@alxd For The Queen is so excellent, and I also liked Alex Roberts' "Precious Little Animal" journal storygame. I am partial to the journal game genre and enjoy Paul Czege's work. ( #BeWithMe and #BalsamLakeUnmurders )
I had planned to go to Roguelike Celebration, bought a ticket... and forgot!
Recalling the state of play for my playthrough of the Balsam Lake Unmurders.
Two victims: Sheriff Tate and my acquaintance Penny Meehan, "Pencil Me In" from #BeWithMe
Two suspects, Marisa Oliva, who knows a bit much about how the revivals might have happened, and Pal Brody, who called in the case for investigation. Both talked with Sheriff Tate the snowy, misty night her car went into the lake. Brody disputes Oliva's account.
A possible love triangle?
Last draw is Ace of Spades, an invitation to journal about Balsam Lake. As the first prompt of its kind, either my experiences alone, or with someone in town.
Brandon Coleman // #BrandonColeman //
Be With Me
[album Interstellar Black Space, 2022]
//via // #Brainfeeder //
#buzzingroom #music #bandcamp #BrandonColeman #InterstellarBlackSpace #BeWithMe
link bandcamp: https://brandon-coleman.bandcamp.com/track/be-with-me
from the album Interstellar Black Space
As you speak with Penny Meehan on the back deck of the Woodchuck Cafe, she brightens up. A cup of coffee and a plate of breakfast help get her back to the person you knew, the intense contender on #BeWithMe, who you predicted would find you wanting, somewhere down the line.
The back door opens. It's not Susie Bow with a warm-up for your coffee. It's Pal Brody, following his nose straight into your case.
Penny freezes.
"Mr. Miller, Susie said you were here..." he begins.
"I'm talking with a person of interest."
"This is the loony who says she's a TV producer who died last fall," Pal says.
"This is my friend Penny Meehan, who has information relevant to the case."
Penny has visibly shrunken into her seat and is shivering hard enough to rattle the legs of her chair against the planks.
"Pal, just go," you tell him.
He snorts, shakes his head, and leaves.
What is it with him?
You take Penny for a walk, but she's so shaken that you bring her back to your hotel room to lie down.
"Don't leave me," she pleads. "Stay with me. Hold me."
You lie down with her. Her cold limbs warm slowly at your touch.
"Love me."
You cannot deny her.
Draw: 10 of Clubs. Lay it on Pal Brody and consult HOW?.
Draw from the Spades and Jokers: Red Joker. A LAPSE IN RESOLVE. Discard the 10 of Clubs and Joker.
#BalsamLakeUnmurders
Two characters from #BeWithMe have crashed the party at #BalsamLakeUnmurders ! Emery Board, the winner and the player's partner, a globe-trotting audit consultant, and Pencil Me In, the winner of the following season as the bachelorette, and as Another Victim.
(Emery Board is a retcon for Your Family Needs You, after having drawn 9 of Clubs and deciding it was Pencil Me In as the next victim).
The cards for Your Family Needs You and Another Victim.
I went back to the hardware store and the Valspar paint samples with the notion of evaluating them as characters in a musical group journal game, inspired by and building on the prompts from Paul Czege's #BeWithMe .
Maybe call the new game Big Time Musical Producer? Make A Monkee Out of Me? Your Own Personal Spice Girls? Or more like Daisy Jones and The Six? What will the prompts and the decision points and the turns in the story be? Will the participants be making music with each other or in competition? Maybe each contestant is on a redemption arc?
Each of these is from the same row as the original character cards from my run of Be With Me, either immediately left or right of the dating show contestant's card.
The six color names are, top to bottom: Kernel of Truth, Greener Grass. Open Skies, Night Fever, Mermaid Cheeks, and Key Wester.
Each card is respectively one over from Be With Me's dates Pencil Me In, Pool Table, Fairies In America, Urban Oasis, Emery Board, and Trolley Dash.
Listening to the Hidden Brain episode with Arthur Aron on Keeping Love Alive. https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/relationships-2-0-keeping-love-alive/
Novelty and discovery together seems important.
I used Aron's 36 Questions to Fall in Love in my playthrough of Paul Czege's reality dating show journal game #BeWithMe - though I wrote my 36 Questions On The High Bridge scene as a bit farcical, broken off by terrible frigid winds, reconvening indoors for the sake of the video crew as much as the principals.
There's no magic potion that can make someone adore you. But there are things you can do to promote a deep and enduring connection — and even feelings of passion — between yourself and your partner. In the final chapter of our Relationships 2.0 series, psychologist Arthur Aron shares some techniques for falling and staying in love.
@PaulCzege journal game writing: all three? (longhand, computer, mobile device) plus sewn upon a cloth bandanna map for "A Mending" and typed onto postcards for "Remember August" which I couldn't keep up with. (Poor August, trapped in a time warp)
#BeWithMe was half written on a laptop using Obsidian linked notes, and half freestyled into Mastodon posts, sliced for max text length, some of which got copied back into Obsidian.
Finished a playthrough of @PaulCzege 's #BeWithMe .
Partner: Emery Board. "He's good, giving, and game, and he doesn't care how loud I laugh."
Finalist, Next Season's Star: Pencil Me In (as a favor, because she wanted it so much)
Paired Up With Each Other: Trolley Dash and Urban Oasis, who had so much in common and complementary that it was inevitable.
Declined: Pool Table. "The women in his family. They'd never let me be myself."
Also-Ran: Fairies in America. Didn't quite connect.
Jeff Miller (orange hatband)
BuzzingRoom