I ran this game in the late Saturday slot at Camp Nerdly, specifically because I knew it would run over the 3-hour time-limit of the other slots. I had been playing in the Mess Hall area for all of Nerdly, and really wanted to cut loose both language- and subject-wise, so the basic underlying theme of the pitch session was 'Rudest PTA Game Ever', I wanted something where sex was going to be explicitly part of the game.

We ended up with an all-consuming galactic scale society whose lifestyle had become so opulent that a single generation could use up an entire planet's resources. When this happened, the upper-crust and their lackeys would leave the planet, destroying it in the process, and move to a new world to exploit. This process was overseen and manipulated by a Bene Gesserritt-style sex conspiracy.

All of the characters were intiates at the school of the Conspiracy, and all of them are competing to earn a spot that will get them off their doomed planet. Learning the ropes of manipulation and power-playing, all while fighting for their very lives. One of the main ingredients in the pitch session was Duty, so everyone had to have something external to themselves that they would fight for.

Travis was Julien, a kind-souled initiate who valued his daughter's life over his own.

Krista was Kandra, a street kid whose mother was a higher-up in the Conspiracy. Her goal was to overshadow her mother.

Tony was Melody, an emotionally unavailable seductress and manipulator.

Joshua played Solin, an ambitious, but loving, social climber.

Nick was Donnie, a gladiatorial tough guy who had escaped an abusive older brother.

Things that were awesome:
The Pitch session was long, but went very smoothly. I insisted (quite strongly at one point) that there be NO negative input, only positive. I think that for a compressed game, this is the only possible way to eventually reach consensus. It also has the added effect of everyone adding information and no one getting denied on their Big Thing and disengaging.

The R-Map. I encouraged people to have two connections and I couldn't possibly have kept track of them all if Joshua hadn't encouraged me to write it down. This was my essential tool in the game.

Rosemary, Julien's daughter. The football that kept the game running. Travis started as the Spotlight Character, but even as his spotlight diminished, Julien's daughter remained a central figure throughout the game. Whenever I didn't have an idea where to go, I brought her back.

Focus. Everyone seemed very focused throughout the game. Everything someone did effected almost every other character. When we broke for brownies, everyone relaxed, recentered themselves, and came back to the table ready to play.

Sex. Tony L-B said it best. At first it was all tee-hee and mild titillation, but as soon as there was real human contact, that went out the window, and the sex became both rarer and a more serious reflection of the characters. It was ever-present and political, and very, very adult.

Duty. By having characters that cared about things outside themselves, it gave me big honking hooks to latch on to and drive the story.

At one point I was worried that Krista's character had become sort of disengaged, so I had her teacher/lover visit her with 'Good News'. Kandra was being offered a housewife position! Sure Kandra would never gain any status beyond that of a kept woman, but she'd be guaranteed to get off the planet. Perhaps she could even keep her brother (Joshua's character) as a pet, and get him off the planet, too. The woman Kandra would be replacing was the one who had ended up with Rosemary, and that made the whole thing deliciously difficult. Give up everything she (and Joshua's character) wanted, or survive? This one offer ended up powering a solid 30-60 minutes of play where each repercussion raised its ugly head and had to be confronted.

The above example indicates just how tightly wound the characters were around each other. I hope the people who played the game will come in with more play examples, because I'm having a hard time unpacking it all.

Prime Time Adventures. Man, I just love this game. I love the way narration is shared, the way conflicts are set up, and how you can share fanmail. I love the constant presence of the Producer in every conflict, and the movement of character arcs via screen presence. All these elements combine and make for a cohesive, and easily-graspable, system that you can just run the hell out of.

What Wasn't So Awesome:
Like the Dogs Nauvoo League game, it was very cold (we didn't even have a fire in our room!), and that sometimes led to shivering, or standing.

We went very, very late, and got through two of the three episodes of the miniseries, but didn't have a chance to wrap up the final episode. I think everyone could see where it was going, and this didn't prevent it from being a great game, but it's still a shame that we didn't have a chance for Kandra and Melody to really stretch their wings and resolve their simmering resentment.

In all, I learned so much from this game. It was a perfect storm of inspiration and players, and I felt like I was facilitating beyond the top of my game as a result.

Remi, first of all congratulations on a rockin' session.  I know you did some warm-ups for each of the games you ran.  For various reasons I did not - late start, distraction, nervousness.  Do you think it helped counterbalance some of the uncomfortable environmental factors?  Did it improve initial focus and commitment?  How'd the warm-ups go for you?

Remi wrote: I insisted (quite strongly at one point) that there be NO negative input, only positive. I think that for a compressed game, this is the only possible way to eventually reach consensus. It also has the added effect of everyone adding information and no one getting denied on their Big Thing and disengaging.

Jason wrote:
I know you did some warm-ups for each of the games you ran.  For various reasons I did not - late start, distraction, nervousness.  Do you think it helped counterbalance some of the uncomfortable environmental factors?  Did it improve initial focus and commitment?  How'd the warm-ups go for you?

iago wrote:

Remi wrote: I insisted (quite strongly at one point) that there be NO negative input, only positive. I think that for a compressed game, this is the only possible way to eventually reach consensus. It also has the added effect of everyone adding information and no one getting denied on their Big Thing and disengaging.

I want to hear more about this process, because I think it's a Big Deal.

I also should note that this touched off the idea in my brain of "Maybe PTA series creation could be done as a sequence of Polaris style but-only-if escalations, with only 'and so it was' in the toolbox to bring a sequence to conclusion."

Remi wrote: For the Roach I did a shake-out in addition to the other two, but that was waaaaaaay too embarrassing for pretty much everyone at the table. I needed it, though, just to get revved up a little for the morning session.

Joshua mentioned the Bene Gesserritt and someone immediately picked up and said "Oh! We could be, like, the companions in Firefly!" and someone else said, "The companions were kind of cool, but the lame thing about them was . . ." and I stopped it cold, insisting the person only talk about what they liked about the companions, not disliked. The pitch session could have degenerated right there into people sniping one another's ideas, which when you're gathering material is death. The player immediately turned around and said what he'd like to see out of a companion-style idea, and we built from there.

The main problems with this process is that it very much does need the synthesis points where it's one person's responsibility to build consensus quickly by drawing from everyone's suggestions.

Remi wrote: Joshua mentioned the Bene Gesserritt and someone immediately picked up and said "Oh! We could be, like, the companions in Firefly!" and someone else said, "The companions were kind of cool, but the lame thing about them was . . ." and I stopped it cold, insisting the person only talk about what they liked about the companions, not disliked.

I'm writing a more detailed post now, but I think the Companions and their implied political power were my idea, and someone else mentioned the Bene Gesserit.

We went very, very late, and got through two of the three episodes of the miniseries

iago wrote:

Remi wrote:
The main problems with this process is that it very much does need the synthesis points where it's one person's responsibility to build consensus quickly by drawing from everyone's suggestions.

Hm.  I see you calling that a bug, but my gut wants to call it a feature.

Matt wrote:

We went very, very late, and got through two of the three episodes of the miniseries

Holy Moses! That's some marathon play! Thanks for posting the report. Sounds awesome.

Remi, your decision to block negative input reminds me a lot of my improv days. It's very similar to "don't deny the scene," but on more of a meta level. I like it.

Joshua wrote:
I'm writing a more detailed post now, but I think the Companions and their implied political power were my idea, and someone else mentioned the Bene Gesserit.

Remi wrote:
[...]
The Pitch session was long, but went very smoothly. I insisted (quite strongly at one point) that there be NO negative input, only positive. I think that for a compressed game, this is the only possible way to eventually reach consensus. It also has the added effect of everyone adding information and no one getting denied on their Big Thing and disengaging.

Remi wrote:
The R-Map. I encouraged people to have two connections and I couldn't possibly have kept track of them all if Joshua hadn't encouraged me to write it down. This was my essential tool in the game. [...]

Yeah. I bring it up because I didn't want to take credit for the high-minded one while giving credit for the one from the TV show. I believe it was Nick, yeah.

Matt, your fucking game made the hours fly by. Maybe because of the brownie break it really felt like games should feel.

I'd really, really like to hear from Tony and Nick. Their characters were both hovering in 1 and 2 territory and I'd like to know very much if we were being entertaining for them and if they felt included.

Joshua wrote:
Maybe because of the brownie break it really felt like games should feel.

Dammit. This is taking a really long time to write. It's just so vivid for me. I haven't had this immersive an experience for a long time. There are a lot of details.

So I'm going to post in pieces. Please comment as you see fit between posts. If you're Tony, Nick, Krista, or Travis, please please comment.

A warning: I say "fuck" a lot in the following entry. It's the right word. If that's gonna get your knickers in a twist, you're really in the wrong thread.

The sex in this game was by far the best sex I've ever seen in a game, perhaps because it mirrored actual kinds of sex I've had in the real world: loving, disappointing, embarrassing, passionate, obligatory. I've never experienced manipulative sex but that happened surprisingly little in the course of the story, given the characters and their setting. On Melody's Spotlight, we would have seen some, I'm sure. While unspoken, I think this might have been an actual Line that, had we deliberately asked about it at the beginning of play, we'd have agreed to.

I seriously want to thank Krista for being so trusting. She was the only woman in the room, so when I basically said, "Hey, how about some manipulative incest?" it would have been perfectly understandable if she'd said, "Uh, well, instead fuck you, and maybe this game isn't for me." Instead, we went ahead to make one of the gnarliest and most sincere relationships I've ever seen in a game.

Travis, also, was great. I don't know him well at all and don't know his sexual proclivities, but proposing gay, if fictional, sex with someone you've just met is liable to put up barriers. He didn't, and the resulting scene was fucking heartbreaking.

Lemme tell you about my character (snrk):

(Uh, that is, I'm going to write some game fiction because it's really relevant. The content of play was challenging, sexy, fun, and emotionally charged, and I don't want to talk about the folks at the table without getting into the fiction, which was really good and affecting. I'd like to hear similar things from the other players cuz I was waaaay wrapped up in my story and am clearly missing others' perspectives.)

Solin is a climber. His issue is Ambition. His Edge is "I can see what you want." His Connections were his patron (who was only vestigial in this story) and Mater Yu, his teacher. He'd been a street kid and had learned and earned his first tricks there. It turns out that he'd been put there with his twin sister Kandra by his mother, a Mater (as in, Mother, but kind of as in, one who mates) in the House. They'd both found their ways into the House (the only name the conspiracy had the whole time; most of the time it was "the conspiracy"), probably because their lives had been conducted in such a way that it was the best option. Both believed themselves alone and continued to believe it until they found themselves talking during sex. The House rules were, break all connections; learn to not have human relationships. But they're manipulative motherfuckers, and they put these two to see if they could learn this about each other and resist growing attached.

They kind of failed that one. Their opening scene was the two of them fucking — Solin preferred men, but he had to know the ropes — and he opens by saying sort of offhandedly that a little girl had just been brought to the House (This is Julian's daughter Rosemary, who got turned into a horrible commodity). Kandra recognized herself in the story and tensed up. "Ow," said Solin.

We threw down. I wanted Kandra to open up. Nominally, it was because it was Solin's assignment — "Kandra is your lab partner. Learn her emotions." My player reasoning, of course, is that it puts them in a bind and makes Kandra total bait (and vice versa) getting the characters in a very tight spot, if you will.

I win. They stay up all night talking. They recognize the similarities in their stories and conclude the truth: they're brother and sister. Kandra never mentions that their mother is a teacher in the House and that she's right there, all the time, manipulating their relationship. The withheld information is more misery being served. (Note that this information was known by all players from Pitch on. It was a fictional secret.)

When it turns out that Rosemary is being sold off to a rich lady (as it turns out, the wife of Donnie's patron, the Minister of Defense) as a doll, more or less, Solin can't take it. What's the point of having power if you can't use it to do what you want? So, at a party designed to scour the emotional connections off between people, Solin takes Julien aside and they actually have loving sex between them in a little alcove somewhere nearby. They sleep there all night. In the morning, Mater Yu is standing over them, scowling. She asks if Solin has gotten Julien over the loss of his daughter. Solin tries to lie, but Yu knows him too well and sees through the lie. "Give us time and I'll arrange it." Solin says.

"Very well. Your fate is now tied to his."

Julien wakes, and kisses Solin with love and relief — the orgy was all loud music, flamboyant buggery, and penis hats, and Julien was happy for someone to show actual care. Solin can't return it — he's too worried about the test he's been given. Yu is gone, a "sexually manipulative Batman" as we called her.

So, now I'm screwed. If I'm going to get the power I want, I have to fix a broken dude who's broken in the most severe and personal way possible. I have to get him over the loss of his daughter and get him back to his ability to suck cock like he means it.

So I think, OK, I'll get him back his daughter and I'll impress the House with my ability to conspire and misdirect blame while achieving what is apparently impossible.

Meanwhile, Kandra has gotten jealous. She found out about Julien and Solin and wants to get even. She spends the night fucking Melody. Melody's issue is that she's emotionally unavailable. She's usually a bitch, but the two of them wake up on top of the sheets together and Melody makes a frail attempt at connection, only to be dismissed out of hand by Kandra. It was brutal, like a tortise sticking its head out only to be punched in the eye. Kandra (and Solin's) mom walks in and lays into them for not having ulterior motives — "Sex for no purpose" was I think how Remi put it.

Solin, meanwhile, has no idea. He finds Kandra to discuss his plot to get back Rosemary for Julien so Julien can do what he's there to do. Instead, Kandra "lets slip" that she's been fucking Melody. Solin loses his shit. "Why Melody? She's dangerous. She's manipulative. She's a bad person." The last line surprised me when I said it; I wanted to be all cold and calculating about it, but I was more worried about Kandra getting caught up in greater dealings than she'd be able to manage. Like, I was worried that Melody would crush her — I picture Solin as sort of an emotional warrior, feeling real love but knowing well its power as a weapon, and I saw Kandra as sort of new to feeling things other than hate. Hate, I knew she could defend against.

That last part there was all internal dialogue by the way. I was thinking as Solin to an incredible degree. This had a whole lot to do with the stakes I saw here. I think the commodification of sex really bothers me, and this was me trying to dig out a hole where sex is something between people for their own purposes; not that of society, not a product to be bought and sold, not a glamor to be put on a lesser item, not serving any function but that of those involved. Sex for weird love and friendship in a sea of spite and impersonality.

(More to follow when I have more time to write.)

Julian was the spotlight character in the first episode.  His 6 year old daughter Rosemary was the most important thing in the world to him.  I had envisioned Julian as a rising star in this twisted little community until his daughter came into his life. 

The Spotlight episode started with Rosemary's caretaker basically dumping Rosemary on his door step.  He didn't have enough money to keep her safe any longer, and had to figure something out to do.  Knowing that the world would soon be destroyed he promised to get Rosemary off this planet no matter the cost. 

While Julian is out trying to find a solution to his problem he leaves Rosemary in the hands of Donnie.  Donnie takes her with him to his gladitorial practice area where he is soon confronted by his evil brother Booker.  Booker tries to convince him that he should just give him Rosemary.  At this point Melody steps in and between Donnie and Melody they have cut a deal that the girl will go to Booker, but not without Melody buying some time.

Melody then takes Rosemary and they get to have a nice conversation.  At one point Rosemary very scared asks Melody for a hug.  Being the cold hearted bitch she is, she responds with "Hugs should only be meant for your family, and you should have a new family very soon".  (After the game, Tony said it best when he said Hugs were the first sign of weakness)

Julian learns that his daughter is going to be handed off to Booker.  He grabs Donnie and they get his gladitorial partners together so that Julian can try to get to his daughter.  As Rosemary is being taken away Donnie and his group charge at the Bookers gang and a big fight ensues.  Julian takes this time as a diversion and races to reach Rosemary.  As Rosemary and Julian get within an arms length of one another one of Donnie's boys unintentionally hits Julian and he falls in the dirt.  The last he sees is his own outreached hand drop the locket he was going to give to Rosemary and her being carried away.

I'll try to write more later...

This was my first experience with PTA.  Needless to say I was very impressed.  Being as I had never even met anyone in the group let alone gamed with them before the weekend I was really impressed with how well the group interacted with one another. 

Remi did a fantastic job with getting the energy level up right from the beginning and it seems like the group really fed off of it. 

Overall, it was one of the best one shot games I've ever played. 

Travis, thanks for being such a motivating force in the game. You really brought the crisisis(es) to life.

Remi is kind to not name me as the person who (almost?) harshed the vibe.  I'm not ashamed of making the mis-step, as it is a tiny but crucial step from:

"But the Companions don't seem to have goals, just a philosophy."

To

"The Companions would be cooler if they had a (preferably ugly) goal rather than a philosophy."

There's no real excuse not to say the latter; The exact same thing is being expressed, as far as I was concerned.  I mean, if I was actually committed to wording it negatively, what the hell was I doing playing a game with other human beings?  Although, it would have been great if, before the pitch, I had heard an example of this wording, rather than needing to be made an example of.  I certainly didn't mean to put anyone down, and if I had been warned in this easy-to-internalize fashion, I would not have even inadvertently done so.

As far as being included, my character's screen presence was 2/1/2 through the game, and I was lucky enough to have an obvious method of subordinating my issue ("Family") to that of the first spotlight character's ("My Daughter").  I hate to throw up my hands and chalk up to luck that my first PTA game was so daring yet still went so well, but there you have it.  I guess I understood to only push to do one or two cool things that highlighted the main deal, thanks to watching lots of HBO and reading Remi's adorable PTA summary cards.  But I have to admit that I needed to be prompted a couple of times, since I was so absorbed just watching what was going on.

Which I guess is a good sign.  It is supposed to be like good TV, right?

Every game I had the pleasure to play at nerdly made me want to play it more and more, but none more so than this one.  Thank you so much to everyone.

I guess it's the tragedy of one-shot PTA that it can't be bottled or savored.

Nick, despite Remi's forceful "No saying lame!" you really played positively and contributed pretty hardcore.

Everyone was really on, including you. Remi gave us license, but, as I said to Remi, thanks for bringin' it to the bringin' it party.

Nick,
I was surprised by how strong I reacted. Honestly, that's the first time that's happened to me and it was sort of scary on my end, too. Thank you for riding it out and taking us to the good place. I was really keeping an eye on you all game, because I didn't want you to feel that I had negative feelings from earlier. I was really pleased with how your play evolved, how you weren't afraid to fearlessly play and inhabit a character who was pretty damaged in an really ugly way.

I will definitely be using this as an example in the future, because you're right that it would be better to have it up front. Another note on the road to smooth sailing.

I'd like a little feedback on my play during the game, though. There was a point where I introduced Matur Yu, and she had a strong personality, but then I had another Matur come in, and he was similar to Yu. I got called on this, and from then on out I took a moment to think about what each character was like when I introduced them. Usually I asked the player who had that NPC as a connection what that NPC was like, and used the stunned silence and, "Uh, I don't know, uh . . . " response as time to think about what would make the most interesting contrast to the previous NPC introduced. Was this gambit obvious or annoying? Were the NPCs relatively distinct in your minds? What could I do to improve this?

I have a tendency to make all NPCs jerks, and I was happy when Julian's kid ended up being sweet and likable.

Further, beyond the up front 'positivity only!' statement, is there anything I could do to further streamline (or make more comfortable) the series creation segment?

Are there any particular places you guys would like to hear my thoughts on how play went? What I was thinking at a particular time?

Apologies that it took so long for me to post again!

Remi wrote: I'd like a little feedback on my play during the game, though. There was a point where I introduced Matur Yu, and she had a strong personality, but then I had another Matur come in, and he was similar to Yu. I got called on this, and from then on out I took a moment to think about what each character was like when I introduced them. Usually I asked the player who had that NPC as a connection what that NPC was like, and used the stunned silence and, "Uh, I don't know, uh . . . " response as time to think about what would make the most interesting contrast to the previous NPC introduced. Was this gambit obvious or annoying? Were the NPCs relatively distinct in your minds? What could I do to improve this?

The only problem with conserving NPCs in this case is that each PC has a connection to a specific NPC, and by combining them I'm essentially lowering their unique effectiveness (If both PCs are in a scene where they're trying to influence the NPC, they both get the bonus. However, the NPC would show up in more scenes, so maybe it would balance out). I'd really want to make sure each affected player was OK with this before I went ahead, and I would be a little sad that I had squandered an NPC.

See, once I had decided to start the contrasting game, it became much easier. I needed an NPC for Krista's character, Kandra, to hole up with, since Kandra ended up on the outs with the School because she had refused to become a kept woman. I hadn't hit one of Solin's NPCs, a rich benefactor who was addicted to drugs. All of the NPCs up to this point had been strong personalities, with lots of drive. I decided that this guy had basically been lobotomized by his addiction to 'Purple Dust', and his entire empire was being run by underlings.

I was super-satisfied with this set-up because introducing ambitious, daring Kandra into this mix meant that she would be able to manipulate this situation to her advantage. Or perhaps, even more honestly, form a true bond with Mr. Druggy McMeltabrain, and use that as her new power base. If I had been conserving NPCs, and not insisting on fleshing them out at they entered the story, I may have missed this excellent opportunity. I almost did, as I had basically announced that the drugged-out NPC would not be a part of the story, but the very act of doing that made me reconsider.