Primetime Adventures (setting finished, dead thread)

[anonystu]

UPDATE: There's a neat show idea at the end of the first page now called Astralnauts that seems to be heading towards consensus. I'll open character creation tonight.

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Primetime Adventures is a game where players create a TV show in the style of today's current melodramas (see: 24, Alias, Buffy, Six Feet Under).

It's a very simple game to learn (the rules fit on a postcard), and at it's heart the core idea is one of collaboration: there is a Producer (GM) who handles the responsibilities of keeping things on track and playing random characters, but all the players get to create scenes, create conflict, and even resolve how it plays out.

Scroll down and you can see of what a finished character looks like. This is not the setting we're going to use, but just gives you an idea about the game.

I'd like this game to proceed at a fairly rapid clip. The game breaks up very well into episodes (sessions), and these episodes into a season: it's too much to ask that people commit for an entire season (5 episodes), but if you would like to play, I ask that you be ready to play through the pilot episode (which should take no more than a month of play, as I intend to help everybody make the game flow fast). Players should be creative, imaginative, verbose.

So, first order of business is creating the series we can play: this can be any genre, any world you think up. Don't feel the need to fill in all the blanks, just a sentence or two or three should be enough to make a pitch. If you have a kick-ass character to help convince us that this a neat setting, give us a sentence or two about that as well. When we get enough people thinking and refining a given setting (which involves coming up with characters) into "great!" then we'll start.

I'll toss out one idea I have immediately, and let's get some more series ideas, and see where we end up.

This isn't a first-come, first-serve game; while I appreciate people noting interest in playing, it's all about a group creating a setting that everybody is happy with, and so the people who help create the setting are the people who play, not just the first x to respond.

I'm looking for approximately 3-5 other players.

PS: Note, that isn't a game about running a TV show: it plays out from the protagonist's perspective. It's just that the structure of the game (episodes/seasons/story arcs), as well as the mechanics, revolve around the current blend of TV drama. Players are also encouraged to 'stage' scenes in a more TV fashion (using camera angles, cuts, and so on)

 

[Imerak]

All right, this sounds like a neat idea. Primetime dramas always seemed like an untapped (or at least undertapped) source of inspiration for RPGs. I don't need to buy a system or anything, right?

I'll try to think up of a concept later on tonight. Just putting this here to save a spot in case they go quickly.

 

[anonystu]

No need to buy anything. I'll give out the character creation part of the rules as we get closer (suffice to say, it's very flexible). Right now, just try to think of premises for a show.

A premise is just as simple as the answer to the question: "So what's your game about?"

"Well, it's about a college student who's also a spy for the CIA!"

"Well, it's about cops who investigate murders of super-powered people!"

"Well, it's about a city under siege, and the people trying to save it."

Just think of interesting answers to that question, and also remark on whether other people's ideas tickle you or not.

If you think in terms of characters, then just try to answer the question: "So why is your character interesting?"

 

[Captain Tagon]

I'd be interested, but I don't have any concepts in mind yet. I'll try to come up with some soon.

 

[anonystu]

(This isn't by the way GM fiat, it's just anybody's fiat: we'll only agree on a setting when we have enough players who all really groove on a premise)

To give you an idea for the actual game, here are the character creation rules:

Each protagonist is made up of:

1) Concept: Overview of the person, their personality, appearance, background

2) Story arc: This is the character's personal struggle for the season.

A story arc is made up of:

a) Issue: the most defining aspect of the entire protagonist, and that what the protagonist struggles against the most. Examples include: Atonement (Lando), Grief (Buffy, season 3), Dark Temptation (Willow, season 7), Self-Worth (Will Tippen, season 2), Self-Hate (David Fisher)

b) Screen Presence: This defines during the season, how important the protagonist is to the episode, and how much their story dominates the screen. For each episode, a protagonist is assigned a number:

1: Minor role
2: Secondary role
3: Spotlight role

Your screen presence determines how many dice you get to roll during a conflict.

For a short season (pilot + 5 episodes), you get two 1 episodes, two 2 episodes, and a spotlight episode. The pilot, which comes first, has everybody at a screen presence of 2, but you're free to arrange the other screen presences as you see fit, except for the following two rules:

a) Your spotlight episode can't be in the first episode
b) Only two people can have a spotlight role in the same episode

3) Traits: These define what's special about the protagonist

You get 5 of these, and these are split into Edges and Connections. You take 2 of either one, than 3 of the other. These give you extra dice in conflicts that involve them.

Edges: A package of abilities that tie into a part of the character's story
Examples: Retired Intelligence Agent, Disciple of the Sight, Political Activist

Connections: People your characters knows and/or cares about
Examples: Edgar the loyal butler, Agent Z the gadget specialist


4) Nemesis (optional): A person whose goal is to make the character's life miserable (Example: Q from ST:TNG)

5) Personal Set (optional): While the entire group creates sets that they'll use in game, you get to create your own sets as well. (Example: Picard's Quarters from ST:TNG)

So, how does this all come together? Check out this example character from Rescue 2313, a game which is about a crew doing interstellar rescues in a politically fragile universe.

WARNING: This is just a character from the example game from the rules, copied such that people can get an idea of what the game is actually like (and I had to type this up sometime). I actually don't particularly like space opera, so Rescue 2313 isn't a direction I'd like to go in.

Brea Mackle, ex-fighter pilot

Issue: Grudge against the Xiar Protectorate, that she often makes poor decisions when involved with (We don't know why she has a grudge, or even who the Xiar Protectorate, but this gives room to fill this out on the fly)

Screen Presence: 2 (pilot) - 2 - 1 - 1 - 3 - 2

Edges:

Ex-Fighter Pilot - Useful for flying, knowing things about ships, and military procedures

Amateur Spaceship Mechanic - Brea knows how to do small repairs and modifications, and how to communicate with other mechanics.

Diplomat's Daughter - Brea grew up in the world of politics and intrigue, and though she despises it, she knows how to play the game.

Connections:

A retired military officer who lives on the station where the crew is based. Brea and the officer are close friends, and Brea looks to this person as a father figure.

A fellow mechanic on the station who helps her out with information and repairs, in whcih there might be some future romantic tension.

Nemesis: A pilot who's part of the military squadron based at the station. Brea and this pilot have been rivals since they were at the academy together.

This should help make things clearer.

 

[doghead]

Hey anonystu

This looks like fun. Actually, It was fun would be more accurate. I found myself at a bit of a loose end, and with the boards a bit quiet, I thought I would give this a go. Drawing on the SF theme of your example I came up with as yet un-name creation.

However, I have rather a lot on my plate at the mo', so I'm a bit cautious about saying that I'm in. So don't hold a place for me.

thotd

AUTONOMOUS RESPONSE SENTINAL/SCOUT ENTITY (SHORT)
aka the Short ARSE Unit.

-- ISSUE --

Our hero is cursed. With a squeak. Every repair and rebuild has failed to fix the problem. Given his basic role, this is rather more than annoying.

-- SCREEN PRESENCE --

2 (pilot episode) - 2 - 3 - 1 - 1 - 2.

-- EDGES --

Enhance Sensor Array - Short ARSE units are fitted with with an advance package of sensors optimised for their sentinal and scout roles.

Enhanced Stealth and Mobility Package - Short ARSE units are designed to to be able to go unseen where their other larger cousins can not. They have been optimised for rapid movement, the abililty to negotitiate obstacles and remain undetected.

Two Guns Blazing - While the primary weapon of the ARSE unit is the sniper rifle, some geek in RnD thought some close in firepower would be useful. Two internal mechanical holsters were fitted into the small of the ARSE unit's back, each equipped with a short barreled large caliber revolver. No has yet to explain why revolvers were chosen over automatics. The geek from RnD has never been found to explain.

-- CONNECTIONS --

EP:SON - a rogue AI entity.

NacBit - NacBits are small mechanical entities the size and shape of a small crab. They resides with the ARSE units and act as mechanic, conscience and 'greaser'. NicBit occassionally has been successful in supressing the squeak for a short time.

-- NEMESIS --

DeGruder - DeGruder is a collector of exotic robots, and he has a buyer lined up for our hero.

-- PERSONAL SET --

Undecided.

 

[Radiant]

busy today but will come back later to take a look at this.

My two cents from reading this in a hurry. With Brea and ..."the robot with the cool name".. it could be a cool space opera.

 

[anonystu]

Hey anonystu

This looks like fun.

Well, I'm glad you had fun. I'd rather though, that we start with coming up with show premises and agree on one first.

I'm also not a terribly big fan of Rescue 2313 (the example setting): if we go in a sci-fi direction (which is okay if it hits us all right), I'm much more into a classical sci-fi feel of exploring political and moral issues and less the space opera of Rescue 2313.

I would note that when we do get around to character creation, the feel of Edges is somewhat different from "it's a skill or group of skills": instead of saying: "My robot has a sensor array." as one of your edges, the better way to phrase it is: "My robot was a security guard for a prison, and here's what that implies."

My apologies though, for giving off the idea that characters was what I wanted. I just wanted to give people an idea what the game was like.

I also noted up there in the beginning that this isn't a "first x people to reserve your slot" type game: the playing group will just be whoever helps create the setting and comes up with interesting characters.

So, think of those setting concepts: just think of a game you've always wanted to play, and tell it to us!

 

[doghead]

Hey Anonystu,

Yeah, my wording was a bit off. I didn't mean to imply any assumed place in the game.

I did have a longer response typed up, but all came off as rather defensive. Humm. Not my intention at all.

So I'll just leave it at sorry, good luck and have fun.

the head of the dog.

 

[anonystu]

Oh, don't worry, I'm sorry if I gave off a bad impression: I like the fact that you created a character, I just think it's jumping ahead of ourselves to get that far in. If you're interested, I'd like to have you around.

edit: The comment about reserving spots wasn't directed to you: rather, I just wanted people who come by this thread for the first time not to think that we're done selecting players and move on, but instead, jump in.