One Can Have Her

[Peter Nordstrand]

We playtested Jonas Ferry's (the artist formerly known as Jonas Karlsson) Ronny winning game One Can Have Her. The short version of this report is that the game went very well. Finally a pick up roleplaying game that actually works! Not only is lengthy prep not required, I believe it would ruin the game. The current version builds on the original entry, but with a number of very important improvements. This will be a fairly comprehensive report, and so I'll split it over several posts. This first part is mostly about setup and character generation, and how it affects actual play. However, feel free to ask questions about anything you like.

When and where? At my own very little convention OmniCon, which is basically a bunch of gamers in a cellar. The overall theme of the con was loyalty and cooperation. We also played Mexican Standoff (went very well), Lord of the Rings the cooperative boardgame (loved it), and a bizarre SF scenario for The Pool called "The Black Egg" that turned into a dark farce of murder, betrayal, and lust (this one actually got to me, I've been thinking about it quite a lot).

Players: Jonas Ferry (the game designer), Anders, and Jonas S. I was the GM.

The Game
One Can Have Her takes place in a film noir setting. It is clearly stated that it is played in black and white, which I found kind of neat when reading about it, but in reality it is quite meaningless; a mildly entertaining quirk at best, or a small nuisance at worst. Mostly it is just unimportant.

Each character has committed a crime, and at various intervals during play, players are required to decide if they rat each other out or not. Ratting is an important mechanic that in the end determines the final fate of each player character. More on that later. 

Character Generation

Character creation is fast and simple. Players pick variables from pre-prepared lists, and end up knowing only a few facts about their characters: name, a crime that the character has committed and the victim of the crime, a descriptive noir archetype (tired journalist, desillusioned private investigator), a relationship to the femme fatale of the game (this is one specific NPC), and a goal to strive towards. Each player character also has a specific enemy, but the identity of this NPC is decided by the game master. I'll list the variables for your convenience.

name
crime and victim
archetype
relationship to the femme fatale
life goal
enemy (decided by the GM)

I made sure that the character generation did not take long. I aimed at ten minutes tops. I believe i is really important that the players don't start playing to much in their heads before the actual game begins. Finally, I needed 5-10 minutes to work out the situation, come up with an enemy and a first scene for each character, that's it.

On my suggestion, we handled the prepared lists just like we would stats in Sorcerer: First, everyone may suggest additions to a particular list, and then the players pick items from the revised lists. So the lists may be revised, but the players may never, ever pick stuff that aren't on the list. I strongly recommend this approach.

More observations:

* Players are not very invested in their characters pre-game. This is not a flaw. All character development happens in actual play, which is fantastic! Characters are developed in action, so to speak, and so is the players' investment and interest. This reminds me in some ways of Spione.

* Character generation ensures that all characters are deeply involved at least one conflicts. And like all narrativist play, identifying conflicts is at the very core of what the GM does. Yes, despite the seemingly competitive mechanic of ratting, this game is pure Story Now!

* As a GM it helps drawing relationship maps, as always.

* I am thinking that character life goals would benefit from being quite specific. While the list may very well be quite general ("be rich"), players should be encouraged to be very specific ("rob the bank at Sunset Blvrd. and escape to Mexico").

That's it for now. The kids are getting hungry. More later.

[Ron Edwards]

This is exciting to read about! I hope to run my own playtest of the game soon, and from what I've read so far, it's really living up to its original potential.

I think you're right about the goals being specific. "Rob a bank" carries a certain non-situational vagueness to it which doesn't serve action during play very well. Hero Wars (now HeroQuest) play taught me that stated character goals do far better to be specific, and to succeed or fail in concrete ways, than to be vague indicators of character like "betrayer."

What were the character goals in your game?

Best, Ron

[Peter Nordstrand]

Here are the characters from our game. I've misplaced some of my notes from the session, so this is partly from memory. Note how closely tied together the characters are. (I do not think that is necessary, although I did encourage it. If nothing else, the characters will always have the femme fatale in common.)

The name of the femme fatale in our game was Norma. The setting is Los Angeles with environs.

Harry Lime (yeah, I know)
Player: Jonas S

Archetype: Paranoid Government Agent (FBI)
Crime & Victim: Blackmailing the guvernor (Guvernor James is not born in the US, which would make it difficult to become president.)
Relationship to the femme fatale: She is the guvernor's daughter.
Goal: Be rich & flee the country.

Enemy (decided by me): Guvernor James, of course.

I think that perhaps Harrys link to the femme fatal was a little weak. It would probably have been a bit more interesting if he had a stronger emotional connection to her. I don't know.

Jeff Bailey
Player: Anders

Archetype: Conflicted Nightclub Singer
Crime & Victim: Accidentally killed a famous film producer when he tried to seduce Jeff at a private audition.
Relationship to the femme fatale: She is his step-sister. They are not related by blood, rather Jeff's mother married the guvernor (then a widower) some years ago. Jeff is in love with Norma.
Goal: Become a famous moviestar.

Enemy (decided by me): His rival and former singing partner Alfredo d'Amato.

Guy Haines
Player: Jonas Ferry

Archetype: Agressive Doctor
Crime & Victim: Killed a young woman (Sally) when performing an illegal abortion.
Relationship to the femme fatale: Helped her with an abortion, and fell in love with her. Yuck! (Seriously, think about it. Yuck!)
Goal: Become famous for managing to get abortions legalized in California.

Enemy (decided by me): Karl Horoviz, Sally's angry boyfriend.

[Peter Nordstrand]

I highly recommend One Can Have Her, and hope that you all buy it and play it when it is released.

Playing the Game

There is no set number of scenes in the current version of One Can Have Her (originally it the game was played in seven scenes, period), which is a good thing.

I was able to GM this game much like I would GM most narrativist games: Look at the player characters and their characteristics, check out my list of NPCs — mostly generated during chargen, as described above — and then put pressure on the characters by generating conflict, thus forcing the players to make decisions for their characters. I am putting the characters in tough spots, but I always leave it to the players to make the decisions about their characters. If I take this away from the players, I deprive them of their ability to make a statement, and the game becomes literally meaningless. (I am emphazising this because of this thread.)

One Can Have Her has a few unusual rules that tends to cause consternation among gamers who hear about it.

* All player characters automatically know everything about each other. There is no difference between player knowledge and character knowledge. And you know what, it works like a charm. This rule is absolutely unproblematic. Do not change this, Jonas, no matter what people say. If there are any sceptics out there, I am happy to discuss this further.

* Once a conflict is over, it is over and may never ever in any circumstances be attempted again! During play, Jonas kept reminding us of this rule; we weren't used to this extremely strict take on conflicts. I have to admit that I was sceptical at first, but it worked really well. It forced all of us to find new ways of solving situations; creative limitations at its best. Example: When we played, Jeff Bailey (Ander's character) tried to seduce the femme fatale in his first scene. At a later point, Anders again wanted Jeff to attempt to seduce her, but since he had already tried that once he was not allowed to try again, and had to make up something else.

More later ...

[Peter Nordstrand]

Am I talking to myself here?

Cheers,

/Peter

[Ron Edwards]

Nope! We actually playtested One Can Have Her last week.

But I'm completely snowed under with the big crunch of final exams and new classes starting up. I only have time for quick & brief posting right now.

Other people, though, speak up! This game needs feedback and discussion.

Best, Ron