Actual Play – My Daughter GMs her first game! (10/12/2013)

Players: Sean Nittner and daughters
System: Do, Pilgrims of the Flying Temple

After Big Bad Con, my daughters were both pretty sad that they couldn’t go to the con. Last year they came and sat at the reg desk for a while handing out badges and pins. When the band played we had a cool chase through the fountain room with my eldest dressed as Little Red being cased by Alec who was in The Wolf suit, in turn being chased by my youngest who was posing as the woodsman. The had a great time running all around chasing each other. Also, my eldest was the one who thought of the name of the con (Big Bad Con) over pancakes one day. So they are a big part of the convention (at least for me) and we were all sad I couldn’t manage a way to get them there this year.

That said, I told the girls they could still earn Big Bad Con pins by accomplishing certain achievements. If they write their name on a badge they could get a “Welcome to Big Bad Con” pin, and if they ran a game (any game) they could get a “GM” pin. My little one said she would run Castle Panic, but the big one beat her to the punch and had already pulled Do off the bookshelf.

She looked over the rules, and needed a little help figuring out that the storyteller was the person who took the stones and the troublemakers were the other players, but otherwise she got the hang of it, no problem. She picked out the letter as well.  The Interworld Railway by Peter Aronson.

Pilgrims

Our pilgrims were Fast Cat who gets in trouble by running into things, but helps people by finding secret information. Pilgrim Shiny Glass gets in trouble because she is always showing off, but helps helps people by bringing them light. Pilgrim Hungry River gets in trouble because he never stops eating, but helps people by taking them places.

 Our Story

Pilgrim fast cat finds the way to Yam, but runs right into the Interworld Express One!

Pilgrim shiny glass uses her shining light to signal Josephina Sherwood to stop the train. Pilgrim Shiny Glass is snatched up by an airship pilot that wants to use her light to see through the storm.

Pilgrim Hungry River lends the airship out of the storm, so they don’t need Shining Glass anymore.

Pilgrim Fast Cate is chased by a Builder of Yam, who thinks she is trying to steal the gold.

Pilgrim Fast Cat gets herself out of the trouble by telling the person who was chasing her that she was trying to help the trains!

Pilgrim Shiny Glass pulls out her light and says “Here is a light, so now you can build the railway and not be scared of ghosts.”

Pilgrim Hungry River flies the Builders of Yam to a giant break in the rails so they can fix them.

Pilgrim Hungry river stuffed too much food in his mouth and the Builders of Yam can’t understand him.

Pilgrim Fast Cat show the builders the gap in the railway.

Pilgrim Fast cate and the builders fall into the river when the golden rails break free!

Pilgrim Shining Glass throws a rope to Pilgrim Fast Cat and the builders. She shines a light so they can see it!

Pilgrim Hungry River finishes his meal! Yum!

Pilgrim Hungry River ate all the food for the Celebration. Oh no!

Pitchforks Endings

Pilgrim Fast Cat is in trouble with the workers because she made them fall in the river.

Pilgrim Hungry River has to wok in the train shoveling coal to pay for all the food he ate.

Pilgrim Shining Glass is called a show off.

Thoughts on this game

The way to get a parade ending seems to be to take as few stones as possible. My daughters were pretty bummed when they got a pitchfork ending and attributed it to the youngest getting 3 stones twice in a row and then taking two on her 3rd draw. She was thinking more = better, when more really just equals a different option.

Getting in trouble is fun!

I think the game benefits from a little discussion between writing down sentences. Often, even when we would write down a sentence, we needed to spend a little time clarifying what that meant in the fiction, and what else was going on. We didn’t write that stuff down, but it did effect our future narration.

Change was tough. My eldest, at the end had to change her first name, which meant she couldn’t be “Fast” anymore. She really wanted to be “Fast” and I assured her that she could still be fast, it’s just that her speed wouldn’t get her into trouble any more. This seemed to ameliorate her, but only barely. I’ve noticed this same thing with adults playing Fate games, specifically Dresden, when it was time to choose an aspect. They didn’t want to lose the old one. My thought has always been that it isn’t that the old aspect isn’t true anymore, it’s just not highlighted or pivotal in the game anymore.  Still, losing things = hard.

Actual Play – Pilgrim Flashing Flashlight and Pilgrim Smart Phone (11/2/2011)

Players: Sean Nittner and daughter.
System: Do, Pilgrims of the Flying Temple (hacked a lot)

My nine year old and I are starting to play a Do variant based on this post. The idea is to practice spelling works, while having fun telling a story. The Letter and words are on that post as well.

The Pilgrims

Pilgrim Flashing Flashlight helps people see in the dark and gets in trouble when her flashlight starts flashing because it has a low battery.

Pilgrim Smart Phone helps people by making phone calls but gets int trouble by being a smart ass.

The Rescue

Pilgrim Flashing Flashlight is in trouble because her simple flashlight has a low battery because it started to sparkle and twinkle.

Pilgrim Smart Phone called the people in the castle order a new battery.

Pilgrim Flashing Flashlight’s battery got stuck in a bottle with noodles in it.

Pilgrim Smart Phone whistled in a very high pitch; breaking the bottle and freeing the battery in the middle

Pilgrim Flashing Flashlight’s battery got wet because there was apple juice in the bottle and a nickel mad a dent in it.

Pilgrim Smart Phone found a new battery he wiggled free from the poodle phone.

Pilgrim Flashing Flashlight tickled freckles which made the water in the puddle go all over the place and only a little bit was left.

Pilgrim Smart Phone thought he was so smart that he would sample how to get out of the puddle, but fell in instead!

Pilgrim Flashing Flashlight blew a bubble which made Pilgrim Smart Phone and Freckles jump out of the puddle.

Thoughts on the game

My little one rolled odd three times in a row.  She was having a lot of trouble (both due to morale and having a hard time thinking about what would happen) writing herself getting into trouble over and over. I may have to tweak that. On the flip side she was really happy when she rolled even and got to help. She was also happy when I got in trouble and she got to help me out of it.

We needed a list of words again for this game (using the same print out from last time where we had crossed out the words we used).  I had my little one copy all the words so we had a fresh list… more practice writing them and she didn’t even notice!

Actual Play – Pilgrim Flying Squirrel and Pilgrim Mixing Bowl (11/1/2011)

Players: Sean Nittner and daughter.
System: Do, Pilgrims of the Flying Temple (hacked a lot)

My nine year old and I are starting to play a Do variant based on this post. The idea is to practice spelling works, while having fun telling a story. The Letter and words are on that post as well.

The Pilgrims

We decided to stick with Pilgrim as a title instead of Student as my little one liked the art on the front of Do and wanted to be pilgrims instead of students, but we use the perms pretty interchangeably when we’re playing.

Pilgrim Flying Squirrel helps people by collecting stuff and gets in trouble by falling when she tries to fly.

Pilgrim Mixing Bowl helps people by holding their things and gets in trouble by mistaking things.

The Rescue

Pilgrim Mixing Bowl holds little in the middle’s apple and bottle of bubbles.

Pilgrim Flying Squirrel collects the noodle that tickled freckles out of the puddle.

Ut oh! Pilgrim Mixing Bowl accidentally took Little’s things to the castle and was not able to get to the poodle.

Pilgrim Flying Squirrel collects nickels to give to the people and buy Mixing Bowl out of the castle.

Pilgrim Mixing Bowl grabbed all the fireworks that sparkle and twinkle so the people would notice Freckles.

Pilgrim Flying Squirrel find a simple sample of dirt that wiggles with worms that she drips in the puddle.

Pilgrim Mixing Bowl whistles and Freckles runs out of the dirt puddle!

Do, Students of the Weekly Spelling Test (Lesson 11)

I’m going to try using Do, Pilgrims of the Flying Temple to do spelling homework with my daughter. Each week she is given a list of 20 works she needs to learn to spell. 20 is a lot of words for a letter, but I think if we do it over the course of a week, and keep the mechanics very simple we can do it.

Since it’s just me and my daughter, we’ll each make a Pilgrim/Student and each turn someone isn’t in trouble, we’ll roll a die. Even, we get to help the letter writer. Odd, we help but get in trouble and the next persons turn needs to be spent getting us out of trouble. Once the student is out of trouble, we’ll go back to rolling a die again. No matter what, each sentence we write will have 1 or 2 two words in it.

This may take some of the mechanical nuance out of Do, but I’m okay with that because I don’t want many distractions from writing the sentences. Also, I don’t think Do works too well with two players and as my little one is nine, I’m happy to introduce the rules slowly. Hmm, maybe I’ll give the student who helps out some kind of perk, like a carrot (a real one) so that helping each other out is rewarding as well as mandatory.

This week, we’re on lesson 11. Here are the words:
able
apple
bottle
bubble
castle
freckles
little
middle
poodle
people
noodle
puddle
sample
simple
sparkle
tickle
nickel
twinkle
whistle
wiggle

Here’s my letter. It is a little disjointed, but hey, what’s not to like about a little poodle named freckles?

Dear Students,

Help! My poodle named freckles is in the middle of a puddle. The problem is simple, she is a little poodle and not able to get out of the puddle, no matter how much I whistle for her or how much she tries to wiggle.

Many people have seen freckles, but they are more interested in going to the castle, you can sample fireworks there that sparkle and twinkle in the night.

I offered one man a nickel for his pool noodle, but when I held it out to freckles, I tickled her on accident.

Freckles is still trapped in the puddle, and I need to get home to eat my apple for lunch and play with my new bottle of bubbles.

Thank you for your help,

Little in the middle (the name I often call my older daughter, and two of this weeks words)

 

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