thread: 2011-10-03 : Murderous Ghosts playtest
On 2011-10-03, jenskot wrote:
Played. Died in 27 minutes!
Terry GMed. I played. The 27 minutes included reading the rules.
We printed out the "murderghosts-bothforcutting" version, double sided, cut it in half, and stapled the booklets together.
Although it's obvious now, I didn't realize the GM had a BEFORE PLAY section so I immediately went to START and started the game.
I didn't know exactly what an urban spelunker was. Terry explained it. Otherwise I would have looked it up to be sure.
Terry had no problem describing and GMing. Granted she's an experienced GM but as a player I kept wondering "is she just making this up or is it in the book." It was seamless. Terry went into GMing blind (no pre-reading).
The GM playing cards face down, the player playing cards face up, and flipping through the booklets, not knowing what was next, was creepy. I felt a little exposed as a player. Rolling dice would have detracted from the feel.
When I turned to 1 (saying turn to 1 out loud was awkward, we kept saying "page 1" instead of "1") the game asked me to choose what I thought the worst thing going on was. Nothing immediately on the list seemed right, but then page 1 says, "you can ask the GM questions before you choose" which is brilliant. I did, and then the answer became really obvious.
I chose "Madness. Turn to 7." The game said, "Draw. On turn 1, this is a free draw: count it as a high hand." That was confusing. Is this turn 1? When is turn 2? What is a free draw? The confusion only lasted for 30 seconds or so, then I followed the instructions under "high hand." But now I realize? I skipped a step! It said the hand counted as high, so I completely skipped and didn't read "High hand or low hand: Tell the GM who is your most important role model."
Terry was impressed how the rules followed the fiction, and covered most of the fictional situations we roleplayed.
I drew. High hand. My hands couldn't stop shaking. I decided its hands were the worst part as they did awful things to me. I drew. Busted. Panic! Drew again. Second Bust in a row. Dead!
Terry was caught off guard that I died so suddenly. She was a little disappointed she never drew any cards after her first face down draw.
We both enjoyed the game. Not at all what we expected? in a good way. I LOVED that at any time I could stop playing and turn to page 22. I'm curious to do so, just to see what happens.
We will play again!
