Saturday, July 9, 2011

Players: Marc, Caroline, Pat, Shuo, Bridget

It was to be a game like none we'd played in our gaming careers. A wild, wacky adventure, filled with absurd twists, dizzying betrayals, and insane rivalries. A fantastic journey through the wild gamut of gamer emotion, from euphoria over talking to a girl, to bitter despair at the death of a beloved character, to unbridled, primal, meleisan rage.

It was, in short, a complete Fiasco.

We set our game at a strangely familiar story game con called Bro Play NE. Our protagonists included:

Robin Bens (Shuo): Highly esteemed author of the hit story game Telescope, Robin finds herself in a sticky situation. She must recover an item from Clarice, a woman whom she'd had a one-night-stand with two months prior. The item? A badger costume that Robin uses for... well, you'll see. Meanwhile she must also deal with Young Neil, easily her biggest, craziest fan. After having him walk in on her in the women's restroom, she knows she needs to try to steer clear of the impressionable, obsessed youth, but it won't be that easy...

Young Neil (Caroline): At Bro Play, Neil finds himself face-to-face with his idol and dream girl, Robin Bens. But he also encounters an old rival: Hobbie Marx. Neil and Hobbie played D&D together in high school, but after Hobbie killed Neil's character right before the final boss, their friendship took a turn. Neil got revenge at that year's Bro Play: he goaded Hobbie into a major tantrum, thus ruining Hobbie's reputation as a GM. Now both are stuck together again at the same con, each looking for a way to embarrass the other...

Hobbie Marx, aka protoss_my_salad (Pat): Hobbie is a firm advocate for GMed games, and refuses to play any game that doesn't have him as the GM. His rivalry with Young Neil is one thing, but there's now another issue: Kemp Patricks. Hobbie plays professional Starcraft, and Kemp is one of his biggest rivals. Always back and forth between them in battle after battle. Hobbie recently went against Kemp in a tournament in the Key Arena, and now the bastard is here, at Bro Play! Hobbie knows he'll need to stay sharp to stay ahead...

Kemp Patricks, aka xXzerg_crushXx (Marc): A British gamer, Kemp lives and breathes Starcraft... when he isn't busy living and breathing story games. His strongest opponent is Hobbie, and if he can't beat him in Starcraft, at least he might beat him in the world of con interactions. Kemp also keeps a dark secret: he's a drug dealer, and he makes considerable sums of money selling Aderal and other medications to gamers. One customer in particular has caught his eye...

Clarice (Bridget): Author of the new dance-based story game Dancing With Dragons, Clarice knows two things: she needs to sell her game, and she needs to stay on Kemp's good side to keep the supply of Aderal flowing. Unfortunately, her latest game isn't exactly an easy pitch. She'll need all the help she can get to unload her copies and generate some buzz...

Our story begins with Robin setting up a meeting with Clarice to recover her badger costume. After the call, Robin runs into Neil, who fails to get her phone number. He encounters Hobbie, and their grudge kicks back into full swing. Hobbie finally meets Kemp in person for the first time. They vow to defeat each other no matter the costs. The next morning, Kemp finds Clarice at Bro Play and promises to help promote her game. He also questions her regarding a rumor about Robin: apparently people say Robin seduces fans, takes them home, dresses them in a badger costume, and takes pictures of them before, shall we say, "digging in". Clarice laughs nervously and dismisses this hearsay.

Robin runs into Neil again and has no choice but to give her real phone number this time. Afterward, Neil, Kemp, Hobbie, and Clarice all play a game of Solaris and things turn ugly. Hobbie later encounters Clarice again, now manning her game booth. He promises to write a review of it on his blog, but much to Clarice's dismay, the review is mostly negative. Meanwhile, Kemp meets Robin for the first time and appears charmed. Clarice pulls him aside to warn him: the rumors are true! He opts to let Robin seduce him so he can obtain some blackmail material. Later that day, Clarice's booth has a huge crowd: apparently Hobbie's blog post generated some interest. She and Hobbie decide to go out on a date at a future time.

That night, Robin and Kemp return to Robin's hotel room, where, after a rather unusual seduction involving recorded nature sounds and inappropriate questions about animals, Robin convinces Kemp to dress in the badger costume and act the part. Neil bursts in--he was stalking Robin at the hotel and heard her screams--to find Kemp shuffling around on the bed, building nests out of sheets to Robin's gleeful cheering. Neil attacks the giant badger. Robin steps in, and in the confusion, Kemp passes off the badger costume to Neil and absconds with Robin's photo album (containing pictures of her past seductions in all their glory). The next day, Neil wakes up beside Robin, still badgered. The two decide to be together, and return to Bro Play. Kemp approaches and informs Robin of his intention to publicize the photos, should she refuse to cut him 50% of the profits from Telescope. He also wants her to provide an introduction and game demo for Clarice. Robin reluctantly agrees. Meanwhile, Hobbie begins to open up to the idea of a GM-less game, but is ridiculed by Neil for doing so. At some unknown time, Robin finds Kemp and cancels their blackmail agreement. That evening, Clarice's game is being playtested in front of the entire con. She has Robin, Neil, Hobbie, and Kemp as her players, and things are going well, when suddenly a wild accusation is made by Kemp: "Okay, I lead you to the nest of badgers... and you dress people up like badgers and have sex with them!"

Clarice's game still sells well, but Robin's reputation is ruined. She and Neil flee. Later that night, Hobbie and Clarice finally go on their date, and agree to become boyfriend and girlfriend, while Kemp encounters Neil. Neil takes Kemp to an alleyway, promising him a drink. Instead, Kemp is mauled by Robin in a steel-clawed badger costume. Neil performs a similar trick on Hobbie, resulting in his mauling as well. Things took a massive turn for the grim as the tale wound to a close: Kemp is arrested for dealing drugs, and Clarice is implicated because of her name on some of Kemp's records.

In the end, most of us did not end up happy. Robin was confronted by all the fans and game designers she seduced (Morning Jasonstar among them), and ended up mauled to death by five real badgers in her bathroom. Neil died under heavy police fire as he took the fall for Robin by wearing her bloodstained badger costume. Kemp was deported to England, served prison time, and got out with a grievous injury on his mouse hand, barring him from ever playing Starcraft again. Clarice, despite her minimal crimes, did jail time, and became so distraught that she hung herself in her cell. And Hobbie? He was scarred by the incidents, but ultimately went on with his life, always holding the memory of Clarice in his heart.

So yeah, that happened.

Quotes and Notes

Paradise World, Solaris, Venus Colony, Telescope, Catastrophe, Zap, Forget Yesterday, Cats in the Orchard, My Life With Mister, A Quarter For Your Dreams, Don't Wet The Bed, Monsieur Munchausen, Shab al-hiri Coach, Detektors

"How We Gamed" Thread
Story game within a story game - we played a quick round of Solaris and Dancing With Dragons

"This is me! I'm playing myself!" - Caroline
"Draw the curtain!"
"Imagine having Ben... I mean Robin! Yeesh!" - Marc
"You're an excellent douchebag!" "I get that a lot!" - Bridget & Pat
"This is ruining nature sounds!" - Caroline
"Grunt like a badger!"
"Yeah, burrow! Burrow!"
"I'll channel the badger for you." - Neil
"When did you grow a backbone?" "When I got a boner!" - Hobbie & Neil
"I mean... my telescope was stashed." - Neil
"How did you summon this badger?!?" "I'm a fucking Druid... and it's a dire badger!" - Hobbie & Neil

Feel free to add more if I forgot anything. Also I can't remember Clarice's last name, so if anyone knows...

Observing the last 20 minutes of this game was really, really confusing. Especially the story-game-within-a-story-game. However, that was all cleared up once you started the conflict resolution dances.... wait, what?

It sounded like a fantastic game!

Excellent write-up, Marc. This was indeed an amazing game! It was really fun playing with meta-Story Game elements to throw in, especially the game-within-a-game stuff. The gaming con setting worked perfectly. Obviously since we were all gamers, we came into the game steeped in nerdy references that just came flooding out into every scene.

The badger stuff was hilarious. I'm afraid to go hiking or camping now because nature sounds might be ruined for me forever.

We still managed to get some pretty human moments mixed in with the ridiculous humor, and the requisite depressing Fiasco epilogue was well attended to.

This was so much fun, thanks guys!

Outstanding game. If Inception and Go Play NW had a love-child, this would be it.

I wish I had a video of the big dance scene. Hobbie and Young Neil were amazing—West Side Story edge meets Berlin rave. Kemp and Robin's "captured soaring eagle" was so much fun.

One of my favorite quotes:

Young Neil: "Now, list your goals."
Kemp facing Robin: "I don't want you to turn me into a badger."
Robin: "If I win, I WILL turn you into a badger."
Young Neil: "No, you both need goals that can succeed independent of the other."

Bonus: When Ben Robbins overheard this, he immediately walked out of the room laughing with both hands covering his face.

Thanks again to all my wonderful Bro Play Northeasters for an amazing game. And a special thank you to Marc for the wonderful write-up. You sir, are a gentle-badger and a scholar. ;)

Bonus: When Ben Robbins overheard this, he immediately walked out of the room laughing with both hands covering his face.

It's true, I did. My jaw hit the floor at how precisely the team delivered that Shock lampoon/homage. I could not look the glory-horror directly in the eyes any longer. Plus I had to get back to my Wicked Age game. And hide my tears. Of joy.

Paradise World, Solaris, Venus Colony, Telescope, Catastrophe, Zap, Forget Yesterday, Cats in the Orchard, My Life With Mister, A Quarter For Your Dreams, Don't Wet The Bed, Monsieur Munchausen, Shab al-hiri Coach, Detektors

Best. Title. Spoofs. Evar. That list alone is a gold mine. I would have paid cash money to see the other game send-ups.

"Imagine having Ben... I mean Robin! Yeesh!" - Marc

(I'm trying to come up with the l33t net tag for the snorting-chuckle this gave me, yet failing, so take it on faith. I can hear these words coming out of Marc's mouth, yeesh included.)

For the love of God, link to this in the GPNW forums so other less fortunate gamers can bask in the glory-horror. It is too frickin hilarious. And relevant. Did I mention relevant? "A stunning indictment of the story games community!" Sell the movie rights!

Dude, protoss_my_salad? So much love.

I laughed many times reading this AP. Someone should link story games to it too.

Where's the playset?

@Jamie: Caroline came up with the hack we used for creating the playset. I won't say more now, because she told me she wanted to post about it, but I will say that we've come up with a name for her latest creation: Freeasco. More on that later.

@Ben: I just registered for the GPNW forums, so I'll put up a link once my account is approved.

@Ben: I just registered for the GPNW forums, so I'll put up a link once my account is approved.

Groovy. I approved it

@Jamie: Caroline came up with the hack we used for creating the playset. I won't say more now, because she told me she wanted to post about it, but I will say that we've come up with a name for her latest creation: Freeasco. More on that later.

The hack is genius. I, too, won't spoil the surprise.

Link is now posted on GPNW forums!

http://www.goplaynw.o...­

I just linked it back here because I'm too cool to copy/paste