I originally posted this in my LiveJournal and Judd suggested I might post it here for discussion.

PTA "Life on Mars"

I haven't signed up for anything, but Judd's running PTA. You know, PTA? The Game I Cannot Get To Work Right? And it's Judd, so I know it's going to be awesome, if I can only get in. Well, he's got six folks signed up, so I circle the table like a vulture until I see that only four have showed up and I can sit down and play. The others are Rob Bowell, Jeff of Kryos, Luke's buddy Andy, and Rich from Perfect Score. As always with PTA, it starts off slow. Judd asks us what we don't want to see, I say "superheroes." We go round and round and someone (I think it was Andy) suggests Lost crossed with The West Wing. I'm thinking "two great tastes I know nothing about," but everyone's perked up a little, so we go with it.

We take the internal politicking and the "doing an important job" bit from The West Wing and mix in the mystery and isolation from "Lost" to get a show called "Life on Mars" about the mission to terraform the Red Planet. We decide we're going to be an international mission and rattle off six countries that are likely candidates. Once all five of us have all chosen our country, no one's picked China. I think it's Rob who says "That doesn't make any sense. How could they leave out China?" And then the idea hits the table: "What if that's the mystery? Why are the Chinese left out?" BAM! Real-world problem (five people, but six countries) become game-world drama (Where are the Chinese?).

Jeff recorded the whole session, so I won't go into so many details. We ended up doing the season opener, where my Russian Geologist had a screen presence of 1, but I still had loads of fun. On my turn, I suggested a scene for Rob's Spotlight character, where he's talking to himself about whether he's going to drink before an important flight. In order to show it visually, we have blue-lit/Earth version of him talking with the red-lit/Mars version. He decides not to drink. After they re-merge, we see he was talking to the dog the whole time.

It was a very good time. I'm not sure that it's given me any better insight into how to run PTA, except perhaps to not run it with people prone to not be creatively invested.

This was my favorite game at Dreamation '06.  Judd went and SPOILED IT by having a BETTER GAME with OTHER PEOPLE, but I'll get over it.

I played the alcoholic half-stereotype pilot (half-Swedish, half-Irish) named Peer Somevaguelyirishlastname.  Someone had introduced flashbacks to earlier moments at the bar with the doctor and that was a good thematic element.  The scene that Michael described of Peer having a conversation with himself/the dog was the best scene I've ever played in in PTA, and probably one of the better in gaming period.  One of my favorite things to do with PTA is describe shots and things--I guess it shows what a frustrated filmmaker I am. 

Anyway, the way we described it, the camera was behind and above the two mes.  We were both squatting in front of a low storage cabinet that had a broken bottle of booze--one that had been cracked in my shitty landing earlier.  I then took over camera movement (with Michael's permission) and had the camera swoop and pan down to sidelong view of the red Peer, with the blue Peer having been completely obscured by the red, visually suggesting the unification that came as I said, "Okay, we'll try it without the booze."

Having the dog be in the place on the bed where Earth/blue Peer had been was a stroke of genius, whoever thought of it.

I really liked this game and had a splendid time running it.  Again I left the table thinking about why television wasn't this compelling.

My favorite scene of the game was definitely the one Michael set up with Rob and Michael playing different sides of Rob's character, deciding whether or not to take a drink.  The talking to the dog at the end was the cherry on that scene's cake.  Fantastic.

Jeff recorded the session and more than anything else I hope the iPod mic picked up the sound of chips skittering across the table as Fan Mail was awarded.  That would be really neat.

The recording for this is up.

http://www.ithacagamers.com/downloads.html

The sound quality ain't great but it isn't terrible.

I am just listening to the first hour and it is neat to hear the brainstorming session come together.

Perhaps it is because I was there and could fill in the gaps where the sound is shitty but that whole brainstorming period of PTA is like fucking magic.  This makes me want to go from con to con running nothing but PTA, like 3 times a day.

Paka wrote: This makes me want to go from con to con running nothing but PTA, like 3 times a day.

Bastard will definitely be at DexCon if I have to kidnap him.

I'm enjoying listening to this.  Thanks for posting it, Jeff.

I'm listening to the first recording now. Judd's right: PTA brainstorming is sometimes pure magic. 11 minutes in and you have a fleshed-out Lost/West Wing hybrid set on Mars. I mean... damn. That's rad. I'm looking forward to the rest.

Thanks for recording this and sharing it with us.

John wrote:
I'm listening to the first recording now. Judd's right: PTA brainstorming is sometimes pure magic. 11 minutes in and you have a fleshed-out Lost/West Wing hybrid set on Mars. I mean... damn. That's rad. I'm looking forward to the rest.

Thanks for recording this and sharing it with us.