‘Quick Bright Things’ and 'How Quick and Fresh’
About the Setting
Mr O’Strate’s seventh-form drama class at Raumati High is renowned for its Shakespeare productions, and for the serious Method acting that the performers undertake. While in rehearsals, everybody refers to each other by character name. None of the students, though, are quite savvy enough to realise that their lives are mimicking the play in weird and often unexpected ways. For players that know their Shakespeare well, some of these parallels will become obvious during the game. In some places, though, the game and the play will diverge wildly in terms of plot. Not knowing anything about the play is no obstacle to playing the game - you might just miss an in-joke or two. Don’t treat the game as though you have to replicate the play it’s based on - it’s far more entertaining if everyone just sees where the game goes.
The games both take place around halfway through the rehearsal process: no costumes yet, and everybody is still finding their feet with the lines. The rehearsals are all about getting the students to work as a group. This is difficult because, to paraphrase a fellow GM, “teenagers don’t know how to act like people”. All the characters in this game are currently feeling like their problems are huge and insurmountable. Moreover, for some reason they can’t describe, they have to get everything sorted today. If they go home without declaring their love or succeeding at life, then there’s no hope. This feeling will start off mild and angsty, but get worse as the game goes on.
Your Character Sheet
The Quote: a line of your character’s from the play in question. This quote will summarise what your character wants, or how they feel about the world in general.
The Details: your character’s name, their gender, their high concept, and their attributes. These attributes will be noted on your nametag - they represent ‘what everyone else thinks about your character’. If you get stuck in game, these attributes can act as one-word prompts for you.
The Backstory: exactly what it sounds like. A brief description of what’s brought your character to this point.
The Plans: these are similar to the goals you’d find on a normal character sheet. Like goals, these are your character’s intentions at the beginning of the game. They might not stay that way, though: in fact, some of your original plans might become unattainable or out-of-character. If this happens, feel free to create new plans of your own. If you’ve attained your true love, try to keep that person close to you, or suddenly and dramatically fall out of love with them. If you can’t get your true love to notice you, blackmail them, find someone else, or swear vengeance on all the happy couples. Whatever feels like fun. Deliberately create chaos… at least for the first two thirds of the game.
The last third of the game is when focus falls on the plan everyone has in common: ‘Achieve equilibrium’. This has two meanings in these games. This firstly means trying to balance the web of romance in the game (see below), but also achieving an ending for your character that makes sense within their limits. In a Shakespeare play, everyone winds up roughly where they want to be, but this never feels forced: no comedy character ever completely goes against their nature. Devious characters are always devious; virtuous characters are always virtuous.
Love and Other Such Disasters
These games are based on two things: Shakespearean comedies, and high school drama. In the comedies, the play usually ends with a marriage (or several), and everyone living mostly happily ever after. In seventh-form, teenagers are usually after love (or, failing that, sex). Many characters in these games have a romantic interest in at least one of the other characters. If you’re playing one of these characters, one of your implicit goals is to wind up paired off with someone at the end of the game. One of the challenges of these games is to navigate, as a group, the massively tangled web of conflicting romance. If all goes well, everyone that wants romance at the beginning will get it at the end. Usually, however, the game winds up as a game of Musical Chairs - I’ve never had a game reach stability.
Although I’ve tried to match players as closely as possible to their romance preferences, sexuality in this game is a little bit fluid. This does not mean that you immediately become Jack Harkness. Instead, you may decide: that your character would turn gay for one person, if they asked; that you’re willing to give it a shot because you’re a nice person; that pretending to be in love with a particular person might further other plans. You might decide to be canon bi, heteroflexible, or whatever you’re comfortable playing. A reminder, though: you don’t have to act any of this seriously. The required level of seriousness is anywhere from high school drama class upwards: awkward fistbumps are totally a valid substitute for romance.
The temptation your character feels to consummate their newfound love might be overwhelming. Still, you’re in class, so making out with them will have to do. This game has a specific mechanic for making out with people: high-five them and, as you do, both yell ‘YEAH, MAKEOUTS!’ This gives the rest of the room the chance to notice what’s going on and for various consequences to happen - especially if you’re making out with someone you shouldn’t.