I made my deadline! Hooray! I have a fully functional playtest draft of the Dirty Secrets rules ready to go. I already have some playtesters who have been informed, but if you’re interested, drop me a line.

Because, you know, there are so many roleplayers who read my blog.

Tonight, I’m continuing to write Dirty Secrets. I’m sitting out on my patio in the back yard while I write. My soundtrack: the sounds of the city. In the distance I can hear a rock band performing. Cars honk their horns. From far off, I hear the sounds of a racetrack.

I like this. I like this very much.

But now, I need to write!

Guess what guess what guess what!?!?!! The comments RSS feed on the Meta page actually works now! So now you can subscribe to all my comments, or you can subscribe to comments on a particular post by clicking on the “Comments” link and finding the RSS feed at the bottom.

Now I am happy that Bill upgraded. Hooray!

This was cross-posted to the Forge, where there has already been some feedback.

I got to playtest Dirty Secrets at Forge Midwest on Saturday. My partners in crime were Paul Czege, Matt Wilson, John Stavropoulos, and Tod Olson. We ran a small Grid, which took about 90 minutes to play.

I’d love to give a detailed account of the story that we created but, between a bit of fatigue on my part and, honestly, the convoluted events that occurred, I’m not sure that I could remember all the bits fitting into each other. We ended up with a retired pediatrician who was still doing some fertility treatments on the sly, working with a DEA agent who was moonlighting as a photographer for blackmail purposes or somesuch thing. Along the way, this agent photographed Samantha York with Mr. Lena, husband of the client that brought our intrepid investigator into the case. Of course, since the agent was only photographing clients of this fertility doctor, that meant that Samantha was actually trying to get pregnant by Mr. Lena. Mrs. Lena was blackmailing Samantha, probably with these photographs (we forgot to establish how this played out), so Samantha murdered the agent to stop the photographs from being taken.

Honestly, it made sense at the time. Well, somewhat. There were a lot of details flying around.

THINGS I LEARNED

First, I want to thank my fellow players. The experience of teaching the game was quite helpful to me, especially in figuring out how to run an effective demo of Dirty Secrets. For example, in the future, I’ll probably not play in the game and act as a tutor and facilitator for the game. Also, I’ll probably poll the table to determine experience with the genre and give the role of investigator player to one of those folks. Tod did a fine job as investigator, but I could tell that he was feeling the pressure to perform within a genre that he didn’t know well. If I had made Matt the investigator, he might have been more comfortable, given his greater familiarity with the genre.

I also learned the necessity of communicating the ability for the entire group to participate in any given sequence. This is a problem with any “round robin” style of game, as Paul pointed out, and, although the rules explicitly state that anyone may say anything, this isn’t necessarily something that a given group of players will pick up on. I think that a demo facilitator would have to do almost GM duty, looking for the signs of someone desiring to interject something and coaxing it forth. Also, in a discussion with my gaming group at home, Crystal suggested adding a term: Adviser. So now, in a given Chapter, there’s an Authority, an Investigator, and some Advisers. In that way, the game reminds the players that they should feel free to advise the Authority and Investigator. I think that this is a good change.

I also discovered the real power of shared geography as a shared communication tool. Since our play group was from all over the place, we set our story in New York City, given that we had a New Yorker with us. However, this meant that we were not able to exercise the ability to establish scene locations effectively. After all, I don’t know New York, beyond the existence of multiple boroughs. I found this lack to have hurt us somewhat, which was a bit surprising to me. I had thought that the setting of “your town, last week” was a nifty bonus to the game, but I’m coming to see that it actually allows for more powerful play. Weird, but true.

RULES CHANGES AND TWEAKS

As a result of this game, I’m tweaking the number of Characters in a given game. Because we had five players, we used up our allotment of Character cards during setup. I think that this hurt the game, because there was no room to expand the web of characters during play. Under the new rules, we would have had two extra Characters to work with, which would have been a good thing.

Also, I think that Research needs just a little bit of massaging. The concept works great, but those “sexual/romantic” relationships still keep complicating things for me.

Finally, I got a bunch of good feedback from the playtesters. Hopefully I didn’t come off as too defensive as we were discussing the issues. However, even some of the suggestions that I rejected were helpful, since they reflected previous stages in my design of the game. Often I could say, “Yes, I had thought about that but it won’t work for this reason.” I found it to be somewhat validating.

There were also the name suggestions for the Crime Grid counter. Right now, the Witness is where I’m leaning, but the Observer also has possibilities.

Also, someone (either John or Paul) noted that it would be an easy matter to introduce handicapping for players into the game, simply by adjusting how many dice each player receives. This is an excellent idea that I intend to explore further.

And, finally, John offered to do a blind playtest with his group, which I really appreciated.

So, in all, I thought that it was a successful playtest. I enjoyed myself and I think that the game will be stronger because of it.

Thanks, guys!

When I first saw this video, it was strangely haunting. And then, yesterday, it made me think of Bliss Stage.

So, there. Two links for the price of one!

Due to the recent site upgrade, my template looks funny. Yeah, it’s not really supposed to be white. Sadly, I really don’t have the time to deal with it right now. Just trust me that I know about it, okay?

So, I went to Forge Midwest today. Got to see some folks that I haven’t seen in a while, which was good. Playtested Dirty Secrets, which was good. Played It Was A Mutual Decision, which was…well, I’m not sure right now. Played Jungle Speed and Blue Moon, which I generally won and lost, respectively. Then, on the way home, I got lost in Chicago and had to call home for directions.

And now I’m home! And I’m tired, so just one thought.

I’m glad that I don’t live in Chicago.

This is just a public service announcement. A new restaurant has opened up in Renaissance Park. The name of the place is Johnson’s Deli. They are open 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, and then 11 a.m to 3 a.m. on Saturdays. (I don’t remember their Sunday hours.) Given that this location had been a quick credit place, I’m already happy with the improvement.

I was walking by tonight, and I had a brief chat with one of the employees. Indeed, he may have been the proprietor, although I’m not sure. His name is C.J., and I’m sure that he would appreciate some business. Personally, although I didn’t buy anything tonight, I fully intend to check out their hot wings in the very near future.

I like the idea of places like this existing in my neighborhood. So, I’m encouraging all of you: try out Johnson’s Deli. Then, come here and leave comments about your experience! I’ll do the same.

Johnson’s Deli
841 Main Street, Suite A
Peoria, IL 61602
Phone (309) 677-0110

So, I’m walking down the hallway at work, and John D. comes up to me. He’s waving a book at me, entitled Nothing Burns in Hell by Philip José Farmer. For those of you who don’t know, Farmer is a relatively well-known SF author who lives in Peoria. But this book isn’t SF. It’s a detective novel. Set in Peoria. Written by a native Peorian.

I’m stoked. Also, I’m hoping that the book is good, because if it’s even moderately okay, it is so going in the Dirty Secrets bibliography.

Also, John is awesome.

The more prominent you are in Christ’s service, the more certain are you to be the butt of calumny. I have long ago said farewell to my character. I lost it in the earlier days of my ministry by being a little more zealous than suited a slumbering age. And I have never been able to regain it except in the sight of him who judges all the earth, and in the hearts of those who love me for my work’s sake. -Charles Spurgeon

HT: Nancy Wilson

(This post has been cross-posted to the Forge.)

Last night we wrapped up our first game of Dirty Secrets. It’s been a bumpy ride at times, especially since the rules have shuffled around during this particular playtest, but it has been a worthwhile run, both from a playtest and story perspective.

Actual Play

When we last left our hero (such as is), Robert had just fought his way into a mobile home past Debbie Sandberg (his client) and Mollie George (his daughter), to discover that they were preparing for a violent confrontation of some kind. Oh yes, his client was accidentally shot, and, in the course of the struggle, he had knocked out his daughter.

So, Robert beats a hasty retreat from the mobile home, especially since the police were coming. Stepping over Debbie, he picks up the check that she had written for him and drives off. He decides that he needs to come clean with Steven Sandberg, the husband of his client. So he finds him and dumps everything on him while driving him to the hospital to see Debbie.

Then, in one of those odd convergences, Robert got a call from the mother of Stephanie Bloskovich. Robert had gone looking for Stephanie at her house earlier that day, and Stephanie’s mother was calling to say that Stephanie’s half-sister had called and left a message for Stephanie. She wanted Stephanie to meet her down at the Rhythm Kitchen. The half-sister? Courtney Jackson.

So Robert goes down to the Riverfront and stakes out the Rhythm Kitchen. Courtney and Stephanie eventually show up, and Robert tails them into the restaurant. Stephanie has been working with Courtney all along. Indeed, she was supposed to set up Debbie and Mollie, and thinks that she has been successful in doing so. Courtney is concerned that Jeff Stuber is going to double-cross them and thinks that Stephanie should keep her distance, but Stephanie isn’t really listening to her. Both of them are prepared for the deal that is about to go down nearby.

After they eat, they walk over to theRiverfront Village parking ramp, where they meet Jeff. He isn’t happy with how things are going. He doesn’t like how they are selling out Debbie, and he wants to back out, along with the drugs that Debbie provided. He pulls a gun to emphasize his point. At this point, the last person shows up: Steven Sandberg. He is drawing on his wife’s old drug connections to coordinate this sale, and then he will leave Debbie holding the bag. Jeff is very unhappy at this point and again demands that he be given the drugs. Steven accedes to his wishes and tells Courtney to get the drugs for Jeff. Courtney goes to a nearby car and pops the trunk. Reaching in, she pulls out a gun and fires.

Robert is witnessing all this without intervening. When the shooting begins, he slips back to one of the Emergency buttons that are all over the Riverfront and summons the police. Then he thinks of Mollie. Maybe this will let her escape the mess that she is in.

Then Steven stumbles around the corner to take cover. He sees Robert and brings his gun around to fire. Robert already has his weapon drawn and uses it to strike Steven in the face. He stumbles backwards, firing wildly. Robert has no other choice but to shoot him. Down he goes, not dead, but seriously wounded. At this time, the police begin to arrive, so Robert makes good his escape.

Robert goes to the hospital to see Debbie and confront her with the truth. There never were any stolen drugs, because Debbie had actually stolen them and hidden them herself before she was arrested. She wanted to pin the blame on someone else for her own double-cross. Robert then takes out the check that she gave him and hands it back to her. “I would like to be paid,” he says, “but only if you think that I’ve done something worth being paid for.” Then he leaves the hospital room.

Mollie is waiting for him at his apartment. She spills her story. While in the hospital, she lost the baby. But she was already miscarrying because of her drug habit. When she found this out, Bill killed himself out of guilt. He had gotten her pregnant, and he had gotten her hooked on drugs. He blamed himself, and so he killed himself.

When Mollie got up to leave, Robert asked her to wait. He said that she could stay with him. He said that he wanted to be a good father. He said that he wanted one last chance to make it right.

Mollie refused to listen to him. “You already had your last chance,” she said. Then she walked out the door.

Robert chased after her. “Please,” he begged. “Just one more chance. I have nothing left except you.”

Mollie turned to look at him. “You have nothing left? I have nothing left. Two days ago, I had a home, a man who loved me, and a baby. I have nothing left.”

Robert said, “We can help each other. We can take care of each other.”

Mollie paused for a moment.

“No.”

Robert watched her as she walked away from him down the street. Then she turned the corner and was gone.

The End.

Thoughts and Stuff

We were all fairly tired last night, which is really too bad. I didn’t feel the game as much as I might normally. Also, since this is a playtest, there were rough rules that we still tripped over.

The biggest one, as noted by Ralph in another thread, is that the 6 x 6 Grid is really big. When we started, the Grid rules were a bit different, but even so, there is a need to tweak it up some. I think that I will make a few center squares impassable. Between this and the addition of some special spaces, I think that it will work much better.

We tried out a rule for Crime Resolution. If you roll a blank space for Crime Resolution, in addition to filling in your current square, you can write in a name anywhere on the Grid. This seemed to work fairly well.

Oddly enough, two of the three Crimes that we had were committed by their Victims. Bill Cornman’s murder turned out to be suicide, and the cocaine theft was actually just a sham. This was particularly weird in Bill’s case, since his name only appeared on the Grid twice.

When you resolve all your Crimes, you play out one last scene, which has to resolve everything. Our final scene was the final conversation between Robert and Mollie. When I said that the conflict was going to be over if Mollie stayed or left, everyone became very intent. Strangely enough, I managed to overcome Crystal in conflict twice in a row during this scene. She never loses Liar’s Dice, but, for some reason, I had her number this time.

After the second exchange, Crystal decided to let the conflict end. She could have pushed further, but her aesthetic sense kicked in. I’m glad that the game allows for that.

As I said, we were all very tired, so there wasn’t a lot of post-game reflection or post-playtest rules thoughts. However, both Gabrielle and Crystal agreed that it had been a satisfying experience.

For myself, I’m pretty stoked that the game seems to be coming together. There are still rough edges that need to be smoothed out, but I’m confident that I will be able to do so.

And now, for a little post-game reflection.

At the time, it certainly seemed like a tragedy that Mollie did not want to be reconciled to Robert. But, thinking about it now, I’m not sure that is true. We had established that Robert was a lousy father when Mollie was younger. We had also established that he hadn’t done much better during the game itself. Sure, he gave Mollie shelter that one night, but when push came to shove, he shoved her. The case was more important that she was, and he physically attacked her as a result of that. Would she really have been safe staying with him? Probably not.

Where will she go now? I really don’t know. But, sadly, I think that it will probably be better than staying with Robert George. And that’s probably the saddest part of this story.

(This post has been cross-posted to the Forge.)

See, guys! I used the right name!

The last couple of Fridays, I was able to playtest Dirty Secrets with my regular gaming group. Last session was particularly memorable, and Ralph demanded that I write it up. I agreed with him, so here goes!

We actually played the first session of Dirty Secrets because Gabrielle wasn’t available for gaming that night. So, Ralph, Keith, Crystal, and I sat down to play.

Setup

Dirty Secrets has a quick-and-dirty situation generator that is intended to get the group up and running pretty quickly. This test worked pretty well, but it showed up a couple of interesting “features”. First, it was possible to end up with a private investigator that is only 12. The second is that, at least in the four-player game, the investigator player doesn’t actually get to name the investigator.

The first item is no good, and it prompted a rules change that minors can only be citizens. The second item is actually a feature for me. Even though the investigator is played by a single player, I still want there to be a sense of group ownership over the character. So, not forcing naming privileges to the investigator player is actually a good thing by my book.

Thus, in this case, we ended up with an investigator who a nineteen year old preppie who plays tennis at the country club. His name: Reginald Hastings, III. Or, as we all called him, “Reggie”.

We ended up with Jim Brown approaching Reggie for some help. Jim Brown is a retired police officer who works as a groundskeeper at the country club. Oh yes, he is black, and Reggie is white.

Actual Play, Part 1

This is my best recollections of two sessions worth of gameplay. These stories are turning out to be as twisty as the source material, which is good, but makes it a bit difficult to explain if you weren’t there. That being said, here goes….

Jim’s old police revolver has been stolen, and Jim thinks that his granddaughter LaTeesha might be responsible. Reggie used to babysit for LaTeesha, and Jim figures that Reggie can find out more easily than he can. A little weak as an opening, I admit, but, as you’ll see, it actually worked out well in play.

So, Reggie goes to confront LaTeesha. This led to a hysterically funny moment, as Reggie ultimately rips LaTeesha’s backpack away from her to go through it and ends up being chased down the street by a protective neighbor with a baseball bat. Reggie’s car gets smashed up a bit, and he finds nothing in the backpack except a notebook that says “I love Reggie” and things like that. Apparently LaTeesha has a bit of a crush on her former baby-sitter.

Overcome with guilty, Reggie attempts to return the backpack to LaTeesha’s house without being seen. Unfortunately, the police have been called and are interviewing LaTeesha and her parents. The helpful neighbor with the baseball bat points out Reggie, who tries to escape. The police give chase, which ends up resulting in Reggie’s crashing his car and being arrested by the police.

Reggie’s father bails him out. This led to our first Reflection scene, with Reggie staring out the window, brooding, while his father chewed him out on the way home from the police station. Then I tapped Reggie’s father (Reginald Hastings, II)

Reggie decided to find out from Jim Brown what is so important about this stupid gun anyways. So he drove over to Jim’s house in a rental car to talk to him. Jim wasn’t home. However, Jim’s girlfriend Cherry was at home with another man. They were arguing about something, but Reggie couldn’t hear what it was. So, when the other man left the house, Reggie called Jim and then tailed the man. This other man walked down the street into another house. Suddenly there was a gunshot. Reggie called 911 and waited while the police and emergency crews showed up. The murder victim: Mike Washington. LaTeesha’s father.

We got to resolve a Crime at this point and determined that, yes indeed, LaTeesha had stolen Jim’s revolver. Now, with her father dead, we wondered if she knew that something was going to go down….

At this point, we wrapped up for the night. We had some good rules discussion, and Ralph solved my Research problem.

Rules Excursus

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve been struggling with the rules for Research. But no more! Ralph suggested that what Research really ought to do is “reveal” a new relationship between Characters. After all, the goal of Research is to provide inspiration to the players, not really to provide more raw data.

So, here are the new Research rules. If the investigator calls for Research, we create a new relationship between two Characters. The investigator may choose one of the two characters or choose the type of relationship from the Research table. The other two items are chosen randomly. After determining the new relationship, the investigator gets to narrate how he discovered this new relationship.

The options on the Research table are as follows: sexual/romantic, familial, business, friendship. Why yes, the table is weighted towards sexual and familial relationships? Why do you ask?

This system got a solid test in our next outing.

Actual Play, Part 2

So, last Friday, we gathered again to play. Gabrielle was with us this time, so we slid her in as another player. This was mechanically effective, although Gabrielle said that she never really felt like she got a grip on the Characters. So, that experiment had mixed results.

There were several moments of awesome in this session, though, that need to be reported.

The first was the use of the new Research rules. After being questioned by the police about the murder, Keith decided that Reggie would poke around at the Crime Scene after the cops were gone. He chose to include Mike Washington (the murder victim) in the Research. So the other character and the nature of the relationship were created randomly.

The other character: Reginald Hastings, II.

The relationship: romantic/sexual

This provoked an extensive out-of-game conversation about the rules, but we were okay with it for our game, so off we went.

At the crime scene, Reggie found love letters from his father to Mike Washington. This was one of those discoveries that turns everything sideways. But it got even better. The next scene: Reggie goes to confront his father.

Reggie finds his father on the back nine at the country club. Just as his father putts, he throws the rubber-banded packet of letters on the green, deflecting the ball. Reggie was furious, and when his father tried to talk down to him, Reggie started reading one of the letters out loud, so that all the people standing nearby could hear. Reggie’s father slapped the letters out of his hands. Reggie started to slap his father, but he wasn’t fast enough. His father punched him in the face, laying him out on the green. In the meantime, the wind blew away some of the letters, and various individuals who were nearby, including Jim Brown, pocketed some of them. As Reggie lay there on the green, Reggie’s father informed him that he needed to be moved out of the house by sundown. Then he strode away.

Reggie packed up his things, then he went down to the Par-a-Dice Hotel, where he proceeded to run up his father’s credit card on an expensive hotel room and alcohol. This was our second Reflection scene.

In the morning, Jim Brown came knocking at the door. We figured that he was an ex-cop and knew how to find people. He had news: LaTeesha had gone missing. Reggie told him about seeing the mysterious man go into Mike Washington’s house, and Jim recognized the man. “Chainsaw”. So they drove to Chainsaw’s house and found him in the living room, hands in the air, with LaTeesha pointing a gun at him.

Reggie tried to talk her into putting down the gun, but she wasn’t having any of it. She had already shot a table lamp, and she shot another one, demanding that Chainsaw tell her why he had murdered her father.

So Reggie lays it all out. “LaTeesha, if you’re going to be my girl, this just won’t do.” In shock, LaTeesha turns to him and says, “What?” Then she accidentally pulls the trigger again, shooting her grandfather in the foot.

It was only one point of Violence, so it wasn’t too bad. I have to say this. Otherwise I would feel bad about how hard I was laughing during the scene. It was truly great.

After this, we ran out of steam pretty quickly. Another Research scene established that Chainsaw is the father of Emily Watson, a friend of LaTeesha’s, but that wasn’t providing any solid handles for us. So we called it in for the night.

Post-Game thoughts

Research suddenly jumped from being a trouble point to being a major cool point for this game. But it’s a scary cool point. There are no provisions for Lines within Research. Veils are easy to accomplish, but, as written, there are no Lines. Now, I think that this is ameliorated by the investigator’s being able to select one thing. If you don’t want the really icky stuff in your game, then always define the relationship type and all will be well. Still, this is definitely one of those “mature themes” games.

Between this playtest and our other playtest, I’ve had opportunity to see a fairly competent investigator and a fairly incompetent investigator. However, in both cases, the story continues to advance, despite the personal setbacks of the investigator. Also, in both cases, I have a strong empathy with the investigator, regardless of his actions. I want him to do well and to do right, even when he is being beaten up or being underhanded. I also want him ultimately to succeed, even though, as a player, I’m doing my best to oppose him at every turn. So that is definitely a win.

There was some confusion about termination of scenes, which I will need to address better in the next rules draft. However, I think that the rules are just about stabilized.

I’m really happy with how this game is coming together. I’m starting to write the manuscript right now, in fact, and I’d like to get a blind playtest draft together within the next couple of weeks. If all goes well, this should be ready by GenCon this year, which is much better than I had originally been anticipating.

I’m beginning to write the manuscript for Dirty Secrets, and I suddenly realized what I wanted as my opening quote. There are a couple of Scripture passages that seem appropriate, so I’ll put them in.

First there’s this one:

Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 4:1-3)

Dirty Secrets draws attention to societal disparities in power relationships, especially in regards to class and race. As such, this seemed like an appropriate verse.

And then there’s the other one:

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. (Ephesians 5:11-12)

This has actually been the “theme verse” of the project for a while, and I wouldn’t want it to get lost.

Things are coming together quite well. I have some more playtesting to report, which will happen in the near future, and I’m optimistic that I will have this game ready to go by GenCon 2007. That’s going to be a bit of a push, but I think that it is doable. So, here goes!

Tonight Crystal and I left the house on a brief errand. I needed ginger for the kombucha that I was making, and our fresh ginger had grown mold. Guess that makes it less than fresh, huh? So anyways, the local Asian grocery store has ginger. So off we went! We walked down Orange Street to Main Street and then headed along Main Street towards University. At the Asian grocery, we bought the ginger that I needed, plus some tea and some delicious aloe drinks. Oh, and a ginseng drink of some kind, with an actual ginseng root floating in it.

So, for the entire trip, I was buzzing with excitement. Finally I figured out why. I was really excited to be living in my neighborhood. I walked out of my front door to an Asian market and bought fresh ginger! There was fresh ginger in my neighborhood!

I’ve said for a while that I’m really excited to live where I do. My neighborhood is somewhat isolated from automobile traffic, yet a fairly busy commercial district with a variety of local businesses is just a couple of blocks away. And today I was able to experience that yet again.

And I realized that I’m falling in love with where I live. I love where I am, and I am very happy to be here.

I still stand by the other things that I have said about Renaissance Park. And yet, flaws and all, I am glad to be here.

So, in the course of pursuing my indie RPG publishing (seriously!), I came across a fellow designer who also works with kombucha. Crystal had made kombucha a while back, and I recalled that it was okay. However, my tastes in food have shuffled around a bit in the interim, and I began to wonder if I might like kombucha.

Then my fellow designer mentioned having made a batch of kombucha with ginger.

I love ginger.

So today, I find myself the happy owner of four SCOBYs. Tea is brewing, even as I type, and, God willing, in a week, I will be the proud owner of a couple of gallons of kombucha. Including one with ginger. Fresh grated ginger, from the Asian market right around the corner….but that’s another post.

Sometime after the SCOBYs showed up today, it occurred to me that these things belonged to me. Not Crystal, the microbe wrangler. Me. I am now the proud owner of several clumps of yeast.

Life is weird.