Ok, so Friday night was the monthly Girl Game. Currently, we’re using the Bridge System (the artist formerly known as the Two-Die System)*, created by the Husband What Rules, Jordan and Chris, to play a Shadowrun-esque sort of game.
The characters in this game are Betty (the dwarven baker and creator of bread golems – Loree), Elliott Mephistopheles (Cat-Shaman and omnisexual – Ariel), Nikki “Rock” Short (8 ft Troll and fortune-teller – Tammy), Switch (gremlin tech-geek – Julz), Brian (anti-social human, tech geek – Stax), and Mac (Corporate-assassin/Necromancer – Leslie). The first game saw them chasing the theif who had stolen the ink required to write the name of God (which God I have not asked) on parchment to animate bread golems, who turned out to be a houngoun, and when a “doorway” in the basement opened, they called down a laserstrike from orbit on the house.
The second game involved torturing said houngoun to death in the bathroom of Betty’s coffeeshop/bakery, and the acquiring of Mac, the assassin. The torturing really wasn’t for information so much as for revenge.
The third game (this Friday) included trying to close the doorway, sacrificing one person, fucking that sacrifice up, and having to find another victim, a necromantically animated fog machine, a zombie chicken, and the realization that our Corporate Assassin and the Troll are the only ones with even a vestigial conscience. This was evidenced by the fact that they were the only ones bothered by the plan to obtain sacrificial victims by ordering pizza.
Yes, my delicate prairie flowers were all for ordering pizza and sacrificing the delivery boy. I believe the argument between Elliot and Mac about the ethics of sacrificing the pizza boy was what made me lay my head down on the table and laugh until I cried. We are big into the dark humor in the Girl Game.
These women are probably the most bloodthirsty gamers with which I have ever played. Ever. Boy-gamers, even the Grognard-iest, got nothing on my girls. Last month we played a Steam-punky sort of game, again with Necromancers (because what fun is killing things if you can’t get them to do your bidding?), which involved discussing the killing and re-animating of someone in front of them while they were conscious, and the debate about whether or not effectively pithing them would give the Necromancer the same amount of control or if they really had to completely die…
Yeah, gentler sex…
*One of the reason we use the Bridge System so much is that it cuts WAY down on the rules lawyering. Really, it’s to save my sanity more than anything else.
Geek Girls Rule!!! 
What? I was hungry for pizza? Besides, I just deal in the tech… the meatbags have never been nice to me since the change. – Switch
Every person thinks their group is the most bloodthirsty group there is. This is what’s gaming is about 😉
Do people usually live through pithing?
Hey, Ogre actually made yucky faces and said they disturbed HIM. And he runs DRYH on a regular basis. He is also the only GM I have ever punched for a plot twist.
Gentler sex? Feh!
As I think on writing up the Bridge System (or the closely-related but more trad-game Trait System), I realize that the one area which I would like to revise considerably is the system of Consequences. I’d like to bring it more into line with my original inspiration, by changing the effects in a more structured way for some of the common ones (or at least providing clear examples). Having an actual copy of Tales of the Arabian Nights, instead of relying on vague memory, should help with that. I’d also like to make damage and durability a little more structured (though still without numbers on the character sheet, and still easy enough to not require tables or anything like that), by adapting something from Magic Realm to the purpose.
On the subject of cruelty and bloodthirstiness, has the Husband What Rules told you about Japhet the Lame? (I won’t speak for the others in that party, but their players can speak up for themselves if they’d like.) I imagine that if I’d had more understanding of Burning Wheel at character creation, he’d have been much more effective in his misanthropy, but his intentions speak volumes.
Hi,
That Bridge System-thingie sounds interesting. Is there anywhere I can find a copy of the system?
I’ll see if I can’t get Ogre to let me post a link to it, or email it out to folks if they ask.
Chris, I don’t think a more structured consequences system is going to do anything but bog it down. What we like is the flexibility to make the consequences really fit the situation, or provide the biggest laugh.
Yeah, I know what you mean, and what I wrote isn’t exactly what I actually have in mind. I’m not coming up with a good way to describe it, but you’ll see what I mean. I think “clear examples” better describes what I meant, pointing to how particular Consequences affect some things but not others. Also, I want to get rid of the artificial “five Consequences” rule in favor of something more “organic”, as it were (which I am imagining that most people already do, but the way it’s currently written just bothers me).
I am with Switch on this one…
The Fleshpods are not my job. I just NUKE IT FROM ORBIT…. IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE. *ahem*.
I never claimed to like *people*.