The night before last, we tried to push through, “So what do you want to play?” to actual story gaming.
As an aside, I suggest a heuristic: if no one has a passionate preference for a game (at least ideas on 3/5 of Setting, Character, Situation, Color, and System), let’s play board or card games or what movies instead of story gaming. I think midweek emails are our friend re having a clear idea of what’s at least on the docket if not an agenda. OTOH, I’m sensitive to an implied criticism of not planning too much before playing; I just think some planning is necessary.
We made a list, and started talking, and just to get the ball rolling we use Brennen’s current iteration of his universal system. It’s inspired by Fate.
We got a gothic swamp, in Whosiana. It has telephones and electric lights for at least some, and neither of those for others. The action took place on an a secluded manor with attached village and associated travelin’ carnival. We had a hoodoo woman who’ll tell your fortune and if you pay double might tell the truth (Brennen), an aspiring failed master chef (Will), and a Librarian Lecter-alike named Virgo (Jared).
We chose to try collaborative GMing, but without defined roles. So our conflicts limped along for a couple of scenes per character, and then we went outside at Sarah, Brennen’s lady wife’s suggestion, to see the orange colored sky (yes, that is a swing reference). And we didn’t pick up when we came back inside.
The good news was, we learned a lot about what we like and what we don’t, and we had some interesting bit characters in scenes. Brennen does an amazing ignorant hick, and Jared, we learned, is “good with children.” Also Brennen and Jared do a mean tag team on homicidal inanimate object dialogue.
All in all, I’d have called it a fair in high school. The awesome thing is, before this session we laid a little groundwork for possible long-term play, and afterward we got on one page for a Sorcerer session.
Even in jazz, improvisation is linked to the structure of a chord progression. If we REALLY feel like some story gaming, we can always use the multitude of oracles at random-generator.com
I think the game itself was a failure as a story due to lack of structure, but that I learned much about my preferences as a player and GM that night. Additionally, I think the experience really primed the pump for the super-extra-cool preliminary session we did for our upcoming Sorceror game. Even though the story never went anywhere, I think there were still some bright moments.
Perhaps we should start a “netflix queue” of games and settings.