Thread by @DGivaca

Some time to spare and good weather, this means I finally get to page through the print copy of @GregStolze's Million Dollar Soulmate, a game of romantic uncertainty.
Real-time comments follow.
#GivacaReviews

(1/X)

This is something I've been meaning to do for some time, as expressed by an earlier tweet (like, some weeks ago). Now is the time.
(2/X)

If you don't know this #ttrpg, "Million Dollar Soulmate is a game where two players tell the story of a love that might be good and true... or toxic and treacherous. Neither knows which until the very last scene!" (text from back cover)
gregstolze.itch.io/million-dollar…

(3/X)

I'm holding a 24-page zine, A5-ish (I'm bad at at page sizes), with art in color in both front and back cover. The backside of the cover links to a library of Actual Play recording over at Soundcloud.
soundcloud.com/greg-stolze/se…

(4/X)

Thumbing through the pages, layout is very clean, easy to read, side-notes are clearly presented by text boxes. There doesn't seem to be any art besides the ones on the covers (just a note, don't feel like there is art missing).
No index, but in 24 pages that's acceptable.
(5/X)

The book starts with an introduction to the concept of soulmates, and the idea of an "angelical" and "diabolical" ideal. Not being an expert (academically or through self-experience) in this subject, I can't analyse it, but it is interestingly written, ...

(6/X)

...and does the job of introducing the reader to a core part of the game.

After that part, we get to the actual concept of this RPG: two players play out the ambiguous relation between a millionaire and a soulmate identified by data technology.

(7/X)

The game is structured in 3 phases that are described shortly, which are basically chargen+intro scene, core bulk of scenes, and final scene+outcome. It hasn't been clearly stated, but it seems players will only need a d6 each, besides the book and stuff to make notes.

(8/X)

(My phone is running out of battery, will continue once it gets to charge for a bit)

(I'm back)

ahahaha, there's even a table that you can roll on if the millionaire's player wants to know from where its money came from. I won't spoiler it, but it is funny, (true), and such a very Stolze-thing to write.

(9/X)

Now we get into each part in length. "Meet Cute" starts with some good advice on safety while playing, which seems essential in a game of this nature.
Character creation is of completely collaborative nature, since there's a set of 6 questions regarding each character...

(10/X)

and each player gets to answer 3 of each PC. They must also decide who's going to play the millionaire.
hmm... there's a clause that if you object to an answer regarding your character, you can ask the other player to re-think it, that's good.

(11/X)

(I must note that the text's wording takes into consideration the possibility of queer characters. This should be by now an obvious thing to do, but unfortunately there are still many games out there that don't do it. So I'm happy this one does.)

(12/X)

Looking through the chargen questions, they seem pretty interesting. They all look like stuff that can come up in a fascinating matter, but I also think that it shouldn't be too hard to replace questions by ones of your creation, if you want to do it.

(13/X)

There's a first scene in a place chosen by the millionaire's player, where both characters first meet.

AND HELL YES! There's a complete actual play example of the whole phase! I love when games have these. I hope this means there will be examples for the other phases too.
(14/X)

Onto the next phase, "Several Dates". It's not immediately obvious, but the text seems to suggest this is composed of 3 different dates, played in a progressive order. Oh, this seems cool! Each player rolls a d6 at the start of a date, ...

(15/X)

and the result corresponds to a question answered in the previous phase. Both questions (and the respective answers) will then influence that specific date, with one of them being the problem and the other the solution. I like this idea of guidance to play out the scenes.

(16/X)

The date will be acted with this in mind, and there's a reminder to do so in an ambiguous way that leaves open if the relation is shaping out to be positive/negative. It seems like the players should keep a running total of all rolls, and no question should come up twice.
(17/X)

Ah yes, and here it is, another game play example, thank you Greg! There's not much of the book left, and now it goes onto the last phase, "The Scene at the Boathouse" where players compare their running totals. Who has it higher will decide later if the PCs stay together.
(18/X)

They'll also each roll another d6, and sum up both dice. If the total is odd, the relationship was always negative, and the opposite if the total is even. Now I understand why keeping it ambiguous was important, because this may change everything.

(19/X)

Then, this final scene will be played out (at a boathouse, for some reason) taking in consideration those 2 aspects (the relation is healthy/unhealthy, and they remain together/split up). With another good game example that suggests both a positive and a negative outcome.

(20/X)

And damn, the negative outcome exemplified is quite dark. This goes as a warning that the game is open to a wide range of outcomes, so better make sure to use the written safety measures.
The book ends with random tables for possible dates and complications, quite useful.
(21/X)

Some thoughts I had: the game's concept is quite interesting, but it surely isn't for everyone, won't be very easy to find possible players.
I really like the idea of randomly bringing up the chargen answers as guidance for playing out scenes.

(22/X)

Outside of that, the mechanics seem mostly to get out of the way, so I guess the ease of creation and playing out the dates will depend on how much the players communicate in the character creation.
Playing things out ambiguously is an interesting and different challenge.

(23/X)

And that would be it, I've flipped through the complete book and expressed some of my thoughts on it. It's a pretty solid game, quick to read/explain, and all the game play examples are invaluable.

(24/24)

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