Originally Posted by
BillyRay
Ak-shully,
RPG stands for Roll! Puppet! Game!
Here's the "manifesto" I drew up for my people (Kinda long):
ROLL! PUPPET! GAME!
(RPG)
“The original interactive, Dungeons & Dragons – themed, improvisational puppet game show. Accept no substitutes.”
What is RPG?
RPG is the 'Next Big Idea' from the Angry Young Men, those wacky funsters that brought you the
Night of the Living Dead Puppet Show.
Remember how much fun you had playing Dungeons & Dragons in High School?
Of course not. You had a life.
But we didn't.
And now we have a show about it!
(With puppets!)
How's it played?
The audience follows a quartet of adventurers as they explore an ancient, monster-infested,
and extremely silly labyrinth.
The Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, & Thief are guided along in their quest
by audience suggestions and the all-knowing Dungeon Master.
Waitaminute...Dungeon Master?
Just like in the classic game, the Dungeon Master (DM) serves as storyteller, host & referee.
He is the Keeper of the Dice and the Wheel of Encounters. (pat. pending)
This is all over the place. I gotta sit down.
Have a beer. I'll explain how it goes...
So you have these four characters, and they're really wacky, right?
And they're going through this dungeon.
Every time they “enter a room”, the DM (or a lovely assistant from the audience)
will give the Wheel of Encounters a spin.
It'll land on a Treasure, a Monster, or any number of other things that we haven't thought up (yet).
Treasure is generally some kind of Magic Weapon, Helmet, or Whatnot;
the effects of which are picked out of a (wizard) hat.
An audience member picks the effect, and the hat is filled from a combination of
audience pre-show submissions and our own stand-by ideas.
The magic item is usable only once, then it disappears.
When the Wheel lands on a specific Monster, the audience is polled as to the particular...idiosyncrasies of that Monster.
Zombie...Accountants! A Beholder...who's fond of Musical Theatre!
(It's all done with costume props.)
(and funny voices)
There's some banter between the Monsters & the Heroes.
Funny. Banter.
Then there's a Combat.
How's Combat work?
The DM rolls his 20-sided die, resulting in the number to “beat”.
An audience member comes to the front, where we have a putting green set up.
(with those cool rope lights along the sides, very Price is Right)
The volunteer rolls a giant, plush 20-sided die down the green, trying to beat the DM's number.
If they miss, they get a little bag of chocolate coins and sent back to their seat.
But if they win, they get to gain Experience.
Experience?
Essentially, one of the puppets breaks character & comes downstage for more funny banter.
(And maybe a Polaroid)
The whole Shebang reaches a climax after a half hour-or-so of this.
There's a Boss Monster (probably some kind of Dragon the first time through).
A battle is fought, the treasure is won,
There's some laughs, some tears, some lessons learned.
With Puppets.Yes, with puppets.
(It'll work best in a venue with a liquor license.)
But Seriously...
Most of the humor of RPG is based on embracing/subverting the old stereotypes of fantasy literature, role-playing games, and the folks who love them.
The show's kept moving along by the personalities of the main cast:
The Fighter is an Orc - big, green, dumb and violent.
The Cleric is a Nun – a strict disciplinarian with a ruler and bountiful cleavage.
The Magic User is an Elven nebbish – glasses, droopy hat, Jerry Lewis voice.
And the Thief is a Cockney, homicidal “'Arfling” sock puppet.
The Dungeon Master is only nominally in control of the proceedings.
He's chunky, sarcastic, obsessive, & poorly groomed.
I see this as a show more easily tour-able than the NOTLD puppet show.
No real sets, few large props, mostly boxes of puppets and costume bits.
And wait'll we get to “Level 2”...
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