Use the #ScreenPlayRPG hashtag to help maintain the hype!
It’s been a couple of weeks since anything for the ScreenPlay playtest has graced this page and it’s not because everything’s gone quiet. Far from the truth, the finishing touches are going into Version 1.4 of The Rehearsal Edition with hopes to release it by early next week to everyone who downloaded this free PDF from DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.
600+ downloads later and we’ve collected a fantastic group of avid playtesters are not only giving this game a run for their money, they’re creating new stories, settings, and genres to play. Playtest surveys are still rolling in with two additional unlocked treatments putting it at over 100 pages. The shining crown of this playtesting is the activity going on in the ScreenPlayers Guild, our online G+ community. Here’s a sample of the most recent discussions and events.
Ironbound Play-By-Post: Already into its fourth scene, this rendition of ScreenPlay’s dark fantasy tale of witch hunters features Derya (the scout), Gareth (the blade), Drachen (the archanist), Philip (the shield bearer) and Lyonesse (their new commander). If you’re looking for an idea on what makes this game tick, be sure to check out the Ironbound PbP thread.
Necronomicon Stories: Based on an idea created by one of our playtesters, we’re experimenting with a Lovecraftian tale of monstrous terror… in the future! The ball has only begun to bounce on this upcoming story and with only two Writers currently signed up, there could be room for a couple more.
Escape From The X: The third treatment recently unlocked from playtest surveys, this sci/fi-horror story takes place in Mystical Throne Entertainment’s Mercenary Breed. The short and sweet of it: mercenaries hired to deliver an alien prisoner to a secret installation find themselves desperately outnumbered when someone mysterious releases every inmate to wreck havoc and spill as much blood as possible. Look for it in Version 1.4 next week!
Optional Rules For Building Potentials: With many core mechanics locked down, some optional rules are being considered. Such as building your dice roll’s value based on the number of details you apply in a scene.
Kickstarting It Up A Notch: Finally, we’re also looking at Kickstarter to help elevate the finished version of this project. With playtest surveys averaging a score of 4.6 out of 5 and ideas bouncing around for a small product line built using ScreenPlay, all options are on the table right now.
This and more is taking place at the ScreenPlayers Guild. Join us and see what all the fuss is about before the cool kids see what we’re doing and want to make it a crowd.
What a brilliant, crazy week it has been! Our first week of playtesting for ScreenPlay has now moved into the second week and the results have been helpful, insightful, encouraging, and so much more. There’s a risk in throwing out something unfinished to the void and hoping that most of it will stick to the wall. So far, it seems those of you who have decided to help us out have really latched onto it.
Here’s a brief bullet point update on what’s transpired over the past week.
Version 1.1 of the Rehearsal Edition is averaging 4.4 out of 5 on our surveys
A lot of terrific comments have been shared on the same surveys, as well as some constructive feedback. On Tuesday, October 26th, Version 1.2 of the Rehearsal Edition was updated to everyone who has downloaded the original PDF on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. The primary focus was a revised approach to Act Two: How To Play using a more traditional approach to mechanics presentation and character creation, along with some modifications to milestones and the additional of character hooks.
The current number of playtest points awarded sits at 11 as of the time of this writing, meaning we’re only 4 more points away from unlocking Nightfall, a modern day superhero story of multiple people acting as a single superhero/vigilante.
Page views to this site for October have tripled the previous highest month and the month isn’t even finished yet.
On the ScreenPlayers Guild G+ Community, we’re getting ready to start a play-by-post rendition of Ironbound, the dark fantasy treatment provided in Version 1.1 of the playtest. If you have yet to join the community, feel free to join in. It’s a great opportunity to see the game in progress and laying down the foundations for how Directors and Writers can set up their own take on a story.
Fifteen weeks remain and the wheels are turning faster than ever. Huge thanks goes out to everyone who has joined in the effort with more than just enthusiasm and has shown this tale is far from over. And remember to keep using the #ScreenPlayRPG hashtag to help get the word out and fill out those surveys to collect those playtest points. Now let’s close out this post with a trio of gracious comments from surveys completed this past week.
The cover for ScreenPlay: The Rehearsal Edition, by Jeff Brown.
Let the games begin!
After two years of development and three months of writing, re-writing, and sweating, ScreenPlay: The Rehearsal Edition [will be] available for free on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. Aside from putting the first draft of this unique, public playtest edition of our upcoming storytelling RPG, you can also learn everything about the game in our new and expanded ScreenPlay pages.
Get the basics on how the game works on the Learn To ScreenPlay page and see how the pieces fall into place before downloading your free copy;
Unlock the secret of this game’s unique rewards and how this playtest works like a Kickstarter campaign on our Playtest Points page;
Finally, explore the dark secrets of Ironbound, the first treatment for ScreenPlay where the Writers take on the role of these elite witch hunters tasked with protecting the kingdom of Alduire from all forms of magick and rituals.
The time is here, so starting click, start reading and start writing your next story with ScreenPlay.
ScreenPlay: The Rehearsal Edition launches October 20, 2015.
If you’re reading this post immediately after it’s been published, there’s only one more week until you can stop reading about what ScreenPlay will be about and try it for yourself. But it’s even better if you’re reading this post AFTER publication because that means the wait will be even less or not at all. Patience is for suckers.
Stories are about more than pacing, action, drama, and more. Without characters, stories are nothing more than descriptions without meaning, actions without purpose, and tension without resolution. Characters are what make stories captivating and connect with the audience. Part of what latches us onto a character is their growth and development as people, whether they learn to overpower their enemies physically or their deepest fears. If a character remains the same at the end of a story as they were in the beginning, the audience loses interest in them and that is why such development remains an important part of ScreenPlay‘s characters too. But how?
So glad you asked. And even if you didn’t, this next instalment of Learn To ScreenPlay’s gonna talk about it anyway through milestones.
Developing A Character, Rewarding A Writer
The key to a successful story in ScreenPlay is moving the story forward by working together with your fellow Writers and the Director, using the material provided to create a logical and exciting tale of heroes, villains, and the people caught between their struggles. As Writers must tell the story through the eyes of their characters, it only makes sense for an experience system common in RPGs to reward players through the development of their characters as it relates to the story and for doing so co-operatively with their fellow players. Milestones are points awarded to Writers for not only playing the game and keeping the story moving, but for doing so in a unique and engaging fashion based on what they’ve created with their characters, be they leads or supporting.
Milestones are handed out by the Director at the end of a scene as they relate to its goals and character motivations, as well as excellent gameplay, use of descriptions, and anything else the Director feels made the scene a memorable experience. The guidelines for awarding milestones are fairly loose as this is a game built on improvisation, but many treatments that will be available in the Rehearsal Edition will showcase some examples for handing out milestones. For example, in the Tracking The Scarab Witch scene in Ironbound (a dark fantasy story of holy warriors tasked with slaying all warlocks and witches), Writers are awarded 1 milestone whenever they can describe their lead character(s) utilizing clues from the previous scene where local village children are killed or captured using the skills and traits established through each character’s potentials and their primary role.
While milestones are awarded in response to character descriptions, these little babies are handed to the Writer playing them. Regardless of which character earned them those milestones, Writers can redeem them for any character in their pool, even those later brought into their fold. The key is milestones are points handed out to the Writers to make their characters stronger and more prominent in the story.
Beefing Up The Heroes
Milestones can be spent over the course of the story to create one of two types of effects: immediate bonuses or long-term increases. To be specific, there are four ways milestones can be spent to improve the chances of survival for any character under a Writer’s control as they exist in Version 1.1 of the Rehearsal Edition.
Increased Maximum Stamina: A Writer can redeem 2 milestones to increase a character’s maximum Stamina by 1.
Conflict Re-Roll: A Writer can redeem 1 milestone to re-roll one of their conflict rolls immediately after it is rolled and before complications (if any) are applied. Whatever the new result, it must be honours and multiple milestones can be redeemed for the same conflict roll.
Step Bonus: A Writer can redeem 1 milestone to gain a one-time +1 step bonus for one of her characters. This must be redeemed on the same turn the step bonus is applied and can only be done once per scene.
Additional Resources: A Writer can redeem 3 milestones to permanently gain an additional resource slot for one of her characters.
Playtesting to date has revealed a lot of Writers plan to use their milestones to increase a lead character’s maximum Stamina, but the temptation to make that suddenly important conflict re-roll complicates this character growth. Which is exactly what they were intended for, but this point assignment is one of the key ingredients for moving forward with a public playtest. How quickly can characters grow in your average ScreenPlay? What is the average number of milestones awarded per scene? Per session? Per story? These are the answer we’re hoping players like YOU can help answer.
While there may be another class in this series of lectures we call Learn To ScreenPlay, this is the final lesson for now. There is only one other way you can learn about this game and that is to download the completely free, totally-up-your-own-discretion download of ScreenPlay: The Rehearsal Edition. In the meantime, we invite you to join in the ScreenPlayers Guild, a Google+ community dedicated to nothing but creating a discussion on what works, what doesn’t, and how to make it better. Hope to see you there.
Escape From The X: The third treatment recently unlocked from playtest surveys, this sci/fi-horror story takes place in Mystical Throne Entertainment’s Mercenary Breed. The short and sweet of it: mercenaries hired to deliver an alien prisoner to a secret installation find themselves desperately outnumbered when someone mysterious releases every inmate to wreck havoc and spill as much blood as possible. Look for it in Version 1.4 next week!
Broken Ruler Games 