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Jul. 4th, 2024 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsThe other week scribe invited me to join in a game of Jukebox, a new TTRPG (available here!) in which the primary game mechanic is semi-randomized karaoke.
I expected this to be incredible amounts of fun and also for it to be extreme chaos … I was not wrong about either of these things, but in our play-through the karaoke-based mechanics actually ended up working out shockingly well to generate a (somewhat) coherent narrative, full of twists, turns, true love and betrayal!
The game begins with the group selecting a playbook for starter inspiration as to setting and tone – we went with ‘heist,’ a really effective choice because nearly any song can be a heist song of some sort if you try hard and believe in yourself – after which individual player writes down six songs that they'd be up for adding to their karaoke playlist. Then the group as a whole picks a song that everyone knows, performs a brisk collective singalong as kickoff, and then decides which part of the lyrics they'd like to take extremely literally in order to come up with some more specific details about the setting.
In our case, one of our players suggested ‘Be Prepared’ from the Lion King for the starter song, which put us in the happy position of beginning our heist as low-ranking minions who had been hired to help a villainous upstart steal the throne from the rightful king.
A little more close reading of the text and riffing on the details yielded us the specific details that our boss (a precocious seven-year-old who had been disinherited for her bad vibes) had already hired a significantly more competent assassin to deliver the coup de grace; our job was merely to ensure the assassin got access to the place by rigging the annual royal talent competition to ensure that she could beat out the kingdom's greatest pop superstar, Chadbrosius.
Next up: first act, and character creation, which involves each player pulling one of their six chosen karaoke-able songs out of a hat. This song will be your Act One Character Defining Introduction, which you will segue into at some point or another during your first scene when it becomes clear that the time is right to burst into song, following which the other players will offer you Obstacles for your Character Arc as suggested by your initial motifs.
In my case, my character defining song was Playing His Game from Frank Wildhorn’s magnum opus, Death Note: The Musical. I could not possibly have been happier about this. I proudly announced that I had a plan to ensure Chadbrosius lost the talent show, sang for several minutes about playing his game, getting into his head, etc., and then leaned in significantly and tapped my forehead as I hit the line “AND STEAL HIS ROUTINES!!!” Heist plan: set. The other players all immediately agreed that my obstacle was an unhealthy obsession with Chadbrosius; fair, valid.
This method of character-generation-by-randomized-karaoke-selection led our second player, the forger, to decide that they were still haunted by fear of being arrested for the murder they and the third player had done as children to escape an evil orphanage [Love for Long]; our third player, the mastermind, to sing an encouraging ballad to our evil seven-year-old boss that secretly expressed her fear of changing plans midstream [Hold On from the Secret Garden musical; “it's this king, not you, that's bound to go away!”]; and our fourth player, the getaway driver, to explain that their character was being haunted by the ghost of his grandfather, Lafayette, who wanted him to restore the lost honor of his banished noble family the Cowboys [Orville Peck’s Lafayette interpreted with breathtaking literalism.]
This last twist was both very funny and also worked out very well for me personally: the scene framed around this involved the ghost of Lafayette haunting around all the heist-planning meetings, and because my character had at this point already run off to stalk Chadbrosius, I had the great delight of picking up a secondary character who did nothing but howl “REVENGE THE COWBOYS!” and “ACHIEVE YOUR DESTINY!” at inopportune moments.
So much for Act One. Act Two works similarly, except that instead of the other players outlining obstacles for the character, each character's scene ends with all the other players offering up a plot complication suggested by the scene/song and the active player picks their favorite to be going on with. Scenes in our Act Two included:
the haunted character getting so distracted by the ghost that he didn't finish rigging the lights for the talent show, forcing the mastermind to climb into the rigging with him and help him ignore the ghost and finish the job (Defying Gravity)
complications: mastermind not where she's supposed to be for the rest of the heist
the haunted character deciding as a result of this to reject the ghost entirely, and commit to building a new life with his best friend/beloved the forger after this job is over, possibly by running away on a boat ([I’d Rather Be Sailing])
complications: ghost mad and wants to get his grandson back on track!
the forger, looking at the randomly selected karaoke song: “I’m so sorry, guys, but I think I'm gonna have to betray you??” panicking about an ominous note left by the ghost, forger STRIKES A SECRET DEAL WITH THE KING and get the assassin thrown out of the competition in exchange for the records of the forger's past crimes being expunged, then returns to the group and pretends he has no idea why that happened! (Ashes On Your Eyes)
complications: the assassin is no longer in the competition! the whole plan is in shambles!
…however, thanks to the magic of karaoke, Chadbrosius comes to my character with the reveal that he's totally on-board to step in as a substitute assassin! We re-form our band and win the talent competition with a compelling and romantic double act! Unhealthy obsession pays off it turns out! (Everybody. BACKSTREET'S BACK)
complications: my character and Chadbrosius, two highly competent individuals, are sure to be able to assassinate the king no problems! right??
Plot: THICKENED. Consequences: LOOMING. Boys: BANDED. TIME FOR ACT THREE.
In Act Three, we introduce a new and final mechanic: does your character get a good or a bad end? This is sorted out by pulling red and black playing cards out of a mini-deck; you get extra red cards towards the chance of a happy ending if you contributed to the group goal and if other people interacted significantly with your obstacle. Then, with your red or black cards in your hand (two red is big ups, two black is a downer, red and black is some kind of mixed success) you pull your last random karaoke song to frame your final scene.
Scenes in our Act Three:
the mastermind goes into a panic spiral in the rigging as a result of all the plans changing around them (aptly, Help!) but (happy ending!) learns an important lesson and is able to successfully adapt to the new plan ft. Assassin Chadbrosius!
the forger tells his best friend/beloved, the haunted getaway driver, that they're no longer in danger of being arrested, but unfortunately in the process also reveals THE BETRAYAL and the haunted getaway driver storms out, leaving the forger to contemplate his solitude ("I Am A Rock) (mixed ending)
the betrayed and haunted getaway driver contemplates getting away from it all, and buys a boat with the intention of taking to sea alone to escape his ghosts, but eventually decides to invite the rest of the crew along with him as a post-regicide escape route rather than disappearing into the wild blue yonder [How Far I’ll Go] (mixed ending)
I, knowing that I'll have the final scene in the musical and that two of the songs remaining on my potential playlist are “Tragedy!” and “I Don't Care Much,” am profoundly relieved to instead receive a happy ending and a final song of Get This Party Started (Shirley Bassey version): our regicidal performance for the king is apparently a huge success!
Finally, we use the same card mechanic to see how the plot resolves overall. With a mixed success, “you didn't get what you wanted, but you got what you needed;’ after some debate, we conclude that perhaps after all that sturm and drang we do not in fact successfully assassinate the king and bequeath the kingdom to an evil seven-year-old, and instead escape out a window to all begin a new life together on the getaway boat. We close out with a round of Come Sail Away and end our musical very pleased with ourselves indeed. No, we didn’t resolve any of the underlying problems regarding the assassination attempt and the evil seven-year-old, but we all grew and changed as people and isn't that really what matters? Tonies have been awarded for less.
So that's Jukebox! Strongly recommended for karaoke, improv and nonsense.
scribe invited me to join in a game of Jukebox, a new TTRPG (available here!) in which the primary game mechanic is semi-randomized karaoke.I expected this to be incredible amounts of fun and also for it to be extreme chaos … I was not wrong about either of these things, but in our play-through the karaoke-based mechanics actually ended up working out shockingly well to generate a (somewhat) coherent narrative, full of twists, turns, true love and betrayal!
The game begins with the group selecting a playbook for starter inspiration as to setting and tone – we went with ‘heist,’ a really effective choice because nearly any song can be a heist song of some sort if you try hard and believe in yourself – after which individual player writes down six songs that they'd be up for adding to their karaoke playlist. Then the group as a whole picks a song that everyone knows, performs a brisk collective singalong as kickoff, and then decides which part of the lyrics they'd like to take extremely literally in order to come up with some more specific details about the setting.
In our case, one of our players suggested ‘Be Prepared’ from the Lion King for the starter song, which put us in the happy position of beginning our heist as low-ranking minions who had been hired to help a villainous upstart steal the throne from the rightful king.
A little more close reading of the text and riffing on the details yielded us the specific details that our boss (a precocious seven-year-old who had been disinherited for her bad vibes) had already hired a significantly more competent assassin to deliver the coup de grace; our job was merely to ensure the assassin got access to the place by rigging the annual royal talent competition to ensure that she could beat out the kingdom's greatest pop superstar, Chadbrosius.
Next up: first act, and character creation, which involves each player pulling one of their six chosen karaoke-able songs out of a hat. This song will be your Act One Character Defining Introduction, which you will segue into at some point or another during your first scene when it becomes clear that the time is right to burst into song, following which the other players will offer you Obstacles for your Character Arc as suggested by your initial motifs.
In my case, my character defining song was Playing His Game from Frank Wildhorn’s magnum opus, Death Note: The Musical. I could not possibly have been happier about this. I proudly announced that I had a plan to ensure Chadbrosius lost the talent show, sang for several minutes about playing his game, getting into his head, etc., and then leaned in significantly and tapped my forehead as I hit the line “AND STEAL HIS ROUTINES!!!” Heist plan: set. The other players all immediately agreed that my obstacle was an unhealthy obsession with Chadbrosius; fair, valid.
This method of character-generation-by-randomized-karaoke-selection led our second player, the forger, to decide that they were still haunted by fear of being arrested for the murder they and the third player had done as children to escape an evil orphanage [Love for Long]; our third player, the mastermind, to sing an encouraging ballad to our evil seven-year-old boss that secretly expressed her fear of changing plans midstream [Hold On from the Secret Garden musical; “it's this king, not you, that's bound to go away!”]; and our fourth player, the getaway driver, to explain that their character was being haunted by the ghost of his grandfather, Lafayette, who wanted him to restore the lost honor of his banished noble family the Cowboys [Orville Peck’s Lafayette interpreted with breathtaking literalism.]
This last twist was both very funny and also worked out very well for me personally: the scene framed around this involved the ghost of Lafayette haunting around all the heist-planning meetings, and because my character had at this point already run off to stalk Chadbrosius, I had the great delight of picking up a secondary character who did nothing but howl “REVENGE THE COWBOYS!” and “ACHIEVE YOUR DESTINY!” at inopportune moments.
So much for Act One. Act Two works similarly, except that instead of the other players outlining obstacles for the character, each character's scene ends with all the other players offering up a plot complication suggested by the scene/song and the active player picks their favorite to be going on with. Scenes in our Act Two included:
the haunted character getting so distracted by the ghost that he didn't finish rigging the lights for the talent show, forcing the mastermind to climb into the rigging with him and help him ignore the ghost and finish the job (Defying Gravity)
complications: mastermind not where she's supposed to be for the rest of the heist
the haunted character deciding as a result of this to reject the ghost entirely, and commit to building a new life with his best friend/beloved the forger after this job is over, possibly by running away on a boat ([I’d Rather Be Sailing])
complications: ghost mad and wants to get his grandson back on track!
the forger, looking at the randomly selected karaoke song: “I’m so sorry, guys, but I think I'm gonna have to betray you??” panicking about an ominous note left by the ghost, forger STRIKES A SECRET DEAL WITH THE KING and get the assassin thrown out of the competition in exchange for the records of the forger's past crimes being expunged, then returns to the group and pretends he has no idea why that happened! (Ashes On Your Eyes)
complications: the assassin is no longer in the competition! the whole plan is in shambles!
…however, thanks to the magic of karaoke, Chadbrosius comes to my character with the reveal that he's totally on-board to step in as a substitute assassin! We re-form our band and win the talent competition with a compelling and romantic double act! Unhealthy obsession pays off it turns out! (Everybody. BACKSTREET'S BACK)
complications: my character and Chadbrosius, two highly competent individuals, are sure to be able to assassinate the king no problems! right??
Plot: THICKENED. Consequences: LOOMING. Boys: BANDED. TIME FOR ACT THREE.
In Act Three, we introduce a new and final mechanic: does your character get a good or a bad end? This is sorted out by pulling red and black playing cards out of a mini-deck; you get extra red cards towards the chance of a happy ending if you contributed to the group goal and if other people interacted significantly with your obstacle. Then, with your red or black cards in your hand (two red is big ups, two black is a downer, red and black is some kind of mixed success) you pull your last random karaoke song to frame your final scene.
Scenes in our Act Three:
the mastermind goes into a panic spiral in the rigging as a result of all the plans changing around them (aptly, Help!) but (happy ending!) learns an important lesson and is able to successfully adapt to the new plan ft. Assassin Chadbrosius!
the forger tells his best friend/beloved, the haunted getaway driver, that they're no longer in danger of being arrested, but unfortunately in the process also reveals THE BETRAYAL and the haunted getaway driver storms out, leaving the forger to contemplate his solitude ("I Am A Rock) (mixed ending)
the betrayed and haunted getaway driver contemplates getting away from it all, and buys a boat with the intention of taking to sea alone to escape his ghosts, but eventually decides to invite the rest of the crew along with him as a post-regicide escape route rather than disappearing into the wild blue yonder [How Far I’ll Go] (mixed ending)
I, knowing that I'll have the final scene in the musical and that two of the songs remaining on my potential playlist are “Tragedy!” and “I Don't Care Much,” am profoundly relieved to instead receive a happy ending and a final song of Get This Party Started (Shirley Bassey version): our regicidal performance for the king is apparently a huge success!
Finally, we use the same card mechanic to see how the plot resolves overall. With a mixed success, “you didn't get what you wanted, but you got what you needed;’ after some debate, we conclude that perhaps after all that sturm and drang we do not in fact successfully assassinate the king and bequeath the kingdom to an evil seven-year-old, and instead escape out a window to all begin a new life together on the getaway boat. We close out with a round of Come Sail Away and end our musical very pleased with ourselves indeed. No, we didn’t resolve any of the underlying problems regarding the assassination attempt and the evil seven-year-old, but we all grew and changed as people and isn't that really what matters? Tonies have been awarded for less.
So that's Jukebox! Strongly recommended for karaoke, improv and nonsense.
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Date: 2024-07-05 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-07-05 05:43 am (UTC)A friend and I dueted on 'Playing His Game' at karaoke a few months ago, and I hugely enjoyed the room's reactions to how homoerotic it was. When I hit the line 'What does he do late at night when the world is sleeping?', people gasped.
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