Brandon Parigo's SleepOver makes a nice partner with Best Friends, so I'm posting their results as twin threads. Here are the comments that apply to both.

These games feature great player-character creation, including incredible opportunities for conflict, and then they sprawl into a mess. The conflict doesn't become anything interesting in play. "Let's put girls with issues into play and then, I dunno, situations will arise somehow." I like to talk about how character creation is the first step in a reward system, and as I see it, we're looking here at engines without wheels.

It's especially jarring because I think the conflicts that are usually dramatized in films and novels through a set of female family members and friends and acquaintances are really really powerful, and could very well be the core of many possible excellent role-playing games. With each of these games, I said, "Ooh, neat engine!", sat in the seat, and then found no gas pedal, no axles, no wheels ... When given all the examples in literature, film, and folklore, it seems like it'd be quite easy.

In SleepOver, I really like the little index card, and I think it would work well with the truth vs. rumors mechanic. My real stopping-point occurred when I realized that play had nowhere to go but down - once you had these characters and the cards, then it all just became an exercise in the Dozens, plus histrionics.

That's why I was very interested in the "best friend" status, which as it stands, states that you choose the target but the best friend decides how ... which certainly favors either (a) backing someone up totally when they're melting down, or (b) being a total bitch to someone who thinks you're their best friend. H'm, I said, this is getting neat. Except then the best-friend options don't measure up - either the whole conflict and resolution system is set at naught if your BF says "this isn't so bad," or you're effectively eliminated from play via the meltdown.

If you'd like to develop SleepOver, then I suggest that a simple exchange of abuse not be the primary element of play, but rather a way to reveal and resolve the issues that define the player-characters. Once a good profile of rumors + truth gets established through play (which I think is cool), then what?

Best,
Ron

I do plan on developing SleepOver more.  One of my current ideas is to add a few more stats to the character that would define how they interact in the game world with each other besides rumormongering.  Then the game could center around rumors and insults while the girls do things that girls do at sleepovers, like sneak out and meet the boys.  I do not know exactly how I plan on doing this yet, but the goal is to get the characters involved in situations that fuel the rumors and insults.

Thank you for your feedback Ron.  I really enjoyed this experience and I plan on doing a new Ronnie entry this weekend.

Brandon

Hi Brandon,

I'm not going to lie to you - SleepOver is too weak, at this point, to be strengthened simply by expanding the scope of resolution into things like "seeing boyfriends" or "going to the mall" or whatever.

I suggest that the reason anyone is interested in stories about such characters has nothing to do with "who wins the status pissing match." It is, instead, based on interest in whether and how the characters mature at all.

In some ways, I'd like to see the character creation and resolution in SleepOver crossed with the overall story-structure of All Growed Up. The strengths of each game nicely fill in the gaps in the other.

Best,
Ron

Ron,

It looks like one of my unspoken (even to myself) design goals clashed with what you were expecting out of the games in your contest.  Looking back over the game, my notes, and this review, it seems like what I was trying to make was more of a party game along the lines of Lunch Money (the card game) but with a roleplaying form.  This I find to be a flaw in the game.  You are right, there needs to be actual growth in the characters during the course of the game. 

This gives me something to work on.

Thank You,

Brandon