Brandon Leon-Gambetta – Page 2 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

News For Coming Changes

News For Coming Changes

This is super unformated because it’s just grabbed and dropped from an editing session!

Flashback: flashback may be re-written in the future, possibly into more than one move. It isn’t working how I’d like it to and there’s not quite enough reason to do it. In playtest, it slowed the game down more than I’d have liked it to but it’s such an important part of telenovelas that I feel I can’t abandon it.

Flee The Scene: Definitely didn’t work how I intended. I think I’m going to remove this move entirely; now that there is an MC we can give them good instructions on how to shut down scenes.

Recaps

More of them.

Moves

La Abuela

Abuela isn’t working the way I want her to. She’s too much of a behind the pictures and would require a VERY involved player to make her sing.

El Caballero

This is one of the playbooks that I think is running best.

La Doña

She’s fun, but a couple things aren’t quite clicking.

Audience Reaction is kind of tough, but seems to be hitting. I need NUMBERS for this.

I Was Beautiful Once:

I’ll have to figure out how to rework this. Currently it’s purely narrative which possibly doesn’t work.

La Empleada

She works well in the game but doesn’t hit on some of the mechanics.

This is the playbook I’m most nervous about, it’s SO core to telenovelas but it is involved in a lot of the way that masculinity and femininity is portrayed in society. I’m hesitant to include her, but think she’s so important to have. Gotta tread carefully.

Her plot twist doesn’t hit enough at all. I think it /could/ hit all the time, but the player would need to really lean into it.

El Gemelo

El Gemelo seems to be working alright, but interestingly has so far ALWAYS been the twin of La Empleada. I’m not 100% certain why this is, but I’d like to figure out why if I can.

His (or I guess Her given what playtests have shown) Audience Reaction isn’t good enough. It triggers every scene once which is boring and maybe a little bit slow.

Recaps

Currently the recaps cannot both be true, given that players seem to really like the recaps that likely shouldn’t be true so that players can do more than one.

This also essentially functions to connect players, Hook style and make our family-web.

El Jefe

People get El Jefe and have played him perfectly. He almost seems too likeable, gotta bring other characters up to this level.

Marking XP is almost too easy for him.

Plot Twist: Plata o Plomo

Really gotta rework this one, removed the mechanical benefit (a holdover from previous version) but this still needs something better. Doesn’t feel quite brawny enough.

La Pirata

It’s a tempting character that I think people are interested in, but I’ve gotten a LOT of questions as to whether it fits or not. I really think that it fits and I’m going to try to work it out, but this is currently in the lowest tier of playbooks (right alongside La Abuela)

Sin Rostro

Definitely removing ‘never’ from that. I think this actually should have a full move.

El Vividor

People have been having some fun with this one, but I’m worried it’s a little bit unclear what you should be doing. I think the core issue is that the Audience Reaction isn’t quite hitting, though I want to keep that basic feel.

Getting Real

How did I miss that it had no downside on a 7-9? Come on, Brandon

An irritatingly suave goodbye: That is, for me, the core reason I want to play El Vividor.

Plot Twist: Corporate Takeover

This definitely isn’t coming across the way I’d wanted to… Basically my thinking was that you’re playing and El Caballero is all ready to catch you doing something or El Jefe is ready to disown you and then you go, “Oh, I’m sorry… Did you not get the call from the bank? I own this hotel now and you work for me now.” I’ll see if I can figure out how to reword this.

AUDIENCE MOVES

-When you hit a specific level, you take a big risk. Poll the audience for cheers (or explicit boos) If the audience goes along with it, it keeps going up. If NOT we get a twist move from the GM?

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!

Does anybody know of any games designed around coming-of-age visitation fantasy?

Does anybody know of any games designed around coming-of-age visitation fantasy? Thinking more Narnia than Alice in Wonderland. Feeling drawn as though through a wardrobe to start a new hack, but don’t want to jump in if it already exists!

Gathered information about Pasión de las Pasiones

Gathered information about Pasión de las Pasiones

Written Information

+This Page!

+Game Material Coming Soon Hopefully

Podcast Materials

+http://www.stophackandroll.com/2016/06/episode-04-el-pasion-de-stop-hack-roll/ The initial Stop, Hack, & Roll episode where we introduce the game. LOTS of big changes have happened since then.

+http://www.stophackandroll.com/2016/11/episode-13-playtesting-future/ The follow up where we talk about some of the removal of stats and some of the other big changes

+http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/the-gauntlet-podcast/episode-79-five-fires-worlds-in-peril-pasion-de-pasiones The Gauntlet after Jason Cordova playtested Pasión de las Pasiones at Metatopia

If you have other links with information, let me know! I’m hoping to bring the game materials to you soon in some sort of format, but also want to try to be responsible with setting up the game for the future!

I’m not saying that Pasión de las Pasiones is going to have a bunch of alternate settings, but I definitely spent…

I’m not saying that Pasión de las Pasiones is going to have a bunch of alternate settings, but I definitely spent some of this morning writing up alternate props for a banana republic setting.

Let me know if you have alternate playset thoughts for those moments that I need to let my mind wander away from the core!

So it has been pointed out to me by azlath (who is currently working on the very cool looking #NahualRPG [which I…

So it has been pointed out to me by azlath (who is currently working on the very cool looking #NahualRPG [which I just realized has a beta!!!]) that my grammar could use some work! This is what happens when you let your Spanish dry up!

First off: Pasión is a feminine word, therefore it should be Pasión de LAS.

Secondly: When you pluralize Pasión, it loses the accent! Just saying it out-loud, you can feel that difference.

Rebranding may take a little while to do, but I’m going to start doing it! Let me know if I miss some places or if it causes any issues!

Either way, let’s get back to another episode of… Pasión de las Pasiones!

Just some thoughts as I write away at Agenda stuff.

Just some thoughts as I write away at Agenda stuff. This feels like a wildly important part, so I’m taking my time with it.

Also, other 2 play reports coming soon. Just need to get my head back in the game and move from Mechanics Corner to Table Corner.

Originally shared by Brandon Leon-Gambetta

I’ve basically started over with my Pasión de los Pasiónes agenda-writing (because apparently Pasión de los Pasiónes is based entirely upon ripping out everything and starting things over anytime I start to stall) when I realized a couple of interesting things.

1) Pasión de los Pasiónes is a low-NPC game. The focus of telenovelas is almost always upon a small group of characters that are radically interconnected. What this means for the MC is kind of strange. Normally when I’m running PbtA games I rely pretty strongly upon NPCs for MC moves (hard to do a nice strong ‘you get separated’ when they are standing in the middle of their living room with a wonderful view of the setting sun behind). That may mean a lot of moves looking like bringing other PCs into the scene, but I’m not 100% satisfied with that. I definitely need to get a list of ideas down (because this is going to have to look like a game at some point), but I think this is one of the biggest questions around Pasión de los Pasiónes.

2) The lack of strong scene-framing may have come from lack of cohesive agenda. I don’t have much to say about this one, just that it’s something I’m realizing.

3) The agenda will need to be such that it has an effect on both the audience AND the characters within the scenes. It’s an odd balance to maintain, because part of the agenda /IS/ to encourage the audience to be rowdy, raucous, and involved. How to set this up from the MC side is a little bit fiddly though, I feel like most of the Audience Reaction is drawn out by players setting the stage up. (La Dona doesn’t get out of the car, she opens the door to the car, giving El Caballero plenty of chance to help her out and look all gallant).

Just some thoughts. Back to writing.

Hasta la próxima!

Question regarding MC moves with low-NPC games!

Basically, how do you do it? Pasión de los Pasiónes (my telenovela-based PbtA hack) is a low-NPC game. The focus of telenovelas is almost always upon a small group of characters that are radically interconnected.

What this means for the MC is kind of strange. Normally when I’m running PbtA games I rely pretty strongly upon NPCs for MC moves (hard to do a nice strong ‘you get separated’ when they are standing in the middle of their living room with a wonderful view of the setting sun behind). That may mean a lot of moves looking like bringing other PCs into the scene, but I’m not 100% satisfied with that. I definitely need to get a list of ideas down (because this is going to have to look like a game at some point), but I think this is one of the biggest questions around Pasión de los Pasiónes.

Any advice/reading/experience in games with REAL low NPC counts for MC moves?

Playtest 1: Metatopia 2016 Friday 11am-1pm

Featured:

Mark Diaz Truman as La Dona

Michael Miller as El Caballero

Laura Simpson as La Gemela

Dev Purkayastha as La Empleada

Adrian Stein as El Jefe

Brandon Leon-Gambetta as El Vividor

For the first ever playtest of Pasión de los Pasiónes I wanted to just see what works, what doesn’t, and whether it is worth pursuing. I scheduled about 3 hours after the playtest for massive rewrites just in case and was kind of freaking out for anyone to see the game.

Character creation worked as intented, people jumped on things pretty quickly and we had a group formed up, which was my first intention. La Gemela chose to be a twin of an existing player character (La Empleada) which made for all kinds of drama down the line.

Brief Storyline

El Caballero is in town in order to try to bust the crime ring of El Jefe wide open. He was instantly being dreamy and started up racking up those plot twist points, which I think really helped to motivate the rest of the group. I’m exceptionally happy with this audience trigger (The teenage girl falls a little bit in love) and it’s singing in a really solid way. All three Caballeros spoke in a suave voice and were gentlemanly. It was a delight.

In any case, El Jefe has a son, El Vividor who wakes up shirtless with a bump on the back of his head outside La Empleada’s bedroom. She brings him inside to nurse his head, La Dona arrives in order, and El Vividor hides under the sheets. A flashback goes solidly (though it took a little more time to figure out whether it should roll or not than I’d like, I want to clarify this better) and El Jefe shows up (this room is in his mansion) to find his son with La Empleada and La Dona. El Jefe is scary, charming, and flirty with La Dona in a way that really hit the scene great, then he grabs El Vividor by the ear and DRAGS him out. La Dona and La Empleada have a brief scene where they discuss their sneaky plot, La Dona wants La Empleada to seduce El Vividor.

Then La Gemela arrives in town. Her family credit card was declined, so she’s back to claim what’s hers. La Dona and La Gemela meet up and make plans, if La Empleada can’t close the deal, she can. It is ALSO revealed that La Dona had clubbed El Vividor previously! It was tense and awesome and El Jefe arrives at the club in order to chat up La Dona. There’s some more little flirtation, then El Caballero sees the two of them in the club (this will be useful for him to catch them later on!)

La Gemela heads over to El Jefe’s mansion in order to meet up with El Vividor and seduce him. She rocks her feminine wiles and he’s entranced by her, using his love for her sister to get him (this game gets a little complicated, but just freaking wait until the second two playtests with more characters). At this point, El Jefe arrives in his helecoptor with La Empleada in the helecoptor with him! The father and son stare at the twins and can’t figure out what is going on. La Dona is coming over for a date, so El Vividor calls El Caballero so that everyone will be in the last scene.

El Caballero does some awesome charming, El Jefe and El Vividor yell a bit, and La Dona sets up a wedding between El Vividor and… someone. We don’t figure out this episode BECAUSE the game came to an end (always leave on a cliffhanger! This is a telenovela after all!).

Discussion

The choices made for characters made sense to me, they were some of the most obviously fun ones. El Jefe gets to be mean and evil, La Empleada gets to chase romance headfirst, La Gemela gets to be in the way, La Dona gets to manipulate, and El Caballero gets to charm and fight. I chose El Vividor in order to fill in the roll of a second love interest (I was a little worried La Empleada needed someone else to flirt with).

This game was run as a GMless game with players essentially randomly putting down what the scenes would be. All of the players were pretty experienced with RPGs in general and PbtA specifically, so it clicked in nicely. I’m not sure whether GMless works, but it seemed to click at least for a small group with a lot of experience. I want more testing of this.

Moves were used pretty regularly and we hit (I think) 1 plot twist, which is fine for a 2 hour time. Twist checks seem to work, they are fun and make things pretty raucous. That said, some are DEFINITELY harder to hit than others which needs some work.

The feedback I got from this one were overwhelmingly positive. I’m so excited to have gotten this response and got some good tips for some extra things I might need. There isn’t a move at all for deceit (MENTIROSA!) which I think is needed, though I didn’t do a good job of adding it in before the second session.

In terms of playbooks, I’m worried that La Empleada is necessary. I hope she isn’t, not because I don’t like the playbook (it’s one of my favorite tropes), but because I want everything to be optional.

Further Playtest Suggested

-Small Group Less Experienced GMless

-Small Group GMed

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So that was playtest 1! I couldn’t have possibly had more fun. It was wonderful. Thank you all so much for being a part of it and PLEASE let me know if there are specific notes and things you’d like to highlight or discuss! I still have the written notes that I need to examine and put more into effect, this is broad strokes.

The reception for Pasión de los Pasiónes at Metatopia went better than I could have ever possibly asked and I just…

The reception for Pasión de los Pasiónes at Metatopia went better than I could have ever possibly asked and I just want to extend my thanks to all of you. I’m going to keep on thanking you, I feel just absolutely overwhelmed with the help from the community and can’t wait to keep building Pasión.

A full play-report of the three playtests will be going up tomorrow!