Paging Ben Lehman, Ben Lehman and all other Bliss Stage fans to the white courtesy phone

[l_the_fangirl]

http://chess.livejournal.com, the player who controls the Innocent Sweetheart Jessica in Rapid Eye Movement (among others), commented that Bliss Stage plays better on IRC and other forms of chatroom than it does tabletop.

Her reasoning?

Paraphrased, "The emotional distance over IRC allows you to deal with the squick factor of the Intimacy system and the brutal war than you'd be able to face-to-face."

She may have a point. I was the first one to call for FADE TO BLACK OH GOD MY CHEEKS ARE BURNING RED RIGHT NOW during the Alice/Lloyd/Amanda scene. You know, the one that resolved the love triangle. By Alice sighing, "Amanda, Lloyd - you have too much clothing on; there is a bed over there."

What are your thoughts? At the very least, I think it's worth a mention in Ascent Stage.

PS: Incidentally, that REM scene has so very been given an entry under Crowning Moment of Awesome: Other at http://tvtropes.org, along with that one playthrough with Keenan's self sacrifice and Seth Ben-Erza's Saved My Childbearing's "...I'm releiving you of command, sir. (Probably a paraphrase.)"

Comments

[tigerbunny-db.livejournal.com]

I'm probably the wrong person to even comment on this, because I developed a real distaste for play-by-irc many years ago for almost exactly that reason: I feel like it makes it too easy to play "perfect" characters, and to be in-your-face with the emotional porn.

Then again, I like a higher level of raw naked exposure in my gaming than a lot of people, I think.

Still, Lines & Veils, people. I think Sex & Sorceror is practically a required textbook for games like Bliss Stage.