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Actual Play Vignettes: [GPNW08] "Long May You Run", Geiger Counter prom slasher flick

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  1.  # 1
    Players: Will, Chad, Kingston, Ping and me. Most of the players were new to Geiger Counter (except for Ping and I, who were seasoned veterans after the crystal ziggurat game) but Will, Chad and Kingston jumped in with both feet -- technically six feet all together.

    The title came from a fantastically appropriate Neil Young theme song from Chad's prom. It practically screams slasher flick, doesn't it?



    As I mentioned in another thread we used little chits of paper to see where people were (we did this in crystal ziggurat too but forgot to mention it). Since there are so many characters it makes a lot easier to keep track of what just happened and where everyone was last seen when they are trying to frame who will show up where next -- it didn't prevent anyone from appearing in a new location as desired. A star on the chit means it's a potential survivor.

    Lesson of the day: just like in the movies, never sneak into an empty classroom on prom night to have sex on a teacher's desk. Or sneak into the basement on prom night to have sex in the boiler room. Or sneak out by the lockers on prom night to think about having sex. Basically if the words "sneaking" and "sex" were in the sentence you were in for trouble.

    Geiger Counter is definitely getting to be one of my go-to games.
    •  
      CommentAuthoramnesiack
    • CommentTimeJun 3rd 2008
     # 2
    Geiger Counter is definitely getting to be one of my go-to games.

    Same here! I think it's a perfect con game. You don't have to do any advanced prep and doing setting creation at the table means that it's always tailored to the group you're playing with. It has a satisfying rising and falling action that naturally emerges in play, and the whole thing can be done in 3-4 hours, even with a brand new group.

    Solid.
  3.  # 3
    Meant to mention that because of some bad paper planning our map got fairly chaotic (as you can see). Instead of starting with the school in the middle and building external locations around it things kind of went everywhere. My fault mostly.

    Also the new players seemed to really groove on Geiger Counter and wanted to know where to download it, so expect google searches for "geiger counter walton"
    • CommentAuthorKCassidy
    • CommentTimeJun 3rd 2008
     # 4
    Favorite Scenes:

    * The killer, a sicko ex-science teacher with a hook for a hand (and a knit tie) recently escaped from a mental institution, huffing some strange chemical in a monogrammed hankerchief before getting down to his evil business. Creeepy.

    * My survivor, a mopey closeted lesbian goth who sells Mary Kay cosmetics, turning to her crush, the corn-fed sweet girl, after she suggested 'having a girls night and shocking everybody' saying 'you could not handle me'. It was sweet and sad.

    * The heart to heart between the sweet girl and the popular girl, right before the killer found them both. Kind of touching and totally genre appropriate.
    • CommentAuthorjaywalt
    • CommentTimeJun 3rd 2008
     # 5
    ...expect google searches for "geiger counter walton"

    Four so far today.

    I guess I could help out by waltzing into AP threads, dropping links everywhere, but that's not really my style.

    I'm stunned that there was not one, but TWO Geiger games at GPNW. I can feel the love from across the entire North American continent that sits betwixt us.

    So who lived and who died? Tell us the gory details.
  6.  # 6
    We didn't use a style sheet because we didn't have one for a slasher flick and it was a spur of the moment game. I think that caused some trouble: there was definitely a few "not on the same page" moments about the nature of the menace but we sorted it out on the fly.

    It's kind of a key question about the two ways to play the game. In one case you all agree pretty clearly what the menace is ahead of time, and in the other (which we keep playing) the menace is basically an unknown and gets defined bit by bit, which is creative and fun but can also lead to total chaos (which I suppose is true of any game with rotating control).

    We also had some strange rolls -- the first two conflicts (2 dice vs 8 die menace) came out ties because the protagonist rolled box cars both times, so the menace took early hits. I think towards the end there was also at least one time when I screwed up and didn't take the best two dice from among all the rolling players which hurt the good guys.
    •  
      CommentAuthorBen Robbins
    • CommentTimeJun 6th 2008 edited
     # 7
    So cleaning up and distilling the elements from the game we played, here's what a prom slasher style sheet might look like. Jon feel free to yank it and/or modify it for the GC page.


    PROM SLASHER style sheet

    SETTINGS:
    high school
    college
    class reunion

    CHARACTER TYPES:
    nice girl
    punk girl
    nerdy girl
    popular girl
    popular girl's sidekick ("Nazi lieutenant")
    quarterback
    stoner
    guidance counselor
    mother hen teacher
    strict disciplinarian teacher
    principal
    janitor / groundskeeper
    police detective on the trail of the killer
    psychiatrist who treated the killer (from the asylum, not the school)

    MENACE DICE:
    closer than you think
    listening to you right now
    walks unseen among us
    now you see him, now you don't
    just keeps coming
    silent killer
    part of our past
    someone we all know...
    burned beyond recognition
    rusty machete
    hook-hand
    knives for fingers

    SURVIVAL DICE:
    eternal optimism
    everybody likes me
    can't die a virgin!
    too young too die [borrowed from the Fish Story]
    must protect the kids!

    ADVANTAGE DICE:
    keys to the car
    fire extinguisher
    dead cop's gun
    steam valve [stationary, boiler room]
    old school files
    strange young man in the faded picture

    LOCATIONS:
    auditorium
    behind the bleachers
    boiler room
    darkened classroom
    gymnasium / dance hall
    hall lockers
    parking lot
    principal's office
    science class
    teacher's office
    wood shop
    • CommentAuthorjaywalt
    • CommentTimeJun 7th 2008
     # 8
    I didn't use style sheets in the early play of Geiger and found out that, yeah, it often puts people on completely different pages and makes things disjointed. Honestly, I don't think the rotating Director thing always means the narrative is disjointed. I've had games that went very smoothly, but you do have to get everyone on the same page.

    We also had some strange rolls -- the first two conflicts (2 dice vs 8 die menace) came out ties because the protagonist rolled box cars both times, so the menace took early hits.


    Wait, the menace was rolling 8 dice in the first two conflicts? You didn't gradually build the menace up from zero dice to 8 dice? Or do you just mean the first two conflicts after the menace gained all its dice?
    •  
      CommentAuthorBen Robbins
    • CommentTimeJun 7th 2008 edited
     # 9
    Posted By: Jonathan WaltonWait, the menace was rolling 8 dice in the first two conflicts? You didn't gradually build the menace up from zero dice to 8 dice? Or do you just mean the first two conflicts after the menace gained all its dice?

    The latter -- the menace didn't hassle anyone until it was up to 8 dice, giving us a nice build-up before the trouble started. Lots of creepy gazing in windows or skulking just out of sight.

    Actually correction -- it didn't hassle anyone who could fight back. The non-survivor stoner kid died after sneaking off to light up behind the auditorium. Sex kills, and so do drugs apparently.

    Posted By: Jonathan Walton Honestly, I don't think the rotating Director thing always means the narrative is disjointed. I've had games that went very smoothly, but you do have to get everyone on the same page.

    Oh absolutely. Our alien crystal ziggurat game was actually more fun because we defined the menace as we went along.

    I think maybe it needs to be an explicit part of the game setup: are you agreeing on the menace ahead of time or letting it emerge creatively? At least then everyone's on the same page about whether, um, they need to be on the same page.

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