Live On Air
A downloadable game
Written for Fix Your Hearts Or Die- A David Lynch Game Jam. Based on David Lynch's sitcom On The Air!
Which you should watch, it's pretty good.
You (solo or group) are tasked with making sure your live variety show airs without too much trouble. Pull tarot cards to generate prompts for guest stars and situations that arise, roll dice to determine how successful the episode is with viewers.
Rather than tipping me for this game, consider downloading it for free and giving to somebody's mutual aid instead.
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Hi! I've had this TTRPG in my back pocket for a while; I really like the idea, even if I've not seen On The Air. There are some things I would like to ask for clarification:
Sure! Let's say that your episode is a reinterpretation of a classic, and you decide that this is going to be "a modern retelling of A Werewolf In Paris". Your special guest is...a donkey.
The first Minor Arcana you draw is the five of swords; this card can represent conflicts, disagreements. In the context of our episode, you decide that what this means is that the donkey is being especially uncooperative in rehearsal, failing at hitting its marks despite being assured by the handler that it is a very well-behaved donkey. And you want it to be somebody else's problem, so you tell the Real Star; deal with it.
If the Real Star can suggest a solution to getting the donkey to act along (resolving the situation), they set aside a die. What size is the die? Entirely up to them. Could be a d4, d10, d100 even. This is the start of their individual dice pool. The solution a player suggests automatically works to resolve the solution, be it simple or complex. What we're interested in is having players contribute to the unfolding chaos by suggesting details.
Each player has an individual pool that is empty to begin with and is added to as you draw minor arcana; the rules on page 4 tell you that when the dice pools are rolled at the end of the episode (the six minor arcana you draw), you need to note the individual totals and then the overall total. So with three players you might each end with a pool of just two dice, or you might have been forced to resolve other situations and have additional dice, or have extra dice because a card relating to your Role was drawn.
And the reason the dice size is vague, why the result ranges are open to interpretation: you could play it safe and use a bunch of d6, or if you've only resolved a single situation you could gamble on getting a "high" result by choosing a d20. It's confusing by design, but there's nothing to stop the players from all agreeing to use a single dice size.
In the context of the show, you could work hard and do everything right but still fail to get your recognition because of a twist of luck.
Sow vurry hoppy thet somween made un Oon tha Air game! Wennar Tukas Ull!
Incredible impression, 10/10.