Quick <a href="http://esotericmurmurs.blogspot.com/2005/10/cat-and-caedmon-breaking-ice.html">link to a blogged actual play writeup of my first full series of 3 dates in BtI.

Brought up some observations/questions about how Turns end.  Emily, forgive me for being a putz and asking this in the forum before combing the rules and seeing if it's answered somewhere I didn't notice, but the rules say a turn ends when one of three things happens -- (a) an Attraction or Compatibility level is gained, (b) there are no more dice to roll, (c) the active player chooses to end it.

Does that mean that gaining an attraction or compatibility level *automatically* triggers end-of-turn?

I'm hoping the answer is yes, because I like the implications for how that makes things work.

Cheers,

Ed

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the link. Glad you are enjoying the game!  Great questions & comments. You hit a lot of the bigger & more long-term issues of the game. 

Yes, a turn ends as soon as somebody gains either and Attraction level or a Compatibility. You can't get both in a turn, or more than one of either.  And from your description of the date, you got to see the long-term arc of the story: as the characters grow closer, the players rely less and less on the conflicts & mess-ups to gain dice.  Although, ironically, as your Attraction level goes up, that increases the potential number of Re-Rolls you have available to you. 

And I think you're right on about having the conflicts be internal as well as external. In your game the conflicts were about a stalking ex and clumsiness.  It would be totally kosher to bring in how the character him or herself felt about those issues, like sneaking around to make sure the date wasn't discovered by the ex like you suggested, or having the character express how he feels about being clumsy would be great.  As long as you both agree that it relates to the conflict, it's all good.  More to clarify in the game text with the next real revision!

And playing out sex....sounds like the lines & veils worked out fine for you.  It's funny how we can narrate conflict & violence in any kind of detail, but sex and affection can be so much more problematic. 

best,
Emily

Dang, this is a cool game!  Ed played a demo at Gen Con and told me about it.  I bought it on his testimony alone, and I'm glad I did and I'm glad we finally got to play.

Emily, thanks for clearing up those points for us.  I think I have a better grasp on using the conflicts now.  Truthfully, I had a few more opportunities to use the stalker ex, but I was happy with the dice that I had, and it just didn't feel right to bring it in.

One of the coolest things in the game is the word web.  It was funny, I kept getting mad at Ed for putting weird crap into my web, like "The Simpsons" and playing "wraith" off of my word "ring", but from those I ended up with the traits Pop Culture and Lord of the Rings Fanatic, both of which helped to really define Cat.

Yep, no problem with lines and veils.  After choosing our genre, we decided to just see where things went for the characters.  It just happened to go a bit into the explicit. 

I don't really have much to add to Ed's post.  I can't wait to try the game out again.

- joe