Breaking Down is Hard to Do (4/18/2026)

GM: Kathleen De Smet
NPC: David Neubauer (as Jonas, the bus driver)
Players: Karen Twelves, Bill Howard, Kristin Patten, Tony McGinn, Nat Budin, Sean Nittner
System: Breaking Down is Hard to Do

The band Ermine Blue and their manager are at a pivotal moment in their career. Their tour bus breaks down and they are stuck for a couple hours with limited cell signal and no way to reach the outside world until the bus gets moving again.

Low stakes but high emotions and interpersonal drama. The characters are all basically decent people who have been together a long time, but with differing priorities and personalities.

Nat Budin – Rowan, drummer (Enneagram 9)
Sean Nittner – Zee, guitar (Enneagram 7)
Bill Howard – Lyric, manager (Enneagram 5)
Kristen Patten – Jax, singer (Enneagram 4)
Karen Twelves – Octave, flute (Enneagram 3)
Tony McGinn – Carver, bass (Enneagram 1)

Backstory

I played Zee, the guitarist who feared missing out on all that life had to offer, and wanted to take pleasure in every experience he could.

I started the band six years ago with Octave (who inspired me, best musician I’d ever met), Rowan (our drummer) and Cash, our bass player. Eventually Octave’s twin Lyric graduated college and joined as our manager. We brought Jax on as a lead singer and she electrified the band and we immediately hooked up. Cash left to go lead a normie life and was replaced by Carver. Jax and I broke up and last night I slept with Carver, which was probably a mistake.

Today we’re on our way to audition for Amerivision, which is only 30 minutes away, but the bus was broken down and we still hadn’t agreed on what song to audition with, our classic Merciful, or our newer and poppier Ritz Train.

Relationship Workshop

We opened with some four rounds of questions between the characters.

ROUDN 1: Zee had to tell Jax, what he said when he broke it off. I told her “we were as bad for each other off stage as we were good for each other on stage.” I think that broke her heart a little. We each missed parts of the other. Jax missed Zee’s authenticity and energy. Zee mixed Jax’s ability to connect with people and share things with them.

ROUND 2: Zee and Carver talked about Zink Western, the punk bank that Carver started and that Zee had been moonlighting with. We notably did not talk about hooking up. Zee admired Carver’s ideals but didn’t feel he could live up to them. Hard to say “Go Vegan, Go Naked!” when you’re sneaking cheeseburgers on the side. Carver admire Zee’s ability to enjoy life and not get so wrapped up in doing it “right”. Hedonism as a virtue.

ROUND 3: With Octave, we talked about how we met. We went to high school together and afterwards most people went off to college but we didn’t. Zee hung out at the 7/11 and twanged on his electric guitar sans amp. Octave was in band, recitals, and orchestra. She was a prodigy but didn’t get into college like her twin Lyric. Eventually we got together as leftovers and made a band. Our first hit Merciful was written about letting go of people who have left you. Octave grieved missing her twin and though Lyric came back to be our manager, he never knew the song was written about him.

ROUND 4: Rowan, Zee, and Lyric had to talk about “cheating” on the band, as if there is such a thing. I said that playing with other bands is how we learn new things and get inspiration. Clearly we were talking about me. Lyric was fine with that as long as my first priority was Ermine Blue. I could love with that. But Rowan couldn’t. He took it personal. Ever since Cash left a year ago, he’d become insecure and hated any time we did things apart. I wanted to know what was going on, but in this early round I didn’t find out.

ROUND 5: As a group we talked about the vibes of our two strongest songs. Merciful was melancholic and deep. Ritz Train was full of energy and featured a solo for everyone.

Breaking Down

The bus screeched to a stop as smoke poured from the engine. Zee’s guitar that hadn’t been safely packed away came tumbling down in it’s case. Jonas ran out to inspect the damage and told us that the good news was that it was just a spark plug. The bad news was that we have no cell service and it would take him 45 minutes to run to a hardware store and get a new one. Everyone just be chill and we’ll still get to Amerivision on time. But remember “DON’T SMOKE ON THE BUS.”

We were all stuck on a bus together, unless we went outside to smoke in private (NOT PRIVATE). As we always did during a lull, we got to bickering among each other.

Lyric wanted to know what song we were going to audition with.
I want to know what “inappropriate behavior” got us kicked out of Manny’s (a regular venue for us) last week.

Both of those conversations were pretty heated, but when I realized I didn’t have a big stake in either I turned and whispered to Octave that I slept with Carver last night. “WHAAAAT?” she barked and looked at me incredulously. She told me I needed to stop fucking band members and I agreed that was probably smart, but wasn’t sure if I’d heed that wisdom in the future.

Jax really wanted to do Ritz Train and Octave wouldn’t have it. She wanted something real, and Merciful was real. The group discussion didn’t seem to be working out so I asked Jax to go have a smoke with me outside [in the other room of the suite we were in, but the doors were open so everyone could hear us].

“Now that we’re in private—” Zee couldn’t even start before Jax cut him off.

“How could you sleep with Caver?” Jax needed to know how she had been replaced so quickly.

We had an intense private (not private at all as the other members of the bus kept yelling at us) conversation where I admitted that sleeping with Carver was probably a mistake, glad they wouldn’t hear that (they totally heard that).

As the larp continued Zee continued to have private (not private) conversations with people to try and make up with them, while inevitably pissing someone else off.

We decided to play Merciful, but we’d add a refrain for Jax and Zee to do a duet over what was previously the bass solo, with all the confusion of whether this was a duet or a trio that I hoped for.

Lyric realized Octave had missed him and I think maybe Rowan felt a little more secure that we weren’t going to abandon him or kick him out.

Zee told Carver that he admired them, but couldn’t live their standards and we agreed to keep making music together.

But the time Jonas got back (thank you Jonas) and we were on the road, all our problems were resolved…we just needed to write and practice a new duet for Jax and Zee (where definitely not, but probably actually for sure getting back together again). Easy Peasy!

Kathleen writes these great bottle episodes games (like Grandma’s Resting Place) and I love the way the smallest things blossom into major drama. I also had a blast playing the unrepentant hedonist. Thank you for a great game Kathleen!