SGA 2002 Archive

The following SGA games took place in 2002:

Universalis

Game System

Pitch

Game Master

Alan Barclay

Players

Alan, Clinton, Mike (Kamikazi), Laura, Wilhelm, and Kerri

Characters

6

Date

December 2, 2002

Technical Notes

Recaps

Universalis is a story telling game with strong relationship to rpgs. Players take turns adding elements to the story, spending "coins" for each fact added or removed. We used file cards to record characters, places, and things created. The game actually starts with a Introduction phase where players take turns spending coins to define what kind of story they're going to tell, any genre or element restrictions, any rules about behavior around the table (no Monty Python jokes FREX), and almost anything else. Once everyone thinks everything is set, the second phase begins: weaving the story. The coins used to make changes and additions are earned in small amounts at the end of each scene, and by dicing out Complications in the story (fights, character arguments, environment threats, etc.) Complications are by far the most lucrative.

Everyone caught onto the rules quickly and made contributions to the story. Control of characters and things shifts from player to player so no one has a true player character, but people got involved with the characters in general. The interesting thing I noticed was that it was the drive to develop the narrative drove the players. There really wasn't much player competition per se.

Our story was set in a prison mining dome set on Mars, with characters like the mine boss, the new Warden, rebel miners and a spy infiltrating the rebels. As it turned out, addictive gas from the mine was infecting people with an alien virus that produced zombies from the dead. In the climax, an "Inquisitor" showed up from Earth with a battle fleet, ready to flatten the dome, while at the same time a gas leak exploded causing chaos on the surface. The mine boss, doctor, and some miners escaped in the Warden's private ship, after recovering the ship's control nexus from the spy and zapping the exo-skeleton-enhanced Warden. We had a lot of fun.

Player Thoughts

Laura: Clinton made a rule that Allan has to post the story we made on the Forge. I'm looking forward to reading it. We even talked about doing a sequel because the Doctor character was infected with the virus. They suggested she might become the alien Queen like in the "Alien" movies. Could be fun.

Additional GM Thoughts

InSpectres

Game System

InSpectres

Pitch

Game Master

Alan Barclay

Players

Clinton, Mike (Kamikazi), Laura, Wilhelm, and Kerri

Characters

5

Date

December 2, 2002

Technical Notes

Recaps

Alan: We started out playing InSpectres. This is a cool indie game with a simple game mechanic that allows players to narrate their successes. The game premise is that the characters are members of a ghostbusters-like franchise, investigating supernatural occurrences. We noticed some interesting things about play. I noticed, for example, that things went quickly, players contributed a lot and it took only a few nudges from me as game-master to actually produce a series of events that felt like a complete story. Strangely, the game took less than a half hour for character creation and maybe 90 minutes to play out an episode. Even though it was short, I think the players found it fun and satisfying - Wilhelm commented that a lot of events had happened in the 90 minutes we played, and that this might be because the game didn't require much consultation of rules or character sheets.

The game itself structures play into five "phases" of story - like "Getting the Call", "Investigating", etc. As GM I was trying to encourage player development of the story, and I think maybe I restrained myself a little too much. In future play, I think I'd identify when a given phase had ended and review what the objective of the next one is. Likewise, players need to be reminded to use the "confessional" mechanic (where they can step into the confessional booth and set up future events and/or give other characters traits to add to their character.)

InSpectres was interesting and fun and I'd like to GM it again, with a bit more attention to the structure rules. I'm actually working on an official "mini-suppliment" called Space Trek, which would use the same rules with gimicks that would recreate Star Trek tropes.

Player Thoughts

Laura: My favorite part of the InSpectres game was where Clinton rolled a six while jumping in the pool and decided that on the other side of the magical portal was a locker room. Then it ended up being the locker room of the dead. I think you were pretty surprised by that Allan! :)

Additional GM Thoughts

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