A quick AP report about my online game of Troublemakers.
Originally shared by James Mullen
Field Trip to the Museum
Last night I ran my first game via Hangouts, playing Troublemakers with Adam Goldberg Ben Cole Elina Gouliou and Helen Garvey as Twins, Goth, Royal and Kook respectively; they divided into two families and two school years, so they all links to each other.
The plot centered around a field trip to the Natural History Museum: the Twins and Royal got cake in their lunchboxes after pleading with their father (a ‘professional’ online poker player); the Goth lost his toy spider mascot on the bus to the museum and had to be helped out from under the seats by the Twins, whilst the Goth gave the Royal half of her lucky stick…
After getting separated from the rest of their school, the kids made it into the museum in time to be caught in a heist; the Twins ran out to get help and organise an evacuation, but their little sister the Royal almost got taken hostage by the crooks. Luckily, one crook’s gun somehow got twisted around in his hand after the Kook stared at him (she couldn’t have..? Nah, no way!)
After all getting safely out, they then planned to get back in again so that they could get medals (well, that was the Royal’s plan), so with the Twins helping them climb some trellis work, they found the crooks trying to move a big heavy crate down the stairwell; some marbles from the Royal’s backpack slowed them down, but the crate dropped, smashed & released an ancient mummy!
The Goth ran for it down the stairs, reaching the basement, where a more well-dressed crook nailed him into a crate; meanwhile, the Royal persuaded the mummy that she was a princess and got him to attack the other crooks, unfortunately, the mummy’s presence was starting to Egyptify the museum, with sand appearing everywhere and signs being replaced with hieroglyphs!
One Twin and the Kook rode down to the basement to find the Goth, while the other Twin and the Royal rode the lid of a sarcophagus down the sandy stairwell, losing control at the bottom and crashing through the museum doors into a police cordon! They told their story to the cops quickly, while down in the basement, one Twin humiliated the crook-in-the-suit over how crap his whole plan was and how badly he was carrying it out; this give the kids enough breathing space to allow the cops to come in and arrest all the crooks!
After sending the mummy back home to Egypt (along with a lucky stick!), the kids all later attended a ceremony at the museum at which the were given medals and the Twins gave a speech that saved the museum from closure!
All in all, that was a pretty good game, though I was a bit rough in places: I found it a big adjustment from face-to-face gaming, but I’m getting there. I made one adjustment to The Twins playbook in the wake of this after agreeing that there were too many moves on it that covered more or less the same ground, so I took out the most confusing one (about the twins physically switching places) and replaced it with something inspired by a moment in the game.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iTjRUomaBXM2lNR1Z1TURWSDA/view?usp=sharing
Not mentioned was the amount of low-key bullying and cajoling you have to do as the older siblings of a Royal.