Digression P&T

Message:

Had the joy of seeing a Penn and Teller show a couple of times. During one Teller flat out spoke. Penn forgot the name of the audience volunteer and Teller gave it. The audience gasped because we're used to the gag of Teller's silence, so the break was a genuine shock.

Once as an event videographer Laura and I were shooting a P&T interview with James Randi. Laura is on wide, I have Teller's closeup. Teller is asked his first question. He raises his handheld mic and begins to speak...

His mic has died...

Basically the audience sees Teller's mouth move for a few words before he stops and hangs his head.

Much audience laughter...

Audio tech gets Teller a new mic.

P&T invite the tech crews to a private party. We have to secure our gear for the night and, by the time we arrive, all the bacon is gone, but we catch the strippers. Good times.

I stand by my earlier comment letting ME patter, lore storytell, BS, whatever in a con game with a time limit isn't smart. I talk too much. Better to have a player shuffle deck A while I flip deck B.

Especially when that Wheel comes up in the middle of player faction vs player faction double mutiny action, because that bit of intrigue was the highlight of the session, and I didn't want to break the flow.

Mechanics wise - Cutlass PVP is Swagger duels, but only the characters run by Chris (incidentally, my Godson), Laura and I - (characters with multiple cons under their belts) had gained Swagger. Black Nell and Dr. Nyx were new 0-level. So I was running the standard Boarding tables with the flair each PC had to declare loyalty. Once a PC hit Engage Commander they were fighting the PC leader the opposed. Nyx and Nell, if a different PC had closed on them flipped Engage Commander but chose which enemy PC their card represented. Worked well since most PCs had no Swagger.

But, yeah, that was the time to keep the flow of the game action going because everyone was highly invested in this player on player feud. No patter or lore. Pass the deck someone else to shuffle and get that next deck in play and get that next card out.

Yours,