Has anyone ever used PTA for the following types of non-fiction shows?

- documentary/news story
- reality tv (a day in the life of, extreme makeover, survivor, paradise hotel)

If yes, what were your experiences?

Probably not, though, as that's not what PTA is made for. What's missing in PTA to 'do' these last two types (Survivor/Paradise Hotel), I ask of those who've got PTA experience.

I just bought PTA to mine it for ideas for my own concept, pimp my prehistory/extreme planet makeover, and I think there are good reasons why you would need different game mechanics (from PTA) to capture the feel of competition in a Paradise Hotel-esque situation.

The line between reality TV and soap operas has always been fairly thin.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=227794

That is the link to the reality show about normal people becoming hardened bounty hunters.  It was fun and we are all itching to get back together and play.

I'd hesitate to expect PTA to work if you haven't brainstormed the concept with the group and everyone isn't fully invested in it.

Oh, I agree that PTA would work best if the group brainstorms and is involved with it (it might even work without, but definately better with).

Thanks for the link!

Since I can't edit -

I looked over the thread, Judd, and it looks like a fun concept. However, it's still 'reality-tv' in the sense that it's the 'story' of a number of characters.

Something like Big Brother, where the audience calls in and the least popular character goes away, or Paradise Hotel, where there's an election by the characters, would have a feel not captured well by PTA's mechanics - is my guess. Still, it's a guess, and I'm looking for reasons people'd agree or disagree.

What do the players who are voted off do?  Do they affect the environment but not have characters?  Do they take over an off screen persona?  I think this is the crucial thing to solve-- most games are bad enough if you're without a character but can make one... if you're out for the rest of the season, what do you do?

--Scott

I'm more into a 'levels' thing, inside the game - like that one about the sea nomad (survivor-esque shows).

and with pimped dino's, audience appreciation will allow another bit of surgery every episode for the winner. instead of tossing people out. and the more surgery you've had, the higher your chances of winning.

That's way out of PTA territory, I think.  If the first Survivor season were a PTA game, it'd all be about how Richard ends up winning, even though everyone thinks he's a jerk.  On the other hand, a reality show like Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, where he takes fifteen underprivileged youths and tries to train them up to run a restaurant with him (I may be getting the details wrong) would totally work, particularly if you have a group of foodies like me who would enjoy the culinary details. 
("OK, if you win the roll Jamie says your souffle is the best he's ever had, and if you lose, he gets food poisoning.")

I guess it depends on the point of view the audience (players) want to have in relation to the story that's being told. Do they want to tell/observe the story about the reality contest - or do they want to participate in the contest itself, feel the uncertainty?

I was actually considering running PTA as a reality game with a few friends of mine.  What we'd decided were that each protagonist creates four characters and has one generic set of screen presence for the entire thing.  They choose one character as their main character, and all the other characters are ancillary.    If the main character gets voted off or otherwise eliminated, then the player simply picks up an ancillary character for the next show, and that character becomes their new main character.  Eliminations were done by dealing out screen presence worth of cards to each player and counting successes.  Highest one got to choose.  (Of course, there were also immunity tokens that were won during the game.)

We only planned it though, and everyone thought it was very exciting..but it turns out that our main PTA game may not go that way.

Not PTA related, but gaming reality-TV related:  The Upgrade, a Jeepform game from Denmark.  Actual Play report here.