2019.06.07 Visigoths vs Mall Goths Playtest

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:04.960 Everybody and welcome to just played. This is the podcast where I recapped the 2 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:09.919 tabletop RPG's I've recently participated in as a player or game master. I'm Jim 3 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:15.800 Crocker and today I will be talking about visigoths versus Mall Goths. We played 4 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:24.160 the scenario quoth, the Raven whatever. This is a cool little dating Sim 5 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:31.719 freeform RPG by Lucian Khan, who is a really wonderful indie designer who created 6 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:37.560 the really great two player RPG dead friend, which is a game of necromancy 7 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:41.119 for two players, which up played a couple times and I really like it 8 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:43.920 quite a lot. He's had a couple of other things that have shown up 9 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:49.000 in a couple of other places, including the Codex Zeen published by the Gauntlet. 10 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:53.679 There's a wonderful game in there called Grandma's drinking song where you actually create 11 00:00:53.759 --> 00:01:00.520 a drinking song based on family history of some Jewish bootleggers during prohibitions. So 12 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.680 this is the kind of stuff that Lucian does. So in this particular game, 13 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:07.159 which at this point is still in played tests, we were helping him 14 00:01:07.159 --> 00:01:11.640 play test it. He played two rival factions who are regulars at a southern 15 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:15.319 California shopping mall in one thousand nine hundred and ninety six and one of them 16 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:22.519 are Mall Goths, a group of Spooky teens of various genders and fandoms and 17 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:26.840 interests, and the other are visigoths, who are in fact the nomadic wars 18 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:30.040 who sacked Rome and brought about the fall of the Roman Empire, who, 19 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:34.680 because of a mishap that one of the mall goths got into with a Weisia 20 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:38.840 board, have found themselves in the twenty century and who are trying to make 21 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:42.319 the best of it by getting jobs working in the mall and hanging out in 22 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:45.000 the mall, because that's what kids do. They work in the mall, 23 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:48.040 they hang out in the mall and they get into fights, they get into 24 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:51.159 romance as all that kind of stuff. That's why Lucian pitches this as a 25 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:56.519 rpga dating sim this is gamely played on the gauntlet via Gauntlet hangouts. We 26 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:00.159 recruited some great gauntlet players to play with us. I was the facilitator. 27 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:02.480 Lucian was nice enough to share his current draft of the game with me. 28 00:02:02.599 --> 00:02:06.079 I did get a chance to play it last week, so I was looking 29 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:07.719 forward to seeing what it was like to actually run it, because I only 30 00:02:07.759 --> 00:02:10.240 kind of got a little bit of a picture of it as a player when 31 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.680 I was playing. So we had four players in this. Pearl was Galvira, 32 00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:21.479 who was a rune castor visigoth. Adam was ultra Gotha, who is 33 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:23.759 a conqueror of visigoth. There are roles that you can perform in each of 34 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:28.120 the two factions, so we had a rune cast, we had a conqueror 35 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:30.599 and of course the mall goths have roles as well. So we had kyle 36 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:36.919 who was Tabitha, the cyber pet mall Goth, and pucket who was Danny, 37 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.080 the theater Tech Mall Goth. So at the beginning of the game, 38 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:45.599 our session starting state, the kids are all in floppy Joe's Cyber Chili Cafe, 39 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:50.560 which is, of course a combination Internet cafe and Chili restaurant, and 40 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:53.560 they're they're checking their AOL accounts when they all receive a reminder, with of 41 00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:59.280 course, a little cupid animation on the email, that there is a Valentine's 42 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:02.400 Day Dan it's coming up that evening at the roller rink and that in fact 43 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:06.439 the mall is going to close early, except for the roller rink so that 44 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:09.919 all the employees can go and participate in the Big Valentine's Day celebration. It 45 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:15.400 also turns out that one of the mall goths by the name of Raven Goldberg 46 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:19.759 Has Been Kidnapped by the visigoths. Now the visigoths say if that they want 47 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.719 to get Raven back, and of course the mall gots do want to get 48 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.879 raven back because he's their only friend who actually has a car and he's also 49 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:31.319 the best Dj at the local Community College radio station. They want him back. 50 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:35.599 They're going to have to give up the bottom floor of the mall, 51 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.400 which none of them want to do, because that's where the CD store is 52 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:43.080 and it's where the arcade is. So we kind of start things off with 53 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:46.039 us some conflict built right in and we went from their plot. SNOPS is 54 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:49.960 because of the way this is such a free form game, there isn't really 55 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:53.639 a plot built in. We just kind of take the characters, we put 56 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:57.439 them into those teams, sort of point them at the situation and just sort 57 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.080 of let them kind of run around the mall and do stuff. So in 58 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:04.080 this case and our session this evening, the mall goths went to the Zombie 59 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:09.800 themed hardware store, which was called brick and mortal, and they talked to 60 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:13.439 the clerk there to see if they could try and get any information on what 61 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.879 might have happened where Raven might have gone. Now, Amanda, the clerk 62 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:21.720 at the hardware store absolutely does not want to be working there. She has 63 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:26.920 to, but she would much rather be out doing her activism. So she 64 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:30.560 wasn't much helped to them, other than suggesting that maybe they should go check 65 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:32.639 out the video store because she knows that Raven used to like to hang out 66 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:38.480 there, and certainly she does not have any security footage or anything like that. 67 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:43.800 She's just trying to stay awake through her incredibly boring day. So while 68 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:48.560 the mall goths were there, the visigoths went to the visigoth lingerie shop, 69 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:55.399 which, of course, is called Athelwolf's secret and, after getting the stink 70 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.240 eye from the clerk, was a little upset that the last time they were 71 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:01.839 in the runecasted kind of use some runes to help them get access to some 72 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:06.639 product that was not actually on the sales floor, but this time they actually 73 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:11.079 went in and after kind of a chat, they spent some money and they 74 00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:19.199 bought this really cool simulated bone and sinew brazier for Ultra Gotha because it actually 75 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:24.319 gave her a plus one to her animal taming skill and, Scott Pilgrim style, 76 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:27.959 the tag actually said that plus one to animal taming. So once they're 77 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.240 done there, the mall goths do you decide to head to the video store, 78 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:33.800 which is called Dracula video, and see if they can get some help 79 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:39.720 from Fritz Fang, the Mall Goth Kid who works there, who also happens 80 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:44.199 to be a Werewolf and, of course, a total film Snob, because 81 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:46.439 you know, it's one thousand nine hundred and ninety six and this is a 82 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:50.439 video store. The visigoths follow them and try to distract the mall goths from 83 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:55.279 finding Raven by kind of, you know, getting into some mischief and just 84 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:59.600 generally kind of making nuisance of themselves. ULTRAGOTHA had a little bit of a 85 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.000 CR rush on Danny, so we're sort of playing with that a little bit. 86 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:09.879 Finally Fritz gets Danny to ask him to the roller dance and eventually the 87 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:14.519 visigoths annoy him enough that he just kicks them out of the video store tells 88 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:16.439 them to get lost. So that ends that scene. But the mall goths 89 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:19.839 decide that they want to hang around so that they can try and get Fritz 90 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:25.000 to actually literally sniff around the mall with his Werewolf knows and see if he 91 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:29.600 can figure out where Raven might have gone. So he leaves them in charge 92 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.839 of the video store, which of course means that the visigoths comes sneaking back 93 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:38.199 around the corner and sneak back into talk with them and kind of Ras them 94 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:41.399 and they, you know, have a little more back and forth. After 95 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:46.560 much wrangkling, Galvira actually goes to work on convincing Danny to go to the 96 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:53.600 dance with ultragatha instead of going with Fritz. Eventually they get to the point 97 00:06:53.639 --> 00:06:59.920 where they all agree to meet upstairs at the Lemon Theodosius smoothie stand to talk 98 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.600 about the feud between the Mall Goths and visigoths and see if they can try 99 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:06.040 to work it out, and which is something that Gil viras really interested in. 100 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:10.439 So after the visigoths leave to head upstairs to wait for the mall goths 101 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:15.920 to show up, Fritz returns with an annoyed expression, goes in back and 102 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.480 actually drags raven out from the back room of the video store where he had 103 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:25.319 been hiding, because he knows that Fritz never bothers to actually go into the 104 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:29.360 back room. So the mall goths grab him and they quickly stash him back 105 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:32.079 in the hardware store and then head up to the meeting. So they rid 106 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:36.319 the visigoths are already there and everybody gets to meet the poor young man who 107 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:40.879 actually works in the smoothie stand, who is a Hun, who does not 108 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:46.399 speak a word of English or Latin or German because he's a Hun. But 109 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:49.600 the visigoths felt sorry for him when he showed up somehow in the twenty century 110 00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:53.399 and they put him to work in the smoothie shop. Now, of course, 111 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:58.319 these are visigoths smoothies, so they have strange ingredients. He is not 112 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:01.240 quite sure how to prepare smoothies properly. People just kind of pointed stuff and 113 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:05.439 just sort of throws things in there, like bananas go and Peel and all 114 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:09.120 and stuff like this. The kids get together and have their meeting, after 115 00:08:09.319 --> 00:08:13.920 a close call with a fermented Yak milk and Papayas smoothie, which they managed 116 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.199 to actually get down a little bit of, but then pour the rest of 117 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:20.319 it out they all agree that the feud is stupid, they should all be 118 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:24.480 friends and they should all go to the dance together. So, ending fictional 119 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:30.360 state, we closed out the game with one of these really cool end of 120 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:37.120 movie montage sort of scenes with all the kids having fun together, Raven downstairs, 121 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:41.679 handcuffed to the counter of the hardware store missing the dance. Sorry, 122 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:46.120 Raven. We faded out our final scene, very last bit of the game. 123 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:50.120 We faded out and the image of the photo booth pick they all took 124 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:54.240 of the four of them crammed in together, all laughing. It was really 125 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:58.000 sweet and wonderful and a great kind of a teen ROM COM ending. So 126 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:05.200 my favorite other player moment from this game was definitely when Pearl suggested that this 127 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:07.519 whole thing, the whole plot, the whole thing driving the game, was 128 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:13.480 stupid and that they really should all be friends and that if the four of 129 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.919 them were all friends together, it wouldn't matter what the other visigoths or malgoths 130 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:20.600 thought, because they would have a squad. And that was what led to 131 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:24.559 that charming rom commending and I kind of love that she had the wherewithal to 132 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.399 just sort of ditch the scenario. But as it was laid down into something 133 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:31.840 that was kind of off track, but that also was very much in genre 134 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:35.960 and really led to a wonderful ending. So that was a great little twist 135 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:37.360 that I did not see coming. I really loved it when she did that 136 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:43.039 favorite gming moment. I think the thing that I was proudest of. Sometimes 137 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:46.320 you just get a nice slow pitch right down the middle. If you see 138 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:48.919 it coming, you can just knock it right out of the park and in 139 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:52.559 this case at one point while they were in the video store, so Danny 140 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:56.320 suggested that Fritz could keep Tabitha, who was in full cat girl mode, 141 00:09:56.440 --> 00:10:00.759 busy while he was out of the store by showing her, I don't know, 142 00:10:00.919 --> 00:10:03.279 something a cat would like, like do you have something with birds or 143 00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:07.120 something like that? Without missing a beat, grin reach over to the Alfred 144 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:13.080 Hitchcock Shelf and pull out the criterion collection dvd of the birds, and I 145 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.279 just had that right there. I was really proud of myself for being able 146 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:20.080 to pull that off because that was like the perfect place. Still cut that 147 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:22.639 scene and the smash cut to the next thing. As far as missed opportunity 148 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.759 goes, because of how the scenes broke down, we only played four scenes 149 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:30.919 before the dance instead of five, which just kind of what the game is 150 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.039 scheduled for, kind of, like I said, freeform style. It's pretty 151 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:39.120 structured in terms of how the game is supposed to go in the number of 152 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:41.000 scenes, but within those scenes you've got a lot of leeweb about what to 153 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:45.679 do and which location you're going to go to. But two of those scenes 154 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:48.080 happened in the same store, so we really just did not get to see 155 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:52.919 as much of them all as I hoped we would. Now the game was 156 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:56.720 great and everybody had a good time, so that's a missed opportunity. Kind 157 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:01.600 of me being selfish, because the characters the populate this setting are so fun 158 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:05.559 to embody as the GM that I just wanted to do more of them. 159 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:09.000 So I had to do the same characters a couple of scenes in a row, 160 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:11.639 and when all of the characters are together in one store, I can 161 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:15.559 only do the clerks for whatever that store is. When they split up, 162 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:20.240 it gives me opportunity to do more stuff and just have fun inhabiting these really 163 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:24.679 wonderful, diverse characters that Lucian has written up, many of whom I recognize 164 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:28.519 from when I was that age working in a mall, which was what I 165 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:31.960 did when I was in my I wasn't a teenagers in my s when I 166 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:35.360 was working in them all, but I knew those people. I work with 167 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:37.480 them at the bookstore that I worked out in the mall and you know the 168 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:41.399 restaurants that I worked at. So I am sure that I will get the 169 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:43.399 chance to play plenty more of those characters when I run this game again in 170 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:46.279 three weeks. So it's not that big a deal, but it would have 171 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:50.080 been neat to have more of an opportunity to do that this evening. So 172 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:54.000 a thing I noticed about this game running it for the first time after having 173 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:58.960 played at once, is that this is very much a LARP adjacent, free 174 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:01.919 warm game. I could certainly see, without too much difficulty, kind of 175 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:07.440 getting up from the table and having people playing these clerks and moving around the 176 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:09.879 space and stuff like that, and it might be a lot of fun to 177 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:13.759 do it that way. I'm not a super big Larber, but I can 178 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:18.000 see that design influence here to very much in this game. It's very free 179 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:22.519 form. So I've played it once and I've run it once and both sessions 180 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:26.120 were quite different in tone and approach. Now, of course there were two 181 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:30.440 different game masters, but there are games that I've played where different people running 182 00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:33.279 it. No matter who's running it kind of feels the same and kind of 183 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:37.879 has the same vibe, something like lady Blackbird, though it's sort of explodes 184 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:43.840 fractally from that preprogrammed beginning. All of the Games have a very similar vibe 185 00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:48.759 to them because it's going for a particular kind of thing, a particular esthetic, 186 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:52.039 and it's very clear the genre that you're trying to play for. there. 187 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:54.559 This is kind of a mix of different stuff in there's different directions that 188 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:58.799 you can go, so it was really neat to see how different those two 189 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:03.320 sessions felt. There's really nothing that compels the player to go in any particular 190 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:07.960 direction in this game, but I really like how the very strong sense of 191 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:13.840 this being a hyper specific place in time and also the sort of magical realism 192 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:16.120 that infuses the whole thing, with people just sort of accepting that there are 193 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:22.879 these visigoths here and they have these medieval theme stores alongside these kind of weird 194 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:26.480 goth stores, and this is all a mall where nobody would be buying any 195 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:28.960 of this stuff, but it is a mall, and so the utter specific 196 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:33.919 the city of that setting does a ton of the heavy lifting in creating the 197 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:39.440 structure than another game would rely on plotting to handle. In the three scenarios 198 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:43.600 that Lucian has written for this there's a very, very basic stuff that gets 199 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:48.440 people kind of pointed in a direction and then we just sort of literally play 200 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.639 to find out what happens. And I'm super intrigued by the idea of running 201 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:54.759 it again because I already think of all the mall staff, the ones that 202 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:58.960 I've gotten to play as my characters in a way that I really do for 203 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:03.840 other GMC's and other Games that I've run, including some of those hyper specific 204 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:09.159 programmed module games, something like a lady blackbird or even like a fall of 205 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:13.840 magic, where we're sort of starting ostensibly from the same situation and moving to 206 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:18.279 the same places, but there's not that specificity of the characters that were running 207 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:20.240 into, and it's really cool how that helps give me a grounding on where 208 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:26.000 to go. The Way Luction make sure to consistently refer to the facilitator, 209 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.240 the GM whatever you want to call it, as a player in the rules 210 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:33.240 that he's written. In this case I'm referred to as the mall rat. 211 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:37.120 That really helps here. I'm really looking forward to my next run and seeing 212 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:43.519 how much that specificity of setting keeps me on track and helps me make the 213 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:48.960 vibe of it and the feel of it the same, even as the players 214 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:52.080 are doing something totally different. It definitely has something in common with some of 215 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:56.240 those module games like lady Blackbird in that I am pretty certain that this will 216 00:14:56.279 --> 00:15:01.240 get easier and more comfortable to facilitate with each subsequent playthrough and, as it 217 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:03.919 happens, I'm running it again in three weeks, so I will be able 218 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:07.759 to come back and tell you for sure. So I'll report back in after 219 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:11.240 I've run that next session of it, once I get back from origins. 220 00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:13.919 So that's all for this episode. Thanks very much, as always, for 221 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:16.080 listening. If you're enjoying the show, please rate and review it wherever you 222 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:20.080 found it. Check out the show notes for a video of this session. 223 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:22.879 We should be able to post one. I think everyone's given permission, so 224 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:26.320 there ought to be a a youtube video of the full session if it's something 225 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:30.120 you're interested in checking out what happened, and you can also find out well, 226 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:31.360 normally I would say you can find out where to purchase the game that 227 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:35.399 we played, but in this case it's still in play test, so I 228 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:39.559 will post a link to a place where you can find more information on it. 229 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:43.240 As always, you can follow me on twitter at Jim Likes Games, 230 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:46.240 and Buy Games for me at my website, Jim Likes Gamescom or at a 231 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:50.960 convention I attend as a vendor. That's absolutely the best way to support the 232 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.360 show. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go 233 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:54.080 play another game.