Anyone planning to attend Forge Midwest and interested in playtesting Acts of Evil during one of the Saturday slots?

Paul

Yes.

Best, Ron

I loved this game.  I'm gathering my thoughts about the playtest at Forge Midwest. I want more, and I want to talk about the game here.  Looking forward to it...

Chris

I didn't get to play. I lay occult curses on everyone and everything, except for the - hack, spit, rage! - other adepts who are beyond my power ...

... oh wait, that's everyone and everything.

Best, Ron

Things I loved about Acts of Evil:

1.  NPC's becoming more "human" than the protagonists through the addition of traits.
2.  A unique and evil way for players to interact with each other.
3.  The bidding and setting creation.

I remember really wanting things to progress more quickly; a race to godhood or ruin. 

Just some intial impressions.  How do they jibe with other people's opinions?

Chris

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the love. I've been thinking a lot lately about this exact player desire across modern roleplaying games:

I remember really wanting things to progress more quickly; a race to godhood or ruin.

A couple of folks have told me they think The Shab-al-Hiri Roach would be a better game with fewer acts. I've seen many many more actual play posts about single-session games of My Life with Master than I have about multi-session games. And people are often asking on the forums for advice on how to run My Life with Master and other games in a single session.

With the clear evidence of demand for single-session play, why do we keep designing games that play out over multiple sessions? I'd like to think that in my case, it's pragmatic. Bacchanal does its job in a single evening. My Life with Master takes longer. Single-session players of My Life with Master not infrequently say, in retrospect, that they wished they'd done a multi-session game.

But I wouldn't be averse to embedding some kind of single-session option in Acts of Evil. Except, for example, I know a number of folks who cite Unknown Armies as their favorite game, on the basis of only ever having played the "Bill In Three Persons" scenario. That's lame. If I were to put a single-session option into the Acts of Evil text, I'd want something that would provoke subsequent multi-session play. Not something that sates the craving to play the game. I'd want something that stokes it. But I'm not sure what that option might be like.

Any thoughts?

Paul

'd want something that would provoke subsequent multi-session play. Not something that sates the craving to play the game. I'd want something that stokes it.

Paul,

I wonder if part of the answer to your question has something to do with the agenda players want to pursue. Our local Madison folks got into a discussion about short duration versus longer duration games. My memory of it is that folks with more of a Nar agenda wanted to get into the "good stuff" right now, and folks with a more Sim agenda wanted to play longer games to maintain immersion after the establishing of an identity.

I think another thing might be that getting together for more than one game might be problematic for many of your customers.

Paul,

You might want to take another look at Gnostigmata's Contest Tree.  I've only done a couple of playtests, but it seems to be working like a charm (in its goal of generating rising tension) and might be similar to what you're looking for.

I'm targeting the length of an Act to be about a single session (most likely 3-5 Scenes).  Multiple Acts make up a longer story until the Climax is attained.

Opposing sides vie for victory in Scenes in order to "win" the outcome of an Act.  When a side wins enough Acts, they win the right to narrate the Climax.  So, each session is an entire Act-level game that feeds into a higher-level conflict that spans over multiple sessions.