Thanks Emily, that's high praise, I shall attempt to live up to it.
Re: Parent/Adult/Child. I'm struggling with this at the moment, I've decided to go back to my collection of Eric Berne books for a rethink.
Here's the problem: if I understand the literature correctly, interaction isn't about all three ego states (Parent/Adult Child) acting in harmony. Instead, only one or two states are active during any given transaction.
Straightforward exchanges involve one state each.
For example: an impassioned, yet logical debate over which RPG has the best system for playing Star Wars - this can be conducted at the Adult-Adult level.
If someone hollers at me for walking on the grass, that's a Parent-Child transaction; I can choose to be a"good" (socially conditioned) child and apologize, or I can be a rebellious child and jump up and down on the grass.
An interesting alternative is that I can reply to the Parent-Child rebuke with an Adult-Adult response: "but it doesn't hurt to walk on the grass, does it?" Although this is a perfectly logical respose, it breaks the pattern: someone who is addressing my Child is expecting a response from the Child.
More complicated scenarios involve two exchanges going on at once. One of these is overt and at te social level, the other is psychological.
There is a great example in Games People Play:
Salesman - "This one is better, but you can't afford it."
Housewife - "That's the one I'll take."
This is ostensibly an Adult-Adult exchange of information, but the salesman is secretly (and deliberately) targetting his victim's Child, because he wants a childish (rebellious) response.
This essay is a long-winded way of saying that if I use all three states as part of the conflict resolution, I may be missing the point.
I think I'm going to pick up again by looking at each character and identifying which of their Conceits or issues are actually "game-playing" behaviour in the psychological sense.
Here is an example: The Drunken Friend has a Conceit that any behaviour is acceptable if you are drunk, This is similar to the "Schlemiel" game from Games People Play
In Schlemiel, one player commits a series of "accidents" (spilling their drink over the hostesss, dropping food on the carpet, pissing on the toilet seat etc.) If their host gets angry with them, then they can feel justified in expressing resentment at their host's lack of forgiveness. If the host accepts their apology, not only do they get to do terrible things, they get forgiven for it - this is the intended "payoff" for the game.
The subtle difference, is that The Drunken Friend can engage in more obvious non-accidental behaviour (for example, staring at cleavage, being late or throwing up into the potted rubber plant) because he has an inbuilt excuse, he's doing it because he's drunk - and he's drinking because he's mourning. Anyone who criticises his behaviour runs the risk of being accused of denying his right to grieve. In real life, this is likely to be enforced, not by the Drunken Friend, but by the other people at the party ("he's going through a difficult patch, don't be so hard on him"). No-one confronts his behaviour because no-one has an interest in doing so; in fact, the Drunken Friend's lack of behaviour serves as a foil to their own "civilised" attitudes.
Bringing this back to game design: I'm thinking about take stuff like this and turn it into a reward system for the game. For example, if the Drunken Friend gets to do something naughty and get away with it, he gets a reward in-game, at the expense of the Host and Hostess. The other characters may also get a small reward.
Andrew: I read that thread a couple of days ago, and I agree absolutely with what you're saying. in The 20' by 20' Room provided much of the inspiration for this game.
Anyway, I'm thinking about a couple of changes to the game. Although the TA stuff is neat, I'm finding it a bit too intrusive to break everything down in strict terms. So I'm going to tone it down a bit - it's still heavily influenced by the ideas, and especially the "games people play" element, but I'm not going to go into such great detail.
I'm stil planning to keep Parent/Adult/Child as the three stats though. Each player gets 6 dice between the three stats (this is predetermined for each character). When you use one of the stats in a conflict, roll all the dice for the stat and pick the best one.
Example: I am using my Parent stat (3 dice) in a conflict, and roll [2,3,5]. My score for the conflict is 5.
Each character has a Fetish which is a source of their strength, and an Issue which weakens them.
Example: The Hostess' Fetish is her own Body, her issue is her Age. The Drunken Friend's Fetish is Drink, his Issue is Grief.
Each character can confront his or her Issue, and if successful they become Invincible. however, to Confront the Issue means that it has to be brought into play, and this weakens the character.
Characters also have Happiness and Courage (similar to previous posts). Players can engage in a number of tactics to attempt to increase or reduce the Happiness or Courage of any of the characters at the table (including their own.)
For example, a player can let their character Praise another character (in the hope of a return favour) or they can attempt to embarrass them instead.
In addition, each character has two or three special Games:
A characer with a Companion has one special Game which they can only target their companion with.
Each character has a Game connected to their Fetish, they cannot target their Companion when playing this game however (characters with no Companion can target anyone with this Game).
All characters have another "Party Game" which they can use against anyone.
Finally, each character has a special Power. The Hostess and Host have control over Food and Wine respectively. Mrs Neighbour can make an inane comment that kills the current conversation (conflict) stone dead. The Drunken Friend is Oblivious and unable to be targeted by particular tactics.
There's more to come, but it's nearly midnight here, so I'll pick up on this some time tomorrow. Comments welcomed, as ever. Good night!
Do you imagine the various Powers being integrated seamlessly in play, or sort of called out? For example, would everyone understand that when Mrs. Neighbor started up about gardening, the conflict was over, or would the player have to declare her intention to use it?
Maybe semantics, but I wonder if Fetish should be Obsession or something, in a game where there is already a sexualized element, Fetish might confuse the issue. Just a thought.
OK, I need to turn thiss into something resembling a finished game!
Here's some more about the structure of the game:
The Dinner Party is split into courses:[list][*]Aperitifs[*]Starter[*]Main Course[*]Dessert[*]After Dinner Drinks
The first and last course have their own special rules. during the Aperitifs course, no food is consumned, and characters cannot launch conflicts. This course is mainly to get the players into the swing of the things. However, all characters have to drink.
During the next three courses, the Hostess gives each player a set number of Food tokens. The Hostess also gets to start with the Conversation token (this indicates who has the "initiative"). The Host gives each player 3 Wine tokens.
Each course is split into "rounds" of conflict. At the start of each round, each player chooses whether to Eat or Speak (the Hostess must Speak during the first round). If you Eat, you cannot take part in this round, but you get to discard a food token. If you Speak, you are in for this round.
(Note: if you finish your Food too early or larte, that's a Faux Pas - more on this later.)
Speaking continues until all layers bow out of the conversation, then a new round begins.
If you have the initiative, you may take one of the following actions:
Praise: Compliment another character, they gain +1 Happiness. You also pass the initiative (Conversation Token) to them. You cannot Praise a character if you have already done so during this course.
Snipe: Bitch at another character, they lose -1 Happiness, and gain the initiative. This is a Faux Pas Game: Initiate one of your character's games (these have special rules)
Small Talk: This is a conflict, (Your Adult stat versus the Target's Adult stat). If you win, you force the other player into small talk. This ends the round unless someone else Interrupts.
Fish for Compliments: Another conflict, roll your Child stat versus the target's Parent Stat, and give them the Initiative. If you win, they must Praise you (which gives you the Initiative straight back.) If you lose, they can do whatever they want with the initiative. Fishing for complements can get you Praise more than once from the same character in a course, but Fishing from the same person more than once in a course is a Faux Pas.
Slander: This dreadful behaviour involves saying something entirely malicious about another character (go to town with this one!): you must pay 3 Courage to initiate this conflict. Roll your Child against the target's Adult. If you win, then they gain a Black Mark and lose 5 Happiness! You also gain 3 Happiness if you sicceed. However, regardless of whether or not you succeed, you will gain a Black Mark yourself.
The following actions can be taken even if you do not have the initiative.
Interrupt: when the player with the initiative declares their action, you may pay 1 Courage to attempt to interrupt the conversation. Roll your Child stat against their Parent stat; if you win, their action is cancelled and you win the
initiative.
Accuse: If another character has just committed a Faux Pas, you may spend 3 Courage to automatically sieze the initiative and confront them. Roll a conflict, your Parent versus their Child. If you win, then the result of their last action is cancelled, you gain 4 Courage and they must either apologize sincerely (paying you 3 Happiness) or they gain a Black Mark (see later.) If you lose the Conflict, you must pay the other player 3 happiness, or you gain a Black Mark yourself.
Drink: Drinking is a free action, the player may either either Sip, Gulp, or Drain their glass. Sipping costs 1 Wine Token, and gains 1 Courage, Gulping converts 2 Wine Tokens into 2 Courage, Draining converts all 3 Wine Tokens into Courage. A charater may drink in order to gain enough Courage to make a challenge. Draining your glass is a Faux Pas
Losing: If a character is reduced to 0 Happiness, then they must leave the room (they can run off to the bathroom, or storm out of the house.) This removes them from the game. If they are married, their spouse must also leave or suffer 1 Black Mark (the Host and Hostess are immune to this rule.)
Black Marks: If a character has 2 Black Marks, the Host can "ask" them to leave the game; if so, that character is removed from play. If a character has 3 Black Masks, any[i] player can ask them to leave. The Drunken Friend is immune to this rule, unless the Host forcibly ejects him.
If either the Host or Hostess gain 3 Black Marks, they cannot be ejected (it's their home) but any other character can choose to leave the party with their dignity intact. This also preserves their current Happiness score intact.
Letting it out of your system.
Each character has a Courage "target": if they reach this, through conversation or alcohol, then they [i]must air their innermost grievances. This automatically interrupts any other action, and the character is inchallengeable (Invincible!) while they get it out of their system. Once they have done so, then they are removed from play (leave, break down in tears, or are chucked out) but they have won a major victory!
Winning
If a player manages to get their character to air their grievance, then they win a major victory.
The player whose character ends with the highest Happiness score wins a minor victory
Any players who have to leave the game without airing their grievance score a major defeat.
This is a bit patchy, but I'm getting there! Rules for each character's Games and Powers are needed, along with the character sheets themselves. Also need to expand the Faux Pas, and include rules for "drfunk". I'm going to try and get a draft for critique out for the weekend.
In the meantime, please let me know what you think of the game so far, I thirst for your feedback!