Last night, in IRC, we started putting together an IRC game. After throwing a bunch of ideas around, we settled into a groove and started getting creative.

I learned this thing: the game is much facilitated by figuring out who the producer is going to be ahead of time. Helps to keep people focused.

Here's the series bible we came up with:

"Sky Prophets"

"People have retreated to a huge cave known as "Sky", to escape a menace from deeper underground. Their technology is failing, however, so a band of intrepid heroes must explore the abandoned depths, to save their home from an even more dire threat. The protagonists are one of eight heavily-armed teams that have been sent down to search."

"The technology of Sky diamond age-stye, with nanomachines that can make virtually everything... But the people don't know how to write the programs that create new things. One of the things people go delving for, are programs. They're searching for information, the ultimate treasure. Its all old tech, been there for centuries, and now its breaking down, because they can't make certain spare parts, because they don't have the programs for them."

"There are hints that its something down below that's exacerbating the breakdown."

"Power is grabbed from geothermal energy, partly, but also from "lightning veins". Maybe cables, maybe rods, maybe it's just charging actual metal veins, but SOMETHING, -somewhere-, is shooting vast amounts of electricity into the crust. The veins that Sky depends on have become unstable lately... discovering why this is happening, or locating new veins, is another goal of the teams. The teams are being sent out in secret, because the populace does not know about the desperate conditions in the nanoforge."

"There is no electronic information storage technology in Sky. Memory chips are one of the things they can't make, and they have scavenged all they have, to keep their nanoforge working. The colors in Sky are muted neon colors. Blues and oranges and violets. No red, yellow, green."

"Alexandra is a "pure" human in peak condition who trusts in her own abilities, but has little faith in the abilities of others. Her issue is trusting others. Her edges are Incredibly Athletic, Combat Prodigy and Breathtakingly Beautiful. Her connections are Bucephalus "Bo" Brown, her mentor and trainer, and his son Karl, who is her regular sparring partner, rival, and potential love interest. Her nemesis is Julia, Bo's daughter, a member of Sky's ruling senate. Julia hates Alexandra, because Bo pays more attention to her than he does to his own daughter. Her personal set is an antigravity sensory deprivation chamber, which she uses for workouts and meditation."

"Damien is a loner, a scholar who specializes in the history and mythology of the people of Sky. His issue is Guilt, over the death of his wife. A device he was tinkering with went haywire during a lightning-vein surge, and he blames himself for it. His edges are "Multispectral Vision" (from his cybernetic implant), "Technological visionary", and "Perfect Memory". His connections are Todd, a teenage kid that admires him, and is always trying to get him to teach him things, and Hans, who is the team's requisition contact in the nanoforge. His nemesis is his wife's brother, Nils, who really DOES blame him for the accident. His personal set is Sky's vast library, to which he is one of the few (outside of the Senate) with unrestricted access."

"Haimi is a brash technician, constantly tweaking and modifying her myriad implants and replacements. Her issue is self-worth: "I'm not strong enough to do things on my own." This is symbolized by the rider chip she has in her brain, that provides her with psychic support to carry on, in the form of a second personality, a partner. Her edges are "Legba", the name of this rider, "Cybernetics", and "Brilliant Technical Aptitude". Her connections are Julia, Senator and proto-revolutionary, and Russ, the tech from Below who helps maintain all her implants, which are not of Sky-tech. Her nemesis is Croesus, the wealthy owner of the corporation that runs Sky's one remaining nanoforge. Her personal set is the surgery where her implants are maintained and changed out. This place is in Below, but not far from Sky."

At this point we're still short one character, which we hope to make up at some point between now and game day, using the same collaborative style that produced these characters.

Since this is my first time as Producer, I'm figuring out what my job is between now and game day. I'm sure I want to have a fairly simple plot for the pilot, something that will not require a lot of screen time, so that there will be plenty of time to introduce protagonists, issues, connections, and nemeses.

One of the aspects we talked about briefly was the fact that PTA doesn't really support "advancement", but our setup has advancement (in terms of programs and resources discovered) as a strong theme... if the PC's are successful, they will be able to possibly create new resources that they can turn around and use in their adventures.

This is yet another PTA show that I wish was on TV.

About "advancement" and group resources:
You might consider giving the group a community Edge to represent some resource or widget that they uncover. It would work like any other Edge, except that any player can call on it for a conflict as if it was her own. You could give the community Edge three "uses" per session rather than tying it to a particular Screen Presence.

I considered doing this for a sci-fi PTA game I was planning. The group could have community edges to represent their starship and community connections for "red shirt" crew.

Hm. That might be a way to do it... I'll talk it over with the other participants

I really like this idea. In fact, I can see all the sets in my head as I'm reading this little bit. One question: Is Julia the Nemesis the same as Julia the Contact?

Yes, she is; I suggested it, and the players thought it was a great idea.

One thing it allows me to do, is to put some of Julia's thoughts onscreen. After a confrontation with Alexandra, Julia might confide a bit in Haimi. On the other hand, Julia might use her friendship with Haimi to get the goods on Alexandra. It's an AC ciruit...

efindel finally got with me to make his character...

"Jackson is a gregarious, easy-going doctor. His issue is conceit, specifically about his social skills. He beleives that all it takes to be a good leader, is to know how to manipulate people. His edges are "understands people", "brilliant surgeon", and "good under pressure". His contacts are Croesus (see above) and Heather, a psychoanalyst whose "book learning" and experience in psychology sometimes supplements Jackson's instinctive knowledge. His nemesis is his father, Gregory, the ex-senator whose seat Julia now holds. Jackson engineered Gregory's defeat by manipulating his mother, brothers, sisters, and everyone else close to his father. His personal set is his office and surgery."

This is very cool.

About "advancement," John's idea is good (community edge), and also consider taking a page from Trollbabe and having the stakes be bigger as the characters increase in ability. That is, the dice rolls are all the same, but the opposition is of greater scale.

Really, if you think about D&D and similar games, when you increase in ability, you end up fighting tougher monsters, so you end up needing to roll a 15 to hit the ogre just like you needed a 15 to hit the kobold when you were a level lower. The dice are the same, but the scale has changed. In Primetime Adventures, that's easily handled without the dice. Any greater scope of resources available to the character (like new spells in D&D) is handled by the player narrating the character using those new resources.

Matt, I think you're very much on top of it about advancement. I'm not going to play with the number of edges available right away. What PTA lacks (and Trollbabe doesn't) is a mechanic for going "up a level" and attempting to act in a sphere to which your PC has not yet graduated.

I've been working up a relationship map for this game, and I've come to a conclusion... there are some implicit relationships between NPC's that need to be made more explicit.

Hans is clearly an employee of Croesus.

Heather (Jackson's contact), Hans (Damien's contact), and Bucephalus (Alexandra's contact) are all people who support the scouting teams, and probably know each other professionally.

Julia and Croesus are either partners, or rivals; given Julia's revolutionary tendencies, I'd be inclined more towards the latter, but politics makes strange bedfellows, and it would be an interesting plot point if later on we find that they are in cahoots.

Russ (and to a lesser extent, Todd) are clearly outsiders, so don't NEED to be integrated deeply into the R-map, though I think it would be interesting if Todd were the son of (or otherwise related to) one of the other characters, such as Heather.

Nils, on the other hand, I think, NEEDS a deeper connection to the R-map. He's floating alone, when I don't think he needs to be.

We'll talk more about this at tonight's game.

I suppose I ought to post what happened, eh?

I won't bother with the plot details... one of the players can do that.

What I'll talk about is my feelings and impressions about producing in PTA.

1> Not only is preparation not a good idea for this game... it's not POSSIBLE. Just go in there and play whatever comes to mind.

2> Finishing a half an episode in three hours via IRC was a PIPE DREAM.

3> As producer, your job is merely to facilitate, keep people on task, and be an authority on the rules.

In contrast with herr producer, I found that I absolutely needed prepare for this game; I hadn't, and that really dragged things out when I was involved (which is.. a very nasty habit I have, sigh). I spent some time today working up a list of several scenes I wanted - sometimes just an image I wanted to build around, like Haimi in her set with her gun-arm on the table - as well as a few general encounters or themes I wanted to explore.

Now, when it's my turn, and I'm asked to decide on a scene, agenda, et cetera, I have something to work with. I felt hopelessly lost during the first session because I just.. hadn't thought that far ahead!

I'll probably wait to comment on all the plot bits until we've finished the pilot episode. In summary:

Scene 1: Alexandra, Damien, Jackson being overwhelmed by Deep Thingies and getting into Russ' surgery.

Scene 2: Alexandra flashback, Alex vs Julia, seeing how Alex winds up on the team.

Scene 3: Team seeing Haimi with new gun/cannon arm.

Also: I think I'm wholly uncomfortable with the ability to just flatly narrate what other characters do, including providing dialogue for them. Having not read the rules, maybe that's not the way to do it and I'm just seeing play wrong.

Heya, I'm Damiens player. I wanted to throw in a couple things.

I was very taken by the "this is a TV show" aspect, and would narrate things from a cinemagraphic perspective (i.e. The camera pans out, and we see another wave of slavering Deep Ones preparing to charge. Cut to Alexandra...etc). I think thinking about it this way made me more comfortable with narrating the other players actions, though personally I was careful to prompt for dialogue, but not write it myself.

At first I thought that this was just cuz it was in IRC, but now thinking about it, I would defintiely narrate things that way IRL as well. I don't own the rules, so I don't know if thats encouraged in the text or not, but it adds a lot of Color for me.

I also felt that we had pretty unequal amounts of player input, but I think this was mainly because we only made it through three scenes, and one of them had only one PC. I was satisfied, because I ended up narrating one scene, but I dunno if that held true for everyone...

I am definitely looking forward to another session, and I definitely had fun.

I think one of the problems is the IRC medium. It's hard to get subtle feedback about narration. You will get a solid "yes" or "no" or nothing at all. The real time feedback that helps you regulate free narration in a face to face game is not present.

It is also important to remember that "Narration rights" really mean "Final authority over what goes into the SIS" not "only person talking". Again, this is much harder to execute in the IRC medium. I imagine that narration is much more freewheeling in a face to face game.

Still and all, it was a fun session. We're still trying to ensure solid Agendas for scenes so that things flow right though...

Thomas

I'm working on a system for handling narration versus lines during conflict resolution, inspired by Capes.

The number of sentences of narration you get will be related to the number of the high die that won you narration. When you post them, you number them. As they come out, players can post lines their characters say, as part of that narration.

That sounds pretty cool. Is there more to it?

I might have to create a section on the website, and maybe on this forum, for optional rules like that.

It's not a fully-formed "rule" yet, it's just an idea... so wysiwyg in that regard.

I'll post more when I have worked out a few little wrinkles.

Vaxalon's post gave me an (I think) workable solution. You are allowed a number of lines of narration equal to the number of dice rolled for a single side of the Conflict (bigger conflicts have more narration). Each line of narration needs to be free-standing so that the other players can get in and react in between them. You also get the final word with your last narration...

It would probably take some playtesting, but I believe that it would provide more consistency than a number of lines related to the high roll.

EDIT: Crossposted with Vaxalon.

Thomas

That makes sense.

Also, the numbers the narrator uses aren't completely sequential. He leaves out as many numbers as he feels there ought to be lines of dialogue in between. If there's no room for dialogue, then there's no dialogue.

If the conflict IS dialogue (such as the scene between Alex and Julia), then the narration consists of a description of what happens in the next few lines of dialogue. So if there were four lines of narration granted in the conflict, the resolution between Alexandra and Julia might have gone like this...

1. Alexandra asks why Julia has been blocking her application to join the teams.
4. Julia explains her reasons.
8. Alexandra loses her temper, and reveals that she has gone over Julia's head.
10. Julia makes it clear that there will be consequences.

A quick update...

The game continues apace. We're almost all the way through the pilot (due to a certain someone being very late...but he'll make up for it via confectionary, apparentely). We're starting to find a better groove, and everything was flowing better this session than last session. In comparison to the first session, and in contrast to some other PTA threads I've seen, we've been pushing less for conflicts in every scene, rather than more. We've also been having a lot of discussion about the general plot and pacing we want, which I think is also a contrast with some other PTA games. Not owning the game, I dunno what the actual text says about this kind of thing, but it's been working out for us, I think.

Plotwise, we had a flashback to see why Damien was in on the expedition, and also why Haimi dissapeared in the first place (an accident with a prototype device that Damien designed, tying in nicely with Damiens Issue). In "realtime", we got back to Sky (amid some impressive visuals, courtesy of the producer), and then explored Haimi's new arm a little more, discovering that it wasn't Sky technology. Julia, Alexandras nemesis, got this info and went to the council with it.

For next session, we're planning to finish up the pilot and hopefully start in on the first real episode, I believe.

PTA may just have to be my next RPG purchase.

I have reached GMing nirvana. A great session, with absolutely no preparation whatsoever.

I just ran the whole thing off the seat of my pants.

The players decided that the pilot would consist merely of explaining how each of the members got on the team, and set them up for their first mission, without actually DOING anything, in terms of accomplishments.

Fine with me.

I concentrated on introducing as many of the fascinating NPC's.

I am pretty proud of the introduction for Nils, though.

Our Producer is the biggest post-slacker known to man. -.-

Third and final session was pretty short; Jackson had an Aztec-basketball game with Croesus (which he lost, and so volunteered for a twelve-month stint on the patrol), then we had the swearing-in ceremony; bit of convo with Jackson and an NPC (one of his Contacts, I think?) and Damien with a couple of his contacts.

And that pretty much wrapped it up.

PTA is weird for me. I veryveryvery much want my game up front with some dice; I've barely touched the dice at all. It's still been okay fun. I'm still sorting Haimi out, and I seem to take a good hour-hour and a half to really get that gaming groove on (I basically off-screened Haimi in the last session due to this; it was a short wrap-up bit, and I didn't really have my warm-up time).

Plus, Haimi's somehow been pivotal to this whole thing so far, so now I'm stuck with Presence 3 for the first real ep. Argh. >_< It kinda bums me out; I would've preferred to do a couple of lesser SPs just to work up the character more. Now I feel like I'm blowing it all up front and the best I can manage is.. I dunno. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Not sure how I feel about PTA as "roleplaying game" the way I like to define it. It's neat, it reminds me of my MUSH days in some ways, which I've missed.