2019.07.23 Velvet Glove Playtest

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.640 Hey everybody, and welcome to just played. This is the podcast where I 2 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:09.439 recap the tabletop RPG's I've recently participated in as a player or a game master. 3 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:15.519 I'm Jim Crocker and today I'll be talking about velvet glove, the PBTA 4 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:22.800 powered game of girl gangs in the s by Sarah Doom bringer Richardson now or 5 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:26.800 this session, I was lucky enough to play in a playtest that Sarah herself 6 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:30.399 was running on the gauntlet. She wanted to check out some revisions that she's 7 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:33.960 made to some of the moves and the character sheets, and I was fortunate 8 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:37.119 enough to get in on one of these one shot sessions. So that's what 9 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:40.159 I wanted to talk about today. So today there were three of us playing 10 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:46.000 characters with Sarah m seeing an. Our was Charzad, the radical, tyler 11 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:50.200 was Hanna, the she wolf and I was Scout, the tomboy. For 12 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:54.920 folks that are familiar with velvet glove in the Ashkey and addition in the notebook, 13 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:58.880 addition is what Sarah calls that. Those are changes to a couple of 14 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:03.439 the original playbooks. There's no more gearhead playbook and the she wolf is kind 15 00:01:03.480 --> 00:01:07.920 of what used to be the Valkyrie, so it's pretty exciting to get a 16 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:10.879 chance to try and check out some of those new playbooks. So for a 17 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:15.239 session starting state, we started out with our gang, the banging bats leveled 18 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:18.640 up to two, so that meant we had a crib. In this case 19 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:23.879 it was a ramshackle garage in the back lot of a drughouse with some shitty 20 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:29.120 furniture and cheap booze as our upgrades. I'm using air quotes with my fingers 21 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.200 when I say up gray AIDS, but at least it wasn't just like a 22 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:36.200 shack with nothing in it. It was the last day of school. We 23 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:38.599 all wanted to be done, we all wanted to go to the beach and 24 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:42.680 that was kind of our default starting state that we launched into our game from 25 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:46.719 there. As far as the plot goes. So, like I said, 26 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:49.879 school let out and we of course all headed to the beach. I was 27 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.879 peddling my bmx bike, while the other two gals were roller skating hanging off 28 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.120 the back of my saddle. When we arrived at the beach, we needed 29 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:01.359 money, so I suggested that we run a grift on some tourists, where 30 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:06.519 I bounce off one of their cars with my bike and the other girls extort 31 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.439 hospital money from them so that they don't have to get involved and they go 32 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:15.840 running away relieved that they don't have to talk to the police. But Hannah 33 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:19.719 didn't like that, so we just went down to the beach to see what 34 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:23.240 other opportunities there might be. She wanted to just like snatch and grab stuff 35 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:27.319 off of people's blankets. So we go down to the beach and there are 36 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:31.080 some boys hassling me about looking like one of them, so I tell them 37 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:37.919 to get lost and they go to harass Jay, a younger girl who is 38 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:40.759 actually Hannah's nice and who was in on a prank with me that I played 39 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:45.400 on my brother that went badly as part of our backstory that we built. 40 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:49.840 So here's Jay, this younger girl, and she's getting harassed by these guys, 41 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:53.400 so we stepped up to get them off of her and I tried to 42 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:58.639 enlist the help of some other girls from school, but it turned out that 43 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:04.280 some of these guys were actually older than we thought and we're actually members of 44 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:07.800 the jade knuckles gang, who are like a serious criminal outfit that's so like 45 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:12.879 real drug and actually have some girls that they prostitute out of the Drug House 46 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:15.759 that they're in. So they grabbed J and that's really bad news. And 47 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:21.520 when Sharazad tried to threaten one of them with her switchblade, they just grabbed 48 00:03:21.560 --> 00:03:23.960 her wrist and bent it back and said she was coming with them too, 49 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:29.319 and that the rest of us would need to come because we owe them rent 50 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:32.159 on the garage where we were hanging out in their back lot. Hannah, 51 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:37.439 after some talking, managed to convince them that we would party with them later, 52 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:39.599 that they could come to our garage and we drink with them. So 53 00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:43.960 they let the three of us off the hook and they just took j with 54 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.680 them, which was still bad news, but not quite as bad news as 55 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:50.400 if they took one of our actual gang members with them. So we went 56 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.639 back to the garage to try and figure out what to do, and Hannah 57 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:59.719 was all upset about Jay and Shahzad was doubting herself, but I knew exactly 58 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:04.400 what was required here, and that was to burn their stupid drug house down. 59 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:10.759 So we sneak inside and we set their hustler stash on fire and all 60 00:04:10.759 --> 00:04:15.400 hell proceeds to break loose at that point. So the boys are all running 61 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:18.879 around trying to save their drugs and we're looking for Jay and the sirens are 62 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:26.360 starting up in the distance and it's just generally smoky, burning pandemonium. So 63 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:30.120 we work our way through the house upstairs and we actually find Ja a, 64 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:33.720 who's passed out in her own puke on a bed with no shirt on, 65 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:38.600 and drag her out to where most of the dudes have gotten out. But 66 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:43.839 as we're slipping into the crowd of other local residents, because we want to 67 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:46.920 avoid having to talk to the cops right especially given that we started the fire, 68 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:49.800 no one knew that and we wanted to keep it that way. But 69 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:55.759 as we're blending in with the neighborhood, we see that sweets, who's a 70 00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:00.639 guy who is our booze connection and a friend of Hannah's, that he can't 71 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:04.079 make it through the fire. So he has clambered out of a window and 72 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:08.639 onto the roof, but scrambling to try and find a way down, he 73 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.160 ends up just skidding down the roof and plumbing to the ground where he's hurt 74 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:17.920 very, very badly. We can see that he's still moving. There's some 75 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:21.600 blood and stuff like that, so he's not dead, but he's definitely messed 76 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:26.920 up. So we've got this sick, half naked girl. So Hannah directs 77 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:30.680 us to go see Lily, who is her family's former made and, by 78 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:36.319 an unlucky break, also sweets his mother. So Hannah explains what happened and 79 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:43.720 this lady freaks out and starts just slapping Hannah and blaming her for sweets falling 80 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:47.920 in with a bad crowd and just regaling her with how much she actually hates 81 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:50.959 her family, even though she used to work for them, or maybe because 82 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:55.920 you used to work for them. So share ZADD tries to step in, 83 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:59.879 but she gets body slammed against the wall by this woman who's stronger than she 84 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:02.560 looks, and it looks like she's just going to keep freeing out until I 85 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:08.519 finally ask her, look, lady, would you rather be here punishing the 86 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:12.879 messengers or do you want to go see your son in the hospital? So 87 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:16.360 this kind of gets through to her, and we also realize at this point 88 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:21.519 that she is actually really drunk right now and that the booze that sweets has 89 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:27.920 been slipping us is probably hers, and she's actually a total mess. So 90 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.879 this being one thousand nine hundred and seventy five, drunken mess that she is, 91 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:34.920 she grabs her car keys and heads off to the hospital to go see 92 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:39.399 her son. So that was kind of where we ended the session. With 93 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:44.279 the caveat that there was an actual interesting mechanical thing that happened, which was 94 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:47.439 that, because Hannah had filled up her anks to track, which is the 95 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.920 version of harm that you take in Velvet Glove, she actually rolled the move 96 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:55.160 to see whether that was a situation that actually took her out or whether she 97 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:59.360 could handle it. Luckily, she hit it just fine and came out of 98 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:04.399 that experience stressed out but relatively unscathed. So so when we ended things up, 99 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:09.600 since we all stayed in the gang at the end, Sarah asked us 100 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:13.759 that question and we hit the roll to see if our gang leveled up. 101 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:17.480 We were presented with a new opportunity and the chance for a new crib, 102 00:07:17.480 --> 00:07:21.279 which is kind of cool because that made sense fictionally too. But anyways, 103 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:28.079 we were approached by the daughters of Caius, these older hippie girls who are 104 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:33.879 basically the Harem for this weird but hot grew named Lickman. I think Charles 105 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:39.279 Manson's name might have been invoked as a frame of reference for this. But 106 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:43.160 anyway, these girls want us to help them showing up the JEZEBELS, who 107 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:46.920 are the rich girl gang from in town, from the right side of the 108 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:50.360 tracks, and of course we all enthusiastically agreed, because the JEZEBELS, they 109 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:55.600 definitely have a coming, and how bad could these chickspeare right. So my 110 00:07:55.639 --> 00:08:01.040 favorite other player moment was when our radical shares odd tried to get that dude, 111 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:07.199 who was actually a no kidding, hardcore adult criminal, to leave our 112 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:11.920 friend alone by just laying a switchblade alongside his balls and telling him to back 113 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:16.839 off. Ultimately, unfortunately, it didn't really work. He just grabbed her 114 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:18.560 wrist and bent it back, and that was when he dragged her along. 115 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:22.759 It was a cool power move of the kind that we definitely see in a 116 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:28.240 trashy movie of the era, very hardcore, very in genre. I really 117 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:31.680 liked it. It was like a velvet glove moment and I really dug it. 118 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:35.480 My favorite gemming moment. Now, of course, I want to caveat 119 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:39.360 this by saying that Sarah is a fantastic gm who it is a privilege to 120 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:43.600 play with, and the inference when you mention a velvet glove is that there 121 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:48.919 is the proverbial fist of iron underneath. So when I suggested burning down the 122 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.919 drug house as part of a move where I confess a dark desire and I 123 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:58.360 missed on that roll, Sarah just went right ahead and hard framed us inside 124 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:03.960 a burning house filled with smoke and panicking drug dealers, with our friend somewhere 125 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:09.519 inside. It was the kind of smash cut that it definitely show up in 126 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:15.799 the movie of this story or the TV show. But very few MC's I 127 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:20.039 have played with, and I include myself among them, would be bold enough 128 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:24.120 to just make that hard a move and time jump all three of us just 129 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:28.879 right into a burning mass like that. She did take some time, and 130 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:33.200 this is really cool, to actually backfill a bit. How'd you get in 131 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:35.720 the house? How did you get the fire started, and stuff like that, 132 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:41.360 but that was all just flavor and window dressing to the mess that we 133 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:46.240 found ourselves in, which was really amazing and definitely something that I'm going to 134 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:52.759 take some inspiration from to expand my thinking on Pbta hard moves and how local 135 00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:56.480 or immediate they need to be, because I tend to think very much in 136 00:09:56.559 --> 00:10:00.360 terms of while you miss that move. Now we have to do something that 137 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:03.200 is that immediately follows on it. But that big jump cut, you know, 138 00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:07.240 moving forward in time. That was great and it's actually written into the 139 00:10:07.240 --> 00:10:11.000 move in a really interesting way, but to see it happened like that was 140 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:15.720 pretty mindblowing and I really loved it. As far as missed opportunities go, 141 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.679 not many in a game this fun and we had a great time, but 142 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:24.399 one of the things I tend to miss in this game in particular is that, 143 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:28.000 at least in the Games I've played, we've never done much school stuff 144 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:33.759 ever. Now out. This is probably a function of the fact that every 145 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:37.519 game of this I've played has been a one shot. So if you want 146 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:41.600 to get out into the neighborhood and do crimes and get mixed up with the 147 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:45.639 other gangs, which is kind of the core activity of this game, then 148 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:48.519 that's what you got to do. But I was excited to see that some 149 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:52.840 of the new moves, especially for the Tomboy that I played, explicitly referenced 150 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:58.200 school and the stuff that we did in class. So I am really looking 151 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:01.639 forward to the wide release so that we can actually have some schoolyard shenanigans as 152 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:07.080 well. As messing around in town. We mentioned some characters from school, 153 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:09.919 like there was a coach who was kind of a creep and stuff like this, 154 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:13.919 and you know, as a Tomboy, I was at Jock, but 155 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:16.919 we didn't really get too much time to actually get into that and I would 156 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:18.639 love to see a multi session game where we could so. Finally, a 157 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:24.360 thing I noticed is that, more than any other PVTA game I have played, 158 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:28.840 this is a game about escalation. If you don't step up, get 159 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:35.080 stepped on. And one thing that follows from that is that one shots tend 160 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:41.360 to follow pretty similar arcs, especially because the it's the last day of school 161 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:45.720 and we're going to the beach set up is the default one shot scenario. 162 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:48.360 I've played several versions of that and it's Super Fun every time, but that 163 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:52.000 seems to be sort of the default starting state, at least for one shots 164 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.679 of the game. The girls start from this kind of resting state and then 165 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:01.519 they get involved in a crime or two and things gradually go off the rails 166 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:05.519 as the boys and other gangs mess with them, and there's this arc that 167 00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:09.799 I sort of expect from having played several games of this. I am thrilled 168 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:13.480 that this time around. Sarah actually started us off with a level to gang, 169 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:16.840 because your gang can actually level up as many as five levels, which 170 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.159 kind of vindicates how experienced you are, what sort of crimes you've done, 171 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:24.679 how well known you are and the kind of dangerous that you might encounter as 172 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.440 you gain notoriety. So it's really neat to start there, which meant that 173 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:31.200 we actually could engage with some of the gang moves. But one thing that 174 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:37.399 I'm a little ambivalent about is the necessity that the entire gang be on board 175 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:41.960 before you can actually trigger any of those gang moves. By setting it up 176 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:46.840 that way it invests veto power in any single player who doesn't want to do 177 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:52.559 something, which doesn't feel to me how peer pressure in a gang actually works. 178 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:56.000 But the problem there is that you need to navigate consent at the table 179 00:12:56.080 --> 00:13:01.279 among players, so I'm not sure that there's a better way that you can 180 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:05.159 do it. The really big challenge in this game, I have come to 181 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:11.039 realize, is creating a space where we can have fun seeing our characters coerced 182 00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:16.519 into doing things against their better judgment as a core activity, while having enough 183 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:22.320 removed from that activity not to feel like that's also happening to us as players. 184 00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:26.759 I am really looking forward to being able to play an extended campaign and 185 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:31.360 watch the gang moves actually come to the or and start to think in terms 186 00:13:31.399 --> 00:13:35.799 of what's good for the gang and what's fun for the gang as a whole 187 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:41.320 and not just my individual PC, which I think is going to pretty much 188 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:46.120 require a multi session ark of play, and that is something I'm very much 189 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:50.080 looking forward to finding out and hopefully reporting back on. So that's all for 190 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:52.200 this episode. Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying the show, please rate 191 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:54.799 and review it wherever you have found it. There's not a video of this 192 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:58.480 particular session available, but do please go ahead and check the show notes for 193 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:03.320 my youtube page, we can find a playlist of other videos that I've participated 194 00:14:03.399 --> 00:14:05.639 in, mostly as a game master. As always, you can follow me 195 00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:09.440 on twitter at Gimlikes Games, and by Games from me at my website, 196 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:15.120 Jimlikes Gamescom or to convention I attend as a vendor. That is absolutely the 197 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:18.399 best way to support the show. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm 198 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:20.399 going to go play another game.