My first session of Universalis went pretty well, for all that there were only two players in it. I had arranged to give a "demo" at MetaGames, the local gaming store. The only person to show up was a friend of my brother's, Josh. I let him read over the "beginning Universalis" essay, then we started. I decided to throw out the first tenet: "It will take place in Springfield, Missouri" (which is where we live). I figured that a familiar setting might help fire up some creativity. A little unsure, he responded, "No superscience." I asked him what he meant by that, and he said essentially futuristic stuff that doesn't exist today--laser guns and so on. I nodded, and responded, "The genre will be urban fantasy." Starting to roll with it, he said, "Humanity is a slave race." I replied, "This happened relatively recently; within the last ten years or so."

He said, "Humans have no fantastical abilities." I informally Challenged and discussed it with him, modifying it with "But can develop them." He suggested that the invasion and enslavement took place because humans lacked those fantastical abilities. I paid a coin to put the Multiple Tenets rules gimmick into play, and suggested that the elsnavement was due to a world-wide invasion of elves from Underhill who were fed up with man's habit of polluting the environment. He said that Springfield was a prison city for slaves who have led revolts anywhere in the world.

I decided that not all elves are in favor of the enslavement, he passed, and I continued that one group of elves has turned the Bass Pro complex in town into a complex for conducting magical experiments on humans. These elves are the ones who originally came up with a serum that would innoculate elves against the effects of Cold Iron, and the serum is what made the invasion possible. He said that humans could be infused with the ability to use magic, and that such humans are considered dangerous because they can be more powerful than elven mages. I suggested that sometimes instead of the ability to cast spells, humans get super-powers; this often causes changes in their appearance. He added a rider that it _could_ also cause insanity.

After that, I suggested that MSU (Missouri State University) now stood for "Magical Studies University," and that Evangel College (a local Christian seminary school) was now a training ground for paladins, and that Drury (a small private college) has mysteriously vanished, "because no one ever remembers Drury anyway."

After that, we were about out of coins, and ready for our first scene. I paid a coin to put the pre-first-scene refresh rule into play, and we got 5 more coins each. I think that if I end up playing 2-player in the future I'll up the refresh bonus to 10 coins per scene instead of just 5...because no sooner had I set the first scene (Bass Pro parking lot) and introduced a character (Farrah, escaped Bass Pro prisoner (Has full-body red and orange striped fur, feline features including cat ears and tail, and the ability to channel and control fire) and had her hide behind a derelict parked car than I was all out of coins. Josh (who happens to be a programmer) created a Bass Pro Prisoner master template (Has rudimentary knowledge of magical power imbuement process, left shoulderblade is branded with a magical tracking rune that has a 2 mile range and narrows location to within a 50' radius), then took control of Farrah and applied the template to her. Then we were both out of coins and had to end the scene.

Josh bid high on the second scene. He set the scene within a bank building in the Bass Pro parking lot, with a nameless man with a pair of binoculars and a girl named Alicia with no body hair and the ability to control gravity. He then created an Elven Guard master class (Warriors, not researchers; stripped of all emotion; innate ability to sense rune; when hunting someone, will not eat or sleep until that person is caught), and I paid three coins to introduce a guard who inherited from that class and also had a crossbow. We had our first Complication, in which we rolled four dice each. I won, and described Alicia using her gravity powers to throw a desk at the guard, but missing, then paid a coin to introduce Farrah to the scene and another to have her throw a fireball at the guard. Then Josh described the fireball burning a hole through the guard and paid the coins to eliminate him, and had the man look out of the building and say more were coming.

I bid high on the third scene, and paid a coin to continue the previous scene, and another to take over the guard template and one more to add "They all carry longswords." I had Alicia run to the corner and shove some debris off of a trapdoor. Then, at my suggestion, Josh paid three coins to introduce three guards (should I have had him pay six coins since they all had the trait "inherits from Elven Guard master class?) and we had another Complication (I paid another coin to add "Has a pistol" to the nameless binoculars man) in which we rolled a lot more dice and Josh won this time. Josh described one of the guards stabbing the man (and adding "Run through with sword" to the man instead of eliminating him), and Alicia telling Farrah to run and squashing two of the guards while Farrah went through the trapdoor. Then he ceded control to me and I described the third guard advancing on Alicia, who was exhausted from squashing the powers--when the stabbed man, having retrieved his gun, shot him through the head from behind.

Then Josh realized he was late getting home and had to go.

Still, it was a fun first game.

Other than the lack of players (and thus it ending short), did you have any rough patches? What was your favorite mechanical effect in play?

Any comments on play from Josh?

Mike

The main rough patches were running out of money. At the point where Josh had to go home I was just about to propose raising the number of coins in the refresh. I think my favorite effect was the master classes, which cut down considerably on the amount of coins that guard mooks cost.

Josh quite enjoyed the game, and said that he really liked the way it required no preparation; he described a time he went to St. Louis to game with my brother and some friends for a weekend, and they spent eight hours the first day just getting characters rolled up.

For myself, I wish this game had been around fifteen years ago (god, was it really that long?) when I was part of a college campus character-making, ahem, I mean, roleplaying-gaming club.

Sigh, now if only I could find more people to play it with. Even on a chatserver.

Looks like you were doing complications... were they not producing lots of Coins as it happens? Why the dearth? Were you both creating lots of stuff that wasn't being used?

Glad you both had a good time with it.

Mike

Well, the first complication was only 4 dice vs 4 dice, and didn't produce too many. The next one produced considerably more, and paid for the description of the fight but not much more than that. We were buying a lot of master class stuff for the sake of populating the fight scenes, and then it was time to go.

I wish this board wasn't so dead... :/

Heard a little bit about my brother's first game.

It was apparently a post-apocalyptic zombie western that also involved flying castles.

The "kitchen sink" first-game tradition is alive and well. :)

Yeah, yet another data point confirming the norm for people starting play. Mixing Western, Futuristic (in some fashion), and zombies, even. I've played that game. The game named Ghost Town of Mars on the sample page here: http://www.ramshead.indie-rpgs.com/ExamplesOfPlay.html

Also close is this written up example: http://www.ramshead.indie-rpgs.com/ZombieWestern.htm

Paul Czege was right about Universalis, and how it's about pulling together stories from our homogenaity of thought. It's startling, in fact, how close these things can be.

Glad to hear that the game is spreading virally. How many people played in that game with your brother?

Mike

Re the idea of raising refresh rate to 10 coins if in 2 player version, that ties to something I've been wondering:  how dependent on # of players should the refresh rate be?  In larger # player games does it "all come out in wash" as it just fuels ability to sponsor complications etc?

More players means more coins for each scene between refreshes. About 20 Coins of refresh per scene is fine - and as such the rule to go to a 10 rate for two players works well.

Tweaking it much beyond there doesn't have a lot of point to it. Going down to 4 Coins per player for five players won't have a noticable effect over just leaving it at 5, for instance.

Moreover it can be pretty fun to play with a tighter or looser economy at times. Try each, and see what it produces for you.

Mike

Rob, good question.

The logic works like this:  More Complications ---> More Bonus Coins ---> Less need for high refreshment.

Now the rules for Complications are such that the moment I (as a player) try to do something to or with a Component another player Controls we have a Complication.

So all else being equal:  More Players ---> More Components Controlled by others ---> More Complications.

Now that said, there are alot of other variables that ultimately will trump this relationship.  Such as:
* the propensity for the group to use Complications...some avoid, some pursue...
* the propensity for the group to increase the Coins they spend on bidding Challenges or Interruption
* the propensity for the group to define more and more Traits per Component as the game progresses

So there really isn't a hard and fast rule that says with X players change Coins by Y and Refresh by Z.