So ... Under the Bed gets a lot of buzz, and a lot of people I respect rave about it.  There are neat UtB ads in the back of cool new games I got at Gen Con.  But beyond a paragraph of ad copy, I have no idea what it is about, or how it works, or if it would be fun for me.  Your Web site doesn't help. 

So what's the deal?  What's the single coolest thing about it?  Sell me on your game!

Thanks,

Jason

Geez, what is this, GenCon? ;>

It's a game about toys defending their children from the things children fear. The game assumes that children are afraid because things can hurt them. Things like monsters, bullies, and abusive parents.

What I like most about the game is that players universally bring their own greatest fears to the table and play with them.

The mechanics of the game favor tragedy, and success is almost always bittersweet.

What else can I tell you? What gets you jazzed?

Hey thanks, I didn't mean my question in a bellicose way.  I'm genuinely curious.  UtB sounds like a very intense experience.  Does play take place through a lens of magical realism?  Can your toy directly confront a bully?  Are the fears always well founded?  Are there actual play posts somewhere?  Thanks,

--Jason

Also, I'm curious how Under the Bed compares and contrasts with Little Fears, assuming that you are familiar with the latter work.

Lisa and I were fortunate enough to get a playtest of UtB.  We loved it. 

What I like most about the game is that players universally bring their own greatest fears to the table and play with them.

GreatWolf wrote:
Also, I'm curious how Under the Bed compares and contrasts with Little Fears, assuming that you are familiar with the latter work.

Eric wrote:
Lisa and I were fortunate enough to get a playtest of UtB.  We loved it.

What I like most about the game is that players universally bring their own greatest fears to the table and play with them.

When I first read that line I felt skeptical about it's validity.  But almost immediately I realized it was totally true.  In our short play our child came up against bullies, being lost, and security guards.  Easily three of the top things that scared me when I was that tall.  Stunning stuff.

glyphmonkey wrote:
I'm familiar with it, but I don't really want to comment on it. Suffice to say that they're very different games, about different things. Buy Little Fears, too!

Uhm... so I'm not Joshua.

Don't take anything I say to be his opinion or an official statement from glyphpress.  I'm no more than a big fan of Under the Bed who has also read Little Fears.

Little Fears, in short, is a horror game.  The fear and the center of the game comes from great big supernatural bogies from beyond space and time.  If real people do bad things, it is ultimately linked back to the big supernatural bogies.  These bogies are the central conflict of the game.

Under the Bed is not a horror game.  It is a game about real life.  While the players can introduce genre elements (fantasy, horror, ghost story, whatever), these serve as emotional buffers against the central conflict of the game which is, quite simply, whatever real childhood troubles the players bring to the table.

yrs--
--Ben

Ah, that seems to make sense.  So the default setting of Under the Bed is "the real world", not "the real world plus Closetland".

That helps a lot.  Thanks!

Thanks, Ben.

Seth, the default setting is fairly fantastical. Talking toys, monsters, and the like. The way the game deals with them, though, assumes that they represent real things that you experience and particularly things you experienced as a child.

Many fun and tense games I've played in have had fantastic elements - talking swamps, Messerschmidt dragons, and walking around in train set towns - but those are the medium, not the message.

So, yeah, I read Little Fears, but I didn't find it to really approach the subject I was after, though it had amazingly similar color. For what it's worth, I was already working on UtB when I first came across Little Fears, and knew what I wanted to confront and how.

Thanks, Joshua.  That helps explain a lot.

By the way, while I did not have the chance to look over the rules at Ralph's yesterday, I thought that the format was particularly interesting.  It's not everyday that you see an RPG that could be packaged as a card game.

GreatWolf wrote:
Thanks, Joshua.  That helps explain a lot.

By the way, while I did not have the chance to look over the rules at Ralph's yesterday, I thought that the format was particularly interesting.  It's not everyday that you see an RPG that could be packaged as a card game.

glyphmonkey wrote:

GreatWolf wrote:
By the way, while I did not have the chance to look over the rules at Ralph's yesterday, I thought that the format was particularly interesting.  It's not everyday that you see an RPG that could be packaged as a card game.

It's true, and while it probably doesn't hurt internet sales that it's that format, I'm pretty sure I lost shelf sales at GenCon because it's so small.

I remember this game! Way back in its early development. I can't remember the name though... I got really excited over it (I wanted to play it with my old childhood stuffed animals and action figures, making them jump around the room and stuff). I guess its time to get excited again! Unless I'm really confused and am thinking of a totally different game, which would really suck because it looked cool. Also, I'd look like an ass, but I am an ass, so it doesn't really matter.

Either way, you've sold me.

Kirk

MichaelCurry wrote: Can you describe the format of UtB a bit more, for those of us who haven't seen a copy for ourselves?

Kirk wrote:
I remember this game! Way back in its early development. I can't remember the name though... I got really excited over it (I wanted to play it with my old childhood stuffed animals and action figures, making them jump around the room and stuff). I guess its time to get excited again! Unless I'm really confused and am thinking of a totally different game, which would really suck because it looked cool. Also, I'd look like an ass, but I am an ass, so it doesn't really matter.

Either way, you've sold me.

<looks in the mirror> Well, now that I've opened my mouth, I guess I'll have to admit it looks like an ass to me. The one I was thinking of was back in early 03, if I remember correctly. Similar concept, only there was no emphasis on the toys being shards of the child's psyche. Instead they were the "real" defenders of the child from the bad things in the night. Still, as I said, you've sold me, and I don't get un-sold. Also the game being totally awesome looking. I actually like your idea better.

I think I'll go for the online purchase. Unless you want to come to the old tree over here in Australia. Yeah, that one... Didn't think so.

Kirk

glyphmonkey wrote:

MichaelCurry wrote: Can you describe the format of UtB a bit more, for those of us who haven't seen a copy for ourselves?

Sure. It's a deck of cards, about 2.75" x 5.5", with an instruction book the same size. It comes shrinkwrapped with the book on the front. There are 42 cards, I think. They're glossy black and white.

Kirk wrote:
<looks in the mirror> Well, now that I've opened my mouth, I guess I'll have to admit it looks like an ass to me. The one I was thinking of was back in early 03, if I remember correctly. Similar concept, only there was no emphasis on the toys being shards of the child's psyche. Instead they were the "real" defenders of the child from the bad things in the night. Still, as I said, you've sold me, and I don't get un-sold. Also the game being totally awesome looking. I actually like your idea better.

I think I'll go for the online purchase. Unless you want to come to the old tree over here in Australia. Yeah, that one... Didn't think so.

That sounds pretty cool, and, combined with the many good things I've read about the game, it's enough
to get me to place me order....

No, not Little Fears. Totally different. But that isn't the point. The point is now I have to go and buy your damn game!

Kirk

I picked up UtB at GenCon along with MLWM and kill puppies for Satan.  Each one has totally turned my brain around and provided new perspectives on gaming.

UtB is the only one I've had a chance to play so far.  I didn't do a demo.  One of the guys at the booth (Tony, maybe?) started describing the game to me, and I was immediately sold.  I'm happy to report that it lives up my expectations.

My group of six played a Stephen King flavored game that moved very quickly once we got the hang of it.  We played by narrating both the toys and the child when appropriate, allowing the rolls to determine who proceeded with the next section of narration in the current scene.  UtB worked very well for us.  It set up a framework for the storytelling, provided an interesting challenge resolution that no one found unfair, and let the game run without getting in the way.

At one point my opposition was the child's own rumbling stomach.  What's not to like?

As I understand Under the Bed, Stephen King style stories would be absolutely perfect. Particularly ones like The Body or It. The stories about being a child, the power of imagination and Growing Up.

Kirk

I don't know It well at all, but The Body is just the kind of thing I thought about when designing UtB.

I'm glad you like it! Did I meet you at the con? Who are you?

I'm glad you like it! Did I meet you at the con? Who are you?

Then welcome to the Forge, then!

I'd love to see your Actual Play report. Let us know how the Thief of Always - style game goes, too.

glyphmonkey wrote:
Sure. It's a deck of cards, about 2.75" x 5.5", with an instruction book the same size. It comes shrinkwrapped with the book on the front. There are 42 cards, I think. They're glossy black and white.

The cards are your character sheet. They are the personality traits your toy embodies. They equal dice when your toy is confronting a Conflict.

The collaboration is dramatically different from that in Universalis, but collaboration, it is. I've never playe The Pool, so I can't really comment on that.

Resolution's a complex thing, which is why there are cues in the game: so you don't have to keep it all in your head. It pits the Favoritism of one toy against the Characteristics of another. The player narrating the Conflict rolls one die for each Favorite token, with a Characteristic named for each one. The Protagonist toy of the moment narrates how each of their Characteristics is being used to confront the Conlfict, then rolls them all at once. Highest die wins, giving a +1 on the next roll or resolving the conflict if there is no next roll.

That's the sum. More detail would require writing the book here in this forum, and I want to do other things instead.

There's a place you can get the answers in detail[/a], though!