In this episode of Pasión de las Pasiones…
El Vividor: Guillermo Hernandez (Taylor LaBresh)
El Gemelo: Gustavo Hernancez (SJ)
La Pirata: Ezmerelda (Cole)
Los Hernandez Twins (Guillermo and Gustavo) are the sons of a successful lawyer, but Guillermo has gotten himself involved with a troubling element, a pirate (Ezmerelda) with incredible grace, finesse, and possibly an eye for Guillermo. Gustavo catches Guillermo and Ezmerelda in the act as they rob a jewel encrusted pin from a museum. Ashamed by his brother’s actions, he leaves them to it, not knowing that Ezmerelda tranquilized Guillermo and left him on the museum roof.
Gustavo returns home and speaks with his father asking for advice, Senor Hernandez tells him he must confront his brother. Sidelong glances are exchanged with Maria, the Hernandez’s maid, who used to date Guillermo and had a trist with Gustavo that made her resent the Hernandez family.
At the Club, Ezmerelda and Gustavo meet where it is revealed that Ezmerelda somehow didn’t have the pin (though she had other parts of the haul which she exchanged for a briefcase of money). Guillermo sees Gustavo and Ezmerelda talking and clearly intends to approach them.
At the quinceañera of Los Hernandez’s sister Alejandra, Ezmerelda and Guillermo discuss the loss of the pin and the need to find it to get fully paid. Gustavo talks with Maria, expressing his love and kissing her before she sends him to confront his brother, but after the kiss he finds that Ezmerelda and Guillermo have disappeared.
Guillermo finds the pin that apparently Maria had stolen from him (explained Next Time On?). He opens up to Gustavo, telling him that Diego, an enormous loan shark with a big scar and more muscles than anyone needs, needs to receive the pin or he will be killed. Gustavo agrees to give the pin to Diego who is also at the quinceañera (presumably to find Guillermo.
Not knowing this, Ezmerelda speaks with Diego and sends him after Gustavo so that she and Guillermo can continue to plot and get paid. Diego goes after Gustavo and corners him in a hallway of the estate. Gustavo hands over the pin, which Diego immediately recognizes as fake and crushes, killing Gustavo and throwing him from the mansion (his body isn’t found and he’ll return in later episodes with an eyepatch instead of his signature glasses).
Guillermo and Ezmerelda meet back out in the garden and Guillermo pulls out the real pin, which he’d swapped to give to his twin. The two embrace, kiss, and disappear bringing the episode to an end.
UGH, Google+ just removed a bunch of post I’d made. Why is this new update so freaking garbage?
This was a big session in terms of tackling some of the things I was worried wouldn’t work in Pasión de las Pasiones. I had it written more elegantly, but I’ll go through them with some notes from the game!
Overall it was super fun and I enjoyed the heck out of it.
Things That Concerned Me Previous To Playing
-Lower Player Count: We had only 4 people at the table (including a GM). The game seemed to go well, though there was less player-driven audience reaction. It could be that I was just better at catching it quickly and they didn’t need to, but it could also be a function of low player count (2 out of 3 PCs are in most scenes, after all!). Gotta work on that a little, or maybe just suggest 4 PCs.
-Playing Online: This was also the first online session! Again, I’m not sure what effects that had, though it was definitely less raucous, it still hit ALL of the things I wanted it to hit. I think tentatively, I’m calling this an okay-for-online-play-game.
-Having No Empleada: Nobody chose La Empleada and things still worked! We remain having never seen a game without El Gemelo, but I’m thrilled that we still got romance and love triangles without La Empleada!
Things I Need To Work On Based On This Test
-I should codify commercial breaks and audience discussions. Both were done randomly, but feel pretty good in play.
-Audience Reactions are WAY unbalanced. They definitely need work, even with me pushing to try to keep them more or less in line.
-Flashbacks aren’t working, gotta figure out why.
-A Defy Danger move may be necessary, a player described pushing through a crowd of people in a way that I think could have used a roll, though just not having one also was fine!
-Props didn’t stand out this time for one player, gotta work out how to use them better, I think.
-Lying remains a big question mark for me.
-Needless to say, more plot twists, moves, etc.
Things That Work
-General concept worked, people had fun, we had drama and romance and betrayal and somebody even got beaten up
-The Harm Move got a great reaction
-Audience got a good reaction
Overall, it was a wildly fun session and I’m so glad I got the chance to run it with these three amazing players!