Become a fan of Star Trek: Entanglement

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Oct 16, 2019 5:26 pm
If you love to read along with public games and have ever wished you had some way to show your appreciation for the players, or even have some influence over aspects of the story, you need to become a fan of Star Trek: Entanglement!

We're using the Primetime Adventures (PTA) game system to create a "show" taking place within the general time period covered by ST:TNG. PTA utilizes a "fan mail" mechanic that is intended as feedback between players, essentially saying, "I like this thing you did, and I hope you do more things like that."

We're tweaking this mechanic to allow actual fans - people who are reading the game - to send fan mail to players. This is more than just a feedback mechanism, however. Players can use fan mail they've accumulated to "buy" extra cards during conflict draw-downs, as well as spending it to bring their character into a scene they weren't originally assigned to (when they have a sudden inspiration about something cool they could add to the scene).

So by sending fan mail to players, you'll actually be giving them resources they can use to influence the outcome of a conflict or change the way a scene plays out.

We've just barely begun the "pilot" episode, so catching up will be quick and easy. Tune in now!

Useful links:
Pilot episode (Act I)
How to send Fan Mail
Show Concept thread
Cast of Characters threa
Our brief PTA Explainer
Oct 16, 2019 5:29 pm
As a member of the fan club, I reccomend this show.
Oct 17, 2019 7:27 pm
I really like the concept of this. I want to improve my RP skills, but there's very little feedback in any of the games I'm playing (not saying that as a criticism, they've not been set up with that style approach).

Not sure if I like Star Trek (as an RPG setting - I love it from a futurism point-of-view) enough to follow along, but will see how it goes.
Oct 17, 2019 7:40 pm
discourage says:
Not sure if I like Star Trek (as an RPG setting - I love it from a futurism point-of-view) enough to follow along, but will see how it goes.
It's a fair point - it's hard to pull off, I think, in a normal RPG without lots of issues, particularly with regard to players of higher-ranking characters having more power in-game.

But that's the beauty of PTA - all the players are writing the whole story as a unit, according to what is called for dramatically. We constantly have to ask, "If this were a real show, what would happen here?"

In fact, we just had an important debrief discussion on our Discord yesterday about the outcome of the most recent scene, which was pretty harsh for one of the characters. In a traditional TTRPG, it might have felt like a loss of agency for the player. Approaching this as a bunch of people in the writers' room deciding what should happen to all the characters is a vastly different perspective.
Oct 19, 2019 4:00 pm
Player here!

I've been gaming for a good 14 years, and I really like how this changes the pacing. In light of the harsh scene outcome, we were able to turn it into a delightful character moment for one of the people involved, showing just how stressful this mission could be.

I love, so far, that things that would be secrets in a normal PBP setting are on the table now. I'm a storyteller, and there have been times in other games where I've told a player "hey, I don't want X and Y to know this, but man, if you could touch this nerve, it'd make for such a cool story when it's revealed later." Here we can plan that from the start. And on our side, sure, it may look like nobody's getting surprised anymore. But it's rewarding to know we can really foreshadow and pace things for people who aren't in the literal "writer's room."
Oct 28, 2019 3:57 pm
*sheepishly bumps the thread*

Come read shenanigans have some control over our game! We'd love to have you!
Oct 28, 2019 7:30 pm
Come one, come all. This is a different PBP than you are used to. Drop by and be a fan!

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