The bare light bulb hanging in the back room of People's Republic of Koffee, along with eerie piano music from Marc's phone set the scene perfectly for my first game of Penny For My Thoughts.


Reid:
I could not help responding to childish dares. Then I discovered that during high school my best friend and I were bullies and jerks... an epiphany brought on by pushing over the wheelchair of a girl who had lost her legs to a train. As an adult I discovered that same best friend had molested my son, so of naturally I murdered him!

Caroline:
Gifting a wool blanket to her sister after recovering it from the remains of a fire seemed to mend the gap between them. Then later began an extended affair with her sister's husband during a power outage. Finally she fled the confrontation in which she revealed the affair and would have taken her niece away into their new family unit.

Marc:
As an oboe playing teenage girl, drinking backstage before a concert kindled some furtive kissing. Being visited at work at the sawmill by her girlfriend brought on coworker jibing, and then slapping the person she cared about. In the end when her kinky infidelities were confronted on the drive home she again responded violently which resulted in a car crash and head trauma.

Morgan:
After purchasing his mother's old farmhouse from the bank he consummated his relationship with the woman who would become his wife. Later in a plate smashing argument over frivolous purchases she leaves him. Then on a pepto-vodka binge he fires a pistol at the car with his ex and new husband, accidentally slaying his daughter.

I put down one sentence for each memory we recovered, it got pretty intense there especially towards the end. This game is not for the faint of heart, I feel accomplished having played it.

Thank you for the writeup! You've captured our tales magnificently.

This was my first Penny game as well. Very intense. I am enthralled by the mechanics: I didn't think telling other people what happened to them could work, but it worked great!

Thanks to Morgan, Reid, and Caroline for a good game.

This was a blast. I want to run this game soon and I have a question: What do you think the pros and cons for having each player read a bit of the text aloud are? Here's my list:

Pro: Having each player read from the text is useful for people like me who might have trouble paying attention to a long speech.


Con: The book is supposed to be treated like an artifact and it is written from the point of view of a single author. Although it might seem like it takes a long time to read everything necessary, I think even a slow reading takes about 5 minutes. If the facilitator who is familiar with the text reads the whole thing aloud, they won't stumble as much. Also, the reading can bring a meditative quality if done slow and level.


Thanks to all for making this a blast.