Debrief

[cahn]

skygiants wrote a post about a one-hour two-person role-playing game called Debrief. The idea is that the two players play two MI6 colleagues and best friends, George Russell and Robert Alderidge, in a 1960 where ghosts and spirit mediums exist. Alderidge has just been found dead in a way that makes it clear that he was a double agent passing information to the Soviet Union. Spirit medium Russell gets one hour to debrief ghost!Alderidge -- or, conversely, Alderidge gets one hour to debrief himself to Russell. The game is played over video chat, with Alderidge's character in a dark room to somewhat-simulate his ghostly nature.

skygiants' excellent post gives you all the information you need to a) want to play this game and b) play this game -- although I see courtesy of the comments to that post that there is now a direct link to Debrief from Paracelsus Games!

The game is about “loyalty, ideology, memory, obligation, and the difficulty of interpersonal knowledge” (Russell and Alderidge do NOT read each other's character sheets before playing, so they only know what they know, not what the other character knows) which, when I read this in skygiants' post, was where I immediately chatted up ase and said, we have to do this! Ase, being a much more rational actor than I am, pointed out that neither of us were what you might call good with not breaking the fourth wall. And then we both promptly got quite busy. But the stars (or at least our schedules) aligned this weekend and we did give it a try!

Unfortunately, I am sad to confess that we were not very good at it at all and turned out to be wildly unsuccessful -- by which I don't mean that the characters failed, but rather that we failed in maintaining suspension of disbelief/fourth-wall during the time of the game. We had several gameplay problems, which I set down here in case it's useful to others who might play in the future:
-we did both turn out to be pretty bad at not breaking the fourth wall
-we also, I think, are both rational actors enough that we did not enter into the proper spirit of emotionally compromising ourselves as much as the game demands. Which is probably good for our mental health but did mean that we didn't succeed in seeing it through
-I was Alderidge and ase was Russell, and this was not ideal:
-the person of the pair who has significantly more difficulty putting together coherent verbal narratives should probably not be Alderidge, which seems obvious now (he's the one who is getting debriefed!) but wasn't then
-the person of the pair who has more difficulty initiating role-playing should probably not be Russell, which also seems obvious now but wasn't then
-as ase pointed out, we could have role-played the characters at least somewhat better if switched. My advice would be that if there happens to be a personality delta along traditional/progressive lines, the more traditional personality should play Russell and the more progressive personality should play Alderidge, unless you are much better at role-playing than we are (which is to be honest probably the case).
-I can see why it is mandatory for this to be played over video; however, for our particular case, given the above restrictions, I think it would have actually been easier for us to maintain an in-character through-line if we had done it over text chat instead

I'm rot-13ing what actually happened; as skygiants says, it's better to read after actually having played if you have any wish to play this at all.

(rot-13): Bhe tnzr encvqyl fcvenyrq vagb Nyqrevqtr rnearfgyl gelvat gb whfgvsl uvzfrys gb Ehffryy, naq Ehffryy, bhgjneqyl pnyz ohg vajneqyl uheg naq gurersber pbzongvir, abg ohlvat gur whfgvsvpngvba ng nyy. Naq sebz gurer vg qribyirq vagb n cbyvgvpny nethzrag bs gur xvaq gung V guvax jr unir nyy rkcrevraprq ng fbzr cbvag: gur xvaq jurer lbh svaq lbhefrys hanoyr gb rkgevpngr lbhefrys sebz vg orpnhfr bs evfvat rzbgvbany vairfgzrag, nf zhpu nf lbhe engvbany oenva xabjf gung vg vfa'g n tbbq vqrn gb xrrc nethvat. Guvf jnf jurer nfr naq V jrer hanoyr gb xrrc tbvat va-punenpgre, cebonoyl cnegvnyyl orpnhfr va snpg jr JRER noyr gb rkgevpngr bhefryirf. Vs jr unq xrcg tbvat va-punenpgre, V nz n yvggyr fhfcvpvbhf gung Nyqrevqtr naq Ehffryy jbhyq unir whfg eha bhg gur ubhe pybpx gelvat gb pbaivapr gur bgure naq jbhyq unir snvyrq zvfrenoyl, naq ab bar jbhyq unir tbggra jung gurl jnagrq. V qba'g xabj jung gur raqtnzr bs guvf jbhyq unir orra, gubhtu. V guvax cebonoyl Ehffryy jbhyq unir fubg Nyqrevqtr, cnegvnyyl bhg bs zrepl naq cnegvnyyl bhg bs rzbgvba.

However, despite our incompetence at role-playing, it was really interesting and I'm glad we tried it (and we had a nice video chat afterwards, haha), and I now have Feelings about Russell and Alderidge. In conclusion, you all should play this game (unless you already have) and tell me (and skygiants) about it!

Comments

[skygiants]

Thank you so much for writing up this post -- I'm so glad you guys tried it and found it a rewarding experience to attempt, even if you ran into challenges with the actual play!

(Vg'f fb rnfl gb trg pnhtug va gur vqrbybtvpny ybbc -- V fhfcrpg jr zvtug unir sbhaq bhefryirf gurer nf jryy, rkprcg V cnavpxrq naq gubhtug jr jrer ehaavat bhg bs gvzr unysjnl guebhtu qhr gb zvfhaqrefgnaqvat ubj pybpxf jbexrq, juvpu vebavpnyyl jbexrq gb chfu hf sbejneq vagb n qvssrerag rzbgvbany greevgbel. Vg nyfb qrsvavgryl urycrq gung Orgu naq V unir ebyrcynlrq gbtrgure n OHAPU orsber ...)

ANYWAY PLEASE TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR ALDERIDGE AND RUSSELL FEELINGS

[sophia_sol]

ahhhh I'm so glad you played it and had a good time despite the ways in which the roleplaying didn't succeed as much as you wanted! Your version sounds fascinating and very Russell-and-Alderidge.

I got to play Russell to an extremely talkative and charismatic Alderidge, which worked amazingly well for me as an inexperienced roleplayer, as my Alderidge was ON IT for creating a verbal narrative, and I just had to play off of Alderidge as he WENT FOR IT. I ended the game with just unbearably many Russell & Alderidge feelings!

In my version:

Nyqrevqtr: trahvaryl rnearfgyl jbexvat ba orunys bs terngre vqrnyf, va ybir jvgu uvf vqrnyf orpnhfr ur qbrfa'g unir nalbar ryfr va uvf yvsr ernyyl jub ur pna or shyyl uvzfrys jvgu
Ehffryy: whfg rnearfg. Gelvat gb or n tbbq thl. Qbrfa'g haqrefgnaq univat qvssrerag nccebnpurf gb jung orvat tbbq zvtug zrna

Jr xrcg ba pvepyvat nebhaq vqrnf bs jurgure gur oebxra flfgrz juvpu unq uheg obgu bs hf jura jr jrer lbhatre pna or svkrq bayl ol vaperzragny zrnaf (ehffryy) be ol bireguebjvat gur flfgrz ragveryl (nyqrevqtr) naq nyy bs bhe qvfnterrzragf pnzr qbja gb gung shaqnzragny qvssrerapr.

Guebhtu pbairefngvba nobhg guvf, Nyqrevqtr rkcnaqrq uvf nfx sebz nfxvat sbe gur rpgbcnyfz qvfehcgbe gb or tvira gb gur ehffvnaf, gb univat vg or tvira gb RIRELBAR, orpnhfr gura vg pna or hfrq gb pnyz gur fhssrevat bs nyy gur hadhvrg tubfgf unhagvat gur jbeyq. (Naq Nyqrevqtr jnf qrsvavgryl guerngravat erthyneyl guebhtubhg gur pbairefngvba gb unhag Ehffryy sberire vs ur qvqa'g nterr gb tvir hc gur qvfehcgbe cynaf, naq gou Ehffryy xvaq bs jnagrq uvz gb unhag uvz! gbtrgure sberire!!!)

Ohg nygubhtu Ehffryy jnf abg bcra gb Nyqrevqtr'f vagryyrpghny qvfphffvba bs gur rguvpf bs ubj gb svk fhssrevat, gheaf bhg va gur raq Ehffryy VF bcra gb yrneavat gung Nyqrevqtr gehyl pnerf nf qrrcyl sbe uvz nf ur qbrf sbe Nyqrevqtr! Naq fb gur snpg gung Nyqrevqtr'f qrngu unccrarq va pbafrdhrapr bs Nyqrevqtr ershfvat gb orgenl Ehffryy crefbanyyl ol funevat gur qvfehcgbe cynaf, vg ernyyl oebxr Ehffryy.

Naq gura gurl raq ol Nyqrevqtr funevat gung ur unf nyjnlf ybirq Ehffryy, naq Ehffryy univat bar bs gubfr "ercynlvat zl ragver yvsr va sebag bs zl rlrf gb erpbagrkghnyvfr vg" zbzragf naq orvat yvxr "bu V guvax V'ir nyjnlf ybirq lbh gbb" naq gura Ehffryy nterrf gb funer gur cynaf jvgu gur jbeyq. Nyqrevqtr tbrf vagb gur yvtug, naq nsgre-gur-tnzr Ehffryy vf qrsvavgryl tbvat gb or tbvat ba n crefbany wbhearl bs zvfrel gb nyy gur onggyrsvryqf ur pna wbhearl gb (nf n genvgbe abj) gb hfr gur qvfehcgbe gb oevat crnpr gb gur hadhvrg qrnq. Naq yvir gur erfg bs uvf yvsr jbaqrevat vs ur pbhyq unir qbar nalguvat qvssreragyl va rneyvre qnlf jvgu Nyqrevqtr fb gung guvatf qvqa'g unir gb raq nf gurl raqrq.

I definitely cried and it was awesome.

[ase]

V guvax cebonoyl Ehffryy jbhyq unir fubg Nyqrevqtr, cnegvnyyl bhg bs zrepl naq cnegvnyyl bhg bs rzbgvba.

Naq ybfr n fubg ng qnzntr pbageby? Ehffryy jbhyq unir eha bhg gur pybpx gelvat gb svther bhg ubj ur zvffrq gung uvf OSS jnf n qbhoyr ntrag, naq gelvat gb pyrna hc gur ZV6 zrff va uvf jnxr. Cebonoyl jbhyq unir nppvqragnyyl tbggra uvzfrys unhagrq va gur cebprff, ohg ab arrq gb fubbg nalbar cerzngheryl.

It was an interesting thing to try, especially after reading both character sheets post-game and seeing what Russell was missing.

[ambyr]

If the theme in general appeals to you, might I suggest Rajaniemi’s Summerland might also be of interest?

[zdenka]

That sounds like a really cool game!

[el_staplador]

This sounds great! Alas, I have never role-played.

[primeideal]

Hmmm I have some board game friends who might be into this...