Muse:Musette Playtest 1:Story Content

Step 5: Tell the Story

The story sheet is complete and available in the middle of the virtual table here: Muse:Musette Playtest 1:Story Outline Sheet. The Desire sheets have been created. Everybody draws an additional card. The changes are available here: Muse:Musette Playtest 1:Cards. Bob will start telling the story. Remember two important rules of thumb:

1. Keep Narrations down to 1-2 paragraphs if you can
2. People may interrupt on their turn, and this will basically allow them to go back and delete anything up to whichever point they wish in the previous narration.

---

It is dark, and the moon is in the sky. All is quiet in the vineyard until a column of armed men can be seen approaching. They walk with the march of soldiers. As the line of soldiers continues, the eye can't help but pierce the gloom and notice a strange detail. The local terrain is too difficult for tanks or even jeeps. This is why the soldiers walk. And yet, 3 of the soldiers struggle to drag a heavy wheeled cart. This cart contains 3 large cigar-shaped objects. Missiles, perhaps?

As the soldiers march onward, one of them approaches the leader and mutters a loud whisper, "Georg! The radio chatter... it sounds like the Russians have found us already and they've scrambled some helicopters!" Georg swears into the night. They only have a few kilometers left to go to reach shelter from eyes in the sky. And now the time for stealth is already past. For in the distance he can hear the sounds of helicopters chopping the air with their rotors.

I support No for Georg using a random card.

--Bob

Not too far away, standing in the cold night amidst grapevines heavily laden with fruit, a young woman shivers and wraps her arms around herself. Though she appears to be staring out into the darkness, Maria is actually probing the night with other senses, listening for sounds of men approaching, sniffing the wind to recognize the smell of kerosene or unwashed boots--she has been blind since birth. In the night breeze she strains to keep her teeth for chattering, not only from the cold, but also from worry, for the events of the last week seem to be moving closer and closer to her peaceful valley.

She has not chosen this particular farmstead arbitrarily--she knows that Georg will come by this road, and hopes to greet him with some hot milk and a bowl of freshly picked grapes. He should be here any minute, she thinks. I must convince him to stay, to lie low, while war and destruction erupts around us in the dark.

I'm supporting Yes for Maria, using a card from my hand.

--Paul

"Quick, Georg, think!" Georg thinks to himself. "How do we get out of this alive?" Georg collects himself mentally and turns to his lieutenant, "Tell the men to scatter. We will reassemble in 3 days on the usual channel. The package will come with me." The lieutenant nods and relays the order to the men, who double-time it in all directions. Luckily for Georg, he just remembered that an old flame of his lives in this valley. Quite nearby, in fact, if memory serves. The men lugging the missiles arrive next to Georg. "Where do we go now, sir?" one of the men asks. "Follow me! It's time for a drink with an old girlfriend of mine..." Georg replies. The two soldiers give each other a confused look and then quickly follow their captain.

I'm supporting Yes for Maria, using a random card.

--Jonathan

Step 4: Determine Player Goals

Paul, if it's ok with you, I can just randomly determine goals for everyone. I'll email you the results and we can keep them offline so as not to ruin the game. Does that sound good? Or do you have an alternate suggestion?

--Jonathan

Yeah, sounds good! We won't be able to make it a fully competitive game, anyway, since we can see each other's hands, and the "hidden" cards in the Desires (unless you have an idea for handling this, like some kind of code and key system--we could have a Gmail conversation, for instance, and both not promise to look at it, for each Desire, where we record which card we "hid").

Just make sure you follow something like the actual procedure, as opposed to just assigning goals randomly, which could turn into everyone having the same goal for a particular desire or something similar.

Since I made the last nomination, Bob will take the first turn! Remember to give everyone one more card, if you haven't already. :)

--Paul

Ok, random goals have been assigned using the correct procedure, and sent by email. For Desires sheets, your idea is very intriguing, let's give it a try (although it's probably better to just send the info in an email rather than instant messenger).

--Jonathan

Jon, yeah, that's what I meant: "conversation" is what Gmail calls a bunch of e-mails all with the same subject. I've done it already. :)

Paul

Step 3: Filling Out the Story Outline Sheet

The Story Outline Sheet has been filled out here: Muse:Musette Playtest 1:Story Outline Sheet

Step 2: Generate the Story Outline

We decided on 3 players

Brainstorming for story elements: Muse:Musette_Playtest_1:Brainstorm_Sheet

Step 1: Decide on Genre and Tone

How about a film noir spy story set in modern Georgia?

--Jonathan

OK. I don't know much about Georgia, though. Is a vague fictionalized Georgia OK?

Also, "film noir" and "spy film/story" are two very different things to me. Can you give a two or three-sentence kind of "snapshot" of what the genre you're envisioning is like? And you can go right ahead into the next step after that.

--Paul

To me film noir evokes the movie Casablanca--it's black & white, has lots of close-ups, it's crime drama, people smoke, it's set in or around the Great Depression era, it features moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Try reading the plot of Casablanca for a little bit of inspiration: [[1]]

A spy story involves governments or other organizations (e.g. multinational corporations) spying on each other using agents, satellites, by intercepting communications, etc. It could be low-key (no crazy gadgets) or over-the-top or some mix of both.

Hence a film noir spy story would be a black & white story of smokers, with close-ups and moral ambiguity, incolving organizations spying on each other. I just picked Georgia because it's become a battleground between super-powers (the US and Russia). I don't know if this is the real story, but from what I've heard it seems that Georgia was encouraged by the US (probably with money and/or military equipment and/or the promise of political aid) to raid its independant pro-Russian provinces. The US wanted to test Russia's strength, while Georgia wanted its provinces back. Russia responded very decisively by crushing Georgia's military and showing without doubt that it could have taken over Georgia if it had wanted to. The US was not able to intervene directly because that would reveal its involvement in the affair. There's a lot of room here for spy stories of various kinds (heck, you could probably have a whole campaign).

Note: I know next to nothing about Georgia, so a vague fictionalized Georgia is fine with me!

Does that sound fine for you? If this seems too politically charged or kind of hard for you to get into, please feel free to suggest other options. This is really just the first thing I thought about... Anyway, I've added some brainstormed story elements in Muse:Musette Playtest 1:Brainstorm Sheet

--Jonathan

Although I'm having trouble seeing how a film noir can fit in a middle Asian setting like this. But let's just do it! (Hmmm, maybe I need to watch Casablanca again...)

--Paul