The Tavern

Friday, 22 February, 9 am - 1 pm: The Tavern

This was a playtest. The players were:

• Joanna Corcoran, who was facilitating, as this is a GMless game
• Melissa 1 (I forget her actual last name)
• Melissa 2 (ditto)
• Katherine Schwartz
• Me
• Greg (I forget his last name)

The setting would be either a tavern or a diner. One of the other players had played in the tavern setting before, so she asked for the diner setting. We started with a deck of playing cards sans jokers, and dealt out twice as many cards as there were players, which, in this case, was 12. From these 12 cards, we would create meals, customers, and staff.

To decide who goes first in that step, everyone tells a story about either their most recent meal or about an interesting meal. This worked surprisingly well to break the ice and create a rapport. It's only done for the first round of the game, I believe. Certainly, in subsequent rounds, we were not worrying about strict turn order, and I'm fairly sure some took more turns than others.

Numbers represented quality and / or quantity. Aces were high. Hearts: Comfort foods, made with love, people filled with love, sweets. Spades: Tough fighty things, meats, steak and potatoes. Tough people, violent people, iirc. My notes didn't actually define the people for spades. Diamonds: Rich, exotic, expensive. People involved with money or power. Clubs: Rice, potatoes, starches, filling. Things of the earth. Everyday workers. People of the earth.

As we had six players, we would create six tables of patrons and six food items. The food items were not full meals, but food ingredients.

• Joanna: 3 clubs = 3 truck drivers, local
• Melissa 1: 2 hearts = shitty but well loved coffee
• Melissa 2: Q hearts = older drag queen, impeccably dressed, beloved, Mathilda
• Kate: J spades = High school theater cast after the cast party, back stabbing
• Me: 8 hearts = Tiramisu
• Greg: 3 diamonds = single mother, 2 sons, dead dad, no money. The trip to the diner is their once a week outing, and the mother limits them to $3 each.
• Joanna: 8 clubs = Fried potato special
• Melissa 1: 6 spades = part of lumberjack special: 3 pieces of bacon and 3 pieces of sausage.
• Me: 8 diamonds, I think = Tim the yuppie. He's been going to the diner since he was in college, so he's a regular.
• Melissa 2: 5 clubs = 5 cops, off duty just now
• Kate: 7 diamonds = Pastry swans
• Greg: 5 diamonds = succotash with too much butter

As we created these elements, we wrote their names on the playing cards with a sharpie. This felt very odd, as we all had an aversion to writing on playing cards.

The meal ingredient cards now doubled as staff workers.

• 8 hearts: Kate: Becky, older, grandmother, needs something to do during the day. The diner was an outlet for her love.
• 7 diamonds: Me: Artiste chef: Sarah / Zarabella. She was using her position to build up her reputation, not doing it for love.
• 8 clubs: Melissa 1: Bob, all around chef and nice guy.
• 2 hearts: Melissa 2: Louisa, waitress. Last night, she had found her husband in a compromising position. Louisa was four months pregnant, and was NOT in a good mood.
• 5 diamonds: Greg: Sam Sotirios, diner owner, taking a little from the till, as Greg thought the butter meant perhaps someone was dipping. Sam was paying off the cops. But, he did not have enough to pay the greasy cops this week.
• 6 spades: Joanna: Nick, big guy, younger, with tattoos. This was his first job after getting out of prison. He was really trying to do good. He was Sam's nephew, Sam's sister's kid.

Then, we looked at the cards, the people, and the food, and discussed other relationships between the people.

One of the cops, Howard, had a thing for Louisa. He was the youngest, and not sure about this being on the take, but he followed the other cops. They didn't think of themselves as crooked, but as providing a service for the restaurant.

The truck drivers were named Lou, Barry, and Phil.

Most people didn't know that Mathilda was a guy.

Becky was Louisa's confidante.

The single mother was Ana. Her sons were Michael and Carlo.

Mathilda was advising Nick.

Now that we had established all of that, the twelve cards were shuffled and dealt out, two to each player, face up. I'm not quite sure why, as anyone could take any card and play the character in represented. The game, we decided, was set in the 1950s or 1960s.

The situation played out, with the cops coming earlier in the week than usual, Sam not being able to pay them, and Louisa being in a foul mood. Zarabella tried to help by giving the cops a special pastry, but Sam loudly vetoed that. He was utterly unsympathetic to Louisa. When she was on the job, she was supposed to be entirely focused on the job.

Sam: Until 5 in the morning until 3 in the morning!

Ana's younger son insisted on a milkshake, white the older one tried to be mature and not want anything. To Ana's horror, Becky brought at least one complimentary milkshake -- Ana had her pride. Mathilda offered Ana a part time job. Ana wanted it, but her older son thought that Mathilda was a little weird. Louise looked at Ana, thinking, in horror, "That could be _me_!"

Becky got fed up and quit, something we thought perhaps happened often. Sam and Nick yelled at each other in Greek. The cops decided that, if Sam was going to be rude about things, they simply would withdraw their protection and their patronage. And, inevitably, Louisa went into premature labor. As Howard made a beeline for her, we agreed that we'd taken the scene as far as we could.

For the next round -- and the game can go as many rounds as the players like -- we dealt out 12 new cards. As before, these would be representing patrons, ingredients, and staff. At least some time would have passed. Also, as there is turnover in the diner (or tavern) business, at least one employee would be gone, replaced by a new one, or at least one employee would have undergone a substantial change.

According to my notes, this is what we came up with. Note that while I list the staff and the ingredient together, the same person did not necessarily come up with both of them.

• Melissa 2: Ace of Spades: Mayor, Mr. Wozelli. It was an election year, and he was doing a publicity thing at the diner.
• Greg: Ace of Clubs: Mayor's Wife, Mrs. Wozelli, nee Weatherspoon. And, while the Mayor was played by at least two of the players, including me, as soon as Greg started playing Mrs. Wozelli, we all agreed that no one else should touch her. We liked her exactly the way he played her.
• Melissa 2: 4 diamonds: Food: Baklava. Staff: Nick
• Melissa 1: 2 diamonds: Sam has lost the diner, so he is now a bitter, bitter customer.
• Me: Queen of Diamonds: Saffron infused. Staff: Mathilda is the new owner.
• Melissa 1: 4 hearts: Ana and kids. More love / comfort.
• Kate: 2 spades: Louisa. Bitter. She miscarried. Low quality pork chops.
• Greg: 9 spades: Louisa's cheating, abusive husband, Mick.
• Me, I think: 9 diamonds: Tim the yuppie, moving up in the world.
• Melissa 2: 7 spades: Filet mignon. Staff: Backstabber Betsy.
• Melissa 1: 6 diamonds: Chocolate mud pie with home made whipped cream. Staff: Zarabella.
• Greg: 5 spades: Fish, fried cod. Staff: An ex-nun known only as Sister.

It was a year or two later. There were a few surprises. Becky had apparently quit for good. Mathilda owned the diner as well as her antique furniture business. Ana was working for her, and Ana's sons had decided that it was fun to play in the back of the store, even if Mathilda was a weird old lady. Louisa looked at the happy Ana and her children, thinking, in envy, "That could be _me_!"

Tim was drawn to Ana, but did nothing about this, as courting the widow was not necessarily the best move for his career. Betsy made a clear play for him. The mayor and his wife ate at the diner, ready to do a formal ribbon cutting for the place. It was quite clear that the mayor's wife was the real power, and that she was one scary lady, in her quiet, proper Southern way.

Sam tried to cause trouble for the diner, but the mayor and his wife were not impressed. Mathilda did not like Louisa's husband. He came in, intimidated his wife, made a pass at Sister, and conspired with Sam. After all, when Sam owned the diner, Louisa knew her place!

But, Mick also flattered the mayor and his wife, and Mathilda could not legally throw Mick out. (We had no idea what the law might have been in reality, but we agreed that this was how it was in the game.)

To my surprise, Zarabella turned from the selfish woman I'd originally envisioned into a character from a romance comic book, as the woman playing her gave her revealing thought balloons. Zarabella was clearly attracted to the much younger Nick. Nick, meanwhile, put a laxative in Mick's food, so when the ribbon cutting happened, Mick was having a very unpleasant time. Mick hustled Louisa home, and we decided that this round was done. We agreed to do one more.

The third and final round was set somewhere between two and five years later, I think, although the exact amount of time kept shifting in play. Again, where there are two elements of the round listed, the same person didn't necessarily come up with both of them.

• Greg: King spades: Mick. He's in good with the mayor. His wife, Louisa, was missing, and we all knew that Mick had killed her.
• Me: King of diamonds: Tim the yuppie, doing quite well in his career.
• Me: King of clubs: Mathilda. Paella.
• Melissa 1: 8 spades: Succulent pork chops. Short order cook and WWII veteran, Harold.
• ???: 6 hearts: Zarabella. Peach cobbler.
• ???: 7 hearts: Nick. Homemade vanilla pudding or ice cream (my notes are unclear). Everyone knows, but would never say to Zarabella, that Nick is the better pastry chef.
• Melissa 2: 10 diamonds: Betsy the Backstabber, no longer a waitress. She married Tim for his money.
• Melissa 1: 3 clubs: Ana's older son, Carlo, bussing tables. Reubens.
• Melissa 2: 9 clubs: Wedding party.
• Melissa 1: 4 clubs: Okay french fries. The ex-nun Sister, now having unbent somewhat and going by the name Cissy.
• Melissa 2: 6 clubs: Detective Noakes, looking for Louisa.
• Greg: 2 clubs: Jim the ditch digger, the first black character in the story.

Mathilda still owned the diner, and it was clearly THE place for holding social events, like wedding meals. Zarabella had taken Nick under her wing and taught him. The two were deeply in love, and perhaps married (I forget).

Tim watched Carlos wistfully, thinking of Ana, whom he had never pursued. Becky flirted with Mick. We agreed that Jim had probably buried Louisa's body, quite possibly not knowing what it was. Mick had him do small jobs like that for him every now and then, and the body had likely been cut up and wrapped in separate packages.

We were all but falling over each other trying to grab a sympathetic character to point the detective in the right direction. Joanna concluded that the game works well with six players, more than she'd ever played it with, and I think she's right, but that does mean that there may be a certain amount of competition for spotlight time, whether that's for a certain character, a certain scene, or both.

Regardless, apparently everyone who worked at the diner knew that Louisa was last seen at the ribbon cutting, and were sure that Mick had killed her. And, apparently, they'd all tried to help her before then, to get her to leave her husband, but she wouldn't. Mick tried to maintain that his wife had simply run off, and was totally confident that he was pulling this off.

Alas, the detective started talking to Jim, which made Jim nervous. But, the detective was not about to give up.

Jim's current player: In the interest of time --

Detective's player: Yeah --

Jim's current player: Jim confesses.

And, that was enough to nail Mick, so that was where we ended the round. We agreed that one reason Mick had not gotten caught before the detective came to town, however many years after his wife's death that was, was because the mayor had told the local cops to lay off. After all, he knew Mick personally, and Mick was a fine fellow. This was something we worked out after the official end of the round.

As Joanna noted, this is a game that's much simpler to play than to explain.