Malibu Dream House

Welcome to the first ever AP Spotlight column! At Shannon's invitation I'll be using this space to profile exceptional AP games. While quality is subjective, I'll be focusing on works that succeed both as games and as APs specifically - that is, they're presented in a readable and sometimes even multimedia format that elevates them from a simple recap to a unique form of media.

BaronSamedi's New World of Darkness games are staples of the Actual Play forum. Balance of Shadows, her Geist: The Sin Eaters campaign, has earned the honor of a five star rank - and it's been running for as many years. For the inaugural AP Spotlight column, I'll be profiling one of Samedi's less entrenched works so that readers won't feel intimidated while still having a meaty, established storyline to gorge themselves on. Per Samedi's recommendation, I've chosen Malibu Dream House, which uses the Changeling: The Lost sub-setting within NWoD. I've played almost exclusively in that world for the past three years, so MDH was comfortable territory to spend a week browsing through.

Samedi's games follow an unusual AP format that turns out to be quite brilliant given the logistical constraints of her games. Unlike many

AP games, MDH meets in person: live players, real dice, and no written record to copy-paste onto the forum. Some tabletop games (I'm thinking here of DaveB's Mage: The Awakening oeuvre) use a tape recorder and transcription to recreate the action word for word; some choose instead to summarize the story. Having done transcription for an unrelated project and at one point attempted a summary-style AP, I can testify to the insane amount of work pulling off either can be.

Instead of following either approach, Samedi sidesteps the logistical snares entirely by having her players write IC journal responses to the session. In addition to diminishing her own workload to fixing formatting, the journaling technique also offers coherent summaries and a first-person omniscient glimpse into the characters' mindsets: they're mixes of action and perspective, and that makes them a real pleasure to read. To further facilitate the connection between the reader and the characters, Samedi insists on procuring pictures for all of them, which you can find in the AP's first post whenever you need a reminder, along with custom character sheets.

Scrolling through the IC diaries, you get a sense of what it's like to be the characters in a way that's normally only accessible through a third- or first-person online chat log where the players have a chance to describe character actions in glowing detail. The only real downside is one that Samedi anticipates with her recommendation that readers choose a POV and stick with it: reading the same events from six different perspectives can get tedious. Because I was reading with an eye toward writing a review I chose to ignore her advice, and I have to admit that it burned me out. I loved all the narrators (and I'm a huge fan of the storytelling technique of using different perspectives to change the meaning of a scene), but six takes - or more commonly five, since one player doesn't often have time to write their journal - was a few too many for me.

That brings us - at last - to MDH's story. Like all of Samedi's campaigns, MDH follows a sandbox format, where Samedi sets up the dominos, hides them under a veil, and sets the players loose. Her ëagenda'd NPCs' force the PCs to take sides in their conflicts without railroading them into a particular course of action, and she told me that she thinks of herself as being at the head of a team of writers, which is a collaboration-centric model. Like the journal format it's one of many ways to run the story, but Samedi's had enough years of experience gaming to know her specialty, and it shows. The simple chronicle of a developing motley assembled by the local freehold to run a nightclub builds its complexity through its web of social relationships, including romances that feel organic and fully adult. The usual Changeling theme of new beginnings budding from past traumas is here in full, both in the character backgrounds and in the story of the Dream House itself. Without spoiling too much, I can say that the freehold's idea to set up a communal performance space stems from more than a selfish hunger for glamour or an attempt at forming neutral ground.

The PCs themselves are a balanced bunch, with all four Seasonal Courts represented, along with Moon and Dawn courtiers. Following the order in which their journals appear, you'll get to know:

• Gawain Vert, an SCA history nerd turned butcher when he's Taken to act the part of the Green Knight from an Arthurian fable. In spite of his grisly captivity and a near-complete wipe of his memories, Gawain retains an optimistic streak powerful enough to lead him to the Dawn Court. The Dream House hires him on as a bouncer.
• Lorelei Grace, a songbird of a Spring courtier haunted by guilt from a betrayal in Arcadia. Effortlessly gorgeous, Lorelei is at the center of social plotting and romantic tangles that exceed my geometric vocabulary. Unsurprisingly, Lorelei takes the lead as a stage performer.
• Aaron Constantine Evermore, abbreviated as Ace, who spent a lazy Durance as a pet snake. Due to Ace's player's busy OOC commitments Ace doesn't have as strong of a diary presence, but his personality still comes through in the others' observations on the mellow Summer courtier with a talent for barking.
• Calamity, a wry Autumn courtier convinced that her past crimes - Arcadian and otherwise - make her a monster. Her sense of duty and humanity shine through in her friendship with Gawain, and it's no surprise that she's his partner on security detail.
• Jacob Stojanovic, a former loyalist who holds the cards of his checkered past close to his chest. A member of the Winter Court, his journals have a self-loathing air to them even stronger than Calamity's. As for his role with the Dream House, Jacob bartends.
• Insincere Marguerite, formerly one of Arcadia's finest thieves and now the Dream House motley's Moon Court member. She puts her larcenist skills to good use handling the technical stage work, and her long tongue to work rivaling Lorelei's success with women.

Alas, if you're looking to get in on one of Samedi's excellent games, they all draw from a large player pool in her real life geographical area, many of whom appear in multiple games. However, her group is generous enough to share their experiences in the AP forum, so if you're looking to get into Changeling I recommend giving Malibu Dream House a read. Even if you're a veteran of the game like me you can find a lot to learn from in how Samedi makes a game that's primarily social as gripping as one that's more violence-heavy, and her commentary offers some insights into her thought processes and the occasional non-canon mechanic. If you do take the Dream House out for a spin, I'd like to encourage you to comment and ask questions in the thread. Samedi and I agree that reader feedback can be a real boost to an AP writer - even when we can see the view counter ticking up, we still love to hear from you!

If you have an AP you'd like to see spotlighted, you can contact me (Tectrix) via private message.