Your characters in the B World are an opportunity for you to explore and engage with another version of 1950s America. During the allocated B World time, you are encouraged to explore the relationships between these people, to try to resolve the threat of the invading Atomic Space Witches, or to complete your plans to enslave the world. You can also explore aspects of your Storyworld character in the B World, for example playing out a queer love story that your Storyworld character can only dream of.
There will be two scheduled slots for you to play your B World characters, and some optional times and places where you can go to develop their stories if you choose to. We will clearly indicate the start and end of scheduled B World times. In the event of an intersection between Storyworld and B World, please inform the Storyworld characters that you are rehearsing.
Is the B world the fairy tale mirror of the gritty real world?
Not necessarily! The events of the B World follow the same three Act Structure as the Storyworld. If you choose to explore the B World in Act 1 feel free to explore your B World story, on Friday, during Act 2, please take them in the worst possible direction – towards despair, hopelessness, and failure, and once Act 3 starts, play towards resolution, redemption, and a happy ending where possible. You, as a player, decide what this means. For some of the B World characters, this could mean defeat or surrender.
Caught on tape
Since the B world is not ‘fixed’ in the same way the Storyworld is, you may ‘redo’ scenes that have been filmed – save a loved one, surrender where before you were defiant – and bend or break the norms of the Storyworld however you see fit. It’s closer to rehearsal than reality.
However, events in the B World are only real when they are filmed and in Act 1 or 2 someone may invoke the Hays Code to make you play the scene again. This means that any action you play out without a camera is more akin to fanfic or rehearsal.
What if my character dies on camera but I want their story to continue?
The goal of this is to let you play your schlocky B world characters even when the cameras aren’t rolling and to have fun with your scripted character as well as the actor or filmmaker you are playing. You get to make your B World character the main hero or villain and add depth that no film crew could capture in three days of filming. The B World story we play out is not the same as the story of the movie; it has its own continuity. The scenes you play out do not affect the movie. A character who is killed off in the script can be saved in the B World; a character can be queer in the B World. Just like a film might have multiple endings depending on which clip the editor chooses, or a piece of fanfiction might add a whole different story to a well-worn tale. Please don’t overthink this, ultimately the story of your B World character is your own.
But I’m playing a villain, who’s gonna interact with me?
When encountering any of the alien characters individually, please invite them into your play. As a group the Space Witches are terrifying, but individually they are visitors to the town who may not be an existential threat. Similarly the Space Marshalls may seem strange, but they have a lot in common with the people of the Earth. Please find a way to bring extra-terrestrial characters into your scenes.