Improvised game run at Arcon

This is written from memory, which in my case means it’s full of great big holes and errors. Still...

Gaute, Haakon and I have a bit of time on our hands, the evening before the con actually starts, and we’re sitting in the entrance hall of the University. Haakon & I have had a drink, we’re eating snacks, and I ask if they’d like to do an improvised game. They agree, so we go at it. The atmosphere is very light, we’re just a little bored, but charged with the thrill of being at Arcon once again.

I ask for names for their characters. I don’t recall them now, but they’re along the names of Jake and Robin. I then ask each of the players what they’re wearing; they describe some sort of modern gangster outfit.

“Okay, you’re falling from a great big cliff. The drug deal went bad, your car just went over the edge, and you’re falling fast. Who’s standing on top of the cliff, looking at you?” They and I establish there’s two rival gangsters up there. I ask each player what the other player’s relation is to each of them, and it turns out one of the PC’s is some sort of mentor to the youngest of the rival gangsters.

So. “You’re falling. What happens now?” Haakon goes: “I forget how to fall, and stop falling”. I think, great! Sure, it’s right from Hitchhikers’s Guide, but it still works. After a while, Robin also stops falling. However, Jake character gets sick and... pukes right down into Robin’s face. Robin has his mouth wide open in astonishment.

Now, Haakon (I think) suggests that the car doesn’t fall either, and I rule that makes great sense, since it doesn’t really know it’s supposed to. So the two of them drive around the cliff, there’s a fight, I think they kill the two gangsters, then drive away into the air.

Now what? Someone - I think me - mentions there’s a big entertainment park up on the next mountain. The players drive towards it. I describe the brilliant lights, the huge looping rollercoaster rising high into the air. I describe the kids sitting in it, yelling with delight, except one guy who’s too big for his age, and is just sitting staring vacantly straight ahead.

The players decide to chicken race the rollercoaster. I describe how the kids are terrified, there’s almost a crash. I think the rollercoaster cart ends up hanging upside down. The electricity goes, the huge screen that used to show DisneyWorld stuff now shows a blue screen of death (or something similar). I describe the silence, strange darkness. The players step out to rescue the kids.

Haakon (or I?) drops a stray comment about calming them down with drugs. Cut scene: The characters are sitting in the rollercoaster car with the children, sparks flying silently through the cold night air. They’re heating up the needles, showing the kids how to shoot up. It’s all very beautiful and totally, totally wrong, which is why we love it so much, I guess.

After a while, the characters load all the kids into their car and drive to the moon, where they establish a lunar colony. We play through a quick epilogue, which I’ve forgotten, then sit around and laugh for a while. The people at the table next to us have been listening, some of them wantet to join in but weren’t allowed to leave the game they were in.

I’m thinking, this is the best game I’ve run for ages. It was great fun, no holds barred, nothing to keep us fenced in, nothing. No expectations of something grand and poetic, no head-scratching over-analytic playtesting. No moral barriers, we just went totally out on a limb and accepted everything we threw at each other. It was wonderful.

I've asked the players to read & comment; hopefully they will.

It was a fun-filled hour at this years ARCON. I don't really remember my charchters name except that it was german and he had a certain Rammstein look let's call him Klaus, while Gaute's were more of a hip-hop'er like Rickey or something. What were fun was that Matthijs let us tell what happened to the other character. So Matthijs had established that we were in free fall down a cliff with a car. I was feeling a bit silly so I thought of Hitchhiker's and said "I just forget how to fall". Matthijs says something like "So Ricky needs a distraction to forget falling. Haakon what kind of woman do he like?". Since he was a hip-hop'er I said "He prefers black women", and Matthijs tells him about his dream of Jasmine. In a silly mood Matthijs states that one of the guys above pukes because he's surprised at our failure to fall and Matthijs asks me what Rick does just before puke hits him. "His mouth is open" was my answer. Anyway we manage to drive up the cliff, kill those goons, then Matthijs asks Gaute what my character feel and Gaute answers rage and sorrow.When Matthijs asks him to elaborate, Gaute states that Klaus was a mentor and gay lover to one of the goons. Matthijs tells me that the lights of the amusement park on the hill is blinking so merrily and that all I feel is rage and sadness. We get in the car and instead of driving back to town I decide to play chicken with a rollercoaster car thet's stuck on top. We crash into it and the rest is more or less like Matthijs told you. It was great fun and no holds barred roleplaying. Totally amoral and totally fun! ;)
Haakon

No moral barriers, we just went totally out on a limb and accepted everything we threw at each other. It was wonderful.

matthijs wrote: We play through a quick epilogue, which I’ve forgotten, then sit around and laugh for a while.

Well, Noon, I think that our breaking of restrictions on form also allowed us to be very free with content. As we had no stated goal, and no one had a set idea from the beginning, the basic attitude quickly became "We're going with this ride that's out of control. Let's have fun doing it!"

Cutting loose from social obligations are fun. But it should lead to the realisation that restrictions aren't the tool of others. They are your tool to achieve a goal.