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I'm going to run a session or two of The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men for my wife and kids. We're all experienced roleplayers, but we haven't tried this system before. What kinds of adventures have other folks run with this game? EDIT: I'm not looking for adventure suggestions. I'm interested in hearing about actual play experiences - I have plenty of my own ideas already, but I'd like to know how other people have turned their ideas into play sessions. Thanks! |
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Okay, I ran it last night. If anyone's curious, here's my report: The session started with our gingerbread folks getting caught in the middle of an ongoing war between the Santa Claus ornaments (led by Big Kris) and the snowman ornaments (led by Frosty X) on our Christmas tree. Each faction had been promised "support" by some mysterious force elsewhere in our house. Our puppy provided a constant mobile hazard, managing to maim 3 separate characters. Our cat provided historical insight between naps. We have an old, weathered stuffed Christmas rabbit who was willing to provide details - but only if the PCs would act out some non-Christmas story for her amusement. It turned out that our toaster oven was trying to organize the appliances to revolt against humanity, and had convinced the microwave to provide Big Kris and Frosty X with heat rays in hopes that their warfare would ignite the tree and set the house on fire to destroy the hated hoo-mans. That's how it was supposed to go, anyway. I incorporated lots of stuff around our house (dog, cat, rabbit, malfunctioning toaster oven, our tradition of giving one girl Santas and the other snowmen). One feature of the game that I liked - but that was problematic in play - was that each PC is supposed to have a Secret. These Secrets are important to character motivation and personality, but are also supposed to be secret from everyone else. That undermined the collaborative nature of the group; we had a lot of folks darting off individually to pursue their agenda in secret. With 7 players, we often had 3-4 things going on in different parts of the house, which meant that everyone was sitting idle quite a bit. The game does have another mechanic that mitigates against this - attempting activities in the presence of other cookies who were baked in your batch gives you bonus dice. So the more PCs you could get to help you, the more dice you had to accomplish things. This worked better in theory than in practice: many gingerfolk pursued their Secrets in secret, failing because they didn't have enough dice, when they could have succeeded with a little help from their friends. Also, the PCs were fascinated by my plush Cthulhu and kept pestering him in hopes of using his eldritch powers to their own ends. There's just something about Cthulhu. |
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The hunt for the Mince Pie mixture? someone's lost the stuffing for the mince pies, and as everyone knows, if there's no mince pie (and sherry) waiting for Santa then he won't come. And no Santa means no gingerbread men get to go home to where its Christmas all the time. This'd require a treasure hunt through the kitchen cabinets and past those dangerous appliances, picking up extras like chocolate coins, sugar mice and tiny candles. Possibly with a run to the shops to buy some. (and you wouldn't think I'm a jaded cynic!) Perhaps the fairy at the top of the tree requires help to find out who's been eating the chocolate ornaments on the tree, or the christmas spirits that make the lights on the tree twinkle have disappeared and need to be found. (it was the evil cat and his rat henchmen, BTW) |
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