Time for a (slightly) overdue Play Report!
Dreamation 2018, Saturday R336 if I ever need to look it up again!
This was a wild one for a number of reasons. The first is that it was my first game at Dreamation and I was raring to go. The second was an absolutely brilliant table top to bottom that included two players who had played the game previously. The third is that for some reason that I will never truly understand, I decided to put Daddy Yankee into the game.
This one was called La Perla de las Bahia (feat Daddy Yankee) and was at the outset a story of betrayal and jockeying for position for control of a casino. This was the first test of both the Passion mechanic (which mostly worked) and the idea of Playsets (which kind of blew my away). The vibe I was going for was kind of a dark, smokey casino with lots of showsmanship and ambiance. I don’t know if I had a single scene where somebody didn’t refer to smoke or a cigarette/cigar and there was a musical performance so I think that came through. The prop list helped with that, as part of the playset all playbooks had new props (some of which will be replacing the core props because.. well… they’re better)
Oh, it also tested out the Daddy Yankee Mechanic which probably needs a different name but is a great little way to shake things up from the top.
So here’s the setup.
Todo Comienza en la Disco (Wisin, Yandel, and the all important Daddy Yankee) plays in our intro where we meet (people tagged if I’ve got them! Apologies if I don’t! I’ll happily tag you in if we G+ connect and I’ll endeavor to do so! I hate how G+ handles tagging.)
Carmina Valdez: La Doña played by Valeria in a delightfully cunning and self-serving way that is making me re-imagine La Doña in some ways!. Carmina is the widow of Sr. Valdez who used to run the casino until he tragically drove off a cliff in a car with cut breaks into the sea.
Federico Valdez: El Jefe played possibly in the most sympathetic way I’ve seen by Vincent Eaton. Federico is the son of Sr. Valdez and has inherited his estate, much to the chagrin of his step-mother Carmina.
Domingo: El Caballero played by Adrian Stein with the sultry passionate voice that only he can manage. He’s here to investigate things with the disappearance… and because he’s got a bone to pick with Federico.
Diego: El Gemelo played by Patrick forming approximately three beautiful love triangles branching off of him. He’s living in the attic of the casino and angling to take revenge on his brother and get his.
And finally Soraya: La Belleza played by Andrea with every line delivering either venom or honey. She’s a lounge singer trying to get her big hit by performing with Daddy Yankee and moving to the states.
Oh yeah, and guest starring Daddy Yankee, famed reggaeton performer and deadly assassin who SOMEBODY has hired to kill SOMEONE. Everyone had a card with a piece of information about Daddy Yankee, including ‘You hired him as an assassin.’
Play started out relatively calm, Domingo spoke with Carmina about plans to investigate Federico, Soraya and Federico plotted to replace Carmina or elevate Soraya, Diego talked with Carmina MOMENTS after Domingo to state his desire to get into some trouble.
The beginning moved through with a slightly gentle pace with a LOT of hints and whispers, but not quite hitting the big action points. There were definitely some moves kicking off, but the Flashback mechanics seemed a little out of reach, definitely.
We established that Domingo was working with some sort of American Agency and took out one of Federico’s thugs, then had some VERY close face talking which is something I cannot recommend enough. Just snarling anger at the table, of course with the two players furthest away from each other.
Things really turned up when Soraya attempted to seduce Daddy Yankee and he fled from her, leaving her in his dressing room. She found at that point his gun and a picture of Carmina!
She went after Carmina and shut her the hell down, claiming ownership of her panther and renaming him. From that point on, Soraya was strutting around with a panther at her side which was fierce as hell. But we also found that Carmina had originally held control over Daddy Yankee. Until…
Domingo processed his feelings outloud. This is a cool move and I love when it happens, because the audience is SO involved in it. Everyone loves Domingo, so he rolls well and is able to uncover information from the audience! Part of this is that Daddy Yankee is no longer working for Carmina-
We followed that a bit and Domingo was able to discern that Federico was the one who hired Daddy Yankee, though not necessarily for murder. At this point we also revealed that Sr. Valdez was NOT indeed dead, but rather had faked his death and was disguised as Daddy Yankee meaning there are two Daddy Yankees running around.
Then LITERALLY everything below happens all at the same time.
Carmina and Federico clash in the casino, shouting and snarling at each other, Carmina is broken and sad and angry when she calls in Diego… And tells him to kill Federico. They make passionate love and a DEA Agent bursts in having found the truck of illegal drugs Federico put out as bait in order to frame Carmina. Things get awkward, but will be followed up more on the following episode.
Soraya makes an enormous performance WITHOUT Daddy Yankee (where could he be?!) and has more or less convinced his producers to sign her when a body falls from the sky, Daddy Yankee (or Sr. Valdez) dead before her feet. The video goes viral.
Up in the catwalk, Domingo confronts Federico and Sr. Valdez who have captured Daddy Yankee and have him tied up. Federico does a face-turn and goes to Domingo’s side, enraging Sr. Valdez who attempts to shoot his son. Domingo grabs his arm and wrestles him to the edge of the railing, trying to fight him. The gun is pointed into Domingo’s stomach and he Faces Certain Death. He rolls well enough to choose his own poison, someone saves him! Who is it?
FEDERICO! FULL FACE TURN!
He stabs his father who is going to topple off the edge of the railing soon, but first… the gun levels… and Federico is shot! He falls back and rolls, well enough to choose his own fate! He chooses ‘Come Back As A Twisted Evil Version of Yourself’ (Woah, next episode is gonna be HARSH!)
And, of course, Sr. Valdez’s body falls and crashes into the ground.
Domingo goes to Federico, terrified he will bleed out… and the episode ends.
It was such an incredible delight. Thank you so much everyone!