[UA] Group whinges

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

I just got back from a tiny local con where I ran
Changeling with UA rules.  Most of the players loved
it -at least, they found me later in the con and
complimented me, which is good enough for yours truly.
 It was originally going to be a regular old UA game,
but, of the four players I could scare up, only one
was older than 15 and all their parents were strongly
opposed to the sex-drugs-violence of my scenario
(besides, I didn't think the 10-year-old would do that
great as a guy who'd slept with his CotNG adept
daughter.)

The major selling point for the game so far has been
the "emotional realism" aspect and the passions. 
People don't seem to mind writing down something their
character is afraid of if they get a big bonus for
using it.  They even keep it in mind.  Good work,
that.

--- matt ryan <mrr15 at cornell.edu> wrote:
> Good morning list,
> 
> Here is what I did. I bought the UA basic text when
> it first came out. I 
> read it, loved it and stuck it on my shelf. We were
> playing Ars Magica and 
> I knew my players wouldn't switch. It's okay. A good
> GM is patient.
>          Now, after a few months of terribly rules
> heavy Deadlands  the 
> players were ready for some simple rules. I sold
> them on the simplicity of 
> the rules. I bought a second copy of the main rules
> used (in great shape 
> from ebay) so I could loan it out. I stapled the
> appendices shut and wrote, 
> "You really don't want to know," on page 185. I made
> copies of the sample 
> characters (pp. 206-11) so they could read those
> pages.
>          They started to get interested. I bought
> "One-shots" and ran the 
> "Joy and Sorrow" story. I had a tape of creepy music
> and screams to play in 
> the background. I gave everyone copies of their
> characters, name tags (Hi, 
> my name is Eric Bonneville) and gave everyone a two
> page cheat sheet I had 
> writtne explaining the character's stats and skills
> and how the dice 
> worked. We had a blast.
>          Then, the players made characters. I let
> them go wild, really. 
> Some of them created backgrounds that were too
> complicate, but I said, 
> "Great". I will pick and chooses what I want to do
> with them. We then 
> played "Bill in Three Parts." The players started to
> develop their 
> character's personalities. Meanwhile, I bought LG&M.
>          Last week we played "Pinfeathers". I think
> I've got them hooked 
> now. In fact, tonight we're stepping away from the
> published scenarios 
> (which are great) and into my created world. I've
> got enough consequences 
> from "Bill" and "Feathers" and enough relevant
> character background to 
> start pitching some wild curves at them. I want to
> seep them in the 
> underground occult scene by making them paranoid as
> hell.
>          Example: One of the characters was walking
> around with a clockwork 
> dog he created. I spent last night cutting and
> pasting pictures of a 
> clockwork dog on top of a sidewalk picture. I
> grained it up a bit, made it 
> black and white, printed it on photo paper as a 3x4
> photo and wrote, "Quit 
> it," on the back in red pen. It will be on the seat
> of the character's car 
> when we start tonight.
>          Thanks for letting me rant on, and on, and
> on . . .
> 
> matt
> 
> PS If anyone would like to see the cheat sheet I
> made my players I'd be 
> happy to mail it as an attachment in a private
> email.
> 
> At 10:14 PM 7/16/01 +0200, you wrote:
> >Ville's players are too clever. Mine are too
> damn... damn.... well, I 
> >don't know
> >what they are but it bugs the crap out of me.
> >
> >Quick question for the list: when you start new UA
> campaigns, how do you make
> >sure there's a good degree of player investment in
> the campaign concept?
> >Help, comments, appreciated.
> >
> >--
> >"I only smile in the dark / My only comfort is the
> night gone black"
> >Dylan Craig · Writer and Observer · Cape Town,
> South Africa
> >Contact Details:
> http://www.eyeballkid.co.za/contact.html
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >UA mailing list
> >UA at lists.uchicago.edu
> >http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> UA mailing list
> UA at lists.uchicago.edu
> http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua


=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua