I woke up all early so I could make the 2pm Prime Time Adventure game run by Jeff Collyer. This is the first time I’ve played PTA but I’ve heard a lot of really good things about it.

I thought the pitch session was a lot of fun. We had about 4 broad ideas and we ended up mashing a few ideas together to come up with our series.

We played a sort of Indiana Jones crossed with urban fantasy heavy on the secret society set in the 1920s. I played a possessing spirit who could perceive the strands of fate. His issue was “What does it mean to be human”. I called him Nephilim, which is the first time I’ve had a character named that, he also had another name that was the name the possessed body was born with.

Other players had strong feelings against playing the pilot so we ended up playing the finale. I think I would have like to have run the pilot just to see what that is like. PTA has this idea of screen presence. We had one spotlight episodes, a couple of episodes where we were major contributors, and a couple where we just had bit parts. I was a major player in the finale which took place right after my spotlight episode. We basically started at the first episode and scripted them in quick sketches making sure everyone got the right amount of screen time in each episode.

We had a mcguffin (Amulet of the Sun) and a BBEG who was holding the Sister of one of the characters hostage demanding that we deliver the amulet of the girl gets it. He was going to use the Amulet, and likely sacrifice the sister to open a rift and let some sort of Lovecraftian death through.

The mentor of one of the characters, the Warrior, came to our base and ordered him to kill the Sister. He was overheard and while the brother the Medicine Man contemplated the garden there was a lively discussion between the Professor and the Liason. I was at that scene and got to make cryptic, unsubstantiated pre-cog statements like, “If we do not go, she will die”.

Then I went and talked to the Medicine Man. We had a quick scene saying it was time to go, then I brought him back through his blood line to an ancient time when his ancestor had killed a member of the blood line and opened a rift, bloody carnage ensued. Returning the presence we talked a bit more and ended with “Who’s side will the others be on?” “As always, their own.” It was very cool, and I got fan mail.

We were running short of time for the final scene, so we did a bit of poor editing but it left us in South America facing down the BBEG. The Warrior had disappeared. We bantered with BBEG for a bit and then fighting ensued. The Warrior emerged from the forest to killed the BBEG, saving the Sister.

It occurs to me that I don’t recall actually using the conflict resolution system once during my time playing. It had something to do with cards, but that’s as far as I get.  It isn’t clear to me whether I used the resolution system and it was so transparent it didn’t register, or if it just never came up.

I give it a definite thumbs up.  It was full of awesome.  Given that I don’t remember using the resolution system, it’s hard to say if there is anything I’d steal.

Fan mail is the usual thing, and that might be because it is close to the only play mechanic (vs set up mechanic), not that I recall what fan mail was used for, but it is a token used to ramp up your awsome (i.e. fate, hero or drama point).  You start off with a few, and there are also some on the center of the table.  When someone does something cool any of the players can give one of the tokens in the center of the table to that player.

I may be able to create a fan mail variant that works with Inspirations.  I have the problem of not compelling enough, this would push more inspirations out and hopefully create a more dynamic situation, but I’d probably have to trim the initial Inspirations.