A little background is that I was getting kinda asked at GenCon about Best Friends and whether I was some sort of mysoginist. I really felt a bit of heat about the game, which is understandable if you haven't actually read the book or you've had it explained to you in that light.

So, an aside on this... Am I a mysoginist? I hope not, and I don't think so. Is the game cruel and objectifying? Of men, maybe, I think - they're only Stuff and Nonsense after all. Of women? Well, it can be pointed, and I don't shy away from saying "look, women have these deep and strong relationships with their very best friends, and they can have really crazy power over each other and it can be exerted for the most petty things". On the other hand I flag up that these friendships are also a great source of strength and support over the years. Do men have the same issues and bonds? While it might be hand-wavy and convenient to say "yes, sure" I don't think so. I don't have anything like the deep bonds with my male friends that my sister has with hers. (And, hey, I've been through some heavy stuff with my closest male friends but we still have ... distance.)

If it upsets you that these things are in the book then I'd say just gloss over them if you don't agree with me or don't think they're real. They won't stop you playing the game. [But they are there and I stand by them.]

So, I'll just say I couldn't have conceived of writing the game about a group of male Best Friends as my inspiration. (That's not to say I can't indulge in a little fiction and play games of all-male Best Friends, it's just that I see that as more fanciful interpretation.)

So, the game... well, Krista was curious and had been told some stuff about the game in light of the above and wanted to see it to make up her own mind. So she dropped into a game on the final day of GenCon and I gave up my character to GM, I guess. I say "I guess" since my GMing tends to just be asking questions of the players and getting them to clarify what the disagreements are, y'know?

So, the only bit we did before Krista arrived was the giving out Hatreds. It was a funny group in that there was a couple playing. The day before they played DoN and without blinking an eye the guy played Pooch the dog (and the girl played Brad the Jock).

A day later and the girl wants to play Best Friends, the guy isn't so sure (you know Ron Edwards has talked about similar experiences at GenCon with guy+girl and Sorcerer). So the girl says "but yesterday you played a dog" and the guy is "oh, but it was a male dog I could kind of identify with it, I mean I couldn't play a girl." Cue stare from girl, and he says "OK, I'll play but I can't promise anything". Very funny. Dude, you are but Stuff, just like me.

So, we create a setting and characters. The guy gets this Tough and Cool character (he was called Cat) and Krista has this bookish Smart character, and the girl has a Rich, Pretty character I think. I think Julia Ellingboe was the other player but the conflict we picked up on just involved the other three players.

So, Krista has the tag "I am Sarah... And I... study too much" That is a really great description, this sort of punchy hook is really getting straight to the heart of the character. I could see her straightaway. She then writes down under her Nonsense "I don't think I study enough." Wow, that is a juicy issue right there. Studies too much, doesn't think it's enough. Brilliant.

So, what's the conflict and the guy comes up with the fact that he has tickets to a concert (for all of the girls) but it means not studying for a test on the Monday (and hey, I was thinking they might even miss the test if the role-playing goes that way). Anyway, a bit of framing the scene and role-playing of character and then the guy hits them with it.

"I've got us tickets for the Rolling Stones and I've got us some guys to give us a ride in their car. They have booze and everything."

The other girls are complaining and saying they've got to study and so on, while the guy is really trying to use his Cool on them (role-playing it out I mean). So we go to the system

He says "I'm using Cool", which was something like 3. Krista's character was the one drawing the line in the sand and saying "No!", and she has a Cool of 1. Cat wins and the guy says "OK, I got these tickets to Detroit to see the Stones, it'll be great, blah de blah." Krista says "No way, I push". So she now wins.

Krista's line was great "Rolling Stones? They're not Cool. My mom and dad think they're cool. They are Lame." and the group nod in agreement to this.

The guy pushes back and re-asserts he is winning "Two words: Green Day. That's who's opening for the Stones. And they might be dead before they can tour again. This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. We're going."

The girl pops in and pushes for Krista, so that she wins. "But Sarah promised she's help me pass the test. Sarah can pass without studying, you don't want to pass but I need to pass. We can't go to the concert." Julia was happy with that and we wrapped it up.

Krista really liked it and she saw it wasn't the hateful thing that some people had said. And I felt there was a humanity there. The guy found he enjoyed it too, easy once he forgot about his hang-ups.

So, for me, I really liked this. It was human and you could see these characters coming to life even though they were formed from just a few words on pieces of paper and hands thrust in the air.

I was real happy with it.

Oh, if you have any questions or whatever about these APs or want to know more then ask away. I'll do my best to answer any questions.

:-)

The session I had with Diana was really interesting for a couple of reasons: (a) the fiction was great -- it was fun, biting and really gripping, (2) it was a bit drifted in that how do you exactly do Best Friends with only 2 people? Read on.

So, how I dealt with the Hatreds when we were only playing one-on-one was as follows. Diana and I both wrote down 3 Hatreds of our own choosing. We then gave each other 2 Hatreds and dealt out the remaining 3 Hatreds to some common fictional Best Friends. This meant we each had 5 Hatreds to begin the game, and we had some Best Friends with partial stats. From that we could flesh them out at a later point, if we had wanted. If we pushed to a fictional friend then the currency is out the game. If we pushed to each other then the friendchip stays in the system and moves about as normal. Alternately, you can say that you can't push on something that can't be received by a player (i.e. when you give out Htareds you're also picking what you can push on).

Anyway, that's one way to do it. You end up with 5 Hatreds, you partly influence the other player's character and you create a group of common friends with enough input from us to see where those characters are going. I'll get to the fiction next, but I've got to go eat some Christmas Cake first.

...yeah, yeah. I'll post this soon, maybe at the weekend. Good news is I found the Rome character sheets too (from an age ago). So I'll maybe add that too.