The Actual Play: As the Game Lies

Back in June of 2014, I attended my very first gaming convention, when I discovered the joys and camaraderie of tabletop RPGs.

Fear The Con 7, a production of the gaming podcast Fear The Boot, was the setting for my first foray into experiencing the world of role playing games, and I had such a blast that since then, I've been trying to introduce people to new games. Getting an RPG started is no easy task, especially when you're surrounded by people that have never done it before, and your work schedule doesn't leave you with very many blocks of 4-6 hours of free time during the week.

But I'm glad I was able to take in that weekend. I wanted to remember it beyond that weekend, so I recorded the game we played in the Improv for Roleplayers workshop that I ran, a game called News Hole.

Written by Jason Morningstar, creator of Fiasco, and someone else who really loves weblinks (why does that page even have a contents box?), News Hole is an improv-heavy RPG for anywhere from 4 to 8 players and explores family relationships and friendships in the world of newspaper publishing and electronic information. Each scene corresponds to up to 17 written statements that could be conveyed by one or more of the characters in each scene. You can use less than 17 scenes, if you like, and for this game, we used 10.

Anyway, I decided to record the game for an Actual Play broadcast. For those of you that are writers, you can see the potential for collaboration leading to great stories. Or in this case, a soap-opera setup/cliffhanger.

I enjoyed my first RPG experience, and this Actual Play is a reminder of the fun I had that weekend. I hope you enjoy it.



There Is No Box.
Zach

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