VHS Fury
It’s the 1990’s and you are a stakeholder in VHS Fury, a small-time, direct-to-VHS film studio. You have gathered with three of your colleagues in a dusty corner of the converted loft that you use to do the majority of your indoor shots. You have gathered tonight to generate and collaborate on some movie ideas that you will use during this year’s production season in order to churn out the delicious, low-budget movies that keep VHS Fury going.
The Roles
Each of you plays a specific and important role in the film-making process: the Script Writer, Financier, Company Actor, and Cinematographer. Read through the following descriptions and then divide up the roles, one to each player. The roles can be played as any race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. The only things known about the characters are the things written below. If you think of something that would be interesting to establish about your character, make it so! Figure out a way to interject it into the discussions you have about the films, before and after they are made, with the other characters.
The Script Writer
As the Writer, you will come up with amazing concepts for awe-inspiring movies – movies that feature hang glider battles over Mount Everest, riding dragons across the Carribean, fighting for survival against giant spiders on top of Machu Picchu. Your job is to come up with gratuitous, over-the-top movie plots, with lots of action, heartbreak, and general awesomeness. Don’t let reality, or budgets, or anything else get in the way of your imagination!
The Writer’s Motives
	•	You are a movie buff who has seen a ton of big-budget movies and dream of making one.
	•	You want to get your name out as a premier action movie writer, and you have to start somewhere! You truly believe that if you all just try hard enough, VHS Fury can come up with an impressive movie that will make your career.
	•	You love exotic locations: far-flung, highly specific locales where shooting a movie would be incredible!
	•	You want your movie to be beautiful, and that means casting beautiful, talented actors, preferably someone who is recognizable by the direct-to-VHS fan base! You will often suggest casting “someone like [insert the name of a huge star].”
	•	You love blockbuster special effects: believable models, big explosions, and even (yes!) cutting-edge CGI!

The Financier
You’re the realist, the one who pays VHS Fury’s bills, balances the books, and tells the group why their ideas won’t work. You constantly have to raise the issue of the budget with the others and tell them why an idea would be too expensive to shoot. Your job is to come up with cheap, less flashy alternatives to whatever nonsense the Writer brings to the table. You often suggest the do-it-yourself approach. No alternative, no matter how awful, is too terrible to suggest to the group if it will keep the movie’s budget in good shape. After all, the goal isn’t to make art; the goal is making money, right?! If you happen to do both, that’d be great.
The Financier’s Motives
	•	Why bother traveling to a far off location when you can just hang a picture outside a window, or mock it up here in the loft, or even just write on a sign that you’re in that place?
	•	You know that special effects are always expensive and often disappointing on a small budget – why not just use some cheap monster suits from a Halloween store or film in scenes that take place in the dark? Or better yet, settle on a script with fewer effects altogether. 
	•	Costumes, especially period costumes, are expensive too. Just dig around at a Goodwill or in your grandma’s attic and everything will be fine!
	•	Actors and extras are expensive. Keep the number of roles and crowd scenes to a minimum.
	•	You want to save money on production, so that you can use it in advertising and distribution. Or better yet, bring a little more home to the family. Your children are growing and the bills are mounting up. Maybe you could even finally quit that second job.

The Cinematographer
You are always thinking about different ways the movie could be shot that would make it interesting. You believe that every script or acting job can be improved with more innovative camera work. What if the movie was all a single take? What if the whole thing had a blue filter, to invoke feelings of sadness? What if everything was shot from the top down, giving the audience a bird’s-eye view? You really don’t care much about what you’re filming, but you care a whole hell of a lot about the way you film it. Your want to learn and grow as a cinematographer and push the craft in new directions.
The Cinematographer’s Motives
	•	Movies are a medium, just like painting or dance. You want to make art! You probably bring up movies like Citizen Kane, The Seventh Seal, and La Jetée a lot.
	•	You know that you can make any story interesting if you shoot it in an unusual way. You want to do something that has never been done before, or copy a technique that has been done only rarely. You want to choose a style that will wow other cinematographers and fans of the craft. You want to really explore and learn the equipment. You want to draw attention to the camerawork.
	•	You like low-budget films. Those suckers that work on high-budget stuff have sold out. Look at all the great movies they used to make before they got caught up in the blockbuster trap! The combination of low budget movies and artistic film styles is the highest art there is; they are the kinds of films that really say something about the modern world.

The Company Actor
You have a regular acting gig with the studio. You are solidly attractive, at least relative to 90% of the populace, and you know it. The thing is, you are getting burnt out. You’ve been in every movie since VHS Fury was founded, and “it” hasn’t happened yet for you. You once thought that one of your films would get a big cult following and you would be discovered, but now you aren’t sure it’s ever going to happen. You have a crippling fear of being forgotten, of passing your prime. Today you think you noticed that the skin under your arms was getting a little loose and flappy, just like (shudder) your Grandma’s! You don’t have the resources, skills, nerve, or connections to go try anything else though. Your best bet is to keep acting, even if it’s just in straight-to-VHS movies, and maybe you will be discovered, or at least leave behind a legacy of good acting in otherwise bad films.
The Actor’s Motives
	•	You have dreamed of being in movies since you were a child, but it’s hard to retain that sense of wonder when you see the monster being created out of glue and cardboard thirty minutes before you are due to start shooting.
	•	On the weekends, you watch arthouse films and cry into your low-fat “butter flavored” bag of microwave popcorn, wishing you could be involved in just one movie like that.
	•	You want to be known, to be recognized, to be remembered! You want your face in a bunch of scenes, close-ups if possible. You are jealous of other actors’ screen time and you fight to be in as many scenes as possible. As a result you often suggest switching a scene designed for someone else to being all about you.
	•	You worry about losing it. After all, what else can you do? You aren’t good at anything else. Your dad pressures you about working with him at the insurance firm and it makes your skin crawl. You need these films to keep up the rent on your apartment or you’ll have to move back in with the parents.

Overview of Play
VHS Fury is a story-telling game wrapped in a role-playing game. You play as characters who are imagining story ideas for movies. How cool is that!? Your goal, as a team who is often at odds, is to somehow come up with a few workable movie ideas that you can all agree on, or at least live with. You will then jump forward in time and discuss some of the best scenes of the films you made in hindsight. Finally you will determine whether it was a good season for VHS Fury or not, financially speaking. During each phase of the game, you will play some cards that will determine which of your ideas get made into movies and how well they are ultimately received by the video-watching public.
Setup
To set up the game, take a deck of cards and divide it into the four suits. (Set aside any jokers that are in the pack; you won’t need them.) Each role takes a stack: the writer takes spades (it looks like a fountain pen?), the financier takes diamonds ($), the cinematographer grabs clubs (looks like one of those old movie cameras with the reel holders), and the actor gets hearts (of course). 
You may also want to have a pen and some paper, sticky notes, or index cards on hand to write down the titles of your movies and other notes.
Phase 1: The Pitch Sessions
In this phase of the game the characters try to generate 3-5 movie concepts, one at a time, through a series of conversations. It may help to user a timer and set a 10 minute limit on each discussion, just to keep things moving. Each discussion always starts with the Writer, who begins by pitching a high-level film concept in a single sentence. Many pitches are in the form of mashing two well-known and successful (but unlike) movies together or taking one such movie and giving it a big twist.
Examples (really terrible ones!)
	•	It’s a romantic comedy set in a bleak sci-fi fortress under siege, imagine Aliens meets When Harry Met Sally.
	•	It’s like Jurassic Park except … wait for it …. it takes place underwater!
	•	I call this one Mimi’s Day Out - it’s like Thelma and Louise but it takes place in a huge shopping mall full of zombies, Dawn of the Dead style.

Once the Script Writer has given the pitch, the other players can jump in at any time and attempt to modify what is being said and/or push their own ideas and agendas. Until they do, the Writer should continue outlining the basic plot of a super awesome movie. The Writer should not only frame the basic idea, but get other players thinking about how the movie could meet their individual character goals. 
As other players jump in, trying to get their vision across, the conversation will become a struggle to influence the film and/or find common ground. It’s ok if, by the end, the movie looks nothing at all like the idea the Writer initially pitched. Just let the conversation ebb and flow. Sometimes the characters’ goals will align and sometimes they will not. It is up to each player to decide how hard to push. You can try to be agreeable and cooperative, compromising enough to allow everyone some input into each film idea, or you can play in an antagonistic manner, fighting to get only what your character wants and ignoring the needs of others. You can even vary how hard you push from one movie pitch to the next.
When there is a heated disagreement and the characters don’t look like they are going to reach a compromise, any player involved in the argument can quickly choose a numbered card (not a face card!) from their deck and slap it onto the table face down. Players should not verbally reference the cards, but stay in-character, perhaps giving an ultimatum, bringing up a seemingly inarguable point, or just generally becoming boisterous. Once one player has pushed out a card, any other player involved in the argument can also choose a card and slap it down, saying something appropriate to indicate disagreement. If they don’t want to play a card (or don’t have any more numbered cards), they must back down. After it’s clear that no one else is going to play a card, all the cards should be flipped over and the person who played the high card wins the argument. They get their way. In the case of a tie, the characters reach an impasse and someone changes the subject to talk about a different part of the film. After it is clear who played the high card, or that there is an impasse, the cards are flipped back over and gathered in a face down pile to one side.
Each movie will accrue a pile of cards. The players should keep these piles separate and the cards should remain face down. Players should try not to memorize or add up the cards as they are played. It’s more fun to lose track and be surprised later.
Each pitch session will continue until time runs out, if using a timer, or until at least three of the four roles are (somewhat) satisfied with the movie concept — or don’t despise it in any case. Players should be alert to the mood at the table, the general pace of the conversation (is it dying down?), and do their best to figure out when it’s time to move on to the next pitch. The goal is not to stall everyone out by insisting that things can only happen your way, or no way at all. Everyone is loosely united by the goal of needing to get a movie or two made!  
Also, although the Financier will feel it more keenly than the rest of the characters, everyone in the company knows that VHS Fury operates on a limited budget. Everyone should absolutely push for their ideas, but everyone should also know that getting what they want in one case may mean needing to sacrifice in other areas. For example, if the Writer were to somehow get a foreign location for the film, everyone would know that the location would eat up most of the budget. They would have to cave to the demands of the Financier (or other characters) to save money in other areas of the film. Essentially this is a matter of tone. The game is based around a direct-to-VHS studio after all. Character’s shouldn’t think like they are part of a big name Hollywood studio.
After the players have completed five discussions or after 50 minutes (whichever comes first), the piles are turned over and totaled. The three movies with the lowest totals get made. Why? Because these films theoretically represent the lowest amount of unresolved conflict and controversy among the roles. Having the movies with the lowest totals get made also creates a nice tension between playing high cards, if you want to win an argument, and trying to keep the overall total low, if you want the film to get made.
If there is a tie between several movies such that you can’t tell which three are the lowest, everyone plays another face down numbered card on the table. The player with the highest card gets to choose three films among the lowest that will get made. If there is a tie in this extra card play, the pecking order among the tied players is the Financier, Cinematographer, Actor, and then Writer.
Examples
	•	The group got through four pitches. The stacks total up to 9, 13, 14, and 15. The movies totaling 9, 13, and 14 get made.
	•	The group finished five pitches. The totals are 8, 11, 11, 11, and 22. The 8 and two of the 11s are going to get made, but which ones? The players each play a face down card. The Cinematographer and the Actor tie for the highest card when revealed. The Cinematographer picks two of the three 11s to get made.
	•	The group only finished three pitches. Those are the movies that get made.

After you have figured out which movies are going to be made, you can set all the cards to one side. That way they won’t get mixed up with the cards played in phase 2.
Phase 2: Hindsight
It is later in the season. VHS Fury is making movies! Everyone is frazzled but there is also a lot of energy in the air. It’s obvious to everyone that the movies aren’t everything they wanted them to be, but they are hopeful that their good ideas and good work shines brightly enough to overshadow, or at least balance out the rough parts. 
As each film is locked, the group gathers together to view the final cut that will be released into distribution. After watching the movie, they talk about the things they like and don’t like about the film, describing specific scenes that more-or-less fit the pitch given for the movie and what was good or bad about them.
At the beginning of the Hindsight phase, players shuffle all their remaining cards face down, still keeping their deck separate from the other players’ decks. At this point each player should have three face cards and some quantity of numbered cards, depending on how many the player used in arguments during the Pitches. It is advantageous at this point to have at least six cards.
The players pick one of the movies and take turns describing a single scene from that movie until everyone has described two. Each time a player describes a scene, that player plays the face down card from the top of their deck, if they still have at least one, into the center of the table. The players will not know what card they are playing! (Other than the card’s suit, of course.) One of the scenes a player describes should illustrate their character’s influence. It is a scene in which they got their way. The other scene described by the player is the opposite, it reflects the character not getting their way. The player can choose which of these to describe first. Other than these restrictions, one good and one bad scene - from their character’s perspective at least, the player should be more or less faithful to the pitch and the pre-production discussion (especially respecting anything established by someone who got their way in a heated discussion). However, the player can include a quirky element or two or describe something that is tonally very much out of character with the movie everyone discussed. Plans go awry! The movie is made in the editing. Very few films faithfully adhere to their storyboards!
Players can also describe the same scene that someone else has already described, but from their own character’s perspective. It is a nice twist to have the same scene described as a bad thing for one character and a good thing for another.
In describing scenes, players should try to paint a picture of the scene and say how their character is feeling about what they saw on screen. Players can relate bits of dialogue (or play them out with another character) and talk about special effects. They can shift from the perspective of a person who was part of the filming to the viewpoint of a person who just finished watching the film on a screen, and back again if they like. It is helpful to be both precise, about specific moments, and generally vague. Players don’t have to describe the scene start-to-finish, but rather just give everyone a vivid impression of the scene.
Once everyone has described two scenes from each movie, it’s time to see how the movies sold and were received by the video store crowd.
Phase 3: It’s a Hit!?
For each movie, one at a time, turn over all of the cards that were played in phase 2 and look at the face cards. These represent influential fans who saw the film and determine how well the film was received and how much money it made. Read the face cards as follows:
	•	If there are any pairs, kings, queens, or jacks, score 2 points. (That’s 2, regardless of how many pairs there are.) For the highest pair, refer to the list below and each person whose card (by suit) was in the pair gets to choose a result. 
	⁃	You got reviewed in a weblog. Quote some of it to the other players and explain why, at least in the words of this reviewer, the film’s success was because of you.
	⁃	The film was financially lucrative for you. You did something fly with the bit of extra cash to enhance your rep, what was it?
	⁃	You were invited to speak at a fan convention, what did you speak about and what nasty thing did you say about one of the other characters or *VHS Fury* itself that got you more attention?
	⁃	*VHS Fury’s* is slowly building a strong fanbase. You start with 1 point to add to your score in this phase the next time you play the game (not this time).
	⁃	You have been invited to judge at a film festival where you meet some influential people. One of them invites you to make a movie with them in *VHS Fury’s* “off” season. What is the movie about and how do the other characters feel about your outside work?
	•	If there are no pairs and no jacks, score 1 point.
	•	If there are no pairs, but there is a jack, score 0 points. The person who owns the jack (by suit) must choose one of the following:
	⁃	You got panned. Not the film. YOU. Tell the other players what the most stinging comment was. The one that will haunt you in the middle of the night.
	⁃	You are out. Either you can’t take it anymore or the other characters want you gone. If you play the game again, you will play as a new character.
	⁃	*VHS Fury* has lost some of its fans with the weak showing of this film. You are getting letters from fans demanding rental fees and 2 hours of their lives back. The next time you play (not this time), take -1 point to your total in this phase.
	⁃	You have become the pawn of another character. If you play again, you automatically lose arguments to that character for the entire pitch phase. (Afterward you grow a spine.)
	•	Total your points from this phase and read them as follows:
	⁃	5+ *VHS Fury*, the company and its lineup of movies, is being featured in a number of b-movie mags and other venues! If you play again and score this high, you have really made it! Your videos fly off the shelves and several of you get starter contracts from big film studios.
	⁃	2-4 *VHS Fury* gets to keep making movies for another year. It was a mixed bag of reviews, but you have some fans and you feel sure that you are on the cusp of making it big.
	⁃	0-1 *VHS Fury* goes belly up. You need to find some external funding and reboot or everyone will drift away and join a different movie houses. Some of you will quit and bag groceries or something. 

Final Thoughts
This game could/should grow over time. If you play again, will you make a sequel to one of your big hits? Will it do as well? Can you play long enough to make a real name for *VHS Fury?* Will you become a big star and leave the group? Not only will the story grow, but you should feel free to tweak the mechanics. Add good options to the pairs list and bad ones to the jacks list that you think would be funny or interesting. Try it with and without a timer. Or maybe force yourself to be more combative and play more heated argument cards. Bring new players into the group and introduce yourself as the same way an established group would introduce itself to a new member - each person angling a bit to get the new character on their side for the pitch sessions. 
Have fun! And make sure to share some of your great films and fun game sessions on the web! #vhsfury