Scenario: We are computer programs dealing with corruption on a forgotten computer system

Players:
Aaron- Holmes (Analysis Program)
Jim- M'cafe (Safeguard Program)
Seth- /b/eta (Gateway Program)
Drew- Cyber Puppy (Trojan Horse Program)
Steve- Achtung! (Firewall Program)

This was a really weird game. It started off very slow, but we brought it together in the end.

For the first half of the game we just sort of fished around for ideas about how to make everything make sense. We dealt with corruption in many of the 7 levels of the system we were in.

It wasn't until Steve introduced the fact that the computer system we were in was part of a "Mutually self assured destruction" Space Laser ala Dr. Strangelove or The day the earth stood still, that things really came together. This combined with the fact that Drew's Cyber puppy always had a blue ball that was never in "Compliance" according to Achtung! and M'cafe, brought us around with help from Seth's Gateway program to all of the programs logically agreeing that the "Big Blue Ball" was not in compliance.

To make a long story short... We ended up using the space laser to blow up the earth. Awesome.

The lesson to learn from this game is that even if stuff isn't going well, keep throwing things against the wall and eventually something will stick.

For the first half of this game, I wasn't having a whole lot of fun. The play set felt too high concept. Didn't really know what we were doing. Was willing to write it off as just a bad play set.

Then suddenly everything clicked. Using Steve's offer of us all being on a giant death laser, I saw the opportunity to make some dumb joke about blue balls into blowing up the earth. This fit right into the idea Seth was already working on of his program causing the corruption. Everything actually suddenly made sense. The hackers installed a trojan horse, cyber puppy to get on the system, used it to exploit the buggy /b/eta and reset the Safeguard (M'cafe) knowing the Firewall (Achtung!) was written assuming the Safeguard should be trusted. With essentially the whole system now compromised, poor Holmes was helpless. All the other various things that happened also resolved themselves and it was a very satisfying experience.

So yeah, if you're in a game that doesn't look like its going anywhere, don't be afraid to raise the stakes (like Steve did when he put us on a death laser) and also just keep throwing stuff out there and hopefully it will eventually all click.

Yeah, from what Aaron described to me after the session it sounds like you guys did an exemplary job of playing your way out of a flat situation. Well done. Like you said, it sounds like the playset had a setting but not a clear motivator or conflict.

I'm a big fan of just stopping entirely and discussing whether there's something we need to retcon to make the game fun. There was an old Love in the Time of Seid game where we stopped half way through game because Jamie's werewolf character didn't have a really solid tie into the action, so we went back and made up some background to fix it. I think it saved the game.