Okay, Intimacy Moves:

Okay, Intimacy Moves:

Okay, Intimacy Moves:

This is one of those things that I’d been planning from the beginning but just wasn’t able to get into a place that I really liked how they were working. They need to be different from Apocalypse World or Monsterhearts moves because this is MORE about Intimacy than either of those games. Here’s my latest brainstorm. Needless to say, these are ideas that I’m playing with; nothing is set in stone.

Players have a new resource called Tension or Spark or something. It may replace Leverage, but I’m not positive yet. It is generated through the Express Your Love Passionately move and probably through some kind of Audience move (possibly an End of Session or Commercial Break move?). It is a shared resource; Amada and Carlos have 3 Tension between them regardless of source.

When you share a moment of intimacy (what this means will depend upon the rating of your telenovela), you empty your Tension back to zero and trigger each player’s Intimacy Move. Here’s what that looks like:

-Players read their Intimacy Move to make sure that it doesn’t change things (Maybe La Empleada keeps 1 Tension even after a moment of intimacy?)

-Lower Tension from wherever it is to Zero.

-For each point of Tension lowered, each player gets one statement (probably a sentence or two) to describe the intimacy and the surrounding scene. The two(+?) players trade off back and forth until all of the Tension has been spent.

-The consequences of the Intimacy Move of each player are completed

Play resumes.

So how does this differ from just regular play? That sounds like it’s just tying the hands of the players!

First off, the players have this moment. Nobody else gets to interrupt it (except maybe for cheering… Maybe the Audience can grant an extra Tension during the moment if we get enough?) This includes the GM! No sneaky, terrible, horrible things until after the kiss is done!

But after? Well, the GM gets to make a move once the moment of Intimacy is completed. If you want your characters to have their True Love’s Kiss, you’re going to need to build up intimacy to make sure the moment is just right.

Thoughts?

Note: A big part of this brainstorm came from me seeing an episode of one of my favorite telenovelas where two characters FINALLY came together after something like 20 episodes of dancing around each other. It also owes some definite roots to Nathan Paoletta’s World Wide Wrestling’s Heat mechanic.

Omg, Why is it that I only found out about this game being at metatopia from the sign up sheet?

Omg, Why is it that I only found out about this game being at metatopia from the sign up sheet?

Omg, Why is it that I only found out about this game being at metatopia from the sign up sheet? AND HOW COME I CAN’T GET INTO ANY OF THE GAMES?! T__T POR QUE?!

Yeah. This game seems perfect to play with my wife, she loves see novelas. Can I read the playbooks somewhere?

Yeah. This game seems perfect to play with my wife, she loves see novelas. Can I read the playbooks somewhere?

Yeah. This game seems perfect to play with my wife, she loves see novelas. Can I read the playbooks somewhere?

Never sure whether to post here or public. Ah well, here is this also!

Never sure whether to post here or public. Ah well, here is this also!

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!

Gathered information about Pasión de las Pasiones

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…

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!