Going to try to organize these a bit better. Stealing Chad Underkoffler's Good, Bad, Ugly, Verdict style for now.

I'm going to try to do reports on all the games I played at Dreamation. I may combine the Jeep/freeform/scenario stuff I played, as it kind of was a single knot of experience. Here's the second game I played, bright and early on Friday morning. If you have questions or you played in this game, please leave comments!

 

Misery Bubblegum (Dreamation 2009)

 

Before I start let me say that of the indie games I played this weekend, Misery Bubblegum had the slickest system. I include the TSOY hack 1st Quest in that estimation. I played it twice, it was great both times, and I will sell my toe to get a copy when it is released. I'm mostly going to talk about the game centered around the high school basketball teams.

 

THE GOOD

-Once the rules were explained, getting into the game was very fast. I've been obsessed with the television show Friday Night Lights, and a sports-centered high school show seemed like a perfect fit for MB. It took maybe ten minutes to go from premise creation to character creation to play.

 

-The card art is great. Each card has an emotion or emotional need or emotional strengths as well as an evocative shojo-manga-style. The graphic design is simple and cute. Simply put, the physical artifact of the game oozes personality, craft, and warmth. This is because Tony drew everything. I  love it.

 

-The cards themselves create a great sense of how the game should run and really flavor the dialogue and dramatic moves. At one point I had the 'Will You Reveal Your Secret?' card out and charged, one of the most powerful cards in the game, and the episode was winding up. I was playing Flash the Flamboyant Royal captain of the Boy's Basketball team. I had been unsuccessfully 'helping' my pal Mungo get the girl of his dreams at basketball camp. So I take a scene with him and REVEAL that Flash, king of the school, is gay. Not just gay, but in love with Mungo. Will he go out with me? Nope, he runs off. Awesome. That single card and argument set up the rest of the segment and THE NEXT segment. That's some powerful mojo right there.

 

-Misery Bubblegum does something I love from IAWA, which is that it produces quick, fun, connected sessions without forcing you to hold onto your character. We played three sessions, and I switched from playing the conniving coach of the women's b-ball team to the star players of the men's team, Flash. Flash and Mungo were a couple of one-dimensional background characters who briefly appeared in the first session and suddenly came to life in the second. I think the game is robust enough that this will happen naturally. Certainly the sort of cardboard school we started with was a living, breathing place after just three short sessions. This combination of transparency of character transfer and quickness of sessions will make MB a great pick-up or lunch time game. Being able to tie that into a bunch of episodic sessions over weeks or months is the killer app. Further, the other two players played the same characters the entire game and the system completely supported that choice, as well.

 

-Misery Bubblegum doesn't have conflict resolution. This is awesome. All you can get in Misery Bubblegum is an answer to a question or the last word in an argument. Remember, though, that the game is populated exclusively by people who care what other people think. This explicit instruction forces you to interact with the other players in a really interesting and open way, but never allows you to force others to do your will. No, that must be done through guile, cunning, and the ascent of the other players. It's really, really brilliant, and produces funny, heart-wrenching narratives that are melodramatic but never loudly operatic. 

-The lack of conflict resolution allows moves like arguing through a basketball game to really sing. Flash and Mungo humiliated the Naive Chamion and the Feisty Rebel (can't recall names) in an after-hours game, crushing their spirits and revealing the coaches treachery. The Feisty Rebel rejected Mungo's "help" during a practice game at camp, driving Mungo into the ground. Flash and Mungo faced off, best friends, now competing for dominance in their relationship. Great, great stuff.

 

-You can pass people cards to emphasize what you're saying about them. Flash was telling Mungo how much he missed him, and how he'd always be there for his friend. I passed Daniel a really high card (Tough) while saying this. Daniel didn't freakin' forget who gave him that card, or why. This completely flavored his play. A little difficult to get into the card passing, but once you grokked it, it was a really powerful little mechanic.

 

-The Players. Wow, what a great group. Rachel (earthenforge) Walton, Daniel Ravipinto, Lisa (drcpunk) Padol and Tony Lower-Basch. Everyone brought something cool to the table, and played hard as heck for four hours straight. The stories we told had the hearts of lions. Thank you, Daniel, for asking me if Flash would give up basketball for his love of Mungo (no, he won't). Thank you, Rachel, for being Flash's beard (yes, he would like to go out for pizza after the game). Thank you, Lisa, for being hurt when coach betrayed you (that's what you get for playing in an unauthorized game). Thank you, Tony, just thank you.</lj></lj>

 

THE BAD

-Some of the explanations of how the cards work are a little obscure, and sometimes it felt like the Desires (character missions for an episode, essentially) didn't fire on all cylinders. These are minor complaints, however, and not game-breaking. Once you do an episode, the card-passing mechanics make sense and the game just sort of sings.

 

THE UGLY

-I played some ugly, ugly scenes. Whether it was the women's basketball coach selling out 'her girls' by training the boys team to beat them, or mercilessly tormenting a nerd in the school hallway, Misery Bubblegum gave me the room I needed to be totally evil. It also gave the other players the chance to be funny, rebellious, naive, and awesome. But that's not ugly, that's perfect.

 

THE VERDICT