Post game discussion

So, whether or not you intend to post an epilogue for your characters, I'd like to take a bit to discuss how the game was, for you.

What worked well for you with All Outta Bubblegum, and what didn't work well?

What did you like about how this game went, and what didn't you like?

I enjoyed it. I hadn't expected it to be so crazy, but it was fun. Not something I'd want to do a lot, but I would do it again.

I think you did a really good job reacting to the characters' sometimes contradicting actions.

I found the contradicting actions, wild events and unpredictability of outcomes to be a bit frustrating. I think that's because I had different expectations for the game than what the game actually is. For what it is, it's an interesting tool for RPing some genuinely chaotic fun, but it's very hard to keep the narrative corralled (the game really does encourage you to keep upping the ante, after all).

It was fun, once I figured out how it worked and how it was going to go down. I did find, though, the conflicting player actions and the different visions of the scene everyone was working under to be difficult to manage (which was why I wouldn't post for a while, because I wasn't exactly sure what the shape of the scene was anymore because there had been several contradictory descriptions by different players as compared to the GM). I took that to be a side effect of the ramping up of the chaos, it was getting difficult to follow.

I don't know if I would play it again. I am glad I have played it though.

Personally, the zany gameplay and the way the story took shape exactly matched what I expected from a game of All Outta Bubblegum. As I mentioned before, for me the difficulty (and to an extent, frustration) came from me not being able to nail down Saul's goals. That's on me. Thanks for this! I'd play again. :-)

Will post more when i am back at a propere keyboard. But the general jist is that I had a good time. It's not a style I would play frequently, but the occasional one-shot has good fun potential.

Speaking for myself, I enjoyed the game. I like a bit of silliness from time to time, and this system is really geared for that. I liked having NPCs that I played as PCs, particularly as one of them (Chhun) kept failing his rolls. I also liked being able to incorporate little character bits into the larger narrative, such as the giant Dust Bunny.

But I don't know that it was a good fit for Play by Post. Play by Post, in my experience, is particularly well-suited to role-playing and character development, neither of which is particularly supported by All Outta Bubblegum, which lends itself much more toward absurd action and comic improv. Usually when you play All Outta Bubblegum, the players declare what they want to do, and then the GM tells them whether to roll mundane or kick-ass to succeed. That back-and-forth dynamic doesn't really exist in PbP, where each move turns around in a day or more, and that seemed to leave you players in the sad position of always having to decide on your own what sort of roll you were attempting, without any feedback from me or the rest of the group. For similar reasons, direct character conflict didn't work particularly well, because the rhythm of PbP makes it nearly impossible for the GM to react to each player's comment or move before the next player reacts.

Without all that immediacy, the game can be frustrating if you fail at many consecutive rolls, as Candi did for half of the game. I think the game really requires a faster response time, either real-time or much closer to it, to really shine, because that waiting can really slog if your character is not able to do what you'd like it to do. While I did enjoy the game, I think it would probably work in chat even better for distributed players like ourselves.

Finally, I loved the inventiveness and imagination on display; you are all great players and I was delighted to have shared this gaming experience with you. This game frequently put a smile on my face through your interactions and inspired choices. Thank you.

Ok. Back at a real keyboard -- and here's my promised post.

I enjoyed the gameplay -- I was a little uncertain when I was doing something mundane versus suitably kickass -- so I think that tended to have me try and do either very simple things, or very outrageous things (my uncertainty with the boundary would mean I wouldn't try and find the fine line).

Like Candi -- I think having player characters operating at odds of one another felt a little out of control. I can imagine this would work better in a real time environment than Play by Post -- I think a more cooperative outcome/feel would go better. e.g. Bubble Gum Zombie Apocalypse or something like that. This way we wouldn't be inclined or figuring out how to narrate working against someone's interests.

Lastly, the environment and the pictures were all nicely done -- but I found it hard to get really into an Old West theme. I remember playing a bit of Boot Hill back in the day, which mostly involved gunfights with scatterguns -- but I guess the period is probably not one of overriding interest to me. :) Good to know that now.

Interesting that you say that about Western RPGs; though I own a copy of Boot Hill, I've never played it. The only western RPG I ever played in was a Wild West game that was played entirely straight, aside from the fact that all the characters were anthropomorphic animals; the system's name escapes me now. Oh, that's gonna bug me, not remembering that. That was a tremendously fun game; I remember being astonished at how much I enjoyed the RPG, despite the whole "playing humanoid bunnies" thing.

I'm going to 'withdraw' from the game in an effort to remove it from my forum list. :)

Sorry - I'll just close it.