Author: James Mullen

An AP report for the first session of our online campaign of The ‘Hood.

http://www.ukroleplayers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=20519&p=211453#p211453

Some awesome character artwork by the excellent Jonny Gray, representing the four PCs for our short online campaign for The ‘Hood, beginning tonight on Hangouts. Very excited!

Updates on my hack for childhood adventures.

Originally shared by James Mullen

Troublemakers: Kid Playbooks

After the last online game I MCed, I edited a few of the moves on the playbooks for this game, so the updated version is available now.

I also took one big step: I switched the Twins out of the basic lineup in favour of the Royal. You can still find the Twins in the New Kids folder, but after reflecting on the two game sessions I’ve run online, the Twins feel like they need a lot more careful management to be effective without dominating the game. I don’t want to restrict their advantage any more than I already have, as then no-one would want to play them, but I wouldn’t recommend them as a basic playbook, they’re more like an advanced one for a whole other level of play.

These two play tests have also given me lots of ideas for MC guidance & moves, so I have a couple of new chapters to write and lots of previously written things to tweak, including:

– ‘First Time’: a peripheral move that triggers when a kid has a landmark moment, like a first kiss, first time in hospital, first time on a rollercoaster, etc.

– ‘Kid to Story’: a simple tool for MCs to judge what sort of content to include in their game, based on the players’ choice of playbooks.

– ‘MC Moves’: I’ve had enough experience of MCing the game now to write a formal structure for these, instead of just winging it as I have been doing.

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

I liked this analogy so much, I just had to share it.

Originally shared by James Mullen

Apps: Mates, Dates & Spooky Fates

“Imagine this: you wake up tomorrow morning to find out your country has been invaded. The occupying forces are everywhere, with soldiers on every street and in every shop; they’ve even put cameras and propaganda posters in your home while you slept.

You freak out a little more when no-one else seems to care; hell, they haven’t even noticed, and what’s up with that? Your friends, your family, everyfuckingbody, just carrying on like it was a normal day.

Your freak out is complete when the truth finally sinks in: this invasion didn’t happen while you slept, it happened before you were even born; when you woke up this morning, you really woke up. Yesterday, you were just like everybody else, blind to the powerful forces all around you controlling every intimate aspect of your life; today, you can see.

That’s what being a seer is like: all that stuff that most people seem to sort of believe in, to one degree or another, is all real and it’s all right here, not off in some airy-fairy ‘other plane of existence.’ The otherworld is this world and nor are you out of it.”