Like everyone else, I've heard about this game through Paul's podcasts. Unlike some of you, I haven't done any playtesting, nor read any playtest documents. So I've got to say: Man, this is great stuff. I haven't finished reading it yet, but so far I can tell that Paul has done an amazing job at tackling the ever-present problem of how to simultaneously make a game text teach the game and also be a rules reference while playing, and all this wrapped in an entirely in-fiction voice! It just feels so right. The layout is awesome, and I love the photos. And teaching the game by writing it in such a way that one person is supposed to read it out procedurally to the group, and then start play (ooh but it's all play, it's all in-fiction)? That's really smart, seriously. I'll get to the game later, but right now I'm geeking out about how this is an extremely well put-together gaming product. Kudos Paul, for all your hard work.

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Editing this in later: I'm wondering about the decision to not include anything in the front or back or anywhere about this being a game. Obviously this fits with the completely in-fiction nature of the text, but I wonder if Paul has concerns about people not knowing what it is. What do you all think (you too, Paul, if you're around!)? Is it simply a case of "people who buy this game or run into it in a shop will know basically what it is, and if they don't, it's not for them"? I can see a non-gamer leafing through this and going, "Interesting. Now what is this? Real therapy? A joke? A weird little fiction book?" I have a hard time envisioning them latching onto it as a game. But hell, that's probably the same level of understanding when someone sees "a role-playing game" as the subtitle of a book, and maybe that's Paul's point.

Posted By: hanselI'll get to the game later, but right now I'm geeking out about how this is an extremely well put-together gaming product. Kudos Paul, for all your hard work.

Thanks! I can't take sole credit for it, however. It was Ryan Macklin's idea for me to rewrite text with the "reading instructions" after some playtests he ran at Dreamation 2008. And major props to both Fred Hicks (layout and art direction) and Jeremy Tidwell (photography) for making my ideas look so good.

Posted By: hanselI'm wondering about the decision to not include anything in the front or back or anywhere about this being a game. Obviously this fits with the completely in-fiction nature of the text, but I wonder if Paul has concerns about people not knowing what it is.

Only minor ones. I do break character in Chapter 5 to address that issue specifically.

--Paul

Paul, I'm reading the book and I'm itching to play it. The transcript (yeah I jumped ahead) is evocative, and the stories built are tragic, painful stories of normal people.

I've read in another thread that at least one of the players from that game is here on s-g. I'd be happy to hear the player's perspective.

Oh, I noticed a couple of small typos, so far. Very minor stuff as I'm used to expect from books that pass in Fred's (and friends') hands.
I'll send them to Fred (or to you Paul: whisper me your email address in that case).

Posted By: Joshua A.C. NewmanDuchamp signed it "R. Mutt" in order to mock the people who considered his name the valuable part of a piece of art [...]

I am aware of all this; Duchamp is my hero. The important part: "Fountain", and (as you add) the process that created it, are now universally understood to be art, because of their context. Even insofar as Duchamp may have been earnest, at some point in his career, about wanting to make non-art, his career succeeded mostly in demonstrating that postmodernism allows art to infect everything that comes within spitting range of it. And now we all have to live with the consequences of his discovery.

Parallel: Penny is sold as game. If you sell it as a game, it's a game. If you sell a rock as a game, it probably isn't a very good game, although it might be an interesting critique of games and game-selling. If you sell a genuine guide to psychiatric treatment as a game... it might be a cool game, actually. The Feeling Good Handbook, a workbook for serious-minded CBT against depression, might be a provocative thing to see on a shelf next to the PHB, and insight can be fun. Maybe this should get its own thread, actually.

In any case, to the main point: No one would mistake Penny for Feeling Good, not beyond the first page of reading. Paul has nothing to worry about on that front.

Posted By: ptevis
That's a good way of putting it. I'd like to see more of that in gaming.

Thanks. I liked your paragraph on 'gonzo' too: I hope to get to try the game more than one time with more or less the same people exactly for that reason. First session we experiment, and maybe "gonzo around". Next session we might go deeper.

That said, the Bourne Identity and Cthulhu variants in the appendix are also fun.

Oh, don't think I overlooked the SF or Fantasy possible variations... I'm already picturing in my mind the Facts and Reassurances document for "first contact with alien worlds dimension jumping survivors". Travel the wide universe, meet new life forms, and be stunned by the experiences! :)

You can get the book + pdf for $15.01 until the end of June, D.J. It's a steal, really.

Got the book into my hot little hands today (along with Dictionary of Mu: mmm, tasty words). It's nice to have a physical object, but I was slightly disappointed that the interior wasn't as good-looking as the pdf was. I suppose it would have to be all glossy and expensive to be so, so I understand, but still.

I just keep picking it up and looking through it. Will give it a second read-through soon, I think. Come to think of it, this is the first time I've ever read a game pdf completely through. Huh.