Vargtass
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Tue 03 Jan 2017, 11:28

The second in-game everyday-life scene was between the rocker and her mother (with also the weirdo attending), before the father got home (the father works at a security agency and the mother is a researcher at The Loop, she is able to get home early). The rocker had a more heartfelt moment talking about aunt Lena, getting the story anout her assumed ongoing love vacation abroad with Gunnar. The mother closed the moment by urging her daughter not to miss dinner at six ...
After the game, it was natural to run scenes as the Kids got home at 10 in the evening, missing all dinners, curfews, and sometimes bedtimes. The rocker had a severe scolding from her father, who had also called the music shop, learning she had clocked out early, which was not what he expected from her. He went on to question her friends, stating she should not hang out as much with them. The eleven-old hick tried to sneak past his mother, who was very disappointed with him. She sighed and concluded this just was further proof that life as farmers was not for them, they really have to do something about that. The hicks problem is that his parents wants to give up farming, sell the farm and move.
The weirdo's caring mother also waited up for her, asking about the day, worrying that she had caught some bad company "especially that Thelin girl, she is not a good influence on you".
Lastly, I asked the troublemaker to describe his homecoming. This is what he said (all based on his problem(s)): "It's like it always is. Dad's away somewhere drinking his head off, mom's in her room with some random guy, no food in the kitchen, everything a mess. I go up in my room, take care of Ronny (his stray dog), and tries to go to sleep".
Ending the session on a tragic note ...
Last edited by Vargtass on Wed 04 Jan 2017, 14:12, edited 1 time in total.
 
Nilo
Posts: 157
Joined: Thu 14 Apr 2011, 11:55

Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Tue 03 Jan 2017, 22:27

The second in-game everyday-life scene was between the rocker and her mother (with also the weirdo attending), before the father got home (the father works at a security agency and the mother is a researcher at The Loop, she is able to get home early). The rocker had a more heartfelt moment talking about aunt Lena, getting the story anout her assumed ongoing love vacation abroad with Gunnar. The mother closed the moment by urging her daughter not to miss dinner at six ...
After the game, it was natural to run scenes as the Kids got home at 10 in the evening, missing all dinners, curfews, and sometimes bedtimes. The rocker had a severe scolding from her father, who had also called the music shop, learning she had clocked out early, which was not what he expected from her. He went on to question her friends, stating she should not hang out as much with them. The eleven-old hick tried to sneak past his mother, who was very disappointed with him. She sighed and concluded this just was further proof that life as farmers was not for them, they really have to do something about that. The hicks problem is that his parents wants to give up farming, sell the farm and move.
The weirdo's caring mother also waited up for her, asking about the day, worrying that she had caught some bad company "especially that Thelin girl, she is not a good influence on you".
Lastly, I asked the troublemaker to describe his homecoming. This is what ge said (all based on his problem(s)): "It's like it always is. Dad's away somewhere drinking his head off, mom's in her room with some random guy, no food in the kitchen, everything a mess. I go up in my room, take care of Ronny (his stray dog), and tries to go to sleep".
Ending the session on a tragic note ...
Great ending! :)
 
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Björn Hellqvist
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Thu 05 Jan 2017, 03:34

Page 17: "1950-59: Scientists in the Soviet Union discovers the Magnetrine Effect." According to page 31 in the "Tales From the Loop" book, it was discovered in 1943.
My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land.
 
silentboba
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Sun 08 Jan 2017, 18:32

Last night, I ran a large group (7 people... way more interest than I originally anticipated, every person I emailed was interested in playing immediately) through a first session of Summer Break and Killer Birds.  They are all veterans of other game systems (World of Darkness, D&D and many others), so we were able to lean heavily on the advice to keep scenes short and to the point without sacrificing the story narrative or character interaction.
We began after dinner, made characters together and ended up with around 2.5 hours of game play after creating characters.  Even with 7 players we managed to get about halfway through the first scenario.  The simplicity of the rules and focus on narrative made the game flow smoother and easier than I would have thought and the players all agreed the character creation was great, providing hooks for each player through their Drives, Prides and Anchors to flesh out during gameplay.
I set up a randomized 80's playlist of music to play in the background, which the players enjoyed, especially when Rick Astley managed to sneak into a scene where a player was literally being Rick Rolled in-character.  Couldn't have managed it better if we'd planned it.

A couple of quick thoughts after our first session:
  • We thought it would help moving step 10 (Relationships between the Kids) to the end of the character creation process, to flesh out characters a bit more before trying to work out how they related to each other.
  • I also spent a few minutes before people showed up to grab the character archetype pages from the pdf and print them back to back with the character sheets, creating 'playbooks' for each character type.  I spread them out on the table with the archetype showing, which allowed each player to grab one, read through the front/archetype, make selections and flip the sheet over to fill in all the details.
  • As others have mentioned previously, my players felt a tiny bit more mechanical benefit/differences between the archetypes might be helpful, though not a game breaker for any of them.  The levers provided through Drive, Pride, Anchor and Relationships made everyone feel like they had a role to play narratively, even if the mechanics were a tiny bit muddled.  We also ended up with two sets of frenemies this way who were competing throughout the game as most popular/smartest kid pairs trying to outdo each other.
  • The luck/pushing yourself mechanic works well for individual scenes, but already my players are wondering how it will affect a mass combat/showdown.  Somebody had previously mentioned possible stages to the final confrontation beyond what's listed and I'll look at that before the next session as I think it could really help prevent it becoming a mass beat down of the goshawk.
We're hoping to run another session soon to finish up the first Mystery and I'll post more feedback afterward.
 
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Tomas
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Mon 09 Jan 2017, 01:02

Awesome, thanks for that report!

If you'd like to be listed as playtesters, please shoot an email to info@frialigan.se
Fria Ligan
 
Nosretep13
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Tue 10 Jan 2017, 01:50

Play tested a game on the weekend, and overall it was outstanding. The game and rules play like a dream.

Everyone had an excellent time and the roll playing was very rich.

As a GM I found it very easy to create a deep and rich setting using the rules and character questions, and the players found it very easy to create a story and interweave it with the skills.

One thing I think that would help is a quick reference for abilities, skills and some common tools. I attached a sample of something I worked up after our session , if something like this could be included it would be a great jump start to give to new plays along with their character sheets.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By-VP ... VJubm1zcTg

- Trent
 
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Karbonara
Posts: 313
Joined: Fri 05 Jun 2015, 10:42

Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Wed 11 Jan 2017, 23:13

The luck/pushing yourself mechanic works well for individual scenes, but already my players are wondering how it will affect a mass combat/showdown.  Somebody had previously mentioned possible stages to the final confrontation beyond what's listed and I'll look at that before the next session as I think it could really help prevent it becoming a mass beat down of the goshawk.
I've been thinking about this as well....

One idea I was thinking about is this:
I'm wondering if it's possible to run a simplified version of, or inspired by, Mouse guard's conflict system:
  1. Define a GOAL for each of the conflicting sides – "what do each side want to achieve"
  2. GM defines a THREAT/complexity level, which is the number of total successes the kids need to reach (easy conflict is number of kids +1 success, medium is number of kids x 2, really tough is about 9-12 successes) – "You three. Toppling the angry scientist and disabling the machine is a threat level of 6"
  3. Each Kid get one primary scene, adding up their results, so they have to have total successes equal to the threat level once all kids have acted (who can act) –"If you can get 6 successes in total, you can get to your goal"
  4. Each primary scene can get an assist from another kid, but only by kids who haven't acted yet. Each mini scene is described by the GM and player/s collaboratively – "Karin can assist Göran when he tries to push the rickety warehouse shelves. She's up last though, without anyone to help her"
  5. NOT ENOUGH: Once the last Kid's scene is done, the verdict comes... if there isn't enough successes, the kids don't succeed with their goal, but if it's more than half of the threat level the target gets some kind of complication for future encounters, or is forced to sacrifice some part of its goal – "Only three successes... The scientist is buried under the fallen shelves, but sadly the machine survived the crash and you now see the ball of energy growing even more intense! Run!"
  6. SUCCESS: If the successes are enough, the kids achieve their goal, and with extra successes they might even get more than they set out to do – "Seven sixes! Not only does the machine collapse – you manage to push the scientist into it as the ball of energy implodes and pulls the machines smoking carcass into a small black hole. All that's left is a twisting ember that dissipates with a POFF on the burnt metal floor"
With this, the kids would have to define what their goal is and then make up a quick plan of who tries to do what.They each have to do what they set out to do, and decide which items to use, in advance. However, the assists can be decided on the fly. Threat levels have to be tested, but considering 2 successes aren't that easy to get, and that pushing or using up items is what brings you to a success – a victory will most likely give the kids a bunch of conditions.
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Spelutvecklare, skribent, och Fria Ligan hang-around. (Det bara blev så.)
 
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Karbonara
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Wed 11 Jan 2017, 23:20

One thing I think that would help is a quick reference for abilities, skills and some common tools. I attached a sample of something I worked up after our session , if something like this could be included it would be a great jump start to give to new plays along with their character sheets.
I setup this for my players (and for me as GM, which allowed me to essentially ignore the rulebook for the entire session):
TFTL_RulesSummarySheet.pdf
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Rollspelens andra guldålder är här!

---------------------------------
Spelutvecklare, skribent, och Fria Ligan hang-around. (Det bara blev så.)
 
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Karbonara
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Fri 13 Jan 2017, 08:07

I have a showdown conflict in mind for my Monday night play group, so I'll test the conflict idea there and see how it plays out.
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Rollspelens andra guldålder är här!

---------------------------------
Spelutvecklare, skribent, och Fria Ligan hang-around. (Det bara blev så.)
 
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Tomas
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Re: The ALPHA PDF - questions, comments, errata

Fri 13 Jan 2017, 13:20

I have a showdown conflict in mind for my Monday night play group, so I'll test the conflict idea there and see how it plays out.
Cool, please do let us know how it goes! We are planning to add rules for "Extended Trouble" for "boss fights" along the sames lines as you propose.
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