Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot: Post-Campaign Thoughts

The short Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot campaign came to an end today and so I spent a bit going through the older posts and cleaning them up a bit, tweaking some things, just broadly editing them. I tend to play either one shots or campaigns that are a bit more open ended so it is a little bit interesting to be in a place where I can comment on the whole rather than just a part.

Let the Dougiest of -- Doug's Notes -- commence! 

-- Changing the Rules -- 

The most important part of this campaign was finding a way to take traditional elements of a roleplaying game—fights, hitpoints, skill checks, equipment—and instead make most of those things { rolls | checks | tests } about the story itself rather than the characters in the story.

I sometimes dropped some nods these changes as the campaign was going but here is a rough overview:

• Gareth Hendrix could not die. In fact, no character could die due to running out of Resolve. Tricube handles it differently, anyhow, but had I been playing with hit points or stamina or whatever it would have been the same. Resolve was used to track a character's ability to remain in control of a scene and/or control of themselves within the scene. In the game world, this was "explained away" by Gareth's ability to self-heal even beyond a normal werewolf but death was only to show up for characters if it was time for them to die.
• Game mechanics and combats and skill check type rolls were subsumed into the story itself. They were hidden behind what was written. Winning a "fight" meant the story was going the way the character wanted it to go. Losing a skill check might mean something unexpected was brewing.
• "No" was almost always a "yes" from a different angle. With some exception, if I asked a yes/no type question the idea was that both were yes. Just the "no" answer was a yes that went against the assumption. Something was added to the story either way.
• Likewise, failing a roll was essentially never allowed to be turned into a narrative dead end. A failed roll was less about saying that a character did not succeed but that their success was in a way they had no control over or disrupted their expectations, "Something else takes lead, here." The most obvious example of this is when Gareth is searching to find out about the Trouble and fails to get a success. This meant that Gareth's assumption that there was a certain type of Trouble was wrong. Had the Trouble been real but Gareth found no clue then it was a boring answer for this type of game. 

-- Things I Liked --

This was a completely different style of actual play solo sharing for me and I loved the ability to write lines and characters that I found interesting. It was an awesome opportunity and I am glad I took it. If nothing else I post to this blog goes anywhere, getting to write that "No, we're something else" legit resonated with me. The scene with Gareth giving up his hopes to disappear as he saves people from a burning hotel and having those rolls not only succeed but slam out an exceptional success was great. 

My two favorite session are wildly different but both right in the middle - the session about Jack Fall's history and the party session. The first is background fluff that could have been a postcard with a few keywords but spending that hour or so and playing out those rolls were nice. I love adding to my Alabama Weird and thinking about the rules of the show that would set the tone for the second half. 

The latter, though, is one of the most consequential sessions because it was there that the "Lina situation" was decided, where the side characters got a chance to get a few seconds and a few sentences, and it was there that I realized that the story would likely be about how Gareth works with people instead of against people. The fact that I was checking effort and making a few rolls and then describing it as a couple of 21-year-olds chatting on the couch was perfect. It helped me to rebalance a story that was maybe on the cusp of getting too grim. 

One day I should make another Bunker story and take out all the weird elements. Most of them. Some of them. Whatever. 

I like that I had Tommy's drone show up out of nowhere and then does nothing near the end. 

I have no idea where I thought that might go but that whole final session went downhill so fast I had no time to even experiment. 

Just FYI, I went through an entire deck of playing cards for that session because outside of the large number of notes there were a lot of quick pulls to test vibes and such and all said, "Gareth's too late but still has to try." 

I also liked that I went back on my dumb decision to kill Lana and just said "no". Screw past-Doug's dumb line of questioning. 

-- Things I Might Not Like As Much -- 

Not a whole lot. There were a few gaps here or there where stuff was just off. Sometimes because that just happens in oracle-based play. 

The scene where Gareth and Lina fight on his porch originally ended with them flirting and had a stupid bit about wolf babies. Off the cuff, on the fly writing and it got a bit icky. I just finally went back and cut that. Screw the "if it's on the table it's canon" rule. Give yourself grace with solo play. In this case, I gave myself grace not to violate an asexual character's right to be Ace just because I drew a card.

The fight was great. Her trying to push Gareth to act was great (if nothing else, Lina knew things were getting worse...she actually paid attention). I am even ok with that young wolves might not make the most logical decisions. Still, ickier than I wanted it to be. The sort of story where Ace characters have to be comically thrust into romantic situations is not really my jam. 

There was some confusing bits about Macy's background (her "husband" Sammy) that I just mostly edited earlier today because the original version was non-sense. You have a group of vicious werewolf criminals and I am over there trying to work traditional marriage roles and stuff because for some reason my brain went "Wait, if Macy had a kid...she was married and why didn't she take her husband's name?" like a nerd. Sometimes working out world building at the speed in which you type a sentence, especially in a format where what you type gets somewhat perma-locked. 

If you note, both of those moments are in the same session. I think you see something of my thought process, there. A part of me (the real me, the one typing this) kind of struggling with some old ideas and prejudices related to going back and thinking about my time in that town which here was known as Bunker and which was kind of like but also not really like my home town. 

I am fine with the abrupt shift towards an ending. The cards and dice really hit in a way that it felt right. It might have been fun to have a few more hijinks, though. There's a line about a stolen camera still in but I kind of thought about trying to work it in that one of the Kai Yotes stole it. It just never had a place so it's a weird awkward one off that serves no purpose. Eh, still nowhere near as bad as having the two main characters have any sexual tensions.

-- How It Started -- 

It was meant to be a goofy story about a washed out, newly adult werewolf dealing with his mean father's cowardly pack going bonkers while a bunch of over the top bigfoot hunters showed up and started posting photos of panicking werewolves as the best and biggest proof ever of the 'Foot. A love letter to my home town that also just waded straight into all kinds of in-jokes and stereotypes.

By the time I sat down to write the session 0 post to the Bunker Bigfoot story, the original silliness was already getting absorbed into my tendency to dwell on a particular type of folklore-laden Southern-noir Weird. That's ok. Write what you know and all that. Make a stupid story a stupid metaphor for isolation in a small town. The "Bunker Bigfoot" title remains the primary artifact from that era of the story writing process.

In an alternate universe, maybe I focused of the story of a more varied cast of retired werewolves in a kind of witness protection program having to rely on the young lay about, do-nothing werewolf to stop a cheesy reality show from finding out their secret. In that alternate universe version of this campaign, the vibe would be something like the early works of Christopher Moore: Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, etc. Jokes-y dumb humor with shenanigans, loser romances, trysts, back stabbing, and all that. 

In that story, it might have been Lou Garou instead of Gareth Hendrix. He might have been a bit older (early 30s) and the whole Jack Fall bit would have definitely been a bit goofier. 

It could be a fun story to play. One I have kind of already played in a completely different way. There's the Fiasco playset: The Beast of Sucker Creek. There are no werewolves inherent in that one but it's Fiasco. There *could* be werewolves. 

By the time I got to the first session, the silliness was dwindling fast. The set-up of the drone (which did get a kind of silly call back later) was a last attempt before the whole mini-campaign turned into roleplay-induced therapy for me. Tommy talking about butt touching and beer drinking. 

That ending of that first session was the final nail. "Like he was still sixteen, like he still had dreams of leaving Bunker behind. Fleeing the pack. Fleeing the wolf. Not feeling trapped by whatever all this coming down might be...the two laugh, for a minute, man and wolf. Like the world is not coming to an end." After typing that, and kind of falling in love with that Gareth who was floundering to know he was (and later we find has trapped himself because he afraid of what he might be become), I went back and used my own photos to illustrate that post. 

Second session had drug abuse, a potentially brutal werewolf fight, some confused sexuality I immediately regretted, and a scene of child abuse. Lou Garou was dead, alas.

-- Where It Might Be Going --

Honestly, nowhere. I feel comfortable with retiring the majority of the characters and storylines. Sometimes ups outnumber the downs and I hope it goes well for all the Bunker idiots. 

One possible exception is that I thought it might be interesting would to do a similar writing experiment as this one, maybe a little more action focused, and have found footage style featuring Jack Fall and his new wife Lucy (Gareth's mom). Written as a transcript for the show. The idea would be some future YouTube or TV series and all the rolls and oracles would be what's on the screen. Maybe with mechanics built in to represent running out of batteries, losing daylight for the shot, problematic locations, interference from people in the background, etc. Probably not.

As for Gareth, if he ever shows back up again, it will likely be as a legend discussed by others. The giant white cryptid that glows under the moon and sighs about all of his life choices. As always, I am full of ideas but sometimes it is best to wait and see how they grow. Give them breathing room. I did with this story and I got something I did not expect.