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Joan of Arc, Protocol Game Series 3 $3.95
Average Rating:4.1 / 5
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Joan of Arc, Protocol Game Series 3
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Joan of Arc, Protocol Game Series 3
Publisher: post world games
by Scott V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/21/2016 16:19:14

This was the the first game we played in the Protocol game series. This is a very fun and tense game. The story played out with many plot twits and was all around a blast. With the card drawing mechanic that the game engine runs on it ensures that no game will be played out the same. I can't recommend this game or series of games enough.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Joan of Arc, Protocol Game Series 3
Publisher: post world games
by Chrystal A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/08/2014 15:09:22

We played two games yesterday by Post World Games' Jim Pinto's Protocol Game Series. The first one was Jean of Arc, about a dying Space Station and the intrepid characters launched to save it. The second was Zombieskin a game where characters were mutated and deformed survivors in a post-apocalyptic setting, trying to protect a child called Eve (to read the review of zombieskin check out the game).

First of all, I had read through the first game, Jean of Arc a few days before we started playing. The day before I quickly reviewed the rules and the setting before starting to play.

Character creation and scenes are created by using cards. Drama points are used to change the narrative direction (extending scenes, adding new NPCs, resolving conflict). Each turn a player becomes the director of a scene. After four rounds the game ends.

With Joan of Arc, we selected names, drew cards for motivations, and creating one relationship between two characters. As there was six players, we created three relationships.

Once complete we fleshed out the world in which we inhabit, the administration of the space station and a foreshadowing of what kinds of secrets it would contain. To put it shortly: We were a rescue team responding to a solar flare that struck the Space Station orbiting Mars. The Station a joint civilian and military venture was doing research into exoplanet colonisation.

Not in the rules, but we decided to create a list of descriptions of the feel of the Space Station prior to the cataclysm, and then after. The reason is that parts of the station are working while others are experiencing the destruction from the station. We could then mix and match from both lists to create atmosphere.

An overview of what happened:

As we started we remembered the coordinator that was killed on the Space Station. After extensive talk we decided to enter through a utility hatch. A fire was raging on the other side. We decided to blow the hatch and let the fire etinguish into the depth of space. Upon arrivin in we found bodies of people who had died not of fire but of asphyxiation. Half the team split up to go to medical. The other half to the bridge. After a bit of politicking, we find out that they had found an organism on the planet and had brought it back. The solar flare knocked out critical systems allowing the organism to latch on to the survivors. Systems failing we find that there are over 30 people in stasis pods, which means there is double number on the station. As the last of the people are placed in the pods. One panics and opens the helmet of the medic, exposing him. A cargo freighter arrives that has express orders to salvage as much equipment as possible. Half of us take the cargo freighter who follow the priority of saving equipment while the other tries to save the people by blowing a hole in the side of station and attaching them to the shuttle that we came on. As the station's cold fusion reactor goes nova we escape with most of the stasis pods.

Gameplay

To start you draw two cards. One describes the scene and the other location. There are also four types of scenes and locations based on suit and descriptors based on value. The scenes are described below.

There are four types of scenes based on the suit that is drawn: Vignette, interrogation, interlude, and ensemble. In Vignettes we describe an event shortly; in an interrogation we ask up to five questions from a character - this can be internal monologue or between an NPC/PC; innterludes everything fades into he background as we explore the interaction between two characters' relationship; and in an esemble all characters participate.

We played vignettes as being quite long, we also focused them to be directly relating to a character or group of characters. With interrogations we would often ask a most of the questions to start off and then have the character answer them - sometimes with a PC or NPC, or even as spoken monologue. Interludes we found to be a bit difficult as we had too few, but it did mean that the ones that were conflicted were exploited more. With ensembles we were often split up and so we more often ended up with cut scenes or then characters arriving in one location at the same time.

We started out very hesitant to use drama points, as we became more comfortable it became easier and we started being more creative with using the drama points.

When we finished the game we were supposed to use vignettes to describe what happens next. This was a bit hamstrung as one character was insistent on killing another character and it ended up with a "did not" "did too" discarding of drama points. I personaly felt that it needed something fascinating at the end to wrap up the game.

Things we found good

Very quick and intuitive gameplay. Character creation, setting up the world and the initial scene was quick and intuitive.

Things we would like to improve upon

Keeping vignettes tight, avoiding extending scenes for no reason, a better grasp of how to keep a scene dramatic.

We found that there were not enough relationships, so we came upon the idea of using drama points to create new relationships on the spot between two characters. We would use it to great effect in the second game Zombieskin.

We wanted somekind of random mechanic to avoid tit for tat spending of drama points for A way to deal with inter-character conflict and violence. Next time I run a game, I want to use 2 stud poker as a way to resolve stand offs with drama points as chips.

The Vignettes at the end felt a bit arbitrary. Some other kind of function feels necessary to give a proper send off to a good game.

Closure

Overall, we had a lot of fun. We played this in a convention. Outside of one player I did not know the rest, which meant that we created more conflict between characters. With six players and a slower start it took us three hours to play through four rounds.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Joan of Arc, Protocol Game Series 3
Publisher: post world games
by James F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/02/2014 11:44:18

The Protocol system is a refreshing way to handle a storytelling game. It's not your typical RPG. You and your friends are basically using a toolkit to determine random events, characters, and the characters' motivations. Then once you have most of this determined, you set out to "play" the game. It's more of a structured storytelling really.

I LOVE the ideas in Joan of Arc, a space station crashing to Earth and you get to decide how the team of experts save it, or at the very least minimize damage to the world below. I will be buying more of these games in the future!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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