After the brawl, I started yelling about the bomb to cause enough panic to escape past Ultraman. I think it worked well enough 
Okay, hereâs a few thoughts on the Garbo character/ secondary characters in general.
I think there are 3 main areas characters can be strong/weak. Goals/plotlines, connections to other characters, and stuff that other characters want (ie information, items or special skills). A character can be weak in one of these areas but still a good character if they make up for it in the other areas. Secondary characters will usually be weaker in the goal/plotline area as we donât want them to be too important to a plotline in case theyâre not played. So we need to boost the other two areas, preferably in ways that would open possibilities for the character to get involved in main plots without making the character required for the main plots.
In my opinion, Garbo was weak in all three areas. Her goals were rather limited - the most interesting one was essentially a passive goal as it relied on Woodruff acting a certain way, and if he didnât then it was a no go. She had barely any connections to other people, and those she did have were quite shallow. No items, no special powers and not much information - I shared what I had but nothing that really interested anyone.
Compare this to a character like Indiana Jones, who had a kick ass ability, a special whip ability, connections with others including ones that got him involved outside his main plots and you can see the difference.
The easiest way I can see to improve Garbo would be to increase her connections to other people, especially outside the film sub-plot. Currently she has barely any connections to anyone. These wouldnât need to be people she already knows either, but could be people that want to know her - she was a very famous actress during this time period and was regarded as one of the most beautiful women alive. It should be easy to throw in a romantic sub plot. I believe there was a character that had the goal to get Garboâs autograph? That could easily be expanded that to wanting to actively pursue her, and you could add a second person with the same goal for a triangle that could add some interest. Including a goal for Garbo that she is looking for a new love interest would also encourage her to be active in this area herself.
Clarke Gable wasnât played, so Iâm not sure how much his presence would have added to the character. While disliking each other can add a roleplaying element, if there is nothing further to go on it can be a bit of a dead end, especially with such a large number of people as itâs easy to end up ignoring each other. Did Gable have any secrets that Garbo could have uncovered and embarrassed him with? What about adding a secret that Garbo has that doesnât want revealed? Iâm not sure what the various reporters were like, but would one of them be interested in uncovering scandals involving actors (Given there were a number of scandalous actors and actresses around?). If there was also a reporter involved then even if Gable wasnât played then Garbo would still be wary of her secret getting out.
For a secret perhaps sheâs covering up a lesbian affair? Garbo did have a close female friend whom she cut out of her life after the woman claimed to have been intimately involved with her. I canât remember the details but I think this was later after Garbo retired but I donât think the details really matter. Then youâd need to have someone else know about the secret so there is a chance of it getting out. What about one of the Naziâs knowing about it, and be willing to blackmail Garbo into helping them with one of their plots (I really have no idea what they were trying to achieve but you get the idea). Then Garbo would have to decide whether to allow herself to be blackmailed or risk exposure that would damage her career. Or perhaps a third option of finding someone to help her deal with the blackmailer.
Also what about a special ability allowing her to use her feminine wiles and beauty to distract men for a certain length of time? It wouldnât be hugely useful to her for her own goals but means she could be really useful to other peopleâs plots if they can get her to help.
Anyway, sorry for the rather long post. Iâm not really sure whether any or all of these specific ideas would work given there was an awful lot of the game that I didnât really see. But I do think that the overall concept applied to the characters that were lacking would add to the game.
Cool, good ideas. Itâs possible we or someone else will run it again, so great to know.
In the Wellington run she convinced the lonely Woodruff to turn her into a vampire, and they lived together happily for ever and ever and ever after.
She also approached Frankenstein, who I was playing, and asked about immortality. I was so focused on bringing people back from the dead that I didnât really think of it in terms of immortality, but it probably was.
I think while the player and the character are really important, thereâs also a certain amount of dumb luck involved. Who you bump into, how theyâre playing their character, and so on makes a big difference.
I think that all the characters had a certain level of âright place, right timeâ involved and that the more people you accosted with relevant questions, the more likely you were to hear or overhear the answers you needed. I donât know whether it was someone elses âthings youâve heardâ or Woodruffe himself, who started the rumors flying around about him never getting up before sunset and that coke was similar to blood, but without overhearing someone elseâs conversation on my way past, I would probably not have figured out that he was the vampire. Especially because at first, the professor with the occult lens refused to help me! Argh!
I was kickass,which was secret, so no one sought me out in that capacity and other than that didnât appear to have connections to anyone elseâs goals, but I managed to help a few people just because I had talked to other people they needed and was able to point them in the right direction.
I have to admit, hearing about the convoluted and multi-layered plots that some characters had, Iâm a little envious. Iâm fairly sure that Bette Davis is also a secondary character, but I had a blast anyway.
I agree that a large part of these sort of games involve luck and right place, right time. That why I think itâs so important that secondary characters have enough to do. I donât think a secondary character is necessarily an inferior character, but they do run a higher risk of turning into a dud than primary characters do. My rule when writing characters in general is that assume at least one of their plots will be a non starter due to either other characters not being played, or players just missing key information. Does that character still have enough to keep them occupied? As a general rule, a big plotline goal (take over the world/save the world etc) is maybe the equivilent to 2 or 3 smaller goals. So if primary characters have 3 goals, secondary characters should have maybe 5 goals. Itâs much better for people to be too busy than not busy enough.
I suspect that the film sub plots in general were among the weakest plotlines, though I havenât read most of the other characters so I could be wrong. If I were to run this game Iâd take a long look at those characters, and also some of the âsidekickâ characters (including wives) and see if they can be beefed up a little. I know I wasnât the only person to end up being a bit bored but obviously itâs easier for me to comment on Garbo than on the others.
I hope Iâm not coming across as being too negative because I recognise that writing a game for this many players is a huge undertaking and overall I thought that the writers did a really good job. The majority of the players seemed to have a great time and so the game was undoubtably a success. But I did think it was worthwhile to share my experiences in what I hope is a constructive way, both so if the game was ever run again it could be improved and also so that other people who write games could learn from it. Iâve written a number of roleplaying games in the past and I know that I had the exact same issues when writing secondary characters and I learned more from the players that didnât enjoy the games as much than I did from the ones that loved them. I feel that a large part of any roleplaying community is learning from each other in order to improve everyoneâs enjoyment.
Both Garbo and Davis were seemingly more possible to drop than characters like Capone, Ardath Bay, Edith Keeler, or Ollie James because a lot of other characters had plot hinging on those ones. But Iâd say Edith, while subject to a lot of attention, had quite a passive role in the sense that lots of people wanted something from her but her main (implicit) goal was to survive (a goal that most characters share anyway), while her explicit goal was to spread peace, which is a pretty fuzzy goal. And Ollie, while theoretically crucial because she had the bomb, was in practice not nearly as relevant to outcomes as say Davis, because Ollie chose not to plant the bomb whereas Davis chose to stake a vampire because it might have killed her daddy.
I guess the key to a busy Garbo (as presently written) would have been following the immortality plot up with every character there and then maneuvering to work past obstacles. As plot goes itâs true that sheâs is a little on the thin side, in terms of wanting things from people and them wanting things from her. So sheâd have to milk that key goal for all its worth to get some action. There was information that she could have totally nuked Gable with too, so that was definitely a piece of plot lost with the missing character. Great ideas on expanding her role, I think tying into the Nazis would work well, perhaps it could also involve them looking for actresses for their propaganda as sheâs the perfect candidate. If Frankensteinâs character wasnât written to be so secretive about his research (he wants to tell everyone but isnât allowed to, which is something I struggled with in the first run) then that would be an alternative approach for Garboâs goal. The feedback youâre giving is exactly what I, for one, was after and Iâd be interested to hear about the other problematic characters too.
I think the most missed absent character was probably Dick Tracy, and you wouldnât necessarily think it from his character sheet. All he had was Kick Ass and a thin lead to follow, but the mere fact that heâs a law agent surrounded by villains would have made him a very busy character and a valuable ally to Elliot Ness, who badly needed one.
Sorry Ness Old boy, but Algy and I did give it the old RFC try 
It was great how Ness roped in any available whitehats to help make an arrest, and how they went along with it. I wondered whether Imhotep could have got a lot further if heâd roped in more blackhats & undead, because he was suffering from being outnumbered when he assaulted those camping out in the Egyptian exhibition room.
EDIT: and further to Imhotep, it would have been better if he could do the ceremony any time in a half-hour or even 1-hour period, rather than having to do it at a specific time. That would have made his enemiesâ vigilance more worthwhile. As it happened, we told him he could try again as he had âgot the time wrongâ the first time.
I felt rather unsure about what exactly I was supposed to do as the captain. I realised once I read the sheet that being captain meant I was light on plot, but I would have liked a little more something.
I definitely agree about the âright time, right placeâ - I had no idea how I was supposed to use my cryptography skill. I hardly talked to any of the gangsters, I wasnât very connected to them according to my sheet.
I think your main plot could have been followed up by talking to the US or English representitives about defecting to their countries. In the first run, the captain (and I think Eckener too) defected to the US and took the Hindenburg along, declaring it a US ship. But yes, itâs one of the thinner characters. I imagine the writers figured the captain would be deluged with people wanting things, being the authority onboard.
Would it have given you more to do if the captain had explicitly been the arbitrator of all questions of law on the airship? A lot of legal questions were raised in play.
And for that matter the only wedding celebrant aboard? Traditionally, captains can act as celebrants on their ships. Have a celebrant aboard might also have stimulated more marriage talk in the romance plots, and if you had the right to allow or deny marriages (and people had reasons to want to marry onboard) that could have been a relevant ability.
EDIT: the captain also had an implicit goal to work against the Nazis. I think the Nazis were less prominent in this run, but that may have just been because they were less visible as a group without swastika armbands.
EDIT 2: there were three characters with cryptography, and none of them were connected to the gangsters or authorities. It was really up to the law characters to come looking for people with that skill, because they wanted the book decyphered. Or people who wanted Capone out of the way.
I talked to Roosevelt about moving to the US, and he said it shouldnât be a problem. I didnât think as far as to actually declare the Hindenburg a US ship and move right then.
Hmm, yeah being the arbitrator of all questions of law on the airship would have given me more to do. And having everyone know I could be a wedding celebrant.
I didnât notice any Nazi activity on board, so I didnât see any need to work against them.
[quote=âAnastrielâ]Clarke Gable wasnât played, so Iâm not sure how much his presence would have added to the character.[/quote]In the original run, he was very active about thoroughly trashing Garboâs reputation. âI hear she minces up rabbit kidneys and smears them on her face three times a dayâŚâ sort of thing. The character I was playing took a dislike to him, and passed on the dirt she had to Garbo, which gave her some ammunition against him.
Thanks for the commentary. Itâs hard to design against the element of pot luck - if a character is missing, or theyâre just not interested in their goals, it can make life very hard for the people who were expected to be their antagonists or needed their help. Iâll definitely remember your advice next time I write a larp.
[quote=âRyan Paddyâ] And for that matter the only wedding celebrant aboard? Traditionally, captains can act as celebrants on their ships. Have a celebrant aboard might also have stimulated more marriage talk in the romance plots, and if you had the right to allow or deny marriages (and people had reasons to want to marry onboard) that could have been a relevant ability.
EDIT: the captain also had an implicit goal to work against the Nazis. I think the Nazis were less prominent in this run, but that may have just been because they were less visible as a group without swastika armbands.
[/quote]
I used the fact the Captain could marry people onboard. If Valkyrieâs Intended Groom hadnât âFallen illâ (Run off to a 21st) Iâm sure she could have noosed him into a Shotgun wedding by the end of the nightâŚ
As for the Nazi thing, they really needed Goals. Or if we had them, they certainly didnât appear on my Character sheet anywhere, or not in a âthis is a really important thingâ way if they were. Valkyrie had Nazis that she knew, and was apparently a Nazi herself, but that seemed to be as far as it went. She got asked to steal something from Indiana Jones at one point, but got thoroughly confused, as she was a pilot, not a thief.
Ian and I caught wind of that and were prepared to take her up to international airspace.
Ian and I caught wind of that and were prepared to take her up to international airspace. [/quote]
I know! I heard about that⌠Thanks!
⌠Jeeves asked me at one point if there were parachutes aboard. Now I know why. 
It would have been cool if there were character goals involving taking the ships to particular places around New York, seeing we had the simulator to do it with. Then characters could have tried to talk the captain into their desired destinations.
[quote=âRyan Paddyâ]⌠Jeeves asked me at one point if there were parachutes aboard. Now I know why.
It would have been cool if there were character goals involving taking the ships to particular places around New York, seeing we had the simulator to do it with. Then characters could have tried to talk the captain into their desired destinations.[/quote]
He asked Algy and I if we had some on board too 
Goring and Strauss had Nazi objectives, and could perhaps have tried to rope you guys into helping.
Wow what a night eh? Without a doubt the finest larp I have ever been to, I was astounded at the amount of effort people had put into their costumes.
Missed absolutely all of my goals but had a fantastic time (I can just see Elliot at the end of the night as everyone runs away yelling âIâll get you yet Caponeâ) Was just too pressed for time to even talk to the presidential candidates about toughening up on crime (although Goering was more than happy to give me a few tips from the Fuhrers law and order playbook)
Just so many memories from the night.
Me: "Elliot, Evelyn wants to talk to you privately"
Elliot: "Sure, letâs do it this way: Iâll be at Egyptian exhibition, and she can come there right after me"
Me (looking in the direction of exhibition): "But Al Capone is there RIGHT NOW!"
Elliot (turns around and sees Al Capone at the exhibition): "Oops, well, I guess weâll wait till he leaves then"
Thats why I get paid the big dollars, my firm grasp of the obvious
And literally dancing around Elliot Ness all evening, circling each other like a pair of sharks waiting to strike (yay Hamish!). Of course it all came to a head when Rick Blain gave me the free tip-off about a bomb as we were landing - so collecting Frankie along the way âFrankie, Mr Blain has advised we should leave. Now.â, and trying to collect Miss Davis as well, âEvie, eh, let her burn, Miss Davis will at least bring some businessâ, we prepare to leave only to find Ness and his posse waiting for usâŚ
Man that was hilarious. Our distaste for each other must have been palpable. What a worthy foe, very nice Capone. Blaine sold me up the garden path or I might have come through sooner (well played Vanya 
) but that last fight scene was a worthy climax. My all star cast of good guys got solidly deckedâŚnot even sure how I managed to come up with so many good guys.
Frank Nitti was awesome, kept muscling me out of the way and getting in the way of talking to Evie.
The big gangster fight at the end was one of my favourite parts of the game, especially being the one that instigated it by selling Capone out to Ness as we landed on the runway (âHis ledger is in his jacket.â âRight, letâs go!â) Also, standing a couple of meters away, stamping my feet in frustration that Al and Frank were totally kicking ass because I knew if Ness lost, Capone knew whoâd sold him out and I was dead. Damn
And down I went, there were some cool scenes sorting that out though. âYou donât take bribes?â âthats the truthâ ââŚhow about deals?â
I think the most missed absent character was probably Dick Tracy, and you wouldnât necessarily think it from his character sheet. All he had was Kick Ass and a thin lead to follow, but the mere fact that heâs a law agent surrounded by villains would have made him a very busy character and a valuable ally to Elliot Ness, who badly needed one.
I was so alone /weep. I am very grateful for the information that the STâs passed along to me from him though.
Thanks to those who stood by the cause of justice, truth and so on and so forth at the end there, we tried. My thanks go out to the lads of the RFC who gave it there all on Indyâs recommendation that I was a good guy.
What a brilliant game, had an awesome time and thanks to those who spent all the time and effort to put that together.
Elliot Ness (secretly not kick ass)
[quote=âHamishâ]
Thanks to those who stood by the cause of justice, truth and so on and so forth at the end there, we tried. My thanks go out to the lads of the RFC who gave it there all on Indyâs recommendation that I was a good guy.
What a brilliant game, had an awesome time and thanks to those who spent all the time and effort to put that together.
Elliot Ness (secretly not kick ass)[/quote]
Never fear old chap, the sea planes fueled and ready, you say the word and weâll all fly the blighter down