[Do] And then, there was a cat parade.


A Spooky Outhouse forum member posted an actual play report of Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple back in October. How did I not catch it until now? Anyhoo, here are his comments.

It was fun. I'll definitely play it again. [...]

I think you could use the game as a very effective method for creating a back-story or setting for another rpg campaign. [...]

It took about an hour and a half. We used one of the stock letters on his site. Our Pilgrims were terrible helpers. As with so many games, it was derailed immediately. The author of the letter didn't even show up in our story until about a third or halfway through because we were busy with hilarious trouble.

We had Pilgrim Noisy Lantern, who gets in trouble by talking too much and helps people by guiding the way; Pilgrim Squishy Octopus, who gets in trouble by being indecisive and helps people by bringing them together; and Pilgrim Sloshy Boot, who gets in trouble by drinking and helps people by walking.

It was interesting how some of those were very potent: talking too much and drinking, for example, while the others felt more limited at any given time. Drinking was one that was actually limited, but the results were always sterling, so the limitation was helpful. I think that experience might actually help me to write better BW instincts, but, mostly, I just want to play again and experiment with types of help/trouble events.

Sloshy Boot started the proceedings by drinking all of the town's celebratory ale and Noisy Lantern immediately offended everyone in the kingdom by flapping his gums about the previous king's impotence. By the end, the King was involved in a tabloid scandal and the people ran the Pilgrims out of town, burned down their own library, and abolished all government because of the troubles it brought them. There was also a cat parade.

We messed up a few times by not following the ways in which our Pilgrims are supposed to get into trouble or help, but it didn't make it any less ridiculous or fun. I can't wait to try out a couple more of the stock letters so I can feel confident in writing my own letters and experimenting with sizes and contents of Goal Word lists.

Highly recommended.

I asked if this forum member still has a transcript of the story they wrote. If so, I'll post it on the blog. Can't wait to see the details. :)

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