Hey all!

So I was up last night writing on my (potential) mini-supplement and I had the TV on in the background. It was tuned into John Edward's Crossing Over (which I can't stand, BTW). Well, as I was drowning out his yap and getting to a point where I could finish a sentence and turn over the channel, a though struck me. I *need* to use the idea of greedy ass mediums in a game.

So here it is. It’s very rough right now, but the basic idea is that when you die, you either go to a Heaven of your own desire while alive or you are doomed to an eternity of Limbo. You get into Heaven by accumulating Karma during your lifetime by doing honestly humane things for your brother man. Like Gandhi or Mother Theresa or that guy that played Mr. Rodgers. Needless to say it’s a pretty exclusive place. Most people never make it.

That’s where the PCs come in. They are Mediums in a modern day setting. They've come to the realization that there is no way in hell they are ever going to get to Heaven with their life of deceptions, so they do what anybody would. They cheat. In this, ghosts stuck in Limbo still have Karma. They also have a desire to communicate with the living world. This is where the Mediums take advantage of the Ghosts and run cons, do jobs, scam and deal with them for their now useless Karma. Once the Mediums have enough collected they can happily live out their lives knowing that when they die, they have their own personal Heaven waiting for them. And you though Silvia Browne slipped off the map because she became unpopular... ;)

I envisioned games being something like Matchstick Men, crossed with a Tarantino flick and big spoonful of Elmore Leonard

So there you have it, the PCs are dirt bags trying to cheat the system. I came up with the system tonight and the setting the night before, so its still pretty raw and missing some bits (scores are the big one), but...

Specific questions:

1.) Do you think the system (I’m sure it’ll need more tweaking) can/is fitting for the game?
2.) Any potential problems that stick out and make the game unplayable?
3.) Any thing setting and/or system wise that doesn’t make sense (excluding Scores which I haven't written yet but are explained below)?
4.) Any thing that should be explained more/at all (once again excluding Scores which are below, sort of)?

What still needs to be done:

Scores. I envisioned them basically similar to Kickers from Sorcerer in structure, but they are actually designed by someone else. I’ve got a list of guidelines for what a Score is and isn’t. Basically, when you need a score, you do a Reading similar to a Cold reading like John Edwards and Co. do (obviously this would be much simpler and "gamified" for maximum fun). Any player at the table could take the part of the person being read and from that reading you would have your Score. Then its off to mayhem and chaos hoping this will be the Big Retirement Score (and of course it won't be, but the ride'll be fun :D ).

Heavy Editing. I suck as a writer. ;)

Aaron Brown

Well, the only thing that sticks out for me is that I was constantly waiting for the mechanical reinforcement of the whole "scuzzy slime-bag" thing. It's such a huge deal in the description that I figured it would make its presence known through the rules.

But I didn't see it. The rules would just as well have supported Travis describing his actions as talking the girl into coming with him willingly, and then arguing the yard-ape into submission.

Now I totally accept that people on-board with your concept will flock to the slime aspect without much prompting. But will they be able to stay there when other, gentler, more socially acceptable ways of doing services for the ghosts have the same outcome and less risk?

TonyLB wrote: Well, the only thing that sticks out for me is that I was constantly waiting for the mechanical reinforcement of the whole "scuzzy slime-bag" thing. It's such a huge deal in the description that I figured it would make its presence known through the rules.

But I didn't see it. The rules would just as well have supported Travis describing his actions as talking the girl into coming with him willingly, and then arguing the yard-ape into submission.

Now I totally accept that people on-board with your concept will flock to the slime aspect without much prompting. But will they be able to stay there when other, gentler, more socially acceptable ways of doing services for the ghosts have the same outcome and less risk?

Hi FS,

What confuses me about the current version with its psychic-medium focus is what you really have in mind for the exact nature of the scumbaggery.

You see, most people who believe that John Edwards and his ilk are scumbags (and I include myself in that group -- people-who-believe-etc, that is, not scumbags -- ok, perhaps both), do so because they believe that psychics cannot talk to the dead, and that all claims that they can do so are either self-delusions or lies.

In your world, the psychics really can receive messages from the dead and communicate those messages, as well as perform other services that really do bring some sort of comfort to the restless deceased. So they're not necessarily lying. Indeed, if dead people are seeking them out to relay messages and settle unresolved life issues, they don't really have much reason to use the typical deceptions we normally associate with psychics. So if they're scumbags, it's more likely because of scummy stuff they did before they became psychic mediums, and they became (genuine) mediums to try to wipe out the karmic debt they acquired beforehand. This makes them, in their current careers, at least a shade heroic.

I guess the problem comes down to the game apparently being based on portraying what scumbags J. Edwards et. al. are, but in doing so it negates the very thing that makes them scumbags in real life, which is that psychic powers are phony.

This is all actually a minor quibble, more with the presentation of the game than with the meat of the game design itself. Even so, a shift to caper fiction in general sounds promising. That would give it, I think, more flexibility and broader appeal (while still maintaining a good stylistic focus). A lot more could be examined in play than endless repetition of "look what scumbags these people are." (The Dortmunder novels by Westlake come especially to mind.)

- Walt

Walt Freitag wrote: Hi FS,

What confuses me about the current version with its psychic-medium focus is what you really have in mind for the exact nature of the scumbaggery.

You see, most people who believe that John Edwards and his ilk are scumbags (and I include myself in that group -- people-who-believe-etc, that is, not scumbags -- ok, perhaps both), do so because they believe that psychics cannot talk to the dead, and that all claims that they can do so are either self-delusions or lies.

In your world, the psychics really can receive messages from the dead and communicate those messages, as well as perform other services that really do bring some sort of comfort to the restless deceased. So they're not necessarily lying. Indeed, if dead people are seeking them out to relay messages and settle unresolved life issues, they don't really have much reason to use the typical deceptions we normally associate with psychics. So if they're scumbags, it's more likely because of scummy stuff they did before they became psychic mediums, and they became (genuine) mediums to try to wipe out the karmic debt they acquired beforehand. This makes them, in their current careers, at least a shade heroic.

I guess the problem comes down to the game apparently being based on portraying what scumbags J. Edwards et. al. are, but in doing so it negates the very thing that makes them scumbags in real life, which is that psychic powers are phony.

This is all actually a minor quibble, more with the presentation of the game than with the meat of the game design itself. Even so, a shift to caper fiction in general sounds promising. That would give it, I think, more flexibility and broader appeal (while still maintaining a good stylistic focus). A lot more could be examined in play than endless repetition of "look what scumbags these people are." (The Dortmunder novels by Westlake come especially to mind.)

- Walt

I think you have a tremendous opportunity to portray people who get themselves into untenable situations while trying (in their own peculiar way) to do the best they can.

How? Just make Dead the more interesting of the two attributes. Deliberately. Then people will crank up their Dead score at the expense of their Quick. What's the result of a low Quick? Debt-collecters knocking at your door, people whose relatives you've channelled calling you a hoax and wanting you dead, and problems with your girlfriend.

In short, the very thing that sets these people apart is also (game-mechanically) the thing that will make their current lives filled with unresolved tension, and drive them to pursue change and risk. They can talk to the dead and therefore they can't manage to live their lives without the help of the dead.

To change the emphasis on what working with the dead earns people, you'd just have to ditch the karma angle. Make the dead canny enough to offer things that the living can use (but which they have passed beyond direct need for). This links tightly with the whole concept of unfinished business that makes mediums such a powerful element in narrative.

Ferinstance, you could have a criminal who hid a fortune in stolen money that he wanted to get to his innocent daughter, and was then murdered by his scummy brothers in crime, who didn't realize until too late that they didn't know where the money was. Right there you've got selfish motive for the medium (a cut of the take), a possible noble motive to live up to as the story progresses (fulfilling a desperate spirits generous if criminal wish) and a ready-made group of antagonists to act as a foil (the murderers).

Anyway, those are my late night thoughts. If I'm tossing you ideas that don't fit with the things about the game that excite you I certainly won't be either surprised or offended to hear it.