Back from a half successful product launch.

Successful because there were a lot of people who wanted the product...unsuccessful because I didn't have any available to sell.

The good news though is that I got to put my game through it's paces with numerous different types of players and it held up pretty well. Only a few minor tweaks were necessary to streamline certain parts of the game and expand others.

I ran through eight fully booked sessions over the convention, so the following will be a gestalt of the various sessions including highlights and changes made along the way.

There's a lot in this critique, so if anyone has questions...please ask. I'll do my best to explain things.

The Premise

For those who may have been watching over the past few months, the game is about time travelling pirates.

The game is told in 5 acts...introduction, complication, build-up, climax, resolution/aftermath. In each act, all players gain a scene where their character is the focus of the story's attention.

For our game, the acts basically went as follows.

Act 1 = Get to Atlantis
Act 2 = Find a key-maker and the key he is working on
Act 3 = Help him finish the construction of the key
Act 4 = Prevent the other groups who are inevitably also after the key
Act 5 = Get home in one piece before Atlantis floods

On explaining the story outline to one group, I was asked "So does that mean we are guaranteed to make it through to act 5?"...I had to respond that while almost every group had made it through to act five, only half of the groups so far had  done so with any meaningful success as the others had become side-tracked in their own tales and were wiped out when Atlantis had become flooded.

Typically, the game begins with distribution of tokens and cards for the course of play, but with cards being used for Out-of-Character events, while also being used for task resolution this was proving confusing (even though we used two completely different decks for these). The game now focuses more on tokens or poker chips for OOC events and cards for in game resolutions.

More than half of the players got the gist of the rules within the fifteen minute introduction to the setting, and most of the rest understood the subtleties of the system by the time the first act had been completed. That's something I had really been worried about. Was the system too complex, was it too crude?? I think the balance is pretty close for the type of stories I'm trying to tell.

Character Allocation

I used my favoured form of character choices for the convention, but in future attempts I'll be considering the option of allowing players to generate their own characters before the con (to confirm that this part of the system works without my presence).

The players do not see the character sheets, instead they see a face down group of sheets [character sheet, background details, large character illustration, lanyard with small character picture] with a significant prop on the top of the pile.

Props and Characters were:
Psychic Aztec Priest [represented by a skull and a bone]
Young 16th Century Spanish Shipwright [represented by a spanner and an antique globe]
Drunken Napoleonic French Marine [represented by a bottle of cheap French wine]
Maori Fisherman/Helmsman [represented by a tiki and some wooden carvings]
22nd Century African Quantum Physicist [represented by a PDA with the words "Don't Panic" in friendly letters]
Wealthy Italian Courtesan [represented by a fan and a pile of coins]
Young Classical Greek Navigator [represented by a bronze bracelet and a compass]
Ex-Nazi Nurse/Medic [represented by a toy stethoscope]   
Fanatical Arabic Assassin [represented by an Arabian box and a clear vial of unknown fluid]
Imperial Chinese Bosun [represented by a Taoist bell and a lucky cricket]

We had 5 to 7 players indicated on the entry form and the game was solidly packed to the point that we had extra people asking to be a part of the game or simply observers during the last few sessions. None of the characters were vital to the scenario, but each had skills that could prove useful. No prop was picked in every session, and every prop was picked at least twice.

As captain, I took one of the remaining props for my presence aboard the ship.

Act 1

Naturally this was the slowest act for every group.

At first I had randomly distributed cards from a deck to give players a scene order within the act, though over the first few sessions I learned that doubles invariably come up, and this leads to players trying to determine scene order amongst themselves which slows things down.

I later decided to break open a completely separate deck holding only the cards 1 to 7 (or the number of players involved if this varied) to determine scene order. Once a play has their scene, their card is handed back to me.

At first I had enforced scene order on the players, but then it was pointed out that one players actions might not be possible until a slower acting team-mate completes their scene.

There is no point having the helmsman steer the ship into port if the quantum physicist hasn't initiated the time jump back to Atlantis.

I have now instituted a rule where a person may hold off on their action until a necessary condition has been met. We continue the cycle from high card down to low card as scenes are enacted. Once the lowest card has gone, everyone who held off their actions must perform a scene.

Running from high card to low card seemed to work well because it implies a countdown through the act. It was noted by players that this was especially good in the climactic Act 4. The only problem is that I had already decided combat initiative should run in ascending order for completely different reasons and I don't like the idea of having two counting system that run in opposite directions through the game. Something to think about...

Most groups made it through act 1 with no real issues.

Act 2

This is the point where the players really started to get a good idea for the subtleties of the game.

All difficulties on the game are based of a white-board at the front of the room. They start at a moderate level, and either get harder as the characters accumulate successes, or easier as they accumulate failures. The law of averages keeps things at a moderate level.

In addition to this all players are given a way to play with the difficulties of other players (they may not affect their own). At the start of the convention, all players were assigned two red cards and two black cards. But this was later transformed into two red poker chips and two black poker chips. A player may spend any number of their reds to reduce a difficulty when another player's character is attempting something. Conversely they may spend a black to increase another player's difficulty. Once a chip has been spent this way, it is replaced by a random chip (meaning it is easily possible to end up with a hand full of red or black as the game progresses).

In Act 1 a few players had made attempts to change difficulties. In Act 2, players who had been affected by these changes now started to consider payback. This reinforced the notion that the characters are working together to get through a story, while the players are working against one another to manipulate the course of that story.

When cards were being used, it was a little confusing because some players focused on the suits or on the ranks of the cards, even though they had been told the actual card faces meant nothing (only the red or black was an issue). Tokens or Poker chips refined this concept really well for later groups.

The game also uses "Pieces of Eight" for players to introduce storyline elements. All players gain a number of these equal to the number of players in the game (5 players = 5 each for a total of 25). When playing the game with players from a traditional D&D background, they initially had some trouble with the notion that they could manipulate the storyline to their will, it usually took a couple of scenes or a bit of prompting to get this concept.

Player: "Can our ship fly?"
GM: "We haven't determined that in the story yet...do you want it to fly?"
Player: "Yes, I want a flying ship"
GM: "Are you going to spend some coins for that?"
Player: "How many will it cost to make the ship fly?"
GM: "Well I don't think it's going to make a huge impact to the story, but it is cool and other players could use it to their advantage...We'll say 1 for the introduction of something into the scene."
Player: "Can I pilot a flying ship?"
GM: "You probably should have considered that before you spent your point."
Other Player: "Since I was able to pilot the ship before, can I spend a point to say that I can now pilot a flying ship?"
GM: "Sure, why not..."

Once a couple of dialogues such as these had played out, most players started to get an idea that the game has a strong grounding in quantum physics. Nothing exists until it is defined, nothing is defined until it is observed. Accomplishing a skill causes events to move in a direction within the game world, spending Pieces of Eight introduces new elements to that game world.

Over the course of the game all sorts of things were introduced. But since these elements were all flavour rather than mechanical, nothing broke the system. They just created some very exotic situations. We even had the situation where players would make something harder, then spend a piece of eight to introduce a storyline element that explained why things were getting harder. This was a concept I had taken out of the rules because I had thought it was getting too complex for most players to understand in a new system (I'll add it back in as an advanced rule, or a suggestion for players looking for a bit more).

Act 3

Things really started picking up for all groups during Act 3.

My initial idea for the game was that every scene should be constructed in a format where the character attempts to complete a task, they face some complication first, then must decided whether they wish to continue facing the complication and move forward with the initial objective, or take a new course of action.

This would have brought every scene down to a minimum of:

1. Declare intent
2. Determine complication
3. Choose whether to face it
4. a)Ignore complication, scene ends (story gets harder).
4. b)Fail complication, scene ends (character suffers).
4. c)Succeed complication, move on to original intention.
5. Face original intent.
6. a)Failure. Story gets easier as opponents view crew as less of a threat.
6. b)Success. Story moves forward or character gains a benefit.

A bit complicated especially when other storyline effects are being introduced by players and people are having enough trouble trying to keep up with the twists and changes in the timeline.

By stripping out complications entirely, a scene lasts about five minutes. Allowing us to get through an act in 30 to 40 minutes and 5 acts within a 3 hours convention session. For home play, complications could probably be added back in, but we found that things were getting complicated enough. The game should be fast paced and story driven, that were it seems to hit it's stride.

A second element of note in the third act came when people realised the karma balance of the climax.

During a climax, players are no longer able to distribute their black and red poker chips to one another. They have to face whatever is left in their own pile. This sometimes led to very quiet players who had managed to accumulate a handful of red, or frenzied players who were trying to get rid of handfuls of black. With all the players trying to get rid of the black in their hand, we has situations where the odds were incredibly stacked against players in the final moments before the climax. Difficulties caused so many degrees of penalty that automatic failures ensued, along with drastic storyline consequences. A few players pointed out that this was good because it reflected the notion of "Darkest before the dawn", or "the calm before the storm"; both of which are staples in many genres of fiction.

Act 4

The climax evolved quite a bit over the course of the convention.

It went from a single action per player in descending order of initiative.

...to...

A pair of actions per player which could be taken consecutively or staggered.

In the single action theory, all chips were allocated to this action with reds and blacks countering one another. Under the modified dual action theory, a player could only allocate their chips to their own actions but had to use them all up by the end of their second action. This resulted in players deliberately hamstringing themselves in certain effects in order to guarantee the highest chance of success in another action. It worked reasonably well, but could probably do with some more tweaking.

The climax was also the time when Pieces of Eight hit the table like an avalanche.

I had worked off the idea that at the end of each act, a player would automatically be assigned a number of extra pieces of eight (1 after the first act, 2 after the 2nd, 3 after the 3rd), in addition to this, we had players earning Pieces of eight in exchange for playing on their character's flaws. I'd also told all players that these have to be used up before the climax or else be forfeited.   

Some players only had two or three Pieces of Eight during the climax, while others had played on their flaws and had stockpiled their influence over the story.

One player laid 14 pieces of eight down in the climax for a dramatic effect that completed shifted the physics and biological nature of the world for all of recorded history, another summoned Cthulhu.

I hadn't placed any limits on the game, so these were both perfectly valid options. The next time I play the game at a convention, I'll be making sure to apply genre constraints on the setting (to test that side of the process).

Some players carefully added upon the storyline elements that we knew were present in the game (leading to events such as a burst water main eventually causing Atlantis to sink). Some played on aspects of popular culture to maximise their impact on the game for a minimum of cost.

Player: "I want to introduce something big."
GM (looking worried): "It will cost you 1 to introduce the element, an extra 1 if it comes from a different part of the world, an extra 1 if it comes from a different time, and an extra 1 if you want it to have an immediate impact that has to be faced by another player or an opponent."
Player: "We're in Atlantis right?"
GM (looking more worried): "Yes."
Player: "Here's a single point. I'm bringing in Gamera."
GM: "I can't argue with that."
Other Player: "And I'll spend a point so that it attacks our enemy Blackbeard."

It was the climax of the game, and everyone seemed to think to was an outstanding coup to introduce something so cool at a timely moment.

Getting moments like that is what the game is about.

We had plenty of other moments like that, and we also has moments where a climax revolved around two characters fighting one another for the control of destiny and the Atlantean key.

Even the most jaded players started to realise at the end of the session that they had been a part of telling a story, rather than being spoon fed a scenario.

Act 5

Not all groups made it to act 5 successfully, some got caught in limbo trying to outwit one another through in character and out of character means, others just got so hooked up in the simulation of a world where anything is possible that they forgot the original reason for travelling to Atlantis.

In virtually every game, Atlantis was sunk by a different means and in at least half of the games, the reason for Atlantis sinking could be directly linked to certain actions performed by the characters or certain plot elements introduced by the players.

Some of the groups spent the last act explaining how certain temporal anomalies could actually be explained, and they even spent their last round of actions performing the tasks needed so that previous events in the game could actually occur.

Conclusion

On the whole I'm happy with the game and after it's final round of modifications it will be ready by the end of the month. I've picked up so much adrenaline from the experience of running 55 strangers through my game that I've started to write the first two comic-book sized sourcebooks, each describing a new locale where adventures can occur and a new story to inflict on the players.

V