2019.03.02 Jinkies! (Playtest): The Ghost Pirate of Lake Winnemuck

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.839 Hey everybody, it's Jim and I just played kinkies. I played this on 2 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:08.279 a Saturday, that that would have been march second, two clock in the 3 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:13.119 afternoon to five o'clock or so eastern standard time. This was a play test 4 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:20.800 that we were engaged in because they are currently kickstarting that game. The system 5 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:26.160 is powered by the apocalypse. It's a hack for doing s animated mysteries like 6 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:30.679 Scooby Dooo, Josie and the pussycats, that kind of thing. This was 7 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:34.759 a one shot, self contained game, played at all once and we played 8 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:39.840 on roll twenty. We used roll twenty four video and audio in addition to 9 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:43.280 all the game materials. We had a whole lot of technical hassles, but 10 00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:47.600 that's something that I'll talk about a little later. So it was facilitated by 11 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:52.640 Toby Strouss who was the MC, the animator, and he is one of 12 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:57.200 the designers of the game and kind of has been due publicity forward. He 13 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:00.600 was on the bonus plus and for podcast and a bunch of stuff like that. 14 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:04.640 But he arranged this game and there were five of us that played. 15 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:10.439 I played a character named Rudy Jefferson, who the archetype, the smart one, 16 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:15.120 think Velma from Scooby Dooo. We also had in the mix. At 17 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:19.680 the table that we played there was the tough one, the weird one, 18 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:23.680 the talented one and the mascot. In this case, our mascot was a 19 00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:30.560 fluffy cat named Lou that gave our band its name. We were called low 20 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:34.120 and the groovies was the name of our band that we had. So session 21 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:40.640 starting state. We were in our van. We were traveling to a battle 22 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:45.400 of the bands which was happening at Lake Winnimok. We didn't say what state 23 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:49.120 it was in, presumably somewhere in the upper midwest, something like that. 24 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:53.640 The session itself was basically a Scoobydoo episode. We rolled it to town to 25 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:57.439 discover that it was being haunted by a ghost pirate and that was going to 26 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:00.760 keep us from having our battle the bands if we didn't do something about it. 27 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:06.959 So of course we sprung into action did some investigation, which brought us 28 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:10.280 to the local switch up where we had candy and, you know, malteds 29 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.360 and ice cream, sodas and stuff like that, like you do, and 30 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:20.560 we explored the abandoned mansion on the lake that was once owned by a local 31 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:25.680 candy magnate whose Candy Company went out of business in the depression, leaving behind 32 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:30.879 this big empty mansion that they used to make candy. And and everything came 33 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:36.599 to head at the Roller Rink, of course, where we eventually captured the 34 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:42.840 ghost, who turned out to be Mindy Winnemok, great granddaughter to the former 35 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:46.560 Candy Baron, who was trying to scare people off so that she could uncover 36 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:55.680 the secret formula to her grandfather's top secret super delicious chocolated bloons that were the 37 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:00.680 signature confection of the Winnimuk Candy Company. So, at the end of the 38 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:06.479 game, are ending fictional state was that we that the band did great at 39 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:10.400 the battle of the band's and Ashley went on to play American bandstand. Our 40 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:15.560 GM let us roll play the call that we got from Dick Clark and that 41 00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:19.240 was just a lot of fun. So we want the contest off to American 42 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:23.360 bandstand and presumably we would arrive to find that there was some kind of ghost 43 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:25.919 haunting American bandstand in our next episode. That that would be a lot of 44 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:30.800 fun. So my favorite moment by another player was when Alex, the talented 45 00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:37.199 one, who was being played by Steve, described a burger date with the 46 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:40.240 the Gal who turned out to be the ghost. He's the talented one. 47 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:44.479 He's our you know, the guitar player, writes all the songs from the 48 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:49.199 band and stuff like that. So he described having a date with her and 49 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:52.840 she didn't really like him. She just wanted to find out what he knew 50 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.599 about the investigation, whether they were on to her, and he was all 51 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:59.080 torn up about it. It was fun that he brought a little bit of 52 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:02.560 archie into our Scoobydoo mystery that we were having. My favorite GM moment was 53 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:09.840 when toby worked our rival band into the story by having them roll up on 54 00:04:09.879 --> 00:04:14.199 our prep. One of the things that you do during your setup for this 55 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:18.160 game is you have a band, you have your investigators and you're supposed to 56 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:23.560 set up a rival band. That he is, you know, that are 57 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:28.000 the misfits to your gem in the Hologram. So we did that and it 58 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:30.000 was a, you know, pump band with guys of names like wrench and 59 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:33.959 slab and stuff like that, and they had a raccoon mascot that was called 60 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.639 the trash panda. It was a whole lot of fun and that kind of 61 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:45.079 helped us set the stage and he brought them in early in the game when 62 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:46.839 we were getting ready for the battle of the bands kind of had them roll 63 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:49.399 up and give us some trouble. So it's kind of need to have them 64 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:55.680 as a potential problem separate from the ghost itself. Missed opportunity was that due 65 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:59.439 to text stuff with roll twenty, some of the problems we had with folks 66 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:02.600 dropping out and having a come back on, which kind of showed up some 67 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:06.319 of our game time and time constraints on the front and back end where we 68 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:10.079 had to kind of start and end at very specific times. It couldn't run 69 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:14.319 over. We didn't get to see the full act structure that you GI's has 70 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:18.720 play out. It's structured in acts to ramp up the tension and get a 71 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:23.120 day, new momk kind of on a regular schedule, the way you would 72 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:26.279 in a half hour television episode, and we really didn't get to see that 73 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:29.000 play out. We kind of had to carve out the middle so that we 74 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:30.879 could get to the end and make sure we captured the ghost. So I 75 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.959 would love, if I play another session of it, to make sure that 76 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.600 we gave it the room to breathe that it needed to do that whole act 77 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:43.839 structure and so that we could see that spookiness ramp up gradually following that traditional 78 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:48.319 cartoon structure. A thing that I noticed, that I really liked about this, 79 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:54.759 about gin Ky's, is that there aren't nearly enough played by the apocalypse 80 00:05:54.839 --> 00:06:00.360 games that just boldly use moves, especially basic one, that have no role 81 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:05.879 attached. They're just moves that say here's a thing, if this happens, 82 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:11.680 then this. It is very tempting to say that those are just narratively driven 83 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:14.920 and that you should just as an MC no when that happens, but to 84 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.519 have that structure therefore the players is super helpful and if your goal is to 85 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:25.040 strictly emulate a given genre, then those sorts of moves can become really useful 86 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:29.720 for that purpose. So I'm kicking around in my head a cinematic supers game, 87 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:33.040 which is like explicitly a game where you play out the origin of like 88 00:06:33.079 --> 00:06:40.519 a big screen superhero and then you would play multiple sessions of the origins of 89 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:45.040 several different heroes and then get them together and like a big avengers or jail 90 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:49.199 a type of thing. But those cinematic superheroes have a very strong, very 91 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:53.720 identifiable act structure. You can kind of play with it and tweak it a 92 00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:56.720 little, but I'm definitely going to take a look at the act structure of 93 00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:00.560 Jinkies because I think there may be some useful ideas for that in this game 94 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:03.800 that I'm thinking about working on. So that was Jeki's. I had a 95 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:06.519 lot of fun. I think it is still on kickstarter now. You can 96 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:14.839 check it out. It's Jim Kis with an exclamation point like cheeky's, just 97 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:17.319 like you would expect if you're watching episode of Scooby Doo, and I had 98 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:20.000 a lot of fun with it. Thanks very much for listening. If you 99 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:24.639 want to find me online, I'm on twitter at him likes games, and 100 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:28.879 I've got a website, Jim Likes Gamescom, where I sell independent role playing 101 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:32.800 games and store games games and also do a little blogging every now and then, 102 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:35.600 so feel free to check that out. Thanks a lot. I've got 103 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:36.759 to go play another game.