Never sure whether to post here or public. Ah well, here is this also!
Originally shared by Brandon Leon-Gambetta
Audience Reactions for Pasión de las Pasiones
I’m finding Audience Reaction to be one of my favorite parts of the game as well as an important series of question marks and upside down question marks. The good thing about it is that it is intrinsically fun and ties into theme; telenovelas are best watched with people and invoke that feeling of crying out in support or protest of the events on the screen. So many people I’ve talked about regarding this game have told me they love to watch at telenovelas and shout out at it. Clearly this is core.
Here’s where it gets awkward. I love it as a system of fan-mail or bennies (Prime Time Adventures was my first exposure to this, but clearly been in a ton of different games) but I want it to do more than just increase successes. When I was envisioning PdlP originally it was definitely just a one-shot and now I’m looking beyond that. As a one-shot, I liked the idea that Audience Reaction built you towards a single big plot-twist (see Moment of Truth in Masks: A New Generation). I think I still like that, it’s solid, it’s thematic, and it’s cool.
That said, I also now need to start thinking about experience and character growth. Plot Twist may end up being put as an advance but I want to be sure the twists are happening often enough to get that fun payoff.
This further complicates the Audience Reactions for a couple of reasons.
1) They should trigger similarly often. Currently El Gemelo (father gets confused who is whom) is all but guaranteed to get a single Audience Reaction in every scene, but unlikely to get more than one. Meanwhile, El Caballero (make the teenager swoon) played hard for Reactions could be swoon-worthy with every action. Potential Solution? Make it one XP per-scene (see AW/Monsterhearts and highlighted stats). I’m not satisfied with this, as it only switches which playbook benefits. There will never be a scene where El Gemelo’s doesn’t trigger even though I LOVE that reaction.
2) They should be able to be played towards. Big issue with this one currently is La Empleada (envy/admire her beauty). The response needs to be fixed, but anything that the audience is really providing the fiction for doesn’t work. Sure, the player could describe her beauty all the time, really push for that, BUT it’s a level of roleplaying separate from the rest of the playbooks. I’d love for players to talk about that kind of thing because it is very telenovela, but feels a bit unfair that everyone else just says their actions and La Empleada has to talk about flowers matching her eyes.
3) Plot Twists still need to happen often and can’t be stale. I think every session of PdlP should have a big plot twist moment. They are fun, people’s eyes go wide, and one player gets to feel total control. They also create AWESOME ripples (our characters are MARRIED now? Guess next episode is gonna be WILD) and are just good for theme. What I /DON’T/ want is to repeat plot twists. While it’s awesome for your Jean Grey Nova to take FULL universal control in similar ways in Masks, it’s way less cool to have a second mandated wedding in three sessions. That could mean I have to make them more general, but that also doesn’t feel great. This is DEFINITELY a couple of brainstorms away.
So yeah! Those are my thoughts on Audience Reactions for Pasión de las Pasiones! If you have thoughts, advice, tips, questions, whatever, hit me up!