A comedian rants about Pachelbel. Funny!

(A couple instances of King James cussing. FYI.)

Pachelbel’s Canon, done hip-hop style by Koreans.

With breakdancing.

Come on. You know that you want to click now….

So, Friday night (and into Saturday morning…uh…more than is probably good to admit), Ralph, Keith and I are talking game design. Mostly, we’re discussing Keith’s forthcoming Dream Palace, which is going to be the movie RPG. However, along the way, I discover something that I am doing in A Flower for Mara unconsciously.

Historically, the position of Game Master in roleplaying has been a source of difficulty, due to the various roles that he must fulfill. The two most problematic are that of referee/moderator and that of adversary. As the referee, the Game Master is expected to be impartial in his administering the rules. As the adversary, the Game Master is expected to bring the pain in an enjoyable way.

Imagine if, in the NFL, the guys in the striped shirts were also the coaches for the other team. I trust that you can see the problem here.

There’s been a lot of effort in roleplaying design dedicated to fixing this issue. One option, which I tend to think is underused, is simply this: divide the two roles. Make one person responsible to facilitate the game, and make a different person responsible to bring the adversity. This has been the method used by various GMless games by spreading both roles around. It’s essentially how Dirty Secrets works, for example.

But I realized that this can also work for games with GMs. Looking back to Legends of Alyria, this is exactly what I did. The Narrator is supposed to facilitate and organize. The players bring the adversity by opposing each other. That’s what makes Legends of Alyria work.

And that’s where the insight came for A Flower for Mara.

In A Flower for Mara, the Director is the facilitator, but Mara is the primary adversary.

I knew this unconsciously; I could tell by my reaction to the idea. However, knowing it consciously is very helpful. Now I can give better advice to the person playing Mara. “Oppose the characters’ attempt to move on. Get in the way. Interfere.” Yeah. Be the adversary.

That’s a helpful piece of information for me.

We’re also working on playtesting Ralph Mazza’s new game Blood Red Sands, which is his swords and sorcery RPG. Click here for a snippet of play from last night’s playtest. It is ridiculously macho and a lot of fun to play.

There are a few of you (a precious few) who are actually interested in my ongoing roleplaying exploits. Well, I didn’t feel like reformatting the reports to post here, but, if you’re interested, you can read about our excursion into Grey Ranks:

Session 1–Joyriding in tanks and other skylarks that will get you killed
Session 2–The joy of soul-crushing defeat
Session 3–Life in the ruins

For those of you who don’t know, Grey Ranks is about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and the teenaged soldiers who fought with the Polish Resistance. Essentially, the Grey Ranks is the Polish Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, gone underground after the German invasion of 1939. They were a key part of the organized Polish Resistance. It sounds crazy, but it’s completely true.

For more info on the game, click here.

No time to talk right now, but I wanted to make sure that these didn’t get lost.

James talks about grief and story.

Gabrielle reflects on last week’s playtest.

I have this theory that people are naturally creative, that those who aren’t “creative” are actually afraid of looking dumb and therefore edit themselves. This isn’t an original theory, of course. Keith Johnstone expressed this in Impro, and we’ve kicked this theory around here as well. So, last night, it was with mixed apprehension and excitement that I approached my playtest of my newest game, A Flower for Mara. We were maxing out the player count at eight people. Five of them were new.

It wasn’t until yesterday that I started feeling nervous. I was grappling with three fears:

–What if they just don’t “get it”? In other words, what if they failed to embrace this activity and therefore it fizzled?
–What if they mentally lock up at improvising and creating things on the fly?
–What if they don’t grasp their ability to make up stuff about other characters?

To be fair, those in the group who hadn’t roleplayed before did have theatrical experience of some kind before, be it formal or informal, so I was hopeful. But still, the fear twittered around in my stomach, making me nervous.

I was totally wrong on all counts.

This was an awesome group, and I’d happily play this or another game with them again. Yeah, it was that good.

So, let’s get into the report!

Dramatis Personae

All the players were people from my church. I put out an open call for playtesters on the church email list, and this batch is the result of this email. I have another family who also expressed an interest, so I’ll be able to do this again. Fun!

Seth—I was the Director for the game, which generally makes me the all-powerful GM.
Gabrielle—My sister. She played Mara, the deceased woman, who now is just a memory.
Raquel—A friend. She played Joshua, Mara’s father, with a detached relationship with Mara.
John C.—Whitney’s husband. He played Caleb, Mara’s husband, with a detached relationship with Mara.
Whitney—John C.’s wife. She played Ruth, Mara’s sister, with a competitive relationship with Mara.
Jana—Married, but not to any of the other players, and John C.’s sister. She played Zoe, Mara’s daughter, with a devoted relationship with Mara.
Jennifer—John B.’s mother. She played Naomi, Mara’s mother, with a bitter relationship with Mara.
John B.—Jen’s son. He played Thomas, Mara’s brother, with a bitter relationship with Mara

The major addition from the last playtest was the relationship types, which Jason Morningstar helped me hash out in this thread. The way it works is that, before you are assigned your character, you choose a relationship type from the following list:

–devoted
–competitive
–respectful
–bitter
–subordinate
–detached

The neat thing about this is that, because you’re choosing before you know your character, you’re actually choosing what sort of story you’d like to play through. Taken together with the relationship map, you very quickly produce an interesting starting situation.

Overview of Play

Here’s a basic overview of play. Mara died in the spring. So, after the special opening scene at the funeral dinner, the game goes through the four seasons, with each player having the opportunity to have a spotlight scene. Then, once all these scenes are done, there’s a group holiday scene. After winter, the game is over.

The meal scenes are really interesting, because you get to see all the characters interacting together, plus each character gives an internal monologue about his current emotional state. It’s lots of fun to see the contrast between someone’s external appearance and their internal thoughts.

Anyways, whenever it’s your scene or your monologue, Mara can come talk to you. Mara is played by one of the cast; however, she’s not a ghost. Rather, she’s a reflection of your memories of Mara. Only you can hear her when she’s talking to you. (Although, since all the players can actually hear Mara’s player talking, you can achieve some nifty effects.)

The only way that you can stop Mara from talking to you is by putting down your flower. See, at the beginning of the game, everyone is given a flower. Yes, including the Director. Then you have to write down some experience that caused you grief or sorrow on a piece of paper and attach it to the flower. To lay it down, you go to the graveside and tell the entire group about your grief. Then you lay the flower down and walk away.

Once you do this, you give up any further spotlight scenes. However, Mara can’t bother you anymore. The idea is that your character has turned the first corner on accepting the loss of Mara.

No one is required to give up his flower.

What Happened in Play

We started off with a brief pep talk by me about not being afraid to create and all that stuff. Then I gave my version of the Lines and Veils talk.

A brief aside: my opinion on Lines and Veils is that you don’t usually know where your need for a Line or Veil is until you actually get there. So, rather than trying to hash it out in advance, I make clear the need for the group to accept someone “tapping out” on a given topic without there being any stigma. From where I sit, it actually gives permission for people to push further into difficult topics, trusting that the other players will pipe up if someone is going too far. I’d be curious to hear from my fellow players about that.

Then we prepped characters, learned the rules, and generally prepared to play.

A Flower for Mara always starts with the entire group gathering around the designated graveside while the opening music is played. This time, I opened with “On the Evening Train” by Johnny Cash (from the album American V). Then we got underway.

Wow.

Just wow.

I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of play. People quickly introduced all sorts of complications into the story. Some highlights:

–At the funeral dinner, Thomas started talking about dividing up the family heirlooms that Mara owned. This included the house where Caleb still lived.

–There was a fight at Easter dinner, because Naomi ordered out for pizza instead of making the traditional Easter dinner that Mara always made. Zoe lost her temper, yelled at everyone, and stormed out.

–Zoe’s husband was currently deployed, and she was pregnant, so she ended up giving birth on Mara’s birthday. So she’s lying in the hospital bed, sobbing because her mother wasn’t there for the birth.

–Thomas got drunk to celebrate his great-niece’s birth and then showed up at the hospital.

–It came out during play that Mara had actually stolen the boyfriend of her sister Ruth. Yep, Caleb originally was going out with Ruth.

I prompted very little of this. Indeed, the “experienced” roleplayers of the group were not the center of the story at all. The “noobs” took to the game like they were old hands and roared into action.

It was amazingly cool.

I recorded the entire session and videotaped most of it. At some point, I may release bits onto the Net for demonstration purposes. However, I promised that I would not release the recordings of the various flower monologues, where the players spoke of their griefs. That would be too personal. So, if you weren’t there, you just don’t get to know. But, after each monologue, there was this sense of bonding and embracing. One player actually gave another player a hug in the wake of his monologue. We all shared something special because of the game.

That was also amazingly cool.

In the end, we gathered at the graveside for the close of the game. I played “When Sorrows Encompass Me’ Round” by Cordelia’s Dad (from the album Cordelia’s Dad). Then we were done.

As people were leaving, John C. told me that roleplaying had gone up in his opinion, and that he’d really like to play again.

Jana’s husband, Joshua, asked tongue-in-cheek who had won.

I won. Oh yes. I won.

What Was Awesome

I don’t usually use exuberant language in my writing about roleplaying, but I’m still buzzing over this success, so I hope that you’ll allow me some enthusiasm. So, yeah, this is the section about the stuff that was awesome about Wednesday’s playtest.

Roleplaying is easy!

First, this group demonstrated that a lot of these “advanced” techniques that we discuss are actually fairly normal. In particular, I found that the cast took very quickly to the concept of “endowing” traits. This is when one character says something to another character like, “At least I’m not a drunk like you.” Thus, the character has now been “endowed” with the trait of being a drunk.

This is a key technique in A Flower for Mara, and I was afraid that this would be too difficult a concept. I was completely wrong.

I think that my favorite example of endowing was during a conversation between Ruth and Mara. Ruth’s relationship with Mara was “competitive”, and they were both reflecting on this. Gabrielle (as Mara) says, “Yeah, I guess I did always have to have the better boyfriend, didn’t I?” Then Whitney (as Ruth) says, “But you still married Caleb, didn’t you?”

It was so subtle I missed it at first. In fact, Gabrielle missed it, too; she was half-way into her next line when she realized the import of what Ruth had said. Mara had stolen Ruth’s boyfriend and married him.

Another example was during Easter dinner, when Jennifer (as Naomi) commented about how the takeout pizza was a major improvement over a complicated meal. I looked at the table and blinked. I had been seeing ham and all that. Now I suddenly saw pizza boxes instead of fine china.

I find that a good endowment makes my understanding of the scene suddenly turn sideways. This happened several times, and I was very happy.

An interesting note on the Director’s role. A Flower for Mara has a strong GM position. Pretty much, his word is law, and whatever he says, goes. I find it funny that I’ve spent the last nine years of my roleplaying life trying to escape a strong GM role, and then I design it straight into one of my games.

However, properly structured, the Director’s role can actually help encourage roleplaying. In both playtests, the cast has reported that it is freeing to have an all-powerful Director standing by. If the Director doesn’t like something, he can always overrule it. Therefore, you’re actually free to experiment. If it doesn’t work out, then the safety net of the Director will catch you.

Griefs are good

I’ve figured that the flower monologue about your grief is probably the scariest thing about this game. But, honestly, last night changed my opinion about this. I got the sense that the cast [i]wanted[/i] to say these things to each other, that the game created a space where we had permission to talk to each other in this way.

It was interesting, actually, hearing several people preface their grief with a statement like, “This isn’t nearly as big a deal as everyone else’s, but…” Then they would go on to say something that was honest and heartfelt and obviously near to the heart. The “smallest” thing that was said wasn’t really that small at all, because it wasn’t small to the person who said it.

Relationship types are really handy

In contemplating the game design, my biggest concern was that the cast wouldn’t have enough to get the game started. Putting the relationship type together did the trick.

First, the cast agreed that the relationship type helped them to quickly get a good picture of who their character was. We actually got up to speed in forty minutes, including teaching the rules. That’s uber-fast, in my book. Also, John B. noted that it adds an element of randomness to character creation. You’re blindly matching a relationship type to a character, which means that the game won’t work out quite the same way each time. Also, in the end, this “randomness” shaped a fairly believable family.

Second, Gabrielle reported that playing Mara was fairly easy, because the relationship types gave her something to work with. Now she could say, “Hmm. I have a competitive relationship with this person.” Then she would use that to guide her interactions with the character.

Finally, I found it gratifying to see that people tended to choose relationship types that matched the tone of their griefs. This wasn’t universal by any means, but several players said, “I chose such-and-such relationship type because of this experience.” Without too much encouragement, they all played close to home. Very nice.

On being detached

I wanted to make sure that the “detached” relationship type was exercised, so I asked Raquel to take it. John C. also took “detached”, so it actually got a double workout.

The concern that both Jason Morningstar and I shared is that “detached” could be an easy way to hide. “I’m not involved; therefore, these events don’t touch me.” However, I think that this isn’t a problem, because the character is embedded in a relationship map with the rest of the characters. No character can escape; by definition, they are all tied together. So, in this context, being “detached” is still a means of interaction with other characters. Now, if everyone were detached, that could potentially be a problem. But, even having two of the six characters be detached worked out pretty well. If nothing else, it makes you an excellent source of conflict for others.

Pizza

After the Easter dinner scene, several of us were saying, “Mmm…pizza.” So Jennifer ordered some and had it delivered.

Awesome!

What Needs Tweaking

I’m really happy with where the game is. The one thing that I noticed is that people who laid down their flowers early (say, in the summer) were starting to run out of inspiration for their holiday monologues. You feel like you’ve resolved your story, but you’re still having to talk.

So, part of me is wondering if these monologues should be optional after you’ve laid down your flower. On the other hand, part of me is thinking that a “pass” would be as easy as getting up and saying, “Turkey! I love turkey!”

I’ll have to mull this over a bit.

Also, a couple of the playtesters wished that they were allowed one additional scene after laying down their flower to be able to wrap something up. At this point, I’m thinking that this is better handled by trying to integrate your “wrapping up” into someone else’s scene. But, again, we’ll see.

On Laughter in a Serious Game

We laughed a lot on Wednesday. I mean, a lot. To the point where Jana assured me, at the end of the game, that they were actually taking it seriously and hoping that I wasn’t offended. I wasn’t offended at all. Sometimes things are funny because they are true, and you laugh because you recognize it. Sometimes you laugh, because something is a bitter truth and you have to express the pain somehow. Better to laugh than to cry.

Conclusion

There are certain roleplaying sessions that stand out in your mind. Those times that you know that you’ll remember for a long time to come. Those times that you know that you bridged the gap of understanding with someone and, for a moment, your souls touched.

This was one of those sessions.

I was honored to be a part of it.

Last night went really well! When I’m finished writing up my playtest report, I’ll post it here for all my devoted readers. For now, I simply want to thank my fellow participants for being a part of this great experience.

First, go read this, by my sister Adiel.

Now, to address a possible question about A Flower for Mara: why would you do this to yourself? I’ve wondered this myself, actually. I’ve played exactly once, and it was a rough evening. Someone even asked the question that night. “Why do we do this to ourselves?”

Why indeed.

This poem does a lot to answer that question. I believe that we all carry sorrows and griefs with us. I believe that we all have stories to share and things that we want to say about the death that has touched our lives. A Flower for Mara is a way of interacting with those things, of drawing out those emotions and examining them and maybe, just maybe, being able to put them down. And, along the way, you can share this with others. Perhaps you will understand each other a little better by the end of the game.

My friend James said that A Flower for Mara doesn’t seem like it would be a lot of fun to play, but it might be worthwhile. Seems like a fair statement to me.

One of the things that I’m working on with A Flower for Mara is exploring alternate venues to market the game. So I’m looking into local theater groups, particularly improv or experimental groups. I’ve already located an improv group on the campus of Bradley University, and I’m looking to contact the Ministry of Experimental Theater (also at Bradley University) to see if they are the kind of group that might be interested in such a thing.

Well, here’s my new idea, which I intend on trying out at the monster playtest scheduled for Wednesday. (Seven players plus the Director, and five of the players are total n00bs. Should be a night to remember….)

Anyways, it works like this. Before you are cast as a character, you have to fill in the blank in this sentence:

“I had a ______ relationship with Mara when she was alive.”

Choose from this list:

Loving
Hateful
Respectful
Bitter
Ambivalent
Codependent

Then the Director casts you as a character.

Then you answer a question.

“Why did you have this sort of relationship with Mara?”

Then, go into play with this question in mind: “In light of all this, how might Mara’s death have affected you?”

Obviously all these need to be worded better. (In particular, I’d like better words for “Ambivalent” and “Codependent”.) But this might be enough to give players a push out of the gate. Once they get into the game, they should have enough material to work with.

I hope.

(Thanks to Jason Morningstar for a helpful email conversation today on this topic.)

Dedicated to Jason Pittenger. Keep your head down, and come home soon.

“I Wish The Wars Were All Over” by Tim Eriksen

Come, behold the works of the LORD,
what desolations he hath made in the earth.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;
he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;
he burneth the chariot in the fire.

Psalm 46:8-9

Recently, Bryan contacted me, asking for any resources I might have on doing marketing from a Christian perspective. Sadly, I don’t have any, but I did tell him that I’d write up my thoughts on the topic. This is based purely on my thinking about the issue as I’ve had to do marketing and such for Dark Omen Games.

I think that two overriding principles need to control a Christian’s thinking on marketing. First, he must tell the truth. Second, he must look to serve his customers’ interests.

Tell the Truth

Tell the truth. This is the bane of most marketing. We see an advertisement, and we instinctively believe that we are being lied to. That is not acceptable for a Christian in business.

“A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight.” (Proverbs 11:1)

“Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?” (Micah 6:10-11)

Keep reading Micah 6 to see what God has to say about those who lie in their business dealings. So, above all, tell the truth.

However, in order to tell the truth, you need to know the truth. Here are some areas that the Christian marketer needs to know:

Know the truth about your company and its products. What is your product actually capable of accomplishing? What is its areas of strength? What are some areas that have been considered weaknesses? How do you or your current customers compensate for them?

Know the truth about your competition and its products. What do they do better than you? What do you do better than them? Are you actually in competition? Why would a customer want to choose them over you?

Know the truth about your customers. What do your customers need? What do your customers want? (These are not necessarily the same thing.) How does this particular customer differ from your normal customer profile?

Pursue the Best Interests of Your Customers

In addition, you need to pursue the best interests of your customers. I know that this sounds totally cliched, but you really should attempt to form a partnership with a prospective customer. He has a need, and you want to help him fill it.

Note: not “fill it with your product”. I don’t think that’s the point here. Rather, you seek to serve the prospective customer in meeting his needs. Now, ideally, you would like your product to be the best way to meet his needs, and your company should be constantly striving to improve its product so that this can be true. So, do be trying to apply your product to his needs. However, you also must be an advocate for the customer, serving his needs. You are bringing your expertise to bear for his good. This works the best in a face-to-face setting, to be sure, but I think that this can apply to other forms of advertising and marketing.

Maybe this is idealistic. However, it’s how I’d want a business to interact with me.

Examples

I have a couple of examples from my personal experience.

The first is related to the local Verlo Mattress Factory. When Crystal and I went bed shopping, I already knew what we were getting: a Tempur-pedic memory foam bed. All the other shopping was just due diligence to justify this decision.

By the end of the day, we had decided to purchase a latex foam bed from Verlo. What happened?

What happened is that we encountered the salesman from Verlo.

Now, he made a big deal out of not being a salesman. “I build the mattresses,” he said repeatedly. And that was one of his selling points: a relationship between us and him. Not “his company”, although that was part of the deal. Him, personally. He makes the bed, they do the service; if it’s wrong, he’ll have to fix it.

His other selling point was his expertise. He explained why he, personally, would purchase a latex foam bed instead of a memory foam bed. Now, don’t misunderstand; Verlo sells both. But he explained that latex has a longer history in the market, so it’s a known quantity. Memory foam has only been out for a few years, so who knows what problems will come down the line?

His pleasant manner was helpful, but ultimately he told the truth about his product and company, and then he put his expertise to work for us.

Result: a sale and a happy customer.

I tried to do the same when working the Forge booth at GenCon last summer. The booth is a collective effort, so I tried to approach it in this way. Sure, I wanted to sell my game, but I was there to help the group and meet the needs of the customers. So I did my best to get to know all the available games and to match them to customers. When we would discuss my own game, I would be sure to identify it as such, so that the customer knew that I had additional bias. And, in the end, I didn’t try to pressure people into making a purchase.

Now, there were the little “tricks of the trade” that I figured out. Be sure to start the game demo with a book from the rack. Then, if you close the deal, you can put the book right into the person’s hands. (I learned this from Fred Hicks.) And, if you don’t, ask him to put it back for you. That gives him a little longer to reconsider his decision. (I learned that one from watching Ron Edwards.) That’s just being persuasive by making it as easy as possible for the customer to make a purchase. But, this was after providing a service to the customer of meeting his “need” by matching him to an appropriate game.

In Closing

I’m hardly an expert on these matters. I’ve just recently arrived at the point where I’m comfortable singing the praises of one of my games. But these are the principles that I’m working from.

And, honestly, these are really just ways of applying the Golden Rule. How would I want someone to sell to me? I’d want them to be an advocate for their product, to be sure, but in the context of telling me the truth and seeking my best interests. Ultimately, this leads to a better business relationship with the customer, and God is honored in your treatment of this other human being.

Tim Eriksen sings Amazing Grace.

I think that I’m beginning to appreciate the banjo.

Check this out!

Now, all I need to do is convince Tom to translate for me and we’ll be all set….