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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
I like the details! These are like the opening commentary of the movie...
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
I prefer to make my character after seeing what other players are doing, especially in PBF since characters need to have interaction, so you guys start.
Set 20 years after Unity City has served it's purpose could be interesting. Reminds me of stories about the US Iron Belt after steel/car/manufacturing/construction jobs have dried up. Many people with marketable skills have moved out, leaving the people who are stuck and the dreamers who believe they can revive the area. Of course, if there's massive international funding, that could change the economic situation.
Some potential plot hooks:
* The international community, happy about the success of the Unity City project, are turning its eyes to a joint space operation, like a permanent Moon or Mars colony or asteroid mining or something. Two threads: 1) Unity City is the obvious place to test space crews living in isolation; 2) When the space mission gets underway, funding for Unity City is going to get axed. Let's call this the happy international situation.
* Now that the need for international cooperation has passed, old grievances and trade disputes flare up. This causes a lot of friction in Unity City with various factions threatening to pull out. Let's call this the unhappy international situation.
* Someone thinks the only way to maintain the money pouring into Unity City is to create another illness that makes Unity essential again. Luckily, they have access to loads of bioengineering equipment and researchers.
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Flying Arrow
United States
Pennsylvania
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
I'd like to make a character... how do I do it in Primetime Adventures?
Other possible plot hooks:
* Criminals invading/using the abandoned underwater manufacturing plant and causing various other mischief.
* Unity City's land-lubbers becoming jealous that the majority of the subsidies go to support Endit Station, with only a small fraction for the land-based infrastructure. Local politicians on land move to choke/freeze/defund Endit Station through corrupt political dealings and to line their own pockets.
* Single episode idea... SHACOM reacts violently with (insert other substance). Shipments of the two chemicals are on a collision course with one another.
New acronym: UCL (Unity City - Land). I'd prefer to avoid acronyms where possible, so if anyone has a better name to mean just the land-based part of Unity City, let us know.
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
FlyingArrow wrote: I'd like to make a character... how do I do it in Primetime Adventures?
Not to steal our producer's thunder, but I would start with a character concept. If you were to boil the character down to its essentials, what would it be? Since we all watched BSG, here's some examples:
Bill Adama - Father figure, not just for Apollo literally, but metaphorically for the crew and (to a lesser extent) the civilians. It's not just his duty, but he has an emotional tie to his charges.
Starbuck - Ace pilot archetype that draws heavily from Maverick in Top Gun. Hotheaded discipline problem, but they can't spare her skills because she's too damn good.
Something to also be thinking about is the character's issue, i.e. the personal issue that will be the root of most of the scenes they appear in. The book gives the following: atonement, control-obsession, commitment phobia, grief, romantic trouble, self-destruction, self-worth, temptation. Example:
Tigh - (In season 1) Temptation with alcohol is his most obvious problem, but that may be a symptom of a self-worth problem. He knows he's a washout and the only thing that saved his career was Bill Adama believing in him.
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
For example, here's a concept for a villian for one of my plot hooks above. I think this is okay since I don't think anyone is going to play the villian.
Concept: World-renowned scientist deeply invested into the Endit/Unity program. If it dies, it will impact his reputation, and he can't have that, so he tries to create a reason for his research to continue.
Issue: (control-obsession) A lot of what he does is to feed his ego. He wants everyone in the world to know his research, and he rules his lab like a dictator. He'll bend rules to get the funding, supplies, and materials he wants when he wants it, and he's not above manipulating people to stay in (or kick them out of) his lab.
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Flying Arrow
United States
Pennsylvania
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Here's an idea for a character. But I'm still in "design a TV show" mode, not "design my own character". Especially because I'm not so sure how this game is going to work once it gets rolling.
Concept: Head of Unity City Police Aquatic Unit. He oversees all of the boats, submarines, personal underwater devices, SCUBA units, etc of the Unity City police force. Sometimes runs into turf wars with Captains of the precincts inside Endit Station. Also has conflict with the Police Chief at times.
Issue (redemption/guilt): As a 17 year old kid, in a fit of rage, he murdered a neighbor. He got away with it, and has turned to law enforcement as a way of redemption. He is racked with guilt, and also with the possibility that he may yet get caught. Two other people know about the crime. One silently uses it for leverage against him, but never with outright threats.
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
FlyingArrow wrote: Here's an idea for a character. But I'm still in "design a TV show" mode, not "design my own character". Especially because I'm not so sure how this game is going to work once it gets rolling.
I'm assuming we're doing one season for now. A season is broken into episodes, each of which tells a self-contained story. The group will work together to put together a show that resolves the episode's storyline.
Furthermore, episodes tend to highlight one or more characters. For example, for your character idea, one episode he may finally come to terms with his past. Or maybe he is forced to deal with his past. Maybe the guy who's threatening him keeps making him look the other way or break the law and he knows it is only a matter of time before it blows up in his face, so the character wonders if it's okay to commit one big crime (killing the guy) to stop all these other crimes he would be forced to commit. But what would be point of all those years seeking redemption if he becomes the kind of policeman who kills people to solve problems?
Each episode is broken into scenes, which are probably the heart of the show. The center of a scene is a conflict: someone wants something or wants something to happen. This is hopefully driven by their issue because that makes it more personal to the character and more interesting to the audience. Example: the policeman is having beers with some guys and spots his nemesis across the bar. If the nemesis drops some hints, who knows what some nosey policemen would dig up. How can he keep the groups separated? It think it helps to aim for more than one character participating in scenes, otherwise it becomes a multiplayer solitaire game. Scenes then get resolved. Maybe characters get what they want, maybe they don't.
That's the idea at least. I think we should aim for 1) characters with interesting issues that you want to explore; 2) issues that are not so narrow that they can't be turned into scenes; and 3) a group of characters that aren't all just doing their own thing.
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Flying Arrow
United States
Pennsylvania
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Also - what kind of show is this? We know the setting, but we threw out a bunch of ideas regarding the type of show. I'm not sure which (if any) we decided on. What existing TV show would our show be most similar to?
Oh - I actually haven't seen any BSG. I did play the boardgame once, though.
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Since I think I understand that I am to be a more minor character I could be an "Abby" from nCSI type character -- deep in the forensic lab, but longing for kudos from the guys in the field.
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Flying Arrow
United States
Pennsylvania
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
vadia wrote: Since I think I understand that I am to be a more minor character I could be an "Abby" from nCSI type character -- deep in the forensic lab, but longing for kudos from the guys in the field.
Ghost of Christmas so far has been a complete ghost. You could probably just step up to "full" status since he appears to be absent.
Of course, it's the producer's call, so wait for him.
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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Wowza! Lotsa goodies here since my last post 
Preparing for work currently, so will reply more once I get there...
vadia, even if GhostofChristmas chimes in, you are also in
4 players are as good as 3 in my guess.
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
I'm guessing the Abby-like character works in the lab in Unity City, not in Endit? Unless someone else has an idea for why they would be in the same room fairly often. Even if they are in the same office, I'm trying to figure out what an aquatic operations officer would do with a forensics guy because water tends to destroy forensic evidence.
Are we doing a police procedural? I don't watch of those, but I love the Watch series of Discworld books.
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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Character generation
1. As James said, the most important things about a character in PtA are his Concept and his Issue.
Concept means the archetypical (or not) thing that is obvious about the character. An old and weathered policeman tired of young wannabes. Techie machine-operator capable of repairing quite everything. Drunken kung-fu master, deadly only with alcohol. And such...
Issue means what the character is trying to resolve withing him or with his surroundings. Something that is not as easy as "buying a new harddisk" or "trying to cook a healthy dinner". It should rather be bigger in scope and encompass multiple episodes if possible. Something like "getting at grips with my father", or "trying to reveal that secret murder that my company wants me to hide", or "engaging in local politics to make the life of the local citizens a better one!".
Both the Concept and the Issue can be tightly related (or might not), it is definitely upon you as a player to come up with them.
2. Also, after you have a Concept and an Issue, think about the Traits of your character in a combination of 2 Edges and 1 Connection or 1 Edge and 2 Connections.
Edges are characteristic that define your character from within and can be used in some situations to help you with a conflict. Like "always a gun in my holster" or "perfect riding skills" or "I can find that book for you...".
Connections are minor characters on the show, which can also be used in some conflicts to augment your effort. Like when I have "my ex-boyfriend the investigative journalist" as a connection, I could use him in conflicts that involve my effort to expose some hidden information. Or "that mafia friend next door" can help me resolve street issues with punk boys or obtrusive citizens.
3. After all these things are settled, you can decide on the Screen Presence in episodes. Screen Presence in an episode defines how strong the presence of your character is in that episode and whether it will be your Spotlight Episode (3 Screen Presence, only once in a Season), a regular appearance (2 Screen Presence, twice in 5 episodes or thrice in 9 episodes) or a minor appearance (1 Screen Presence, twice in 5 episodes or five times in 9 episodes).
4. There are also two more-or-less optional characteristics to be decided upon: Nemesis and Personal set.
A Nemesis is mostly for the Producer to be able to introduce interesting scenes and problems for your character and it tells the Producer that "This guy/girl/thing is what my character hates/is in a longer conflict with and I would like to cross swords with him sometime!"
A Personal set is a location in which your character feels more relaxed or "at home", or is basically closely tight to. The neat mechanical outcome of a Personal set is that your character may develop while having a scene in his Personal set and also can uncheck a Trait previously used in a scene (which is basically something like "healing" in a broader sense, in that it allows you to get a future bonus from a Trait again). Just to explain before the main rules are explained - a character is freely allowed to use any of his Traits only so many times in an episode, as is his Screen Presence for that episode. After that he must spend a Fan Mail to use that Trait again.
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An important note: The first episode is in any case a pilot episode, so after it ends, we all decide if this was a good episode and a worthy start, or if it was just that - an unsuccessful pilot. After that we can change the characters to better suit the game we want to play or to amend any disfunctional details.
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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
An example of a Character from the game I played in and his dealings in the Pilot episode (for players who did not witness PtA in action yet).
Just for context - we played in a near future where 3 war-veterans returned from the mining colonies on Mars. The local miners are rioting and the U.N. army was sent there to deal with it, but the general public does not know. Thus the 3 veterans are trying to deal with the war and also want to expose the war-effort to the general public.
Sento Kohai
Concept: retired field medic
Issue: shadows of the past all around me
Nemesis: (not defined yet)
Edges:
sympathetic doctor
Connections:
Sento Shizuko, my sister
an older coleague and therapist, Dr. Hwang
Personal Set: personal doctor's office
Screen Presence for Pilot: 2
His first scene had him witness a car accident which shocked him, but he was not able to go help the dying victim (he lost the conflict).
His second scene had him confront his superior and the result was that he was put off-duty for a time coupled with the order of delivering the message to the victim's family (lost conflict).
His third scene saw him walking from the victim's house and afterwards being bullied by a biker gang led by the victim's brother. This resulted in him being severely injured and left before a hospital with no-one really caring about him there at first (again, conflict lost).
In the next scene he is at his sister's being taken care of and trying to persuade her that he literally had no choice (a reference to the "shadows of the past" overwhelming him then) and that he is a good doctor. His sister does not believe him at the end (lost conflict) and the result of the narration is that he must seek a temporary job, where he HELPS people...
As a sidenote at the end of the episode Kohai walks to a military hospital (wink wink) and after a brief pause outside he resumes his pace and steps in...
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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
To note: Scenes in PtA are usually not that long. If you read my above post, any whole scene (without the necessary discussion between players and suggestions being thrown around) would take less than a minute of real-time narration.
This keeps the pace of the game going and enables interesting moments to stand out and not to be burried behind lots of in-game story happening. I think the author of PtA also states that in the rules, that this resembles the scenes from TV shows, if you think of it.
In the PBF format there may be more text to a scene (as we have to type everything we want to narrate or give suggestions to), but the scenes should also not be too elaborate or long-winded.
There should be an introduction from me as the Producer (the "framing the scene" part), then a roleplay if needed or a narration from the player owning the Character in the scene, suggestions flying around and eventually a conflict situation once you or I feel that it is inevitable and a clash of interest happened.
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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Small note:
Scott Slomiany
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
has declined out of time issues with a grade school show commitment. I thanked him and hinted he can also follow the show along as part of the Audience and possibly, if still interested later, also re-enter as a new character to the show. PtA is so free-form, that this would pose no gameplay problem.
Thus we have four players (once vaklam gets on the train) and can start creating the premise and tone of the show and also then the characters that will fit into it.
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Flying Arrow
United States
Pennsylvania
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
If you set the premise/tone, that could make the character creation easier, no?
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Well, the setting seems to be filling in. The tone seems to be leaning toward gritty, though probably not dark and brooding? International cooperation and science have built an amazing twin city and beat back one of humanities greatest threats, but it hasn't solved everything. (As opposed to the egalitarian utopia of Star Trek.) At the moment, the premise looks like we're all characters that have an investment in the setting, with two police/military types interested in maintaining peace and order.
Unless Veklam has objections, I'd still like to create my character after him.
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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
FlyingArrow wrote: If you set the premise/tone, that could make the character creation easier, no?
I could set the premise/tone dead, but that is one of the core things in PtA - it has to be AGREED .
That way all players are invested in it...
I can give a suggestion (as can anyone). I would like to play either a shady police/crime clash (players being on the police side, but not a black and white type of characters, rather some detectives/police chief/informants - that stuff.
Also I would like to play some company involved in the research/supply business and its employees/owners/associates.
As per tone, a darker/noir tone suits the environment well (not a sitcom by any means) or an action drama also.
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Brian Cooksey
United States
Nashville
Tennessee
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
I'm here and ready to actually contribute to the conversation. Whew.
I've caught up on the thread and I like what's here, so far.
Joeyeti wrote:
I can give a suggestion (as can anyone). I would like to play either a shady police/crime clash (players being on the police side, but not a black and white type of characters, rather some detectives/police chief/informants - that stuff.
Ooh. I really like that. I'd be up for a detective role. Maybe someone who's in the pocket of the Corporation.
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Joe Kundlak
Slovakia
Bratislava
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Nice, Brian!
That "someone who's in the pocket of the Corporation" part fits right into the conflict concept and I can already see many many scenes/conflicts that this could generate 
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Flying Arrow
United States
Pennsylvania
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Crime drama works for me. Feel free to use the Head of the Aquatic Unit that I described above as an NPC. In any case, here's my character.
Trox Ramirez
Concept: Crew member on a SHACOM freighter that transports SHACOM from Endit Station to land. (One round trip per day, crew size 100.) Age: 32. He's the head of mechanical division on the ship (8 underlings). An engineer by trade, 6 years on the ship before moving up to management. Generally mundane work, keeping things running. He wound up in management as an accidental promotion - he's a better troubleshooter than any of the underlings. Second generation in Unity City, parents from Mexico.
Issue: Unknown identity. Trox wants to know who he is. His parents died when he was 12. He lived at the Mexican boarding school in Unity City after that. He knows nothing of his family history.
Nemesis: (not defined yet)
Edges:
Incredible secret wealth - of unknown origin, even to him. It was originally his parents' money. It is all in cash, hidden in a dozen different places throughout Unity City. Uses it to solve problems (including his friends' problems sometimes), but keeps it a secret so that it doesn't cause even more problems. As far as he knows, it's clean and legal money.
Problem solver - whatever the problem, Trox usually has a good idea how to fix it.
Connections:
Hector Ruezga - Trox calls him Uncle Hector. Trox's legal guardian after his parents' death, but Hector was too busy to care for Trox on a daily basis. Hence, the boarding school. Trox isn't even sure he's related to Hector. Hector protects Trox (saved his life at least twice), advises him, knew his parents well, and knows the origin of the money. When Trox graduated from college, Hector gave Trox his parents' money and gave advice on hiding it. Hector works at a high-level at the Mexican Center in Unity City, and he is well-connected.
Personal Set: Trox's office and bunk on the ship. (Hallway enters to office. Bunk is a separate room behind his office with a very small private bath and kitchenette. Bunk and office are each about 10 feet by 10 feet.) His work schedule would allow him to commute, but he usually doesn't. He maintains small apartments both in Endit Station and in UCL (Unity City - Land), but seldom visits either, preferring to sleep on the ship.
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Flying Arrow
United States
Pennsylvania
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
I think we should make travel between them a bit easier. 45 minute boat ride, 10 minute decontamination? But expensive fees/tolls that makes commuting from land to Endit only available to the richer folks. I think we'd want characters to be able to go back and forth multiple times in the same day if the plot dictates it. The longer travel time I described earlier would make that difficult. 45 minutes is long enough for a plot on the sea, but short enough that the travel can be ignored if the plot needs a quick jump from Endit to UCL or vice versa.
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Scott Slomiany
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Yes, thanks for the invite. I'll try and follow along as you go!
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: PBF - would someone be interested?
Okay, one forensics lab rat, one detective, one freighter mechanic (management/NCO level). Trying to think of a reason why the police are in regular contact with a freighter engineer because it's doubtful they'll commandeer the freighter if they have their own ships. Do they ask Trox for favors via Hector?
I'm still trying to figure out my character. At the moment, I'm leaning toward some job that would help tie separate characters together. The simplest route would be something like an ex-cop working security on Trox's boat or an ex-merchant marine working for the police. Alternately, there is still the civil and business sectors of the twin cities to explore...
Let me ask your characters a question: say you're on a spaceship that got hit by debris, propulsion is out, and within hours you'll burn up on re-entry. There were enough lifepods for the crew, but one got smashed, so there's only safe seats for all but 12 people. Furthermore, losing the spaceship and its cargo will be expensive, like company crippling expensive. What would your character do? Say you only have an hour before the window for safe launch of the escape pods closes.
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