[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. :)

» Original Post

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results that ar
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link
Read more