Last night I grabbed up my son Darren's copy of Piledrivers and Powerbombs (a Christmas present from Jan picked up from Joe at Dragonmeet) and, because he is currently waiting for some glasses to correct a long-sightedness problem, volunteered myself as GM. Our group is as follows:
Players:
Me (Geoff): 28, been roleplaying since D&D 3rd Ed. came out and a big fan of filthy, hippy games. I've played Contenders and an early Umlaut ashcan in the past.
Jan: Also 28, got back into roleplaying after many years absence when D&D 3rd came out and also a big fan of the hippy games movement. He has also played Contenders, early Umlaut plus at least one other variant in Andrew's Gladiators.
Darren: 16 and my step-son he got into roleplaying a couple of years after I did when I corrupted him with D&D (I gave him nightmares in his first solo session when he was about 11, oops!) He's played the same Contenders stuff as Jan.
Jordan: 12 and my other step-son. He's only recently started to get into roleplaying having shown little interest in the past (he's attempted it a few times but didn't really enjoy it.) He had fun playing Inspectres with us a few months ago and wanted to try the 'wrestling game' when it was pulled out. He has attention span problems, which may prove to be an issue but we will see.
First Session
For the first session we didn't start until about 10 pm so knew we'd only get federation/character creation done, which was fine. I've never read the game before but, as I say, volunteered as GM to facilitate the creation process. I'll reprise the role next week for the first session by which point Darren, the only person who has currently read the rules, should have glasses and be able to read again.
Federation Creation:
We began with a little silliness from Darren when he randomly quoted a McFly song and it kinda spiralled downhill from there... Our world is the year 3000 AD, the surface world has been scorched by the fires of nuclear war. It is a freezing wasteland of glass plains and radioactive dead zones roamed by mutants and cockroaches. The remnants of civilisation fled beneath the waves to escape the devastation and now live in vast, domed cities connected by transport tubes and a myriad of submersibles of dazzling variety and design.
The country where the action takes place is New Atlantis, with the capital city (also named New Atlantis) being the heart of the federation, the New Atlantis Restlin' Federation, or NARF!
Currently there are only two titles on the line, the World Championship and the Tag Team Championship, although I fully expect there to be more titles created and fought over as the game progresses.
Our General Manager is a Heel named Cthulhu Jones, a robotic giant squid who lives in a glass tank, wheeled around by a hunchback attendant with no name. He is always flanked by his two bodyguards, the Deep Ones Dagon and Hydra.
Our Play by Play Commentator is one James Earl Jones v2.2 (we don't talk about v2.0 and v2.1...) and our Heel-friendly Colour Commentator is Dr. Bedlam, an ex-wrestler and the mentor of Darren's character Doctor Payn.
Character Creation:
After hashing out the rather bizarre, sci-fi/eldritch horror-laden federation we set about creating characters. We decided to go for a mid-card game for our first time out. Ideas were bounced back and forth, the notion of a Gimmick was hammered into Jay's head multiple times and we eventually came down to this:
Geoff's Character:
The Mad Scientist
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 225 lbs
Hometown: Lemuria Falls
Theme Music: Science Fiction/Double Feature
Finisher: The Black Hole, a reverse, spinning DDT. When performing this he shouts "For SCIENCE!"
Gimmick: He's a mad scientist so he has crazy, sticking-up hair, wears a lab coat, etc.
Popularity: 3
Infamy: 1
Testicular Fortitude: 2
Mad Skillz: 4
Grudge Points: 1
Speciality: Ladder Match
Jan's Character:
Arthur Conan The Second, aka The Barbarian
Height: 6'8"
Width: 5'8"
Weight: 350 lbs
Hometown: Sumeria City
Theme Music: We Will Rock You
Finishers: Brutal Rending (submission hold), A Mountian Fell On Him! (leg drop), Tree Trunk Stomp (smash in the head with a weapon)
Gimmick: He's Conan, the noble barbarian prince!
Popularity: 4
Infamy: 1
Testicular Fortitude: 3
Mad Skillz: 2
Grudge Points: 1
Speciality: Royal Rumble
Darren's Character:
Doctor Payn
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 200 lbs
Hometown: Salvation Cove
Theme Music: Science Heartbeat
Finisher: Time To Take Your Medicine
Gimmick: This doctor causes pain!
Popularity: 1
Infamy: 4
Testicular Fortitude: 2
Mad Skillz: 3
Grudge Points: 1
Speciality: Stretcher Match
Jordan's Character:
The Composer
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 250 lbs
Hometown: Ginger Town
Theme Music: Furelise
Finisher: Keyboard Smasher, a keyboard to the face. When performing this he shouts "Face the power of sound!"
Gimmick: Composes annoying lyrics about his opponents
Popularity: 2
Infamy: 3
Testicular Fortitude: 3
Mad Skillz: 2
Grudge Points: 1
Speciality: Cage Match
Nemesis Creation:
Once we'd got our characters down in concept and mechanics we moved on to creating Nemeses for ourselves. This went in a similar way to character creation with ideas being thrown at each other, mostly for the Connections and Conflicts.
Geoff's Nemesis:
The Preacher
Height: 6'9"
Weight: 300 lbs
Hometown: Lemuria Falls
Theme Music: It's The End Of The World As We Know It
Finisher: The Crucifier, a choke slam. When performing this he shouts "Ye shall be judged!"
Gimmick: A fanatical preacher.
Connection: Brothers from a very religious family; The Mad Scientist found Science! and turned his back on the family tradition and was disowned.
Conflict: The Mad Scientist claims to have discovered proof that God does not exist and his brother, The Preacher, means to silence him.
Popularity: 1
Infamy: 3
Testicular Fortitude: 2
Mad Skillz: 4
Jan's Nemesis:
Tulsa Doom
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 250 lbs
Theme Music: Black Magik
Finishers: Python Crush, Dark Magic
Gimmick: Evil Snake Sorcerer (backed up with cybernetics and gadgets)
Connection: I'm Tulsa Doom! (From the same hometown and fought over the affections of the local prom queen).
Conflict: Love Triangle - Britney
Popularity: 1
Infamy: 4
Testicular Fortitude: 3
Mad Skillz: 2
Darren's Nemesis:
Angel of Below
Height: 6'11"
Weight: 400 lbs
Theme Music: Time Is Running Out
Finisher: The Obliviator, a lawn mower powerbomb from the top rope
Gimmick: ???
Connection: Ex-Tag Team partner that Dr. Payn betrayed to get a chance in the business.
Conflict: Angel of Below is still mad at Dr. Payn who thinks he needs to take a chill pill.
Popularity: 4
Infamy: 1
Testicular Fortitude: 2
Mad Skillz: 3
Jordan's Nemesis:
The Musical Mime
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 251 lbs
Hometown: Music Land
Theme Music: Green Sleeves
Finishers: The Invisible Rope Trick, The Invisible Keyboard
Gimmick: He's a mime!
Connection: The Mime and The Composer went to the same music college but The Composer embarrassed The Mime so much that he quit in shame.
Conflict: Revenge and the destruction of all music!
Popularity: 3
Infamy: 2
Testicular Fortitude: 3
Mad Skillz: 2
And we were done for the evening. Hopefully we'll get to bust this little lot out and start off the game proper next weekend. I'll keep this thread updated with how it goes.
Neat :)
Submitted by Destriarch on Sun, 10/02/2008 - 18:16.
Sounds great! I really want to pick up a copy of P&P myself, when I finally get a paycheque to spend.
Ash
Lets get ready to rumble
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Sun, 10/02/2008 - 20:46.
The good thing about it was that I picked up the book, never having done more than glance at the cover beforehand, and we had that all done in about an hour and a half. I love Contenders/variants for that. They're so well geared towards pick-up play and can handle anythign from comedy to dark, dark tragedy depending on your group.
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
The next contest is scheduled for one fall...
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Mon, 11/02/2008 - 20:44.
Thanks for posting Geoff.
What a great set up, love Cthulhu Jones. James Earl Jones (V2.2) does have a great voice for commentary.
Who would have thought McFly could prove so inspiring!
+++
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....
Kiddie rock
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Mon, 11/02/2008 - 23:11.
Not I! I hate the chirpy little buggers; they manage to make Busted sound like hard rock.
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
And tonight's match card is...
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Sat, 16/02/2008 - 10:47.
So, last night the four of us sat down to continue our game of P&P and work through our first proper session. I was once again facilitating as GM although next time we play it will rotate to Darren, whose new glasses seem to be working.
As Cthulhu Jones I laid out the nights match card. I wanted it nice and simple for our first run through so I paired up Dr. Payn and Arthur Conan the Second in a No Holds Barred Match to kick off the evening and The Composer and my Nemesis, The Preacher, in a steel chair match with no DQ.
From there we moved onto the pre-match scenes with a player order of Darren - Jan - Jordan (aka 'Jay').
Darren chose to set-up a connection scene with The Composer. He narrated the set-up, sold it to Jordan (The Composer's player) as best he could based on mutual protection and banding together against the other losers and then they drew their cards. As they were both Heels (although The Composer was marginal at that point) it meant Darren pulling only 1 card to Jay's 3. Unsurprisingly Jay won and he chose to narrate a favourable conclusion to the scene with The Composer and Dr. Payn allying up.
Jan went a similar route to Darren and picked a connection scene. In this case it was with my wrestler, The Mad Scientist, so I switched to character mode for a minute and we played it out. Jan sold it with me as the brains, him as the brawn and we drew cards. He picked up 4 and I only took 1. Again, he won that scene quite predictably and Arthur Conan the Second and The Mad Scientist became allies.
Jordan decided to take a different tack and went for an inflame scene. Darren volunteered to take on the role of his Nemesis, The Musical Mime, by virtue of starting to mime at Jay. They threw some insults back and forth (well, Darren mimed them) before drawing off. Jay won and his Grudge Points increased to 2.
After that I set the scene, we were located inside of a huge, glass dome, fish and other sea-life swimming by unconcerned outside, tiers of seats sweeping back from the centre where the ring, complete with energy-ropes, dominated proceedings. A wide aisle stretched down the hall cutting through one section of seating and leading from a stage area with black backing curtain down to the ring.
Standing in the ring was a skinny man of medium height dressed in a cheap suit, wearing a horrible toupee and sporting an enormous moustache. He strode around the ring, looking out at the crowd before exclaiming in an artificially loud voice (which scared the crap out of one of our dogs, sorry Sabre!) "Lets get ready to ruuuuummmmmbbbbbllllleeeee!!!!!"
I introduced the first two contestant as the announcer and let Darren narrate his own entrance first. In typical Heel-style he swaggered in, strolling confidently down the aisle, turning the crowd against him (he drugged one of them with a hypodermic) and making his way to the ring. Just as he got there and started to show-boat for the crowd his opponent's music kicked in, there was a big flash of lighting and pyrotechnics and standing there, silhouetted against the black backdrop stood Arthur Conan the Second. Jan narrated his entrance and then we got on with the fight.
Let me note at this point that I was volunteered as our colour commentator, Dr. Bedlam, for this match whilst Jordan was handed our play-by-play man, James Earl Jones v2.2. Neither of us really used them well in that first match as we were far more interested in seeing how the mechanics would play out, never having actually used them before.
What can I say? Fights are fast. Darren had Dr. Payn fight dirty whilst Jan had Arthur Conan the Second fight clean, as befitted their characters personalities. Lady luck was not with Jan this bout and in the first draw Darren won easily. He narrated a nice sequence of moves ending with an elbow drop to the throat and Arthur Conan the Second took 3 points of Sellage, enough to equal his Testicular Fortitude.
Now I should point out that I read the rules slightly wrong and thought you could pull out a Finisher if your Sellage was equal to or greater than your TF, not just greater than. As such Darren elected to pull out a Finisher whilst fighting dirty. Jan fought clean again and they drew off. 2 aces does not an equal fight make; Jan got utterly killed. Darren narrated his sequence and finisher, including a drug-filled hypodermic to Arthur Conan the Second's neck (for which he should probably have picked up a Flair Point, we kinda forgot about them this week but I'll make a point of remembering them next time) and the match was done. Dr. Payn netted himself +1 popularity and Arthur Conan the Second grabbed +1 testicular fortitude.
The final bout of the evening was to be The Composer against The Preacher. I took control of The Preacher for the fight, as much to experience the rules myself as anything. We set Darren as his Superstar's mentor, the colour commentator Dr. Bedlam, and Jan as James Earl Jones v2.2. They made a much better job of the commentating than Jay and I had, arguing back-and-forth and opining on the match as it unfolded. It was during this bout that we discovered that James Earl Jones v2.2 (henceforth known as JJ) is, in fact, a brain in a jar sitting on a frame with a pair of crude waldos attached to act as arms and hands.
I once again set the scene around the ring, pulled out my match announcer persona and introduced the Superstars. The Composer made his entrance first, playing his own entrance music as he came. He stalked the ring before taking his keyboard and smashing it on the floor, declaring that that was what he was going to do to The Preacher's face. Then I narrated The Preacher's entrance. He came in with Bishop's Mitre, staff and ecclesiastical robes, shouting brimstone and hell fire at the crowd, telling them they we all damned. He made his way to the ring, divested himself of his paraphernalia to a waiting 'coat rack boy' and the match got under way.
Jay chose to fight dirty whilst I decided to take a bit of a chance and go for a High Risk manoeuvre. That left Jay drawing 3 and me 2. Sadly Jay won and got to narrate The Preacher attempting some high flying move, only to catch a steel chair to the face as he flew towards The Composer from the top rope. Ouch! With the extra point of Sellage due to the High Risk play that put him on 3 points of Sellage, this time actually in excess of his TF score. Jay elected to play a Dirty Finisher whilst I just fought dirty. Once again the cards favoured The Composer and it was an easy victory for him. The match ended as he has promised it would as The Preacher took a keyboard (yes, another one) to the face, taking him well and truly out of the match. The Composer got +1 popularity making him equally loved and hated by the crowds and The Preacher gained +1 Testicular Fortitude, worrying The Mad Scientist no end!
So that was the match card for the evening. Like I say it was fast, refreshingly so. It also showed us how important Testicular Fortitude is AND how useful Selling It is in keeping you in a fight if your card draw is poor. Now it was time for the post-match scenes.
Darren, being a Heel and an all round bastard, decided to go for a Beat Down scene on the already hospitalised Arthur Conan the Second. He set the scene as Dr. Payn approached Arthur Conan the Second lying in his hospital bed and they drew their cards. Jan pulled a double 8 and defeated Darren, who had been looking good with his Queen and Jack. Jan narrated Arthur Conan the Second snapping awake with an "I know that voice" and laying the smack well and truly down upon a surprised Dr. Payn.
Jan went a different route and elected to frame a classic training montage. Arthur Conan the Second was bench pressing and dead lifting tree trunks! This netted him another +1 TF, taking him to a TF of 5 by the end of the night. At the same time his Nemesis, Tulsa Doom, was training his Mad Skillz, upping them to 3.
Jordan decided to take the same route as Darren this time and went for a Beat Down scene. He narrated a moment just after the match. The Preacher was being helped back up the aisle by the 'coat rack boy' and The Composer ran out, dressed in the same uniform but carrying a keyboard behind his back, and offered to help. At this point we drew cards and it looked like a win for Jay before the doubles betrayed the Heel Superstar again! I pulled a double 7 and narrated The Preacher beating the crap out of The Composer, first with the soon-to-be-limp form of the poor 'coat rack boy' and then with the keyboard.
Finally I was able to do a montage with The Mad Scientist. Having witnessed the various fights and beat downs that occurred during the evenings entertainment The Mad Scientist realised that he would need to toughen up if he were to have a shot at the title so he started a rigorous routine of endurance training and got +1 TF. In the meantime his Nemesis, The Preacher, was also training. I handed him off to Darren to narrate a scene to increase his Infamy as that seemed the most logical. Darren dutifully set the scene and, after much preaching the 'coat rack boy' was set alight to "Burn in the fires of hell!" on camera.
Thus ended our first session of P&P.
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
Poor little coat rack boy!
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Sat, 16/02/2008 - 11:23.
Thanks Geoff I haven't laughed so much at an AP for a long time!
+++
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....
Good AP Report
Submitted by Yokiboy on Thu, 13/03/2008 - 15:40.
Dang Geoff, that was a great AP! I'm already looking forward to "next week's episode." ;)
TTFN,
Yoki
Holken - Where Yoki Talks Games