Hello JJ,
I played a rocking session of Contenders Thursday. Holy cow are the boxing mechanics fun!
We dealt each player their hands of playing cards, without looking at them, then played them out one card at a time and sort of narrated as we did, or at least expressed our opinions as players as to the eventual outcome. It was great, especially so during the matches.
We didn't push each other so hard and had no Threat Scenes, Brawls or Connections, which was too bad. I explained the mechanics of the Threat Scenes, and how the one player with a lot higher Pain than the rest of us, could kick our collective asses in Brawls, and also how all of us can force endgame by threatening each other's contacts.
The other two players expressed that they missed the adversary of a dedicated GM, but I think once we start messing with each others characters that will come automatically. It would be fun with some more scenes to screw over the other contenders though.
We also found that we wanted a mechanic to be used for Promotion Scenes and specifically negotiating the number of rounds. We will try using the following:
- Contender vs NPC Boxer
- Rep vs Pain
- Contender vs Contender
- Rep vs Rep. The promoter then draws the winning Contender's Pain and compares it to the Rep result, with the winner deciding on the final number or rounds.
I'm still documenting my house rules here.
As I've said before, Contenders is a great game.
TTFN,
Yoki
Hiya Yoki Glad you're
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Sun, 10/12/2006 - 16:02.
Hiya Yoki
Glad you're enjoying the game. I reckon once your players get some connection threats going you'll see plenty of scope for inter-player adversity!
The house rule mentioned above is similar to one I've used before (but I didn't give the promoter a draw). It can be really handy if you can't come to an agreement via role-play.
Playing out one card at a time blind is a nice touch, I'll have to try that.
Cheers
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Game-story mashups that put the fun into dysfunction.
Brawls with NPCs
Submitted by Yokiboy on Sun, 10/12/2006 - 21:55.
One thing we missed, was a chance to have Threat Scene Brawls with the NPC boxers. My character has developed a real feud with one of the NPC boxers, and I'd love to kick his ass in a back-alley. Oh well, there's always free play.
View my gaming commentary in Holken
That's a good point. If free
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Mon, 11/12/2006 - 10:02.
That's a good point. If free play's just ain't cutting it I've a couple of suggestions.
You could schedule a back alley brawl against the NPC. In one memorable game I had Jason Mornigstar and Clinton Nixon's Contenders duelling with a bottle and broken pool cue, cheered on by vagrants. They just used the standard match rules for that fight.
Otherwise, I think you could call for a Brawl against an NPC, just assume NPCs have the same Pain as their Contender assailant.
Oh, here's Yoki's AP thread on the forge which is worth a read!
< a href=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=22494.0>www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=22494.
Cheers
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Game-story mashups that put the fun into dysfunction.
Contenders vs NPCs
Submitted by Yokiboy on Mon, 11/12/2006 - 19:27.
Hello JJ,
That's an alright way of doing it, just assuming NPC boxers have the same Pain as the Contender attacking them. It means you always have 50-50 odds though, but I can live with that.
I don't know why I didn't think of using match rules for other types of fights. We could have bareknuckle brawls at some underground, after-hours, hangout. Very cool!
Thanks for the tips,
Yoki
View my gaming commentary in Holken
Praise
Submitted by Janos Bornemisza on Wed, 21/02/2007 - 21:06.
Just wanted to add another "Contenders Rocks!", because hey, can you have too much praise?
I especially love the way you can be up and running in about five minutes flat; it's perfect for breaking out when you want to play but have nothing planned.
Oh that and every idea I've had for the last month or so invariably tends towards "Oooh I bet Contenders would work well for that" ;)
Thanks Janos - all praise is
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Tue, 27/02/2007 - 11:42.
Thanks Janos - all praise is welcome here!
+++
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....
Yes, we prefer other people
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 27/02/2007 - 12:41.
Yes, we prefer other people to pat us on the backs so we don't have to do it ourselves :-D