[UA] joy & sorrow

[Luke Walker]

Hi

I am returning to the list after a very long time.

As for Joy and Sorrow and Jailbreak, I would say they would be among the 
best one off scenarios I have run.  Unfortunately the highest honour would 
have to go to Dennis Detwiller's Night Floors in DG: Countdown but I am 
sure that you won't hold that against him :)

Jailbreak and Joy and Sorrow are great for completely different reasons.

Jailbreak is far easier to run.  It never runs badly AFAIK and is 
especially well suited to being run with semi live elements.  Let the 
players get up and move around.  As GM you are not so much running the game 
(as the players provide most the tension) as timing the external events. 
 My only advice is to make it clear that going out is a bad idea at the 
very start so you don't get questions about it during the game - its a 
given.  The other is keep the momentum going.  The players will probably do 
this anyway but with any luck all you need do is just keep feeding that 
momentum with the various events.

Joy and Sorrow is more difficult but is also fantastic.  I liked the PCs 
provided and suggest using them.  Give the players the PCs early so they 
can get their heads around the backgrounds.  If possible give the couple to 
a couple.

I also liked introducing live game elements to this scenario.  I also ran 
it in two rooms.  One was the library, it was well lit, I had soothing 
music playing and the players had comfy couches.  The other being outside 
(for the Sorrows) was poorly lit, with disturbing music and no chairs.

It really pays to spend time on each of the PCs backgrounds and find ways 
to get at them.  Don't be afraid to be really harsh provided your players 
are comfortable with it.  I recommend you make sure the players understand 
the concpet of writing in the book before the first Sorrow turns up and 
leave it to players to sort themselves out.

When I played my players disbelieved the whole thing, despite the 
weirdness.  However just on principle they wouldn't give over the girl to 
crazy women (this is why the security personnel are handy).  Finally my 
players also didn't really believe in Joy's explanaition of writing in the 
book.  They did so just to make her shut up.  However, they wrote some 
fantastic stories.

Luke




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