After one week of Tim being available, we had a week of him not being here. Hopefully not the first of many, but after last year’s many absences I hope that this is not a sign of things to come. What it did mean though, was that we could not carry on with the game of Cold City I had started.

Normally in this situation I dig out a board game, either something that we know such as Settlers of Catan or Red Empire, or a new game, usually one that I have to review. Bored with that, I threw something different at the group, a completely new RPG. This was Contenders, an RPG about boxing, in which everyone plays a pugilist on the up from the gutter. Each fighter is driven by HOPE, drawn from successful bouts in the ring and from personal CONNECTIONS, but weighed down by PAIN, which can be gained by losing bouts and CONNECTIONS letting them down. It is played through Scenes that enable a contender to deal with particular issues, but the essential drive is for a boxer to work to gain CASH to spend on training and to invest in CONNECTIONS to build up to fights in the ring.

Although the game has no GM, I found it easy to explain the game to everyone in part because it is written in a linear fashion, so that creating a character comes first, playing scenes next, followed by fights, and the Endgame wherein everyone faces off against each other before an Epilogue scene each.

Initially the reactions to Contenders was mixed. Dave had no problem as he is a fan of the Indie RPG. Jason thought it sounded too much like a board game -- and in its escalating narrative structure it is not dissimilar. lulucthulhu was the most reluctant as she hated the subject matter. Personally I had wanted to play this since reading it back in December, and like my entire group, I had absolutely no interest in boxing. None at all. But we created characters:

lulucthulhu -- Martin “the Fighting Dubliner” Shanahan, trying to make it before his wife and kids leave him.
pwca -- July Washington -- Ex-Army fighter who wants to make enough money to find a cure for his ill mother.
Jason -- Johnny Courage -- Thinks his rich young girlfriend’s family will help make connections in the boxing game, but worried that her tastes are too expensive and her family has Mob links.
Dave -- Lincoln Stone -- Wants to keep his ex-mentor from becoming an alcoholic.

Notable scenes included July becoming a medical test subject to get treatment for his back which he had injured on another job; Johnny Courage failing to impress his girlfriend’s family whilst working as a bouncer; Martin Shanahan working as an instructor in a ladies’ gym and trying to avoid the ridicule and becoming one certain older lady’s personal trainer; and playing the various promoters and managers when arranging fights.

We had two fights. The first was between Johnny Courage and Lincoln Stone, and was won by the latter on a knockout. The second was between Martin Shanahan and Bobby “the iceman” Giletto, an NPC controlled by Dave. He had very little fighting technique, so used dirty tactics, unfortunately head butting and gouging poor Martin Shanahan. Unfortunately, because Dave managed to keep narrative control each round, lulucthulhu could not gain control and alert the referee to Giletto’s dirty tactics.

This is where the session ended, but everyone was more than impressed with the ease of play and the degree of interaction. We encouraged everyone to make suggestions as to possible scenes and role-play the various NPCs. This did mean that some awful stereotypes came into play, but these were very much part of the genre, which if we were not necessarily fans of, we were at least familiar with the clichés. As the mechanics involved scoring successes by drawing red cards from an ordinary deck of cards, fight scenes became very tense with every card drawn counting and cheering on our preferred contender.

Ultimately, we were impressed by Contenders as a game, if not by its subject matter. Its mechanics are simple and easily grasped, our familiarity with the genre makes it easier to play, and within the space of the game there is plenty of room for player input and roleplaying.