Tron Playtest

The actual play test started off pretty wild. Each player was pretty excited with the idea of their characters, and to my surprise, two picked programs, while my third picked a user.

Character Creation

Konrad built his character from the ground up, using the concept of a video driver application. He specializes in displaying information to users during games. Protocols he generated were based mostly off his interface skill, and included in this was a DDOS attack, or a ping of death which took advantage of the challenge rules. This set up a barrier that blocked another program's action. I also gave him a subroutine that allows him to connect to his user in the form of a bit which he can summon and dismiss at will. His DDOS also functioned as a mass communication skill, where the more people he was addressing, the easier it is to control them.

Raleigh was my second program, he built his character off of a maintenance man concept, working for the dynamic link library and gaining protocols that pertain to fragmenting programs and subroutines, the ability to attach these fragmented pieces, and a formatting subroutine which looked a little like a Zamboni at an ice rink. Formatting data as the thing went, grid squares popped up behind it.

John G was my User, Named Twitch. He chose interface abilities for his code powers.

Beginning

An admirer of Kevin Flynn and Encomm Employee, Twitch breaks into the arcade, finding a secret door ripped from its hinges and a new machine on a battery connected to a powered down monster from the 80s. He flips the switch and powers it and the rest of the arcade up, finding his way into the machine.

The scene continues on as the beginning of tron legacy, starting with the exit from the arcade to a battle at the arena. Disc Wars began with a single combatant, and dice were rolled. We found that the narrative position worked well, he easily escaped from the arena and made his way to the light-cycle grid where two programs were awaiting the battle to come.

Figuring out the mechanics and how they were to work in the lightcycle arena was the hardest part, and the only thing I regret is putting pen to paper and drawing an isometric, duel layer map. By pulling the imagery out of our minds and putting it onto a map, I had ruined the illusion that i had established. Later, we discovered a newer mechanic to replace this, the challenge mechanic which expresses difficulty, especially when we're creating obstacles that deal with time.