Ran a 19th century Philippines in the style of GRRM's story telling. Gritty, realistic, and highly probable characters that don't exist in a vacuum.
Cons -
- Distracted, (to much political, historical and trival side comments).
- too many unfamiliarities (system, style, people, engagement, and setting)
- Connection - they connected to the past. To how it was again to be a second class citizen, an outcast, to be satisfied with what little you have...
- Learning - Its easy to learn my system and my formula. Its usefull and they seem to be getting a hang of it. Eventually they'll be using it on me (which I look forward too). The only way I evolve is someone else beating the crap out of me.
- Exciting - Because there is a strong relevance of the topic. identifying a culture that lacks definition, I feel a strong response clicking (or it can be me being reading what I want to see in a situation). Its a big deal in the Philippines to understand our historical identity because the poverty and poor education here are huge obstacles in doing that.
- Getting Relaxed - people were getting relaxed quickly with each others company. it helps when they have the same belief structure and read the same stuff.
I've only met 2 of the 3 players once and in a brief conversation.
Given the severe unfamiliarity, I only got out 3 out of the 9 scenes i expected. I should have foreseen that severe handicap of having to explain a lot of my nuances.
Looking forward, having exams in the next month. maybe the video can be edited (5hours originally). It will be compressed to probably 20 mins of material (60% would be background primer). With a basic multi media presentation.
I really should get a terrabyte HD.
3 comments:
Very cool. What point in the 19th C is the game set? I did my BA thesis in History on the US involvement on the Philippines.
1865, when Cebu opened to world trade. I altered a history a bit to set a simple premise.
Cebu decided to compete with manila and take no more of their BS - creating a recession, riots, unrest and polarization in Manila as they redirected trade and a sudden drop of revenue. The Chinese reacted by trying to form cooperatives to compete efficiently but are barred from owning property - PCs are caught in the middle.
I kept all the racism, intolerance, social complexities, and realistic consequences.
I talked to a player again and he said it was harder thinking of what to do when in even if he won against the bad guy and what was right, he can get killed because of his social status.
Like the jews back then, all the chinese can do is bribe the christians from taking their frustrations out on them. In this game, their character had to be cleverer.
One PC, Principalia Woman (2nd class citizen) used the only weapon women had. She provoked the the bad guy and when he slapped her down in public she allowed her lower class friends the pretense to defend themselves and the innocent they were trying to rescue. She also saved them by using their own chauvinistic code of honor against the civil guards through shaming them. This bought the PCs a valuable 2 seconds of hesitation saving them from certain death.
There were a generous amount of murphies that occurred to the PCs in their rolls, and their ability to overcome them was remarkable for their situation.
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