NZRaG

[mundens]

So, over on another thread, Hix said he'd be along with exclamation marks if I started a thread about Redemption High.

Things is, when I went to start one, I realized that I could remember very little about it, except that I really enjoyed it, and some bits about the episode my character had a focus in, where we almost shot someone's girlfriend in an abandoned hospital.

Like, um, I don't even think I can remember my character's name!

So instead of me starting a discussion on it with somethings specific, I'm asking, can someone who remembers please help this old man with the destroyed memory, set the scene and the characters?

Or did someone already do this in a post or a blog entry somewhere?

Maybe I should start another thread about the annoyance of forgetting the details of games you've really enjoyed?
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Where do ideas come from?
Well, when a boy idea and a girl idea love each other very much...
David Formosa on alt.sex.stories.discussion

[hix]

'Twas our first game ever of Primetime Adventures, back in the summer of '06, as I recall.

I suggested teen high school drama. Someone else suggested religion. We ended up with a high school in the US where the Christian End Times seem to be being played out.

Redemption High.

I seem to remember the biggest discussion we had was how specific we should get about the mythology surrounding the school - were they in limbo? was it the rapture? ... but, for convenience, we left a lot of that blank.

Characters:

Trent - high-school loner in a black trenchcoat, with guns and a plan.
Adam - the Anti-Christ, president of the student body.
Ms. Covington (?) - not sure about the name. She's the Guidance Counsellor having an office romance with a demon, and dispensing very not-good advice to the kids.
Melanie (?) - she's the psychic student who's beginning to understand what's going on at the school but no-one believes her.
Simon (?) - he's an Angel, going undercover as a student at the school to find out what's going on.

I'll see if I can dig up my notes and get names, issues, and screen presence.

When we'd done all that, it seemed clear we all wanted to play Trent's spotlight episode. Adam was a major secondary character in that, and the other 3 had a more minor role to play in the ep.
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Cheers,
Steve

Gametime! A Kiwi groupblog about RPGs. Come and join the conversation.
multi-dimensional: my script-writing blog.

[hix]

Oh, yeah, and this was all at a house-con, so I was playing with people I'd never played with before, or in some cases never met. Very exciting for my first outing with the PTA system.
_________________
Cheers,
Steve

Gametime! A Kiwi groupblog about RPGs. Come and join the conversation.
multi-dimensional: my script-writing blog.

[mundens]

Ah, that's right, Trent!
(sings Celene Dion doing Meat Loaf : "It's all coming back to me now.." ^__^ )

Yeah, the whole idea was that Trent would be the Trenchcoat Mafia dickhead bastard for the first few episodes, and make life difficult for the core hero team, because I wanted to play a character like many of the villians in Buffy, such as Angel, Spike, etc, who are villians but whom become "redeemed" and end up on the side of the good guys, which fitted nicely with the "Redemption High" theme.

Redemption, of course, is a small town in the middle of nowhere in the Bible Belt of the USA. Or at least thats what it looks like to most people who live there anyway. You're right, we decided not to decide whether it was actually a place in the US, or a part of Limbo, leaving that to be decided later in the series, possibly not until a couple of seasons had passed! Until then it would need to be ambiguous, though individuals could state either belief, the show itself would neither confirm nor deny either one.

For instance people would regularly "dissappear", or arrive suddenly, (and I was beginning to think "Haibane Renmei" here, as well) and records would disappear or be incomplete, but it would always be possible it was just some human conspiracy or bad record management

Melanie, of course was the key character in uncovering the truth about the town of Redemption, and the one who was investigating the disappearances, and no-one believed her. Except that at some point Trent would, which was the thing which tied him in to the prime group of Melanie, Adam, and Simon, even though he would start as a "bad guy". I believe we decided that it would be revealed at some point that one of the reasons he was as he was, was because his best friend had dissappeared too. And he blamed the town as a whole, especially the authorities, and was planning to get revenge on them.

I know I was thinking along the lines of Buffy series here, where Joss always had a "minor bad" who turns out to be merely a pawn to, or even an enemy of, the "big bad" who is confirmed later in the season, though may be hinted at ealier.

In my mind Trent was supposed to be that "minor bad", who turns out to be a damn good ally in the end, possibly saving the day by great sacrifice, which was against his nature, and I don't think we were sure whether Adam would be the actual "big bad" or whether the actual "big bad" would just be working to ensure that Adam did become a bad guy.

That may have been the reason for the series, to see whether the anti-christ would chose betwen good and evil.

It was quite possible that Simon, once exposed as an angel, would be seen by Melanie and the others as manipulative and an enemy as a well at least for a bit. But even Simon doesn't know everything about what's going on.

Hmm, I wish I could remember how we got to the point where Trent locked Adam in the cell/room in the old (mental?) hospital.

I do remember the girl turning up, while Trent was looking in the rtrunk of his "old but large American car"TM and I don't remember what she did to annoy hm or whether he'd lured her there in the first place.

I think the intent might have been to make it seem like Trent was responsible for the dissappearances... Arrgh mind like a sieve!
_________________
Where do ideas come from?
Well, when a boy idea and a girl idea love each other very much...
David Formosa on alt.sex.stories.discussion

[Paul]

and I was the audience. it was an awesome game. I remember making the day of norm ( who as playing adam) and who ever was playing the angel character, as I got them confused as to who was evil
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Playing - friday night pulp

[artemis]

I seem to remember we were being cute with the character names so it was Cassandra not Melanie.

You seem to have everything else I remmber down. and Norman made a very good Anti-Christ.

[hix]

I found some more notes:

Brainstorming Ideas
- Angels and demons as teachers.
- Students are vanishing.
- There's an angel who's breaking the rules and becoming a demon.

Characters
Ms Everett: 'Evil' Guidance Counsellor, ISSUE - Control
Cassandra: psychic teen, ISSUE - No-one believes her
Adam: potential Anti-christ, ISSUE - Self-worth (he lacks a father figure)
Michael: Undercover angel, ISSUE - Self-doubt
Trent: Trenchcoat mafioso, ISSUE - not sure.

(Artemis, you're so right about the knowingness in our naming scheme.)

Season Arc
1/2/3/4/5 - Episode #

1/1/3/2/2 - Cassandra - a slow build, essential to the climax
2/3/1/1/2 - Trent - he's our initial audience hook, then slow burns to the end
1/2/2/3/1 - Ms Everett - subtle influencer, possibly confronted in Ep 4.
1/2/2/1/3 - Adam - involved in everything, the end revolves around him.
1/2/1/3/2 - Michael - it's a nice underplaying of his undercover status early on, then he's 'obviously' involved in the Ms Everett plot in Ep 4, and again in the climax.
_________________
Cheers,
Steve

Gametime! A Kiwi groupblog about RPGs. Come and join the conversation.
multi-dimensional: my script-writing blog.