles people play throughout the game. Plus, it's nice to have a 3 screen presence character.

This is a very interesting concept and not only for the Con. I love this game and my group also enjoyed it but we meet weekly and often one person or the other cannot make it to our game night. I found this to be quite troublesome when we played a classic 5 episode season, but if a 2 episode miniseries works the time commitment problem could be solved...

You may want to play with your budget allotments for each section of the series a bit, as I found that the Producer was winning quite a bit in the game I played.

So, would you suggest any tweaking in handling screen presence and budget for 3/4 players plus Producer?

I'm running another miniseries event at Camp Nerdly, and may make it a 3-part series,  shifting every hour, but we'll see.

I'd be very interested to hear about how it goes so, please, post about it!

Thanks again for the kind help.
Best!

[Remi Treuer]

Claudia, I'd missed your post and I apologize.

This is a very interesting concept and not only for the Con. I love this game and my group also enjoyed it but we meet weekly and often one person or the other cannot make it to our game night. I found this to be quite troublesome when we played a classic 5 episode season, but if a 2 episode miniseries works the time commitment problem could be solved...

While I think the miniseries is a good solution for Con scenarios, PTA still really sings over longer periods, using the game balance Matt has created. If at all possible I would still attempt to play a full series.

So, would you suggest any tweaking in handling screen presence and budget for 3/4 players plus Producer?

I'd have to look at the numbers those would generate, but I seem to recall three-quartering the re-allotment of Budget at the halfway mark and just playing to the bottom of that.

Oh, and if you're generating ideas at the table, a good way to get everyone on the same page is to first have everyone stand and make eye-contact (called 'checking in'), then have everyone sit and kick off the pitch-session with "What are you jazzed about? What's got you really excited?" I find that starting with what people like and finding commonality makes pitching faster and more successful than starting cold. I'd avoid writing things down, brainstorm-style. This will just slow the process. Just guide everyone to agreement and start the game. If it were a long-term game, I'd be more careful, but it's a Con! Get to the meat, but make sure everyone's been heard.

[Claudia Cangini]

Claudia, I'd missed your post and I apologize.

No problem, Remi!

While I think the miniseries is a good solution for Con scenarios, PTA still really sings over longer periods, using the game balance Matt has created. If at all possible I would still attempt to play a full series.

You're certainly right and I agree that the game gives life to some powerful dynamics when playing a full series.
Unfortunately player's attendance can be very disruptive ot it...

Anyway thank you very much for all your kind suggestions: your kind help was much appreciated.

[Claudia Cangini]

Hi!
Just wanted to let you know I played the demo at 2007 MiniMod-Ambercon (http://valis.it/ambercon/) and am pretty satisfied with it.

My four players proceded through the pitch and created a nice setting (something like Jack Vance's Blue World meets James Clavell's Shogun) dealing mainly with culture shock, politics and intrigues.
It was set in a court in a world colonized eons ago and recently rediscovered by a multiplanet scientific empire.

The characters were
- a rough and shady space sailor just crash landed on the planet
- a priest that was a close counsellor to the local lord and strongly linked with local criminal organization
- an empire spy falling in love with local culture and covering as a court musician
- an androginous warrior with symbiotic weapons (something to do with the local culture wich is a human/indigenous hybrid) and rebellious intentions quickly charged with guarding/chaperoning the etiquette challenged sailor

We played in a 3 hour slot and didn't manage to finish the episode but I started seeing fan mail flowing wich is always a good sign.

My players seemed to quickly understand the pace and style of the game and have fun.
Later I learned that two of the players already tried the game but didn't manage to come to an agreement about the pitch in their group, so I hope it was interesting for them.

And Matt, I think you just made/are about to make a .pdf sale to one of the other players who said something like "this game rekindled my lost interest in tabletop, I'll try it with some friends", which made me one happy producer.

Best and thaks for the support!