Author: Timothy Walsh (Donovan Shinnock)

So one of the things I like to do as I’m getting hype to run or play a game (run, in this case – my first time, but I’m just gonna hyperventilate into this paper bag and it’ll be fine) is to consume some appropriate media and view it through the lens of the game, so I can really start to grasp how I can use the system to convey what I want it to.

I happened to watch me some John Wick last night, for instance, and that’s where I started. So I’ll consider things like playbooks (John’s a pretty maxed out Cutter, who dipped for Reflexes, Tough as Nails, and probably Vengeful; I pictured Marcus as a Hunter), how they’re accomplishing things (John’s old list of friends and contacts, old favors in the underworld’s economy), and interesting risks and consequences (an old friend working the front door of the club).

Notably, there was a lack of downtime in the film, so clearly John’s player was being super careful with Stress. (Or he was using the old rules with the abilities which let you clear stress on crits. 😉 )

Am I the only person who does this? Not just looks at media, but specifically frames it in the rules to see how to make it work? What other great ideas from scenes have ended up working super well when looked at through that lens?

I’m just curious if we know what the status is for the various stretch goal playsets. I’m not remotely, like, cranky and demanding them – I’m just super curious to see how they’re shaping up and what people are doing with the system.

(Though I admit to be spinning in my office chair while saying “Jheeeereg” because anyone who knows me has to expect that. 🙂 )

I wanted to kick around something I’m considering trying to do occasionally with my players here, before I went out and had it crash and burn. Caveat: I have yet to take the game for a spin myself, but I’ve been in a couple play-by-post oneshots.

My general grasp of the game is that it’s running in two phases – Score and Downtime – and there’s not much happening in between. For a lot of things, this is 100% great! What I wanted to do was have some action taking place which doesn’t seem to fit cleanly into one or the other of those.

In other games, we’ve enjoyed the occasional between-run short focus on one or two characters (or even the whole group) in a way that’s not really what the game would consider a proper score, or really downtime action. Something like when the action clock (or front, taking from Dungeon World) hits a certain point and an assassin is sent after one character, or something like that. As long as it’s not overwhelmingly long and as long as everyone gets their chance at it, the other players usually enjoy getting to play audience for one character getting a cool spotlight moment.

I’m thinking of using all the rolls as normal, flashbacks if they work (flashbacking to setting up traps for the unwary!), the whole nine yards, but being more generous with stress recovery afterwards, so that the character who got some cool focused attention isn’t hosed for the next Score in comparison to everyone else.

Any advice? Thoughts? Am I going to be Doing It Wrong?