Panty Explosion: Linda, Linda, Linda

My memory's a bit hazy here, and the GM collected the character sheets at the end. But, it was a lot of fun, and I was glad to have the chance to play this game.

The previous night, I had played in an 11 pm - 3 am Call of Cthulhu game called "Lockdown", a lovely, nasty scenario about things going very wrong at a prison. Definitely for mature players only. But, all in all, I'm not sure that the game of Panty Explosion wasn't nastier, with all of us playing sweet polite little Japanese school girls, being as nasty as they could to one another.

Panty Explosion is about Japanese schoolgirls. All of the PCs are Japanese schoolgirls. Every player selects one PC to be his or her PC's Best Friend and another to be his or her PC's Rival. If one's PC succeeds, the result is narrated by the player of the Best Friend; if the PC fails, it is narrated by the player of the Rival. This caused us some confusion, but Todd, one of the players, said to think of it as if the PCs were telling the story after the fact. The Best Friend would tell the story to make the PC look as good as possible, while the Rival would tell it to make her look as bad as possible.

One's chance of success is directly affected by one's popularity, and all players vote on which PC is most and least popular. Some of the PCs may be psychic. Psychic girls can never be the most popular. They are just too weird.

Players then choose traits for their student PCs, getting one each based on Blood Type, Zodiac Animal, their highest element (of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Void), Friends and Family, and Hobbies. Each of these nets a player one or more dice, and die size is determined by popularity.

Players also choose a personal agenda, i.e., a goal they want their student to accomplish. Students will face many dangers at school, including a Demon, and, in the final conflict with the Demon, it is strengthened by any unresolved student agendae.

The premise of this session was that all of the PCs were involved in the same group project: forming a band. They had one week to decide what songs to play and to rehearse. This was based on the movie _Linda, Linda, Linda_. Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Linda_Linda

GM: Kat Jones

Seth Bacon (sp?): Nabiki (Sasaki's Best Friend) (bassist) (psychic)

P??? Gupta (female player): Sachi Ito (drums) (psychic)

Todd Allan Mormon (who may have seen the movie and who definitely knew the song): Abe Kiku (lead guitar, manager) (Sasaki's Rival)

Me: Sasaki R??? (lead vocals)

Ginny ???: Chiba (keyboards)

Sachi's player: I want a pretty! I want a pretty outfit!

GM: You all get pretty outfits.

She distributed visual aids: photos taken of actual Japanese girls from some public website. This resulted in an unusual problem.

In RPGs, people will sometimes play a different gender than their own. This can cause confusion. I have had people refer to my PC as female even when I a) announced that I was playing a man and b) made a name tag, specified my PC's gender on it, and stood it in front of me. It happens. This wasn't the problem here.

No, the problem was that the picture of Abe Kiku looked male. It was a picture of a Japanese girl, the GM assured us, but it was a girl who did not look obviously female, who had short hair, and who was wearing a pants suit. We kept referring to Kiku as "he" and "him", to Todd's chagrin.

Todd (pointing to his nametag): Guys, I even put little _hearts_ over the "i"s!

It wasn't that Todd was a guy. We had no problem remembering that Seth was playing a girl, and unlike Todd, he had a beard. But the picture which was our visual aid kept confusing us.

The results of the initial popularity vote:

Most popular: Kiku
Least popular: Chiba

The first meeting of the band took place in Sachi's house.

Kiku: Everyone has an instrument, right?

Sasaki (gesturing dramatically at her throat): _This_ is my inst.

Kiku: Okay, then.

Kiku was the band's manager, and very bossy. She made lists and decisions. Inevitably, there was a conflict. This took a while, as we had some trouble figuring out how actions went around the table and how much we could and could not resolve with narration. I think the key is to think of it as social combat, and what is narrated being a specific exchange of blows, not the entire conflict.

Once everyone has had an action, folks decide whether there needs to be another round, and I think things are supposed to get more dramatic if there is. I think we went about two rounds of Kiku vs Sachi with everyone taking sides. As actions use up dice, attrition should keep combats from going too long.

Someone (about Sachi): And then... she falls over, and her panties show!

Someone: And the house is a wreck.

Seth: And the mom comes in!

We agreed that this was a good general outline of the ending, but decided to tweak it a bit. I forget how much of this was the combat itself, and how much the aftermath.

Sachi lost control and used her psychic power to move Kiku outside the house, with the door closed. Sasaki spoke up on Kiku's behalf. Sort of.

Sasaki: We have to help Kiku. She is so pathetic -- this band is all she has.

Kiku knocked on the door and apologized, saying that she only wanted the band to be as good as it could be and that she was sure it would be a great band. She was let in, and then, the mother came home, saw the mess, and the scene ended.

Kat asked what we wanted next -- another conflict, the actual talent show, or what.

Someone: To do more roleplaying before we go back to fighting.

We agreed, and we decided to have another popularity vote. Unsurprisingly, the ranking changed.

Most Popular: Chiba
Least Popular: Kiku

And, we needed a name for the band. Possibilities included:

The Anal Retentives
Kiku and the Happy Shiny

We finally decided that the band would be called The Happy Shiny Anal Retentive Band.

Songs:

Furry Skirts and Rosy Boots Are Pretty In the Rain
Kiku's Got to Calm Down Now (Saschi's Lament)
Linda, Linda, Linda (Kiku insisted on this one)

Meanwhile, the girls went to their classes while arranging for more practice.

GM: Note passing?

Todd: Texting! All day long texting! Because we got to carve out our schedule!

We cut to midweek, Wednesday Afternoon Band Practice

Nabiki: The lead guitar has been really lacking, so I just replaced all of that with sythesized guitar.

Kiku (aka the lead guitarist): Well, it's hardly surprising you'd make a mistake like that give how many notes you've been missing.

Chiba: Calm, Kiku, calm. Let's play Saschi's Lament.

But, Kiku decided, they needed more practice! Yes, they must get into the school and have an overnight practice!

Chiba was a little late and seemed to be hoarse. She and the psychic girl Sachi kept sneaking glances at each other. Nabiki said she could pick the lock to the music room, or something like that.

Kiku: But it turns out Nabiki is a budding criminal.

Sasaki: How exotic.

The girls bluffed the janitor about having a note. I think they did have a note, but that it had a different time and date for them to rehearse. Fortunately, the janitor didn't notice the discrepancy.

Then, we cut to the talent fair itself. Kat made sure that we all had opportunities for our PCs to complete their agendae.

Kiku tried to impress upper classmen with her management scheme of getting the other girls to work for free, so that she could get the profits. Sasaki said that this wasn't exactly the case -- she herself was donating her clothing creations to the band, but she was doing this to get a foot in the door of making money at it, and the upper classmen, impressed, went off wearing some of her designs.

I forget what the other girls' agendae were, but we learned, out of character, what was going on with Chiba and Sachi. Chiba had a twin brother, and she actually blew off band practice, sending her brother in her place, which is why her performance was off during the overnight rehearsal. Sachi, one of the psychic girls, had figured out that Chiba was a boy, and the two were interested in each other.

At the talent fair, boy Chiba saw Sachi, who was trying to duck out of all the boring stuff before the band played.

Ginny: Since she's trying to duck, boy Chiba wants to take her behind the bleechers and --

Someone: Panty Explosion!

Finally, it was time for the band to play. Kat decided that the Demon was a rival band, the Demon Girls, and that they were actually demons.

Kat: Demons aren't very imaginative.

The Demon Girls did their best to sabotage the show and make everyone hate the Happy Shiny Anal Retentive Band, or at least think that it was weird and creepy. All the PCs had successfully completed their agendae, but the Demon Girls did get extra dice from every use of a psychic power by a PC.

Nevertheless, despite their best efforts, the Happy Shiny Anal Retentive Band triumphed. Blood flowing from the walls? All part of the show! That creepy Sachi? Well, she had a boyfriend now, so she was as cool as a creepy girl could be -- and totally cute!

Fade out on the band's finale, "Linda, Linda, Linda".