2020.02.07 Derby Drama

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.360 Everybody and welcome to just played. This is the podcast I recap the tabletop 2 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:09.240 RPG's I've recently participated in as player or again, master. I'm Jim Crocker 3 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:13.080 of Jim Lakes Gamescom and today I'm going to be talking about Derby drama, 4 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:16.640 which is a game that I just played by libby horror check. It's in 5 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:21.519 play test and it is about Roller Derby Bouts. You are plan the women 6 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:26.079 of Roller Derby in this game. It's an original system that libby has been 7 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.519 working on herself, developing over the last several months, and it is currently 8 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:33.039 in kickstarter. So if you are interested in finding out more about it, 9 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:35.759 just check the show notes and you can find a link to the kickstarter there. 10 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:40.359 This was a oneshot playtest that I took part in, organized through Gauntlet 11 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:46.560 hangouts on the gauntlet gaming community online. That's Gauntlet rpgcom if you want to 12 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.640 find out more about what the gauntlet is doing in terms of running games and 13 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:53.479 playing games. This was libby herself the facilitated the game. I think technically 14 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:57.920 it's meant to be gmless, but she took on the role of facilitator and 15 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.679 walked us through the game, but didn't actually play herself. Players with characters 16 00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:03.560 were well, I was actually a player in this one and not a GM 17 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:07.480 so, and of course one of the fun things about Roller Derby is coming 18 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:11.359 up with names for your characters that are delicious pop culture puns. So I 19 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:15.799 was Tomic Blondie. My job on the team was to be a jammer, 20 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.480 but during the day I was the assistant manager of the local big box sporting 21 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:25.200 goods store. Y was brick, a blocker and a grubbub delivery driver during 22 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:29.439 her day shift. Rich was Duello Witz, a blocker and someone who had 23 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:34.319 a job I can't exactly remember right now, and Sarah Bell was Killie Eilish, 24 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:37.799 a jammer who was still a high school senior. As far as our 25 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.439 sessions starting state goes, we spent a fair amount of time building relationships and 26 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.519 creating our setting. Wet a little bit of a like a session zero thing 27 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:48.799 that took up the first ninety minutes or so of our playtime. In this 28 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:53.599 case, we ended up with a ruralish midwestern town that an interstate highway ran 29 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.000 through, with farmland sort of spread out around it. So there was a 30 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.640 shopping center and fast food joints for folks to work at that were adjacent to 31 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:05.280 the exits off of the interstate. Our initial setup was that the squad that 32 00:02:05.319 --> 00:02:09.039 brick and I were members of were these perpetual underdogs that they lost the championship, 33 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:14.439 the local championship, every year. But finally we had a shot at 34 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:17.080 it this year because their star, jammer, just found out that she was 35 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:21.960 pregnant and dropped out of the match, which in this case was being held 36 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:25.800 in a converted carpet warehouse store that the landlord leased to us for one night 37 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:30.439 because their daughter was on one of the teams. So so we were taking 38 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.400 advantage of some of the difficulty of keeping businesses in town by having our bout 39 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:37.800 at a place that otherwise would have been vacant. So our team was poised 40 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:43.000 to finally claim victory, but Duella and killies squad the burning wheels. They 41 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:46.439 weren't going to give up without a fight. We were the lady blackbirds. 42 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:49.080 That was the name of our team, so a nod to our story gaming 43 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:52.520 Bona fidays there with our team names. As FAR AS PLOT SYNOPSIS GOES, 44 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:54.199 once we had the session zero stuff out of the way, we started with 45 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:59.280 some establishing scenes of our characters arriving at the match. I'm already there and 46 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:01.879 amped up and ready to roll, but brick, as usual, is running 47 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:06.520 late because of the last minute delivery and I'm getting nervous. But all is 48 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:09.719 forgiven when she shows up with a bubble tea for me from the sushi placed 49 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:14.080 by the highway, which I almost never forget to have, but occasionally she'll 50 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:17.000 bring me one just as a treat, so I helped her lace up between 51 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:22.800 sips of my tasty beverage. The burning wheels are meanwhile ready to go and 52 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:27.400 as we start our warmup skate, Killie is kind of mooning over atomic blondie, 53 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:29.919 who she's had a little bit of a crush on from when she was 54 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:35.240 her assistant softball coach. I see her staring at me and tease her by 55 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:38.960 pretending to offer some of my drink, but she's clearly embarrassed and distressed by 56 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:43.439 this little practical jokes that kind of pull it back like I'm joking and a 57 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:50.039 bad die roll from the that interaction mechanically means that, as I suddenly realize 58 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:53.879 that I've really hurt her feelings and not paying attention, I just smack right 59 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:58.560 into kapaw one of the columns that's holding up the ceiling, and that's an 60 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:02.680 I'm actually hurt a little bit. So killy retreats to ask Duella about meeting 61 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:08.280 the fans, and Duelli kind of gets cranky with her about not wanting to 62 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:11.879 work the merch table, that Duella is always work in the merch table, 63 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:15.400 but killy never wants to because she doesn't like doing it. So she kind 64 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:17.680 of guilt trips her and they agreed that they're going to work it together and 65 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:21.639 meet some of the fans, such as they are in this scrappy little venue. 66 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:24.839 I mean there's only a few of them that the ones that are there 67 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:28.079 are there to have fun and to enjoy the match and to kind of psych 68 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.040 each other up for the bout. So I at this point the match starts 69 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:35.079 and the actual mechanics kick in. In this case we only did a couple 70 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:40.040 of rounds too out of the usual six rounds that you'd play, each of 71 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:44.000 which is called a jam. So there's three jams, there's a halftime, 72 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:47.360 there's three more jams. They total up all the points from each jam and 73 00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:50.519 then you end up with a final match score. In a jam, the 74 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:55.439 skaters take to the track and the jammers, which is what I was they 75 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:59.959 try to lap the pack of skaters, as blockers try to keep them from 76 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.720 getting by, and everyone generally just messes with each other physically and psychologically. 77 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:06.519 So in our first jam we got out to a slow start, losing the 78 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:11.480 first I roll, but then we surged back, only to be overtaken right 79 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:15.519 at the end of the jam. Total score after one jam, burning wheels 80 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:18.720 ten lady blackbird seven, so still pretty close. We did some halftime role 81 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.920 playing to rebuild our dice pools. Now, normally you would go the full 82 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:26.399 three jams and your dice pools would be pretty depleted because that kind of reflects 83 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:29.360 everybody's skating around and getting tired and, you know, getting banged up and 84 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:30.920 stuff like that, and then you refresh everything. But in this case we 85 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:33.560 didn't have a ton of time, so we just did the one jam. 86 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:36.399 Then we did halftime, so we can see how that work. Rebuilt our 87 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:40.560 dice pools and, you know, messed with each other, did a little 88 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:44.720 trying to psyche each other out and stuff. Killie sent me a text and 89 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.000 psyched me out to get me thinking about what was going on and whether I 90 00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:51.920 had really hurt her feelings and done something bad, while Duella, knowing that 91 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.839 brick is sweet on killy, rases her to put stress on her, and 92 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:00.439 so we've got this kind of little platonic Roman it's triangle going on that is 93 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:03.639 just, you know, making things messy and fun. So we went into 94 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:08.279 the second half of the match weighed down by their mind games and, as 95 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:11.319 you might expect, and ended up going poorly for us. They raced off 96 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:15.879 to a very strong start and our attempt to slow them down resulted in a 97 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:20.319 total botch of a role, which in this case meant a penalty for a 98 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:26.079 Tomic Blondie, my character in the fiction. We decided that I accidentally, 99 00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:29.680 and I'm going to put that in scare quotes, accidentally, gave killy this 100 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:32.800 hard elbow to the Chin when she tried to kind of come inside and cut 101 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.240 a corner on me, and I just later out fictionally, in the game, 102 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:39.959 I didn't even wait for the refs whistle. I just skated straight to 103 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:42.920 the penalty box, arms up in the air, like totally my fault. 104 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.800 So Rick Pause to skate over and make sure that killy wasn't concussed or anything. 105 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:50.839 And that was a cute little moment. But we actually managed, despite 106 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:55.920 that, to pull out a narrow victory for that jam, but lost on 107 00:06:55.959 --> 00:07:00.720 points. Total was finally we had fifteen burning wheel had a total of seventeen. 108 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:03.959 Are Only consolation was that it was the closest we'd ever come to beating 109 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:09.519 them. But it's still stung because the penalty may well have cost us our 110 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:12.519 chance at eking out of win. If it wasn't for that, maybe we 111 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:16.920 might have. We just might have gotten the championship finally after so long without 112 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:21.439 having it. But are ending fictional state. We closed out the game with 113 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:26.639 the Afterparty, which is a derby tradition. Everybody gets together and has fun 114 00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:30.680 after the bout. It was held at a local pizza parlor with plastic pictures 115 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:33.120 of cheap beer and hard salts are in cans, just like you might expect 116 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:38.160 to find in a barn. Ohio Tomic Blondie had to buy the first picture 117 00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:42.079 for the burning wheels because she was captain the losing team, but she snug 118 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:46.600 some of her tapioca beads into the picture just for fun to kind of gross 119 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.480 out killy, because she knows that Killie thinks the whole tapioca thing is discussing. 120 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.759 Even though she wasn't drinking like from afar, she saw it and just 121 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:56.519 thought it was gross. So so that was fun. Killy, of course, 122 00:07:56.600 --> 00:08:01.120 was too busy texting her parents about picking her up before curfew and assuring 123 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:03.560 them that everything was on the up and up and that she wasn't getting in 124 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:07.560 trouble that she totally did not get that brick was trying to buy her a 125 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:11.360 soda and chat her up so they could sit and talk and stuff like that. 126 00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:13.040 So she was kind of oblivious to it and poor brick had to kind 127 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:18.120 of slink away. Duella was just stoked about winning, even with their best 128 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:22.120 jam er out, and she finished out the evening by telling killy that she 129 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:28.000 shouldn't worry about the Goofy cosplay touches that she adds to her uniform that she's 130 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:31.759 kind of selfconscious about, because she keeps skating like that, she can wear 131 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:35.120 whatever the heck she wants. So that was the cool moment right at the 132 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:41.000 end. My favorite other player moment. Sarah Belle is an actual derby skater, 133 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:45.159 so she was our patient and funny guiding hand on Cool Derby moves. 134 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:48.720 What the terms meant, but you might do in a certain situation to countermove 135 00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:52.240 that the other team makes that kind of thing. She helped me choregraph exactly 136 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.679 what that penalty might have looked like, and and result was way more brutal 137 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:58.960 than I would have come up with on my own, which was a really 138 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:01.279 played to lose moment, a very story game thing that I really loved. 139 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:05.639 As far as my favorite jamming moment goes. Libby was as patient and good 140 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:11.200 humored as Sarah Belle was with the three Derby neophites that were in the game 141 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:16.279 and she guided us through both of the mechanics and the culture, which was 142 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:20.200 really cool. She wasn't there just to teach us about which cards to pull 143 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:24.639 or dice to roll, but also how the culture impacted the game and how 144 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:26.759 it was designed and how the action flowed and stuff like that is really neat. 145 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:31.320 Especially loved that she made sure to set that time side at the end 146 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:35.399 so that we could see the afterparty, the social stuff, re established that 147 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:39.759 Real World Midwest blue color setting that sort of fell away during the match when 148 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:43.080 we were competing. It was you know, it's basically like an arpg combat 149 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:46.720 where the sort of stuff outside of it didn't matter all that much, but 150 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:48.360 to have that bit at the end that re established it was really great. 151 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:52.159 It did a great job of getting across the appeal of not having to worry 152 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:56.159 about our jobs or bills or grades for an hour or two as we flew 153 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.360 around and got bruised up. But at the end of it the real world 154 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:01.679 does come back and I really liked that she was able to get that across 155 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:05.480 and emphasize that. As far as missed opportunities go, the obvious issue for 156 00:10:05.559 --> 00:10:09.720 us was that we only got to play two jams out of the standard six 157 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:13.799 jam match. It was still great fun, but we didn't really get to 158 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:20.120 see how our stats getting degraded over multiple jams mechanized that real world effect of 159 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:24.519 fatigue, you know, just run it out of gas, and minor injury, 160 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.840 all kinds of getting banged against the you know, falls and skinned knee 161 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:33.039 is and all that kind of stuff. As the about war on. We 162 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.960 did have that halftime refresh, but it didn't feel terribly urgent since we were 163 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:41.080 all in pretty good shape after doing just the one jam. Her sissors weren't 164 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:45.320 really depleted the way that they would be. I am very much looking forward 165 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:48.960 to seeing the finish game and getting a chance to really participate in a full 166 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:54.000 length match and Sy Hall how all that Works and how your options narrow kind 167 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:56.320 of as you get tired and stuff like that. So I'm that's that's an 168 00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:00.919 opportunity to that I'm really looking forward to. So the thing I noticed is 169 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:05.440 that I continue to be genuinely surprised at how much fun I'm having with story 170 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:09.440 Games based on sports. Sometimes I catch myself being a little too dismissive of 171 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:15.039 sports because it's not my thing. I was a mediocre competitive swimmer and a 172 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:18.759 JV baseball player in high school, but I have not really gotten anywhere near 173 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:24.559 sports since then. That said, it's become pretty apparent that sports, as 174 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:30.080 enacted are pretty directly adjacent to RPG combat, like I said before. So 175 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:33.360 there's lots of compelling and fun ways that you can mechanize the on field part 176 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:37.720 of the game while using good old story game principles to make the off field 177 00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:43.679 drama really sing. So Libby has managed to inject some very specific and granular 178 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:50.159 mechanics that capture some of the specific idiosyncrasies of Derby while keeping the overall system 179 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:54.559 pretty manageable even for players new to the sport. The game definitely shares headspace 180 00:11:54.679 --> 00:12:00.399 for me with riches bat hack, which is he is game of about Minor 181 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:03.679 League Baseball that I have run and talked about on just played, and the 182 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:09.159 story Brewers anime team sports game that they're working on right now called fight with 183 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.200 spirit that I got to play at last year's Gauntlet Cohn where we played championship 184 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:16.240 high school volleyball team with lots of anime, soap opera stuff going on, 185 00:12:16.279 --> 00:12:18.840 and it was a blast. It was the most one I had at gauntlet 186 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:22.399 con. So I am really looking forward to seeing what other fun contemporary sports 187 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:26.919 dramas this little design boomlet produces. So that's all for this episode. Thanks 188 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:31.240 very much for listening. If you're enjoying the show, please rate and review 189 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:33.639 it wherever you found it. If you wanted to leave me one of those 190 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:37.559 little anchor messages, I think I figured out how to actually incorporate those into 191 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:39.679 the show. So if you wanted to leave a comment or ask me about 192 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:43.799 something happy to I may be able to get a chance to put it on 193 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.000 the air and talk about it. And speaking of anchor, I do want 194 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:50.279 to take a moment to thank Ray Otis, who sent me early on in 195 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:54.559 this podcast, sent me a very encouraging message through the anchor APP, a 196 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:58.039 little voice message. If I can figure out how to extract it and play 197 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:01.120 it and attach it to a later show, I might, but I did 198 00:13:01.240 --> 00:13:03.559 want to make sure. I took a mom to call up plunder grounds, 199 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:07.799 which is ray's really wonderful anchor podcast that is in kind of similar to mine. 200 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:13.200 Runs twenty to thirty minutes. It's a lot more eclectic than this is. 201 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:16.759 He covers all sorts of stuff. OHS are appendix and books, he's 202 00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:20.320 reading, movies, he's watching and I'm really enjoying it. It's the kind 203 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:24.720 of thing that Judd Carlman has gone on with his daydreaming about dragons mini podcast. 204 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:26.279 That's another one that I really had the recommend. So check both of 205 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:28.799 those out. I'll include something about him in the show notes here. You 206 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:33.360 can also check out the show notes for a video of this session if Libby 207 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:35.240 makes one available. I'm not sure whether it's going to be on one online, 208 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:39.720 but absolutely I will link to the kickstarter for Derby drama. It is 209 00:13:39.799 --> 00:13:41.679 up on kickstarter right now. You definitely should check it out and back it 210 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:46.480 if this sounded at all interesting to you. As always, you can follow 211 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:48.840 me on twitter at Jim Likes Games and buy games for me at my website, 212 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:52.639 Jim Likes Gamescom or to convention I tend as a vendor. That is 213 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:56.320 absolutely the best way to support the show. Next shows that I'll be at 214 00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:01.039 dreamation in Morristown, New Jersey, and just a couple of weeks and immediately 215 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:05.559 following that in Boston packs east, the eight hundred pound gorilla of a show 216 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:09.159 that I attend every year and do very well at. So you're at either 217 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:11.000 of those shows, do please stop by the booth and say hello. I 218 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:16.440 will have my stuff from any press revolution and Goodman Games, but right now, 219 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:18.919 if you'll excuse me, I am going to go play another game.