I mentioned in my quick rundown of Go Play NW 2010 that I was able to play Chris Bennett's "role-playing poem" The Believers, which I'd been curious about for quite a while. I had a terrific experience with it, and really like the idea of using similar short-form exercises to warm up before a longer play session. Something else that I wanted to share, though, was an artifact I ended up with when we were finished. In the 'Contact' phase of the game, the players are given the following instruction:"While the first player is describing their belief, the other players should each be taking notes, writing down single words or phrases they hear that are evocative to them. For example, you might write down 'spinning lights' or 'scared out of my wits.'"
I'm finally getting around to putting away some of the stuff I brought back from Seattle, and amongst the various character sheets, fliers, and other ephemera in my bag of games, I discovered that I still had my Believers notes:
Susan
still alive, thirteen
lipstick smeared across my face
I shouldn't have let Mark...
went out to the ravine
I jumped
I felt so free
Kingston
Weekly World News
you drink three beers
when it ended, I didn't know what to do
who's going to hire a man with Batboy on his resume?
I was driving
my car was upside down
there's no way you can drive your entire car up into a tree
Darin
reoccurring dreams
people over my bed
one time I woke up
the person in my dream
the foot of my bed
it was calming
the dreams went away
just last week they started coming back
