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Furry 60s
Submitted by:
Tony LB
So Dreamation was winding down, and Michael
gathered us all around for a game of Universalis. I wish I could remember
everyone's name, but I can't. Here's where we went:
We listed some tenets:
- The time is the 20th century
- Combat is based on emotions rather than strength or tactics
- All characters are talking animals
- Dialogue is free
Someone set the first scene, stating that the time was during the Cuban
Missile Crisis. I immediately started laughing hysterically, trying to
control myself, and wracking my brain for the next pun (so that I could
get out ahead of the curve).
Don't see the pun implied there? Start thinking animal references, because
it only gets heavier from here on in.
The setting was the oval office, and Michael introduced JFK (a fox), and
statted him up a very little. I think "Charismatic", at that
point, and nothing else. He did, however, have the most spectacular
imitation of JFK's accent and mannerisms, so I gotta give him credit
there. It had me (at least) in stitches every time he opened his mouth.
I had gotten my follow-up pun, so I stole control and added General
Holstein, making him Bullheaded. I also introduced a host of other things
to support his plan: Sending a team of navy seals (my follow up pun) to
attack the Bay of Pigs. The person who'd set the era laughed in a way that
confirmed that I had, in fact, guessed the pun he was setting up. Yay me!
The predictable conflict immediately opened up: Would the president accept
the plan. He countered with the State Department, and I countered with
Herd-unist leanings within State. The question was, briefly, about whether
the president would trust herdy-pinko-scum to deal with Cat-stro.
"He'll eat 'em alive!" Holstein said, in only the first of many
"Literal? Metaphorical? You be the judge" moments in the game.
The party was thrown, a little bit, by the introduction of General Buck
Turgeson (of the drooping antlers). We had a brief set-to about Horn-ile
dysfunction and antler-envy (I'm not proud, I'm just recapping) but
eventually it was concluded that the invasion of the Bay of Pigs would not
happen. That's okay, Michael buffed up Holstein with "Respects Chain
of Command", and I got a ton of coins from being on the losing side.
I really like the win-win dynamic of Universalis, though (as I'll discuss
later) I'm a bit worried about whether it's sufficiently self-moderating.
Anyway, we shuffle down to Cape Canaveral, to introduce John Wren and Alan
("German") Shepherd. Lovely little scene with them looking out
over the ocean, ready to talk about... shit, I don't know, girls? The
death of a fellow test pilot? Doesn't matter, because nobody else is
interested in it. Another good thing about Universalis. Folks do not
play along with anything that doesn't catch their interest. Saves loads of
dysfunction.
Instead we get Weiner von Braun, dachsund rocket scientist. He has a
mission for... Wren. Shepherd gets "Envious" and "Good
friend" in order to support his reaction. They're terribly useful
later, so remember those. Anyway, Wren is going up into orbit to arm a
circling minefield of nuclear missiles.
Wow! Space-race ahoy, and our first significant alteration from normal
history. If you don't count, y'know, the fuzzy animals.
A cut-scene to Cuba, to establish Boris (russian agent... bear, of course)
and Cat-stro, as well as their
dark plan. They will send the Black Widow (she eats men for breakfast...
"Literal? Metaphorical? You be the judge") to assassinate Wren,
delaying the launch. Then Yuri Gacowrin will go up and subvert the
mine-field. Great victory for the grazer's paradise!
Right about this time Michael justly complains that he wants to use his
JFK accent again, but nobody will give him the chance. Says I
(insightfully, I believe) "Nobody wants him because he's only got one
Trait on him... it's not worth drawing him in until you get more bang for
your coin spent".
A simultaneous scene in the oval office. Really clever guy whose name
eludes me (who also defined the cuban-missile-crisis era) introduces
Bahhhbby Kennedy (sheep, of course) and creates the Kennedy Master
Component: Irresistable to women, Powerful, Wealthy. Michael buffs out JFK
with: Was in Navy, Lecherous, and (of course) Kennedy. Suddenly, yeah,
Jack and Bahhhbby are looking like people you want (on one side or
another) in every single scene. They know about the plan. Jack sends
Bahhhbby and sone of J. Edgar Whooover's men to protect Wren.
About this time I'm muttering... "Mooonroe? Monroe... Monrover! There
we go!" Says Michael: "The Monroe doctrine?" Says me:
"Oh please... I just want the right pun if I have to introduce
Marilyn." Michael looks appalled and shakes his head. Hey man, I'm
not the one who added Lecherous to Jack's Traits.
By then we were getting extremely tired, and the con was winding down. We
ran the conflict that had to
happen. Weiner von Braun insisted that Wren get a good night's sleep (so
he'd be well rested in the morning). Shepherd (good friend and envious
that he was) lined up to enforce that as a Conflict. Black Widow
(temptress and assassin) lined up against it. Wren was, if I recall,
split... part of him wanted to be responsible, but he was also a
womanizing hot-shot, and guys with "The Right Stuff" don't need
to be rested for a little orbital insertion to save the free world.
It was looking bad, but Bahhbby came in to take the (metaphoric) bullet
for Wren. With his various Kennedy abilities, his personal Charisma and
all that he diverted the Black Widow... the deadly Kennedy mystique was
more than her sense of duty could stand. Besides, he was free range.
And that's about where we left it. You'd think that the animal references
and puns would have gotten old, but at least in the time we played they
didn't. It was a nice restriction, sparking the creativity.
Featured Effect, Coin Inflation
Tony shared some concerns he had with the game following this session.
He was worried that in the hands of people accustomed to collaborative
story-telling it has tendencies toward runaway feedback:
"You spend five coins to create a character with five traits, then
lose a conflict with them, you essentially get those five coins back. Next
time spend five coins, one to buy the character, four to add new abilities
to him, and you stand to get nine
coins back. Yes, at some point you start winning, but that just
distributes the problem to some other seat at the table. The overall
amount of coins coming out of conflicts only decreases when people take
whole swathes of the story and decide not to include them any more. And
that, it strikes me, only happens when people don't have the motivation or
imagination to tie everything together. I certainly didn't see any
evidence that it would happen any time soon in our game... we were rolling
in coins by the end. Enough so that I considered removing the "five
coin per scene" income as wholly unnecessary."
We discussed this on a thread
at The Forge. There are a few rules built into the game that in my
experience have prevented this problem. Since it was Tony's first
time playing, not surprisingly some of them got overlooked.
First, if you add a lot of Traits to Components in order to generate more
Coins in Complications it also takes more Coins to eliminate a Component
from play. That can soak up a goodly amount of Coins in certain sorts of
games.
Second, Challenges tend to naturally get inflated too. People tend to
think in terms of what portion of their Wealth they're willing to commit
to winning a Challenge, and if they have 10 Coins in front of them they
might be willing to go 2 Coins. But if they have 100 Coins in front of
them they'd be likely to go as high as 20.
Third, some rules that often get overlooked in the heat of the moment in
one shot demo / type games are paying Coins to Interrupt and Take Control
of Components. If you have a lot of trading off of Components in a scene,
a lot of Coins can get spent that way.
Also, many groups forget that in a Complication instead of activating
Traits to add dice to your own pool you can subtract them from someone
else's which can reduce the number of Coins won. Further, the winner
can spend won Coins to negate Coins won by the loser before the loser can
spend them. Often times this rule gets gimmicked away because it
seems like interfering in other's play but in reality they serve as an
effective check an balance on Coin inflation.
Beyond that, the rules recommend altering the starting Coins and
Refresh rates to accommodate whether your group tends to pay more or less
Coins for a given amount of game statements. Heck, I don't suggest it
outright, but there's nothing that says you can't have a negative refresh
rate...
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