[Nicotine Girls] Daddies for Babies who aren't Baby Daddies
Joel P. Shempert:
JW, that's a good example. It's definitely a case of the GM/facilitator not only taking the lead in vulnerability, but also in demonstrating how to perform a key game function. Leading by example in every possible way. Which is awesome.
I think, in retrospect, that Nicotine Girls compensates (at a player level, anyway) for the PCs' disempowerment by having the Players choose Adversities for their characters. Not that this does the characters any favors from an SIS point of view, but it does let the players drive a bit more than they might otherwise be able to. Though it's important to note that it's still the GM who narrates the Adversity once it's been picked, something we fell down on, 'cause I plumb forgot. The Players were by and large setting the scope and details of their own Adversities and doing a wonderful job, but it deprived me of a key source of input. I think it's important for the GM in this game to really play the world and NDCs to the hilt. And onc ean Adversity scene was set by a player, I certainly stepped in and did just that. But if I myself had been the one deciding on the circumstances of, say, Taylor's boyfriend's tragic death, I'd have a lot more opportunity to invest on the fiction and my role in it.
And that I think is the key to GMing vulnerably, in Nicotine Girls or in ANY game. You've got to be a fully invested participant, not just a cynical knife-twister. If I'm bought in to the struggle of the Girls and achingly longing to see how it resolves, then I can act in the fiction with as much conviction and emotional weight as the players, if from a different angle.
Or so I've just realized for myself, in retrospect. Does that make sense?
peace,
-Joel
Johnstone:
Hi Joel. I saw you posted about this on your blog, but missed it here (and ZOMG somebody is talking about me on a podcast?!)
I read the rules through after getting back home, and I think the main awkwardness is that we (the players) kept trying to set our conflicts up so that we could introduce the tragedies in order to get the extra dice. I think we are just supposed to pick one to get extra dice, then the GM introduces it later on, after the conflict is over.
The short discussion we had up front made everybody comfortable with what I think we already wanted going in -- real characters in real situations. Like how you guys totally despised my character, yet you played both her boyfriends as exactly the kind of guys who would get used by that kind of girl. You're right about GM vulnerability -- you bought into every situation the players presented and played NPCs accordingly, even while we were all groaning and laughing and saying "I know people just like that!" And we were able to watch the story unfold, without judging these characters. Instead of thinking of her as a bad person, I thought about the premise of the game and figured I'd just have her fight hard and fight smart to get out. The limited choice of actions makes these girls a lot more manipulative than a player might like, so you kind of have to find something you like about your own girl and struggle on. You can't look down on another player's girl, because they can just turn that gaze back on your's, and you can't deny it.
The Hope roll at the end of the session reinforces a long-term game. None of our girls escaped, but they got closer. Janine got promoted, upgraded her boyfriend and successfully cheated at school, Priscilla found a prospective/possible daddy to go to work on, and didn't Taylor still got on the bus without the scholarship. Another few sessions, and they might all be above the poverty line!
Also, did you notice how that list encourages even worse things happening around the girls? The deadly auto accident helped show the world around these girls trying to drag them down -- are they like these fuck-up people around them (and look what happens to them, dead or paralyzed), or are they better than that? And they are already trying.
Anyway, I'm glad Michael did recruit me for a game I wouldn't normally be interested in playing. Good times, good times.
Joel P. Shempert:
The Stabbing Contest Podcast on Nicotine Girls with Ogre Whiteside and Mickey Schulz is up! We talk about what made the game work for us, and the issue of handling emotional content with integrity--i.e. an answer to the accusation of "emo porn." Thought it might ber of interest to folks.
Peace,
-Joel
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