Fair Play
Posted by Jason on March 25th, 2009 — in Fair Play
“Having done everything to cripple the enemy that the usages of war allowed and refrained as much as possible from disturbing private property or alarming peaceably disposed inhabitants, General Potter about five o’clock in the afternoon issued orders to start forward on the line of march…” - Frank Moore
“We left the beautiful village of Greenville and its citizens about 3 o’clock p. m. to meditate on the vicissitudes of war and the penalties of treason.” — Third New York Cavalry Record, July 24, 1863.
“At Greenville the Federals spent several hours raiding barrooms. Many got drunk, attempted to destroy the river bridge and had a good time.” - Henry Thomas King
“Greenville is a very nice looking and pleasantly situated little village – its chief productions are some very pretty ladies, who were much admired by us all. Ladies are somewhat of a rarity down here; but secession was stamped on every feature of the birds, especially when we demanded the keys to the smokehouses and took out the many nice hams, honey &c, and the numerous stores which were opened and the contents destroyed as we liked. All this led them to feel delightful towards the Yankees.” - Anonymous, Batavia Republican Advocate, July 29, 1863.
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Posted by Jason on March 24th, 2009 — in Fair Play
You play guys from Company L of the Second North Carolina Cavalry, a pro-Union local force made up of southern thugs, deserters, and ne’er-do-wells. You join General Potter’s raid on the Tar river valley in July, 1863. After burning Rocky Mount to the ground, you get left behind. The game is about the raid, and a sort of picaresque, horrible southern swamp gothic trek back to the coast. I want it to play like the love child of Jim Jarmusch and Alejandro Jodorowski.
When it’s your scene you choose to burn, kill, or disgrace yourself – no exceptions. You draw a card from that pile. If you incorporate the card’s content in a later scene, you get points of mojo. The character with the least mojo at the end of each act dies. At the end of Act Four there are two guys left, and only one of them makes it to New Bern.
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Posted by Jason on March 21st, 2009 — in Fair Play
Inspired by Montsegur, which does this very well, and the new Days of Wonder game Small World:
So your character consists of two cards. The first card has half your name, one of your two unique things, and a question about your past. The second card has the rest of your name, your other unique thing, and another question- this one forward-looking. When you address the question in game, you turn the card over, and get a little morsel of situation, an event, or something.
In the above set, with a different draw, you’d get Private Morris Lapstrake, Jonah and Criminal. Lots of potential variety.
I’m liking this. I shouldn’t be thinking about this but what can I do?
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Posted by Jason on March 18th, 2009 — in Fair Play
Some co-conspirators and I are trying to put together a series of short scenes that each focus on a Jeepform technique we think is broadly applicable to structured freeform gaming, whatever that means to you. One of my favorite Jeep things is Bird-in-Ear, which is a simple technique for shredding the idea of character ownership in a fun, engaging, productive way. So I took it on and wrote a simple scene that, hopefully, illustrates Bird-in-Ear through play.
So here’s The Exit Interview. It’s designed for 3-14 players, is not about drunks, prostitutes, cancer patients or molested children, and should take way less than an hour. I’d love it if you’d take a look and especially if you want to try it out! I need to know if this is a solid introduction to this one focused technique, and if the instructions make sense to people who haven’t played a Jeepform game before. It should be a little ridiculous and pretty fun. It is about superheroes.
Thanks!
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Posted by Jason on March 14th, 2009 — in Fair Play
Hey y’all, registration is now open. This year it is fifty bucks, which is quite the bargain for food, lodging, and a full weekend of gaming.
Camp Nerdly is May 29-31 this year in the Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, VA. It’s about 35 miles south of Washington, DC, and isn’t a far drive for most of the East Coast. It’s 4-5 hours from NYC, and 4 hours from the Triangle area of North Carolina. It is the best thing ever.
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