Intro
- "If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well..."
The Ballad Of Pretty Boy Floyd (TBOPBF for short!) is a role playing matrix game set in Oklahoma during the 1930's. Each player represents an outlaw with the game recording his/her activities (remember Bonnie Parker)
The object of the game, apart from enjoying yourselves of course, is for each player to go down in folk history by creating their own unique 'ballad'. This is built round their own matrix arguments, plus those of other players affecting them and verses added by the umpire depending on the outcome of matrix arguments.
Game Mechanics
TBOPBF follows the standard 'mode 2' matrix game mechanisms i.e. keywords are not used. During each turn, the umpire should decide the outcome of matrix arguments in the 'normal' way, i.e.:
- Very Strong Arguments succeed on 2-6 on 1d6
Strong Arguments succeed on 3-6 on 1d6
Average Arguments succeed on 4-6 on 1d6
Weak Arguments succeed on 5-6 on 1d6
Very Weak Arguments succeed on 6 on 1d6
Stupid Arguments get no roll.
The umpire however, should weight the argument not only on its internal quality - but also on the quality of the verses for the players ballad.
Players are once again reminded of the most wonderful thing IMHO about matrix games. Arguments can influence anything, the player, other players and the world around. Be creative!! Players are highly encouraged to use their matrix arguments to add to, or even amend, the personal ballads of other players.
Players should note that given the game timescale and turn length, movement orders should not be required. A map of Oklahoma and surrounding states is available online at;
- http://www.exposquare.com/oklahoma.htm
http://www.exposquare.com/oklahoma.htm
doubtless an Internet search will reveal many, many more.
The game has six turns, each representing half a year. The game begins in early 1930 and ends late 1933. To start the game each player should write a player back ground plus a 3-4 verse intro to their particular ballad.
For example;
JACK SILVER
DOB 10th March 1909, Tupelo, Mississippi, the child of Irish immigrants. Father a railroad worker, killed by Pinkerton agents during a picket line clash, April 1914. Mother took in washing, raised in abject poverty. July 1922 imprisoned for a failed robbery of a liquor store. Killed a man in prison.
'The Ballad Of Jack Silver' then begins as such...
"Now listen to a story,
A tale that's often told,
Of the man they called Jack Silver
An outlaw bad and bold.
His mother took in laundry
To raise her children well,
But Jack he vowed quite early
To go and raise some hell.
It was on a winter morning
He was tired of being poor
Jack took his Pa's revolver
To rob a liquor store.
In a Mississippi prison,
Jack learned to cheat and fight,
He killed his first tormentor
With a switchblade in the night".
Sweet guy, huh? So in 1930, Jack moves to Oklahoma, ready for a reign of terror.
Some Sample orders (And Verses)
Late 1932. Jack Silver's notoriety is at its height. He decides to get his own back on the railroad that killed his Daddy by robbing a night mail train outside Oklahoma City.
His argument runs thus;
"ACTION - Jack Silver and his gang will hold up the night mail train.
This will work because;
- REASON 1 - The gang will block the line using a stolen car, thus forcing the
train to stop.
REASON 2 - Jack and his accomplices are armed and dangerous, no resistance will be tolerated.
REASON 3 - In a throwback to the wild west, the robbers will escape on horseback, thus throwing off their pursuers."
The ballad will be added to as such;
"It was a dirty winters evening
Oklahoma city way,
The mail train came a chugging
Jacks wages for to pay.
They stopped the train at midnight
The robbers came on board,
A conductor stood his ground that night
Jack's cudgel had him floored.
With twenty thousand dollars
Those villains got away,
On horseback 'cross the county
To spend their loot and play."
The umpire views this as a strong argument. Throws a dice. A 6. it works, Jack's gang are now twenty grand better off and another chapter is written in the bloody history of Oklahoma.
Another player, jealous of Jack, then puts in their orders:
"ACTION - The FBI will hunt Jack Silver down and kill him in a shoot out
This will work because;
- REASON 1 - The FBI has informers everywhere, they will soon find his hideout.
REASON 2 - Jack will be attacked and shot whilst asleep. Director Hoover's tame reporters will write it up as another triumph for the G men.
REASON 3 - The railroad bosses have major political influence in Washington. The FBI will have to send it's best men to hunt down Silver."
The ballad will be added to as such;
"J Edgar he was livid,
The railroad men came round.
They instructed the Director,
To hunt Jack silver Down.
Those agents they were cunning,
They caught him in his bed.
Their guns blazed in the dawn light,
And Silver's blood ran red."
The umpire rates this as an average argument. The die roll is a one. Not only does Jack live to steal another day but the umpire also amends the second stanza of the argument's ballad verses as such...
"Those agents they were cunning,
They caught him in his bed.
But Jack's tommy gun did the talking,
Three G-Men soon lay dead."
However, the umpire also adds...
"Across fair Oklahoma,
America's bloody state.
The G Men then flooding
To seal Jack Silvers fate."
The players are then informed that the FBI has declared Silver public enemy number one and that the state is crawling with FBI agents. Next turn's arguments should be constructed with this in mind.
Endgame
At the end of the game the players are either dead, imprisoned, going straight or still terrorising decent folks across the land. The umpire may award the following honorifics in the post game debrief:
Final thoughts
I'd be interested to hear playtest results of TBOPBF, also any other suggestions for post game awards. Also would anyone like to a ballad matrix game in another period or genre? Norse sagas immediately comes to mind, as does the epics of Hercules and Gilgamesh. Maybe Le Morte d'Arthur or even inner city Gangsta Rap!!
I look forward to your comments
Paul Hayes
Email phayes@wakefield.gov.uk
The Full Song
Just for players assistance, and delectation!
"If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.
It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.
There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.
Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.
Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.
But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.
Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.
It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:
Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.
Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home."
Lyrics as reprinted in Woody Guthrie, American Folksong, New York, NY, 1961 (reprint of 1947 edition), p. 27 © copyright 1958 Sanga Music Inc., New York, NY
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© Copyright 1999 by Chris Engle.
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