Roll for perception
November 8, 2018 7:50 AM Subscribe
In the RPG podcast "Film Reroll", folks take the plots of movies like Jurassic Park and Jumanji and roleplay through them. In the most recent installment, Paulo Quiros told players they were playing college students on a weekend trip to a lake house, rerolling an 80s sex comedy none of them had seen -- but it was actually Friday the 13th: the Final Chapter. Part 1 (1hr49min), Part 2 (1hr45min). (Via dinkywinks and northdakotaisamyth and thetransintransgenic on Tumblr.)
Oh baby, this sounds right up my alley.
Gonna listen to it at work and see what my coworkers think.
posted by FleetMind at 8:54 AM on November 8, 2018
Gonna listen to it at work and see what my coworkers think.
posted by FleetMind at 8:54 AM on November 8, 2018
Oh gosh I like this premise.
posted by cortex at 8:55 AM on November 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by cortex at 8:55 AM on November 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
That reminds me, I should actually try and watch Cabin in the Woods soon
Yes. Yes you should!
posted by Naberius at 9:03 AM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Yes. Yes you should!
posted by Naberius at 9:03 AM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Oh gosh I like this premise.
Ditto, subscribed!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:04 AM on November 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ditto, subscribed!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:04 AM on November 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
In case you haven't seen it, Shamus Young wrote a pretty funny version of this as a long-running web comic, using screen grabs from the Lord of the Rings movies adding dialog re-imagining it as an RPG campaign the DM is trying to railroad his players through.
posted by straight at 9:21 AM on November 8, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by straight at 9:21 AM on November 8, 2018 [8 favorites]
I've been picking and choosing their content based on the movie. I really enjoyed their Halloween playthrough, and liked Alien too.
posted by graventy at 9:22 AM on November 8, 2018
posted by graventy at 9:22 AM on November 8, 2018
That's such a wonderful concept for a roleplaying game! I would like to steal it someday. Actually, I wish I was playing along, especially since I've never seen a single Halloween or Friday the 13th movie (are those the same franchise, some goober in a mask doing teen killing, right? or wait, is one of them Austin Powers in a mask?) but know of them from pop culture. Damn wish we had audio at work, I really want to hear this.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:58 AM on November 8, 2018
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:58 AM on November 8, 2018
I only listened to this in bits, but I really like the woman at the end mourning the death of a non-player character "offscreen," that is, outside of the game proper. That is someone with a vivid, compassionate imagination.
posted by ckridge at 10:07 AM on November 8, 2018
posted by ckridge at 10:07 AM on November 8, 2018
Started listening on my walk - I don't know the podcasters at all and this would be a rough intro to their table BUT for the fact that you are in on the secret from the beginning. That's enough of a hook for me to keep me interested as I get tuned in to their playstyle. The GM is having fun with it: "Is the lake water clear? Well, it's not crystal clear, but..."
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:29 AM on November 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:29 AM on November 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Cabin in the Woods is one of those movies that keeps getting more relevant every year.
posted by benzenedream at 10:44 AM on November 8, 2018
posted by benzenedream at 10:44 AM on November 8, 2018
In case you haven't seen it, Shamus Young wrote a pretty funny version of this as a long-running web comic, using screen grabs from the Lord of the Rings movies adding dialog re-imagining it as an RPG campaign the DM is trying to railroad his players through.
He inspired some folks to do the same with Star Wars over at Darths & Droids. They started with the prequels but are currently working through Rogue One (as a side campaign that ends in a TPK) and occasionally they have guest commentary on the strips from a couple folks who are familiar with P&P RPGs but have never actually seen Rogue One.
posted by mstokes650 at 10:46 AM on November 8, 2018 [5 favorites]
He inspired some folks to do the same with Star Wars over at Darths & Droids. They started with the prequels but are currently working through Rogue One (as a side campaign that ends in a TPK) and occasionally they have guest commentary on the strips from a couple folks who are familiar with P&P RPGs but have never actually seen Rogue One.
posted by mstokes650 at 10:46 AM on November 8, 2018 [5 favorites]
Darths and Droids is maybe most famous for realizing that since Star Wars obviously doesn't exist in their imagined world, a similar comic in that world would have to be based on a different movie, set in a world where that movie doesn't exist.
(Read the notes below each comic about The Comic Irregulars to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.)
posted by straight at 11:47 AM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
(Read the notes below each comic about The Comic Irregulars to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.)
posted by straight at 11:47 AM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Man I remember when I thought I was super hot shit for recruiting a bunch of people for an Age of Sail pirate game that -- clever twist! -- became a Lovecraft game full of deep ones and cultists. Or when I unilaterally turned our decently long running college GURPS Fantasy game game into Spelljammer because I thought Spelljammer was the neatest thing and I wanted dogfights with beholder fighters.
Those games didn't survive.
Since then my experience has been that the best RPGs are ensemble efforts with complete buy-in from everyone at the table and no clevar GM rug-pulling moves.
Plus, unprompted consent-less chainsaw dismemberments in this day and age seems like a dick move, people are vulnerable in ways that can be impossible to anticipate.
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:09 PM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Those games didn't survive.
Since then my experience has been that the best RPGs are ensemble efforts with complete buy-in from everyone at the table and no clevar GM rug-pulling moves.
Plus, unprompted consent-less chainsaw dismemberments in this day and age seems like a dick move, people are vulnerable in ways that can be impossible to anticipate.
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:09 PM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
Now I miss Larp Trek because I never got to finish it before Cortex pulled the site :( :( :(
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:14 PM on November 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:14 PM on November 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Since then my experience has been that the best RPGs are ensemble efforts with complete buy-in from everyone at the table and no clevar GM rug-pulling moves.
Yep. Indeed, my greatest successes in that storytelling form involved integrating player backgrounds into the setting and plot. I've never had a rug-pulling game last long, although they can be fun for one-off or similarly constrained situations.
posted by mordax at 3:18 PM on November 8, 2018
Yep. Indeed, my greatest successes in that storytelling form involved integrating player backgrounds into the setting and plot. I've never had a rug-pulling game last long, although they can be fun for one-off or similarly constrained situations.
posted by mordax at 3:18 PM on November 8, 2018
Of the half-dozen podcasts I listen to, FILM REROLL may be my favorite.
BACK TO THE FUTURE II had the highest body count of any game they've ever done; in any case, it sets a baseline. No matter how poorly they do, they will never do worse than they did with that one.
Paulo Quiros is possibly the greatest GM who has ever lived; there may be other people in the running, but he has to be considered. He created a BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE in which the players could literally go anywhere on Earth from the beginning of humanity until the end, and ran it successfully. They did a PvP HOME ALONE, with a special advantage for the Wet Bandits which allowed them to get hideously beat up without dying.
And the biggest thing about it is that they leave in all the digressions and friends getting off-track and just talking about random stuff that is the REAL reason you get together to play games with your friends. As fun as the games are, the best part is just... hanging out with these people.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 3:38 PM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
BACK TO THE FUTURE II had the highest body count of any game they've ever done; in any case, it sets a baseline. No matter how poorly they do, they will never do worse than they did with that one.
Paulo Quiros is possibly the greatest GM who has ever lived; there may be other people in the running, but he has to be considered. He created a BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE in which the players could literally go anywhere on Earth from the beginning of humanity until the end, and ran it successfully. They did a PvP HOME ALONE, with a special advantage for the Wet Bandits which allowed them to get hideously beat up without dying.
And the biggest thing about it is that they leave in all the digressions and friends getting off-track and just talking about random stuff that is the REAL reason you get together to play games with your friends. As fun as the games are, the best part is just... hanging out with these people.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 3:38 PM on November 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
I'm a few episodes behind so I haven't listened to this particular episode yet, but a caveat to the idea of rug-pulling: Film Reroll is primarily a piece of dice-facilitated audio improv, not a faithful GURPS Actual Play (as far as I know they never refer to their show that way). It is edited and they have said in the past that they have thrown out hours of tape and replayed a session when it was not up to standard. So while I'm sure that whoever is GMing that week wants the players to have a good time, I don't think that's the primary goal.
posted by muddgirl at 3:44 PM on November 8, 2018
posted by muddgirl at 3:44 PM on November 8, 2018
These look like one-shots. You can do rugpull oneshots because you're never expecting players to come back to this game, and you're promising when you start that you're going to come to an exciting conclusion, even if it's not one that people expected.
posted by Merus at 3:59 PM on November 8, 2018
posted by Merus at 3:59 PM on November 8, 2018
My only foray into DM rug-pulling was to have my players' characters stumble through a portal into a room which I tried to faithfully describe without coming out and saying that it was identical to the room we, the players, were sitting in.
I described a central figure who was talking and seemed to be the only person in the room who noticed the characters. He stood up and began to powerfully attack the characters with his bare fists, which I pantomimed exactly as I described it. The character's attempts to defend themselves were fruitless.
This continued until the players themselves got up and physically restrained me, which they vigorously and gleefully did once they figured out that was what needed to be done.
posted by straight at 5:46 PM on November 8, 2018 [8 favorites]
I described a central figure who was talking and seemed to be the only person in the room who noticed the characters. He stood up and began to powerfully attack the characters with his bare fists, which I pantomimed exactly as I described it. The character's attempts to defend themselves were fruitless.
This continued until the players themselves got up and physically restrained me, which they vigorously and gleefully did once they figured out that was what needed to be done.
posted by straight at 5:46 PM on November 8, 2018 [8 favorites]
I wish podcasts in general didn’t just dump horrific topics into the feed mixed in with more light hearted stuff. I keep wanting to get into more podcasts but every tine I add a new one it turns out oops I need to inspect each description super carefully or I’ll be listening to something either depressing, nasty and/or disgusting with no warning. I’m working on improving my empathy but trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who just loves hearing about violence and murder and shit hasn’t been successful so far.
posted by bleep at 8:49 PM on November 8, 2018
posted by bleep at 8:49 PM on November 8, 2018
If you watch Cabin in the Woods, also watch Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil. Same tropes, almost the same opening 10 minutes...and then it all goes in a wildly different direction. Love it to pieces.
posted by rednikki at 5:17 AM on November 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by rednikki at 5:17 AM on November 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
While these people are actors and sometimes get very actory, I am digging this a heck of a lot more than I expected. The Alien one was a little blah - Paolo is a bit much when just a player - but the Halloween one he DMed was astounding, and though the sequel (They do a sequel to the first game based on Halloween, rather than rerollifying the movie Halloween 2) had its flaws, it was genuinely affecting. Goddam Jeff.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:51 AM on November 13, 2018
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:51 AM on November 13, 2018
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