Okay, so we played Primetime Adventures yesterday.
Sadly, the pilot for Flight of the Valkyrie, our fantasy space-opera, wasn't picked up by the executives, but through the tongue-in-cheek and somewhat self referential take on the genre, we earned a cult classic status!
The show is centered on the crew of the Valkyrie a SSCC Class-I spaceship with heavy modification - Who're on a mission by their somewhat crazy captain and in the mean time, work as bounty hunters. The captain, Baralador ("Bral"), is an ex-military man (thrown out for clashing with the establishment for his rugged heroism) has discovered a deep-running conspiracy by the corporation SSCC (which specializes in making spacecrafts). He's a heroic man, with rugged charisma and dashing good looks (though he might be a tad paranoid and even crazy.) He's looking for a lost planet (the name escapes me at the moment) that will end this conspiracy once and for all, even though it can't be found on any map! His doctor and second in command is Tyrall Wulf, a former military man (whose still wanted for defecting), he served with Bral and often helped help others (one such time, resulted in him losing his right arm - Which is now replaces with a bionic one.) He's the Wilson to Bral's House, the somewhat cowardly voice of reason.
They're join by the Techno-Mage Kvasir, an old master of technology he's able to control through a special Unobtainium (whose name also escapes me) of his order. He has made very special modification to the engine and machinery of the ship. He has some off inventions now and then, but they don't always work. Thorgan, the weapon master of the ship, is a proud warrior race guy, on a quest to earn his honor and return to his people as a man - He's a giant furry man with horn on his head. Minerva is the smuggler and low life pilot of the Valkyrie, from a race of tribal aliens known for their network of black markets. She's blue, with a some-what punkish attire. Finally, there the navigator Horatio - A clone of an eccentric scientist whose on a mission to spread... himself.
The pilot took the crew through an interesting adventure, from the capitol planet of the galaxy Aesgard (home planer of Bral and Tyrall, whose main resource is slave labour by a race called Mids), then through the Biforst worm-hole portal to the Yuton-space, home of the giants and some brushes with the galactic police of the Heimdalls.
Most of what I said was made up on the spot, and that's the beauty of Primetime Adventures - It's truly a communal story-telling experience. There's a GM, called a Producer, but he's not the storyteller of the show, his often not even the narrator. The system is very simple - The character sheet is almost non existent and takes 5 seconds to fill out. The game is divided to scenes, the first one if always the Producer's, then each player order a scene in clockwise order - He just needs to specify what's the focus (story or character development), who's in it (he can choose any character, even excluding his own), and what's the agenda (what is that scene suppose to convey to the audience, why's it taking place.) - The producer than approved of the scene, and give a short description. Usually in a scene there's a conflict, that is anything from persuasion to combat (whether an action is a conflict or not is dependent on the situation - One time kicking down a door might be a conflict, in other times it's just not interesting enough.) - Conflict is resolved through cards. You draw them, every red one is a point - The one with the most points wins the conflict - And the player with the highest card (whether he won or not) describes the situation (making sure to include every edge, contact ability or action that is relevant.)
You can further effect the outcome: The Producer can use his Budget to add cards and the players can use Fan Mail to add cards to themselves or get their character's into scenes they're not in.
It's a great playing experience, and again - I must recommend it. It's such a light and easy to play game. We even discussed turning the game into a campaign because of how much fun we had.
