Players: Jamie, Martin and Pat

Fun game of Shock, although we ran a little long and had to do a lightning-round final scene.

Starting with the issues of mood/identity, longevity and culture clash, our shock was that a human colonization ship returned to Earth after 200 years of unsuccessfully searching for a new habitable planet. The colonists, nicknamed the Prodigals, had developed some amazing technologies to allow them to endure the long voyage: medical techniques to replace any damaged cells, rendering them effectively immortal (longevity), and the ability to modify their brain chemistry at will, allowing them to control their own emotions (mood/identity). The Prodigals returned to Earth wishing to reintegrate into society, but many "Earthers" resented them (culture clash).

Here are our three protagonists and their stories:

Iris Lin (Martin): Iris is a Prodigal whose story goal is to unite with her surviving family members on Earth. Her efforts are opposed by the family Matriarch Peiyan, who fears that because Iris was technically the oldest living member of the Lin family (at 200+ years), Peiyan would be supplanted as the head of the household and family business. After working her way past some persistent servants, Iris finally meets some of her descendants and eventually negotiates a deal with Peiyan. Iris would live in the household as a friend of the family under an assumed name, and Peiyan could rest assured that the family hierarchy would remain intact. Iris becomes loved and accepted by her surviving family members, albeit without them knowing her true identity. Unfortunately, her secret eventually comes out, and the controversy over having a Prodigal as one of their own creates a permanent rift amongst the Lins.

Casey O'Connor (Jamie): Casey is a struggling Earther sculptor whose story goal is to be both an artist and happy. His foil was his own wife, who encourages Casey to take part in a study using Prodigal emotion modifiers to improve his mood. While Casey is able to feel happier using the modifiers, he discovers that the quality of his artwork has suffered as a result. He admits this fact at a scientific review board, which threatens his wife's job at the company running the study. The board members decide to continue with the study against Casey's objections, instead upping the Optimism setting on his modifiers. By chance occurrence however, the modifier device malfunctions, so Casey only believes he is receiving daily doses of happiness. His upbeat mood and inability to produce meaningful work however, persist as a placebo effect. Finally, Casey decides to forgo the emotion modifiers and pursue happiness by his own accord, but his success in doing so is marred by the fallout this causes: his wife is fired, their relationship is ruined and the company sues Casey into oblivion, so that any money he makes selling his artwork goes to paying his debt.

Koji Makoto (Pat): Koji is a Prodigal diplomat whose story goal is to secure a favorable standing in society for the Prodigals. He's antagonized by Athena a zealous Prodigal and executive in the Prodigal Relations Institue which Koji works for. Koji first responds to a labor dispute wherein 3 Prodigal workers may have been unjustly terminated. He convinces the company to reinstate the workers at the cost of his great, great, great granddaughter's job and her affection for him. Koji then appears on a televised debate with a noted anti-Prodigal who hurts Koji's reputation by quoting his employer Athena's unsympathetic view of the Earthers and their desperate need for Prodigal help. While Koji's on-air agreement with her statement hurts his standing in the public eye, it also gains him access to a special Senate hearing where he'd have a chance to affect policy. Unfortunately, Koji's story ends rather anti-climatically, with him failing to secure his story goal of a favorable standing in society for the Prodigals.

As I said, the last scenes were pretty rushed, but I think things went pretty well. I'm interested to hear the other guys chime in with their opinions.

Except though my wife *could* have been fired, the rolls were totally with me and I had a big fat happy ending.

The whole placebo effect thing and my character realizing he can be happy without technology was totally not where I was expecting the story to go and glad it did.

I have a couple of nitpicks about Shock: (like Polaris, for example, it's really 3 2-person games that you play at the same time) but had an awesome time and am trying to put my finger on why I liked it more than Fiasco and Polaris...maybe it's because I like rolling dice; I like not knowing if things are going to go well or poorly, I like that there's a possibility of a happy ending, I like that the dice push the narration via breaking links and whatnot. And science-fiction is seed content that I'm more comfortable with than the frozen vistas after the Mistake or the wild west. And I like that it can explore close-to-home issues; I don't really identify with the fuckups from Fiasco or the ice-knights of Polaris, but the stories from our Shock game were close to home - I know people in therapy, racism has been a problem for me in the workplace, I know people estranged from their families.

Pacing one-shots is so hard! We either finish early (like last week's 80 minute Fiasco game) or go over and have to sudden-death the climax. I'm starting to think we should use a chess clock or something to keep tempo.