FreeMarket Actual Play Session 2
Session two kicks off with a Thin Slicing challenge to rid the group’s MRCZ area of an annoying rock band, and from there CJ, Dan, and Brandon launch into a negotiation with a local MRCZ to test out some new technology for them. We spend some time getting used to the nuances of the challenge system, and set things up nicely for some exciting challenges next session. Stay tuned!
Relevant Links
- RPG Podcast Poll Please take it!
- Project Donut Homepage
- Luke Crane
- Jared Sorensen
- The Walking Eye Comics
- Hal Jordan
- Mad Men
- Hong Kong
- Welch Ave Station
- Ronald D. Moore
- The 5th Element
- Lexx
- Japanese Capsule Hotels
- Biting the head off a bat
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- The Independent Insurgency
- Malcom Gladwell/ Blink
- Marilyn-Manson.net
- Twiggy Ramirez
- Mashup
- DRM
- Peter Steele/Type O Negative
- Lemmy420
- Putting things you like (Such as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion) in your pants
- Edward James Olmos – The Adama Glare
- The Segway GOB Bluth
- The Gambler’s Fallacy
- Valve and Bungie Stats
Crunchy Bits!
- FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part A 59 Minutes
- FreeMarket Actual Play Session 1 Part B 52 Minutes
- Intro Music “Inner Universe” from the Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST
- Outro Music “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton.
Podcast: |
Tags: Blink, Brandon, Bungie, ChatRoulette, CJ, Dan, DRM, Edward James Olmos, Grand Theft Auto IV, Hal Jordan, Hong Kong, Independent Insurgency, Japanese Capsule Hotels, Jared Sorenson, Jump 255 Trilogy, Kevin, Lexx, Luke Crane, Mad Men, Malcom Gladwell, Marilyn Manson, Mashup, Penny Arcade, Peter Steele, Ronald D. Moore, Smoke on the Water, The 5th Element, The Segway, Twiggy Ramirez, Typo O Negative, Valve, Welch Ave Station
I probably just missed something since it’s been awhile since I’ve read the rules myself, but shouldn’t the Thing Slicing User (sorry, even though I’ve been listening a lot, I still can’t identify you guys by voice) have gotten better than a rank 1 effect since he won on a tie breaker? I thought there was a two for one deal or something?
Brain,
Nope, you caught us. Yeah, we missed that bit. even mentioned it before hand but just skipped it when it came out. Good catch!
Well, yeah, that’s WHY I caught it.
I heard you talking about it, then after the challenge was over I thought, “Hey wait, what about…?”
I’m glad I’m not the only one to make sound effects when I draw cards during a challenge.
Haha, it’s pretty hard not to. And we got over our sound effects shyness with 3:16. Lazer sounds ahoy!
As I recall, I even make sound effects in the examples in the book.
Mornin’ Eyeballs,
Why does talking about doing it wrong make it okay? I may be mistaken, but this isn’t a game design podcast. I thought you play the games (as written) so you can discuss the actual game, not the game you’d like to play or that you pretend you’re playing.
Looking forward to the interview portion!
Luke,
We do try to play the games as written, but sometimes we slip and old trad habits come out. This is one of the rare examples where that happens. What I meant by “making it ok” is that the listener was not mislead as to how the game is intended to be played. That, I think, is what’s most important. We made very clear what we did, how it was different, why we did it, compared to why it was written the way it was, so they know the score.
I feel pretty bad I let it happen at all, so hopefully I can make sure it never happens again. If it does, though, the discussion that comes out of it should be useful for people interested in learning the game. Lesser of two evils, I suppose.
And I just want you (and everyone reading this) to know that you didn’t commit the crime of the century or anything. You didn’t even really change the rule all that much. If you think about it, on the second time through, most groups will have an idea of what they want to play when they sit down to the game.
What’s fascinating for me is how dismissive you all seem about a rule that clearly takes you out of your comfort zone. You just assume that since it makes you uncomfortable — it’s not what you would do — it must be wrong and be changed.
Very interesting stuff!
Right, and that’s those bad trad habits I was referring to. The whole “I just want the rules to get out of the way” thing. We instinctively rule zero’d that bitch without even really batting an eye. Breaking those habits has been a long and difficult process. Something this podcast has been instrumental in helping us with.
I *did* commit the crime of the century in last night’s session, which is why it’s never going to see the light of day.
You railroaded them with a Mary Sue character and made them sit around for two hours listening to you talk about how Mary Sue saved them?
That’s not a crime, that’s good storytelling!
No, I grabbed the wrong deck from the box, the one that had almost no hazards and tons of leftover FreeMarket cards. As the night went on, they were getting pretty frustrated. It was brutal!
On the up side, we really learned a lot about the challenge system and have a really good grasp of it now. On the down side, we can’t use that entire session. I’ve gone through and re-built all the decks, so we’re good now.
So what are you going to do? Just ret-con the whole session and say it didn’t happen?
Incidentally, that’s a downside to the cards I never really considered. Luke, if you’re still reading this, in the physical box-sets, do all the decks have the same backs? Does the set include tuck boxes or some-such?
I think we’re going to do a quick discussion and recap, and talk about how the mistake affected play.
Oh, and they give me a bunch of shit. I still hear about a certain mis-labeled Dire Badger!
Brian,
They do. We really wanted to give each user deck and superuser deck a special backing but it would have been waaaay too expensive and we’re pushing our margins as it is with a $60 price point. But it’s something we did consider. Consider each user running through their deck as a good warm-up to playing the game.
The outro (Still Alive) was so appropriate, so awesome, i have laughed hard at your podcast before, but never as much as when that song started.
Singing along as i listened on the freeway – classic 😀
thank you sooooo so much ^_^
I think I’d like this game more if ‘Luke’ didn’t keep popping up in the comments and making me hate the game by association – his tone doesn’t seem very professional, and that makes me suspect he’s got less than perfect play-testing done.
The ‘only 1000 units’ didn’t help my opinion – seems to me, he doesn’t care about the game, only doing it on commission.