AD LIBITUM ABSURDITY

Fame, fashion, glory, and of course, stardom! Your group of players have characters who are “on their way,” in Hollywood, although as actors they are typecast from some long running sitcoms and a few commercials. You take the role of their Agent - while not everyone wants to be “doing Shakespeare” everyone does want to have their name on the movie marquee. 

It might be important to note that not everyone can be a star… so the actors will do what they need to do to have the studio executives and directors notice them.

EQUIPMENT SUGGESTED:
IN GENERAL:
one bowl or hat or something to store pieces of paper temporarily
PER PERSON:
3d6, with pips or numbers -- none of ‘em fancy Fate diceroonies.
1 piece of paper for a character sheet.
4 strips of paper suitable for writing up to six words each 

SETTING THE SCENE
Everyone (yes, including the Agent) starts by writing down on one strip of paper a verb and an adjective describing some sort of scene they think would be fun to play out in the session. 

They put these strips of paper in the bowl or hat and each person chooses one randomly.

On a second strip of paper, everyone except the Agent writes a genre in which they think would be fun to see scenes. 

They put these strips of paper in the bowl or hat and each person chooses one randomly.

WHO ARE YOU TODAY?
On the character sheet, the players start the creation of their actor by choosing the traits that best suit the characters the actor is known to play, along with a stage name.  This should be done cooperatively as a group. 

Each actor will need to choose four different descriptors to choose from the choices below, each with different options of skill pools (in parentheses):
 
CHARACTER TRAIT: 
Introspective (Investigation)
Eccentric (Resources)
Trickster (Deception)
Center of Attention (Social)

THE LOOK: 
Well-Kept/Disheveled (Social)
Built/Fit (Blocking)
Garish (Resources)
Tragic (Investigation)

IN A GROUP:
Talkative (Social)
Wealthy (Resources)
All About the Base (Blocking)
Well-Connected (Deception)

ACTION SCENE:
Stunt-Driven (Blocking)
Roguish (Deception)
Dramaturg (Investigation)
Collaborative (Social)

On the third and final piece of paper, each player needs to make a small (up to four word) goal their actor wishes to pursue personally, outside of the scene.  What is their real driving motivation? The choices here are unlimited, but should be filtered towards what the group has been collectively thinking about and have Agent approval.

They put these strips of paper in the bowl or hat and each person chooses one randomly. 

Sessions are built around scenes designed in which players will have their characters try to interact inside their chosen scene (in their chosen genre) to achieve their chosen goal. This may or may not be in cooperation with other players.  

With the goal and traits chosen, the PC can now mark down the skill pools they have as follows:

  -- All skills start with 1, and 
  -- For each related trait an additional die is received.  
  -- No skill pool can be higher than 3 after creation
  -- An additional 1 skill die can be moved as the Player sees fit (this includes making a skill pool 0, but cannot make any pool higher than 3)

Description of Skill Pools:
  Investigative:  Finding out the things that need to happen or getting that clue.
  Social:    Talking the talk and leaving everyone still excited and positive.
  Deception: Being sneaky or tricky or leaving a false impression for someone.
  Blocking: Doing the crazy awesome things or moving the crazy awesome things.
  Resources: Being able to purchase or acquire items/gear that makes things work.


For example, Batman might be: 
Introspective, Tragic (all that black!), Wealthy, and Stunt-Driven giving him two dice in the Investigative pool, one in Resources, and one in Blocking.



As the players continue to work out their actors, the Agent should be noting any ideas or conflicts that spark their interest. After character creation, there should be about twice as many ideas written down as there are players - the originals that were randomly selected, and the ones the Agent wrote during the character creation process.
The Agent needs to write down one crazy movie title for each genre - that’s the movie the Agent will be trying to get the Actor in as a star.

At this point, everyone should take a quick break and the Agent should figure out or begin to formalize a few interesting paths between all the connecting  ideas.  

AND...ACTION!
Each player chooses a scene focused on a particular aspect of their goal - this may not be the actual goal, but should be a stepping stone towards it.  The player can have two options here:
  -- they can frame the scene themselves, or 
  --they can have the Agent frame the scene. 

Either way, the Agent then decides which skill this scene would be based on. If the player decided to pick (based on the random choice) they get an additional die towards the skill pool.  Each player should choose at least one other actor to take part in this scene as well - if they do, that player needs to explain how their actor intends to help (or hinder) and give 1 die based on that appropriate skill.

Once the premise of the scene of which the Actors are involved has been decided, the player rolls his skill pool dice and the scene begins.  Within the scene things will develop through conversation and characterization, however, with the use of a skill die the tone of the scene may change, or certain parts of the scene can be finalized.  

For each die rolled that is a 5 or a 6, the player has control of a certain part of that scene and it just works.  Any 3 or 4 rolled can be used (at anytime!) by a player other than the one who rolled it to make something happen.  All 1s or 2s rolled give the Agent fiat to dictate certain things that happen, including but not limited to interrupting the scene and breaking the fourth wall with silly requests from directors, producers, or even the cappuccino gopher.

Based on these rolls and using a basic storytelling trope - this can be viewed as a "Yes, and" for rolls of 5-6, a "No, but.." for 3-4, and "No, and furthermore…" for any 1-2. 

As these scenes continue, make sure that each player gets to lead a scene before anyone gets a second go - this should help keep pace, but also keep everyone involved.

Once all Actors have been involved in two scenes (or roughly halfway through the session)  have everyone write down a NEW adjective and verb which they think would be interesting - select them randomly but keep these face down and don't look at them.  Then everyone rolls 1 die, any 1s rolled are thrown into the scene pool without discussion - any 6s are turned face up and discussed if they want to be added (or modified and then added).

At this point each player now has about 2 scenes left to lead, and thus they'll probably be working more towards their goal.  After they roll the dice for the 3rd scene, the player needs to take that last slip of paper and incorporate that goal into either this scene or next. After this break, instead of helping others by being in others scenes - they help themselves by being in other scenes (that is, they'll have a +1 die for any upcoming scene they lead if they are a part of someone else's scene) Note: The player who leads the scene still has to agree before another Actor shows up.

Once everyone has led two scenes, the session has ended.  

IN MEDIA RES:
Sara plays Beamy McCoy, typecast as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.  She has chosen, “fluffy debating” in the genre “wrestling.”  Her highest skill pool is Social.  She decides to run her scene as a pillow fight.  She invites Ben’s character “Hunky Dory” as her character’s foil.  The Agent approves the scene (“Yes, a pillow fight is just cute enough to impress them for ‘The Foodie Cadaver II: Stinky Cheese Fever!’  This may seem like a Blocking, but it’s really a Social conflict!”) and Sara rolls a 5, 3, 1, 4  on her four dice.  This means Hunky and the rest of the ensemble get to determine two things that happen, the Agent gets one, but Sara with the highest die gets ultimate control of the scene.

DENOUEMENT:
Ask the following questions as a group:

  -- For each original idea that came about, whose character exemplified it the most? They get 1 die to add to a skill pool (max 4)
  -- For all the characters’ goals, whose were achieved? They get 1 point to add to a skill pool (meaning that their rolls are always a “plus one.”)
 -- For the special 3rd scene goal, who had the best implementation?  They get 1 die to move from one skill pool to another (min 0, max 4 in a pool)
  -- For all scenes, who helped out the most and kept the story going? They get 1 die to add to a skill pool (max 4)
  -- For all scenes, who had the most epic, crazy, well-played scene that just made the session awesome? They get 1 die to add to a skill pool (max 4) 
  -- For the last 2 points, no player can be awarded both at the same session.
  -- All players can additionally move 1 die from a skill pool to another (min 0, max 4 in a pool)