[in development] A Single Moment Playtest

Here's a teaser of a playtest session of A Single Moment.
Thanks to Paolo Cabe who had his friends playtest it.

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Playtested the original single moment with two friends, Peter Adam Rebadomia and Josh Fausto.

The two have been playing with me for a while on different systems (Dark Heresy, nWoD, Scion, Peter has played classic WoD) and they just happen to lean more on roleplaying over rollplaying. That's why their game worked, I guess.

Peter was a ripoff of Ukyo from samurai showdown. He was an Iaido practitioner who suffered from Tuberculosis.

Josh was some kind of clock work cyborg whose style involved making his blades vibrate.

The story they made was that the two were friends in childhood, with Peter's lover being his long-lost sister all along. However, Josh didn't want to ruin their happiness and kept that secret from them both. Josh, like Peter, were training to become samurai, but Josh wanted to get more power when he heard about a vibrating sword style. He found a female master who had an unsavory reputation, whereas Peter stuck to his 'pure' path. However, Josh's master actually had a crush on Peter - and ordered Josh to kill his lover/sister. When Josh found out her goal, (he had done the deed without question) he despised Peter for stealing her heart. (He had an infatuation with his master).

A turn of events made Peter a ronin, who carried his hatred as he eventually found Josh's master while looking for a new master. The two had their duel as soon as they found each other in the master's castle.

It is revealed that the vibrating sword style actually destroyed the body when used too often, so Josh had become a japanese clockwork (karakuri) cyborg. (He gained 5 scars by channeling hatred) Peter channeled his hatred and miraculously had no scars - which we came to interpret as his 'righteousness' despite all the mishaps in his life.

Luckily everyone in the group was into the game. They had fun describing techniques and swordplay moves. Meanwhile, I would make quips such as thunderclaps and lightning reflecting off the fearsome statues of guardian dieties at a nearby buddhist temple as they made their exchange.

Josh basically set up his own loss, having lesser edge and more scars. (I was glad they didn't complain about the disparity) Josh make a climactic "End it! I have nothing left!", revealing that the only organic part left in his chest is his KOKORO/heart. Peter, meanwhile, responds that "I can't!" - because Josh is the only thing in his life that hasn't yet been taken away from him.

The two men, who were about to die anyway (Peter due to tuberculosis, Josh due to his ruined body) limp off to the sunset to die in peace. I end the duel by saying that the thunderstorm has become a drizzle, while a camera pans to the large bronze buddha statue in the dark temple.

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Glad you guys had fun with it!
Still tinkering with the system and so far, I haven't shown anyone my second draft rules yet.
But man I'm quite excited and I can't wait to someday release this.