2019.09.04 Girl Underground

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:04.400 Hey everybody, and welcome to just played. This is the podcast where I 2 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:09.800 recap the tabletop RPG's I've recently participated in as a player or a gamemaster. 3 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:15.160 I'm Jim Crocker and today I'll be talking about girl underground. This is the 4 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:21.879 Alison Wonderland simulator by Lauren mcmanimun and Jesse Ross that they published as part of 5 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:25.399 the Zene quest. I guess it's a sort of a contest to jam, 6 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:28.920 but it was a effort to get everybody together to make a bunch of small 7 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:34.000 games in the form of Zenes. Girl underground is this really wonderful one shot 8 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:41.000 pbta hack that involves creating the character of a young woman who then goes into 9 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:45.520 another world and meets companions and has an adventure. So thank Alice in Wonderland, 10 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.439 labyrinth, something like that. I was lucky enough to get signed up 11 00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:52.640 for a one shot that played online with the gauntlet. That was facilitated by 12 00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:56.119 Michael, WHO's a gem from Germany who I played with a bunch of times 13 00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:58.920 and was really excited to get into his game. So, as far as 14 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:03.479 players with characters goes, in this game we all take turns playing the girl 15 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:07.079 who, it turned out, was named patients. And in addition to playing 16 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:11.560 the girl on when it's our turn to do so, we each created a 17 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:17.959 companion character. So Ludo chose the construct playbook and he was echo, a 18 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.280 life size animated dog made from Crochet. Diana was the Fawn if on, 19 00:01:23.799 --> 00:01:30.480 a human shaped fire elemental, and I was professor Gallapagus, the mythic and 20 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:34.680 I was the last of the venerable tortoise historians. So, as far as 21 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:38.439 session starting state goes, in girl underground, you begin the game by creating 22 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:44.000 the girl and her home by choosing some items off of various picklists. So 23 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:49.319 in this instance we had a s Ohio farm girl who wore her hair short 24 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:55.200 and didn't have enough time during the day to get done everything that she wanted 25 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:59.599 to. So in this case our girls dream was to someday learn to be 26 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:05.799 a barn storming airplane pilot, and her name was patients. She had a 27 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:12.439 pocket size soft Crochet Doggie, but was determined to build another one to be 28 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:15.159 its friend, and this was like a little miniature want that fit in one 29 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:20.039 of her hands. So we started the game with her exploring a recently vacated 30 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:23.479 farmstead that was on the next property over from where her family lived. So 31 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.159 the Plot Synopsis For this game is a little more complicated than it would be 32 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.360 for some of the other games that I talked about because we rotated who got 33 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:36.560 to play the girl. So I am going to interject in the plot synopsis 34 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:39.360 when we switched out between players, because if you're playing the girl, your 35 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:44.479 companion becomes an observer in the scene and can't make companion moves, but you 36 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:46.639 are then the one that makes any moves that the girl makes. So just 37 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:51.520 to help people keep track of WHO's doing what, when Strappin who is playing 38 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:53.520 the girl at any given time. So we begin with Ludo as the girl 39 00:02:53.560 --> 00:03:00.000 and it turns out that we haven't been to this abandoned house before because there 40 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:04.479 are what our parents referred to as hbos occasionally hanging around there and all of 41 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:07.719 the adults tell kids not to go near them, don't approach them, don't 42 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:10.360 go near that house. There maybe some of them squatting in there. But 43 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:15.680 curiosity gets the better of us, so we try the door and it gives 44 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:17.400 letting us in and we think there might be a place where we can go 45 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:23.280 and work on our other crochet project. To build a friend for our little 46 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:27.280 crochet dog. So one of the questions that we had to answer was what 47 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:30.360 is a reminder of home about this place, and we decided that it was 48 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:36.319 that the rooms are arranged in exactly the same way as at our house. 49 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.280 It's like an uncanny reflection. They're probably just built by the same builder or 50 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:44.639 something like that, or maybe even out of a prefab design. So the 51 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:46.879 to farm houses are essentially identical. So we're walking through house, it looks 52 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:51.120 very much like our house. So we go upstairs to work on the Crouche 53 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:54.199 and we notice that the room that is normally locked in our house, because 54 00:03:54.240 --> 00:04:00.240 our dad keeps his guns and papers and things like that in that room, 55 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:04.360 that is enticingly open. The door is slightly ajar and from the other side 56 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:09.599 of it we can hear a sound that's like a plinking music box, like 57 00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:13.520 one of those music boxes you open and the little thing spins and the the 58 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:18.160 tines make a tune, and it is a Beethoven Song that we recognize from 59 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:23.480 a recital that we heard at school as part of like a cultural enrichment thing 60 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:27.639 at school. And that ventices us into the room. So the next thing 61 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:32.560 we had to decide on were the manners that the girl understood she must observe 62 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:36.680 to be a proper young lady. So once you come up with that list 63 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:41.040 of and in this case we came up with eight of them out of a 64 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:44.800 list of probably twice as many as that, we sort of chose the ones 65 00:04:44.839 --> 00:04:47.680 that we thought might be interesting. Those manners are going to give us the 66 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:54.319 means to challenge them and learn about ourself and kind of grow up as the 67 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.120 game progresses. So after that brief break to choose what manners we're going to 68 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:01.040 be observing and challenging, we peered around the corner into the room and we 69 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:05.639 see a mirror and in it we see a reflection of ourselves, but we 70 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:11.399 are playing stringed instrument of some kind and it's very strange. So this point 71 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:15.560 Diana steps into being the girl and decides that we like the song, but 72 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:20.360 it makes us feel trapped, because this music is a thing that's smart, 73 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:25.720 people know and recognize and we understand that it's music, but we don't recognize 74 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:29.120 the tune. So what does that mean? Does that mean we're not smart? 75 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:32.519 Does it mean when we don't have culture, our reflection in the mirror 76 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:38.959 seems to kind of recognize that we are uncomfortable and runs away with the loot. 77 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:42.920 In the room, we noticed that there's a desk with a pen and 78 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.680 an ink well and an empty bookshelf in the corner. But when we look 79 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.600 at the reflection we see that the ink pen is actually out of the ink 80 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:56.360 pot and is writing on its own, almost like there's a ghost doing the 81 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:00.000 writing. So at this point Ludo becomes the girl and we inspect the mirror 82 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:01.680 and see if there's anything wrong with it. There's nothing behind it but a 83 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:06.319 dark wooden wall, the book clearly says, and we can see it reflected 84 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:13.000 in the mirror. And then patients walks into the mirror. So we try 85 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.079 to kind of pull the mirror down to see if there's anything behind it, 86 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:19.519 and it suddenly comes unhooked from the wall and comes crashing down on us. 87 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:24.680 But instead was smashing into US covering us with glass, we just pass right 88 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:29.439 through it as it falls and the frame falls around us and the mirror shatters, 89 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:32.319 but patients has passed through the glass to the other side of the mirror 90 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:35.800 and that where we are standing in the house. They're things that look subtly 91 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:40.319 different. So we took this opportunity to look at one of our manners that 92 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:45.040 we tried to challenge and turn into a belief. So the manner was a 93 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:50.240 young lady must always look before she leaps. But we decided that this belief 94 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:57.399 is there's more than just what you see reflected in a mirror. So even 95 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.600 that look may not help you. So sometimes you just got to move ahead 96 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:04.199 despite whatever you might see. So this also brings out another mechanical trigger, 97 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:08.920 which is now that she has passed through the mirror, we are now in 98 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.439 the other world, in the underground, the titular underground of the game. 99 00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:16.959 So now we are going to choose companions. So there are various playbooks for 100 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:20.759 the companions and this is when we actually choose them. I know I mentioned 101 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:24.480 who we were at the beginning of the game, but the interesting thing was 102 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:27.079 that we actually played for a while, for good half hour, forty five 103 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:30.839 minutes, before we actually chose who those companion as we're going to be. 104 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:33.759 So the first question that Mike asked us before we built our companions was what 105 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:38.600 could go wrong in this world, and we decided to sort of take the 106 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:42.600 depression are a dust bowl thing that we had hinted at with the farm girl 107 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:46.240 in the S and make a dark, extreme version of that for our other 108 00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:49.360 side of the mirror. So the things that could go wrong or extreme weather 109 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:56.480 and explicitly like howling winds, big dust storms and stuff like this extreme weather 110 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:00.079 of the dust bowl of variety. And the other thing that can go wrong 111 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.920 is that things are just crumbling and falling apart. They're like drying out and 112 00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:09.079 just turning to dust and you never know what might just crumble if you touch 113 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:11.319 it or, you know, come apart in your hands. So those are 114 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:15.240 the things that we kind of established as the sort of creepy things that could 115 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:18.000 go wrong, and then we built our companions as I described them when I 116 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.480 introduced our characters. So after we finished building our companions, play of the 117 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:26.319 girls. Switch to Diana and we realize that we have arrived in a room 118 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:28.560 that's a mirror image of the one that we just left. We can hear 119 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:33.960 people outside and noises of movement. So we look out a window and we 120 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:37.080 see that we're not in the country but some kind of city. There's bone 121 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:43.399 dry roads and there are dusty people moving around. They'll have their mouths covered 122 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.720 so that they can breathe and they're just sort of all covered in this brown, 123 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:52.720 dry dust. Suddenly we hear shouting someone about our age, hollering about 124 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:56.159 why people can't shut up and why are they up so early, and we're 125 00:08:56.200 --> 00:09:01.320 pretty sure that maybe he is talking about us and has figured out that we're 126 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:05.480 there. So we've ammuse. We amscray. We head downstairs into the street. 127 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:11.080 People outside are hunched over and their teeth are crooked, but as they 128 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:13.399 come up to us, they're commenting that, despite the fact that we're clearly 129 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:18.639 young like they are, they haven't seen anyone quite like us, and especially 130 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:22.240 the companions, because there were all of us kind of odd beings who are 131 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:26.519 traveling with this girl patients. So we set off in the direction of what 132 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:31.320 we think is our house, assuming that this world is a mirror of our 133 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:35.919 world that we came from. Patients. Comes upon professor, who is laid 134 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:41.679 out on his back, and she and I talk about my research and we 135 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:48.039 make introductions. She finally realized that she needs to flip me over so that 136 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:50.600 I can be back on my feet again and walk, and it turns out 137 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:54.840 I've been there for several days and I reach inside my shell and I pull 138 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:58.200 out a map and we try to figure out where she is, but she 139 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.559 doesn't recognize any of the landmarks in the map itself, is kind of old 140 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:05.720 and crumbling, just like everything else in this world. So we set off 141 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:07.720 in search of food, because she's hungry and she hasn't eaten in a while 142 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:11.360 and she's a little scared and not quite sure what's going on. So in 143 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:15.000 our search for something to eat, we encounter a crowd of kids outside of 144 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:20.120 this sweet smelling shop called the slumbering emporium, where we see echo, the 145 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:24.320 little stuffed doll, is displayed in the front window of the shop. He 146 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:28.559 is mislabeled as an artifact from the time before the great dusting. Now, 147 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:33.120 of course, Professor Galapagus, being an authority on all such things in the 148 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.519 history of this world, knows that that is incorrect. So I raise up 149 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:41.320 a hand and I begin a speech where I hold forth on the providence of 150 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:45.360 the items to the kids that are all looking. But as I'm doing so 151 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:48.600 and kind of tapping on the glass, I accidentally shatter the window, because 152 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:52.000 it's all brittle. I didn't expect that it would just come apart at the 153 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:58.000 slightest touch, but the shattering glass freeze Echo, who immediately leaps down and 154 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:01.879 takes a shine to patience because he sees that she is carrying a little stuffed, 155 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:07.000 crushed doll that looks very much like echo talked under her arm. The 156 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:13.440 kid who owns the place heads out and starts yelling at us, and we 157 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:18.919 say that we won't report him for Mislabeling the artifacts in his window if he 158 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:20.840 just lays off, and we all agree to go our separate ways. So, 159 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:24.360 having gotten this far, we then are asked another question. Why are 160 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:28.720 there no adults here? What is going on that keeps them off the streets? 161 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.000 And we decide that they're all sleeping and that there's a purple shade, 162 00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:37.840 like a Violet Ghost that torments the adults with memories of the land that they 163 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:41.279 lost. It brings the memories of how things used to be, when things 164 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:45.840 were green and there was running water and stuff like that, and makes it 165 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:48.639 so sad for them to wake up that they just want to stay asleep. 166 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:52.440 Very creepy. So control of the girl passes to me and the crowd of 167 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:58.679 kids disperses, which leaves behind who had been among them, posing as a 168 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:03.600 huge human kid, but of course, we immediately recognize that she's actually a 169 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:07.320 fawn. She complains about wanting a dress, that she can wear, a 170 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:13.000 pretty dress that won't just burn up when she turns into fire, like she 171 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.120 always does. So a girl who works at the emporium comes out to chat 172 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:20.799 with us while her boss is not looking, and says that both I and 173 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.720 myself patients. We ought to both be wearing dresses. I'm wearing just farm 174 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.559 overalls and work boots, but I really should be wearing a dress and some 175 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:33.600 pretty shoes. But I tell her that I need my overalls to get any 176 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:37.440 real work done. She says that the fake king may have the means to 177 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:43.000 make a dress for and asks us to ask for Water for the city if 178 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.759 we go to the fake king. And it turns out this conversation about the 179 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:48.919 clothing has triggered another manner that we can try to turn into belief to help 180 00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:52.759 us grow up. In this case the manner is proper. Little girls should 181 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:58.279 never act like boys. But we realize that our actual belief is dress for 182 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:01.399 the job. Doesn't matter whether you would be prettier in address. If you're 183 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:05.919 bailing, hey, you got to wear overalls. So dress for the job 184 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.679 is the belief that springs from the manner that we should never act like boys. 185 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:13.399 So control of patients passes to Ludo and we leave for the Faye Forest, 186 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:18.600 which was once beautiful and lush and green, but is now stunted and 187 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.000 dusty, with just nar a little trees with just dry, crusty leaves hanging 188 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:26.000 on them. We need to find the fairies, so as professor GALAPPA goes, 189 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:31.159 I dig out a little egg from the ash that I find discovered there. 190 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:35.120 It almost looks like it's petrified. It's all dried up, but I 191 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:39.519 have, Ifen, warm it up ever so carefully, and eventually it hatches 192 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:45.000 into a little blackbird who hops up and of course immediately thinks patients is its 193 00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:48.840 mother. So patients looks at it and chirps out of a little bit and 194 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:52.759 then runs around in a circle mimicking an airplane, waving her arms and making 195 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:58.000 flying noises, and the bird tries to imitate her and realizes that it can 196 00:13:58.039 --> 00:14:01.919 fly. So it takes off and flies off, kind of flitting through the 197 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:05.440 forest, and we follow it to a door. On the other side of 198 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:09.919 the door we can hear a chamber orchestra playing Beethoven, the very same Beethoven 199 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.720 piece that drew us through the Mirror, and starts dancing to it, and 200 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:20.440 the little gnomes who work for the fairies come out and see if and start 201 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:26.279 dancing along with and everybody is having such a good time that they agree that 202 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:28.799 they will just lead us to the fake court. So when we arrived at 203 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:31.879 the fake court, Mike had a couple more questions for us, and one 204 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:37.159 was what is a sign that this place is just magical and what is the 205 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:41.559 sign that the magic is wearing off? And in this case we decided the 206 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:45.360 fade didn't need shelves or bookcases or anything like that, and they could just 207 00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:48.519 place objects in the air and they would just sit there. As long as 208 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:50.200 they held it there for a moment, it would then just sit there. 209 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:54.720 They could take their wine flutes or whatever and just set them in the air 210 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:58.639 and they would stay there, but they would sink ever so slightly after they 211 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:03.960 set down, before they settled, and that indicated that the magic was slowly 212 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:07.320 starting to fade in this place. So controlled patients passes to Diana and the 213 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:11.080 Fay Queen arrives. She says that we all must eat, we must share 214 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:16.440 a feast with her. But I know, as Professor Galapagos and Echo knows, 215 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:20.080 that accepting gifts from the Fay is bad news, and we talk patients 216 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:24.919 out of being interested in the food and she refuses. Now, in this 217 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:31.200 case this triggers another manner belief cycle, manner in this case being that proper 218 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:35.279 young lady should never question her place in society. But the belief is sometimes 219 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:41.000 society is wrong and needs a nudge to evolve. It needs help seeing how 220 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.240 it's wrong, and in this case that was refusing that offer of hospitality. 221 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:48.879 That allowed us to take that manner that was expected of us and turn it 222 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:52.240 into a belief that helped us grow. So, after a little more back 223 00:15:52.279 --> 00:15:56.360 and forth, I decide, as the professor, that I'm going to sacrifice 224 00:15:56.440 --> 00:16:02.159 myself and my work and I retire to the Fairy Queen's Chambers with her, 225 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:06.960 because I have a playbook move that allows me to enact a great act of 226 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.480 magic if I make a great sacrifice, and in this case I do, 227 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:17.759 and we see the fairy queen emerge from her chambers eating soup from a tortoise 228 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:22.559 Shell, from my tortoise Shell. Patience, of course, is distraught and 229 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:26.960 she hollers it at the fairy queen that she's not good at all she does 230 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:32.360 is just use people up. But professor, sacrifice works and Magic is returned 231 00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:36.559 to the land. The fairy queen takes the Shell and sets it in the 232 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:41.440 air and it just sits there. It does not sink like any other objects 233 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:45.039 that would be placed there. She says a few words and then the shell 234 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:48.720 starts to glow and it's splits up and bits and pieces of it start to 235 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.679 fly up into the sky and spread towards the corners of the Kingdom. It 236 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:59.240 spreads all of the knowledge that the professor had accumulated in his years of writing 237 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:04.400 the unabridged history of the world and spreads it through the world, and everything 238 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:11.799 where this knowledge falls on relearns how to grow. It was really pretty cool. 239 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:17.160 The adults all finally wake up to dream of a turtle leading them to 240 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:23.079 water, away from the Purple Shade, and that day forevermore was known as 241 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:27.480 Galapagus Day. It was pretty neat as far as our ending fictional state goes. 242 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:33.160 In this case we had epilogs for each companion, and the girl herself 243 00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:37.400 and our companion epilogs. We see a scene of Fawn, who is happy 244 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.599 and now has wonderful clothing that she's been gifted by the fairy queen that she 245 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:45.759 can wear everywhere. We see her dancing in a beautiful dress and she's fully 246 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:49.359 on fire and the dress is not burning up as she's dancing. We see 247 00:17:49.400 --> 00:17:53.359 Echo, who looks smaller than he did before, like maybe closer to the 248 00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:57.880 size of the actual little crochet dog that patience was carrying around with her, 249 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:03.400 and he has a whole brood of living toys that he is frolicking with, 250 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:07.880 all of which are much better made than he is, with much more lifelike 251 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:11.880 details, and he is really enjoying his life. And finally we see Professor 252 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:15.400 Galapagus. He's in a bookstore without his shell. He didn't get made into 253 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:18.039 soup, but he did have to give your shell up in order to work 254 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:22.519 that final spell, and he is signing books of fantastic fiction he's written about 255 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:26.400 a mysterious girl that has come from another world. He's decided he's done with 256 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:30.119 history. And of course, patients got several epilogs, each of which tied 257 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:34.599 into the beliefs that she had cultivated first his self about how to be an 258 00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:40.720 adult and in this case we see three scenes. One of her wearing pilot 259 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:44.640 clothes to school, dressing for the job that she wants, not the job 260 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:48.519 she has, wearing a bomber jacket and a helmet with some goggles on it, 261 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:51.400 walking right into school wearing that. In the second one, we see 262 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:55.880 her at a traveling air show asking the guy in charge what it would take 263 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:59.279 to make her a pilot. And in the third scene we can see that 264 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.400 she is actually sitting in the cockpit of a plane and her friend, Shirley, 265 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:07.519 who was introduced earlier, is just waving at us, smiling and wishing 266 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:11.799 us well as we go out to entertain the crowd. My favorite moment by 267 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:18.279 another player definitely Ludo had so much fun playing his enthusiastic little stuffed dog character. 268 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:22.759 He was so desperate for us not to eat the fake queens food that 269 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:29.839 she offered us that he described him jumping into the dishes on the table and 270 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:33.920 just kind of going on a rampage, rolling around in them, getting bits 271 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:38.279 of string and fuzz into everything and like making a huge sloppy mess of himself 272 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:42.920 and basically behaving like he was a crazy puppy just going berserk. It was 273 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:47.680 totally charming. My favorite gimming moment. Michael, of course, did a 274 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:55.000 great job of making everything creepy without tipping into straight up horror. It had 275 00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:59.400 a very coralined sort of feel to things that I really really enjoyed, and 276 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:06.960 his portrayal of the weirdly competent but clearly traumatized kids of that sleeping city. 277 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:11.000 That was amazing. It was really neat, like they were aware that something 278 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:14.279 was wrong but they kind of had to keep doing stuff because if they didn't 279 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:17.039 know one was going to eat and they weren't sure when the adults were coming 280 00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:18.720 back, and it was kind of like they had just been marking time for 281 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:22.400 a long time and things were starting to get very strange. As a result, 282 00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:26.880 there was lots of swinging back and forth moodwise and it really kept us 283 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:30.680 off balance from most of the front half of the game in a way that 284 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:34.200 was just so great for our narrative and really contributed to the atmosphere of what 285 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:38.279 was going on. So how he presented those kids definitely my favorite bit of 286 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:42.839 Gming that he did in this game. Missed opportunity. The game has written 287 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:48.960 has three acts where you explore three different locations in the underground. We only 288 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:52.160 got through too because of the learning curve and also this is one of those 289 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:56.759 games were playing online definitely slows things down because we can't just hand papers around. 290 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:00.200 Were kind of trying to work off of a shared character sheet and stuff 291 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:03.880 like this. So it did slow things down a bit. It was still 292 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:07.680 fun, but it definitely slowed things down and we all wanted our conversation scenes 293 00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:11.839 to keep going. I didn't feel like we got short changed at all, 294 00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:15.480 but I would love to see a complete game played through with all of the 295 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.359 scenes start to finish, and certainly now that I've played it I'm really looking 296 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:22.839 forward to trying run it for some of the other Gauntlet folks myself. So 297 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:26.440 the thing I noticed is that one of the strengths of PBT as a system 298 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:30.920 is that collaboration between the players and the game master is integral to the whole 299 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.319 thing. We all know that if we played any kind of PVTA. Just 300 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:40.680 about all of the variance that I've played have some version of answering questions, 301 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:45.519 picking from lists and generally spending some time building out the PCs, their relationships 302 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:51.079 and the world. You'll hear me refer to session zero, a whole lot 303 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:53.119 of times if you listen to any more than just a few episodes of this 304 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:57.519 podcast. So the downside to that is that that takes time, and sometimes 305 00:21:57.559 --> 00:22:03.480 a lot of time, upwards of ninety minutes, maybe even verging on two 306 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:07.799 hours, for something with multiple entanglements and a whole lot of questions about characters 307 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:12.359 if people haven't played it before. Certainly something like masks or hearts of woolin 308 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:15.799 there's a lot of frontloading to get a game going there. So girl underground 309 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:21.599 has that as well. But it does this really exceedingly clever and, as 310 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:26.400 far as I can tell, unique job of distributing that session zero work over 311 00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:30.279 the course of the session instead of frontloading it all at the beginning. So 312 00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:33.319 you start with the girl in her world, then you play for a while, 313 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.000 answering a question here and there as you go. Then you sort of 314 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:41.319 pause and you pick the girl's manners. Then you play her transition to the 315 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:47.480 underground. Then you pause again, you choose your companion playbooks and answer question 316 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:52.200 or two about the underground. Once everyone has a playbook, then you're really 317 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:56.240 into the meat of the game. But even then there's a question or two 318 00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:00.200 to answer with every significant transition when you move between scenes. So this serves 319 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:06.240 not just to parcel out that cognitive load of creation. It lets you build 320 00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:11.079 on stuff that's happened in play and I love it. It is really brilliant 321 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:14.759 and I'm already looking for ways to do that same thing with other games that 322 00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:18.200 normally would front load all that work, and it's certainly something that I'm pretty 323 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:23.000 sure I'm going to want to try and design into any PBTA hack that I 324 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:26.880 work on myself someday. So that's all for this episode. Thanks very much 325 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.039 for listening. If you're enjoying the show, please do rate and review it 326 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.960 wherever you found it. It definitely helps other people find the show. Not 327 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:36.720 sure whether Mike's made a video of this session available or not. If there 328 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:37.880 is, I'll put it in the show notes and, of course I'll let 329 00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:41.039 you know where to find the Zine as well. As always, you can 330 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:44.680 follow me on twitter at Jim Lights Games and buy games from me at my 331 00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:48.799 website, Jim Likes Gamescom or at a convention I attend as a vendor. 332 00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:51.880 That is absolutely the best way to support the show. Now, if you'll 333 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:53.119 excuse me, I am going to go play another game