our first PBP game has ended (in bloody, bloody death)

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our first PBP game has ended (in bloody, bloody death)
« on: October 05, 2011, 12:31:57 PM »
I played with Marshall Miller.  You can read it play by play (with very few whispers hidden from you) here.  We took almost exactly 23 hours.

I think our only questions before play had to do with adapting to PBP and stuff like whether suits mattered.  (I thought they didn't because it's almost true.)

There are some places where it's not crystal clear whether the person reading is supposed to turn to page x or tell their fellow to do that.  I didn't realize until having played for a while that the player could just opt out.  We had the thing happen where the scene wasn't suggestive of betrayal, cruelty, madness, etc. so we had to go back and strengthen the narration.  I think the first third of the game we were getting up to speed and then we pretty much knew what we were doing.

*

lumpley

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Re: our first PBP game has ended (in bloody, bloody death)
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2011, 12:55:02 PM »
Excellent, thank you! Well murdered.

Re: our first PBP game has ended (in bloody, bloody death)
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2011, 02:24:34 PM »
I added my notes here.

Copied here for ease and any discussion:
Some thoughts on the game (remember that I've only looked at the numbers we played through) from the GM's perspective:
1. I thought the game would go longer, I guess that's why you have to go straight to the horror and not try and build up to it.

2. GM1 says to describe evidence and player1 says to interpret it. I probably should have stuck with the heart attack victim as evidence of violence rather than souping it up a with more blatant ghostliness at your prompting. You should probably have asked a few more questions and just picked one. It does say "What's the worst thing this suggests to you?" That phrase should probably have the describe tag so that the player explains what he thinks the evidence suggests. If you had picked and described, I would have played off whatever horror you read into the existing evidence.

3.I wish there were more places where it told the GM to ask questions about the character or told the player to say something about the character. I kept wanting to ask more about the character and then realizing that it didn't tell me I could.

4. Page 8 should be left blank on the easy print version. I printed double sided and the first page of the GM book ends up on the back of the last page of the Player book.

5. I thought listing the cards (once I got the numbers right) was really easy and effective for online play. I didn't find myself looking at the deck to figure odds or anything.

6. The Start is very specific, I suppose it needs to be if you're going to start in the middle of a haunted location and have to escape. On the other hand, I know what urban exploration is because I think its cool. If I asked around my office I doubt any of them would know what I was talking about. They might chide me about roleplaying games and steam tunnels though :-)

7. I wasn't sure how completely I should work out what was going on with the ghosts. After playing AW/DW I've been in the habit of asking myself "What would be cool right now?" as I go along. I assumed that the instructions in the "Start" section was like the GM prep in Dungeon World - steep yourself in betrayal, cruelty, madness, revenge, sorrow, and danger. Going forward I felt like I should have, as the GM, decided what's going on with the ghosts at the outset and maybe chosen one of those themes to focus on rather than trying to steep myself in all of them. If I'm supposed to know it all as the GM, perhaps there could be a quick worksheet that prompted you to write down some specifics at the beginning (e.g. What happened?_________, List 3 pieces of evidence:_________, write one word for body, eyes, face, hands, smell, and voice: _______ _______ _______, circle one: betrayal cruelty madness revenge sorrow and danger) so that you'd have a crib sheet to look at.

8. I thought that the game was really fun even if it was short.

9. In the "what you'll need" section, it says "a copy each of both the player's and the GM's books" - does that mean each player should have a copy of both booklets?

10. Why is "The Draw" at the end and not at the beginning?
« Last Edit: October 05, 2011, 02:30:02 PM by mease19 »

Re: our first PBP game has ended (in bloody, bloody death)
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2011, 02:34:58 PM »
Another note from our game: I'm curious about sequels and campaigns where you start over again after someone dies with a new character but a persistent environment.  You would then run into some of the same rooms and find the remains of previous characters.  Each game would build on the previous ones until someone survived.  Seems like it could be fun.

Re: our first PBP game has ended (in bloody, bloody death)
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2011, 10:49:32 AM »
Also, found the perfect set of ghost playing cards a few Halloweens back.  I've been holding onto them for a proper occasion.