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Jun. 26th, 2020 10:14 pmI've been meaning to write up the Friends at the Table podcast's Bluff City campaign ever since the beginning of the quarantimes, when they announced they were making the whole first season free, but first I had to a.) finish listening to the first season and b.) find time ...
... anyway now I have not only finished listening to the first season but just started in on the second, so the time is clearly now!
I've written up some Friends at the Table campaigns before, but if you're not familiar with it,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kate_nepveu has an extremely good recruiter post that I've been wanting the excuse to direct people to! Bluff City is quite different from a usual actual play campaign, though, functioning more or less as an anthology series -- each mini-arc (usually two episodes, some longer) consists of the cast playing a different (usually very indie) RPG game to explore a different aspect of the titular Bluff City, a weird and very slightly supernatural riff on Atlantic City featuring a boardwalk, gangsters, casinos, several small businesses of varying sleaze levels, some ghosts, some superheroes, the occasional selkie, a few interdimensional rifts, quite a lot of class struggle, a very sinister Coast Guard .... there's a lot going on in Bluff City, most of it hitting a tone of more or less black comedy that occasionally edges further into noir-tinged surrealism.
(Austin Walker, the DM of Friends at the Table, grew up in and around Atlantic City and it really shows; I did not grow up there, but I did spent quite a lot of time there as a kid, which means I extremely enjoy the deep dive into South Jersey Gothic while also being mildly disappointed that no one has yet referenced Lucy the Elephant.)
Each arc features a different set of characters, some occasionally recurring or weaving in and out of other stories as NPCs; although there's a slow build for some of the big-picture mystery stuff, most arcs stand alone and can be listened to independently.
A Bowling Alley, a Boxer and a Bird: a game of Fiasco (an RPG designed to generate small-time capers gone wrong) featuring the ill-fated collision of an underground boxing ring and an incredibly stupid bird heist; extremely funny, a very good starting place, if any of this sounds interesting at all I would at least recommend trying this episode out and seeing how you feel about it
The Cost of Greed: probably my favorite arc, a game of InSpectres (an RPG designed to generate Ghostbusters adventures) featuring a lovable band of low-rent paranormal investigators squaring off against a casino haunting, a cash-for-coats scam, a selkie, and Their Rivals From Trenton.
There Is No Greater Love: a game of Noirlandia (an RPG designed to generate fantastical noir adventures) featuring a collection of more or less paranoid investigators looking into the death of a conspiracy-theorist radio host during a populist uprising ... higher on the surreal quotient than many (also higher on the 'players spend a lot of time trying to figure out how actual game works' quotient)
The Eighty-Six: a game of Action Movie World (an RPG that, as you may be able to guess, is designed to generate action movies) that is very metafictionally "based on a true story" about police corruption in Bluff City, now with 3x more buddy cop. Fun, silly, many explosions.
The Grapplers Down at Promenade Arena: a game of World Wide Wrestling RPG (an RPG that, once again, is fairly self-explanatory) that managed the incredible feat of not only thoroughly charming me but making me actively care about what was going on despite the fact I had literally zero knowledge of wrestling going in ... now I have, like, .5 knowledge of wrestling! I know what kayfabe is and everything! thank you for the educational experience, Friends at the Table! (This is one of the few arcs that probably shouldn't be listened to out of order, since it features a major player character from The Cost of Greed and his arc is much more fun as a callback)
When Justice Is Done: a game of Masks (an RPG designed to generate plucky teen superhero adventures) featuring an art heist, at least one disaster lesbian (more if you count the mentors), 100 shark masks, a costume change effected via bird army, and the truly incredible concept of a popular superheroine named Paternoster who took her stained-glass wings from St. Paul's Cathederal
Messy Business: a game of Lacuna (an RPG designed to generate a nightmarish postmodern experience like something out of Thomas Pynchon) with some TechNoir (an RPG designed to generate cyberpunk) mixed in for flavor that did indeed very successfully make me feel a bit like I was back in the conspiracy-lit class I took in college where I read a lot of Thomas Pynchon. (Definitely do not listen to this one as a standalone, it's the culmination of a full season's worth of weird conspiracy/worldbuilding hints and I'm still working out how I feel about it)
... anyway now I have not only finished listening to the first season but just started in on the second, so the time is clearly now!
I've written up some Friends at the Table campaigns before, but if you're not familiar with it,
kate_nepveu has an extremely good recruiter post that I've been wanting the excuse to direct people to! Bluff City is quite different from a usual actual play campaign, though, functioning more or less as an anthology series -- each mini-arc (usually two episodes, some longer) consists of the cast playing a different (usually very indie) RPG game to explore a different aspect of the titular Bluff City, a weird and very slightly supernatural riff on Atlantic City featuring a boardwalk, gangsters, casinos, several small businesses of varying sleaze levels, some ghosts, some superheroes, the occasional selkie, a few interdimensional rifts, quite a lot of class struggle, a very sinister Coast Guard .... there's a lot going on in Bluff City, most of it hitting a tone of more or less black comedy that occasionally edges further into noir-tinged surrealism. (Austin Walker, the DM of Friends at the Table, grew up in and around Atlantic City and it really shows; I did not grow up there, but I did spent quite a lot of time there as a kid, which means I extremely enjoy the deep dive into South Jersey Gothic while also being mildly disappointed that no one has yet referenced Lucy the Elephant.)
Each arc features a different set of characters, some occasionally recurring or weaving in and out of other stories as NPCs; although there's a slow build for some of the big-picture mystery stuff, most arcs stand alone and can be listened to independently.
A Bowling Alley, a Boxer and a Bird: a game of Fiasco (an RPG designed to generate small-time capers gone wrong) featuring the ill-fated collision of an underground boxing ring and an incredibly stupid bird heist; extremely funny, a very good starting place, if any of this sounds interesting at all I would at least recommend trying this episode out and seeing how you feel about it
The Cost of Greed: probably my favorite arc, a game of InSpectres (an RPG designed to generate Ghostbusters adventures) featuring a lovable band of low-rent paranormal investigators squaring off against a casino haunting, a cash-for-coats scam, a selkie, and Their Rivals From Trenton.
There Is No Greater Love: a game of Noirlandia (an RPG designed to generate fantastical noir adventures) featuring a collection of more or less paranoid investigators looking into the death of a conspiracy-theorist radio host during a populist uprising ... higher on the surreal quotient than many (also higher on the 'players spend a lot of time trying to figure out how actual game works' quotient)
The Eighty-Six: a game of Action Movie World (an RPG that, as you may be able to guess, is designed to generate action movies) that is very metafictionally "based on a true story" about police corruption in Bluff City, now with 3x more buddy cop. Fun, silly, many explosions.
The Grapplers Down at Promenade Arena: a game of World Wide Wrestling RPG (an RPG that, once again, is fairly self-explanatory) that managed the incredible feat of not only thoroughly charming me but making me actively care about what was going on despite the fact I had literally zero knowledge of wrestling going in ... now I have, like, .5 knowledge of wrestling! I know what kayfabe is and everything! thank you for the educational experience, Friends at the Table! (This is one of the few arcs that probably shouldn't be listened to out of order, since it features a major player character from The Cost of Greed and his arc is much more fun as a callback)
When Justice Is Done: a game of Masks (an RPG designed to generate plucky teen superhero adventures) featuring an art heist, at least one disaster lesbian (more if you count the mentors), 100 shark masks, a costume change effected via bird army, and the truly incredible concept of a popular superheroine named Paternoster who took her stained-glass wings from St. Paul's Cathederal
Messy Business: a game of Lacuna (an RPG designed to generate a nightmarish postmodern experience like something out of Thomas Pynchon) with some TechNoir (an RPG designed to generate cyberpunk) mixed in for flavor that did indeed very successfully make me feel a bit like I was back in the conspiracy-lit class I took in college where I read a lot of Thomas Pynchon. (Definitely do not listen to this one as a standalone, it's the culmination of a full season's worth of weird conspiracy/worldbuilding hints and I'm still working out how I feel about it)
