[S/Lay w/Me] O'er Plains of Ice the Sky-Ship Sails
Gregor Hutton:
So, at WarpCon in Cork, Ireland I got in some gaming as well as enjoying the odd refreshment (ahem) at the Old Bar at University College Cork. Most of my gaming was with cards (Contract Whist), boardgaming (Metro and Guillotine), or a mixture of both (Race for the Galaxy). I did get some role-playing in with my pal Brian in the Old Bar though, a session of S/Lay w/Me.
There were just the two of us around for a game and Brian was keener to give S/Lay a go than the other two-player stuff I had on me (including Mars Colony – and isn't it great that there are a number of 2-player games now that fit easily in your bag?).
So, I was "I" and Brian was "you". I handed the book to Brian and he was enthused by the options and the "to-the-pointness" of the text.
After saying it all. He picked... I am a hunted outlaw, hardened and bitter, but I still hope. His hero is... Tall, rangy, long-of-limb, scarred from a lifetime of hard living.
Where? On Plains of Ice ranged by ski-ships (which we twisted to interpret as Sky ships rather than ships on skis.)
Why? The Hero is hunting for the old gang member who betrayed him to exact revenge.
So, now it was mine to develop. Monster [6] was going to kill him Savagely (oh yes!), In a Group, Slowly and With Deceit. I figured they were a group of Sky Pirates led by a particularly nasty character, who would attempt to feed the Hero to his carnivorous pigs. But Brian was going to find that out in the game. The Lover [2] desired him Wantonly, Forbidden, Manipulative and with Knowledge. She was one of the pirates who would use him to overthrow her leader and have him stay with her. I told Brian about the Lover: 2, so he could draw it in for 2 dice.
I opened play with the Hero in the brig of the Sky Ship, captured and being taken north across the Icy Plains to a castle in the snow. There the Pirates would trade him for gold -- his old gang member would pay well for him they thought. We went back and forth which is one of the things I really like about S/Lay. Brian was finding his feet at first, looking to me to OK what he was saying, or asking for an answer (and I don't know how tough the door is to break either, it's your Go, you tell me!). So after some filling out the situation Brian moved towards his Goal --- he picked the lock with a knife he had hidden on himself.
The Match went back and forth and I did quite well with my rolling. I rolled 6 dice in the end and got 24, Brian rolled a total of 8 dice over his Goes and got 27. Still, victory for Brian and he got his Goal. He also had 3 good pairs of dice. Oh, it's worth noting that we didn't stack the dice. We just lined them up on the table in the pub, value pointed upwards. It was just in case we accidentally knocked them over with our trips to the bar.
In the fiction Brian's Hero fought and battled, chased and hid, had wild embraces with the Lover and was liberally clubbed over the head and stabbed by my Pirates. I even fed him to the pigs only for his Lover to help him out.
In the End Game Brian's Hero exacted revenge on his old accomplice for free, slew the Monster (killed the leader by feeding him to his own pigs and disbanding the Pirates as a result), shot dead the Countess of the Ice Castle (after she had shot the Lover – in doing so left the Lover to her Fate in the Icy Wastes... she'll maybe be back as a Monster after his betrayal of their deal!), and he was Healed by some monks in a lonely monastery on the edge of the ice plains (he rode there with a pair of Sky Stallions weighted down with loot, giving them up in tribute to the Monks in return for his health).
Gonzo, thrilling, fiction. I really do like playing through the End Game.
Play-wise, at the start of the Goes Brian was looking to me as a GM, almost, to give him permission for things or answer his questions. Well, it's your Go, man! By the end he was making forward-moving Goes on his own, with me dropping in to play characters and throw suggestions. On my Goes Brian was dropping in less but when I was confronting his Hero I was getting him to react to me "in character" – I think the text about good and bad Goes is really helpful.
I also see playing through the game as a learning experience. It won't be perfect first time out and we shouldn't expect it to be, but as long as it's fun it's all good. It was a lot of fun and we know that when we play again we'll be better at it as a pair of players. And I like that it'll be my Hero next and then back to this one of Brian's.
I really recommend this to anyone who wants an easy, tight, two-player game.
Gregor Hutton:
Oh, the point I wanted to ask/talk about with other S/Lay w/Me players is the stuff about taking "Goes".
I wrote: "Brian was finding his feet at first, looking to me to OK what he was saying, or asking for an answer (and I don't know how tough the door is to break either, it's your Go, you tell me!)." and "Play-wise, at the start of the Goes Brian was looking to me as a GM, almost, to give him permission for things or answer his questions. Well, it's your Go, man!"
When you've played has that been similar for you?
In an earlier game [S/Lay w/Me] The Tome of Mechanical Wonders I touched on this a bit. I am perfectly happy to have some "in character" chatter between us, lots of gonzo colour, exploration, filling out of the world, story (from both participants) and then some forward-moving event from me to tie up my Go. Joe Prince was like this too, though he wondered what authority he had on my Go and so was less strident about leaping in with characters and ideas on my Go.
So, I've not found myself or any playing partners just saying "I do blah. Then roll a die and say: Your Go now!" But I did find Brian looking for me to feed him answers a bit like a GM does for a lot of games. Whether it was the Cider or my explanation Brian was being more decisive as the game progressed, but I could see it was a step for him to take.
Lance D. Allen:
While I've not played S/lay, I've seen this sort of thing happen a TON with games that give the player power to make decisions about the fiction. I've even had to stop myself and retcon the thing I just said in answer to one of their questions.
Player: "I rolled three successes in my investigation roll. What do I find?"
Me: "Well, you notice that the dumpster is locked closed and... Wait, they're your successes. What DO you find?"
Player: "Uh, well, I notice the dumpster is locked closed, and..."
Me: ::facepalm::
Ron Edwards:
I like the part about feeding him to the pigs. That fits nicely with the book text about all the horrible things that can happen to characters as long as they don't permanently wound or kill them (yet).
Regarding the input-what issue, I think I see two different things going on. The first is a simple learning curve about the whole notion of forwarding-moving Goes, which in Big Model jargon are all about Director Stance and to some extent Authority, or whatever people want to call it. A bit of play and reminding "It's your Go, you say," solves that pretty quickly. It's especially relevant to the hero's Goal. When Tim Koppang and I play, he's forever forgetting to get his hero to the Goal or vice versa, although he strives toward it all the time. So I usually end up bringing in the Goal on my terms, quite disadvantageously to the hero. This isn't a problem as it reflects Tim's aesthetic standards for what this hero and his adventures are like, but it's true that he genuinely forgets about that aspect of the rules during play, that he even can bring the Goal right into the story and define its details himself.
The second thing is a little trickier and involves the two players jointly coordinating and harmonizing exactly how they want to talk while playing this game. It's not actually hard, but it's tricky to discuss only because it's individualized for any two specific people ("dualized"? - arggh). One issue concerns much should be in a Go, which actually does tend to get resolved nicely as long as both people are enjoying play and making Goes in the first place, although I definitely feel your pain, Lance, especially in other games. That doesn't seem to be what you're talking about here, though. If I'm reading right, you're talking about how much person X should talk and contribute at all, during person Y's Go. Correct me if I'm mis-reading.
The rules are a lot more basic in this case, actually. The owner of a given Go is the sole author in terms of content. However, any and all table-talk is perfectly all right. As long as you both know whose Go it is, and therefore whose speaking voice really is providing the content, then chatter away as you prefer.
Best, Ron
Lance D. Allen:
Ron,
No, I'm talking more about a player giving up his or her power to contribute to the fiction in ways outside of their character's action to another person that they see as an "authority". This is especially grating when the player doesn't actually realize this. It's most grating when the person seen as the authority accepts the player's power without even realizing it's not their place. It'd be a different thing if the player knew that it was fully their power to decide what happens, but is interested in seeing what another player might come up with. It's the doing it as a default assumption, or doing it because they feel uncomfortable with deciding what happens outside of their character's agency that bothers me.
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