[Contenders] This Must Be The Place

[Malcolm Craig]

So after unanimous consent in the pub last week, this week we sat down to play Contenders. So there we sit round Per's kitchen table drinking...ginger beer?

Regardless of the culinary goings on, we're keen to play, but where? How about New Jersey? In the early 80s? Cool. Joe comments on the 'New Jersey Smell' (having been there and noted such atmospherics). We think about wind-blown shopping malls, shut down through lack of business, scrap yards, seedy bars, grey skies and ranks of concrete condominiums.

But then we start talking about music. What's the soundtrack to our early 80s New Jersey boxing scene? What bands and song spring into our minds as we come up with this faded urban American landscape? So we start throwing bands and songs at each other and gradually gather a list of sounds that we want to think about as the game plays on: Talking Heads, Blondie, Bauhaus, The Clash, The Cure, early Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen and so on.

So we have our place, we have a feel and we have soundtrack in our heads, so we're all supper keen to get going, to find out the stories of our contenders and where they're headed. There's some round table discussion about the characters: a name here, an idea there, connections, attitudes, appearances and so on. Finally, we end up with the following four contenders:

Gavin "Union Jack" Jackson (me): Just off the cargo boat from Liverpool, seeking to make it big in the USA, convinced he's got what it takes to hit the bigtime. Then again, theirs his little sister Deborah who stowed away to be with him, a naïve 15 year old girl on the hard streets of New Jersey...

Harry "Slim" Simmons (Per Fischer): An older man, maybe a little past it, but still packing a punch. Desperately wants to get enough cash to wed his long term sweetheart, Sally the waitress at the 24 Hour Grill, but live sin fear that she's going to up sticks and leave for the big city...

"The Jet" Juarez (Joe Murphy): A 19 year old greaser, a kid with an attitude, in the boxing game for the rep, wants to strut and preen in front of his peers. But then there's his gay friend Gabriel, whom he adores but who's always tapping him up for money...drugs...maybe...

Paul "The Powerhouse" O'Leary (Iain McAllister): Another older man, this time with a wife and two kids to provide for. All he wants to do is make them comfortable, put food on the table, buy his wife pretty dresses and get some toys for the kids. But there's that fear: he's getting older, what if he gets iced in the ring or just can't make it pay...

We have our four contenders and already were coming up with more people and places to inhabit our world. There was a great deal of enthusiasm round the table for the game, right from the very moment of starting. It really did lend itself to the creation of  an environment full of hope, pain and anger, it forces you to create this world in order to tell better stories for your contenders.

I'm sure Per, Joe and Iain will be along shortly to talk about some of the scenes that took place as we got started. There were standout moments in every scene and lots of great stuff happening.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

I'd read through Contenders back in March but was only fairly familiar the rules. Both Per and Malcolm communicated the basics to me in moments, and as much of the book can be referred to easily in play (what scenes to choose from and how they work, for example), I picked up everything quickly.

I enjoyed my first scene a great deal. My little greaser went to make some money off a gym owner, played my Malcolm. I suggested he move with the times and get some ladies in, and Mal responded with 'What, you trynna get all Jane Fonda on me?'

At the beginning of my second scene, I realised my Connection wasn't gay in the slightest, but feigned such in order to manipulate my character. Nicely twisted. So I had Iain play the connection asking for money for drugs when he just wanted to get money for his gang. I really enjoyed playing a scene where I knew exactly what was going on, though my naive character was clueless.

But my favorite scene was watching Mal and Iain's fight. Bam bam BAM, four rounds over and done with in five minutes. The system's elegant and dangerous, and the play was beautifully described and *tight*. No waffle, no meandering, just one nifty tactical choice to make each round.

What else was cool?

Picking the players around you to NPC for you. Improvising with very little to go on is a thrill: is the wife shrewish and mean? Warm-hearted and guileless? What adds to the PC's story the best?

And, partially inspired by Verge and such, we took a sheet of paper and placed it in the centre and flowcharted NPCs, locations and ties as we improvised. We could then easily refer back and keep names and details consistent. Which'll be more important next week.

Joe.

[Malcolm Craig]

But my favorite scene was watching Mal and Iain's fight. Bam bam BAM, four rounds over and done with in five minutes. The system's elegant and dangerous, and the play was beautifully described and *tight*. No waffle, no meandering, just one nifty tactical choice to make each round.

For sure, that scene worked really well. And, as the first fight scene in the game, it was nice that it went so smoothly. And this is where Contenders really stands up: boxing mechanics that are simple, effective and engaging, especially for those with no interest at all in boxing. By the end of those four rounds, Jackson was being uber defensive and clinging on because he wanted victory so badly. The sportsmanship shown by O'Leary only served to counterpoint the cocky attitude that Jackson showed in victory.

A cool scene for me was the one played out between O'Leary and his wife. In this instance, Iain asked if Joe would play the role of his wife and the conversation over the dinner table, where the poor man was attempting to reassure his wife and convince her that going back into the ring was a good choice was handled really nicely.

Writing down all the aspects of the place we lived on one central piece of paper, as they came up, turned out to be a really useful thing to do. Now we have the 24 Hour Grill, the Red Parrot Bar, the Dynamo Gym, Slick the cocky greaser, Dirk the gym owner, Timmy Tang the promoter, Collingwood the bigshot promoter from out of town. It all came together really well.

Cheers
Malc

[Per Fischer]

I hugely enjoyed the session as well, all the way through. Contenders is indeed a zero-to-hero game for me personally. I haven't got the slightest interest in boxing, so I didn't engage in reading the game text with too much enthusiasm. But the read alone was great. So great in fact, that I read it a couple of times, just to enjoy it. You can easily read the entire game in an hour or so, on your way home from work, and be ready to go immediately afterwards. I've been ready for a couple of weeks now, and finally the opportunity presented itself.

This is the third game this group plays together - Joe and I have been playing for a while in different groups, most notably Sorcerer and TSOY, and Iain and Mal know each other. The Contenders game came about after a couple of less satisfying experiences - first the Roach flopped big time and then a good three-session game of Dogs GM'ed by me ended on a wrong note due to a mechanics discussion. Therefore we spent a whole session, the one before this week's Contenders, discussing why thing had gone as they had. And what we wanted from our game, and it seemed kind of an obvious choice to play Contenders.

Iain is very interested in the inner workings of a game's mechanic. Mal enjoys a vivid and well described setting and doesn't really care that much for mechanics. I go for meaty conflicts with tough character choices. In that respect, Joe is probably the most 'flexible' of the four of us, without saying we are inflexible.

I took the first scene and fucked up. Somehow it had escaped my aging brain that to raise a trait in a training scene you pay CASH according to the level of the trait. So, Slim Simmons spent a scene running in and out of the neighborhood, eating a couple of raw steaks and finishing off with a high-powered punching frenzy at the Dynamoe gym. Only for me to learn Slim was kinda low on CASH, as every starting Contender. Shit. All that effort for no gain.

The resolution system works incredibly well. It's easy to slide the point in time where you draw cards in a scene. Fx at the beginning of a scene and then play out what the cards indicate. Or hold it and roleplay deep into the scene and then draw cards when things are edging up.

Twice the joker came up, indicating Crosses to the following scene. The first time I simply grapped Gabe, the not-so-gay friend of Jet Juarez who was leaving the Red Parrot after a scene, and made him try to smoothtalk promotor Collingwood to give Slim a 6-round match out of town.

This was promptly followed up by Joe taking his next scene as a BRAWL scene where Juarez punched Slim to the ground "to leave his friend Gabe alone".

So, Slim entered the ring before his big fight (the last scene that evening) with bruises all over and a big black eye, against the NPC boxer Fred "The Face". This was a CROSS from the BRAWL scene just before.

I knew Slim had to KO The Face quickly to have a chance, as his CONDITIONING was only good for 3 rounds before fatigue would set in. I tried a knee to the balls in round one and was miserably spotted by the referee and given a warning, PLUS loosing the round. Second round levelled the game, and in the third Slim again tried to finish off the Face with a dirty elbow to the ear. WHAM, and the ref didn't see nothing. Fourth round. Slim went all or nothing straight for his stunned and tired opponent burning a point of HOPE and BRINGING THE PAIN. Two quick jabs and a killing hook sent Fred the Face down and he never got up. He is probably still lying there if you ask me.

Victory and hard CASH. Slim Simmons is on a roll!

Per

[iain]

I had a great time at our last session of contenders, and am really looking forward to seeing how things play out for my character.

Let's see what really stood out for me. The soundtrack thing for mood setting was great. I am real believer in music being able to really add to a film if chosen right, so having a few tunes going round in your head as you set scenes is a wonderful idea.

Once we had got characters and setting sorted out, we got to the meat of the game. My first scene was a fairly basic work scene. Having recently been made unemployed, Paul was looking for side jobs and got some bodyguard work at a local nightclub owned by a friend. When we pulled cards to see how it went, I drew, so narrated that Paul got beaten up a bit by some local greasers and his wife gave him a hard time about it when he got home.

I really liked that Malcolm brought those same greasers into his next scene, even though he didn't have to. This sort of improvisation is one of the strong points of the game.

I thought Joe's first scene really summed up the sort of cocky character he was playing, and even though it didn't come of for him, was brilliantly played by both him and Malc.

My next scene was with my wife, emily, and our two kids round the breakfast table. Paul had decided to buy his family some nice food with some of his bouncer cash. Paul tried to persuade emily that going back in the ring was a good option. He used to be a contender, but got out of it for Emily's sake. It was a connection scene, so I spent cash and drew cards against my current pain of 2. I drew again, and so the scene ended with me laying down the law, storming out of the house and going to see my old promoter Timothy.

Malcolm's next scene also used timothy. The young man was looking for a punchbag to warm up on, and so we decided that Paul would be a perfect target. So my next scene was set!

When it came my turn again, the fight began. Now I have no interest in boxing at all, but the way the fight worked was smooth and elegant. Well designed Joe! It ended up with me losing and getting a bit beaten up, but I got the cash that mattered to me. I loved the way the game is not all about the fights, but that they are the best way to get money, providing incentive to the player to engage in them.

Before we started this game I was not sure that a game revolving around several seperate protagonists could work. Now I am totally sold and will be using some of the ideas I got from Contenders in a project I am currently working on. All round a great nights entertainment and I am eager to get to the next session.

All the best
Iain

[Joe J Prince]

I hereby bless this thread with game designer approval...
Thanks for all the positive comments. I must be doing something right if Iain thinks the mechanics are good!
Sounds like a great game guys, hope you have fun tonight too.

I like the idea of a game link sheet in the middle, seems very useful for any RPG.

Incidentally, I've put a Contenders demo pack up on my website , featuring five pre-generated contenders. I've also got an FAQ section on my forum here. feel free to post any rules questions there.

Cheers,
JoE

[Per Fischer]

We played the second session of our Contenders game Tuesday night at Iain's place in Edinburgh south. Joe summed it up why we are in fact meeting to do this, I think, by stating he was travelling 90 minutes to get there and 90 minutes to get home afterwards. Why? Because the few hours of game time in between were worth it - hugely satisfying. And they are.

Our group is coming nicely together now, not just because of Contenders but also because we know each other better now. At least I feel that I can relax more and spend more energy on the creative output of the game.

We played quite a few scenes, maybe we actually had three each, but there was a round of quicker training scenes. But every scene was good. Every scene was quickly set and described and other players jumped in to play NPCs and joined the general kibbitzing and wow-ing when things in the game got particularly interesting or hairy.

I'll leave it to my fellow players to describe some of their excellent scenes. For Slim Simmons it was an evening of hopelessness and pain - nothing worked. His downfall went like this:

After winning his fight the last time, Slim bought a ring for Sally in a pawn shop and met her after work on the rainy parking lot behind the diner (it rained all the time in this session, btw.). Things went sour between them and then the cards showed a bad outcome of the scene. Sally, played by Mal, kept pressing Slim to "pop the question", and Slim kept saying stupid things like "It's not big enough, right? That's it. It's not big enough!" and eventually threw the ring over his shoulder in rage. Sally drove away. No HOPE. Only PAIN. The ring crossed over into the next scene, where we learned in a flash back scene that it actually came from Joe's character Juarez's connection Gabe.

Anyway, after that Slim spent the rest of his cash running though the city park for days on end to get his CONDITIONING up. Then he went to promoter Collingwood to get another fight.

He got Juarez "The Jet" i a four-rounder. Slim was eager to beat the shit out of this little cocky bastard with yellow gloves and shorts, and who had assaulted him in a back alley during the last session. The little shit was smiling and playing to the crowd in the most sickening manner. Those were the things Slim was thinking about when he met Juarez's lethal right cross in the first seconds of the first round. And went down. And out. In game terms, Joe brought the pain from the outset of the match and I foolishly thought I could ride it by playing it safe in the first round. But Joe won the domination with his 12(!!) cards and then delivered damage enough to KO Slim Simmons.

Man, that was fun.

Per

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

... and even then, my PC Juarez is being set up for a fall. In his work, promotion and training scenes previously, I'd described how he was all ready to play to the crowd and owed the promoter big time. So he really should have fought for his promoter for more than 5 seconds.

His fight was extremely thrilling. Pulse-pounding stuff. Bring the pain, play the cards, attack, damage, POW, he's OUT.

(Mr Prince - when should the choice to Bring Pain occur? It can make a tactical difference, of course)

Other scenes I enjoyed... Mal asked for conflict in a Work scene so I suggested his sister (Connection) be there on the dancefloor, distracting him. He promised the sis a shopping trip to NYC; problem solved. But his subsequent Connection scene went terribly... at the gig of unknown punk band (The Beastie Boys, teehee), the sis was thrown out of the club. And her big brother didn't notice for three hours.

I'm really enjoying Jokers. We've been crossing a lot, but the random element stops you from being complacent. Figuring out that Per's ring could cross in my scene because my scene happened *previously* was *fun*.

Iain's roleplaying was really snappy, in his PCs and NPCs. Mal was a star, as usual. Per's roleplaying os his PC was excellent - the pseudo-proposal and misunderstandings was right out of a movie. A good movie.

In fact, between the tragedy and crosses, I don't think the lovechild of Robert Altman and the Coen brothers could have done any better.

This game helps make art happen. Thanks, Joe.

Joe.

[Malcolm Craig]

Oh, is the pain racking upon towards some pretty big comedowns for some of the characters. There were some great scenes last night. There was one thing that really struck me: all the stuff (characters, places, people, things) being cross-referenced in scenes, previous throwaway bits and pieces making a comeback, recurring themes and motifs that look as if they will keep on recurring.

I think Iain grabbed a scene really well. Prior to Iains scene, I'd done the work scene at the gig, in which Jacksons 15 year old sister was involved. O'Leary was there as well, reprising his appearance a a bouncer in week one. As the scene finished for me, Iain carried it one by making a connection scene for O'Leary, escorting Jacksons sister to a cab, but asking if she'd like to do some part time work with his wife (now established as a dressmaker) to earn a few dollars. So, we now have at least one PC with a solid conection to another characters connection (if that makes sense). it was a really cool way to establish the link between Deborah and O'Leary, which fed into further stuff during the game.

Per's playing of the scene where he tries to give Sally the ring was great. His throwing it away in a fit of anger, burning all the cash he had worked so hard to get was another great moment. His description of Slim scrabbling around in the muck trying to find the ring when he realises his mistake was a brilliant final touch. It was very much like a movie scene.

As I commented to the guys last night, I've been kind of soundtracking certain scenes in my head as we go along, perhaps something I should comment on more during the game. During Pers scene with sally and the ring, I had (in a terrible irony) 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' by The Police going round in my head. For the New York scenes with Jackson and his little sis, it was a combination of various hardcore punk tunes from the likes of Minor Threat and Reagan Youth. For the encounter between Juarez and Gabriel, I somehow thought of the tavern playing 'Rudie Can't Fail' by The Clash on the jukebox.

Cheers
Malc

[Malcolm Craig]

Well, after a hiatus of two weeks we were keen to get back into the ongoing story of our boxers. It says something about how the game has really engaged us that missing out on a weeks play was a source of disappointment. The simplicity of the game belies the fact that it can create great stories that we as a group and keen to see through to conclusion.

However, it seems that the short hiatus perhaps dragged us out of the way of the game, out of the way of creating such sharp scenes that had been the hallmark of previous sessions. The first scene was mine, getting Jackson involved in a the theft of a truck full of cigarettes. Looking at it, this is probably the weakest scene that Jackson has been involved in. Most of this was down to me not making the scene clear enough, not making it sharp and focussed enough. Anyhow, despite this somewhat weak start on my part, the game really got back into the flow in subsequent scenes.

One of the highlights of the evening was the bloody re-match between Jackson and O'Leary. Since their first match up, O'Leary and his lady wife have taken Jacksons young sister Deborah under their wing, slowly moving her away from the influence of her older brother. Then again, in the ring, friendships mean nothing. As Jackson said when they touched gloves: "Just because I like you, doesn't mean to say I'll go easy on you". The fight ended with both boxers Bringing The Pain in the same round, resulting a brutal, bone crunching finale to what had been a great technical display of boxing. O'Leary went down to a knockout, but savaged Jackson in the process. Trouble is, the crowd have now seen jackson take down the same, older opponent twice. What happen when he meets someone of the same age and fitness? Can he stand up to a younger boxer...someone like Juarez.

Hopefully Per, Joe and Iain will pitch in with their thoughts on what went on round the table.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Per Fischer]

Although this session perhaps lacked a bit of the intensity of the last couple of sessions, there still were plenty of good scenes and stuff happening. We started an hour later and thus the session was shorter than usual.

For me, I think the major scene was Joe deciding that Juarez should get moving by becoming engaged with the local crime boss. This became a work scene where I think the cards were drawn at the outset and dictated the scene. Plente of reds for Joe and it turned out that the boss was very interested in getting Juarez on his side to appeal to the Hispanics in the city. So, even though Juarez caused the boos to lose thousands of dollars by knocking Slim Simmons to the ground in last week's game, the boss offered him both money and a new place to live.

Slim's downfall continued. He was avoiding Sally at all costs by training hard on his power and he began stalking Juarez. This developed into to brawl scenes between the two, one called by Joe and one called by me. The first one happened on the strett in the Spanish quarter and ended in a tie. The next one was a drunk Slim entering the newly built block of flats where Juarez had moved in helped by the crime boss (forget his name, and my notes are away from me at the moment). I won the conflict and Joe narrated Slim taking Juarez by surprise and punching him right in the face, knocking him down on his owm doorstep.

Slim's Rep is now 7, and we are closing in on the end game, which, I hope, will happen the next time we play - everything seems ripe for it.

Per

[iain]

I wiould just like to iterate that I am really enjoying this game. I am not sure where things are going to end up for the Powerhouse, but I hope he can fight through the pain.

I will get to the rematch in a moment. Before the fight there was a little incident with Jackson that basically resulted in the Powerhouse having to bail his sister. This unfortunately took all the money he had and resulted in yet another fight with Emily, pressuring him to go out and find money quickly. he found a fight.

The American vs. British rematch was a great fight, where Paul got the hell beaten out of him, and just enough money to apease Emily. However for me the fight was not the scene that really made the night for me. It was the fallout afterwards.

The Powerhouse met with Emily after the fight, hoping to reconcile with her, using the money from the fight. A lovely exchange resulted in Paul losing all his money again and Emily, played by Joe, going out to dinner with her sister, played by Malcolm, who has never liked Paul. The sister convinced Emily that it is time to leave Paul.

Paul now has a choice: keep fighting and lose Emily or try and find steady work and keep his family together. I think it is time for him to lay down his gloves and train the up and comers, like that new boy jackson!

Cheers
Iain

[Joe J Prince]

Sounds great guys, can't wait for the next installment. Don't know who I'm rooting for in Juarez vs Jackson, but I want that fight to happen!

(Mr Prince - when should the choice to Bring Pain occur? It can make a tactical difference, of course)

I just realised I haven't answered this yet! A Contender can Bring the Pain anytime before tactics are revealed for the round. It's most advantageous to do this after tactics have been chosen but not yet revealed. An opposing Contender will always have the option of Bringing the Pain too (unless it's already been used during the match).

Cheers,
Joe

[Malcolm Craig]

Sounds great guys, can't wait for the next installment. Don't know who I'm rooting for in Juarez vs Jackson, but I want that fight to happen!

Sadly, there's still a bit of hiatus until we have the final session. Real life issues such as work, illness and various other things have interrupted reaching some form of finale with the game. I'm sincerely hoping this doesn't reduce the impact of the final session.

I have to say that the enthusiasm we have had for our Contenders game has been huge, which has caused more than a little disappointment during the last few weeks, when the game has not run as often as we would like it to have. Certainly in our last session, although the enthusiasm was still there, our scene (initially) were not as sharp or focussed as they had been in the first two sessions. Then again, there was still great dialogue and the overall good feeling around the table was still present.

I've been really impressed by the way that Contenders focussed the creation of story, whilst still remain unobtrusive. Given the pain that has been racking up, I doubt we're going to see happy endings for any of our characters!

Cheers
Malcolm

[Malcolm Craig]

So, we finally, at last, had the concluding session of our Contenders game. The conlcusion of this very engaging game has been somewhat drawn out due to illness, and real life commitments, but we eventually mananged to get round the table and see what finally became of our characters.

It was pretty much a done deal that things wouldn't end well for any of the boxers. Pain had been racked up to such a level that there was no way we were going get enough Hope in this last session to have a positive outcome. But this was in no way a bad thing. Whatever the outcome, we really wanted to hear what happened to the characaters. Hopefully the others will chime in with their experiences, but I'll related the end of Gavin 'Union Jack' Jackson.

We had decided to have a final scene each, then a final boxing match before the epilogues. I' had chosen a Connnection scene for Jackson, a last, maybe futile attempt to salavage something from his failing relationship with his little sister. So, scraping together the 7 cash he'd got from the last fight, Jackson buys a one-way air ticket back to Britain. Deborah was still staying with the family of O'Leary, so Per played Mrs O'Leary and Joe took the role of Deborah. Jackson was determined to make her see that she had nothing of a life here, that going home and using her undoubted talents by going to college and getting an education would be much better than bumming around New Jersey. She took the ticket and there was a final moment where Jackson and Deborah realised they were still brother and sister and parted on a positive note. Jackson promised to come visit once he had more money, something that would come back to haunt him in the epilogue.

Then there was the final fight for Jackson...

Jackson and Juarez, the two young guns of the local circuit meeting for the first time. And for the first time Jackson was afraid. Juarez looked meaner, fitter, more tanned and better fed than the the pale and pasty Jackson. And what a fight. It was the closest we've yet had in Contenders. Even with the bringing of the pain and all sorts of tactics, it ended with Jackson getting a VP in one round and a VP in the last, winning by an incredibly narrow margin. The crowd was not so impressed. Neither of the boxers really showed who they could be, but Jackson, by a miracle, came out on top. Juarez? I'll let Joe tell the story of Juarez.

And the epilogue? Well, Pain was higher than Hope, so it was always going to be bad. But, Jackson always wanted to make it big. So he did. Not in a huge way. He never won a belt, but was always there, he was a Contender, but he never quite made it. Tipped as a man to watch, he boxed for a long time, making money, getting a bit of fame, but never quite getting there. Fast forward to 2003, 20 years after the events of the main story. A hospital back in a grey and rainy Liverpool. A ravaged and much older looking Jackson lies in a bed, getting his meals through a tube, palsied and brain damaged from too many hard blows to the head. And nobody ever comes to visit him. Why? Because despite the money he made boxing, he never did fulfil the promise he made to his little sister and come back to visit her.

And so his story ended.

Cheers
Malcolm