Pre game:
All Those Pretty Stars, in name and in concept, has been burgeoning in my head for over a year. Back when I first started to think about this game, I had three months of mafia under my belt. It is a good thing I was so busy at the time, for I feel I would have made a poorer game. Fast forward to March 2010, having finished for now with university, I decided to revisit All Those Pretty Stars and alter a few things. For one, I was going to cut back on the background info of the characters (for example, Zareen Sung had two pages of background story) and I was going to up the production values. I had three goals in mind for this game.
Goals:
Make sure the players and I have fun.
Make a storydriven rpg mafia game.
Have some of the best production values for a small game.
Signups:
In April the signups began and I was suprised, if pleased, that in the first few days I had a third of my players.
I am pleased to see the veteran CFC players take the mafia (Diedrich White/Renata), the serial killer (Susann Becker/Winston Hughes), the emergent serial killer (Amy Glenn/Methos) and the neutral who could easily turn serial killer (Reilly Banks/Niklas).
Town will have some formidable opponents to vanquish there, I think. I'm glad to see Renata finally in a mafia role (the first on the Org, I think?) and I've heard good things about Winston Hughes mafia skill, so Susann Becker is in good hands. I'm also curious to see if Niklas will take Reilly Banks in the pro-town direction, become a serial killer or remain neutral.
Other signups are all around good of course. Askthepizzaguy grabs Edward as the first pick, it will be very interesting to see how he plays this with no vote and a lynch immunity. Secura takes the hunted Eve Saint-Claire, though she doesn't know that yet, that will pit her against Niklas. Split takes Christy Hart, let's see what he does with the “detective” of this game, while new comer jillyfae takes Alejo de Lula, the doctor. Taking Jin Sung probably would make for an easier first game, but that shouldn't be a problem. Christy Hart and Alejo de Lula are an interesting pair, much as Reilly Banks hunts Eve Saint-Claire, Christy Hart hunts for Alejo de Lula, though unlike the first match up, she doesn't know what she'll do when she finds him. Its potentially much less deadly. Nevertheless, I'm eager to see how both matchups are resolved.
Finally, Captain Blackadder takes Andrei Kerensky, nothing much to say here, he's a solid character. Romanic takes Jake Harris, saying he looks tough. I wonder what he'll think when he finds out that Jake Harris is in fact a pacifist. Beefy lands Zareen Sung and gets Psychonaut (Jin Sung) as his husband. I think they are in the same timezone, so that should make using their special ability to chat together more practical.
All in all, I'm not disappointed at all by letting players pick their characters.
A few hours before the game starts, Romanic seems to really want to talk out of thread with people, doesn't fit too much with what I had in mind for the game. If more people really want to speak out of the thread, I'll figure out a way that keeps to the spirit of the game.
Renata feels she will be in trouble as mafia without a kill, personally I think she'll do fine. Its interesting, we are now about 8h before the game and she nearly triggered one of the conditions for gaining a new ability, asking me for it or telling me her character needs to kill to accomplish his victory. I've tried dropping a hint, I wonder if she'll catch on.
Day 1:
Off to a good start and I'm glad people are getting into their characters. At this point, they won't know the saboteur is still aboard (some might suspect it), so Renata should be safe, same for Winston Hughes. The correct move here is No Lynch while splitting everyone evenly between the Engines and Navigation. If they are very well organized, they could also repair the Medbay, possibly in one night. If badly organized, repairing the Medbay will drain critical repair points.
Well, its now 45 min before end of day. All good roleplay performances for the day, though I'm sad Methos and Beefy didn't show up, the latter was expected though, due to being sick. I'm also disappointed that nearly half of the players haven't voted to repair something. At this point, its not critical, but it does not bode well for the town.
Night 1:
Not much to say here, no one sent in Night Orders, even those few who could do so without abandonning their repairs.
Winston Hughes is the second person to tell me his objectives are impossible, perhaps I made some mistakes in my design. What am I saying, I surely made some, but I thought it would work well enough. I'm going to insert a hint that he can change his abilities and thus perhaps his victory conditions. Doign the same for Renata, hinting she could kill if she wanted to.
Very pleased with Romanic starting up a conversation during the Night Phase, this game needs more posts, not less.
Day 2:
Accusations finally start flying. Unsurprisingly, ATPG is the one to open the ball. Niklas goes for an inactive, not sure why exactly and Renata bodly goes against the self-proclaimed chief engineer, this will pay off a good deal if she succeeds. Finally Romanic decides to join in the accusation game and votes Niklas' character, but not having unvoted, it doesn't count.
In the end, its not surprising that votes are as scattered as the repair actions. Beefy and Romanic get caught in the repair: Medbay trap. The town shouldn't be wasting time with it unless both the Engines and Navigation are being repaired at a good pace, which is not the case.
Night 2:
Split decides to use his lie detection ability for the next day, on ATPG? Hmm, interesting choice. Then Romanic decides to ditch his repairs and roleblock Split for the night. Finally, Winston Hughes decides to murder Romanic. Now I have to say, receiving only three night orders, in that order, was pretty freakish.
I'm sad to see Romanic die, he did some great roleplaying for this game, but this is a good pick from Winston Hughes I think, removing not only an active player, but the game's sole roleblocker.
Day 3:
Renata renews her attack on Captain Blackadder but ultimately this is doomed to fail. I feel I gave her a nearly impossible role and in hindsight, should have made sabotage less easy to pinpoint. She is targeted as the saboteur and put to rest in a pod, the first lynch of the game. Nevertheless, she is still alive, though now there is little hope of her attaining her main objective. My fear was making it too hard to repair the ship, thus ending the game very quickly, so I guess I went the other way and made it somewhat too easy. (To her credit, Renata didn't complain about her nearly impossible situation :bow:) I do hope they let her out eventually so she can have a bit of revenge.
Rest of the players seem to be mobilizing for repairs, that's good.
Night 3:
Not much to report here. Winston Hughes decides not to kill, citing that's it probably a terrible move. I don't think so actually. I gave his character a compulsion to kill because I was afraid there were be no kills before the ship was repaired, thus sapping some of the tension. I think its in the best interest of the SK to make sure the ship gets repaired and that means killing strategically.
Day 4:
Pretty awful day. After Day 3, I expected more activity, not less. Only four votes are lodged, half of them for No Lynch and only five players join in for repairs. I'm really not getting people not voting and showing up to repair or people doing the opposite. This marks another day without a post by jillyfae, so I'm going ahead and asking one of the replacements to take her place. Hopefully it will add more activity to the game, just like autolycus' replacement of Methos. (Of which I'm very satisfied.)
Night 4:
Winston Hughes decides to kill Beefy. Not the best of choices in my opinion, but its a clean kill. It does get rid of one of the mason team though. Repairs are abysmal, but at least Renata is in a pod and not doing sabotage. They can still repair the ship. Split decides to use his lie detection ability on Winston Hughes, which is brilliant, but it now remains to be seen if he exploits the ability, say by accusing Winston and thus see if he is lying in his defense. ArpeggiateTHIS joins as a replacement for jillyfae and his immediate activity is promising. For the first time the doctor actually protects someone (Secura).
Day 5:
Askthepizzaguy doesn't seem to understand he cleared three, yes three!, people of being the killer in one night action, instead thinking only that Secura is innocent. (Okay, Beefy died anyways, so that wasn't much help.) It seems the general consensus is to release Renata because it is assumed she is innocent, since she can't be the killer. This is a grave mistake and Renata will be joining the Engine repairs to sabotage them. In the end Split is chosen to be locked in a pod, it doesn't change much since he chose to repair Navigation, which Secura can repair by herself. In the end, there are a lot of people who choose to repair de Engines, but it is not enough with Renata's presence. Captain Blackadder is sorely missed in that department.
Addendum: It seems I missed Captain Blackadder's repair action. By pointing that out he just saved everyone from dying. Good catch.
Night 5:
I am deeply puzzled that I am receiving night orders from people working on the engines. Both ArpeggiateTHIS and Winston Hughes decide to do their own things, which sacrifices their repair points for the night. This, combined with Renata's sabotage gives a result of the engines being repaired, but just barely.
As for those actions, ArpeggiateTHIS decides to protect autolycus and Winston Hughes decides to kill Psychonaut. Poor Sungs, I guess they were not attracting enough attention.
The ship is repaired, both Engines and Navigation are done just in time. This means Renata has failed her victory condition (it was pretty hard anyway). She gets to choose between becoming a Serial Killer out of revenge or just trying to survive the rest of the game. She picks the Serial Killer option.
At the same time, the emergent Serial Killer, autolycus, comes into to play. The twist is that he only has to kill people who by day's end have voted for him (excluding himself) and survive to win. Immediately, he wants to go pure townie and wants to intern himself in a sleeping pod, so everybody wins. That is comendable, but somewhat against the spirit of the role. Nevertheless, autolycus has been a great replacement for Methos, I won't put any roadblocks in his way.
Day 6:
autolycus begins the round with his plan to pod himself to avoid being a serial killer, but this is soon derailed with Secura who comes out of virtually nowhere to accuse Winston Hughes. Wow. She is spot on,though I did laugh a bit at “I don't think Amy is the killer”... well, not yet. Hehe. For some reasons ATPG speaks out against calling for help. Why? Why in fiction do people never call the cops? Heh, oh well, Hyperjump is more boring I guess but it is also more certain. Votes begin to pile in on Winston Hughes and his situation looks pretty desperate. He posts to take APTG hostage and PM me telling me I can't blame him for trying. I am in fact extatic, this is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind when I created All These Pretty Stars. I just have to make it work, somehow.
In the end ATPG dies with Winston Hughes due to an unlucky dice roll. It is still more than worth it for everyone still alive, since Winston Hughes had the second most powerful character in combat ability.
Night 6:
Renata targets Secura and autolycus sends me a PM saying he is sick of Renata's accusations and will try to kill her. Interesting. I decide to do the Renata/Secura fight first and it is no suprise that Renata wins that. Now, against autolycus, they both have a 50/50 chance of winning and the dice are in favor of Renata again, like against Secura. I'll just lump the murders together to be found. ArpeggiateTHIS decides to protect autolycus, but fails the rolls required to save him. Only one killer left.
Day 7:
Unsurprisingly, Renata is the lynch target, by a close margin since Split doesn't show up. There is little discussion and little to add here. With Renata dead, its pretty much game over and various degrees of victory for the surivors. I'll add one more night to keep a bit of suspense.
Night 7:
I neither expect orders nor do I receive any, so I begin writing the finale before the phase even ends. Just as I post it, an hours after the night phase deadline, I realize Nilkas has send an order to kill ArpeggiateTHIS. :facepalm: A host really shouldn't take anything for granted it seems. Fortunately, Niklas is kind enough to let me keep the current finale and end the game without him killing. :bow:
Closing Comments:
Well, I had a lot of fun hosting this and I don't regret all the hours I spent preparing this game. Though, throughout the game I found myself more and more displeased with some of the design decision and some things I include in the game were just plain stupid. The sabotage thing for example was practically impossible for Renata to accomplish if everyone had repaired either the engines or navigation, only inactivity permitted her to almost win.
This experiment has convinced me to try my hand at another game, not sure exactly when though. I will most certainly bring in external help this time, to better balance things. My current idea is nothing like All Those Pretty Stars, but you can be certain it will feature roleplaying and character driven storylines.
Thank you all for playing. :bow:
